Frequently Asked Questions

Covid-19 has had a profound impact on all aspects of the higher education landscape, including universities’ academic life and finances, standardized testing, students’ access to education, and parents’ ability to pay. All of these circumstances continue to evolve daily, which creates enormous uncertainty for prospective students and families.

While universities continue to update their plans for admissions and academic structure, it remains as important as ever for students to maintain a focused and informed approach to their academic plans and applications. At Collegiate Gateway, we are working around the clock to stay completely up to date on all the changes impacting admissions and higher education, so that we can stay ahead of the curve and help our clients navigate this new reality to meet their goals.

For many years, we have been meeting remotely with students from all over the world and will continue to provide the same degree of care and accessibility to all of our clients. In addition, we encourage you to visit our blog (link) or attend our upcoming Zoom presentations (link) to learn about the latest developments in admissions and higher education.

An independent admissions consultant provides expert guidance and personalized attention to help students gain acceptance to a college that best matches their individual academic and personal needs.

Collegiate Gateway has specialized, comprehensive knowledge on the full range of college options. We have visited hundreds of colleges and universities around the world and met with admissions officers, faculty, and students in order to stay on the cutting edge of the latest developments in admissions and higher education.

The college admissions process doesn’t just impact the student who is applying, it’s often an intensive period of time that affects the whole family. We bring the entire family into the process, providing a positive and focused environment for students and their parents to make these important life decisions together. Finally, Collegiate Gateway can help you reduce stress by keeping students organized and motivated with the application and interview deadlines, so that the process remains manageable and even enjoyable!

The graduate school admissions landscape is highly competitive, whether you’re applying for medical school, law school, business school, or a master’s or doctoral program. Collegiate Gateway draws upon years of expertise in guiding grad school applicants through the multitude of decisions on the path to a successful admissions outcome.

As with college admissions, a critical step in the grad school admissions process is helping students identify the schools that are the very best fit for their individual background and goals. Collegiate Gateway has comprehensive knowledge of the full range of grad school options to guide these decisions. Just as importantly, we get to know each client as thoroughly as possible in order to develop a list that’s highly customized to your needs.

When it comes to graduate school, each type of application has its own particular criteria and standards for excellence. Collegiate Gateway brings to bear a thorough understanding of the requirements of each program, in order to help you craft a compelling, focused narrative to position yourself against a crowded field. We reduce your stress by providing an organizational framework to prioritize and meet all deadlines and stay motivated throughout the process.

For high school students, the guidance counselor plays a valuable role as a liaison between the student’s secondary school and colleges. In addition, through their recommendation, they position each student within the context of their high school class. School counselors, however, often have caseloads of hundreds of students and therefore have limited time and resources to devote to each student or visit colleges.

Collegiate Gateway complements the role of a school counselor by providing a much higher level of individualized attention and care to each student and family. We gain thorough knowledge of our clients’ unique background and goals in order to identify their ideal colleges and provide a custom-tailored path to success.

In addition, we provide a huge amount of accessibility outside of school hours, whether in the evenings or on weekends, through the convenience of video and in-person consultations, email, and phone calls.

Collegiate Gateway founder Julie Raynor Gross has achieved a leadership position in her field.  She is a Professional Member of:

  • IECA (Independent Educational Consultants Association) – served as Chair of the Graduate School Professional Liaison Committee and Chair of the College Committee
  • NACAC (National Association of College Admissions Counselors)
  • AIGAC (Association for International Graduate Admissions Counselors)
  • HECA (Higher Education Consultants Association)
  • NCDA (National Career Development Association)
  • APTi (Association for Personality Type International)

She received certification from the Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions and is a Master Practitioner of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and a Certified Practitioner of the Strong Interest Inventory®.

Julie is recognized nationally as an expert on college and graduate admissions and is featured regularly on television, in print, and at industry conferences to provide insights into the current state of the admissions landscape.

In today’s competitive admissions landscape, we believe the most successful applications require proactive and early planning long before you hit send.

For college applicants, the ideal time to begin working with Collegiate Gateway is in freshman or sophomore year of high school. Many of the factors that influence admissions decisions unfold throughout the high school years, from course selection to extracurriculars to teacher relationships. We help students make the most of these years to best position themselves for success when it comes time to craft their experience into the college application itself.

The same idea applies to graduate school applicants, who gain maximum benefit when they begin the consulting relationship during their early college years. Collegiate Gateway helps college students plan a four-year curriculum sequence that best fulfills their distribution requirements, major, minor, and pre-professional courses. In addition, we advise on extracurricular activities, research, internships, and employment that will best position our clients to excel against the competition within your particular degree program.

Matching students to the very best schools for their unique personality and educational goals is one of the hallmarks of Collegiate Gateway’s services. This is why we visit hundreds of colleges and graduate programs throughout the world and meet with admissions staff, faculty, and students to learn everything there is to know about each school. Our success in identifying schools where our clients will thrive academically and personally is reflected in the extremely low rate of transfers among our students – fewer than 1% compared with the national average of 25%.

The ideal schools are those that offer the greatest fit in terms of the student’s unique strengths, preferences, personality, interests, and goals. While university rankings can be useful in providing generalized comparative statistical data, they are based on a multitude of factors that may have little bearing on whether a particular student will have a happy and successful experience at a given school. Determining this fit is a complex process that requires a full understanding of the student as well as the intangible qualities of each university’s cultural and academic life.

The most successful personal essays are those that provide an honest, authentic window into the student’s life and unique perspective on the world. To that end, our role is to help students craft essays that are the truest and most powerful representation of their experiences. We do not write essays for students; rather, we help our students strengthen their own writing ability, self-reflection, and communication skills.

We are skilled at helping our clients brainstorm great topics, based on our comprehensive understanding of their background, strengths and interests. We then review drafts of essays and offer detailed suggestions for improvement to help bring out the best in every student.

We also leverage our expertise to help you craft effective school-specific essays that demonstrate your fit with the mission and values of each school or grad program. We’ll break down the process into easy steps to guide you from the blank page to a set of top-quality essays that truly shine.

As former alumni interviewers, we have a real understanding of exactly what interviewers look for in candidates and how to make a great impression that translates to favorable outcomes. We conduct mock interviews with our students in a professional setting that replicates actual admissions or job interviews, and we provide valuable feedback on how students can improve the genuine presentation of their background and strengths. For medical school applicants, we provide mock interviews for both the traditional interview and the newer MMI (Multiple Mini-Interview).
One of our specialties at Collegiate Gateway is working with high school students involved in their schools’ math, science, and social science research programs. We guide students through all aspects of their research projects – from identifying topics of interest to finding research mentors to reviewing presentations – culminating in national science competitions like the Regeneron Science Talent Search and ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair). We are very proud of the incredible work our students have accomplished, as well as the many awards they have received.
Collegiate Gateway has three New York offices in Manhattan, Great Neck, and East Hampton.

No matter where you live, we are committed to providing our clients with maximum accessibility and convenience. All of our meetings and services can be conducted remotely via video conference or telephone, and we are proud to work with clients in countries all over the world, including Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, England, and Singapore.

Collegiate Gateway offers a wide variety of college and graduate school admissions packages to suit all different needs. These range from comprehensive packages encompassing all aspects of admissions planning and applications to hourly packages for more targeted assistance with specific aspects of the process.

We would love to schedule a complimentary half-hour consultation to explore how we can help you achieve your goals!