New personal advisory service eliminates guesswork in choosing a college

The process of selecting the right college, university or career school is a daunting undertaking.  High school seniors and their parents as well as adults thinking about returning to college have easy access to reams of information online.  Perhaps too much information, which can be overwhelming.  To avoid frustration, and the chance of selecting a college inappropriate for the student, those who can afford it hire professional college consultants to act as guide and adviser. 
 
Unfortunately, not many can afford fees that range, according to a 2012 FOXbusiness story, from $250 to as high as $40,000.  The solution for those who can’t or don’t want to pay consultants’ fees may be a new free service introduced recently by University Research & Review (UR&R).
 
With advice from former college and university presidents, CEOs, and provosts, UR&R developed a unique new approach to assist in college selection.  High tech but very personalized, this new free service employs algorithms to sort data comprised of fields of study, careers, and degree programs at nearly 8,000 postsecondary institutions.  Importantly, the system combines an individual’s personal criteria with this data so a trained advisor can effectively guide a prospective enrollee in making better choices.
 
While online services like the ubiquitous U.S. News Best Colleges allow site visitors to sort data, UR&R’s sophisticated system provides two important and unique elements.  The first of these is one-on-one interaction by a human being with a prospective college enrollee.  The second is a personality assessment tool, a test proven effective over twenty years of use.  The results of this test assist the UR&R advisor in recommending specific degree programs and schools appropriate for each individual’s unique higher education journey.
 
UR&R’s Joseph Schmoke, a former university CEO, says the organization’s goal is to provide guidance and advice that is similar to that provided by professional college consultants, but without the cost.  Asked how UR&R will provide this service to potential enrollees for free, Schmoke replied, “The organization is self-funded.  Once our brand is established and the value of our services is acknowledged we will charge fees, but for the time being the services are free.  So we are encouraging everyone who is considering enrolling in college or transferring to another school to use our services…with our compliments.”   

Contact Information

Joseph Schmoke

CEO

University Research & Review, LLC

(1) 561-594-1110

js@urandr.org