About Hernandez College Consulting:
Brief Biography
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Endorsements from Michele’s past clients include:
Working with Michele transforms the college application
experience. Her knowledge of and insight into the process
is unmatched. Michele saved my relationship with my daughter.
By working directly with her (and keeping me informed) Michele
allowed me to take a step back from the process. She explained,
cajoled and prodded my daughter through course selection
and summer break activity decisions. She identified holes
in my daughter's extracurricular activities and proposed
enhancements. She provided insightful comments on draft essays.
Michele further provided clear timelines for all stages of
the college application process. She explained what admissions
officers are looking for and then helped my daughter craft
her application to present her academic and extracurricular
experiences in the most favorable light. She helped me and
my daughter think through the wide array of college choices.
I have no doubt that without Michele's guidance the college
application process would have proven less successful for
my daughter.
-- (father of Stanford admit, and several
Ivy League colleges as well)
Thank you so much, not only for the sweatshirt, but also
for the time you spent cajoling me into doing my essays on
whatever part of the application I had yet to do, patiently
guiding me through the frustration of the whole process.
I am indescribably relieved/pleased/overjoyed to matriculate
in the 2011 class of Dartmouth College!
-- Dartmouth class of 2011
At first, I doubted the whole college consulting business,
as I was turned off by the consultant "teams" of
other college consultants. However, Michele Hernandez
assured me that she would do everything herself, rather than
simply oversee hired employees. And what's not to like
about this one person "team"—English major
and former Dartmouth admissions officer, not to mention her
traits of promptness and honesty...all the tools necessary
for the ultimate counselor. Plus, she does more than
just follow the guidelines of her book, A is for admission (which
by itself is already an oasis of information and strategies);
she oversees every case specifically. Without her help,
I probably would not have been accepted early to Stanford. If
only there were no side effect of giving myself away as someone
who received help, I would personally recommend that all
of my underclassmen friends who aspire for a top university
hire her, because Michele is the (wo)man!
-- Stanford class
of 2011
I am so glad that I made the right decision to sign up with
Dr. Michele Hernandez for my son two years ago. He felt very
comfortable with her from the start. With her experience
and efficiency, my son got into his top choice college early
decision! The entire college application process seemed so
easy with Michele – she took all the stress out of
it. The best part for me was that I was worry-free during
the whole process and didn't have to say a word to my son
about keeping up with the work. I can't recommend her enough!
-- Mom of Yale class of 2011
Michele Hernandez is at the top of her game. Committed and
completely professional, Michele offers the distinctive advantage
of having been both an educator and a college admission's
officer. We first consulted Dr. Hernandez in our son's sophomore
year of high school. She provided us with a very thorough
assessment of our son, his school, and a plan for optimizing
his chances for applying to highly competitive colleges.
Every time that I would go back and re-read that initial
report, it never ceased to amaze me how accurate her summation was.
Michele gave our son invaluable insider information
on how to optimize his activity list. These subtleties would
have completely escaped us. Moreover, she was our son's coach
through the years. She gave him terrific advice and kept
him on task. Course load and selection, tests, timing
and preparation, essays, etc. Michele was on top of everything.
To cut to the chase, our son is going to Dartmouth College
next year after being admitted early decision. He tells us
that Dr. Hernandez's guidance far exceeded that offered
at his school and that she absolutely knows what she is doing.
We highly recommend Dr. Hernandez to any family about to
enter the college application process you will never regret
your decision to do so.
-- Parents of Dartmouth class of 2011
Even though Time magazine calls Dr. Hernandez the "Super
Consultant," she can't just wave her magic wand and
get you into Harvard. Why should you even consider hiring
Dr. Hernandez then? Being a high school student is like being
Christopher Columbus. You're aiming for the safe route to
the East Indies; now you might end up discovering America
(which I guess is a better achievement) or you might end
up in a small island somewhere in the Atlantic. Dr. Hernandez
is your map (with accurate measurements - longitude, latitude,
the works) and your shipwright (the best one there is!) She
will accurately measure your capabilities and construct a
nice ship for you. She will guide you through storms and
take you to your destination. The last thing you want to
do when applying at colleges is to just blindly jump in -
Dr. Hernandez will make sure that you make informed choices.
Economists explain the existence of insurance by talking
about satisfaction -- potential dissatisfaction from having
to buy a new house because your old one got burnt down is
much, much more than dissatisfaction from having to pay relatively
small insurance bill every month, hence rational people would
insure their houses. I imagine not getting into the college
of your dreams would annoy you a whole lot more than having
to pay for a college consultant. Take the safe route. And
while you are at it, drive a Volvo.
-- University of Chicago
class of 2011
In a nutshell, Michele made possible a dream that my daughter
has had since she was in elementary school – attending
Dartmouth. My daughter was a strong candidate in terms
of standardized tests and activities. But without Michele's
invaluable experience and upbeat counseling, my daughter
would have been lost in a fog of procrastination and doubt
that would have enveloped the whole application process. In
wonderfully animated and positive exchanges via phone and
email, Michele gave my daughter on-target advice that helped
not only in effectively highlighting strengths in her college
application, but also in getting the most of her high school
experience. During the past two years I always felt
comforted knowing that, by having Michele's expert assistance,
I was doing my best as a parent to help my daughter achieve
her long-held dream. But I also found that Michele calmly
absorbed so much of the stress and anxiety during the process
of building the application, which allowed me more time to
enjoy those precious high school activities and discussions
that come only once. Where you proved an invaluable assist
to us was your ability to build something of a big sister
relationship with our daughter. Although you still have not
gotten to meet face to face, your phone calls established
a relationship that got confidence and compliance. Without
your ability to keep insisting on getting together the early
decision application, I do not think we would have made the
deadline. You also assumed the role of "editor-in-chief" as
the person whose stamp of approval was needed for all submissions.
Our typical teenager firmly knew that parents did not have
the experience to perform these duties, but relied on you
as a peer with expertise.
While the head counselor at our daughter's large public high school
is trying to figure out why other stronger students weren't chosen by their
dream colleges, our whole family is appreciating a collective sigh of relief. I
know that Michele made the dream a reality for our daughter, and relief a reality
for all of us!
-- Parents of Dartmouth 2011
This procedure was daunting! We were at a loss as to where
to begin and what to do next. Then finding Michele
lent a sense of order and priority to the process of creating
and filing the college applications. She zeroed
in on topics for the all-important essays and then patiently
guided our daughter through writing them. No matter
the time of day or night, within minutes of sending her a
form or an essay, she would send a detailed and thoughtful
response, with powerful suggestions based on her experience
from every angle of the admission process. She was
invaluable in helping our child find the right fit, and in
identifying an effective approach to conveying that to her
first choice school. She received a positive response
in the early action stage, and we are very grateful for all
she did to help us. Thank you Dr. Hernandez!
-- Parents
of Stanford 2011
Finding Michele literally saved our sanity through the college
application process. More importantly, although my son was
at first adamantly opposed to using a college consultant
and attending the boot camp - after a few conversations with
Michele he completely changed his mind and realized that
Michele could help him maximize all of his achievements on
paper and exhibit his personality as well. He never would
have known how to best portray his academic, athletic and
extracurricular achievements. As a student who was not a "natural" writer,
Michelle's support and coaching during the essay process
kept his confidence up and helped produce a better product
that was still "him"!! Although the boot camp was
grueling at time- it made the fall of senior year because
while everyone else was struggling with applications- we
were well into the process. Mostly, her accessibility and
quick response time made us feel like we were never doing
it alone. It took a HUGE burden off of me as a parent as
well. Even before we received the admission decision- I believed
that hiring Michele was one of the smartest parental decisions
I had ever made!! I was hesitant about my son's decision
to apply early decision to an ivy league school, and was
worried that he could be "wasting" his early decision
choice, but I listened to Michele and am the proud parent
of an ivy league early decision admit!!!
-- Mom of University of Pennsylvania Class of 2011
I thought my mom was nuts when she suggested Michele and
the boot camp, but after I talked to and then met Michele
I realized how lucky I was. She guided me and told me what
to do and more importantly, what not to do. When I got stuck
writing parts of my essay she got me over it and made me
way more creative than I thought I could be. The activity
sheet was amazing- she taught me how to showcase my activities.
Although I was highly qualified academically, I know that
there are many many kids like me. I KNOW that Michele made
the difference and is why I got into my top choice ivy league
school- early decision
-- University of Pennsylvania Class of 2011
Click here for testimonials
for Class of 2010
If you're ready to learn more about giving your child a better chance at an Ivy League education, call now at 1 877-659-4204 or use our contact form. |
