Rebecca Field Consulting

"...the most competitive college-applications year on record" Wall Street Journal 4/23/22

Rebecca Field has been a godsend. Thanks to her exceptional guidance, both of my girls (twins) were accepted into several of their top choice schools.  While I don't know how we would would have fared had I not called Rebecca, I can say that before the phone call I had spent quite a lot of time worrying, while making 0% progress, and I was feeling a sense of panic and dread. Afterwards, I felt a wave of relief. Hiring a college counselor is pricey, but here's why, especially in hindsight, we thought is was well worth it.  The main benefit was that I was able extricate myself from the process, and avoid the inevitable struggles of trying get my teenage offspring to listen to me.We started the process in January of 2021, when my girls were in their Junior year of high school.  Where I had failed, Rebecca convinced my girls to beef up their resumes. That year and the following summer were filled with relevant jobs, extra-curricular activities, pre-college mentoring programs, and summer internships. This alone was a huge accomplishment and I think a major factor in their acceptance letters.We were pretty set on applying to out-of-state colleges.  For me, thumbing through several phone book sized "Guide to College" books, and trying to navigate the Naviance website was overwhelming. Rebecca broke things down into bite-sized chunks, gave the girls doable weekly assignments that included researching colleges, writing their personal statements and essays, and keeping them top of deadlines. My daughter says that without Rebecca, she would not have been nearly as organized and diligent in her college search. In the end, my girls received offers from several competitive schools such as University of Washington, Boston University, UC Berkeley and University of Chicago.We really liked Rebecca Field's approach and methodology. We could not have made it through the process without her. I recommend her wholeheartedly. 

My husband and I selected Rebecca Field as our college consultant for our now 18-year-old son.  We were introduced to Rebecca as she used to partner with my son's high school to assist all of the students through the college process starting when they were sophomores.  This gave us great insight into Rebecca as we saw her in action for three years running.  We found Rebecca to be outstanding across the board.  She was unbelievably knowledgeable about the process, a wide array of schools, and the requirements for colleges in terms of testing, learning support centers etc. Our son has a myriad of challenges from anxiety to ADD to processing issues, so is not the easiest of teens to navigate. Rebecca managed to walk him through this very lengthy, arduous, and anxiety-inducing process with ease.  She is even-keeled, positive, and 100% responsive (days, nights, weekends). We always felt we were in great hands.  Our son ended up getting into 8 out of the 10 colleges to which he applied so we had a great result.  We cannot recommend Rebecca highly enough.  We will definitely be using her again for our younger son in 2 years.

Our daughter is a senior - and just made her decision about college. We used Rebecca Field as our college consultant. From the first moment we met to explore, it was clear to us that the combination of warmth, no-nonsense focus and deep knowledge were going to be a good match for our daughter. We entered into a full agreement which turned out to be the best decision we've made to support our daughter's autonomy, decision making and confidence.

Rebecca is a great listener with unbelievable follow through. We had regular communication about due dates and next steps. Rebecca supported our daughter through the college essay process without our involvement (which I would recommend) until a near final draft was presented - which was real, compelling and a lovely statement from the heart.

We couldn't have been more grateful that the regular meetings and support led to strong decisions on school applications, 6 acceptance letters and now a near final decision which feels so right and on-target!

We are grateful for all of Rebecca's time, support and genuineness through this process. We would recommend her to anyone exploring post high school planning with their teens.

Prior to my son being close to applying for college, I was baffled by conversations from parents about hiring a college counselor for their kids; however, when the time came for my son, we hired Rebecca Field.  (Rebecca was a referral from a friend.)  I was very impressed by how she managed the process with my son.  The process is very organized and takes parents out of the equation because it customizes the search to the needs and wants of your child.  All the stress and pressure from doing whatever the student needs to do is managed extremely well by Rebecca.  She develops a relationship with the student and they communicate in person or via FT.  It highly resembles a conversation adults may have with their manager where a manager discusses tasks needed to be accomplished and the employee follows through and then reports back for feedback.  I really liked that because it gives the student a window to an adult's life although we know that some of this goes on in high school.  After students have identified and applied to their preferred colleges which range from "yes, I can get in" to a "reach school", then Rebecca continues to support the student with reminders and valuable information when the student is struggling with making a decision.  Needless to say, hiring Rebecca was the best investment we did for our son.  He got into many of his top choices and ended up choosing Chapman University, his top choice.  Rebecca's info is below.

Rebecca Field, Ed.M.
Rebecca Field Consulting
401 Grand Ave. Suite 380
(Suite of Dr. Vernita Marsh & Associates)
Oakland, CA  94610
(510) 816-7755
Member: WACAC, HECA, NACAC, IECA (Associate)
www.rebeccafieldconsulting.com

We’ve been bracing ourselves for our daughter’s college application process well before her senior year. Since she was our first child to go off to college, we were a little nervous about the process. We also heard how competitive it was to get into colleges, especially the UCs. Since our daughter was a good student academically but not stellar, we knew we needed help navigating  and highlighting her other amazing strengths.

Our friend highly recommended Rebecca. We started using her January of her junior year. She was fabulous! She was calm, attentive and my daughter was at ease with her. Rebecca would give her tasks, positive support and honest feedback. She recommended colleges that she felt were a good fit for what my daughter thought were her top priorities and also took into consideration our input, too.

She worked with my daughter in setting up all her college application accounts and helped us with deadlines - even after she was accepted. She was quick to respond to our questions, too.

In the end my daughter was accepted to the majority of colleges! The ones she was declined were her “stretch schools” - which showed us Rebecca really did understand the expectations of UC, Cal State and private colleges.

I’ll be using her again for my son next year!

Suzanne

Rebecca Field was a lifesaver for my son and our family during the college search and application process.  My son worked directly with her (after initial meeting involving us parents) to find out what he was looking for (which changed quite a bit throughout the process), research schools, assisting with the applications/essays, and then helped to narrow down the final list.  My son really felt like she was on his side and he really respected her opinions/guidance.  She was super responsive and incredibly organized.  She has a comprehensive website for her students that tracks and provides information on all the potential schools, all their deadlines and all communications between her and the student. She ended up recommending a small private school with a unique program for my son to apply to that he never would have known about if not for her. He was accepted and is beyond excited to have found the perfect place for him.  She keeps the parents in the loop while empowering the student.  She provided lots of reminders about upcoming deadlines, which was very helpful. Throughout the process we realized there really is a school for everyone, even if the student does not have a top GPA. College consultants are not cheap, but Rebecca was worth every penny and in the long run, I think she saved us money because she helped to steer our son toward schools where he was considered an excellent candidate and received merit scholarships.  We can't recommend Rebecca highly enough. 

Kristin 

We are using Rebecca now and she is not only super knowledgeable and bright, but she is also a fantastic person to work with. My daughter is really enjoying the process thanks to Rebecca. She uses the latest technology, she is very responsive when I reach out and she is always sharing useful information. www.RebeccaFieldConsulting.com, 510-816-7755. Good luck!