Traditional School Advising

Our educational planning includes:

• Assisting students and families in clarifying their educational priorities;

• Assessing a student’s needs and accomplishments, as well as academic, extracurricular, and social goals;

• Providing informed, personalized school and program recommendations;

• Designing and implementing a strategy to maximize the student's chances for admission;

• Providing a clear timeline for the application process;

• Consulting on standardized testing, including ERB, ISEE, SSAT, TOEFL; 

• Mentoring students through the campus visit and interview, the application process, and essay review;

• Advocating for the student with admissions officers when appropriate; and

• Monitoring progress and providing ongoing support and communication with parents throughout the process.

Secondary Boarding School

We help students find the schools where they can discover themselves.

Boarding schools offer transformative experiences that can only happen in a setting that lives an educational mission 24-hours a day, 7-days a week.

Dedicated teachers who live on-campus are accessible to students around the clock, whether for extra help during evening study hours, coaching on the soccer field, or an extracurricular conversation about computer programming or U.S. history over a board game on Saturday night. By getting to know students in the classroom, on athletic fields, in the dining hall, and as dorm residents, faculty develop a comprehensive picture of each student’s strengths and areas for growth. Top-notch facilities are available for athletics and the arts, while service and social activities are interwoven throughout the community. Depending on their mission and focus, these schools offer a wide variety of signature programs, for example, leadership training, real-world internships, and primary research.

At TBG, we help families find the right fit with a school so that students reap the full benefits of a secondary boarding opportunity. We have decades of experience in matching teenagers to environments that foster their intellectual, social, physical, and emotional growth. As a result, our candidates embrace their emerging independence, graduating with impressive maturity, academic and leadership skills, and a sense of self that they carry forward into college and future careers.  

Junior Boarding School

We help families benefit from unique educational opportunities.

Not as well-known as secondary boarding schools, junior boarding schools offer an unparalleled learning environment for students in sixth through ninth grades. Early adolescence encompasses one of the most dramatic—and vulnerable—phases of child development. During this special time, the tight-knit community of a boarding school can offer structure, challenge, and nurturing from exceptional adult mentors, who serve as teachers, coaches, and residential life advisors. Junior boarding schools are known for helping students find their academic and social confidence as well as their independence through a highly supervised experience. The ninth-grade year at these schools encourages students to become role models to younger peers at a time when they are developmentally ready to embrace the concept of leadership. 

Ultimately, junior boarding schools provide the ideal academic and social preparation for secondary school. A junior boarding school education can be a life-changing gift to a child: nurturing his or her initiative and resiliency, and laying the foundation for success in secondary school, college, and life. TBG helps families identify and access these opportunities.

Day School

We help you find the right school, close to home.

Families are often attracted to the abundant educational and extracurricular possibilities at independent day schools. However, discerning how each school’s mission, merits, and unique approach to education may—or may not—serve a specific child can be a challenge.

TBG’s individualized approach, together with our in-depth knowledge of schools, provides each family with the confidence to make informed decisions and find the synergy between a specific student and a school. Our experience navigating the complex and often competitive admission process benefits the family experience and the student outcomes. 

Non-Traditional Advising

We help families find their footing when everything changes.

TBG consultants are knowledgeable about the variety of therapeutic options which can help families regain balance and get students back on track.  No matter what the details of your child’s situation, they—and you—are not alone in having encountered obstacles. Yet many families find themselves floundering when adversity hits, feeling an urgent need to take action, but not knowing what resources or courses of action are appropriate or available.

We frequently help families whose children struggle with depression, anxiety, substance issues, eating disorders, school refusal, and a wide variety of other at-risk circumstances. We often serve as mediators between adolescents and parents, gathering information and making referrals to other professionals as needed to clarify the issues at hand. Our professional relationships connect families to services in their own communities, and our consultants have personally visited the majority of therapeutic programs, acute hospital settings, intervention programs, wilderness programs, and young adult support settings.  

During challenging times, families need support from a variety of sources which bring a broad range of expertise.  TBG consultants are experienced and knowledgeable in dealing with placement options and managing the relationships with therapists, field personnel, directors and educators.  They know the individual therapists and can often be instrumental in matching the child with the most appropriate therapist in a particular program.  Research has shown that the relationship between the client and treatment provider is a key factor in determining success.

Therapeutic placement is often a multi-step process and can last some time.  The process usually begins with an assessment program which serves to provide intervention, awareness, and coping strategies to allow a smoother reintegration into traditional environments.  During this time the individual will find him/herself in a foreign environment which fosters simplicity and clarity to reduce the current challenges they are facing at home and school.  This period of assessment can last 8 to 12 weeks, and the objective is to develop a course of action for the child which will identify and address his or her emotional needs.

Our services at the beginning of the relationship with a family include:

• Assessing the child’s needs and accomplishments, as well as academic, emotional, clinical and social history,

• Conducting clinical and educational inventory of services and treatment, including evaluating test results,

• Recommending optimal school, program and/or support services,

• Advocating for the child at those schools or programs,

• Providing clinical support to the family throughout the initial placement process through the services of a licensed marriage and family therapist,

• Periodic, formal discussions (usually weekly) with the child’s therapist, and

• Monitoring the progress and outcomes throughout all stages of the placement in order to make recommendations for next steps.

This understanding of the evolving challenges of adolescence and young adulthood often leads to a subsequent placement where these adolescents and young adults can gain the ability to act in a more socially acceptable manner.  These therapeutic day/boarding schools, residential treatment centers, supportive boarding schools and young adult transition programs provide the tools which will refine the direction of their moral compass.  Moreover, these programs have flexible matriculation dates and can provide credit toward a high school diploma, or outright graduation, in a shorter period of time than might be expected.

TBG consultants are an important part of a team that you will assemble as you move through this journey.  Parents need emotional support throughout, but additionally, financial advice and counsel is important as well.  Although TBG cannot provide this service to you directly, we can make introductions to advocates who can represent you in appealing the cost to your local school district.  We also have contacts with firms who will work with you, healthcare providers and your insurance carriers to try and maximize reimbursement for the programs. 

We are available at any time to discuss your child’s needs and options for help, and act as your advocate throughout the entire process.

College & Graduate School Advising

Why TBG

Our consultants are respected as much by admissions directors, educators, and clinical professionals as we are by the families that we serve.

Since 1994, TBG has helped families find schools and colleges where their children encounter the right balance of challenge and encouragement to achieve their maximum potential. We help families find the right educational “fit” for their child. Again and again, we hear from families and colleagues that our knowledge, integrity, compassion, and ability to understand people and places have made a tremendous difference in children’s lives.

Unlike some firms, we limit the number of families with whom we work at any one time, so that we can consistently provide the most attentive, personal service to each family. We work across the educational continuum, often with families seeking our services at each stage of a child’s school career.

The TBG team brings to their work a variety of career and life experiences—all revealing a lifetime passion for serving young people. Each consultant brings a specialization and unique expertise to the advisory process. This gives our team a depth and breadth to advise families on the full range of educational needs and goals.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

“They all said you are the best in the business and that we were in great hands. We agree.”--Parent

Our educational advisors facilitate every aspect of educational planning.

Education is one of the primary influences that shape children along their paths to adulthood—thus educational choices are among the most important decisions parents make. Despite a plethora of information available through websites and promotional materials, assessing the nuances that differentiate schools remains a challenge. What seem like subtle differences often become significant as they positively or negatively influence individual children.

Finding a school, college, or therapeutic program with the right formula for a student’s success is also a journey of self-discovery. It requires applicants and their parents to be candid about challenges, as well as strengths. It entails prioritizing needs, as well as goals.

We have developed strong relationships with educational institutions nationwide and globally, so we can guide families through an educational system that is far more complex, competitive, and costly than in previous generations. Meanwhile, we help emerging young adults better understand themselves as they explore fundamental questions about how they connect with the world.

Over the years, serving in numerous educational capacities, we have assisted thousands of students and families. When you work with TBG, all of this experience is brought to bear to make your individual child’s educational needs and aspirations a reality.

Career & Life Coaching

At TBG, we want to advance the learning of young adults about how to reflect on their experiences, connect with those who share their professional interests, and take the next step in their career journey.