Ms Karen Hott

Additional Info

Description of Services : The short version: I provide comprehensive counseling for students and their families to help with the transition from high school to college. The longer version:??I provide comprehensive counseling for students and their families to help with the transition from high school to college. This includes personality, learning, and skill assessments; extensive interviewing to understand the student's values and preferences; evaluation of curricular choices and testing; and guidelines for requesting recommendation letters. Using my knowledge of the student and of colleges, I develop an initial list of colleges with a range of possible outcomes, from likely to reach, keeping in mind academic, social, emotional, and financial fit. After presenting the initial list, I teach the student how to research the colleges and pare down the list to those he or she will be happy to attend and therefore apply to. I use CollegePlannerPro and encourage students to begin their research there, and I have them record their research in a Google doc table so that they can compare and contrast the schools.A lifelong teacher of writing, I relish the time spent with students as they explore topics for essays and go through the iterative process of turning ideas into college application essays. In addition to essays, I help where needed with the applications, such as the activities section. I help students track their application deadlines and submit on time. As admission decisions come in and financial aid packages arrive, I help the family sort out what these mean. Using the Education Department’s College Financing Plan, I show families how to compare apples to apples and to not be fooled when loans are made to look like gifts.I am on hand to answer questions as the student and family prepare to make the Big Decision, and I am available to them into the student’s first year of college.

Description of Experience : ??While attending UCI to obtain the IEC certificate (earned Sept. 2019), I worked pro bono with three students; all three are happily attending the school they selected. The mother of one of those students was so impressed by my work with her daughter that she paid for my comprehensive service for her second daughter.

In 2020 and 2021, I worked pro bono with two students in Matchlighters (Ethan Sawyer's program), one who was a Questbridge finalist. I have helped numerous students with college application essays, for an hourly fee, beginning in 2016. (Before that, teaching AP English and journalism, I did the same without charge. Writing has long been a part of my life!) Since obtaining the certificate, I have emphasized comprehensive services but continue to assist with undergraduate, transfer, and graduate student essays on an hourly basis. I find it most rewarding to work with students and their families beginning in the student’s junior year, but have taken on students as early as ninth grade and as late as fall of their senior year.