Why is Nomad Starting the TCK College Club?

To help you get quality college counseling at an affordable price.

If you’re a subscriber, you may have already heard that Nomad is introducing group college counseling this August. If you’re interested, send me an email at lauren@nomad.com or sign up here for updates!

Nomad works FOR the expat and Foreign Service community, and this College Club is designed to help make college counseling accessible to all American TCK families. I’ve developed the TCK college club in response to customer requests for:

Accessibility: One of the goals of Nomad Educational Services is to make professional college counseling available to all expat families around the world, especially those who are at schools without a strong US-focused counseling program, or for whom a mid-high school move has disrupted their college planning process. Many of my current clients are enrolled at British, French, local, or schools where college counseling is focused exclusively on sending students to specific “brand name” universities to improve the school’s marketing to prospective families. 

US-equivalent experience: TCKs deserve the strong college preparation support they’d get back in the states: to find universities that fit them financially, academically and socially, and to get support developing strong, revealing, application profiles that will demonstrate their interest and fit for the schools on their college list. 

Affordability: For many expat families, however, the cost of individual college coaching is a barrier. In the mainland US, independent college coaches charge an average of $6-8000 over the 2 year period before college enrollment. While students who are advised by an independent counselor are more likely to be offered stronger financial aid packages, be less likely to transfer and be more confident in their choices, that cost is higher than most families are ready to pay. 

My Solution: In order to fulfill my goal of making college consulting accessible to all Foreign Service families who need it, I’m introducing the TCK College Club, a 10 month group counseling program designed for Juniors with Foreign Service connections. 

The program will include: 

  • Personality and academic profiles developed by YouScience
  • College planning and application software from Concourse
  • Regular assignments and personalized feedback An integrated, asynchronous online classroom
  • Monthly 2 hour live online-classroom sessions for discussion, hands-on research, and application development.
  • Parent meeting series covering all of the hot topics in college admissions today. 

Students who participate in the TCK College Club will develop a criteria-based list of best-fit colleges and universities in the US or abroad, and feel confident that they’ve got what they need to move on to filling out their applications. 

Ready to join? Send me an email at lauren@nomad.com. Or, sign up here for updates on this and other Nomad offerings.

Self Care this month

It’s not always easy to remember to balance your school responsibilities with your personal life, your social life and your dreams of the future. A lot of people even get so overwhelmed at the thought of all the stuff they have to do, that they just decide to ignore it for a while. Obviously, when everything comes crashing down like a house of cards, they regret this strategy. So, how can you be intentional about finding a balance that makes enough time for everything? One way is to be deliberate about planning in some time for self-care. When you think about what you need to do today, include something that is there just to make you happy, and then actually do it. Self-care is as important to your personal success and mental health as an extra 15 minutes of Spanish vocab flashcards are to your quiz this week.

In the spirit of self-care this month, I’m sharing a little Self-Care Bingo card with you. Can you make 4 in a row over the course of one week?