We went into the search process with no experience and no preconceived expectations, but with quite a bit of trepidation. Our only goal was to find a school where our daughter would be happy but we were terrified by all the horror stories about the college admission process. Academic Access provided an excellent experience for our entire family. Joan and her team understand exactly how to work with both students and parents to minimize stress and provide a completely customized service for each client. We felt like the team at Academic Access truly “saw” our daughter and were able to guide her to exactly the right school for her. This experience was life-changing. There aren’t enough words to express our gratitude. We will definitely be repeat clients – and lifelong friends!
Parent Stories
We can’t thank you enough for helping our son achieve his dream of becoming a Blue Devil. Your endless advice, words of encouragement, meticulous, methodical organization, and expertise were invaluable. Thank you for being by his side every step of the way, and for talking us off the ledge during our times of worry and stress! We feel fortunate to have found you.
Our two daughters worked with Joan and her team. The results speak for themselves – our older daughter was accepted everywhere she applied and now attends her first-choice (Cornell). Our younger daughter was accepted early decision to her first choice (also Cornell) and is excited to begin. There was so much about the experience that was helpful, but we would like to focus on the structured process Joan put in place to keep our daughters on track. They both applied to quite a few schools with varied application processes and unique essays. Help with the essays brought out our daughters’ own voices and personalities. The team helped them manage the process, establishing reasonable deadlines, providing feedback, and maintaining their focus. Joan broke this daunting process into smaller tasks and manageable steps and always kept them moving forward and on schedule. What we and our daughters expected to be an overwhelming process went smoothly. We did not need to intervene, remind, or prod them to keep up. This kept the stress at a manageable level and reduced pressure in our home.
Joan patiently listened to my child’s goals, his experience, his stories, his strengths and weaknesses. She combined all these with her vast knowledge of the workings of college admission process to craft a strategy to help reach his goals. From the very first meeting, we felt her warmth, passion and unparalleled professionalism. Throughout the whole process, she did not leave a single detail unattended. Highly recommended!
Joan and the team at Academic Access provided focused guidance, steadfast support and really helpful reassurance for our daughter and us during the entire college admissions process. Because of her knowledge and professionalism we knew we could turn the process over to Joan and our daughter to successfully manage. Joan empowered her to feel confident and pursue schools at every level that she could feel really good about no matter what the ultimate outcome was. She was direct and honest about building a college list that was realistic and would maximize our daughter’s time and effort. She also provided great advice about crafting a strong narrative theme that shone through the entire application and helped our daughter put her best foot forward leading to Early Admissions success. We are now just starting the process with our son and couldn’t feel more confident that Joan and her team will be great partners for him as well.
Joan and her team took a great deal of the stress out of the college admissions process for our son and our family. The confidence that comes from having a true expert in your corner to guide you through an intimidating and somewhat mysterious process cannot be overstated. Joan takes the time to get to know what makes your child tick and devises a plan to place them in the best position to succeed. It was a no-brainer for us to engage Joan for a second time to help our daughter with her college admissions journey.
The combination of starting the college process for our son during COVID and this being the first time we had gone through this since our own college application process decades earlier, we knew we needed support. With so many variables and changes in the system, we were all feeling anxious about identifying the schools that best fit what our son was looking for in a college experience, the application process, essays, tests scores – basically everything was a big question mark for us. From our first meeting with Joan, she involved our son, made sure he understood his responsibilities in this process, set expectations for us and made us feel like everything was going to work out. Joan and her team surrounded our family, but more importantly our son and he owned this process with minimal intervention from us. He had a great combination of schools where he applied, ended up with a few options of where to go and is thrilled where he ultimately accepted. Joan was there to answer our questions – and his – to nag and poke him when needed and to celebrate his successes. We felt that we truly had a partner in Joan and it was absolutely worth the investment.
We began the college application process with a lot of anxiety, but Joan’s structured process and deep knowledge alleviated it. She and her staff – particularly the essay coaches – were invaluable. I appreciated that Joan pulled in several writers to critique the essay and talk with our daughter about her story. When our daughter expressed an interest in attending school in Europe, Joan took her seriously and advised her on where to apply. We are so proud that she is now enrolled at St. Andrews in Scotland, one of the most prestigious colleges in Europe. We are incredibly grateful to Joan and her staff.