My Experience
Willard M. Dix, President, College Access Counseling
I bring over thirty years of experience with students, college admission, and college counseling to bear for my clients:
- Thirteen years teaching English and theater in high school and middle school
- Eight years as an admission dean at Amherst College, Amherst MA
- Two years as an admission & marketing consultant to colleges, universities, and schools with Lipman Hearne, Chicago, IL
- Six years as a college counselor at the University of Chicago Laboratory High School.
- Currently, President of College Access Counseling, in Chicago IL.
I've worked with students, parents, and counselors of every background and have visited dozens of high schools and college campuses throughout the country. I count many longtime admission officers as friends and colleagues.
I've been quoted frequently on college admission topics by national media including the New York Times and Newsweek. I've also appeared on TV and radio talking about testing and the college process. I've spoken many times at professional conferences and have been a panelist at high schools all over the country. Most recently, I presented details of my program for counselors, College for All, at the National Charter Schools Conference in Washington, DC. My primary concerns are how to support low-income and first generation students and their mentors in their quests for college and how the college process interacts with and affects adolescent development.
Recent publications include "Footsteps in the Hall: The College Admission Process as Existential Crisis" in the Journal of College Admission and "At the Edge of Two Worlds: First Generation Students in the College Admission Process" in the Illinois Association for College Admission Counseling's (IACAC) News brief. I reviewed "Tearing Down the Gates: Confronting the Class Divide in American Education" by Peter Sacks for the National Association for College Admission Counseling's (NACAC) online journal in 2008.
I write about college admission topics in my blog College Counseling Culture and for NACAC's blog, Admitted
I have been a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) since 1990, serving two years on the Current Trends and Future Issues Committee. While serving, I helped the committee raise awareness of the connections between the college admission process and adolescent development. I have been a member of the Illinois Association for College Admission Counseling (IACAC) since 1998, and of the American School Counselors Association (ASCA) since 2007.