COLLEGE SEARCH CONSULTING
If you’ve seen the rest of his site, you’ll know Dr. Weed is a graduate of Yale, Princeton, and
Harvard universities with degrees in Political Science, Public Affairs, and Genetics. You’ll also
know he’s had diverse work experiences and involvement with several top universities and
the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Weed’s unique life circumstances have given him the opportunity to work with nearly a
thousand undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who have attended more than
fifty of the world’s top colleges and universities. Mentoring these people has helped him
develop unique knowledge about how students have experienced these campuses and their
environments. Doing so has also given Dr. Weed great sensitivity to the stresses and
opportunities that come with looking for the right college or graduate program and what
campuses will be like once you’re accepted and decide to go there.
Along with his diverse education, Dr. Weed has had many experiences that shape his unique
knowledge of not only what programs of study are like, but also what you might be able to
do with your degree once you’ve earned it.
His work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he was the first Associate Director
of the $150 million Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, one of three organizations in a half
billion-dollar public/private partnership meant to bring science and technology jobs to
Wisconsin, taught him a great deal about research administration and the opportunities and
challenges facing public and private sector science and technology today.
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Along with energizing diverse hiring of faculty and staff while at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, Dr. Weed managed its budget, liaised with groups across the university and beyond, and advocated for outreach to students in particular.
In 2011 and 2012, he launched and ran a program called Discovering Careers in Healthcare
and the Life Sciences which exposed 1100 students to panels totaling 125 health and
science professionals and admissions officers from 30 different graduate health professions
programs. He also inspired and co-launched a program sometimes called Public Health
teams. This initiative continues to expose students to how people who are older, disabled,
and chronically ill manage their health when not in the doctor’s office.
Dr. Weed’s unique life experience as patient, innovator, mentor and developer for programs
like those he ran at UW-Madison and several other universities, gives him a clear
understanding of what healthcare and health professions jobs in America are like today. If
you are interested in science, technology or the health professions, and work with him on an
individual basis, he will gladly connect you to people working in areas you may be
interested in so you can learn more about them.
Dr. Weed can help with your college, doctoral, or professional school searches.
In 2017-19, Dr. Weed acted as a contributing writer and senior adviser for Gold Medal Grads, a website run by a socioeconomically diverse team of specialists and advisers which closed down because its founder took a position in Finance. You can see some thoughts about Dr. Weed from the founder in the endorsements. He also helps students recruited by sparkscholars.com, a China based company whose clients are educated on both sides of the Pacific, get into
US colleges and universities.
Dr. Weed knows that just surviving the process of looking for and getting into
college or graduate school isn’t enough. Things like making college as affordable as
possible, the campus environment, and the availability of internships or opportunities for
experiential learning, not to mention quality advising and support services, can make or
break your experience. Dr. Weed will help you think through these things during your
application process.
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Dr. Weed knows you need lots of resources, information, and perspective to decide which
college may be best for you. His totally free resources page links to his blogs on choosing
and getting into college. It also has hundreds of links to articles from other sources on
various ranking systems for colleges, choosing, getting into, and making the most
out of college, and information on how to maximize the return on your investment in
college while doing everything you can to make it affordable. You can also find articles
that describe some colleges’ initiatives to make degrees more affordable for their students.
If you’re a US citizen or permanent resident, there is a path to the Federal Application for Free Student Aid (FAFSA), which if you fill it out, is very likely to make money available to you that will make college more affordable. He has pointers to tools you can use to decide whether some campuses you may be considering are affordable for you, and links to a number of articles from other authors with perspectives on how you can maximize the return on your investment in your education. In his resources section there are also materials from various US Government agencies on careers and the salaries you can reasonably expect to make depending on the educational paths you choose.
If you work with him individually on your applications, he will help you think through these
things and more.
After your schools make their decisions, he will help you figure out which undergraduate or
graduate program should be best for you. He even has a few articles on changes in and
around health professions schools that you can find here.
Covid-19 is a concern for everyone. It will be for some time. For hundreds of articles Dr.
Weed has collected on the impact of Covid-19 on students and colleges alike, click here.
As a diabetic with a Ph.D. in the life sciences, Dr. Weed understands the importance of
social distancing as well as your need for usable information on the value, and possible
problems, of going to college or graduate school. He is glad to speak to individuals or
classes on-line about the college selection process as it is under unusual circumstances.
If you’re planning to apply for college or graduate school this fall, many of the students with
whom Dr. Weed has worked say knowing him has helped them find the right college or
university and succeed once they got there. Below are some of their thoughts on the value of
working with him.
​Dr. Weed knows how important it is to get the right adviser. Click on the "Make an Appointment" button below to schedule a free half hour introductory consult via phone or Skype. If you’d like to schedule your first full hour at his normal rate of $150 for the first hour, ($75 per conversation for any follow-ups), please contact him via his Appointment scheduling tool.
Please note, Dr. Weed charges $150 per set of college essays no matter how many rewrites are required for that campus. So, if you apply to five colleges with his assistance he will charge $750 total for all of the editing time on your personal statements for those five campuses not including any follow-up phone calls. Dr. Weed will discuss lower rates if your economic circumstances require this.
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If you’re a teacher or administrator, below are also a few endorsements from teachers and an administrator for his presentations to groups of students.
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Contact Dr. Weed for their information if you’d like more detailed thoughts from
them. Sets of responses from some of the audiences can be found here.