Alex
I’m joined today by Rana Slosberg. In addition to a Bachelor of Science degree in systems engineering from New York University, Rana has an independent educational consultant certificate from University of California, Irvine. She established her organization, Slosberg College Solutions, LLC, in 2010 after being inspired by her own daughter’s college process that resulted in her daughter’s acceptance at MIT. Rana, welcome to the show.
Rana
It’s good to be here, Alex.
Alex
Tell me a little bit about your career history and how you got into college consulting.
Rana
So, as you said, my undergraduate work was in systems engineering, and I worked for the first 34 years of my career in the aerospace industry doing software development, software project management, and then business process improvement. The company was having some hard times and they were going to have a significant layoff, and they looked for volunteers, and I volunteered back in 2009.
It was time for me to think about, well, what was next? Was I going to continue doing the same thing or was I going to look towards a new career? And my daughter Michelle, half-jokingly said to me, well, you liked helping me when I was looking for colleges. And I said, yeah, what do I know? But she put an idea in my head, and education has always been important. Growing up, my dad always said I could be whatever I wanted and education would be the key to that. So I went back to school to the University of California, Irvine, where I did a certificate program in independent college consulting and opened the business in 2010.
Alex
What makes Lasburg College solutions unique?hands-on
Rana
Well, most students, when they’re in high school, they have a guidance counselor who is there to help them with college selection. But their guidance counselor tends to have maybe 400 students to work with. And I generally have a very small group of students, maybe five to ten seniors and five to ten juniors in any particular year. I am very hands on, I’m very methodical. I pay a lot of attention to detail, and I really enjoy working with the students and getting to know them. And I think that that’s really key to finding a good match, to really understand the student and what motivates them.
Alex
What is your favorite part about the college process?
Rana
Really what I like most is doing the college selection piece. It’s different for every student depending on what their needs and wants are so I spend a lot of time with them doing surveys and questionnaires and talking with them to get to know their likes, their wants, their needs, and very importantly, try to get them and their parents to talk about the financial aid piece. It’s one of those taboo subjects that parents and students don’t talk about enough in terms of how much money is available for their college education, because the parents are nearing retirement. If they take all their retirement savings and put it into a college class, then how can they retire? They need to stop working at some point, and a lot of times they haven’t been upfront with their student about what they have available or what they’re willing to spend. They might have the money, but that’s an important piece too. And that changes the way the list will come out, depending on what they say.
Alex
It’s better to get that out in the open at the beginning of the process versus the end. Right? Because that can generally steer where you’re putting your efforts.
Rana
Right. If money is important, then that becomes one of the important criteria for selection. And since the money is mostly coming through the government or from colleges that are well endowed, then it’s important to select correctly versus try to find scholarships after you’ve applied to college and been accepted.
Alex
What’s your least favorite part of the college process? Perhaps a bit more revealing.
Rana
Sometimes the essays can be fun, but there are often many, many essays. Students often have difficulty doing the reflection that is necessary to do a good job at the essays. And it takes a while for them to kind of really understand that and to stop fighting the need to do the research and the reflection. So sometimes that’s a little more difficult.
Alex
Do you see a lot of the same sort of rehash essays?
Rana
I try to steer them away from those, or at least to have them tell them in a different way or show how they’re different. I think the essay that they tend to have the most trouble with, and they really should have the least trouble with, is why I want to go to College X. Since the list is very focused on what they were looking for. And I try to get them to do a lot of detailed research on the colleges that they select. So that’s an opportunity, I think, to hit it out of the park to show why they are a good match for the college and the college is a good match for them.
Alex
Do they struggle with knowing where they want to go to college at all?
Rana
Not usually. And the reason I say that is, usually when I meet them for the first time in a free get acquainted meeting, I usually start with that. I usually ask them if they want to go to college, and most of them, nobody has ever asked them that. That’s maybe a harder question. I think a lot of them haven’t thought about it. They’re going to college because, well, that’s what you do after you finish high school, you go to college. I try to get them to start thinking about that early. If they tell me they don’t want to go to college, I’m not going to take them on as a student. I mean, if mom and dad want them to go, but they don’t want to go, it’s really not going to be successful. I mean, they can get into college, but they’re not probably going to end up staying unless something happens. So maybe six months later, they’ll be interested in going into college. Maybe it’s just that they’ve come too soon.
