Academic & College Advisor - Palo Alto​/Peninsula

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

Strive Path 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.

Strive Path 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.

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.

• Meet 1:1 with assigned students, primarily in person at our Palo Alto and San Mateo offices
• 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 Strive Path advisors and specialists on student strategy
• Occasionally lead workshops or presentations for students and parents

The best Strive Path 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…