College Counselor (Full-Time Remote US)

About This Job

As a Collegewise counselor, you’ll work with 40+ students—most of whom are juniors and seniors—to help them find and apply to the right colleges for them. You'll be the trusted guide who transforms what can feel like an overwhelming journey into an exciting process of discovery. You’ll build 1:1 relationships and counsel students outside of school hours, in their own timezones, and occasionally on weekends (during the busy fall season). To help Collegewise become a trusted and indispensable part of the local community, you’ll also develop meaningful relationships with high schools and fellow counselors. You’ll be helping kids and parents and working with smart, passionate coworkers who have absolutely no reverence for US News & World Report college rankings.

Every college counselor who joins us completes an initial training (30-40 hours in total) led by our Learning & Development Team, followed by mentoring, support, and ongoing professional development to help you elevate your counseling and grow in your career here. Even our most veteran counselors don’t coast on experience. We all want to keep getting better all the time.

Ambition with heart. Strategy with soul. 

You definitely wouldn’t be crossing over to the for-profit “dark side” here. We have an excellent reputation with both high school counselors and admissions officers. We present at NACAC, local ACACs, and at high schools and community events. We partner with community-based organizations to directly support their students and increase college access. We tell the truth, we treat people right, we recycle, and we have at least five confirmed vegetarians on the team. We’re biased, but really, this is a pretty great place to work.

Who We’re Looking For (You)

• You’re someone who’d rather be challenged by something important than phone it in for something mundane. You want to commit to a calling that matters to you, and you have high expectations of yourself, your job, and your employer.
• You understand parents and their high school-aged students. And you’ve run in the circles you’re seeking to serve, as a high school counselor/director, or a professional who’s worked closely with those populations.
• You’re inspired—not intimidated—by the prospect of finding families who want to engage with a college counseling service like ours.
• You’re a continuous learner who believes that college counseling is a craft that needs to be nurtured and put to the very best use to help kids. You're not intimidated about being expected to achieve results.
• You win people over easily and earn trust quickly. Whether you’re working on a project with a coworker, meeting with a student about a college list, or talking to a concerned parent on the phone, people enjoy and benefit from their interactions with you.
• Most importantly, you believe in the vision of Collegewise. You want to empower students to identify and reach their goals (for college and beyond). You want to be a supportive guide to those students and their families.. You’re passionate about what Collegewise stands for and our drive to help as many families as possible transform their journey to college.

Work Life at Collegewise

We’ve worked hard to create the company we’d want to work for, with a culture that draws smart, fascinating professionals united by a desire to do the best work of our careers. For more information about our benefits and our approach to work, check out our Careers page. 

Salary
Most of our counselors begin their careers here earning between $65,000 - $75,000/year. There is always room for growth in both salary and responsibility, and we take care to clearly explain the pathways to both to all of our counselors.

One of the more significant factors we consider in determining a starting salary is how inclined families will be to enroll with you. Families choose a private counselor based largely on trust: do they trust you with this important process? And for online counselors—unless a family has been referred by someone who vouches for you—they’ll use your unique experience as a proxy for that trust. Our training ensures real counseling quality always lies behind whatever factors families choose to evaluate (their criteria aren’t always a proxy for counseling skills). But trust is the X factor, the skill we can’t train and the asset that takes time to build. So we reward those applicants who’ve earned it, and we support those who want the opportunity to do so.

We try to approach starting salary discussions as a fair and reasonable conversation between an organization and a professional who’ve decided they are right for each other. Our goal? Make it work for both of us, without having to overly flex our negotiating muscles. And start this run together with the mutual trust and respect we both deserve.

 
Start Date
We’re hoping our new counselors can start between March and June, but we’re flexible for the right people.

We want to hear from you
If you’re excited about this opportunity but unsure if you’re the right fit, we hope you’ll take a shot. There is no such thing as a perfect applicant (or a perfect job, for that matter). And we promise to give a fair and thorough read to every applicant who takes the time to submit a thoughtful application to us.

Collegewise is stronger because of the different perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences our team brings. We're committed to building a place where everyone can do their best work—and we actively work toward that through our IEA Committee, our resources for students from all backgrounds, and our everyday practices. If that matters to you too, we'd love to meet you.

How to Apply

Instead of a traditional cover letter, please choose 3 of the following questions to answer (150-250 words is a helpful guideline, but use as much or as little space as you need). We're most interested in learning about your counseling philosophy, skills, and experiences—the things that will set you (and your students) up for success.

Application Questions (choose 3):

1. Collegewise counselors guide students through the entire college application process, which means building trust and relationships over time. Tell us about a situation where you built a meaningful relationship with a student that directly impacted their outcome.
2. Working with high schoolers means balancing student needs with family expectations, and sometimes they don’t align. Tell us about a time you had to manage a difficult conversation or disagreement with a parent or stakeholder. How did you handle the situation, and what was the outcome? 
3. Wisers love learning, and we invest in professional development. How do you approach your own professional growth or learning? 
4. Why college counseling and why Collegewise? Tell us what draws you to this work and our team specifically.   
5. What is your typical caseload, and how do you productively manage your time? 

Please submit your resume and responses through our Careers page. Every single applicant will receive a response from us, and we do our very best to reply within 10 days.

Questions?
Feel free to email us at jobs@collegewise.com (please no phone calls). We promise to respond to you quickly.

Thanks for reading! We’d love to hear from you, but if we don’t, we hope you find the perfect professional fit someplace else.