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California College Consulting Boutique Services

   free consultation  

2024 cohort 5seats remaining

Programs

Our two programs guide your student to reach full personal potential and maximize chances in the admissions process.

  Freshman ··· Junior

High School Program

Our recommendations direct your student to align academics, extracurriculars, and impact.

In our assessment of your student we:

  • Diagnose academic performance and college readiness for majors and colleges
  • Evaluate in-class and out-of-class (extracurricular) performance
  • Suggest majors that reflect your student’s profile, talents, skill set, and interests
  • Provide a preliminary college list
  • Suggest a timeline for college exams SAT/ACT, AP, IB, and others (AMC, AIME)
  • Offer guidance on building a college-ready dossier with recommendations for:
    • Completing requirements for the desired college and major
    • Formalizing extracurricular and summer achievements


  Junior
  Winter Junior ··· Senior

College Application Program

Our program helps your student to stand out and avoids overwhelm for your family.

Our team holds your student accountable to a structured, efficient plan of action to carefully and calmly complete their best applications.

Each student works with a dedicated College Counselor, a Writing Advisor, and our Administrative Assistant. Our program provides advising on how to:

  • Choose, visit, and develop relationships with colleges
  • Properly prepare all components of the application: letters of recommendation, activity list, resumés, videos, etc.
  • Select strategic deadlines: Early Action, Early Decision I & II, Regular Decision
  • Develop 25-40 personal essays that uniquely improve chances of admission
  • Present a dossier of supplementary materials to showcase skills and talents
  • Maximize eligibility for merit aid scholarships
  • Prepare for college representative visits and interviews
  • Respond to post-application requests and engagements


Fahey Associates offers two probono seats every year. Please reach out to us at probono@fahey.associates if you or someone you know might qualify.

    

25+ REVIEWS



The Team

Over the last 15 years, our Founder, Felicia Fahey, has built her bespoke method by blending her own experience with the expertise of her network: colleagues and advisors from Stanford, the University of California, and UPenn-Jerome Fisher admissions teams, MIT alumni, Apple User Experience veterans, and creatives from the Storytelling Project and the University of Michigan. Felicia has drawn together and trained a team of progressive educators, who carry out the core values of Fahey Associates. Our team lifts all our students to their potential: students of all levels and disciplines, athletes, artists, and students who are underserved or have faced medical and learning challenges. In our effort to make college more accessible, we donate our time to providing pro-bono support to underserved students and to educating the public sector including libraries, high school counseling departments, and learning enrichment programs.

Felicia Fahey - College Counselor

As a member of The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), Fahey Associates abide by its Code of Ethics and Professional Practices (ECPP).


Our Counselors

Kate Givens has extensive experience working with teenagers in academic and extracurricular settings to discover their unique interests and achieve their goals. Kate has a B.A. in English from The George Washington University and a Masters in English Education from The University of Virginia and spent over a decade working with high school students teaching professional skills such as correspondence, resume development, and public speaking. She has worked with hundreds of students to develop college plans and work on their application materials.

Shanley Jacobs is a dedicated educator and writer. She is inspired by students and devoted to their growth and success. She joined Fahey Associates after six years as the Administrative Manager for the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking at Stanford University. Before joining the Hume Center, she served as a Program Assistant at the University of San Francisco in the department of Art + Architecture, as well as the department of Modern and Classical Languages. She supported a range of students as a writing center mentor and tutor for three years at Virginia Commonwealth University.


Our Creativity: Writing Advisors

In our many years of advising, Fahey Associates has observed that the majority of students are lacking the skills to elaborate a compelling narrative about their own person. With an average of 30 personal statements to write, students entering the application process must quickly learn how to tell a compelling story about themselves. To handle this challenge we've enrolled talented, creative writers to guide the delicate process of combining story-telling and self-reflective essay writing.

Kenneth earned a B.S. in Commerce (Finance & Marketing) from the University of Virginia, as well as an M.B.A. from the University of California Los Angeles where he worked with both admissions committees as either a student representative or alumni reader. He spent almost a decade working in the entertainment industry around film and TV Development for Walt Disney Company and a number of Oscar-winning producers. Kenneth now integrates the same storytelling and writing principles into his college counseling, writing instruction, and high school teaching over the past three years.

Maddie Orenstein (she/they) graduated with a B.S. in Social Policy from Northwestern University and an M.A. from Stanford University in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership Studies. Maddie is a passionate advocate for youth voice. She has over 12 years college counseling experience in several types of high schools and in summer leadership programs. She was also an Honors Thesis English Instructor for seniors for three years. Additionally, she supported high school student leaders and wrote research on the importance of youth leadership as a Fulbright Scholar living in Santiago, Chile. She brings her vast experience and love for the beauty of writing as a tool to help students to share what’s important to them.

Megan Levad is the author of Why We Live in the Dark Ages and What Have I to Say to You. A MacDowell Fellow, her poems have appeared in Tin House, San Francisco Chronicle, Poem-a-Day, Granta, Fence, and the Everyman’s Library anthology Killer Verse. Megan also writes lyrics and libretti; When There Are Nine, a song cycle about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg composed by Kristin Kuster, recently debuted at the Cabrillo Festival in Summer 2019, where Megan was the Writer-in-Residence.

Michele earned one MFA in Creative Writing (fiction) at Virginia Commonwealth University and another MFA in Creative Writing (poetry) at Arizona State University. Her BFA is from New York University where she studied film and television. She’s the author of Prismatics: Larry Levis & Contemporary American Poetry (Diode Editions, 2020) and Black Laurel (Iris Press, 2016). Her award-winning chapbook, A Disturbance in the Air, was published by Slapering Hol Press. Her poetry and fiction have been published in Best New Poets, The Southern Review, Copper Nickel, Smartish Pace, Crab Orchard Review, and many other journals. She has won fellowships from the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and the David Baldacci Foundation.

Susanna earned her BA in English and Anthropology from Columbia University. Her MFA in creative writing comes from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the author of two widely published, award-winning novels, Stiltsville and Sea Creatures with HarperCollins. She has placed numerous essays and stories in literary magazines such as Slate and Newsweek. She is the co-owner of the Madison Writers' Workshop where she coaches writers toward greater meaning, sense, and clarity.

Vivienne has been a professional writer and actress for twenty years. She has worked in television, film and the theatre, touring through Asia, Europe and the U.S. A graduate of the highly regarded acting school, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, she now lives in Los Angeles. Her latest play, This is Where We Live, won The Griffin Theatre Award and had a full season at the Griffin Theatre, Hothouse Theatre, South Australian Theatre Company and has since been performed in Toronto, New York and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As a television writer, she has worked with Hulu, Stan (Australia) and Disney+. She is represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

3 Pillars

Strategy

Undefined goals can lead to stagnation. We help your student to define a meaningful path and its required milestones.

Structure

The absence of structure can feel overwhelming. Our program ensures students to meet both high-school and college application deadlines.

Support

Doubt and unanswered questions can be unsettling. We check in regularly with students and monitor their progress and development.

Our Bulletin

Stay ahead in the college admission journey and follow our Bulletin for valuable insights and guidance.

   Tuition Increase

Over the past decade, tuition has increased by between 40 and 50 percent, for an average annual increase of 3.2%. In the 2022-2023 academic year, most colleges and universities increased their tuition by between 3 and 5%. Some of the highest percentage increases among schools were at the University of… read more 

   Relationship Between AP Exams and Double Majors

In a study of data collected from high schools across the United States, College Board has indicated that students with several passing AP exam scores tend to double major in college. According to the report, 4,330 students out of 52,551 (8%) with one AP exam score of greater than… read more 

   Best ROI: Comparing Tuition and Salary

As college tuition rises, many are asking: is it worth it? In our research of the question, we selected a number of universities across the United States and compared the cost of tuition with early-career (0-5 years) and mid-career (10+ years) salaries earned by graduates… read more 


Note Addressed to Foreign Families


Families new to the US may find the academic system daunting. As a globally fluent team, we work with students from all parts of the world, whether they are living in the United States or abroad. This year Fahey Associates is working with students from China, India, Ecuador, England, Spain, and Germany.

也许新移民家庭会发现美国的教育体系令人生畏。无论您身在美国国内还是国外,作为一支国际团队,我们都将协助您和来自世界各地的学生们深造。今年,Fahey Associates 斐弈协会就正一直在辅导来自中国、英国、西班牙、德国、印度和厄瓜多尔的学生们。

Las nuevas familias inmigrantes pueden encontrar el sistema académico de los Estados Unidos de una manera abrumadora. Como equipo con fluidez global, trabajamos con estudiantes de todas partes del mundo, ya sea que vivan en los Estados Unidos o en el extranjero. Este año, Fahey Associates está trabajando con estudiantes de China, India, Ecuador, Inglaterra, España y Alemania.

Neue Einwandererfamilien könnten das US-amerikanische akademische System als entmutigend empfinden. Als global fließendes Team arbeiten wir mit Studenten aus allen Teilen der Welt zusammen, unabhängig davon, ob sie in den USA oder im Ausland leben. In diesem Jahr arbeitet Fahey Associates mit Studenten aus China, Indien, Ecuador, England, Spanien und Deutschland zusammen.

Les familles Françaises fraichement installées aux US peuvent trouver le monde universitaire américain exotique. Nous sommes une équipe aguerrie à l'accompagnement de ces changements de repères.
Nous travaillons avec des familles et des étudiants qui habitent près ou loin de chez eux. Cette année, Fahey Associates travaille avec des étudiants de Chine, d'Inde, d'Équateur, d'Angleterre et d'Allemagne. Inversement nous préparons nos étudiants américains à postuler pour les écoles françaises (ex: Sciences Po).

नए आप्रवासी परिवारों को अमेरिकी शैक्षणिक व्यवस्था कठिन लग सकती है। विश्व स्तर पर धाराप्रवाह टीम के रूप में, हम दुनिया के सभी हिस्सों के छात्रों के साथ काम करते हैं, चाहे वे संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका में रह रहे हों या विदेश में। इस साल फही एसोसिएट्स चीन, भारत, इक्वाडोर, इंग्लैंड, स्पेन और जर्मनी के छात्रों के साथ काम कर रहा है।



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