The Gold Package (15 months)

Includes ALL of the services

• Administration and interpretation of our customized “School Match 4U Updated Student and Parent Questionnaire” (included).
• College Kickstart allows us to compare a student’s academic profile to other applicants at selected colleges with the most up-to-date data available. This tool enables us to ensure students have a balanced college list, assists in evaluating early admission opportunities, tracks key application requirements, and considers affordability as part of the application plan for those hoping to not pay full price for college (included).
• In-depth discovery interview designed to understand the optimal educational conditions students and parents/guardians are looking for to discern what college environment the student will thrive in (included).
• Recommendation and interpretation of several different major tests for the student to confirm their interests (included).
• Examination of all academic records, teaching recommendations, testing, and activities for the student (included).
• Recommendation of at least 15 colleges or universities initially that match the student’s academic profile and the interests of the student and the parents/guardians (included). Note: Usually, we recommend 20+ colleges.
• Verbal communication and a thorough explanation of why the schools recommended were selected (included).
• Assistance in paring down these 15+ schools to a manageable level of schools that match what the student and parents/guardians are looking for (included).
• Delivery of verbal “Strengths and Weakness assessment” to communicate how the student will be viewed by admissions reps (included).
• Interview prep (one mock interview) with explicit interview feedback (included).
• Strategic advice about how to utilize powerful questions to impress counselors with your intelligence (included).
• Advice about what to include to showcase the student’s strengths in the written application and any interviews (included).
• Help in planning and developing an effective strategy for college visits (included).
• Specific advice about what to do on any college visits, including post-visit debriefing and consultation (included).
• Strategic advice throughout the admission process; this advice can be done through phone calls, video conference sessions, or text messages (included).
• Strategic advice on how to utilize your school visits to create a maximum positive impact (included).
• Consult with the student and parents/guardians to help everyone understand how the SAT, AP, IB, or ACT scores will be perceived by the various colleges on the college list (included).
• Communication with your test prep professional (if applicable) to see how the test scores are progressing (included).
• Advice about the best test prep strategy to ensure that your student gets the highest test scores (included).
• Guidance on whether SAT, ACT, or AP scores should be shared or whether your child should apply as a test-optional applicant. This advice will be given on a school-by-school basis.
• Assistance with which applications to use for which schools (included).
• Assistance with how to maximize your effectiveness in working with your school counselor (included).
• Discussions about specific schools that we recommended or didn’t recommend and how they line up with what you are looking for (included).
• Advice about how to be authentic while simultaneously making the best impression at college fairs, information sessions, or other interactions with admissions professionals (included).
• Advice about summer planning and activities. This includes opportunities on campuses as well as other opportunities (included).
• Verbal or written advocacy directly to college admissions counselors is considered inappropriate for a private college coach at most schools. Still, we may recommend you connect with people who work for or who have attended various colleges of interest (included).
• Willingness to thoroughly review all financial aid paperwork to ensure accuracy; this may involve the FAFSA, CSS PROFILE, IDOC, or any institutional aid form requests. This also includes assistance with FAFSA verification. This will not apply if you are not applying for financial aid (included).
• Assistance with interpreting communication from colleges, including recruitment correspondence and interpretation of aid awards (included).
• Unlimited calls, texts, and emails for advice anytime (after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays for meetings, anytime on Saturday, and after 11:00 a.m. on Sunday). We put this in bold because this has been invaluable for other clients. Unlimited texts seven days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. This is something that Gold Plan clients love. The Silver plan only includes 20 minutes a month of texting and emails (included).
• Multiple revisions of up to 15 college-specific essays, personal statements, and scholarship essays, including by Margarita, our grammarian. This is something that Gold Plan clients love. If you look at selective schools, these college-specific essays and questions are extremely important in their evaluation. Paying for this à la carte and the two copies of each finalized essay by our grammarian (one copy is a proofed copy, where you can see the tracking changes she recommends, and the other is a clean copy) would cost several thousand dollars. Margarita is our grammarian, and you can read her bio here (included).
• Should you need assistance beyond 15 essays, we will help you with additional essays, brainstorming, outlining, content development, and multiple revisions until the counselor and the student are happy with the essay. Grammatical revisions by Margarita are at the cost of 10 cents a word. It is quite rare for our students to have more than 20 essays. This usually only applies to students who are applying to a large number of colleges, multiple scholarships, or special programs that require essays.
• Assistance with getting the best financial aid offer. This involves developing a scholarship strategy and game plan should this interest you (included).
• Advice about what steps should be taken after the enrollment contract has been submitted to ensure a smooth transition occurs when your child matriculates to the college they select (included).
• Openness to research if you ask us a question about something that we do not know (included).
• To prevent the freedom of this plan from leading to one client dominating the calendar of the college coach, the maximum meeting time per month with a School Match 4U college coach is three hours per month. The maximum number of meetings per week is two meetings, and these two meetings must be on different days of the week. If the three hours maximum of meetings are not used in a month, they do not roll over to the next month. The 12 months on the calendar will be used for tracking monthly activity. If a student started their service agreement on January 15, the first month would be Jan 15–31 and not January 15-February 15, so tracking can be done with the calendar months. This three-hour maximum meeting time per month could amount to up to 45 hours of meetings over 15 months, and things like emails, texts, and the research a college coach does are not included in this three-hour maximum meeting time per month. Sometimes, these meetings will be with the whole family, and sometimes, just with parents.
• Up to three 45-minute Spanish tutoring sessions designed to strengthen your child’s Spanish skills, introduce your child to Spanish, or review a plan to master the Spanish language. Mark Stucker’s daughter has a degree in Spanish, and she was a Spanish middle school and high school teacher at a private school in Atlanta. She is a professional Spanish tutor and founder of Spanish Help Today. We will pay her to work with your child for two one-hour sessions. A parent or guardian can use these hours if the student has no interest or need for Spanish tutoring. Tutoring can be done for someone who does not know the alphabet or for preparation for the AP or IB Spanish exams (Included)
• Presentation of a three- to five-page report detailing the recommended colleges in three different ways (included).
• Either four free hours of “one-on-one” Zoom test prep (up to a $800 value) from one of my test partners or free 90 minutes of SAT or ACT test prep with a detailed score diagnostic report from another one of our test prep partners (included).
• Advice about athletic recruitment should your child decide to play a varsity sport in college (included).
• Develop a School Match 4U action plan so your child does not have to be the one to figure out what they should be doing at any given time. This action plan will be communicated verbally in a Zoom or phone meeting (included).
• Help break down the School Match 4U Action plan into bite-size doses by giving your child a short list of “to dos” to help them complete quality applications before any deadlines. We cannot be responsible for your child doing what we recommend, but we will let them know .
• Advice on the courses to select in high school each year.
• Advice about selecting extracurricular opportunities on campus and off campus.
• Three professionals are assigned to help your student. You get a lead college coach, an assistant college coach, and a grammarian who will all be dedicated to your student.
• Access to our college counseling software, which will be immensely helpful for students and parents in this college admission journey. It is a resource that significantly improves our ability to serve your child. There is also a student portal, which can help students with their “to-dos,” and the parent resources, which is great for parent communication (included)
• List building applies to colleges in the United States and Canada (if interested). Families who are primarily interested in international universities. These families can learn here how School Match 4U helps students interested in international universities.
• Advice about how to utilize college fairs to present your authentic self in the most favorable and winsome way (included).
• Advice about how to confirm that the college you are considering is the right college major for you (included).
• Authentic, genuine, straightforward, and honest communication at all times about all issues (included).

The Gold Package is recommended for:

• Families who want a minimum of two hours a month of assistance with Zoom calls, phone calls, emails, essays, application assistance, scholarship strategy, test prep/test score strategy, visit strategy, communication with college strategy, overall strategy, question-and-answer sessions, or help with any other component of the process. We use the word minimum because if you want two hours of any of these activities, this plan will pay for itself.
• Families that want the option to be able to send emails and texts to get prompt answers to quick questions without having caps put on this type of communication like the Silver plan has. The Bronze plan and hourly plans do not include built-in emails and texts.
• Families that are applying to selective schools that require a lot of college-specific essays and short-answer questions. Those essays and questions require hours and hours of work, and multiple content revisions of drafts of those essays will be provided by your School Match 4U college coach. Margarita, our very talented grammarian, will produce both a proofed copy and a clean copy of all essays that are 120 words or more. It is a big money saver for the client to not have to pay for this à la carte.

COST: $5,795 – $6,295 for 15 months of service (select one of the following payment options):

• Option 1: $5,795 – paid in full upon contract signing. Savings of $500.
• Option 2: $5,995 – 50% of the fee ($2,997.50) paid upon contract signing. The balance ($2,997.50) is to be paid within 60 days. Savings of $300.
• Option 3: $6,195 – a $3,695 deposit is due upon contract signing. The balance ($2,500) will be made in monthly $500 payments over the next five months. Postdated checks are written for the same day of the month and mailed. Savings of $100.
• Option 4: $6,295 – fees paid over ten months in equal payments of $629.50. First payment is to be made electronically and then postdated checks are written for the same day of the month and mailed.

Note: The $5,795 option amounts to $386.33/month for a full year of School Match 4U services. If more than 15 months of consultation are needed, each additional month will be $400/month, but you are locking in a rate and protecting yourself from any price increases.

Compare packages here.

Payment can be remitted using any of the following:

1. Venmo, (@Mark-Stucker is Mark’s ID or 404-664-4340), and you will see Mark Stucker’s photo. You can also request that Mark friend you on Venmo. Do not select Goods or Services when paying with Venmo, or a 2% fee is added to your fees because this is what Venmo charges us, if you select Goods or Services. There is no charge if you pay as a friend.
2. The Cash App ($MarkStucker11 is Mark’s ID or 404-664-4340). You will see Mark’s photo.
3. Zelle (404-664-4340)
4. For PayPal, use mark@schoolmatch4u.com to send payment. There is a 4% fee for this option.

What if I need the Gold Package for more than 15 months?

Option 1

• You can extend Gold Plan benefits on a month-by-month basis for $400 a month, and you will receive the exact same services that are recounted above in the Gold Plan.

Option 2

• You can add hours on an “as needed” basis for $250 per hour or $150 for thirty-minute sessions.

Option 3

• Sign up for our 21-month Gold Plan and get nine additional months of full service for less than the price of four months.