College Application Process FAQs

This can be a stressful time for students and their families, as they are constantly bombarded with talk about college and financial aid. At Delehoy College Counseling, we strive to alleviate this stress by providing solid guidance in a variety of areas. We believe that the most important aspect of the college selection and application process is finding the right fit.

Finding the right fit means selecting a college or university that meets, equally, a student’s academic, social and financial needs.

Our programs follow a student-centered process in which we help students to take ownership of the decisions they make about college… and later in life.

The majority of our students begin college counseling during sophomore or junior years. This allows students plenty of time to discover what they are seeking in a college experience and the opportunity to explore a variety of options before determining a final college list. Seniors are also welcome, on a space available basis. We are happy to meet with freshmen to discuss general planning for college including curriculum choices, extra-curricular activities, and community service.

Independent College Counselors are not a replacement for your high school counselor, rather a personalized enhancement of the college planning assistance that you will receive. With budget cuts and increased pressure on high school guidance counselors, students and families may feel the need for a more personalized approach to their college search and application process. Our counselors have the luxury of working with a limited number of students each year, ensuring that we know each student well, providing individualized, customized college advice. Our counselors are also not bound by a school schedule, which allows them to regularly visit colleges and universities, attend local and regional programs sponsored by colleges, and participate in professional development activities.

We cannot guarantee admission to any college or university. We do, however, understand how to evaluate a student’s strengths in matching students with colleges that meet their academic, social, and financial needs. We provide sound advice and guidance, as well as a solid college selection list that is targeted to individual needs and which provides a wide array of options in the college selection process. We also know how to help your student present their best self in the application process. As a result, each year fully 100 percent of our students have either matriculated to a college or university or selected a gap year option in preparation for college.

While we cannot guarantee that scholarships (merit-based financial aid) will be awarded, it should be understood that the majority of scholarship money a student is awarded will come from the school in which the student enrolls. Therefore, the development of a thoughtful, appropriate college list is critically important. Our counselors understand the qualifications needed to gain scholarship offers at a variety of institutions. Last year alone, our students were offered nearly fourteen million dollars in non-need-based scholarships.

Websites and college guidebooks can only provide a limited amount of information about colleges and universities, with most of the information being general and/or statistical. Our counselors are able to personalize the process by helping students understand the most important elements in the college selection process. In this way, students are able to select the schools that best match their individual needs. We can provide specific information and insights about the social culture and atmosphere at specific colleges, which allows our students to more accurately select the colleges that best fit their individual academic, social, and financial needs.

No. We believe that all students who demonstrate the desire and motivation to attend college have the ability to succeed in the college search process. A wide range of college options are available to serve the needs of a wide range of students, and our focus is on helping students identify programs that best match their needs and goals. Our greatest joy comes from helping students realize their goals of finding the right educational options.

We have worked with students from Corvallis, Oregon, to Longview, Washington, and everywhere in between. While the majority of our students come from the Portland metro area, we have also worked with students in other states via telephone or Skype. At this time we do not work with students from outside of the United States, but we are happy to provide recommendations.