College Choice Counseling

College Choice Counseling®, the firm founded by Barbara Connolly and located in Birmingham, Michigan, provides the full range of college counseling advice, as well as standardized test prep and academic subject tutoring.

College Choice Counseling® provides college admission counseling services. An expert college advisor is assigned to each student. The college counselor explains the college admissions process to the student. Based on an assessment of the student’s record and other factors, the expert counselor then helps the student create a college list. Finally, the college counselor helps the student create compelling applications, which includes helping them write impressive essays.

College Choice Counseling® also offers tutoring services. Our expert tutors are assigned according to the specific needs of the student. We provide ACT and SAT prep in addition to a wide range of academic subject tutoring for high school and college students.

College Choice Counseling® offers similar counseling, application and essay help, and standardized test prep for graduate and professional schools, including medical school, law school, dental school, graduate business schools, and other graduate school programs.

COLLEGE APPLICATION SERVICES

The college application is the crown jewel of the college prep process. Students work hard throughout high school to earn good grades while participating in numerous activities. At College Choice Counseling®, expert counselors help students present their achievements to the college admissions readers through clear, impressive college applications.

College Choice Counseling® offers college application help services that guide a student through every section of the Common Application, University of California, California State, and other applications.

Our college application counseling experts help students complete the biographical information section of the application, the education information section, the activities and honors section, the request for recommendations section, and importantly, all essay sections of the application.

COLLEGE ESSAY HELP SERVICES

College Choice Counseling® offers flexible one-on-one essay help services. We carefully select the right essay helper on our team to match with each student.

Our essay experts help students understand which essays are needed for each application, help brainstorm with the student to select the right topic, support the student in writing the essays, review each essay for proper word usage, grammar, and punctuation, and then do a final review that is both holistic and detailed so that each essay that is submitted is the best it can be.

The “Personal Statement” required for most college applications is difficult to write and a very meaningful component of the student’s college application. It is important that the “Personal Statement” tell the

student’s story in a way that is meaningful to colleges. Our essay helpers interview students to help them discover the story that would be most interesting to colleges and then help the student write that story.

The “Why Essay” is also difficult to write. The student has to know how to research the resources and special features of each college and then needs to write about them and explain how the student will appreciate them if admitted to the college. Essay help services offered by College Choice Counseling® guide the student through writing each “Why Essay.”

The college application essay writing services at College Choice Counseling® are designed to maximize student success in the college admissions process.

GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL ADMISSION COUNSELING AND APPLICATION SERVICES

At College Choice Counseling, we also have a team of expert counselors that assist college students applying to medical school, law school, dental school, graduate business schools, and other graduate school programs. We also have expertise in other specific programs, such as Physician’s Assistant programs.

TEST PREP TUTORING SERVICES

College Choice Counseling® offers SAT and ACT prep tutoring services. Our test prep tutors help increase SAT and ACT scores. All SAT and ACT tutoring is performed one-on-one by dedicated tutors. College Choice Counseling® is unique in offering SAT and ACT prep tutoring services in combination with college admission counseling services.

For graduate and professional schools, we offer expert tutoring services for the MCAT, LSAT, DAT, GMAT, and GRE.

ACADEMIC TUTORING SERVICES

College Choice Counseling® also offers academic tutoring in a wide range of subjects for high school and college students. Currently, we offer tutoring in the following subjects:

SCIENCE

Biology

Chemistry

Physics

MATH

Algebra

Geometry

Precalculus

AP Calculus AB and BC

College-Level Math

HUMANITIES

English

Economics

History

Psychology

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Spanish

French

Latin

OTHER SUBJECTS

Statistics

Computer Science

Accounting

Finance

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ADMISSIONS EXPERTISE

Barbara Connolly was a reader in admissions at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan where she learned the ins and outs of the University of Michigan admissions process.  Her college admission counseling has personally helped countless students gain admission to many of the colleges and schools at the University of Michigan.

In addition, Barbara has trained a team of college counselors who have gained experience in University of Michigan admissions, with different team members having admissions expertise at different colleges such as the college of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA), Michigan Ross, Michigan Engineering, the Michigan School of Information, and the other 15 schools, colleges, and pisions at the University of Michigan. These team members provide a full range of college counseling services including Michigan application essays and college application assistance.

College Choice Counseling (CCC) is headquartered in Birmingham, Michigan, a short drive from Ann Arbor.  Because of our proximity to the University of Michigan, our college admission counseling services help a high percentage of our students apply to the University of Michigan as one of their top-choice schools, often their #1 choice.

CCC regularly reaches out to the University of Michigan admissions office to discuss specific questions on behalf of inpidual students. These discussions have resulted in our team having a broad base of intricate knowledge about University of Michigan admissions, knowledge which is shared among our team members.

Barbara recently collaborated with the University of Michigan for an article – “Answers to the Questions Students Ask About Applying to U-M.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE “WHY U Of M ESSAY”

A great “Why U of M” essay can make the difference in your University of Michigan application. CCC has a team of essay coaches who work with so many students applying to the University of Michigan that our team has developed a deep expertise in helping each student develop his or her best “Why U of M” essay.”

STRATEGICALLY APPLYING TO THE “RIGHT” SCHOOL AT U OF M

Some students know (or think they know) which college at the University of Michigan is their target. Other students are unsure which college they think is their best fit.

There are many different paths from admission to graduation at the University of Michigan, and knowing these paths can impact which college a student applies to.

Questions like these are very important in deciding which school at the University of Michigan to apply to:

• If I don’t get accepted to the college I’ve applied to at the University of Michigan, can I still be accepted into LSA?

• If I am denied admission to a school or program as an incoming freshman, but still accepted into LSA, can I apply to transfer to that school or program during my freshman year?

U OF M ROSS EXPERTISE

At College Choice Counseling, besides our deep expertise in University of Michigan admissions, we have developed a particular expertise in admissions to the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

The Bottom Line in Choosing CCC for University of Michigan College Counseling Services

Barbara has extensive expertise in University of Michigan admissions over the last 20 years, and with the CCC team provides high-level college admission counseling services. Barbara regularly discusses inpidual cases with the private college counselors on the CCC team, supporting them and strategizing with them.

CCC works extensively with both in-state and out-of-state students who are striving for admission to the University of Michigan. We have a high rate of success with both in-state and out-of-state students.

CCC helps with letters of continuing interest and coping with and strategizing after deferral.

Often times the subtle nuances our private college counseling services provide can make a real difference, and when it comes to the University of Michigan admissions we are keenly in touch with and experienced with these important nuances.

BARBARA CONNOLLY – FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Barbara Connolly received a BGS degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Detroit School of Law. She has been counseling students and families in the college and graduate school admissions process for more than 20 years. Her skills as a successful trial lawyer are fully utilized as she helps students advocate for themselves in the competitive college admissions process.

Barbara is a Certified Educational Planner (CEP) and a professional member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA).