Guest Blog by Daniel Stern, President of College Essay Organizer
Dan agreed to do a blog posting for us while Cyndy is at NACAC.
Learning anything new takes motivation, risk, and patience. Learning new technology is notably challenging, especially for those who have spent decades hammering out a specific routine. During the webinars hosted by mycca.net and College Essay Organizer, we've fielded many questions from members. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions, along with our responses.
Also, be sure to check out these demo videos that you can share with your students to make the most of College Essay Organizer.
1. I’m not sure I can afford College Essay Organizer.
All MyCCA users who are new to College Essay Organzier receive one free trial student account, giving you the opportunity to try it out risk-free. Based on feedback from our members, the value of College Essay Organizer far exceeds the $34 you pay per account. You can save several hours per student, which means much less work required for the same number of billable hours. During the busy application season, this means your efficiency in managing clients and setting up new ones skyrockets.
In fact, many consultants have found that if they share a sample College Essay Organizer report with potential clients, it often convinces them that they could not possibly manage this process on their own without enduring excessive stress and confusion. In this sense, College Essay Organizer helps you generate additional revenue.
College Essay Organizer also finds program-specific essays that aren't included in schools' applications or on the Common App—questions that tend to get discovered late in the game or overlooked altogether. Rather than spending hours seeking these out or losing credibility when clients recognize that you've failed to address their particular needs, you can have all essay questions delivered instantly. You’ll also discover a multitude of scholarship essays that can mean thousands of dollars in additional money for applicants.
Moreover, with our new feature that allows you and your clients to upload, edit, and track the status of essay drafts directly within the College Essay Organizer accounts, you won't have to email multiple drafts back and forth for multiple clients.
The alternative to using College Essay Organizer is researching all the questions on your own or assigning this task to your clients, which may lead to incomplete or inaccurate results, not to mention frustrated students and parents. It also means resorting to the cumbersome process of emailing drafts back and forth dozens of times. Typically after two clients, College Essay Organizer pays itself off in time saved while increasing the professionalism of your practice.
2. I'm not sure how to purchase College Essay Organizer for my clients.
Once you are logged into your MyCCA account, you can click on the student you would like to use College Essay Organizer with, and you can then activate your account. If you would like your students to access College Essay Organizer, please make sure that you have activated that setting under My Account Tab under Student Portal.
3. I’m not sure whether to let my students access their accounts or to use College Essay Organizer simply as a resource on my end.
Your choice depends on how you run your practice and on each individual client.
You can choose to keep College Essay Organizer to yourself, referencing each client’s report on your own. You can thus use College Essay Organizer like an accountant might use TurboTax, as a tool that optimizes your time and productivity.
You can experiment and share College Essay Organizer with a few of your stronger students. For example, you can go over the essay plan with a student together. If the student has a diversity essay that will work for multiple questions, you can brainstorm with the student what diversity means to her and help her craft that piece. You can then help her see how that finished essay can be used for various questions, with some modification if needed. And then you can move on to the next essay together. As the process unfolds, the student becomes more independent.
You can immediately share College Essay Organizer with all clients, making clear that this website will save them hours of time and ensure a much smoother, more successful writing experience. Many consultants recognize from the start that their students are naturals at using online technology. Teens intuitively understand College Essay Organizer just as well as a professional and appreciate having this tool at their disposal. They often feel empowered with College Essay Organizer’s clear, personalized plan and thus work more proactively on their essays. If you choose to share College Essay Organizer with all your clients, you can then of course use it as your one-stop website for the entire essay process.
You'll also find that having clients access College Essay Organizer demonstrates the value of having a professional guide, for they see how time-consuming and complex the process is (“it’s not just a couple essays anymore!”). Most parents and students are not aware of College Essay Organizer on their own, so they’ll be glad you use this cutting-edge technology in your practice. Plus, College Essay Organizer hardly replaces your role; your greatest asset is helping students brainstorm the essay topics that work best for them and helping them bring out their most compelling voices.
4. I don’t have many clients.
Businesses only grow when owners have the time to focus on the big picture, instead of organizational or managerial details. Technology makes that possible. It’s like using Google instead of driving to the library. College Essay Organizer eliminates hours of tedious and frustrating work, elevating consulting practices to new levels of efficiency.
If you have only 5 clients, your total cost for College Essay Organizer accounts will be $170. If you are billing your clients $50 per hour, that is just over 3 hours of billing time (and if you bill a higher hourly rate, it could work out to less than one hour of billing time). For this low cost, you will save hours in tedious research and organizational confusion, work much more efficiently, free up your days to focus on growing your business and providing even better service, and ensure a level of accuracy and professionalism that is very hard to provide on your own.
Many consultants also find that sharing College Essay Organizer accounts with each client validates the client’s decision to hire the consultant. Too many parents still believe that the essay process entails only one or two personal statements. Seeing the multitude of essays, including scholarship opportunities, allows them to appreciate the complexity of the process and the importance of your expert guidance.
Good word of mouth starts with using the right tools and knowing how to make them work for you.
5. I can do this research and organizational work on my own.
In our experience as admissions advisors, we found that manually collecting and organizing the essay questions took about 2 or 3 hours for each applicant—more if the student was applying to specific programs or had hard-to-find essay requirements (USC's film program anyone?). As students added and dropped colleges, we were forced to re-conceptualize their essay plans and determine if their previous essay topics were still sufficient. It’s just too time-consuming.
In the midst of a hectic fall, would you pay $150 to save yourself, say, 20 hours of work?
Independent consultants have stressed-out clients, who naturally make the job demanding. College Essay Organizer is designed to make your work simple and efficient, while cutting out redundant work, stress, and anxiety.
Posts
