Juniors with an IEP, the next class valedictorian, and everyone in between will benefit from the additions starting in the 2025 admissions cycle at Less College Stress Consulting.
New Team of Essay Specialists
While I will still oversee the essay process, each student will be assigned a best-fit essay coach. Previously, I have engaged longtime writing professor Lisa Leskiw to use her “second pair of eyes” to review essays. Now, Lisa is leading our essay team. This experienced group of writers, writing coaches, and editors understand what college essays must accomplish and are excited to begin advising LCS students. Students applying to very competitive colleges must often write more complicated essays. Getting feedback from several professionals, like published authors do, will ensure that every essay is written to hold the attention of college admissions readers.
Executive Functioning Support
Who among us couldn’t use help organizing our many tasks to simplify completing them by a deadline? Now, students who become overwhelmed and/or procrastinate can count on a helping hand. Lisa Leskiw has years of classroom experience supporting students who need that extra bit of help.
What hasn't changed
LCS Consultants, as members of the Independent Education Consultants Association and other national/local professional education organizations, have access to more reliable data and information than what's easily found on the internet. At conferences and private webinars, we meet with hundreds of other professional independent consultants and college admissions reps to engage in continuing education about the general college landscape and specific college information.
Click this link for details: https://www.lesscollegestress.org/
The University of South Carolina
I was reminded of UGA as we walked around the wide green known as the Horseshoe, admiring the many National Historic Register buildings. The campus is a major draw, as is the city, which offers some cool shopping and restaurants in a few areas in different directions from the school (we liked coffee and shoe shopping in 5 Points). Flags touted USouth Carolina’s prominent International Relations, Honors College, and Best Value Public University status. The South Carolina State House abuts the campus as well. And the southern staple mentioned in the headline was amazing, as were the truffle fries!
Applications are rising. Out of state applicants face a new challenge: USC committed to accepting the top 10% of all South Carolina high school graduating classes starting in the fall 2024 admissions cycle. Popular programs like the Darla Moore School of Business and International Business and Studies are no longer a predictable admit for a B+/A- student. Students range from conservative to alternative, and everyone looked happy. Our senior tour guide is headed off to Emory for her PA degree.
Coastal Carolina University
Mid-sized Coastal Carolina University, about an hour northwest of Myrtle Beach, has 10,600 students, with 58% coming from out of state. The beautiful, classically southern campus with ponds and bridges features new dorms and guaranteed housing for two years. Recreation and Sports Management students, in the new College of Health and Human Performance, have internships with the many local professional teams, and the Health Sciences Program prepares students to enter all allied health fields and get hands-on experience at the Conway Medical Center. Big news: the college is introducing a direct admit test-optional nursing program (test scores required for applicants with a <3.5 GPA). Coastal’s ABET-certified engineering program is an easier admit than many. Lots of students enjoying sunshine on the green!
Next week…a full post on the College of Charleston. I'll be posting trip photos on the college pages under Notes.
There’s way too much to share for one post! Less College Stress families: Look for my trip photos in the Notes for every college this week.
Let’s start with Furman and Clemson Universities:
The 800 acre Furman campus (lots of space for under 3,000 students) brought Colgate to mind (the lake), but the landscape is truly southern. So was the NJ admissions rep’s hospitality (not always a cliché). Many students from NY and NJ’s top private high schools choose Furman for its strong business, health science, communications, and international studies programs. The “semester-plus” calendar begins in late August, ends right before the holiday break, begins in January and ends with a three-week May Experience. Challenging, small classes, a huge Greek system, and D1 Southern Conference Athletics, with the cheer (“F.U. one time, F.U. two times, F.U. three times, F.U. all the time!”) round out the fun.
Greenville–a city of 72,000 offers Furman and Clemson students downtown shopping, dining, cool local museums, and theatres, nearby hiking and biking trails, plus the Furman Golf Course, voted top Public Golf Course by the South Carolina Ratings Panel. We walked the trails and bridges in Falls Park (waterfalls!) on the Reedy River just steps away from the middle eastern restaurant where we had dinner.
Hope you saw my picture of Clemson’s huge bookstore! (No worries if not--will repost it). School spirit reigns, but opportunities are amazing. We toured with a sophomore business major in the Calhoun Honors College (also a Chapman Scholar, described below) who was given 4K to market a new product and will attend an all-paid-for entrepreneurship conference in Holland. Applicants (8 from the Powers Business School and one from each of the other 13 colleges) may be selected for the Thomas F. Chapman Leadership Scholars Program. Strongest programs are in the sciences, tech, and business, but students of all majors are attracted to Clemson’s sports culture, shaped by its rivalry with the University of South Carolina and its multi-year winning record in the D1 Atlantic Conference.
Next week: the University of South Carolina and Coastal Carolina University.