Earning a certificate from a national or regional professional organization and membership ensures a level of expertise and commitment in this unregulated industry. These organizations have ethical guidelines that their members are required to follow.

Look for IECA, HECA, NACAC, and AICEP for national associations.

Our consultants either have certificates from one of these organizations or have multiple years of experience and are in the process of obtaining a certificate. We abide by the ethical guidelines of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) and College Consultants of Colorado (CCC).

Determining the best fit between a student and a college is a two-way street and requires the consultant to not only know colleges and universities but also to come to know your child.

A consultant that relies only on the information from the high school (grade point average or GPA), from standardized test scores like ACT/SAT, and conversation may be missing a fuller understanding of your daughter or son.

If time allows and depending on the plan selected, AHEC performs visioning exercises and standardized assessments to measure your child's strengths, weaknesses, and interests at this point of their development.

See our story video to understand the reasons we believe this is important.

Often a consultant’s package or plan is titled comprehensive. Sometimes, though, the consulting practice does not handle important areas of guiding the student through the crazy college admissions process.

Ask about these:
Do they handle working with essays or refer it out?
Do they guide the financial aid process and FAFSA?
Are there types of students they refer to other consultants or resources?

If you have to contract with separate resources, plan on that extra cost and complexity.

Colleges and universities change over time. Programs are added or eliminated. Buildings are constructed, remodeled, or repurposed based on changing fields educational demands. Most colleges are much different than what they were 20 years ago, 10 years ago, and sometimes even 5 years ago.

Virtual tours and review articles are helpful (see our curated resources), but seeing a campus firsthand, while classes are in session, provides a deeper level of understanding. It also connects the consultant to the admission staff of that college.

Talking to as many students as possible while on campus gives a much better sense of students’ experience and why they chose to attend that school.

Our practice curriculum offers an entire Work Unit on how students should plan for and take college tours to make the tour most informative and effective.

AHEC requires its consultants to visit at least 20 colleges or universities each year.

A consultant should have an overview of each plan that gives a short summary of what is covered at various points in the college application timeline, sometimes called a curriculum, which is made up of more detailed sections - the details presented and reviewed to the student.

If a consultant does not use a curriculum, be sure you trust their experience and that experience is current and relevant. Do they attend conferences? What are the best books to read or listen to for prospective clients? See our recommendations on the three most important books for families to help understand this process here.

We maintain a curriculum for each plan and each of those plans has dozens of Work Units. Each Work Unit is reviewed and updated at least once a year.

At AHEC, a Work Unit covers a specific topic and is a PDF document shared with the student. It contains background, a discussion guide, details of “do’s” and “don’ts”, and resource materials as well as links to other independent resources in various formats, such as video content.

The curriculum summary of our standard plan is available by clicking below.

Junior / Senior Plan

Very few independent educational consulting practices have tackled this subject directly, although many are starting to educate themselves and think through AI’s impact on their practices and students.

We provide an AI Work Unit to help your child understand the best practices in their responsible use of AI. Here is a summary summary of our AI Work Unit our AI Work Unit.

We also include discovery using AI in the process of building a balanced college list with your student to find the best possible matches for them.

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A qualified consultant should be able to show you a specific curriculum detail or explain in detail what they will cover and what resources are provided to the student. Ask them how they would coach your son or daughter on essay writing and ask, “How important is the college essay for admission?”

Ask to see what they present or hand out to the student for essay writing.

Click on the essay work unit link below to see an example of our detailed Work Unit on essays. Feel free to download and review. We won't require your contact information. We do ask that you respect the copyright.

Dan’s Note: I love working with students on their essays since I've published short stories in the past, including over a dozen in various Chicken Soup for the Soul books, as well as magazines and newspapers.

Essay Work Unit Teacher / Student Story Free Consultation

This one-on-one tutoring curriculum helps students understand and utilize Large Language Models (such as ChatGPt, Gemini, Claude, or Llama) effectively and ethically.

Through practical application and critical analysis, students learn the strengths and limitations of these AI tools.

Currently, LLM AI provides great starting points, but generally not finished products.

Research shows that most employees and students show significant improvement when they learn to use AI as a tool but there are also potential downsides /1/

The AHEC students who have been tutored in the use of LLM AI (think ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Llama) have gained efficiencies particularly in these areas:

• Overcoming writer’s block
• Creative exploration
• Efficient research
• Improved writing
• Coding and technical skills
• Presentation practice
• Future-proof skills

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/1/ “Harvard and BCG Unveil The Double-Edged Sword of AI In The Workplace” Forbes, 09/29/2023, Don Pontefract This provides a summary of the study and some of its nuances.

The plus side - BCG consultants using AI completed 12.2% more tasks while doing it 25.1% faster than a control group not using AI. They also produced over 40% higher quality results.

The negative side - Consultants that relied entirely on direct AI output without checking for relevance and accuracy on certain solutions were 19% more likely to produce incorrect solutions. This emphasizes the importance of understanding in general what current AI limitations are.

Freshman high school through the end of freshman year college

Freshman - High School
• Review of initial questionnaires
• Assessments and visioning
• Executive function exercises and discussion
• Building good study habits
• Class selection planning
• Student interest-centered activity exploration and planning
Typically 3-4 initial meetings then quarterly

Sophomore - High School
• Executive function review
• Study habits review
• Foundational Work Units - tools for learning
• Academic performance review
• Class selection planning / rigor
• Student interest-centered activity exploration and planning
• Standardized test exploration / discussion (PSAT, ACT, SAT)
Quarterly meetings + several late in the school year before summer

Junior - High School
• Assessment / visioning checkup
• College / university budgeting meeting (with parents and student)
• More intensive and frequent Work Units
• Academic performance review
• Standardized test planning
• Researching colleges / college list
• Class selection planning / rigor
• Student interest-centered activity exploration and planning
• Essay prep
Typically 12 meetings (for more detail see Standard Plan below)

Senior - High School
• Essay and personal statement completion
• Continue Work Units
• Application to schools and scholarships
• General decision support
• Appeals on financial aid decisions
• College planning and course selection
• Celebration
Typically 8-10 meetings, most prior to December of the senior year

Freshman - College / University
• Transition support
• Review of college support services
• Life balance
• Activity and skill acquisition planning
• Assist in sophomore class selection
Typically 6 meetings, split between early and late in the freshman year

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Junior high school through end of senior year

Junior - High School
• Review of initial questionnaires, academic performance
• Assessments and visioning
• Budget meeting (parents and student)
• Standardized tests (SAT / ACT / others)
• Assessment review and discussion on potential career interests
• Activity list creation and review
• College data collection - initial college list
• Common Application and other applications
• Early Decision (ED), Early Action (EA) and all the other admission variants
• Financial aid / FAFSA / CSS
• Net price calculators / loan calculators
• Scholarship discussion
• Recommendation letters
• Class selection planning
• Student interest-centered activity exploration and planning
• Essay prepTypically about a dozen meetings

Senior - High School
• Essays and personal statement completion• Finalize college list
• Senior kickoff - readiness review
• Recommendations
• Standardized tests
• Application checklist
• Timeline checklist
• Scholarship applications and review
• Evaluation of offers and decision support
• Financial aid appeals
• Transition review
• College class selection planning
• Celebration!!Typically 8-10 meetings, most prior to December of the senior year

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Beginning early summer between junior and senior years. Later starts will result in condensed or skipped content, depending on start date.

Senior - High School
• Review of initial questionnaires, academic performance
• Budget meeting (parents and student)
• Condensed assessment and visioning
• Senior kickoff - readiness review
- Recommendations
- Standardized tests
- Application checklist
- Timeline checklist
• Standardized tests (SAT / ACT / others)
• Activity list creation and review
• College list creation - data collection
• Common Application and other applications
• Scholarship applications and review
• Early Decision (ED), Early Action (EA) and all the other admission variants
• Financial aid / FAFSA / CSS
• Net price calculators / loan calculators
• Evaluation of offers and decision support
• Financial aid appeals
• Transition review
• College class selection planning
• Celebration!!

Typically 12-15 meetings begin in early summer after junior year through senior year.

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Essay assistance for up to 12 schools

• Brainstorming content
• Guidance on essay structure
• Editing guidance and assistance on essays

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