Humble, hungry, and smart
You share credit, stay open to feedback, create momentum, exercise strong interpersonal judgment, and put students and the team ahead of ego. For this role, all three matter.
Careers at Telos
College Counselor /
Admissions Strategist
Help ambitious students build stronger academic paths, meaningful extracurricular work, and applications that feel both strategically sharp and genuinely human.
The real hiring need: This is not simply a counselor who can manage deadlines. Telos needs a strategic admissions thinker who can see the story inside a student’s profile, raise the ceiling on the work, and turn scattered interests into a coherent, compelling direction.
The opportunity
Strategic judgment. Deeply human guidance.
We are not looking for someone who only tracks requirements or keeps students on schedule. We want a counselor who can look at a transcript, activity list, early essay, or half-formed project idea and quickly recognize what is missing, what is promising, and how to turn “good” into exceptional.
Telos works with students whose interests span business, engineering, humanities, public health, technology, and more. Our counselors help students connect those interests into a clear direction, make smart academic choices, develop substantive projects, and communicate their stories with depth.
You may be a broad generalist who can think fluently across several fields, or a specialist with exceptional depth in an area such as business or engineering. Either way, you should be able to understand the whole student, not just one piece of the application.
This role is especially well suited to someone who has evaluated applications from the admissions side and now wants to apply that pattern recognition in a highly personalized counseling environment. Admissions-reading experience is a strong plus, not a requirement.
Workload and seasonality
College counseling has predictable busy seasons. During peak application periods, generally late summer through early winter, you should expect a heavier workload, increased student and family communication, more evening availability, occasional weekend work, and some weeks that exceed the typical schedule.
Lighter periods provide room for schedule rebalancing, time off, planning, training, and improvements to our counseling systems. Seasonal intensity should be planned and sustainable, not a permanent state of emergency.
What you’ll do
Own the strategy. Raise the quality.
- Own or support a caseload of students through academic planning, profile development, college strategy, and application execution.
- Read transcripts strategically, including course rigor, GPA context, UC A-G eligibility, UC honors distinctions, and preparation for an intended major.
- Help students choose courses and experiences that strengthen both authentic development and admissions positioning.
- Identify the narrative thread connecting a student’s interests, choices, activities, and goals.
- Elevate essays from technically competent to memorable, without flattening the student’s voice or manufacturing a story that is not theirs.
- Push students beyond generic extracurricular participation toward purposeful, tangible work such as initiatives, publications, research, community programs, or other meaningful artifacts.
- Guide purpose projects from vague concept to credible execution, matching the form of the project to the student’s strengths and intended direction.
- Evaluate student profiles holistically and spot gaps, inconsistencies, underdeveloped strengths, and missed opportunities early.
- Use AI tools to brainstorm, analyze, compare, and improve work while applying independent judgment to every recommendation.
- Collaborate with Telos counselors, editors, tutors, mentors, and operations staff to deliver coordinated, high-touch support.
- Communicate clearly and reliably with students, families, and teammates.
What we’re really looking for
Expertise without ego. Warmth with ownership.
We use Patrick Lencioni’s Ideal Team Player framework, humble, hungry, and smart, as one lens for evaluating every hire.
Admissions pattern recognition
You can distinguish activity from impact, polish from substance, and a merely solid application from one with a persuasive through-line. Admissions-reading experience, especially within the University of California system, is a major advantage.
A storyteller’s eye
You find the meaningful story even when a student is not yet a strong writer or does not arrive with an obvious narrative. You ask better questions, surface revealing details, and shape essays that are specific, alive, and strategically useful.
Strategic range or valuable depth
You move comfortably across several fields or bring deep expertise that helps students go beyond surface-level activities. Business and engineering expertise would be particularly valuable.
High standards for student work
You can diagnose why an essay, project, or profile is falling short and give concrete direction that makes it clearer, deeper, or more distinctive.
AI fluency with human judgment
You use modern AI tools to improve analysis, ideation, and feedback while recognizing that judgment, ethics, context, relationships, and authentic student voice remain human responsibilities.
Relational skill and practical ownership
Students trust you because you combine warmth with candor. You create momentum, follow through, and coordinate the people and resources needed to move a student forward.
Strong candidates may bring
- Experience as a college admissions reader, admissions officer, or experienced independent-school or private college counselor.
- Deep familiarity with UC admissions, including A-G requirements, course rigor, GPA calculation, PIQ strategy, and holistic application review.
- A record of guiding students into selective colleges while keeping the process grounded in fit and authentic development.
- Strong essay coaching, interviewing, editing, or narrative-development experience.
- Expertise in business, engineering, technology, humanities, or another domain relevant to student mentorship.
- Experience helping young people design and execute substantive extracurricular or community-impact projects.
- Comfort learning new systems and working within an AI-enabled, highly collaborative environment.
This role may not be a fit if
- Your counseling approach is primarily deadline management and document collection.
- You rely on formulas, prestige signals, or generic “passion project” advice rather than understanding the individual student.
- You are uncomfortable with experimentation, new technology, or a rapidly evolving operating environment.
- You prefer to work in isolation rather than coordinate with a multidisciplinary student-support team.
- Your availability rarely overlaps with students after school or on weekends.
What success looks like
Clearer direction. Stronger student work.
Within the first several months, you will be able to review a student’s full profile and produce a clear strategic diagnosis: academic positioning, narrative direction, priority gaps, project opportunities, and next actions. Students will leave meetings with greater clarity and momentum. Their essays and projects will become more specific, substantive, and memorable. Teammates will trust your judgment, and your work will reduce, rather than create, the need for senior-level rescue or rework.
Over time, you will help Telos build a deeper counseling bench: someone capable not only of serving students well, but also of contributing patterns, frameworks, and insights that strengthen how the entire team counsels.
About Telos College Consulting
Telos is a high-touch college counseling firm that helps students develop academic direction, meaningful experiences, and compelling applications. Our model brings together counselors, tutors, editors, and project mentors around each student. We believe the strongest applications emerge from real growth, not last-minute packaging, and we use technology to create more room for thoughtful, human guidance.
How to apply
Tell us how you think about students.
Please send:
- Your résumé or LinkedIn profile.
- A short note describing your admissions or counseling experience and the kinds of students you serve best.
- One example of how you helped a student move from a generic or underdeveloped idea to a stronger academic, extracurricular, or narrative direction.
- A brief description of how you currently use, or would responsibly use, AI in college counseling.
Applications from former admissions readers and experienced counselors with strong business or engineering fluency are especially encouraged.
Email your application