College Admissions Consulting
Create Your Own College Opportunities
Decoding Admissions
At Decoding Admissions, we leverage an insider’s understanding of how colleges make admissions decisions combined with an analysis of colleges’ admissions data to help you make informed strategic decisions throughout your search and application process.
Why Choose Us?
Our goal is to help you achieve your goals. Whether your goal is to find the best campus environment, gain admission to the most prestigious school possible, or get a great education with minimal student debt, we can help you create and execute a personalized application gameplan. Schedule a free strategy session with Brook to figure out which plan makes most sense based on your goals.
Schedule A Free 15-Minute Strategy Session
Our Process & Method
Understanding the Admissions Game
Financial aid leveraging, tuition discounting, yield forecasting, demonstrated interest, enrollment management: what do these terms have in common and why are they so important to the Decoding Admissions Method of beating the college admissions game? Our process begins by walking you through, step-by-step, an exploration of the enormous pressures facing admission deans today and how the college admissions landscape has evolved into the era of enrollment management.
Taking Inventory of Your Assets & Interests
After students fully understand the implications of current trends in admissions, we conduct an inventory of their strengths and weaknesses as they will be seen in the eyes of college admissions officers. We focus on accentuating your strengths and improving or working around your weaknesses.
Identify and Prioritize Your Preferences
Knowing what you are hoping to get out of your college experience is the first step in building your college list and application strategy. We will help you identify and prioritize your goals and then navigate the process in a way that helps you achieve those goals.
Creating Your Personalized Application Strategy Flowchart
The secret to Decoding Admissions’ success is our understanding of the economic principles of game theory and decision analysis, and our ability to apply these principles to college application strategy. A typical conversation with a student might involve walking them through why they may have a 10% chance of early acceptance at Yale versus a 45% chance of early acceptance at Cornell; the ultimate decision of where to apply is up to our students and their families.
Crafting Your Application and Essays
There’s an age-old saying in the admissions profession that colleges evaluate applications and not applicants. No matter how strong an applicant may be in real life, an applicant is only as strong as their application. Your Decoding Admissions counselor will work intensively with you to ensure you present yourself in the best possible light.
Review by Committee
Your entire application and college essay will be reviewed by a committee of leading admissions professionals and one of our skilled writing coaches. You’ll have the distinct advantage of getting individualized expert feedback on your application before sending it off to colleges.
What Our Customers Have to say
“Fortunate, blessed, lucky, grateful, appreciative…words we use in our family to describe our wonderful experience in working with my son’s college counselor, Brook Wolcott! Brook’s leadership and friendship throughout this college application process was flawless. He was very analytical and thoughtful in his approach to identifying my son’s strengths and interests and which school(s) may be the best match based on those strengths. He also considered my son’s love for study, challenge, and athletics, in conjunction with the thought/question of where would he thoroughly enjoy his college experience. There were nights when my son would text him very late into the evening and Brook would respond with calming words and encouragement. We are more than thankful to and for Brook! My son is going to an incredibly great college, which is perfectly suited for him. Thank you, Brook! We are forever grateful!”
Our Services & Programs
Individual College Counseling
We offer a range of comprehensive college counseling programs where you will have a team of support including your Counselor, a Writing Coach to help you with all of your essays, and a College Coach who will help keep you on track through the entire process. Schedule a free Strategy Session and we can discuss which program would be best for your family.
Schedule a Free Strategy Session
Decoding Admissions Academy
Quality college guidance is expensive. Or at least it used to be. Decoding Admissions Academy (DAA) was designed to make college guidance affordable for more families. This is a hybrid model program combining pre-recorded videos on topics that will be important for most students in their college search with live Q&A sessions held each week where students and parents can get their individual questions answered. Click below to learn more about Decoding Admissions Academy.
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