Parent Testimonials

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!

We like that the process really centers the student. Parents are involved and informed, but the bulk of the meetings involve the student alone with Joan and her team. This gives the student ownership of the process and allows them to focus on what they are interested in and how they want to present themselves. It is a stressful process for students AND parents. But overexposing students to the stress of parents is not helpful. Working with Joan and her team kept the parent-child relationship as relaxed as possible and allowed us to provide him with support and encouragement and not micromanage his time or his work.

The support provided by Joan and her team really helped our student attack the process. Their expertise helped him produce very strong applications, but at every point he was doing the work himself. In other words, I never felt like they were pushing him to make himself fit some formula; instead they helped him highlight his true strengths and interests.

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! 

There are many reasons to work with Joan and her team. But here are two big ones. First, after going through the process, I realize that so much of the advice and “information” floating around out there (mostly on social media) is not correct. Joan and her team give sound advice and focus on students as individuals. Second, parenting teenagers is tricky. Guiding them single-handedly through the college admissions process really increases the level of difficulty. Teens do not usually want to listen to their parents’ advice. They are much more likely to listen to advice from Joan and her team – and their advice is excellent!