Caleb

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Caleb’s Story

Caleb lives in the Northwest. His aunt, who is an experienced education advocate, contacted me after reviewing the Bell College Consulting website. Caleb, his mom, and his aunt had an introductory meeting via Zoom video conference and we all decided to work together.

Caleb is a very good student with a strong interest in engineering. He did not yet know what branch of engineering he wanted to pursue — which is completely fine and understandable. While working with Caleb through three meetings of the “You” phase of the process, he expressed confusion, saying “I thought we were going to talk about colleges.” I asked him to be patient with the process and he would have the best outcome. Although a naturally private person, Caleb stuck with it and really jumped in when we pivoted toward identifying his key college characteristics. He intently learned about the different types of colleges and decided to focus his applications on either a comprehensive university or an engineering-focused school. The process allowed me to suggest a number of schools that Caleb was not originally considering.

As the first person in his family to go to college, Caleb is keenly aware of college costs. He was surprised to learn from me that given his strong academics, family income, and other factors, he may receive enough aid that starting at a four-year college may be as economical as attending 2 years of community college and then transferring over to a four-year school. He also was surprised to learn that private institutions may actually cost less than public schools after financial aid awards. The family appreciated receiving a detailed estimated cost break-down from Bell College Consulting for each school on Caleb’s list.

Caleb worked hard over the summer on essay drafts, and by the time his senior year of high school came around, he was close to being completely ready to apply. He turned his focus toward his academics and despite my updates and alerts was a little surprised as early deadlines were approaching. But he soon got all of his applications in on time.

In the end, Caleb applied to 7 colleges, which is just below my suggested 8 to 12 schools, but these were the schools he felt best about, and given his high chance of admission at several of these schools, it was an appropriate choice for him.

 

Student Facts

Interests and Extracurriculars

Technology Student Association, Church, Part-Time Job, Track, Basketball

Academics and Tests

A lot of AP classes, very good but not perfect grades, good test scores, concurrent enrollment

Descriptors

Investigative, Problem-Solving Pacesetter, Data-Driven Strategic Thinker, Recognizes Numerical Trends, Numerical Code Breaker, Number Analyzer, Good Vocabulary, Good Communicator, Team Oriented, Collaborative, Brings Out The Best In Others, Visual Mind, Concrete Idea Generator, Three-Dimensional Thinker, Social, Outwardly Energized, Extroverted, Logical, Methodical, Solution Oriented, Natural Planner, Mathematical, Balanced Focus, and Goal Setter

Perfect-Fit College List

Accepted in the early phase to: U of Arizona’s School of Engineering and accepted at U of Washington (his top choice) as well as some but not all of the other schools on his list. He is now happily enrolled at U Washington with a substantial financial aid package.

 

Note: This is a description of an actual student-client of Bell College Consulting. All aspects are real and accurate; however, the name and photo have been changed to protect the student’s privacy. The photo is used by permission from Philip Wang’s page at https://www.thispersondoesnotexist.com and uses the underlying algorithm created by Nvidia.