Billing herself as “America’s College Counselor,” Sarah Harberson is an author, educator, and former UPenn Associate Dean of Admissions. She differentiates herself by promoting a positioning action plan intended to generate the strongest possible “Soundbite” to optimize a student’s chances of admission.
About Company
Sarah Harberson started her consulting career back in 2018 with Application Nation, a private, subscription-based Facebook group intended to “teach parents how to think like admissions officers.” In 2021, she wrote SOUNDBITE: The Admissions Secret that Gets You Into College and Beyond, which, in an admissions context, can be likened to a self-marketing plan for students: a way to definitively and memorably differentiate their “brand” from that of their competitors and lean into the strongest possible version of themselves.
In addition to Application Nation, Harberson also offers virtual and one-on-one application consulting services. For those who want to get a better feel for her approach to college admissions, she has a considerable number of free resources on her website and a blog, as well as a very strong social media presence, which, unlike most professional college consultants, includes a TikTok account boasting 22,000 followers.
Sarah Harberson Score
Sarah Harberson Review
Sarah Harberson’s strongest scores are in the experience and influencer categories, where she boasts at least a dozen years of admissions experience, which gives her a 4, and a strong social media following (1608 Twitter, 1490 YouTube), earning a solid 5. She gets a 2 in results (she doesn’t present any data), a 1 in reputation (no reviews), a 2 in web presence (unfortunately, she appears on the tenth page of Google search results). Because she’s independent and has no employees, she gets a 1 for team size and a 1 for team quality (because she’s a former admissions officer). Total score: 2.28.