College Application Guidance

Applying to college involves many important decisions—where should you apply?  What should you write about?  How should you present your accomplishments and unique personality throughout your application?  These are tough questions, and we’re here to help you answer them.  We share valuable insights with our clients.  You can find some of them in news sources like CNN, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, and Reader’s Digest.  Applying to college doesn’t need to be stressful.  Let’s talk about how we can help your family.

“H&C’s commitment and diligence to making sure that their students get accepted into their dream schools is exceptional. I credit Ian’s approach to building the most compelling and concise personal narrative and Pierre’s focus on creating the most persuasive resume with my acceptance to my dream school. I was able to become the first student from my school to get into an Ivy League school since 1992. Ian’s and  Pierre’s combined efforts offer a unique perspective into the admissions process that ensures their students have the best chance of getting accepted.” 

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- Harvard student, class of 2024.

How We Work on Applications

Our team of experts and former admissions officers assists with all aspects of the college admissions process, from school selection, to essay writing, to the activities list, and to interview prep.  We help seniors present themselves in their very best light on every part of the application.  We assist them in creating a college list that best fits their academic and extracurricular interests, guide them through brainstorming, planning, and drafting their essays, and navigate other important aspects of the application process.

College Essay Guidance

The college essay is the hardest part of applying to college.  It can also be the most stimulating and rewarding task you have before you.

Joyce Carol Oats, who knew a thing or two about great writing, once praised the personal essay genre for its “directness and intimacy,” and for “its first-person authority.”  At H&C, our job is to help you find your own voice—to tell your story with both intimacy and authority.

Meet Our Specialists

Racquel Bernard

College Admissions Counselor

Former Assistant Director of Admission, Dartmouth College

Racquel Bernard is pursuing a Ph.D. in Musicology at UCLA. After graduating with a bachelor’s in African and African American Studies, she served as an assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth for two years before completing a Master’s in Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. 

She has worked with students to successfully apply to Princeton, the University of Chicago, UCLA, NYU, Northeastern, Boston University, and more. Racquel has traveled internationally giving admissions presentations, meeting with clients, and discussing important factors in the application process. She uses her experience reading applications as an admissions officer to help students craft applications that stand out from the crowd.

Lukas Corey

College Admissions Counselor

Lukas is a Yale University junior pursuing a double major in Biology and Computer Science. After working in management, hiring, and applications consulting at CollegeVine for two years helping more than one thousand students with their essays, Lukas transitioned to a College Admissions Counselor position at H&C. In college, he has been a Yale Admissions Ambassador, Computer Science TA, Editor of the Yale Scientific Magazine, Writer for The Yale Globalist, Volunteer at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, and Member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee for Science and Quantitative Reasoning. He also co-founded Proftalk.io, the Yale Undergraduate Research Journal, and Yale CS Tutorials.

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Lukas’s experience in business, internships, and research is also vast. In high school, he helped start the nonprofit Model United Nations Northwest, which runs Washington State’s largest conferences. A published researcher, he has worked in labs at the University of Washington, the National Institutes of Health, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Yale, and Novartis. He has received tens of thousands in grants and scholarship funding from the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking, NASA, the Yale Center for Engineering Innovation and Design, and more.

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