Craig Meister helps schools around the world build or restructure college counseling offices to best serve families.
You’ll want to work with Craig if you desire:
A DETAILED ANALYSIS OF YOUR COLLEGE COUNSELING OFFICE’S PERFORMANCE
The strength of a college counseling office not only directly influences students’ chances of college admission; it also plays a pivotal role in any school’s ability to attract and retain students, build its reputation as providing a quality college preparatory curriculum, and foster valuable, positive, and long-lasting relationships with alumni. If a college counseling office is lacking in any area, students, parents, faculty, and the entire school suffers. Craig offers administrators responsible for the quality of a school’s college counseling operations the opportunity to objectively review what is working, what is not, and what actions are necessary for improvement. After a thorough audit of a counseling operation’s inner-workings, Craig provides both a detailed, action-oriented report highlighting operational improvement recommendations and an array of on-site support services geared towards turning around underperforming college counseling offices quickly.
AN EXPERT TO ENHANCE YOUR SCHOOL’S COLLEGE/CAREER COUNSELING EFFORTS
School counselors wear many hats; leave the supplementary college counseling to Craig Meister. Augment your college counseling efforts by recruiting Craig to present at your grade-specific college information nights and parent forums. As a former director of college guidance and standardized testing at a small rural high school, director of college and career counseling at a medium-sized international high school, director of academic advising, student services, and college counseling at a large urban high school, and university admissions officer, Craig draws on his diverse experiences in order to support schools, students, and parents of all shapes, sizes, and demographics in order to help all-comers reach their goals. Craig offers a wide variety of presentations and corresponding print resources zeroing in on specific aspects of students’ journey through high school and into college. Choose Craig to educate your students and parents on diverse topics related to the college admissions process no matter your students’ and parents’ goals, priorities, or familiarity with the world of higher education.
INTERIM MANAGEMENT OF YOUR COLLEGE/CAREER COUNSELING OFFICE
Don’t hire a new director of college counseling for your school until you’ve found the right fit professional for your long-term needs. If your director of college counseling is moving on or has already left your school, call on Craig to strategically and successfully manage the tasks of maintaining superior college counseling services for your school’s students and parents, rebuilding your college counseling office, and/or developing your school’s four-year college counseling curriculum while you continue your search for a new long-term director of college counseling.*
Craig bases the management your school’s college counseling office on two principles:
- The college admissions process is a four-year process
- For students and parents to make the most of their college counseling office, the office should be online, interactive, and available 24/7.
It takes planning and preparation for students to reach their college admissions potential and for students to find the colleges that offer them the right fit. Craig gives your students the tools they need to plan and prepare for their academic future – from the first day of high school up until the moment they accept offers of admission at colleges of their choice.
Highlights of Craig four-year approach to interim college counseling office management include:
- Leadership in the drafting of your school’s annual High School Profile
- Standardized test management (PreACT, PSAT 10, PSAT/NMSQT)
- Recommendations regarding online and hard copy SAT/ACT prep materials worth integrating into your school’s academic curriculum
- Personalized Student-Parent-Counselor college guidance meeting in 10th grade that results in a situational analysis of the student’s progress so far in high school, an initial college list, and a career/major inventory
- Personalized Student-Counselor and Student-Parent-Counselor meetings in 11th grade, one of which results in an updated college list and clarifies an individualized college admissions strategy
- Personalized Student-Parent-Counselor meeting in 12th grade finalizing college list and admissions strategy
- Yearly course, extracurricular, and summer break recommendations to differentiate each student’s college applications
- Management of 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade Student-Parent forums covering grade-appropriate topics related to the college admission process.
- Administration of 11th grade Common Application Webinar
- External management and real-time updating of your school’s Naviance Student, MaiaLearning, or Cialfo site
- Counselor recommendation writing and transcript/teacher recommendation transmission for 12th grade college applicants
- Teacher recommendation training webinars
- Resume- and essay-writing webinars or seminars for 11th and 12th grade students
- Organization and management of your school’s relations with college admissions offices, ensuring more traveling college admissions officers visit your school
- College admissions consultant support five days each week – including evenings for busy parents
DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE COUNSELING LEADERSHIP SEARCH SUPPORT
*Not only is Craig capable of building and managing on an interim basis a comprehensive college counseling office that will give your students the admissions edge, Craig is also perfectly positioned to manage the entire search process for your next director of college counseling. Having led successful college counselor searches for both domestic and international schools, Craig educates and builds a strong partnership with your school’s director of college counseling search committee in order to ensure that you recruit and ultimately hire the best-fit candidate for your school’s present and long-term needs. Craig’s Director of College Counseling Leadership Search process is tailored to each school; however, all searches follow this four-step framework:
- Analyzing Real Needs/Wants: In this phase, the Craig develops a comprehensive understanding of your school, its culture/history, market position, current challenges, strengths, and opportunities, and expectations for the college counseling office generally and the director of college counseling position specifically. Craig then works with you/your search committee to develop the director of college counseling position announcement, application procedures, and search process/ timeline.
- Identifying Top Prospects: Craig will cast the widest net that is appropriate to launch the candidate recruitment effort by using his extensive industry contacts, greater network, and preferred position listing boards (depending on your search parameters.
- Application Review, Screening, and On-Site Interviews: Craig receives and reviews applications, screens promising candidates, and helps the school search committee narrow the candidate pool. Craig consults with and educates search committee members as needed on all aspects of the selection process, including appropriate interview questions, competitive compensation packages and negotiation of contracts, finalist site visit/interview schedules/protocols, reference checking parameters, final decision-making, and all internal and external communication best practices.
- New Hire Announcement & Transition: Once your new director of college counseling has been selected, Craig will manage the rollout/announcement of the appointment to all internal and external constituencies and will advise/consult on the elements necessary to ensure a smooth and successful transition for both the new hire and your school.
Don’t just hire a new director of college counseling for your high school; hire a dynamic college counseling leader with the help of Craig Meister.
