Wealth Beyond Riches: Building Prosperity With Purpose, Values, and Impact
Welcome to Wealth Beyond Riches with Abbey Henderson, CFP®, CEO, Wealth Advisor and Coach at Abaris Financial Group. In this podcast, we help generous, fun, and passionate professionals overcome their biggest financial concerns while leveling up their lifestyles based on their values and vision.
We do this by exploring 'The Five Levers,' which represent the diverse resources each person possesses throughout their lifetime. These levers encompass finances, health, mindset, relationships, and time, offering a holistic approach to personal development and growth.
Join us on this transformative journey as Abbey and her guests draw from years of experience to guide you in achieving your life goals while staying true to your values… but that’s not all. This podcast will equip you not just to build personal wealth, but also to understand how your prosperity can contribute to the betterment of the world around you. By exploring strategies for giving back and making a positive impact, we'll empower you to create a life of significance and leave a lasting legacy of positive change.
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Wealth Beyond Riches: Building Prosperity With Purpose, Values, and Impact
What Should You Look for on a College Campus Tour? With Zach Ogie (Ep. 41)
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What should you look for on a college campus tour, and how do you know if a school is truly the right fit?
For many families, visiting colleges is one of the most exciting parts of the college application process. It can also feel overwhelming. With so much information available online, it can be difficult to know what actually matters when evaluating a school. Beyond rankings and reputation, how can students and parents confidently determine whether a college is the right fit?
In this episode, Abbey Henderson is joined by Zach Ogie, Senior College Counselor at AcceptU and former admissions officer, to share practical strategies for making the most of college campus tours. Drawing on years of admissions experience and thousands of application reviews, Zach explains how students can prepare before visiting campus, what to pay attention to during tours, and why finding the right fit often has more to do with personal priorities than prestige. He also discusses how parents can support the process without taking over, helping students build confidence as they make one of the biggest decisions of their academic journey.
Abbey and Zach discuss:
- How do you know if a college is the right fit? Looking beyond rankings to evaluate academics, campus culture, and location.
- What should you do before a college campus tour? Using virtual information sessions and research to prepare.
- What should students pay attention to during a campus visit? Tips for taking notes, asking questions, and comparing schools.
- How many college tours should you take? Why visiting multiple campuses can lead to better decisions.
- What role should parents play in the college search? Supporting students while encouraging independence.
- And more!
Connect with Abbey Henderson:
- LinkedIn: Abbey Henderson
- Abbey@AbarisFinancialGroup.com
- Website: Abaris Financial Group
- Facebook: Abaris Financial Group
- Facebook: Abbey Henderson: Trusted Financial Advisor & Coach
- Instagram: @trustedadvisor_coach
- LinkedIn: Abaris Financial Group
- X (Twitter): Abaris Financial Group
Connect with Zach Ogie:
About our Guest:
Zach Ogie is a Senior College Counselor at AcceptU, where he helps students in grades 9 through 12 navigate the college admissions process, from building a college list to submitting applications. Before joining AcceptU, Zach worked in college admissions, serving as a campus tour guide and admissions interviewer at his alma mater, Chapman University, and later as an admissions officer at Rice University. Having reviewed thousands of college applications, he brings firsthand insight into what colleges look for and helps families make informed decisions throughout the college search process.
Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Wealth Beyond Riches with Abbey Henderson, CEO, wealth advisor, and coach at Abaris Financial Group. In this podcast, we help generous, fun, and passionate professionals overcome their biggest financial concerns while leveling up their lifestyles based on their values. We do this by exploring the five levers, which represent the diverse resources each person possesses throughout their lifetime.
These levers encompass finances, health, mindset, relationships, and time, offering a holistic approach to personal development and growth. Join us on this transformative journey as Abbey and her guests draw from years of experience to guide you in achieving your life goals while staying true to your values.
But that's not all. This podcast will equip you not just to build personal wealth, but also to understand how your prosperity can contribute to the betterment of the world around you. By exploring strategies for giving back and making a positive impact, [00:01:00] we'll empower you to create a life of significance and leave a lasting legacy of positive change
Wendy McConnell: Hello, and welcome to the Wealth Beyond Riches podcast, with your host Abbey Henderson, where we talk about enriching your life in every way.
I'm your producer, Wendy McConnell. Hello, Abbey. Has your life been enriched in every way? I always start it the same way. I'm like, "Today, I'm gonna be different." How much have you enriched your life, Abbey?
Abbey Henderson: That is a great question. I took a little vacation time over the Fourth of July- Oh ... so I am actually feeling somewhat enriched today.
Wendy McConnell: Okay. A little refreshed?
Abbey Henderson: Little refreshed.
Wendy McConnell: Did you go anywhere fun?
Abbey Henderson: No, I did nothing. That was the refreshing part.
Wendy McConnell: Yes.
Abbey Henderson: Zero.
Wendy McConnell: Yes. It's, it's... not to be said anything about the staycation, it, it is a wonderful thing.
Abbey Henderson: When it doesn't suck you into laundry- ... it is a wonderful thing.
Wendy McConnell: That's not staycation, that's housework.
I agree. That's why you have to stay away from it[00:02:00]
Abbey Henderson: in your staycation.
Wendy McConnell: Exactly. So we do have as, a guest today. Would you like to introduce him?
Abbey Henderson: Oh, I would love to. I, it's the Fourth of July, it's summer, ramping up into fall, and I know that so many people listening are on college tours with their kids.
Zach Ogie: Yep.
Abbey Henderson: So I'm really excited to have Zach Ogie here today, who's a senior college counselor with Except You, where he guides students in ninth through 12th grade as they research, prepare for, and submit college applications.
And he has worked in admissions since his undergrad years. He served as a campus tour guide and admissions interviewer. He's done that at his alma mater, Chapman University in Orange, California. He, I, he's read so many applications. I think he w- I'm sure he'll talk about this, but I think he has reviewed roughly 18,000 college applications.
Oh, my gosh. And [00:03:00] now he is gonna be our campus tour guru. So Zach, we are so excited to have you.
Zach Ogie: Hi. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. This is one of my favorite topics. So- ... I'm gonna be talking this whole time.
Abbey Henderson: Okay. Perfect. So I, I just mentioned to it, that we have lots of people listening who are either doing college tours now or getting ready to ramp them up this fall, and I really wanna focus on your top tips for campus tours.
But before we get to the top tips, what do parents and kids need to be doing before they hit campus?
Zach Ogie: That's a good question. I would say that we are fortunate in a post-pandemic space that so much is digital. Nothing's going to replace that in-person campus tour, walking around the student center, meeting somebody face-to-face.
But nearly every school out there that offers a campus tour [00:04:00] also offers a virtual info session. And so it's okay to go on a campus tour blindly, but doing something virtual ahead of time, it's gonna give you that nice little debrief. It's like going on a vacation, right? We could all go on a vacation to Paris blindly and not plan ahead, but we're gonna be pretty happy when we do look into it beforehand.
Abbey Henderson: Got it. And what-- Do you have some, some thoughts on a couple things that you would want someone to focus on when they're watching those virtual tours?
Zach Ogie: And just absorb it. I think one thing is I always recommend the ones that are hosted and offered by the university or by the admission office. You're gonna find a lot of information on YouTube, you're gonna find a lot of information on Reddit, on all these online resources.
Take it all with a grain of salt. Of course, it's great to hear what a current student has said about their university on YouTube, but I would rather my students and my families go to the official [00:05:00] source to hear about it and hear what's important and unique to the university, hear how the policies have changed.
So big takeaways, I would focus on the official routes, 'cause that's where you're gonna get the most valuable information. That's how the universities are gonna have students' contact information too. So when the time comes that they're gearing up for applications, they're gonna start pestering and bothering the students to apply, but they can only do that if they have their contact info.
Abbey Henderson: I, that, you just made such a great point that hadn't occurred to me. I don't have kids at this stage of life, but there must just be s- just a barrage of information of widely varying quality available at this point.
Zach Ogie: Yeah, especially on, on Reddit. I always tell my students, "Go on Reddit if you want, but be careful with what you read."
When I was an admission officer, we would always go and see what was on Reddit and what was said about our school, and we would laugh about the things that were said about how false some information was. And we were like, "If students are listening to this [00:06:00] advice of this 20-year-old college student, they're gonna get denied because this is horrible advice."
So go to the source. There's people that their job is specifically to help you, and they want to, right? Yeah. Their job's a little boring if they're not getting any phone calls and emails. Personally, I love- ... having a little bit less phone calls and emails, but if there's nothing coming through, you're just sitting at a desk.
Abbey Henderson: Yeah, and I imagine the interaction is really the fun part of the job in a lot of ways.
Zach Ogie: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And that's why so many admission officers do it. They love working with the students.
Abbey Henderson: Maybe this is actually a good time to get your two cents on how you determine fit beyond just maybe a name, an academic program, a size of campus, all the checklist items.
What else are you wanting your students to key in on as to how to determine fit?
Zach Ogie: First and foremost, I would avoid rankings. I know that's the easiest thing to look for. It's human nature. When [00:07:00] we go out and buy a car, we wanna see what's the safety rating on this car, what's the, all these specs. I wouldn't do that for college because there's so many sources that are assessing different things, and just because a college is a good fit for one student doesn't mean it's a good fit for another student.
I like to try to get students to think about it in a few different ways. Of course, major or majors- Mm-hmm ... right? If you wanna study biology, you're probably going to find biology or something similar at most universities, unless it's some very specialized trade school or a university that's an arts school, you might not find a bio.
But at most universities you'll find it. Whereas on the other hand, if you wanna study something like architecture and you wanna get a bachelor's of architecture, you've suddenly weeded down your pool to a much smaller set of schools. Also, think about the location, right? Especially for the students that have lived their [00:08:00] entire life in one geographic region or state, think about do you want to leave?
Do you want to be close to home? Do you want to have to hop on a flight to see family? If there's an emergency while you're away, how are you going to get back, and is it possible for you to get back? It's really personal too, right? Like a lot of students, they have reason to want to go back and forth very frequently if they have an ill family member or if their family's very tight and spends holidays together.
Weather is another thing that you should think about with fit. I grew up in San Diego, a city that's famous for having pretty perfect weather year-round. I went to college in Orange County, California. Pretty perfect weather year-round. I probably wouldn't have survived a winter in Maine. So while the schools in Maine were beautiful, probably wasn't the right fit for my 18-year-old self.
But applying to college or rather looking at college, it's the time to be superficial. And I know we don't want to be superficial and be like, "Oh, I just didn't [00:09:00] like it 'cause the vibe felt off," that's what a lot of my students will say. I'm like, "Well, if the vibe felt off, the vibe's off. Look for other schools.
There's thousands out there." Go to the school that you get the warm and fuzzies that it feels right. And realistically, I wish there was research done on this, or if there has been, I haven't found it, one student doesn't have one perfect school. You might have a dream school, but it's not a soulmate situation with colleges.
There's a large set of schools that you would be very happy at. Mm-hmm. So try not to focus singularly, I only like Boston University, I'm only going to go to Boston University. Widen your net, right? If you like Boston University, you'll probably George Washington, you'll probably like NYU. It's, they all have their overlap
Abbey Henderson: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
All right, so we have an idea of fit. We've done a little homework on, we've done our tour. We've maybe poked around a little bit on the internet, but have not gone down a rabbit hole of campus gossip. [00:10:00] We're hitting campus for our tour. What do we need to think about now?
Zach Ogie: You should bring a notebook or at least your phone.
You should have your notes app out and ready to jot stuff down, especially if you're doing a lot of campus tours. They're all gonna blend together. A lot of universities, they think that they're super unique for one aspect or another, but then when you do five campus tours, you're gonna hear that every single university is going to tell you that they have a blue pole system, that you hit a button and then the police gets there in 90 seconds.
Or they're going to tell you that you get to take different types of classes. A lot of schools will say you don't have to declare your major until the end of your second year. It all starts to blur together. So students will feel a little nerdy, for the lack of a better way to describe it, if they have their mo- notebook and their pen out on the campus tour, but who cares?
No one's gonna remember that. The people on the tour aren't paying attention to them. They're paying attention to the campus tour, so write it down. Or if you're a parent or a family [00:11:00] member of a student who is adamant that they don't want to write it down, do it for them. I always tell my students' parents, "Don't turn into their assistant during the college application process.
The students need to build their independence," but you also wanna beat the net to catch them. So jot down what you think. Jot down what... Take photos. Of course, it's fun to take photos to post on Instagram or Facebook or all that type of stuff, but it also helps you go back through your camera roll to figure out which school was it that I really liked the cafeteria, right?
One of those superficial things. We all have to eat. You're gonna have three meals a day. I hope that you like the cafeteria at the school that you end up at, so document it. I do college tours all the time. It's my job, and I'm also a college tour nerd. I love to do it since I was a tour guide. I live in Boston, so throw a rock and it hits a university.
It's very easy for me to do so many college tours, but they, they blend together. I've done 40 campus tours in the [00:12:00] last two years. If you asked me which school had the best cafeteria or the best dorms, I'd probably stall and be like, "I need to look back at my notes." And I have notes. I have lots and lots of notebooks.
If a student asks me, I could show you hundreds of pages of chicken scratch writing of what I've learned.
Abbey Henderson: And do you, when you go on your tour, do you have, like, a mental checklist? I wanna make sure I see these things, or I want to take a, notice certain things?
Zach Ogie: I do not, because I'm coming at it from a college counselor perspective.
I'm just trying to capture as much information that is helpful for as many students as possible, but that's where a family should sit down and figure out what's a priority, what's important. So if a student is planning to be an athlete- Maybe like a varsity division three athlete or maybe they want to do club athletics, you should pay close attention to the athletic facilities.
You should pay attention to how far are the [00:13:00] dorms from the athletic facilities. Do the athletes live together? All those types of things. Or if a student knows that they want to conduct research as an undergraduate student, listen very closely when they talk about the research, both in your area of interest, I'll use the example of biology again.
Listen to the biology research info, but also listen to the humanities and social sciences, 'cause you may end up with a double major. You may want to dabble and do more. So that's where some of that pre-planning goes into it. Mm-hmm. 'Cause it is overwhelming. There's a lot of information that's thrown on you, or thrown at you rather, on a campus tour.
Oftentimes you'll have about a 30-minute information session with an admission officer that's overarching info, and then usually the campus tour is led by a student and it's about an hour and a half. So you have two hours straight of information thrown at you. So it, it can be a lot. And it's okay to zone out at points, right?
Mm-hmm. If you know that my student does not care about chemistry or biology and physics, or I don't care [00:14:00] about that, don't listen. You can- Right ... it's okay to glaze over, check your phone, do those other things and be distracted during that point in the tour.
Abbey Henderson: Yeah. I imagine it, it's... A couple things. I imagine you get smarter and better at doing tours as a, as an attendee as you go through this process.
So having some structure does give you an ability to be, to look back at the very first tour you did when maybe you weren't as, as good at them and say, "Oh, I did pay attention to these things, and I can compare." And also I imagine it's really easy to get distracted on these tours by any number of things.
Zach Ogie: Oh, yeah, especially myself. And I'm usually doing it during the workday, 'cause campus tours are usually offered Monday through Friday, usually 1:00 in the morning and 1:00 in the afternoon. And so I'm all over my email on my campus tours. I'm getting distracted. I'm not perfect. But try to limit your distractions as much as you can because there might be one little anecdote that's shared on a campus tour that's only 15 seconds [00:15:00] long, but that 15-second anecdote might be what does you over and make you realize that- Mm
it's a dream school. Not the dream school, but a dream school.
Abbey Henderson: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. All right. So we're gonna take pictures, write down notes. What is your next tip?
Zach Ogie: My next tip, I would say plan campus tours strategically in that you should visit multiple co- excuse me, multiple colleges at the same time.
Now, if you're like myself and you live in Boston, go tour Tufts, go tour Northeastern, do it on a whim. It's okay. You don't have to pack together a bunch of tours. But if you live in California and you really want to go see Harvard, you shouldn't just fly across the country to only see Harvard. You should also see other schools that are in the area.
So go ahead and try to make an agenda, make an itinerary of all the different t- campus tours that you'd like to do. Some are easier said than done. I used to be an admission officer at Rice University in Houston. There's not a lot of [00:16:00] universities in Houston compared to other parts of the country, so a lot of the families that were coming to visit, they flew to Houston, and that's what they did.
Maybe if they wanted to rent a car, they'd drive three hours to UT Austin to compare both schools, but try to pack them in. I would recommend two campus tours in a day, but no more than that. A lot of the times you can squeeze in multiple tours. Most-- I don't know about most. I'm making that up. Many universities are not completely isolated.
A lot of them have other schools that are nearby. So there's usually another university or college that's within a 45-minute drive, so it's definitely very doable Yeah, I would make a trip out of it. Or on the flip side, if you're doing a family vacation, try to also do a couple campus tours while you're there.
Of course, if you're doing that, don't pack in a bunch of campus tours, 'cause you enjoy your, you should enjoy your vacation without laundry and work and things to do and all that great stuff. But while you're in [00:17:00] a new city, see what schools are there.
Abbey Henderson: And I imagine keeping a little bit of an open mind if you're gonna be someplace anywhere, just go see a school even if you're not sure you're interested?
Zach Ogie: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You might stumble across a school that you or your student loves that you've never heard of. So it, it doesn't hurt to just throw darts a little bit. I wouldn't throw darts at a map of the United States to decide- Right. ... where you're gonna do a campus tour. But once you've picked maybe an anchor school or two or an anchor city, add in a couple random schools.
And even if that school's not the one, they might have something there that you're really excited by. They might have a really unique major, a unique program. They might have an honors college. And it's introducing students to new vocabulary, new concepts- Mm-hmm ... that they can then ask when they go tour other schools.
I like that. So like for example, there's a school in the Boston area called WPI. They have a fire engineering major, department. Super [00:18:00] specific, super niche. Not many schools have it, but if that's something a student is interested in, they now know when they tour other schools to say, "I'm really interested in fire engineering.
Do you even have classes that I could explore that?"
Abbey Henderson: Or even just an awareness that there's so much out there we don't know, and maybe they'll go looking for the other diamonds in the rough at some college they are interested in.
Zach Ogie: I'd never heard of the major, and I left there being like, "Wow, that's a new one to add to my mental blog of majors."
Abbey Henderson: Yeah. How many... I'm curious, how many college tours are kids typically doing at the, right now?
Zach Ogie: Gosh, it really depends. Some students, I don't know how they do it or why they want to, but they don't do any. They apply to college blindly, and they make a decision blindly.
Abbey Henderson: Wow.
Zach Ogie: If you have the means to tour a campus or if you have the time to tour a campus, you really should be doing it.
I like to tell my students that you should aim for about six campus tours by the time that you're applying. [00:19:00] But also consider if a student is living in, I don't know, Colorado, and they're not applying to any Colorado schools, it's hard to get to that six, of course. So it's, it's all relative to your personal circumstances.
But as many as possible, but I think that six is a good target.
Abbey Henderson: Cool. All right. What's next on your list of tips?
Zach Ogie: I alluded to it, but I'd say be mindful of the weather. It sounds silly, but that's something that I didn't think about when I was a 17-year-old living in San Diego. And so I did not do as many college tours as I should have.
I did not do six when I was in high school. But one of the schools that I did tour was George Washington University in... I really loved the school. I studied political science. I was super excited by it. Looked at the calendar with my parents, tried to figure out when does it make sense for us to go. I went with my mom over Thanksgiving break.
It was a very cold Thanksgiving break. And so me and my mom were freezing. It [00:20:00] was so cold that there was, like, a layer of ice on the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. So I don't... To me, it seems like that was unseasonably cold, but we survived to tell the tale. So at least think about what the weather will be when you're doing tours.
Don't let that deter you, but especially if you're from one of those paradise locations with beautiful weather, and maybe the student hasn't been exposed to cold, think about that. If you want to throw your child into the deep end, maybe take them to tour Bowdoin College in Maine in January. And if they love Bowdoin College in January-
that's a really good sign. And there are students that do love touring college campuses in the winter. So just think about it. It's a variable. There actually has been research done that shows that the impression that students have of colleges on rainy days is much worse than on sunny days. Hmm. Actual academic research.
So think about that. If you're touring a college campus and it's rainy and you don't like [00:21:00] it, did you not like it because it was rainy, your socks were wet, and your parents weren't happy with you? Or did you not like it 'cause it just wasn't a great school for you?
Abbey Henderson: That, that makes perfect sense. Is there any other, or are there any other tips around s- strategy of where you go on your tour, when you go on the tour?
Zach Ogie: I like a fall campus tour. I think across the US from September to November's a pretty good time to do a college tour. The weather in most places is not too cold or it's not too hot, right? If you're going down to Texas in September, it's still pretty hot, but it's not quite as bad as it was. If you're going up to Vermont in November, it's pretty cold, but it's not as bad as it will be.
It's also, the campus will be a little bit more lively, 'cause the students will be there. Campus will be in session. So that's one thing to think about. I never discourage families from doing tours over the summer, but I do remind them that campus is gonna feel a little bit [00:22:00] less lively than it would if you're a student there.
Abbey Henderson: That makes sense. I wanna get to asking, 'cause we have parents listening, asking how they can best support their kids in this process. But before we get to that, one more tip on the actual tour process. I
Zach Ogie: would say have fun with it, right? The people that are giving you campus tours, they're current students.
A lot of the times they're getting paid. It's their job. Sometimes they're volunteers. They're college students. They're exhausted. They might have a lot of homework. They might have a lot on their mind. Sometimes they're on autopilot, but a lot of them do the job because they like sharing about their school, and they like being a little bit of a performer.
So if you ask questions, if you smile, if you have fun on the tour, they're a performer. They're gonna give you a little bit more effort, and that's gonna be a more enjoyable experience. When I was a campus tour guide, I gave many awkward campus tours with not a single question, people not smiling. I just wanted to get the tour over with.
I'm like, "I'm gonna keep walking. We're gonna go, we're gonna [00:23:00] go. I'm not gonna stay a minute longer than I have to." I also did campus tours where I had the most lively bunch that I had so much fun. I was cracking them, or cracking jokes with them. I was telling them things I wouldn't normally. I extended the tour a little bit longer.
I showed them something that I wouldn't normally. So have fun with it. Your tour guide is a student. They wanna have fun. They're excited to show you their school.
Abbey Henderson: Do you have a favorite question to ask a tour guide?
Zach Ogie: Oh, gosh. So when I'm doing college tours now as a college counselor, I try to be a fly on the wall.
I stay in the back 'cause I like to remind myself it's for the students, it's for the parents. I don't wanna steamroll. But when there's not questions and I can sense it's starting to be a little awkward, I like to ask questions like, "What surprised you the most in your first semester?" Mm-hmm. Or the most basic question is, "What's your favorite tradition?"
And basic's not a bad thing, but it's, they have responses to that prepared. They're not gonna have to stand and think, "Huh, I've never been asked about my favorite tradition before."
Abbey Henderson: That makes a lot of sense. All right, so how, what role should [00:24:00] parents be playing in this? It, I could probably do a whole podcast on that in terms of the whole college process, but specific to the tour topic, what's your advice for the parents?
Zach Ogie: Yeah, I guess it, it probably falls into two buckets, and parents probably know if your student is a more proactive student or more proactive child or one that needs extra nudging. I'd say if your child is more proactive, maybe take the backseat and be encouraging. Take your own notes, too. Still encourage the student to, or your child to take notes, but you might care more about certain things than they do.
They're probably gonna glaze over when student loans come into the conversation, when the cost of attendance starts coming into conversation, about how much rent is off campus or if housing is guaranteed. You as a parent or a family member, these are very likely going to directly impact you, so at least jot those down.
But do let your students take the lead in taking notes. If your [00:25:00] child is not asking questions on the tour, first of all, encourage them to, but second of all, don't be afraid to ask questions. Mm. It's, it's okay for parents to do that. Tour guides expect it. And then after, I'd say have a conversation with your child about what they liked, what they don't like.
Let them offer their opinion before you do.
Abbey Henderson: That's a good one.
Zach Ogie: For the students that are less proactive, you probably are gonna wanna take a little bit more notes. You're probably going to want to initiate doing campus tours or what schools to do tours at. If you have the s- the child that's, "I don't know," just pick schools.
Doing campus tours is better than doing no campus tours.
Abbey Henderson: And getting the practice and the reps in and doing them.
Zach Ogie: And they're exciting. A lot of students, maybe they're not as interested in the college process until they do a fun campus tour, and then all of a sudden- Mm-hmm ... the light bulb goes off that they are excited to go to college.
Abbey Henderson: All right. To fi- to finish up, tell us a little bit about AcceptU and the role a c- a great college counselor can play, [00:26:00] and again, uh, we could talk a whole podcast about this, but give people sort of the elevator pitch of how fabulous AcceptU is and how you guys can be helpful.
Zach Ogie: Yeah. So AcceptU is basically an admission consulting or admission counseling firm.
Families sign up, and they get paired with a fabulous college counselor like myself. They develop a one-on-one relationship. They get options of who they'd like to work with based on expertise, so maybe if your student is interested in going an engineering route, they might be paired with somebody like myself that's worked with so many engineering students.
But I like to think of myself as, like, an addition to the family during the college counseling process. I like to limit the stress. I like to nag the students a little bit more so the parents don't have to. I like to be a project manager to make sure the deadlines are being met and the students know what they need to be doing.
And then, of course, there's the consulting piece that, "Should I take this class or this class? Should I [00:27:00] write about this in my essay or write about this in my essay?" But that's really, like, the long story short of what AcceptU does. We also do test prep and tutoring. We also have research programs that students can be involved in.
But our students get some pretty phenomenal results. I don't, I don't remember the exact statistic, and if my bosses listen to this, they're probably gonna be like, "Zach, why don't you know this?" But I believe it's usually about four times higher acceptance rate than the national average. And so we can't guarantee that you'll get into Stanford with a 3% acceptance rate, but a 12% acceptance rate to Stanford still is not too bad
Abbey Henderson: And I bet that we can guarantee that a t- a student that works with you guys is far more educated on the process and has a great sounding board about what will create the best situation and opportunities and four years for them.
Zach Ogie: Yeah. And a friend too, right? I love my meetings with students that before we start talking about the nitty-gritty, they tell [00:28:00] me about prom, or they tell me about their field trip that they did, or they tell me about the drama in their friend group, right? I'm not a, I'm not a therapist, but I do want to hear what's going on with each student.
Abbey Henderson: Yeah. Yeah, and th- that's just amazing given it's probably a somewhat stressful time for these kids. So to have you as a resource must be just amazing.
Zach Ogie: Yeah. Much more than somewhat, but yes.
Abbey Henderson: Yeah. All right. This has been amazing. Tell everyone where they can find out more about you and more about AcceptU, and maybe even if you have some things coming up that you're presenting.
What's on the docket for the near future?
Zach Ogie: Yeah. I would just say check out our website acceptu.com. We have lots of webinars that are hosted periodically. We like to ramp them up around this time of year when families are getting ready for the application process. We offer free consultations where families can hear about the services and how we may be able to help students.
If families want to connect with me, you can connect [00:29:00] with me on LinkedIn. I like to post about campus tours there. But lots of information is available on AcceptU's website, and we also have plenty of Google reviews. So if you don't trust me and you think I'm a salesperson, go look and see what families have said about working with AcceptU, and then a few about working with me.
Abbey Henderson: Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Zach Ogie: Awesome. Thank you for having me.
Wendy McConnell: And Abbey, how can people get in touch with you if they would like to ask you some questions?
Abbey Henderson: All the usual ways. So email is always great, and that's abbey@abarisfinancialgroup.com. Yeah. And then LinkedIn, Facebook, uh, Instagram, and our website.
And they'll all be linked in the sh-
Wendy McConnell: Thank you for joining us today. Please follow and share this podcast with your friends. Until next time, I'm your producer, Wendy McConnell.
Outro: Thank you for listening to Wealth Beyond Riches. Click the follow button to be notified when new episodes become available, and be sure to visit [00:30:00] our website at www.abarisfinancialgroup.com.
Don't forget to click the follow button to be notified when new episodes become available. The information covered and posted represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Abaris Financial Group. The opinions voiced in Wealth Beyond Riches with Abbey Henderson are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
To determine what may be appropriate for you, consult with your attorney, accountant, financial or tax advisor prior to investing. Guests on Wealth Beyond Riches are not affiliated with Abaris Financial Group or New Edge Advisors LLC. Advisory services offered through New Edge Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisor.