FAQ for Parents

Why College Experience Designers?

Many undergraduates attend colleges and universities with little sense of how their strengths correlate with majors or if pursuing a particular study, how that field might yield a purposeful career or post graduate study.  Students are uncertain how to approach faculty, take advantage of career centers, or use study abroad or global summer experiences to further their own development. As a consequence, many “plateau” during their college years or worse, fail courses or fail to take advantage of significant opportunities.

Will we be a part of your planning?

Regardless of the adulthood status of your young college student, you are still paying tuition and trying to guide your student in the best way you can.  We are parents, too, and we know that our own students needed to seek out mentors in the larger world, sometimes being amazed that our parental advice even matched what they learned from others!  Parents will be involved in approving the prioritizing of goals, but we will not expect them to have supervisory responsibilities.  We strongly encourage your reactions and input in our planning.

What kind of student is best for your program?

Active, adventurous, goal-oriented and curious describes the kind of student we can help.  We are not designed to supervise classroom work, although we may certainly chime in on projects that the student needs to do independently.  Carefully chosen topics for individual projects  can be relevant to graduate school admission.  Unfortunately, the student who needs a wakeup call is not going to appreciate our cheerleading efforts.

What is your fee structure?

Our initial intake and assessment process is the same fee for all students, and involves a meeting that includes parents, and lays out the direction for our first phase.  Every student is different and some will need us longer than others.  We can work with a college freshman throughout the four years, or pick up a student midstream.  Therefore, our fee structure will be tailored to the needs of each student.

How can we justify the expense?

We can’t guarantee a four-year graduation rate, given the fact that five years is now a more common length of time, but that is our goal.  With the cost of college added to the cost of using an extra year in order to finish college, we could turn out to be quite a bargain.