Key Takeaways
- CBRG integrates academic, social, and financial planning. Their team doesn’t just focus on how to pay for college—they help families find the right-fit schools based on student strengths and financial fit.
- Workshops provide critical guidance upfront. Before committing, families gain valuable insight through no-pressure, information-packed sessions that walk through the entire college journey.
- Essay coaching and fit-focused advising lead to better outcomes. CBRG helps students craft compelling application essays and apply strategically to schools where they’re likely to thrive and afford to attend.
Video Transcript
We have a great show. You’re gonna learn all about how to navigate your way through college.
It’s College Benefits Research Group—who are in town, Roseland. So we have, let me go from here, Steven Sirot, David Slater—you are the co-founders—and Janet Loren. Loren from the Loren family.
Okay, alright, alright. And you joined them after? So you’ve been with them a while? Yeah, so you’re a certified educational planner. So we have it all covered. We get finances. We have someone to talk to when we go crazy about—oh my God, what happened? Okay, fine.
That’s how it started. We started out figuring how to pay for it, and then we were saying, you know, we really should make sure that we can pay for it and find the right college.
So did you start out helping people just with budgeting? Yeah, mostly with the financial part of it. Exactly. Okay—big part of it? Oh, definitely.
So how do families find you? You advertise? You do it—you know, how do they know who you are? We do workshops in the area—libraries, in our office, and in any public areas. So do you also go to the college—the high school—when they do college night? I mean, we’ve done them on occasion. We’re really geared for working with individual students and families. And so, we do a lot of different talks. But we’re, thank goodness, busy. And so we really tend to focus on meeting with students and their families.
Does a family go out and interview different companies like yours before they settle—nothing is settled—but before they choose?
I’ve often said to my partners, I really don’t feel like we have much competition. Because there are a few really decent planners out there—but there’s not enough of them. This is what we do with the student and family—it makes a tremendous difference in paying for college, finding the right college. And it’s really all about them being happy and successful once they get there. So I wish there were more of us out there, honestly, because it’s really needed.
What makes us different is we truly embrace the academic, social, and financial parts. I think that’s very important. Very few companies do that.
The Interview Process
When a family comes to see you, do you—how do they interview you? Or do you interview them? Do they have to fill out a questionnaire so you know what you’re dealing with?
It’s interesting. We have people come to our workshops. The workshops are an opportunity for them to learn what’s going on. We take them through—I tell them it’s almost like going… if you ever had pregnancy, a Lamaze class. That doesn’t always happen the way it says in the movie, but I did say something. The thing is—we go through that during our workshops. We go through beginning, middle, and end. And we talk to both the students and the families at these workshops. It gives them a context—first of all, to understand who we are and to ask questions, which is always important.
Okay, so I don’t mean to interrupt but—so, okay—they know that general stuff. So the first time the family comes into the office—what do they do? What’s the first thing they have to do?
They generally meet with Steven and myself. And we break the meeting into two parts. We talk a little bit with the family together, and then what happens is Steven talks with the parents more about the financials, and I work with the student.
Working with Students
We talk privately—and really about what their strengths are, what they love, where they want to go.
Do they bring their transcripts at that point? Sometimes yes—but mostly we talk a lot. We talk really about what classes they’re taking now, what schools they’ve thought about, where they are with their GPA, what they’re looking for. We also talk about what they’re doing in the summers, and how we can start to think about really getting them college-ready—which is really what we want to talk about.
So that’s going to be your second meeting? We’ve been fortunate—now about 80 to 85 percent of the families we work with are referred by other families. So we’ve really built up a phenomenal reputation that we’ve worked hard to earn.
But we always encourage them, if possible, to go to one of those workshops first. It’s not a sales pitch—it’s a workshop. We changed it from seminar to workshop, because whether they go to the workshop and never come to see us—they walk out of there, they love it, they learn a lot. I mean, we get excellent feedback from that.
And then if they want, they can come meet with Janet and me. I’ll really give them a good understanding about how the financials work. She’s going to work with the student. And there still is no commitment.
So by the time a family would decide to work with us, they’ve really gotten to know us.
So I would imagine you have to then narrow down with the student—like the colleges they’re thinking of—and where you think they would best fit. And I know there’s a lot of competition in our area. You know, to advise them where they should try, where they shouldn’t try—how does that go?
Well, we talk a lot with the student. And we really, once again, talk about what their strengths are and then what their loves are. Because we really believe that if they follow their strengths, then they follow what they love—they will get to a career.
We don’t know necessarily what the careers are going to be. Well, I think kids are so confused now. They don’t know when they go into college—too many choices.
There are a lot of choices. But we’re talking about that. And we talk about getting a direction. It’s using the process to discover the best choices.
Too often, we see that people cherry-pick a school—”Oh, this school is great for that, and I’m great for this.” But we start out with criteria. Good, what’s the criteria? And we try to find as many schools as we can to fit that.
Then we work with the student and family through the whole process to narrow them down.
But going back to the financial side of this—that’s very, very important. Definitely. And we read in the promo that you gave us about “Don’t put all the money on the first kid, because you may have second and third kids.” You have to be able to spread that out.
If you think about this as a process—and what Steven said—Janet is working on the academic and the social. But what Janet brings to the table is that she visits 60 to 70 schools a year. She’s on those campuses, she’s visiting, and she understands it differently. So she understands what they’re looking for.
Now, when you have students who come from a high school, all they’ve heard about is, “This is the school—let’s go.” Well, sometimes the reps that come to the high school are from your town. They’ve been hired here. They’re not from North Carolina—where the driving is, for God’s sakes. And they’re up here, and you’re like, “Oh yes,” because they’re from here.
Janet knows what the campuses are like. So when we work with the students, we do have a budget in mind—but not from Janet’s perspective. Janet’s looking for what’s going to be the right fit.
Right. Our side of it is to figure out how to pay for it without going broke. Which school is going to give the most money? How do they position at those schools? How are we going to get there? Is there a negotiation?
Schools are so different in their policies—in admission, but also financial aid. Some give a lot of merit money to a lot of kids. Some don’t give any. Some give a lot of need-based aid. Some don’t give any. And everywhere in between.
So that process—of really fitting both the right academic and social with the financial potential—is key.
I’m just saying—having a realistic ability to navigate all of that on their own? And a lot of the information they rely on is generalized. It’s not personalized for that family or student.
Exactly. Or even colleges—they say, “Well, all publics do this,” and “All Ivies do that.” That couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s way more nuanced than people understand.
It is. And that’s really where the guidance and the expertise bring value and success.
Essay Coaching
How do you, Janet, help the student with writing the essays? What makes them different from somebody else? I mean—I just went through this with a grandchild. To write that Common App essay, then the essay for the school, then the supplementals—oh yeah.
Do you help them out with that? To make it different? Well, first of all, I think it has to be in the student’s own voice. Right—of course.
It’s really about the student. And what I talk to them about is—we talk about something that’s important to them to talk about. But also, you have to think of it from the college side.
There are really two reasons—and really two purposes—for that essay. One is to show the student’s unique qualities. And two, to show what they’re going to bring to that campus. And you have to think about that when you’re writing that essay.
Right. And we talk a lot about it. And it comes out. It really does. We work on it together.
And really, what I’ve seen Janet do with our kids is how she guides them to writing an admissions essay. So many people fail to really understand that. They want it to be amazing—but they don’t realize that this is about the story they’re telling for admissions.
Yeah—it’s not just an essay that an English teacher is going to critique and say, “Wow, that really was…” It’s not supposed to be an article for a newspaper that has a byline that’s gonna grab you.
And all of this nuance does change the way that people do this.
Expectations & Ongoing Support
After you help the kids—once they get in or don’t get in—what happens when they’re not getting into the colleges?
There’s always managing expectations. And we try to do that before. I mean—it’s really important.
Well, we talk about that. But yeah, we really look at the data—as Steven said—we really look at the data before we’re looking at those schools. Where does that student position? And we talk about that so that there’s a realistic view when we’re looking at the schools.
There is a college for everyone. There’s more than one. Yeah, there’s lots. There really is.
Also, I’m thinking—when the kid is in school and decides, “This school is not for me,” you can still help them at that point?
Even later on, after they’ve already gone in? Yes. And I know we have to go to break quickly—but how long do you stay with the kids? Can they call you all through four years of college?
They can always call. I usually talk to them right around Thanksgiving, because I always like to hear the inside scoop from them. “Are you friends with the college?” And they give me feedback about that college and how they’re doing as well.
We want to thank you so much for being here. This was very enlightening—we could go on and on.
Related CBRG Blog Resources
- The Power of a Personalized College Plan
- Finding the Right College Fit
- Crafting Compelling College Essays: Expert Tips
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