Empowering Your College Dreams
OUR MISSION
Supporting Idaho students’ post-secondary dreams, we prioritize accessibility, ensuring finances never hinder any student’s journey.
How We Can Help
Academic Advising
We help you choose classes for the remainder of high school to meet requirements of the most selective schools of interest to the student.
Understanding College Financial Aid and Scholarships
Building a College List
Focusing Extracurricular Activities
Focus and deepen your energies on school and summer activities around things you care about. Arts Portfolios, Athletic Profiles, and student-built websites highlighting interests can add depth to your application.
Developing an Application Timeline and Organizing System
Essay & Resume Writing
GPAs and test scores don’t tell colleges much about you. Essays are where colleges come to understand who you are and why you want to join their community. We can help you.
Meetings & Events
Summer 2024 Essay Boot Camp Dates
Register for Summer Essay and August 2024 Common Application Camps.
Free Virtual Zoom or In Person Meetings
We offer in-person and Virtual Zoom Meetings to help students.
April To Do List
Seniors: April is for evaluating offers of admission and financial aid awards! Contact us if you need help sorting out your options!
Juniors: This is your year to shine, both academically and with your activities. We’re happy to help you explore colleges!
All students: Our drop-in centers are open! Come see us for help with academic planning, exploring colleges, and more!
Student Testimonials
Step Ahead gave me the tools and support I needed to succeed in the college admission process. My advisor made a process that is typically grueling and stressful much easier and more manageable. With her help I was able to find the colleges that matched me as a student and individual. She helped me speak in the language of college applications, write from my heart, and avoid cliches. With regular meetings, deadline reminders, personal help navigating some of the difficult forms and webpages, and essay edits, I showed my best self to the schools I was passionate about, and found (and got admitted to!) the college that makes me incredibly excited for the next chapter of my life.
The single most important thing Step Ahead Idaho did for me was bringing to my attention the idea of “meet need” schools. While not being a school I ended up attending, discovering the existence of these types of universities made me take a longer look at the money I was looking to spend and ultimately guided me away from those that had less bang for their buck.
I will be forever grateful to the open, friendly, and knowledgeable ladies at Step Ahead. The college application process can feel totally overwhelming at times, so it was so nice to have experts who knew what they were doing giving me encouragement and keeping me on track. Step Ahead was the first to introduce me to the idea of “meet-need schools”, which allowed me to widen the net of colleges I was looking at and prevented me from having to take out loans for an undergraduate education. I attended their summer essay boot camp, which is a must for any rising senior. They helped me with almost every part of the application process, and kept me motivated even when spring semester rolled around. Thank you, Step Ahead!