About Hernandez College Consulting:
Brief Biography
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Endorsements from Michele’s past clients include:
Michele Hernandez is a joy to work with professionally and
personally. Admittedly, I initially experienced some reservation
about the long distance relationship with respect to my son.
However, Michele was always pleasantly available, immeasurably
resourceful, and incredibly prompt in response. Actually,
the time change with respect to the West coast benefits any
hardworking Northeastern student, who often prefers to conference
after 10 or 11 p.m. because of the busy high school schedule
and the late night studying. At any hour Michele exhibits
boundless energy, patience, and affability.
Michele is masterful in her field. With respect to college
applications, I liken her approach to the difference between
decorating your home alone, versus having a great interior
decorator assist you. Michele always allows the student to
guide the process and make the application a reflection of
himself. However, the finished product is amazingly professional,
appealing, and representative of all of the student’s
talents and strengths.
Personally, Michele quickly inculcates respect in the student
for her gift with language and writing and her tremendous
knowledge of so many academic areas. My son, as did I, thoroughly
trusted, admired, and liked her. It was a wonderful and productive
relationship from start to finish. I am satisfied knowing
that my son deservedly received the best guidance and direction
with respect to the college odyssey, which Michele amazingly
was able to make a pleasant process.
-- Son admitted early to University of Pennsylvania, class
of 2007
I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate the exceptional
counseling you provided for my son in his campaign for admission
to Dartmouth. Because of your academic insight and experience,
the carefully calculated strategy you developed allowed us
to prepare for the process well ahead of schedule and position
D’s numerous attributes in the most compelling voice.
Your attention to detail, professional performance and results
orientation are obviously what sets you apart from the balance
of college consultants. I always knew that D. was an exceptional
candidate and qualified for an elite academic institution
but with your help, we became more informed and much better
prepared to confidently manage what could have been a very
stressful process. As you know we have a Dartmouth family
legacy and consider your effort a major contribution in keeping
the dream alive. Hernandez College Consulting should be there
first and only call. Michele, thanks again for all your help.
I look forward to seeing you again soon.
-- Son accepted early to Dartmouth, class of 2007
In the highly competitive, almost Darwinist, world of college admissions, Michele helps bring method to the madness. Her process, encouragement, and direction, were essential to bringing out the best of our son in his application. This contributed significantly to his outstanding results: an acceptance rate over 85% to schools that reject over 85% of the students who apply. At the end of the process, our son was left with the tough decision of figuring out which of the top schools was the best fit for him. He settled for Princeton”
-- Parents of Princeton, class of 2007
I MOST HIGHLY recommend the professional services of Michele
Hernandez!
My son is a motivated student who has had, since the 7th grade,
an aspiration to attend an Ivy League school. I felt the best
chance of him being accepted into an Ivy was to seek the advise
of a counselor who was knowledgeable with the application
process so that his paperwork would present him in the most
favorable light possible. I began my search for a local advisor
on the internet. My google search came up with Michele and
incorrectly indicated that she lived in Westchester County,
New York (where I live). I decided to call her (her web site
only listed her impressive credentials and a toll free telephone
number). At the time, I did not know that although she grew
up in Westchester and her parents still live there, she lived
out of state. When I had my initial conversation with Michele,
I was so impressed that it did not matter that she lived miles
away. I hung up from our initial 15 minute conversation in
a total sweat because in that short span of time, I was given
2 hours worth of information and guidance (I really didn’t
think anyone could talk and think faster than my wife). I
went home and told my son and wife that I had located an advisor,
but when I indicated the cost, they both summarily rejected
her as a candidate. I told them that Michele was going to
be in the area the following week (she travels to the New
York area several times a year to meet all her clients personally)
and that they should at least meet her. After much discussion,
I was told that they would reluctantly meet with Michele,
but there was no way they would consider hiring Michele due
to her cost (“we can find someone local for less than
1/3 the cost!”).
Well, after meeting Michele at our house for 1 1/2 hours
(and getting 4 hours worth of advice), my wife and son were
so impressed that they decided that Michele was the one for
us. They both indicated that, indeed, she would certainly
be worth the cost.
Thus, the journey began. One of the first things my son did
was to consult with Michele on a literature assignment. She
was familiar with the reading and was able to assist him with
a paper for his AP English class thanks to her decade of teaching
experience in English. After only a month of working with
my son, she had already helped him improve his writing style,
a skill that would prove indispensable in the coming months
when writing college essays.
Michele was also instrumental in helping my son choose which
schools (both Ivy League and others) he wanted to apply to.
As a graduate of Dartmouth College, Michele encouraged my
son to look into her Alma Mater. He was sufficiently impressed
with it after reading their literature. A month later, we
visited the school and we both instantly felt this was the
school for him. He applied under the Early Decision program
and, in December, was accepted!!!
Michele put in endless hours with our son on all aspects
of his application and testing process. After his early admission
application had been submitted, it would have been easy for
Michele to sit back and wait for the result to arrive. But
instead, Michele pushed forward and worked with him on all
of his other applications (we burned them in the fire place
after he received his early acceptance letter). The fact that
she was 3,000 miles away had no effect on the quality and
quantity of efforts put forth by Michele. Both I and my son
talked to Michele on a weekly basis and never felt that we
couldn’t call her up over the slightest question. When
we received his acceptance, Michele was the first person I
called. If you are looking for an advisor who is at the top
of his/her game, I suggest you look no further than Michele
Hernandez.
-- Early decision, Dartmouth 2007
Michele Hernandez provided outstanding guidance in every
phase of the college search process for our son. From college
selection, interview preparation, essay writing, advice and
help with testing, summer activity recommendations, to the
final applications, the stress was gone, and Scott was able
to realize his potential and was admitted to his first choice
school. Michele’s insights were invaluable to our whole
family and we look forward to working with her again with
our high school freshman. Do not attempt the college process
without Michele’s help!
-- Son admitted early decision to class of 2007 at Middlebury
"We "stumbled" onto Michele
relatively late in the "game." To be candid, I was
surfing the web one day in July (the summer before our daughter
applied to college) and found the Princeton Review Parent's
Forum relating to college admission. As I recall, there was
a discussion about Michele's book and it caught my attention,
especially since we had found her book to be the most useful
discussion on the subject of college admissions by far. As
you can imagine, some of the posters were praising her book
while others commented less favorably. Surprisingly, someone
claiming to be Michele, herself, responded as well and I wrote
that person to express my support (I had been impressed with
her book). She graciously replied to my e-mail and advised
me that she also did some private, fee-based counseling. Needless
to say, the possibility of benefiting from her personal insight
and guidance as my daughter applied to college intrigued me.
But, to be honest with you, there was a part of me that rebelled
against this, as well.
My wife and I discussed the subject over the
next couple of days and we reached out to our daughter to
solicit her opinion. (She was participating in a research
program at a university for the summer, some 1500 miles away,
and was not due to return home until August.) Obviously, we
had mixed emotions. The expense was significant and we have
always prided ourselves on playing on a "level playing
field." Our daughter's views were mixed, as well. She
was determined to gain admission to her schools of choice
on her own and questioned why we believed that she might need
help. Regardless, the more we talked about this together,
the more convinced all of us became that Michele could and
would provide the kind of insight and assistance that would
help assure that our daughter's application would best represent
all of her strengths while minimizing any weaknesses that
she may have had. So, we "bit the bullet" and agreed
to give it a try.
At first, our contact with Michele was strictly
by phone. Michele graciously answered all of my daughter's
questions, as well as our own. Our daughter had not yet received
any of her college applications, but we peppered Michele with
questions regarding her proposed senior year curriculum as
well as for advice for our daughter's upcoming college interviews.
We decided that it might be beneficial for all if a more personal
"connection" could be accomplished and my daughter
and I flew down to Florida to meet with Michele personally,
as well. This personal connection, while not absolutely necessary,
did help to forge a bond between Michele and our daughter
and, I suspect, made it easier for both to work together over
the subsequent months. If you have the luxury of meeting with
her, I strongly urge you to do so.
Allow me to share with you some of the more
important ways that Michele helped:
- She advised my daughter to drop French 4 in her senior
year. Our daughter is a wonderful student but is "tone
deaf." This fact, coupled with the poor quality of
language teachers in our local school district (which has
a stellar reputation nationally, but not for language instruction),
undermined our daughter's performance in French. Michele
advised her to drop French 4 and to take another AP course
instead. As a result, our daughter benefited from yet another
AP course on her transcript and a stellar report card that
was submitted to her early decision school in November.
Candidly, I doubt that we would have had the courage to
take this course of action without Michele's advice.
- Prior to her first on-campus interview, Michele asked
our daughter to prepare an activities chart. Many of my
daughter's friends had planned on preparing resumes, but
Michele strongly advised against doing so, saying that the
activity chart, if properly prepared, would prove to be
more appreciated by admissions officers who interviewed
our daughter. Michele reviewed and critiqued the chart (faxes
were "flying" between our home and hers) and the
end result not only served to present our daughter's activities
in a very organized and impressive fashion, but also made
the task of completing college applications that much easier
a month later because all of the applications required a
similar chart to be completed. To top it all off, EVERY
admissions officer who interviewed our daughter made a point
of "gushing" over her activities chart during
or after the interview. (Granted, our daughter's activities
and leadership roles were quite extensive, but Michele helped
her organize a presentation that made her look even more
impressive.)
- Michele helped our daughter develop a "theme"
for her application. She reviewed her coursework to date,
her summer academic experiences, etc., and helped our daughter
focus her application on her consistent pattern of conducting
independent research in the field that had always interested
her.
- Michele and our daughter brainstormed for several hours
(especially while on our visit to Florida) about potential
essay topics. This process helped motivate her to write
essays in August, prior to the start of school (something
that I strongly encourage your child to do). After our visit,
our daughter constantly forwarded drafts of essays to Michele
and solicited her opinion and comments. Michele was careful
not to write the essays for our daughter, knowing that the
essays needed to be our daughter's work and appreciating
the fact that the essays needed to be written in our daughter's
"voice." But, her input was very valuable as it
helped our daughter to "tighten" her thoughts
and assured that her essays were complete and supported
the theme that she wanted to present in the application
itself. Moreover, after completing her "early decision"
application, Michele helped my daughter complete essays
for the other schools that she was planning on applying
to if her application for admission was deferred or denied.
Please keep in mind that a counselor can only
counsel in the college application process. As a parent of
a successful Ivy League applicant, you probably know that
at least as well as I do. Ultimately, your child's application
will reflect the hard work and effort that he/she put into
his/her high school education and in-school and out-of-school
activities. His/her recommendations will come from those who
have grown to know him/her over the past several years. His/her
choice of schools to which (s)he will apply should be a function
of finding a good "fit" based upon homework that
your entire family will have performed through college visits,
interviews, surfing the web, review of admissions criteria,
recommendations from present and former students, etc. What
Michele will offer you is a helping hand throughout this process
and the comfort of knowing that you did whatever you could
do to assure that your child had the best chance of gaining
admission that you, as parents, could provide.
In the end, I justified our hiring of Michele
as an extension of choosing a school district or arranging
for extra help if and when one of my children needed it in
a particular course. I admitted to myself that the "playing
field" is never truly "level." Some applicants
benefit from being born into the "right" family,
others from attending the "right" school, etc. In
our daughter's case, she benefited from her parents' willingness
to spend additional funds to obtain professional guidance
in the application process. I can tell you that, while I will
never know if it made "the" difference, my wife
and I do not regret making the decision to hire Michele." |
