Spotlight: Riley Baker

The Riley Baker process starts with an introduction, an in-person, no-obligation sit-down to discuss your needs, expectations and priorities; explain what we do and how we can help; and decide if working together feels right. If we're all on go, we get started building your strategic game plan... Mapping out the route to your college career is a step-by-step process, typically beginning during your freshman year and continuing through the remainder of your high school years. Why so long? We've found that's the ideal length of time for you to make maximum progress with minimum stress. Certainly, you can count on Riley Baker for the obvious things, such as advising you on course curricula and extracurricular activities, creating a timeline for the SAT, ACT, and SAT Subject Tests, and identifying extra programs and activities to help strengthen your profile. But Riley Baker specializes in digging deep into those things that aren't always so obvious. We share proven tools, like self-assessments and personality profiles, to help you understand how you perceive and process the world around you and how that affects your attitudes and behaviors. Our talent toolkit helps identify your unique skills, talents, goals, aptitudes, and values - so we can develop and showcase those strengths. We'll collaborate with you to answer these questions, and then help you nurture your unique abilities in an extracurricular setting so your passions can really blossom. We give you checklists to help you identify your target colleges, then narrow the list to the ones that are ideal. We guide and coach you as you build your applications, brainstorm topics and compose your essays, and gather recommendations. From planning, scheduling and evaluating campus visits to prepping for college interviews to effective ways to show "demonstrated interest," we're with you start to finish. In a sea of application packages, yours will be the one that makes the admissions staff sit up and say, "Wow! This is a student we need on our campus!"

Experiencing the Riley Baker process actually helps you become a stronger candidate - more organized, more mature and more confident - because you're building the skills that lead to success. At the same time, the Riley Baker team visits hundreds of campuses each year, talking with students and administrators to study both the academic environment and the behind-the-scenes social life and campus culture of each school. Our students do not have to base their decisions solely on a college's reputation and marketing materials. The result of our student-centered approach is that the great majority of our students are accepted into their first-choice schools. Even more important, our students feel confident in - and delighted with - their final selection. That's why virtually none of our students opt to transfer to another college. When the choice is right, the fit is comfortable. We're often asked why the Riley Baker team is better qualified for these tasks than the people who know you best, your family and friends. But that's precisely the reason - we get to know you as you are, not as you were growing up or with your friends or in a family context. We help you see yourself objectively, the same way an admissions officer will be seeing you. No excuses, no judgments, no limiting preconceived notions. We help you discover - and become - who you really are. That's how you get where you want to go.