Chelsea sits down with Becky Hanson, an experienced independent educational consultant and owner of Beck Consulting as she shares invaluable advice on navigating the college application process—from when to start your college search to crafting a balanced application list. They discuss the importance of early exploration, building a standout activities list, and the key to finding the right college fit. Whether you’re a student or a parent, this conversation is packed with practical tips to help you navigate this critical milestone with confidence.
Chelsea sits down with Becky Hanson, an experienced independent educational consultant and owner of Beck Consulting as she shares invaluable advice on navigating the college application process—from when to start your college search to crafting a balanced application list. They discuss the importance of early exploration, building a standout activities list, and the key to finding the right college fit. Whether you’re a student or a parent, this conversation is packed with practical tips to help you navigate this critical milestone with confidence.
Project Parenthood is hosted by Chelsea Dorcich. A transcript is available as Simplecast.
Have a parenting question? Email Chelsea at parenthood@quickanddirtytips.com or leave a voicemail at 646-926-3243.
Find Project Parenthood on Facebook and Twitter, or subscribe to the Quick and Dirty Tips newsletter for more tips and advice.
Project Parenthood is a part of Quick and Dirty Tips.
Links:
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/subscribe
https://www.facebook.com/QDTProjectParenthood
https://twitter.com/qdtparenthood
CHELSEA: Today, I'm so excited to have Becky Hanson on our show. She's an independent educational consultant and owner of Beck Consulting. It's based out of Las Gatas, California, and she is dedicated to helping students and families in the Bay Area with a special focus on the South Bay navigate the college search application process.
She received her Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Cal Poly, SLO, her Master of Arts in Communication from USC, and her College Counseling Certificate from UCLA. At Beck Consulting, Becky's primary objective is Sorry. At Beck Consulting, Becky's primary objective is to guide students and families in finding the right fit and match schools while ensuring a low stress and realistic approach to the college application process.
She empowers students to take ownership of their college search by encouraging them to research and craft a balanced and thoughtful college list. Becky believes in starting the application process early, allowing students to make informed decisions and avoid the last minute stress. In her free time, Becky enjoys working out and visiting colleges across the country to stay up to date on the latest trends and opportunities.
She's been married to her husband, Tommy, for 21 years and is a proud mom. Proud mother of three, L 19, a sophomore in college, Brooke, 17, a high school senior, navigating the college application process, and Cade, 13, an eighth grader. Becky's family is rounded out by her two adorable French bulldogs, Sarge and Tank. Becky's approach to college consulting is centered around honesty, realism, and student empowerment. She believes that Every student deserves to find their perfect college match and is dedicated to providing personalized guidance and support every step of the way with her own family's experiences.
Navigating the college process. Becky brings a unique perspective and understanding to her work, allowing her to provide compassionate and expert guidance to her clients. All right. Hello, Becky. Thank you so much for being here.
BECKY: Hi, I'm so excited to do this with you.
CHELSEA: fun. So as I was reading, I was thinking about how. You encourage this process to start early. I think about how these days it's like the joke that once you find out you're pregnant, you start putting your kid on preschool, like wait lists, right? Like, so is this a similar thing as we're looking at colleges?
Like how early are we talking?
BECKY: I mean, yes and no. Um, Yes, it is similar because I do encourage the process to start in its infancy. Um, when students are in their freshman year of high school, um, but it's a slow burn. And what I mean by that is, um, the reason I like it. To start early is because there is just this level of exploration and research That I really believe in order to find these right fit and match schools that students need And it's really hard if you're just trying to start this process as you know Late into your junior year or even your senior year.
You're not really. Um What I like to say designing your future, you're more just like drifting into it. You're probably just throwing down colleges that you hear people talking about at school or your parents want you to apply for. You're not really, as a student, um, finding what is best for you, both socially and academically.
So I do encourage at least a research phase of this endeavor to start freshman year.
CHELSEA: I love that. So it gives you that time to actually kind of play around and explore what it is, not only that you want or need or looking for, but what then. Are other places that offer that, right? Just so you're not
BECKY: Yeah.
CHELSEA: settling.
BECKY: It's kind of like a period of dress up, right? You're looking at, first of all, you're evaluating all these different college qualities. There are over 4, 000 colleges in this country alone. Let's not even talk about international opportunities. And they're also different. So it's looking at these different qualities and trying to see which qualities align with the way you like to learn with the way, you know, you are more inclined socially, um, and with other sort of passions, goals, etc.
Uh, we want all of this to be streamlined in your college search and finding the schools that are going to pull out the best in you, um, or again, these, these traits or these qualities in these schools. So that takes time to figure that out. And, um, you know, I encourage families to start the research process early to get on different college campuses early.
And I really believe that students learn just as much from the experiences where say they went to a college and they realized that. It was not at all the right fit for them. That is almost just as. valuable as going to a college and realizing this is a great fit for me. You just learn so on both ends and hopefully all of this guides you to the space where you can really create a list of schools that matches what you're looking for.
CHELSEA: Okay. So if someone were to seek out a college, um, consultant like you, you know, what would they expect to kind of, to kind of gain from that? Or what kind of support would that be? It looked like.
BECKY: Yeah, so there's. Consultants come in all shapes and sizes. So there are consultants out there that you can hire just to help, you know, craft the list or to help the student with their essay writing part. Um, I'm really an all encompassing, uh, service. So consultants like me that operate the way I do on comprehensive packages, um, I'm sort of nuts to bolts with my students.
So, 1st of all, I only take a certain amount of students per class. I cap it off at a certain level, just because I really want to give all of my students the attention they deserve. So I don't want to overload myself too much freshman and sophomore year again. What? That looks like with me at least is, um, we're in that exploration phase.
So we are talking about different college qualities. I'm encouraging these students to partake, um, in different college opportunities. So that could be, um, this college X is coming to their high school to speak to students, so I would encourage them to go and listen. Or, you know, if they're going, cause they have a soccer tournament in San Diego, Hey, well, you should tack on these college visits while you're in.
Don't go look at these schools, so we're playing around freshman and sophomore year with exploration. The other thing we're playing around with freshman and sophomore year is a little bit of passion and career exploration. So, um, something that I'm sure a lot of parents have heard about is the activities list, right?
So, um, the activities list is very important in how admissions work in the United States. So most colleges, um, do something called holistic admissions, meaning they're not just looking at the students transcripts and their GPA, they're looking at them holistically. So that includes things like their activities list, that includes things like their essays, letters of recommendation from their teachers, and in some cases, test scores.
They're looking at all of these factors to make a decision. So the activities list is really one area where you can empower the students and families to really create something amazing there. It isn't fully in their control. So I start with my younger students, my freshmen and sophomores, building this activities list.
And I'm looking primarily for three things. And so we talk about these three categories. One is, um, make sure you have community involvement that could. The volunteer work, or that could be just in any sort of involvement in your community. This could be through your church. This could be through your school, whatever it is through your soccer club, any sort of involved in your community.
The 2nd is leadership. So, having some sort of leadership on your activities list, it does not have to be a title. Leadership is so much more than that. So, engaging anything where you're taking initiative and the 3rd component of the activities list is something called intellectual curiosity. So, this Major exploration comes in or career exploration, so it's showing colleges.
Let's just say that you are thinking you wanted to be a biology major. So, it's showing colleges why that makes sense through your. So, if I were advising a future biology major. I would encourage them to not only take, um, the most rigorous science classes they could at their school and hopefully achieve, um, good grades in it, but also think outside the box.
So that could be anything from finding an internship, or maybe they're getting to do something that is correlated with the biological sciences. Or it could be a passion project surrounding, or independent research project surrounding some area in the biological science. Thank you Or it could be taking even a class outside of school or engaging in a pre-college programs.
There's endless, um, opportunities to show this intellectual curiosity. But you're basically just linking what you do outside of school to what you intend to do in college and beyond.
CHELSEA: Gotcha. So it shows, demonstrates that basically you're serious about this. Uh, major and that this in your actions and behaviors and engagements, like you said, your curiosity throughout your high school is going to reflect that, that this is actually an avenue. You're not just pulling a major out of a hat and saying, I think I'd be okay here.
BECKY: exactly. That you've put some thought into this and the colleges, it's kind of a, a way for them to take you seriously, right? You're you're giving them the evidence that they need to show why you're putting this on your application.
CHELSEA: Okay. Yeah. So I would never have like guessed like when you're like three categories, I'm like, what is that third one?
BECKY: Yeah.
CHELSEA: And even the leadership, I was like, okay, that's really cool that like, like you said, doesn't have to be a title, but just how are you demonstrating that?
BECKY: Yeah. Yes. And typically, um, when you're a freshman and sophomore, it's much easier. You know, we always start with the community involvement and the volunteers. Flash volunteering because that's typically the easiest and sort of go, you know, leadership oftentimes is not going to come for the student maybe until they're in that junior year.
And same with intellectual curiosity, um, because sometimes it takes the student a little bit to figure out what they're even passionate about. You know, 14 year old freshmen may not know yet. They're so boring. So this is why we have this exploration phase. So that's, um, what you could expect. Freshman, sophomore year is kind of working all those pieces.
Um, junior year. Um, we're still, you know, being very serious about our college research, investigating different qualities, hopefully sort of honing in on the list, which were ultimately where the students applying, but we start to incorporate some other pieces, right? So junior year, um, is is the year of diagnostic testing from for the majority of students.
Um, we're sort of in this funny landscape with S. A. T. A. C. T. Uh, where some schools have gone test blind, like all the public schools in California, but a lot of schools across the nation are reverting back to test mandatory. Then you have this funky space in between called test optional, which means that you can choose whether or not you want to submit your test score.
Um, but even within this realm of test optional, what's really happening is some schools are becoming now test preferred. So it gets to be this very complicated, complex process. And so my bottom line recommendation is every student, until they have their list finalized, which typically they don't do have finalized junior year, should just submit their test.
Or they have a test score. We don't want to anyone from their options down the road. So that's, that's the first half of junior year, second half of junior year, you're working on all of the pre application things. So this would include, um, building your resume, brainstorming for a multitude of your college essays, starting to outline, um, some of the more major, the major essay, which is the personal statement. Um, and then start that summer before senior year is a lot of essay writing. Um, And then senior year up until deadlines, it's, um, more helping students navigate the actual applications and holding workshops. And this is how we fill out this application and, you know, doing things like that. So that's sort of the nuts to bolts progression of how it would work with, um.
A consultant again, I'm more of a comprehensive consultant, but there are consultants out there that you can just hire for. Bits and pieces of,
CHELSEA: Specific steps along the way. Right. Essay writing or Yeah. Because I'm assuming you are also supporting Like, I know that you, you spend so much time visiting these campuses and you're so up to date on everything. So it's, it's, you're actually able to provide that wealth of information, knowledge to say like, okay, you're kind of, this is what you're into, or this is kind of your learning style.
These schools, like, might fit what you're looking for. Is that kind of,
BECKY: lately and also figuring out some of, um, some colleges out there have just incredible, um, you know, like 3 plus 1 programs or, uh, 4 plus 1 programs. So, like, a 4 plus 1 program, um, I'll give you an example, like, the University of Kentucky has this amazing program is actually. a four and a half year program, but it's basically where you could graduate in four and a half years and have your BSN, which is your Bachelor of Science of Nursing and Bachelors in Public Health in four and a half years, right?
So there's a lot of colleges out there that have these very specialized, niche y sort of opportunities. And unless you know to pursue them, it's, it's really hard to figure out. But that's something My opinion to graduate in four and a half years with two, um, bachelor's degrees would be right. University of Kentucky go blue.
CHELSEA: Well, especially with the, with the nursing too, that's, I mean, those are, that's a tough program. Like people are usually navigating that like after like a community college and right. And it's just such a, I've watched so many people, yeah. Go through a lot of hoops to, you Get there.
How neat. Okay. So, um, and then is this, I guess I wonder if, you know, if parents are, you know, granted, whatever is available in their area or what they're able to provide, um, or pay for, but like, is this research you can kind of do on your own from the computer, like kind of exploring these
BECKY: I mean, absolutely. Um, Listen, it's not, it doesn't, what I do is, um, a lot of it just comes from experience, but a parent could absolutely do their best to navigate this. It does, um, they shouldn't be afraid to reach out to college admission officers and ask a lot of questions. So. Um, how a parent, let's just say their child was interested in a certain college.
Um, typically, you can find out who your admissions officer would be. Most admissions officers are broken up by region. So, they, you know, if you're in the Sacramento area, and you would look for on the admissions page, who was the admission officer for that region? And then you can go ahead and probably even better for the student to email them actually, but, uh.
For certain things, especially if it has anything to do with financial aid, they're wondering about that. I think it's important. It's okay for the parent to email, uh, the admissions officer and ask.
CHELSEA: Got it. Okay. So yeah. So every college will have an admissions officer and that's kind of where you're going to start with in terms of questions and anything specific that is beyond them, they'll point you to that direction I'm assuming.
BECKY: Yeah. And then other than that, I think it's just helping your child navigate, um, and explore different college qualities. Right. So for example, Is your student able to sit in a big lecture hall and absorb information just from listening, right? Or is your student, the type of student that is going to do better in a smaller class size where the professor is engaging more with the students.
Um, so how does your student best learn? What kind of academic support is your student going to need? Um, you know, and then there's like, the social side of it is your student. Do they want to feel like they're in more of a tight knit community, or do they like the feeling of being part of a big school?
There, you know, there's so many different things that affects the student's, um, ability to be successful in their learning environment. So, as a parent, just knowing how your child thrives, you want to look for college qualities that is going to match that. Um, So that's just super important. And the other really important thing too, that a parent needs to do is when you're cultivating this list, right?
The list of schools you're applying to, which in today's age, I recommend to my students, it's best to apply to between 12 and 15 schools, but the key to that list is balance. So I'm sure you've heard about the stories about the kid that has the 4. 2 that didn't get in anywhere. And. You know, they're all so, you know, college admissions is terrible these days.
Well, I mean, it's tricky these days, but I can tell you without a doubt that that student didn't get anywhere because they did not have a balance list. They probably applied to 12, what we call reach schools, right? So we basically in creating a balance list, there's 3 categories. There's your reach schools, which I'm just going to use like, you know, basic, basic numbers.
But let's just say a reach school is as a student. You have a 25 percent chance or less of getting it. Then you have your target schools. That means you have about a 50 50 chance of getting in. Then you have your, um, some people call them safeties, I prefer to call them likelies. You have your likely schools, that's like a 75 chance or higher of getting in.
You need a balance of all three of those. So you absolutely want to stretch yourself and, and have some reach schools on your list. But if you have all reach schools on your list, that's when the scenario of the 4. 2, not getting in. That's when that happens. The art is all in the list. So you want a balance of reach target
CHELSEA: Likely. Okay.
BECKY: And I also think you want to have a balance of, um, cost of attendance, right? You don't want to apply to. Private expensive schools, uh, mix in some, you know, public schools or schools where you think you might earn significant merit aid. Um, I also really encourage my students to have geographic balance. So what I mean by that is sometimes I get students that are like, I want to go to school in the South.
I only want to apply to schools in the South. I just don't think that's a smart idea because again, these are still teenagers. They're growing and changing and the people they are when they're applying to schools, which is typically in the fall of their senior year and the person they become by the time they commit, which is typically spring of senior year can be totally different.
So you want to, um, uh, have some cushion for that growth and development that may happen. So again, balance in, in geography too, I think is really important in the list.
CHELSEA: I love that. So yes, I love target the reach and the likely having that balance balance of even like you said, cost in terms of, you know, just what is realistic of whether we can even be able to afford to go here if we can actually get in. Um, and then geography. I like that just to have to not settle in just one area.
So even if, um, do you recommend that? Let's say if, if you're a California native, your whole life, do you recommend branching out of California to just, or, okay.
BECKY: Yes, and, and California is tricky. Okay, so we have two amazing public school systems in California. Um, and because we're the most populous states and because of some other factors that I would be happy to talk to you about if we have time. It is, it can be hard for kids, um, to get into a lot of public schools in California.
So I feel like. You know, again, to create that balance and to even get some of these likelihoods on your list, you sort of have to look at a state. It doesn't mean you can't apply to a bunch of California schools, but to round this out and to make sure that you are going to have some fantastic options at the end of the day, you will probably as a California native have to look at a state to find that balance.
CHELSEA: Any, um, suggestions or ideas for if you are looking at a state and it's maybe not feasible for you? Like, I know there's, it's an invaluable experience to just get stand on the campus and get around there, but I remember thinking like even when I was, you know, 25 years ago, whatever, just there's only so many areas I could visit.
Like those realistic right? That, you know, just with schedules and finances, but, um. How do we navigate that, like, in terms of if it's just like, you know, we want to balance that application list and have some geography balance, but we're, if we're unable to kind of get there.
BECKY: well, 1 of the great things that came out of coven is the virtual tour. So, almost every college is offering some sort of virtual tour. So, that's a great way, because obviously, you know, it's really hard to get to the places across the country and it's very expensive. So, absolutely take a virtual tour. So that's always an option.
Another way that is really good for students to learn, and they, I recommend even as early as sophomore year, is, um, say you're interested in a college that's far away. Um, I'm just going to use one as an example. Let's use Tulane. You're interested in Tulane, but you cannot get to New Orleans. I thought of it because I'm wearing
CHELSEA: Yes.
BECKY: have, um, online information sessions all the time. So if you think you're really interested in, might be interested in Tulane on paper, it seems great, like a great match. You just can't get out to New Orleans. Sign up and register for an online information session. Both the parent and the student can attend and that's a great way to start learning more without investing a ton of money in travel.
Um, but I do recommend um, sort of how I gave the example of if you're playing in a soccer tournament and you're here or on a family vacation, I mean, maybe that's not what you want to do on a family vacation, but if you're in the vicinity of a college and you have a high school Age kid, stop by and take the tour.
Um, because that's just a great way to, um, for the student to learn and for you not to really have to go super far out of your way to give your child these college experiences, college research experiences. So you can start you can start those 2 things at least. Very early on in high school. Um, my eighth grade son has already been on many college tours.
Thank her. And it's actually been great for him. So,
CHELSEA: Okay. Yeah, no, that makes sense. So even if it's not a school that say that would you would envision on your list, at least gives you the real time experience of walking on a campus, maybe even taking note of like, Oh, this seems really small for me, or this is way too big for me. And then using that to compare to future.
BECKY: Oh, absolutely. Again, it goes back to, I really believe that even if you walk on a campus and it is not at all what you want, it is still a valuable learning experience because you are now learning what you don't want, which is just as important
CHELSEA: Yeah, absolutely.
BECKY: So, yeah, anytime I even recommend. So I'm in the Bay Area.
And so my students that just don't have the time or the means to travel to all these places, which a lot of people don't, um, is to go to your local school. So I tell my kids, you know, we're very close to Santa Clara University. Go tour Santa Clara, it's in your backyard, and get the feel of what a medium sized private school feels like.
Then you could go to UC Santa Cruz or San Jose State. That's a large public school. You could even drive to St. Mary's, Moraga, and that is gonna be a small private school. You could go to, uh, USF, and that's gonna be a small or medium, uh, very urban school in the city. How did that feel? Life being in a city.
So you can create these experiences, not necessarily with schools that you think you might apply to, but you can sort of, um, mimic what it might feel like. If you're interested, like Northeastern and Boston, but you can't get to Boston, go to, uh, USF, right? Very urban school.
CHELSEA: That makes
BECKY: See how you like it.
CHELSEA: Yeah. And then I'm assuming when you said those information sessions that are online, those are live most of them. Right. I take it like, it's like a zoom, like right. Where you can ask questions and they'll have, okay.
BECKY: yes, they do have some prerecorded ones, too, that you can find. It just depends on the school, but I would say, I'm probably going to open up a can of worms with this topic, but there's something called demonstrated interest that not every college participates in, but there is a. A good amount that do and what demonstrated interest is, is colleges are basically.
Stalking you, for lack of a better word. What they're trying to do is they're trying to protect their yield rate. So what a yield rate is, is, um, I'm just going to use small numbers for this. Let's say, let's go back to Tulane. Okay. Let's say Tulane accepts 100 students. Obviously, they accept way more than that, but we're just going to use 100 students.
They accept 100 students into their freshman class and 30 of those students, Okay. Accept them back. So they commit. That would be a 30 percent yield rate. So a lot of what goes into all these rankings like U. S. News report and all these news and world report are yield rate. So the higher the yield rate, the better.
So in order to sort of protect their yield rate, a lot of times colleges will want to accept students that they feel are truly interested in them. So what they do is they sort of Mhm. So when you sign up for an information session, they record that. When you go for a visit, they record that and they sort of track you.
Some of them even go as far as when they send you emails, they see if you open it. Right. So, um, there is a way that you can find out if a school survey is demonstrated interest and it's through something called the common data set. But for schools that do do take this into account, it is very important to engage with the school in some capacity.
There's lots of different ways to do
CHELSEA: Okay. So that can work in your favor. If you're demonstrating more interest, you're kind of helping to solidify some. Yes.
BECKY: Yeah, let's just, I mean, let's be honest, if it's between you and another candidate and academically. Um, you're, you're neck and neck, you've shown the interest, you took a tour, you attended two informational sessions, this student didn't attend any, they're likely the person that's shown the interest,
CHELSEA: Makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Wow. So many. Yeah. And see, this is why we're doing, there's so many elements and things to think about. It's very multi layered.
BECKY: There's a lot. It's very multi layered. The famous line in this industry is, it depends, because there's so many different factors. Everything just depends on whatever it is,
CHELSEA: office though too. It's like I need context. Yeah. It depends. Yes. Um, okay. Well, I so appreciate you being here. I don't know any last things that maybe we didn't hit on that. I'm not thinking to ask about or
BECKY: Um, all I can say is, you know, parents be patient, uh, It is a very emotional process for these kids and oftentimes it is really hard for the student to really engage with the parents. Um, and I think that's a really important point on this because in their deep in their psyche, they know that they have to almost push this parent away because this is part of their growing up process.
And so that's why you hear that. Oftentimes there's a lot of tension between the student and the parent and the college process, which is why so many people want to hire people like me. And just for the record, my own daughter who's a senior is not working with
CHELSEA: Yeah. There you go.
BECKY: He's working with a colleague of mine because it's just not healthy for us to do this together.
CHELSEA: That
BECKY: But so you have to be patient with your child and also let your child, guide your child, but really let them lead through this because ultimately they're the ones that have to be happy and thrive at the school. That they end up at not the pain. So, um, you know, all the tiger moms out there kind of got to take a step back, um, and let the children really bleed from their heart and be authentic about what's the best fit for
CHELSEA: Yeah. This is your, another example of us slaying them, build their inner compass and let them, right. Cause at the end of the day, you don't want to be trying to navigate after one year of misery. Like, okay, now where do we go? Like if we can let them lead it,
BECKY: E and, you know, a lot of these parents think they want their kids to go to like these Ivy league colleges or, you know, I mean, I have only met probably two kids. That in my experience doing this that I think are good fits for like an Ivy school. It is not easy to, um, be able to sort of live up to that expectation and thrive at an Ivy school.
Um, and again, I, I mean, I don't think I've said this, but I'll, I'll say this. What I believe with every fiber of my being is it's not. The name on the diploma that determines success. It's what you do with your time at the institution that determines success. So if you go to an institution where you feel like you're inadequate, You don't want to put yourself out there.
You don't want to engage in all the opportunities, whatever. You're not going to thrive and you're going to come out with what versus going to a school where it is a good fit. You're going to take advantage of the clubs, the research, the working professors, whatever it may be. That's a, that's a student that's going to be able to launch into a successful career and future.
So, um, yeah,
CHELSEA: that. Yeah.
BECKY: about the name. Go where you're going to thrive.
CHELSEA: Well, thank you so much, Becky, for being here today.
BECKY: Thank you for having me.