Your College Concierge co-founder and CEO, Peter Ratzan, today announced new plans for the company’s growth through a new partnership with the Alloy Foundation, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington and the College Success Foundation. Your College Concierge is a “virtual guidance office”, a technology-based platform that helps schools modernize and more efficiently provide personalized college guidance to each student.
MIAMI, FL - December 16, 2016 - Your College Concierge co-founder and CEO, Peter Ratzan, today announced new plans for the company’s growth in three areas, including the network of clients served, the range of services provided and through a new partnership with the Alloy Foundation, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington and the College Success Foundation. Your College Concierge will continue expansion of its services and partner network, unveiling its digital software platform and working with BGCGW and the College Success Foundation to provide college guidance, application assistance and financial aid services for its Alloy ACHIEVERS program, a multi-faceted college planning program and scholarship opportunity offered by the Alloy Foundation. Said Ratzan, “We’re so excited to support these outstanding organizations as they help prepare DC-area students both for admission to college and for a successful and largely debt-free post-collegiate life.”
Your College Concierge was started as an integrated college planning practice in 2007. In 2015 its team of entrepreneurs, college advisors, financial aid experts and technologists set out to reimagine college guidance by asking, what would college preparation look like if it were personalized to the needs of today’s high school students?
Together they’re building a “virtual guidance office”, a technology-based platform that helps schools modernize and more efficiently provide personalized college guidance to each student. Your College Concierge empowers students to find, gain admission to - and AFFORD - the perfect college. Its mobile platform and app also give parents and educators an evaluative tool to measure their students’ progress, track engagement and report outcomes.
Pandit Wright, the former Executive Director of BGCGW and the current Alloy Foundation liaison explained, “They’ve taken the best of what’s existed for families in college planning until now, and have put it together in a new, simpler, less fragmented and far more accessible way.”
Designed in partnership with a former guidance counselor and financial aid experts, the tools encompass every facet of the college planning experience, from searching for colleges, applying and writing the college application essay to understanding how federal and institutional financial aid work alongside admissions and how to use both to lower the price of college. Today the platform is being developed and used for Alloy ACHIEVERS, a network of high school students in greater Washington, DC whose higher educational pursuits are being supported by the Alloy Foundation. In January, Your College Concierge will also open the platform to students from Xceed Preparatory Academy, a new college preparatory micro-school concept launching in the state of Florida in January.
About Your College Concierge
Your College Concierge is an interdisciplinary team of higher education experts, educators, technologists and entrepreneurs creating a platform of resources and digital tools that prepare students for college in our changing world. Their customized approach is able to adapt to the needs of students, families and the surrounding community; the larger network connects everyone together to enable a far greater impact in efforts to help children grow into thriving, debt-free adults.
Your College Concierge provides a bespoke college planning experience, tailored to the grade level, interests, budget and academic abilities of each child. The platform builds an individualized strategy for a student that helps them find the right college, figure out how they can afford it and make sure they have the tools they need to succeed when they get there. On the front end, students get help finding, getting into and paying for college. On the back end, parents, counselors and educators have an easy-to-use evaluative tool to measure student engagement and report outcomes.
How It Works
Partner organizations and their students use a virtual platform on digital devices to help personalize the college process. For example, a student can make a list of potential colleges, search with the custom College List Builder to find those that best fit their interests and budget, and store their favorites in a digital folder in their “eLocker”. What they store will be visible for their parents and their guidance mentor for evaluation. As a partner, you can track your students as individuals and gauge the student’s progress. Your College Concierge is data-driven, working side-by-side with partners to customize the platform for students, parents and counselors as they discover what works best.
For more information, visit the Your College Concierge website at http://yourcollegeconcierge.com or reach them via phone at (954) 659-1234.
