Testimonials
The time had come to start the college application process for my daughter Katherine and so did the panic. I attended college in Canada and the process is very different. I was nervous that my inexperience in this area could somehow compromise my daughter's chances of getting into college. Her school would unfortunately not be able to attend to every detail, and there were a lot of them.
A friend of mine referred me to Karen Grace-Baker. Into the first 5 minutes of conversation with her, I knew she had this covered. There was no stone unturned from beginning to end. She studied my daughter like a fine tooth comb. After some investigation, she instinctively knew which schools would be a good fit. She was patient and supportive yet gratefully firm on what was demanded of my daughter in the way of her taking charge of her own future.
Karen helped my daughter to understand that not only would she be fortunate to get into one of the colleges of her choice, but that the college would be equally fortunate to have her with everything that she brings. It was important for Katherine to acknowledge that she had a lot more to offer than a high GPA.
If I could rename her website, it would be 'The Saving Grace'.
Gratefully,
Lynn Griffith
Mother of Katherine Haysbert-University of California Berkeley (Class of 2017)
Most high school seniors don’t always know what they want out of college or even why they should be going to college, but it just seems like the natural progression. It’s not just about the score or AP classes, there’s more to getting the right “fit”. Karen’s strategic mission is to drive each student/client to reach for a succinctly defined goal and get what they want. She is simply dynamic!
Karen Grace-Baker is a solution resource enterprise. She approaches every application as a battle ground (i.e. competitiveness) and orchestrates the winning strategy. For us, she took on more than the role of a coach she became the advocate, the counselor, the mentor, liaison and even scholarship finder. Karen delivers, the statistics proves it and you can count on it!
Lara O Mother of student attending Carnegie Mellon University (Class of 2014)
The 2013/14 school year welcomes my baby Maya to Eugene Lang College as a freshman and grooms my daughter Lyric for graduation from Stanford University. Though the McHenry sisters are on opposite coasts they are both going to their first choice colleges! Karen spent endless hours coaching each of my girls from college prep consulting to college apps, researching and identifying amazing programs and often works overtime because her heart is surely in it!
"Being a single mother, the bulk of paperwork falls on my shoulders. Even if it's on line, that doesn’t make it any easier! It was a necessary blessing to have a person of Karen’s knowledge to supervise paper work. My oldest daughter Lyric told me that when she wrote her college essays, sometimes she got brain freeze! Karen's single word of encouragement would spark the rest of the essay! I saw the same level of dedication and commitment with my youngest daughter Maya as well. Karen has a special quality which allows her to see what is unique and special in each student and really draw it out so that it is evident in the college application. I am a fierce mother bear and am proud to highly recommend the fierce ‘college coach’ mother bear!
Jennifer M-Mother to daughters attending Stanford University (Class of 2014) and Eugene Lang College (Class of 2017)
Karen worked with my daughter for her Fall 2012 College Admissions process. Karen was recommended from a friend and we gave her a call to come do an exploratory meeting with us. Our high school provided two college counselors working with the seniors, but since we went to such a large public high school, we knew that we would benefit from having someone to focus more specifically on my daughter in the process. Deciding on a college is such a pivotal decision in a person's life's journey, and we wanted to make sure she had the best chances given how competitive the college admissions process has become.
From the first meeting, we felt a connection to Karen and felt that she understood my daughter's strengths, desires and what was best for her.She took care to have several meeting with us as a family, and also several meetings with our daughter individually throughout the college admissions and selection time period. She also worked effectively with our high school provided counselor on the process complementing his efforts. She helped us to narrow the colleges down to the ones that were the best fit and strived with us to get her into the best college possible. She also pointed us in the direction of some colleges that we hadn't considered which would be a good fit.
We were very pleased with the outcome as my daughter had various choices when acceptances came in (including some with merit scholarships attached to the acceptance). We were proud to send her off to Syracuse University in Fall 2012. Karen was like a third parent jumping for joy with us, and we've stayed in touch ever since. In fact, we have another kid who is entering his senior year, and we have already signed up with Karen to be his college counselor as well.
I strongly recommend Karen to anyone going through this nail biting process with their college bound children. She makes it more bearable for all involved and genuinely cares about her clients, which is exactly what you want with someone who is helping your child to enter the next chapter of their life and academic career.
S. Bracey (Student Nina Class of 2012)-attending Syracuse University
My name is Doug McHenry and I'm writing this testimonial on behalf of Karen Grace-Baker because of the extraordinary counseling services she rendered to both of my daughters during their college application process and to some extent even beyond.
As a parent I was bewildered by the complexity of the college application process and didn't have a clue with respect to what I could do to support my two daughters negotiate it. There is always a tension of doing too much and not enough because it’s their responsibility to do the work but there is also an appropriate time during this process for them to receive support.
Engaging the services of Karen Grace-Baker was the perfect solution for us. She prepared them to take on the college application process much like a coach who was also a friend might prepare an athlete for the Olympic Trials. Her extensive knowledge of the in and outs of the process, set of extensive college admissions contacts and more important her ability to treat each one of my daughters as an individual and tailor a program that fit their individual needs was incredible.
I cannot emphasize just how important it was to have a college counselor who has the ability to see each one of my children as an individual with their own unique aspirations and set of strengths and weaknesses from the college admission standpoint. In contrast, other services we approached prior to retaining the services of Karen Grace - Baker took a more standardized or cookie cutter approach. Ms. Baker never lost sight of the important goal of the entire process and that is to match the college with the student that offers the highest probability of success and happiness for that student.
In addition to the usual service one would expect from a college admission counseling services Ms. Baker also provided much appreciated information on scholarships and other financial aid information.
Lastly, I recommend the services of Ms. Baker's company without reservation and with enthusiasm. In fact if you’re a parent considering hiring a college application counseling service I would run often and early to retain Ms. Baker and her company because unless her circumstances have changed she runs a boutique service with limited capacity and as far as my experience is concerned she will make a major contribution in your child's success navigating the college application process.
A Grateful Parent, Doug McHenry