College Bound
The college admissions process is a time of significant growth for students. It is a time of reflection to consider who they are, what they want, and where they are headed. We guide students through the process in a calming and organized manner, empowering them with the information and tools to confidently become... College Bound.
Services
College Bound offers personalized advising.
We believe colleges that are a strong financial, academic and social fit are where students will thrive.
We assist students in identifying and applying to colleges that meet their personal needs and objectives.
We meet students where they are in the process and move them forward, educating, encouraging, and guiding them.
We are honored to partner with families and support students on their paths to higher education.
Offering a complimentary 30-minute phone conversation to discuss services and answer questions.
We help students get College Bound. Contact us to find out more.
Comprehensive Support
Supporting and advising students in all parts of the college admissions journey, including academic course selection, extracurricular activity planning, building the college list, testing, applications, and essays.
Summer Application Bootcamp
Small group support for students to complete the Common Application and Coalition Application, create an organizational system to manage supplemental essays, learn about demonstrating interest to colleges, and sign-up / prepare for interviews if their colleges offer them.
Hourly Advising
Hourly consultation or support for students needing advising in a specific area of the admissions process.
We help students get College Bound. Contact us to find out more.
Complimentary 30 minute consultation regarding services.
Trish Anderson
Education
University of California, Los Angeles Certificate in College Counseling, with distinction
University of California, Hastings College of the Law, Juris Doctor
University of Washington, B.A., political science and philosophy
Professional Affiliations
HECA - Higher Education Consultants Association
IECA - Independent Educational Consultants Association
PNACAC - Pacific Northwest Association for College Admission Counseling
Ethics: College Bound adheres to the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) Statement of Principles of Good Practice and the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) Principles of Good Practice
Testimonials
STUDENTS
"Thank you so much for all of your help over this last year! I can't thank you enough for all of the time and energy you put into helping me with my applications. This last year has been crazy, but you made this process very manageable and always made me feel confident about my work! I can't thank you enough for all of the help, guidance and support that you have given me. I couldn't have done it without you!"
CB, Bishop Blanchet HS
"I have just learned I was accepted into Dartmouth and am absolutely over the moon!!! I wanted to thank you for all of your help, I couldn't have done it without you."
SJ, Garfield HS
"I am so grateful to have had you help me through this journey. Thank you for taking me in when I originally contacted you. I don't know if I would have made it this far or had as good applications as I did without your support and dedication. You really kept me focused and pushed me to follow through even when I was ready to give up. Thank you for everything."
RM, Ballard HS
PARENTS
"Thank you so, so much for your help this year. Your help organizing his thoughts and goals and strategizing schools/majors plus your general patience and advising were beyond!! ...You really helped keep his focus and encouraged him to go for his dream, and I’m so grateful for your expertise with all of this. I am so happy for him."
Parent, Seattle Prep
"We cannot overstate how much we appreciate you supporting (student) in the college application process. We cannot imagine how this process would have gone without you. (She) is independent and determined, which is great, but makes parenting challenging at times. We are so happy that she was in your capable hands...Thank you once again."
Parent, Ballard HS
"Having you allowed us to be our daughter's cheerleader. You kept her focused, organized, and realistic. The process is inherently stressful, and we can't imagine it without your guidance and support. Thank you for your time, attention, and importantly your encouragement and positivity."
Parent, Seattle Academy
Resources
College Resources for Families
Crowd-sourced with IECA Colleagues
The Fiske Guide to Colleges: An actual book, available on Amazon for approx. $24; new versions are released on July 1 of each year. A great place to start learning about colleges.
Princeton Review College Profiles: Just google “Princeton Review +[college or univ. name]” and a descriptive “About” entry will pop up that includes descriptions and student reviews about Academics, the student body, and campus life. Covers more colleges and universities than Fiske.
Collegedata.com Easy-to-navigate website for seeing data reported by colleges to the federal govt in their Common Data Sets, including overall admit rates, average test scores, and financial aid disbursements. Use to generally understand likely admissions and financial aid outcomes. (A good companion to Naviance or Maia school-based products, and useful earlier.)
Dataverse Comprehensive array of data tables to understand various admissions statistics by college, including the very important Early Action and Early Decision rates. Also has useful lists of Greek life participation rates and direct-entry pre-professional programs + combined degree health programs (e.g. BS/MD programs).
BigFuture.collegeboard.org Search engine for finding colleges that have particular academic majors or sports teams. (Use filters at top of first set of search results to narrow field of college results; the athletic filter is under campus life.) You can also filter by accept rate (under the Admissions tab).
College Navigator Search engine maintained by the National Center for Educational Statistics. Also has a link to the US Dept. of Education’s “College Affordability & Transparency Center” website.
US News College Ranking Lists These get a bad rap, but the USNWR lists can be useful to discover options outside of the publications 'top 50' colleges. The lists are particularly helpful when looking for lesser-known schools, including regional universities. The website above has list links for: national universities, national colleges, regional universities, regional colleges, undergrad business programs, undergrad comp sci programs, and undergrad engineering programs. There are several other potentially useful lists as well (e.g. strong colleges for “B students” and colleges with high economic diversity). The business, comp sci and engineering lists are definitely worth a look, for students interested in these areas.
NACAC College Fairs Sponsored by the National Association of College Admissions Counselors and the Common App, these virtual fairs feature multiple institutional participants over several days. Browse fair days and sign up for what interests you. Click on the “Exhibitors” tab on any date, to see which colleges are participating. Another resource is http://www.collegeweeklive.com/.
Cappex, JLV College Counseling Scholarship List, and Unigo Private scholarship search sites.
CollegeExpress Website to search both for colleges and scholarships. It has some good college lists to check out (by interest, by state, etc.), and you can search for summer programs too. Site is run by educational publisher, Carnegie Dartlett.
Campus Reel Website with over 15,000 candid, student-generated campus tours/videos. Other campus visit websites: http://welcometocollege.com/ and http://www.goseecampus.com/
College Trips and Tips Terrific interactive website for college trip planning, by state.
College Scoops Website with 87 pre-visit Campus Guides for purchase (and counting). Aimed at parents; may be useful to check out when planning live campus visits. There is a demo guide.
YouTube, Reddit, Unigo.com, and Facebook groups: Generally the best way to find unbiased student opinions on colleges, dorms, majors, admissions, etc. Search by college name, and look at a few hits/read through the string to get multiple perspectives.
Current College Students: People you know (and who know you) are often the best resources for finding a good campus fit. Consider who you know through family and classes above you in high school that go to colleges of interest. Also: I may know or be able to connect you with a student at a particular college through my professional network.
Naviance (or SCOIR/Maia): If your child's high school subscribes, these are great predictive resources for building a college list and understanding chances of admission. The Scattergrams feature allows you to see the likelihood of admission at a college to which a statistically significant number of students from your high school has applied from in the last 3-5 years. Great for identifying colleges as reaches, targets or likelies. NOTE: Because of new test-optional/test blind protocols and broadening college priorities, Naviance is less predictive now than it was even just a couple of years ago.
College Supports Subscription-based website developed and updated by LD specialist consultant. Provides info and reviews on college LD and academic support programs. You can pay for comprehensive browsing or to search by individual institution.
The K&W Guide to Colleges for Students With Learning Differences, 15th ed. At the bottom of this list, because a printed reference for this subject gets outdated quickly. Smart to look online at each school’s website, or check out site directly above.
Appsupport@commonapp.org And, Seniors, please don’t forget this one, as you are working on your applications, This site helps you to troubleshoot in the Common Application. The"Writing Requirements" tab provides all supplementary writing questions for individual colleges in a single list.
SACAC workshops are a phenomenal free resource!