College Matters KS helps students find, get into the university that’s best for them

Jennifer Stark Fry gets quizzical looks when she tells people about her business, which helps high school students with the college selection and application process.

“On the east and west coasts, it’s quite common to have independent education consultants,” said Fry, the owner of College Matters KS. “In this neck of the woods, it’s kind of a rarity.”

She thinks her business is the only one of its kind in Kansas. She also thinks a lot of high school students and their parents could benefit from it.

“The process has gotten considerably more complex over the years and involves a little more strategy than it used to,” she said.

Fry is a former English teacher and college adviser for the IB program at Wichita East High. She retired from that job in May, after 35 years teaching in Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Arizona.

She says advising students on college “really became my passion over the course of the years,” and she never intended to give up working completely.

Fry offers a number of services for students in eighth grade through college, although her work is mostly focused on high-schoolers. Those services include long-term planning to increase student chances of acceptance and scholarships, help in choosing which school is right for a student, writing resumes and essays, and arranging college visits.

Although it doesn’t hurt to start earlier, Fry said, “Junior year is a great time to start the process, to begin work on activities and your resume, and to begin to understand the whole process behind finding the best college fit.”

Fry earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction development from Oklahoma State University. Attending the Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions helped prepare her to run College Matters, she said.

Her website includes testimonials from former high school students she helped get accepted by Princeton, Duke, Brown, Dartmouth and the University of Kansas.

“My goal is not to replace (school) guidance counselors at all, but really to help them because guidance counselors and schools are far too busy to give individual assistance,” she said. “To be candid, with budget cuts of late, the resources just aren’t there.”

Fry said she’s “very careful not to claim I can get a kid into a school, because the formula’s so complicated. I can’t make that promise.

“However, some of the students I have coached have been admitted to some very selective schools.”

Applying to the right school is key, she said.

“I think it’s important that students really study their options,” she said. “If they attend a school that’s a great fit, then they’re more likely to finish.”

Fry charges $75 an hour. Group sessions like one she’s preparing for some high school juniors cost less.

Fry says she knows many families already have difficulty affording college, but says she can point them toward possible sources of financial aid and scholarships.

“The opportunities out there for students who are really focused and hardworking and dedicated are limitless, really.”

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 3:01 PM with the headline "College Matters KS helps students find, get into the university that’s best for them."