An Evening with Admissions Expert Mark Montgomery on 10/22 at 6:30

On Thursday October 22nd at 6:30 P.M. in the Burlington High School Auditorium Mark Montgomery, a national college admissions expert, offers his advice on how to avoid the pitfalls and pain of applying to college. Most people take a haphazard approach to visiting schools, examining statistics, consulting rankings, and comparing campus amenities as they consider which colleges might be the right fit. Similarly, during the application process, students seldom think strategically as they fill out forms, write essays, plan for interviews, and communicate with admissions offices.

But the investment in higher education is huge: hundreds of thousands of dollars, huge student loans, and at least four years of hard work. Shouldn’t the process be less scattershot and more systematic? Why is it so hard to be rational in this process?
Filled with good humor, a healthy dose of reality, and concrete examples of real students who avoided these mistakes, the presentation addresses these crucial questions and more:

• How do you calculate “return on investment” in higher education?

• What is the right way to shop for colleges?

• What are the 12 factors in the admission process?

• What are the “hidden” parts of the Common Application?

• Why is it so important to start early in this process?

• How can you develop a personal strategy for success?

• How do you preserve sanity in your household?

Dr. Mark Montgomery earned his BA at Dartmouth College and his Masters and Doctorate at Tufts University. He has been an instructor at Harvard and a consultant at Yale. He specializes in demystifying the ways in which colleges recruit and admit students. His views and advice have appeared in US News & World Report, Money, USA Today, Forbes, The Apple Daily (Hong Kong), The Huffington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Denver Post. He also writes a popular blog on university admission at GreatCollegeAdvice.com.

Montgomery Educational Consulting is a full service educational firm that assists students and their families as they select and apply to the best and most appropriate universities. With offices in New Jersey, Hong Kong, and Colorado, Mark works one-on-one with students to guide them in their choices in secondary school, to articulate which educational environments lead to academic success, and identify how personal and family needs, preferences, and ambitions can be combined to help them pick the right universities—and get in.