Jeanette B. Spires & Associates provides Educational Consulting for students seeking Boarding School and College Admission. In our developmental approach, we try to assess how well students are coping with the natural pressures of life, educationally and personally.
My philosophy in counseling a student toward college is that he or she is seeking a job as a college student, and therefore use a model more akin to outplacement than to conventional educational models. Using a combination of personality and interest tests, we try to teach the students to see themselves in a larger context of what they have to offer the world. In life, one makes a living on one's strengths, and college involves the development of those strengths.
Transfer students can normally be accommodated at any time. I enjoy working with transfer students and now that one can Skype from anywhere, we can develop a close working relationship no matter where the student lives. It is rewarding to see the student who may have begun college as a disaster story begin to move in a positive direction.
For some students, the right boarding school can be life-changing. Perhaps a student attends a huge high school where there is little opportunity to play varsity sports, act in plays, or make a musical group. For others who have strong intellectual interests, knowing faculty members personally through small classes, meals, and activities together helps to develop mentoring relationships that may extend through one's adult years.
