What to Expect When You Start Working with a College Consultant in Junior Year
Junior year includes several parts of the college process: choosing senior-year courses, deciding on a testing plan, exploring majors, organizing activities, and starting a college list. College cost research can begin at the same time.
This post describes what working with a college consultant in junior year looks like at Blue Birch College Consulting, using the Pathway Plan as the example. It covers how the program is set up, what a typical month includes, where the individual strategy meeting fits, and how the timing of a family's start affects the year.
What Is the Pathway Plan?
The Pathway Plan is a structured junior-year program with a step-by-step curriculum, monthly guidance, one strategy meeting, and college cost data.
Each month, Kathleen Shipos, founder of Blue Birch College Consulting, outlines what students and parents work on next. Students complete the assignments themselves. It is designed for students who can work independently within a clear structure, and for families who want college fit and cost considered together from the start.
The Pathway Plan includes:
A step-by-step curriculum for students, with guides, checklists, videos, and links to outside resources
The College Landscape Course for parents and students
Monthly recommendations for tasks to work on
College Companion, an application management tool
A Financial Aid Fundamentals course for parents
One individual strategy meeting
College cost data for up to 30 schools, with a guide for reading it
The option to add hourly sessions for more support
What Happens When a Family First Enrolls?
Each student receives a private Google Classroom, access to the course modules, and a College Companion workspace.
Each Google Classroom is set up for one student and is not shared with other families, so a student's work and questions stay confidential. Parents are added to the classroom, which means students and parents see the same posts, assignments, and resources.
The course modules are pinned in the classroom. College Companion is pinned there as well. Students have full access to College Companion, and parents have viewing access. It holds assignments and guides, sheets for organizing activities, and a college sheet with data used when building a college list.
What Does a Typical Month Look Like?
Each month includes recommended tasks for students and parents, plus updates by email and in the classroom.
The monthly recommendations outline which tasks to focus on based on where the student is in junior year. This keeps the program from being fully asynchronous, since the pace and order of the work follow a planned sequence rather than being left open.
Between monthly recommendations, Kathleen sends email updates, Google Classroom posts, and occasional video messages to families in the program. Assignments include directions, guides, checklists, and links to outside resources, and videos cover selected topics.
What Does the Curriculum Cover?
The curriculum covers exploring majors, testing strategy, course selection, activities and extracurriculars, and building a college list.
These topics follow the order in which they come up during junior year. Building a college list draws on work completed earlier in the year, including major exploration and the activities sheet in College Companion. A broader overview of this sequence appears in the junior year college planning post.
Parents and students both take The College Landscape Course. The Financial Aid Fundamentals course, for parents, focuses on the financial side of the process. It explains how financial aid works, including the difference between merit aid and need-based aid and how net price is calculated. Parents can work through this material while their student explores colleges, so cost information is available while the list is still forming.
Where Does the Individual Strategy Meeting Fit?
The strategy meeting is a one-on-one session held after the program is underway, focused on the student's own profile, list, and plan.
The meeting is not the starting point of the program. Because it takes place after the student has begun the curriculum, the conversation can draw on completed work, such as notes from major exploration, the activities sheet, or an early college list.
Topics can include list balance, testing decisions, and how cost fits into the colleges under consideration. The meeting is where the general framework of the curriculum is applied to one specific student. Families who want additional one-on-one time can add hourly sessions at any point.
How Does the College Cost Data Work?
Families receive cost data for up to 30 colleges on their student's list, along with a guide explaining how to read and compare it.
The published cost of attendance at a college may differ from what a specific family pays once aid is applied. The difference between these two numbers is covered in sticker price vs. net price. The cost data in the Pathway Plan allows families to compare colleges side by side on cost while the list is still being built, rather than after admission decisions arrive.
For families whose income may limit need-based aid, merit aid can have a larger effect on net price. The middle-income affordability post explains how this works and how it can shape a college list.
How Much Hands-On Support Is Included?
Each month, Kathleen outlines what to work on, and students complete the assignments. The program does not include application management or submission.
Families who want more direct support, such as additional meetings or help with a specific part of the process, can add hourly sessions. Blue Birch College Consulting also offers Hourly Consulting and Strategy Sessions as separate options for families who want a different level of involvement. A comparison of the three options appears in what a college consultant does.
Does It Matter When During Junior Year a Family Starts?
The Pathway Plan begins in November of junior year. Families can join later and complete earlier assignments while working on current ones.
The curriculum follows the sequence of the school year from November through June. A family who starts in November moves through each step in order, one month at a time, with the full span of the program available for the cost data and strategy meeting to inform the college list.
A family who joins later follows the same curriculum, with more work grouped into the first few weeks. The content, the strategy meeting, and the cost data are included regardless of start date.
Learning How the Pathway Plan Applies to Your Student
Working together through the Pathway Plan gives a student a structured junior-year curriculum, monthly guidance, and one-on-one strategy time, and gives parents cost data for up to 30 colleges along with a guide for comparing them. A consultation covers how the program would apply to your student's courses, testing plans, and early college list. To talk through the details, schedule a consultation with Kathleen.
