SERVICES
Find your path
HR Lehn Consulting offers a full range of services to help students find their unique post-secondary path. We offer consulting directly to students and their families as well as services for schools and groups.
STUDENTS And FAMILIES
Where to start?
Post-secondary plans raise many questions for students and parents
Is a four year degree the choice for me?
Is studying abroad a good option for me?
Can we afford college? What choice is the best investment of our time and money?
Do I even know all the options for my future career or development?
Am I missing important preparation steps?
Essays? Entrance Tests? Profiles? Help!
( See even more FAQ )Our services are here to help you answer all of these questions and let you focus on the excitement of taking the next steps in your life with a little less stress and a lot more confidence.
Whether you are an athlete looking for an opportunity, a budding scholar seeking to develop, have your sites set on the ivy league, or are not even sure what your direction should be, let us guide you.
As parents of a student-athlete we had great angst about our daughter receiving a good education while playing for a Div 1 NCAA team. After various school visits, Ms. Lehn helped our daughter pinpoint the best match for her, guided her through the application process and answered all of our questions along the way. Mrs. Lehn’s knowledge of the schools and their programs was invaluable as we navigated this anxious time. Our daughter ended up in the perfect place for her
– Debbie, mother of Tessa, Syracuse University (NY)
Setting up a plan
We tailor plans to the unique context of every family and student
HR Lehn Educational Consulting offers a range of services that address all of the common challenges in post-secondary planning and takes a comprehensive approach.
Hilary will get an understanding of your family through an initial assessment, and recommend the specific plan that will meet your needs.
A typical plan involves a combination of the following services
Building Blocks
Guidance in building self awareness, and setting academic and personal goals for both exploration and growth.
Academic Advising
Hilary will review your and discuss your progress with you, and help you to understand how to choose the right courses and what kinds of achievement levels you need, in order to be a competitive applicant for the kinds of post-secondary institutions you are seeking.
Resume or Athletic Profile Building
Hilary will guide you through how to present your skills and achievements in a way that gets your unique qualities across. This step and the necessary reflection that goes along with it, will help you to make much stronger applications to colleges when you are asked to share your achievements and what you have learned from them.
Career Advising
Help clarifying the pathways to various careers – Hilary incorporates use of assessment tools, her experience studying career development in her Master’s degree and her experience creating a career development course at a small college, to help students reflect and evaluate the options that may suit them best.
Test Prep Advising
Hilary has partnerships with excellent test prep firms. She will help you identify the likelihood of the types of testing you may be required to submit, based on your big picture goals and direction. These could include the SAT or ACT for US colleges, or tests such as the UCAT, LNAT and others for various UK university programs. Then she’ll explain the timeline for taking such tests, how to register and help you get access to the type of test preparation that suits you, with some “freebies” thrown in.
List Building
Help with identifying your important criteria and understanding your applicant profile, for selecting the right post-secondary institutions
Application Essays
Having worked at two post-secondary institutions, Hilary has unique insight into the types of essays that can resonate well with admissions officers, and the kinds of writing that can make or break an application to a highly selective college. She will work with you not only in refining your essays draft by draft, but will coach you through essay-writing basics, and then in assessing the personal qualities, experiences and ideas that would be best for you, personally, to incorporate into your essays.
Interview Preparation
As a former interviewer and admissions officer, Hilary can make students aware of both what kinds of qualities an interviewer might be assessing, and the questions they will ask and how to approach them. In one-on-one practice sessions, Hilary will provide guidance and feedback to the student and prepare them to use interviews as opportunities.
Funding Your Education
Increasingly, for many families, cost is a significant factor. Hilary incorporates her experience working with financial aid in a university setting, and managing a school’s financial aid budget, as well as data and knowledge of many colleges’ merit scholarship programs, to help families access affordable options. This is assessed at the beginning of the relationship with families, which enables the selection of colleges and universities that are more likely to be a financial fit.
Athletics Advising and Recruitment
The focal point of this service is to engage the athlete and family in a series of communications with college coaches to increase their chances of being recruited. Hilary takes a thoughtful and careful approach in helping each student-athlete to target the right college programs, develop clear messaging, and initiate and follow through with contact from introductions through to the signing of an NLI or contract.
TIMELINE
When should I start?
It is never too early or too late to start your post-secondary prep
Grade 8 or 9
Get started now if you are looking for guidance on planning your activities, summer experiences and courses, in order to strengthen your preparation for highly selective admissions.
Grade 10
This is a great time to start if you want to get into greater depth in exploring your aptitudes, values, interests and career direction or academic direction, and get a head start preparing for entrance tests that may be required for your colleges of choice in the US, UK or beyond.
Grade 11
This is the ideal time to start the comprehensive process of self-reflection and college exploration, building the university list and completing the steps involved in putting together competitive applications.
SCHOOLS AND GROUPS
School and Group Services
HR Lehn Educational Counselling also offers a variety of consultation and advising services for schools and groups
School Advising
We offer services to schools seeking help in building or enhancing their post-secondary advising and counselling programs, such as developing a school profile, putting a data-collecting system into place for data-informed advising, or developing a workshop series.
Workshops and Presentations
If you have a community group, school parents committee or PAC, sports team or any student group that would like a Presentation or Workshop, Hilary can address the following topics and more.
Presentations are offered pro bono to public schools.
Topics
The list of possible topics is endless and we can customize to your group’s interests.
Some popular options from past workshops:
Funding Your Education
Canadian university admissions, application process and timeline (ideal for Grade 11 students)
U.S. University planning, including: essay-writing strategies, key application elements and tips for highly selective admissions, timeline, and identifying a university match
Scholarship research and application, with key essay-writing basics (ideal for Grade 11 students)
Recruiting process for athletes, U.S. and Canada (ideal for Grade 10 students)
Essay-writing group workshop
Resume/athlete profile group workshop
U.S. Common Application workshop
Hilary played a key role and was very influential in developing two important programs at Southridge –admissions and university counselling. In her role as Director of Admissions, Hilary ensured that admissions at Southridge was well organized and executed in an effective manner with consistency, fairness and integrity given top priority. As Director of Admissions, Hilary also advised a number of students in the university application process. Here, too, her background and knowledge of the university application system (both Canadian and American) helped to shape our school in this important area. Eventually, Hilary made a change in her portfolio of responsibilities and took-on the new role of Director of University Counselling. Under Hilary’s thoughtful guidance, the university counselling program became more comprehensive and highly successful in only a few short years. I believe it is a testament to Hilary and her many contributions to Southridge that the foundation she created in both admissions and university counselling is still very much a part of what we do today.
– Drew Stephens, Head of School – Southridge School
Find out how we can help with your school or group!
Start you journey
Schedule a free 30 minute introduction to see if we are right for you
Schedule an Appointment with Hilary