College Counselor (Full-Time New Jersey)

Do you want your work to feel like a calling where you make a difference every day? Do you believe the college admissions process should be an exciting journey for families, not an anxiety-inducing rite of passage? Are you looking for the training, resources, and support to do the very best college counseling of your career? Collegewise is building our next cohort of Full-Time College Counselors. If you’re passionate about helping students (and their families) navigate college admissions with confidence, clarity, and (dare we say?) optimism, you might be just who we’re looking for. This is a hybrid position based in Northern New Jersey (Berkeley Heights or Harrington Park), where you'll meet with students and families both in-person at our local office and virtually. You must be available for regularly occurring in-person meetings with families and community events in the area. Who We Are Collegewise is a college counseling company that helps high school students confidently navigate their journey to college. We believe the college admissions process has spun out of control, with too much confusion, too much anxiety, and too many students losing agency for what should be their path to higher education. We’re out to change all that. Since 1999, we’ve helped more than 30,000 students apply and get accepted to schools—sometimes famous, often not—that they’re excited to attend. We do it all with just the right mix of advice, encouragement, and occasional cheerleading—all backed by data and experience—to ensure that each student’s college admissions process goes smoothly and thoughtfully. And our work doesn’t stop with students who enroll in our program. We speak in public, write, and constantly look for ways to spread relevant college planning information to anyone who needs it, whether or not they work with us. To learn more about our inspiring work, check out this short video. About This Job As a Collegewise counselor, you’ll work with 40+ students—most of whom are juniors and seniors—to help them find and apply to the right colleges for them. You'll be the trusted guide who transforms what can feel like an overwhelming journey into an exciting process of discovery. You’ll build 1:1 relationships and counsel students outside of school hours and occasionally on weekends (during the busy fall season). Building your local market is a core part of this role. New Jersey is a growing market for Collegewise, which means you'll play an active role in establishing Collegewise as the trusted resource for college counseling in the community. This means speaking at local high schools and community events, developing relationships with school counselors and directors, networking within the community, and finding creative ways to connect with families who would benefit from our services. We're not asking you to be a full-time marketer, but we are asking you to be an active ambassador for Collegewise in Northern New Jersey—and we'll provide training, resources, and support to help you succeed. You’ll be helping kids and parents and working with smart, passionate coworkers who have absolutely no reverence for US News & World Report college rankings. Every college counselor who joins us completes an initial training (30-40 hours in total) led by our Learning & Development Team, followed by mentoring, support, and ongoing professional development to help you elevate your counseling and grow in your career here. Even our most veteran counselors don’t coast on experience. We all want to keep getting better all the time. Ambition with heart. Strategy with soul. You definitely wouldn’t be crossing over to the for-profit “dark side” here. We have an excellent reputation with both high school counselors and admissions officers. We present at NACAC, local ACACs, and at high schools and community events. We partner with community-based organizations to directly support their students and increase college access. We tell the truth, we treat people right, we recycle, and we have at least five confirmed vegetarians on the team. We’re biased, but really, this is a pretty great place to work. Who We’re Looking For (You) • You’re someone who’d rather be challenged by something important than phone it in for something mundane. You want to commit to a calling that matters to you, and you have high expectations of yourself, your job, and your employer. • You understand parents and their high school-aged students. And you’ve run in the circles you’re seeking to serve, as a high school counselor/director, or a professional who’s worked closely with those populations. We'll give special consideration to applicants who have already forged trusted relationships with high school communities in Northern New Jersey. • You’re inspired—not intimidated—by the prospect of finding families who want to engage with a college counseling service like ours. You're genuinely excited about building Collegewise's presence in Northern New Jersey.—speaking at schools, connecting with counselors, attending community events, and becoming a visible, trusted resource for college planning. • You’re a continuous learner who believes that college counseling is a craft that needs to be nurtured and put to the very best use to help kids. You're not intimidated about being expected to achieve results. • You win people over easily and earn trust quickly. Whether you’re working on a project with a coworker, meeting with a student about a college list, presenting to a room full of families at a high school event, or talking to a concerned parent on the phone, people enjoy and benefit from their interactions with you. • Most importantly, you believe in the vision of Collegewise. You want to empower students to identify and reach their goals (for college and beyond). You want to be a supportive guide to those students and their families.. You’re passionate about what Collegewise stands for and our drive to help as many families as possible transform their journey to college. Work Life at Collegewise We’ve worked hard to create the company we’d want to work for, with a culture that draws smart, fascinating professionals united by a desire to do the best work of our careers. Salary Most of our counselors begin their careers here earning between $65,000 - $75,000/year. There is always room for growth in both salary and responsibility, and we take care to clearly explain the pathways to both to all of our counselors. One of the more significant factors we consider in determining a starting salary is how inclined families will be to enroll with you. Families choose a private counselor based largely on trust: do they trust you with this important process? And for online counselors—unless a family has been referred by someone who vouches for you—they’ll use your unique experience as a proxy for that trust. Our training ensures real counseling quality always lies behind whatever factors families choose to evaluate (their criteria aren’t always a proxy for counseling skills). But trust is the X factor, the skill we can’t train and the asset that takes time to build. So we reward those applicants who’ve earned it, and we support those who want the opportunity to do so. We try to approach starting salary discussions as a fair and reasonable conversation between an organization and a professional who’ve decided they are right for each other. Our goal? Make it work for both of us, without having to overly flex our negotiating muscles. And start this run together with the mutual trust and respect we both deserve. Start Date We’re hoping our new counselors can start between March and June, but we’re flexible for the right people. Questions? Feel free to email us at jobs@collegewise.com (please no phone calls). We promise to respond to you quickly. Thanks for reading! We’d love to hear from you, but if we don’t, we hope you find the perfect professional fit someplace else.