In Chicago Public Schools, high school counselors carry an average caseload of 366 students; in the rest of the state, high school school counselors average nearly 500 students (Illinois Report Card). These ratios are among the highest in the country, and well beyond the American School Counselors Association’s 250:1 recommendation (ASCA). High school counselors in our area lack the resources to guide students through an individualized college search process that meets each student’s goals and needs. Meanwhile, the college application process has become increasingly complex for students as admissions rates have plummeted at top schools, financial aid policies and documents shift from year to year, and institutional priorities shift in the age of AI. Without enough guidance, many Chicago-area students may go through the college process without having the assistance they need in order to identify their goals–let alone discover, apply to, and prepare to thrive at colleges that will help them reach their goals.
About Lucy
I have the time, energy, experience, and expertise to help students and families in the Chicago area navigate the college application process. I hold a PhD in English and bring to my work with college applicants a researcher’s knowledge of both the Chicago high school landscape and American higher education. In Fall 2026, I will complete the UC-Berkeley Professional Program in College Admissions Consulting.
I have assisted college-bound students from every selective enrollment high school in Chicago, numerous neighborhood schools, including Kenwood Academy and Solorio Academy, and private schools including St. Ignatius and the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, for whom I designed an intensive three-day College Essay Writing Workshop. In addition to offering private counseling, I design and teach a College Countdown seminar for high-achieving Chicago Public Schools students enrolled in the University of Chicago Collegiate Scholars’ Program. Here’s what some of my recent students and clients have to say:
What students say
“I would not have gotten into Harvard without you. Thank you so much again for all of your help. It will stay with me in all the writing I do in college and beyond!” — M.L., Harvard ’29
“I just wanted to say thank you for all your guidance through this journey. I truly truly truly cannot express my gratitude.” — L.A., Yale ’30
“I appreciate your assistance with narrowing down topics and polishing my college essays. I am excited to enter Florida State in the fall!” — S.S., FSU ’30
“Thank you does not adequately convey my gratitude.” — J.S., College of DuPage ’27
My college teaching career informs my college counseling work. I have taught first-year college writing for a decade, at many different types of colleges, from highly selective institutions like Case Western Reserve University and the University of Michigan, to a regional small liberal arts college, to community colleges. “College” is not just a word to me, a name to be achieved. Students who work with me prepare for the life they’re going to have for four years, the intellectual, professional, social, and academic growth they’ll achieve, and the impact these experiences will have on them going forward.
My students learn to identify and clearly articulate their goals. They practice college-level writing, communication, research, academic inquiry, and critical thinking. This is college readiness, and I work with students to achieve it.
Applying to college is a major logistical, organizational, academic project. It is also a creative, writing-centered project. I bring to the more creative aspects of this work countless creative prompts, methods, and tactics I have used in my own writing practice, as a prize-winning poet, novelist, and literary scholar. I have published pieces in more than 100 literary and scholarly journals and my novella The Walmart Book of the Dead won the Vine Leaves Press Award and was a Finalist for the Foreword Book of the Year.
