Meet Me

Welcome!

I’m honored that you want to learn more about how I came to specialize in college consulting and career coaching, why I’m so passionately committed to this work, and what I can offer you or your child.

A few years ago, I started feeling an intense need to concentrate more fully on projects that were making a major difference in young people’s lives and yearned to serve a larger audience.

After a great deal of soul-searching, I made what a lot of people consider a radical decision.

I chose to leave my full-time position as a college English professor and put my award-winning research on the back burner in order to start my own company, which specializes in helping high school students get themselves into college and focuses on guiding college students (as well as recent graduates) through the process of creating rewarding professional lives.

The programs I’ve created build upon my extensive experience mentoring hundreds of students from a wide range of majors and backgrounds as they transition into and out of college.

Over the years, I’ve served on admissions and hiring committees, worked as an academic advisor to freshmen and sophomores at a groundbreaking honors college, participated in a highly regarded Freshman Year Initiative program that organizes students into learning communities, and ran an innovative internship program that I designed from scratch.

I’m known for my unique approach to educating, empowering, and motivating young people–from the most driven, gifted kids to the most stubborn procrastinators.

Look, there are lots of advisors out there who give excellent advice.   But telling people what to do is easy.

Getting them to put that great advice into practice in their own lives is a whole different story.

That’s my gift.

I encourage you to check out my students’ success stories to hear what they have to say about the experience of working with me.

GET YOURSELF INTO COLLEGE™

I’m on a mission to transform the overwhelming process of applying to college into a meaningful, exciting, and empowering experience that gets young people into the right schools and makes it easier for them to excel once they’re there.

Students in my program have been accepted to Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Northwestern, the University of Chicago, Rutgers, the University of Southern California, and many other great schools.

I’m not into gimmicks or formulas, and my program does far more than just walk students through the application process.

I use the application form as the starting point for a major transformation that provides participants with eye-opening strategies for creating the kind of truly original application packages they need in order to gain a competitive edge over thousands of other applicants.

On an even deeper level, they learn how to take their writing to the next level; think about and present themselves in new, more mature ways; discover how to cultivate authentic connections with teachers; and much more.  These are the types of skills that can make a huge difference in terms of their success in both high school and college, so it’s really never too early too start the program.

I believe every motivated student deserves high-quality guidance through the college application process. Unfortunately, many schools do not have the resources to provide this type of assistance, and most families cannot afford to shell out thousands of dollars for private college consultants.  That’s why I’m committed to making Get Yourself Into College™ an affordable, easily accessible program.

CREATE YOUR AMAZINGLY SUCCESSFUL LIFE™

I’m also on a mission to change the way college students and recent graduates experience the process of transitioning out of school and into their successful professional lives.

Ever since I started teaching in 1993, I’ve been working behind the scenes to help students conduct effective job searches and create resumes and cover letters that stand out from the crowd.  Many of them received useful how-to guidelines from their college career center, but what they didn’t get was the one-on-one, personalized guidance they so desperately needed.

As a professor and mentor, I know that college students have an even greater need–one that extends far beyond the technical details associated with job searches.

They are entering a new phase of personal growth and long to get clear about what it is they really want from life and how to develop a career that enables them to bring together their interests, talents, and skills.

This yearning is nothing new.

It’s the reason why so many companies have come up with assessment tools that get students to fill out questionnaires about their interests, personality, values, and skills and which then generate a list of potential careers for them to explore.

The trouble is that these tools are too simplistic and generic.

What young people really need is someone who can assist them in discovering and articulating the underlying connections between their passions, ambitions, abilities, and beliefs.

This process is rarely neat, linear, and quick.

The innovative internship program that I designed and oversaw was founded upon my respect for the complexity of this ongoing journey and furnished participants with a supportive forum for figuring out these connections as they put their educations to work.

Now I’m taking this work to the next level by reaching out to you–and to as many young people as possible.

I offer a wide range of customized, affordable career coaching services and team up with colleges to run dynamic, interactive workshops.

I also have a totally free weekly e-newsletter–The Path–that helps you take charge of your career one simple step at a time.

JENNIFER B. BERNSTEIN
jenn@jenniferbbernstein.com
(516) 362-1929