Stepping Stones
College Educational Advisors
Every Step Leads to Accepted™
Step One · Where your student stands
Tell us the situation. We will show you the path.
Grade level sets the pathway. School count, goals, and readiness sharpen it. Nothing here is a commitment — it is the groundwork for your Strategy Call.
Family · required
Academic picture if known
Extracurriculars select any
What is weighing on you select any
Where you want help select any
Athletics if it applies
Readiness · required
Commitment level · one to ten
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In your own words if you want to
Your path appears here.
Grade level is all it takes to begin.
Personalized Strategy Brief
Your Family's College Path
Prepared for — · Student —
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Every Step Leads to Accepted™
Section One · Where you are today
The snapshot we are working from
This is what you told us. Your advisor will walk through each line on the call — naming the strengths, finding the leverage, and pressure-testing the assumptions.
Section Two · What we noticed
The pattern under the words
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Your words · what success looks like
—Your words · the cost of getting it wrong
—Section Three · Your Student Success Package
The plan we would build with you
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Recommended pathway·
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What this delivers
Section Four · What we would layer on
Targeted support, added only where it sharpens the outcome
Section Five · The next twelve months
Your roadmap, in calendar form
This is the working timeline we would run together. Real dates land on your secure CounselMore portal during onboarding.
Section Six · Why this matters now
The landscape your student is applying into
Independent context from the wider admissions market, so you can weigh this against something other than our word.
~4%
Class of 2030 acceptance rates at Columbia and Yale — 4.23% and 4.24%, historic lows.
Oriel Admissions · Ivy Coach, 2026 cycle
2–4×
Early Decision admission rates run two to four times higher than Regular Decision at most Ivy League schools.
Shemmassian Academic Consulting
$20–50K
Annual merit aid that strong counseling regularly helps families capture, per year of college.
IECA · Top Tier Admissions
15–25%
Reported lift in acceptance rates at competitive institutions for students working with leading consultants.
Industry analyses · Private Prep, 2025
$224
The 2024 national average hourly rate for independent college counseling — the market rate for expert guidance.
IECA 2024 Pricing Survey
$3.4B
The 2025 size of the United States education consulting industry, growing as acceptance rates fall and tuition climbs.
IBISWorld, 2025
Section Seven · Investment
What partnering with us looks like
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Recommended for your family
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Included in every Student Success Package
Profile Portfolio and personalized SMART Goals, delivered before the first meeting · 45-minute weekly student meetings · 15-minute weekly parent check-in · secure CounselMore portal for documents, communication, and milestone tracking · Common App, UC, and Coalition guidance · 48-hour response window on email, text, and phone.
Section Eight · The next step
Three steps from here
01Schedule
02Strategy
03Success
You are not behind. You simply have not been guided yet.
Your Strategy Call is where this plan moves from paper into your family's calendar.
Book Your Free 45-Minute Strategy Call→Roman Bernard Fernando
Founder and CEO · Stepping Stones College Educational Advisors
rfernando@steppingstonesadvisors.com · (714) 400-2497 · steppingstonesadvisors.com
Every Step Leads to Accepted™