Academic & College Advisor - San Ramon/Tri-Valley

StrivePath; San Ramon (CA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 121,000; Part time

Job summary

StrivePath is seeking experienced educators and advisors who excel at helping high-school students grow holistically and reach college goals. You’ll work 1:1 with a manageable caseload from 8th through 12th grade, guiding academics, applications, and personal development.

This W-2, part-time role offers $75/hour with a path to full-time. You’ll join a collaborative team that values deep student relationships, proactive planning, and effective communication with both students and parents.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; master's preferred.
• Significant experience working directly with middle- and/or high-school students.
• Experience with academic planning, college planning, applications, or related student-development work.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to build relationships with both teenagers and parents.

Responsibilities

• Meet 1:1 with assigned students, primarily in person at our San Ramon office
• Develop and proactively manage individualized student roadmaps
• Guide course selection and academic planning
• Help students explore interests and develop meaningful extracurricular involvement
• Identify summer programs and enrichment opportunities
• Assign clear deliverables and follow up to keep students accountable
• Guide college research, school-list development, and admissions strategy
• Support UC, CSU, Common App, and other applications
• Coach personal statements and supplemental essays
• Communicate effectively with parents while keeping the student at the center
• Collaborate with other StrivePath advisors and specialists on student strategy
• Occasionally lead workshops or presentations for students and parents

Skills

Student advising

Academic planning

College admissions guidance

Executive presence

Parent communication

Education

Bachelor's degree required; master's preferred

Tools

Google Workspace

Notion

CollegePlannerPro

Job description

$75/hour | W-2 | Part-time with path to full-time

StrivePath is looking for experienced educators and advisors who are exceptional at helping high-school students grow—not just complete college applications.

Maybe you're a school counselor who wishes you had more time to work deeply with individual students. Maybe you're a college counselor who wants to focus on advising rather than administration. Or perhaps you've worked in college access, admissions, academic advising, or private consulting.

We care less about your exact title and more about whether you can connect with teenagers, earn parents' confidence, develop students holistically, and proactively lead them toward college.

About StrivePath

StrivePath provides personalized, in-person academic and college advising to students and families across California.

Our work begins well before the college application. We help students navigate course selection, academic development, extracurricular interests, summer opportunities, career exploration, college strategy, and eventually applications and essays.

Happier students. Less stressed families. Better admissions outcomes.

Our advisors own the relationship with their students and families, while collaborating with a team with expertise across college admissions, academic planning, application review, athletic recruiting, essays, and other specialized areas.

You aren't expected to know everything. You are expected to know your students, lead them well, and know when to draw on the expertise around you.

The Role

You'll work one-on-one with a manageable caseload of students, primarily from 8th through 12th grade.

You'll be the primary advisor to your students and families: understanding where a student is today, developing a longer-term plan, creating concrete next steps, holding the student accountable, and adjusting the strategy as the student develops.

For younger students, much of the work is holistic: academics, course selection, interests, extracurriculars, summer planning, and personal development.

As students approach senior year, the work increasingly shifts toward college strategy, school lists, applications, essays, and admissions decisions.

What You'll Do

• Meet 1:1 with assigned students, primarily in person at our San Ramon office
• Develop and proactively manage individualized student roadmaps
• Guide course selection and academic planning
• Help students explore interests and develop meaningful extracurricular involvement
• Identify summer programs and enrichment opportunities
• Assign clear deliverables and follow up to keep students accountable
• Guide college research, school-list development, and admissions strategy
• Support UC, CSU, Common App, and other applications
• Coach personal statements and supplemental essays
• Communicate effectively with parents while keeping the student at the center
• Collaborate with other StrivePath advisors and specialists on student strategy
• Occasionally lead workshops or presentations for students and parents

What We're Looking For

The best StrivePath advisors don't all come from the same professional background.

Some have spent years in college counseling or admissions. Others have spent their careers helping teenagers navigate high school and developed college-planning expertise along the way.

What matters most to us is how you work with students.

We're looking for people who:

Know how to develop students holistically. You can help a student think through academics, courses, interests, extracurriculars, summers, career direction, and personal growth—not simply complete an application.

Have executive presence. Parents trust your judgment. You're comfortable leading conversations, making recommendations, and respectfully pushing back when appropriate.

Connect with teenagers. You can build trust while still challenging students to grow.

Create accountability. Meetings produce clear deliverables and next steps. You follow up and keep students moving rather than waiting until the next meeting to discover nothing happened.

Come in with a plan. Students have agency, but you proactively manage the roadmap and know what should happen next.

We're interested in candidates including:

• High-school or school counselors with meaningful academic and college-planning responsibilities
• College counselors
• College-access counselors or program leaders
• Independent educational consultants
• Academic advisors with substantial high-school experience
• Former admissions officers or application readers
• Experienced educators with significant student-advising and college-planning responsibilities

You do not need to arrive knowing everything about college admissions. You do need substantial experience working with high-school students and meaningful familiarity with college planning and/or applications.

Our collaborative model allows advisors to deepen their admissions expertise while contributing their own expertise to the rest of the team.

Why StrivePath

Do the counseling you wish you had more time to do.

Instead of managing hundreds of students, you'll work deeply with a manageable caseload over multiple years. You'll have time to understand each student, develop a plan, follow up, and see that plan through.

Our 15+ advisors collaborate regularly. The team includes experienced college counselors, former admissions professionals, application readers, and specialists across different areas. Difficult cases become team conversations rather than decisions you have to make in isolation.

No business to run.

We handle marketing, lead generation, initial consultations, pricing, contracts, billing, collections, and operations. Your job is to advise students.

Predictable, scalable income.

This is a W-2 position paying $75/hour. Most student engagements last 12 months or longer, creating more consistent work than seasonal application-only advising.

Start with a manageable caseload and scale based on your availability. For advisors who want more, there is a genuine path to larger caseloads, increased responsibility, and full-time roles.

Location & Schedule

This is not a fully remote role. Our families value the in-person relationship.

Advisors primarily serve students from our San Ramon office, with some remote meetings as appropriate. The position is designed to work well alongside school or other professional responsibilities.

Current school counselors and college application readers are welcome to apply, subject to their employer's policies and appropriate conflict-of-interest and recusal requirements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; master's preferred
• Significant experience working directly with middle- and/or high-school students
• Experience with academic planning, college planning, applications, or related student-development work
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to build relationships with both teenagers and parents
• Strong organizational skills and a proactive approach to student accountability
• Familiarity with UC, CSU, and/or Common App strongly preferred
• Comfortable working collaboratively and seeking colleagues' expertise when appropriate
• Comfortable with Google Workspace; CollegePlannerPro and Notion experience is a plus
• HECA, WACAC, NACAC, or IECA involvement is a plus

StrivePath is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.