ACADEMICS
College Advising Services' Comprehensive Collegiate Program is a soup to nuts full service program
in which the sooner a student enrolls, the better their prospects for success. We prefer to start with
families when their child is in 7th or 8th grade, but we accept students at every stage of his or her
high school and undergraduate career, capping the number of students in each class at 30 total
students for that grade level. Our comprehensive package spoon feeds families each step of the
process, with a vast amount of time and effort, educating families as to what the collegiate admission
process entails at each stage of a student's journey, which results in Ms. Catanzaro becoming involved
in every aspect of her students' academic, extracurricular, community and outside activities, in order
to best steer them to their dream schools. Diving deeply into her students' activities, she works with
them in myriad ways, such as how to utilize their hobbies and passions to become better college
candidates and how to improve their reading habits by steering what they read and how to improve
their vocabulary and writing skills, all of which have lifelong academic, professional, and personal
benefits. A great deal of effort is spent on students' career development through assessing their
strengths, affinities, variety of interests and passions and how these all relate to ostensible college
majors and career goals, which also entails helping students secure internships, job shadows,
research opportunities, and independent passion projects.
In addition to Career Development, the bulk of the counseling sessions focus on the college
application process. This entails an array of objectives that are individually tailored to each student's
interests and passions, but always includes construction of a Comprehensive (intelligent and
pragmatic) College List, covering Safety, Target and Reach Schools, which entails advising students
on how to prudently research colleges and universities on their lists. Among the skills and "tricks of
the trade" students learn, are how to engage in Admissions' Correspondence; communicating
with Regional Readers, preparing for College Visits/College Fairs/virtual and in-person College
Information Sessions; and in depth instruction on all facets of the Application. The Application entails
working on the Activities' Resume, the Main and Supplemental Essays, Personal Statements, as well
as the University of California Personal Insight Questions. Every single line of the Application and
Activity Sections are completed together and the most competitive candidates are those students
whose activities have been molded under our process from the end of middle school. After
Applications are submitted, we guide students through Interview Preparations. We also assist
students with getting off waitlists and helping undergraduates who contact us and wish to transfer
institutions.
We are a full-service firm guiding students and their families through the cumbersome and confusing college application process. Offering a “soup to nuts” comprehensive approach, we help navigate all aspects of a student’s journey, from advising on high school course selection, internships, personal passion projects, and community service to college selection, completion of application forms, student resumes, essays and supplementary essays, and interview preparation. We also work with undergraduate students to gain admission to graduate schools, with a particular emphasis on medical school, where we have enjoyed tremendous success.