Let’s make this easy – because choosing a college isn’t. Our team of college admissions experts is ready to lead you through the entire admissions process and help you navigate the complicated waters of figuring out what to do after high school and where to do it.
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What we Do
At With Purpose, we will create an easy, stress-free, and customized plan to lead students and families through the college and career search process. We promise to do our best to help you find the right fit, increase your chances of getting into the college or career of your choice, and secure as much financial aid as possible with as little stress as possible.

Find the Right Fit
After an initial discovery phase and goal session, we work with students to identify their interests, strengths, and passions through a series of inventories. We then work with the students and families to identify non-negotiables when it comes to college selection. Finally, we overlay this information with college information, identity, and offerings to generate a list of 8-10 colleges that would potentially be a good fit.

Get Accepted
We work hand in hand with students on an individual basis to provide ongoing support with resumes, applications, essays and personal statements, interview skills, and other critical aspects of the college admissions process. Our support has shown to improve students’ admissions ranking and differentiate them over other students (their competition) in a way that increases the chances of getting accepted into the colleges they want.

Secure Financial Aid
Our team will create a customized plan for each student to secure as much financial aid as possible. The world of college financial aid, scholarships, and grants is broad, complex and can be daunting. Even those that are financially savvy can leave a lot of money on the table. We will teach families how to negotiate for more money, how to secure all possible funding and provide expert counsel when it comes to loans and grants. We will simplify this process so that it is easy to understand.

Remove the Stress
Choosing what to do after high school and where to do it is one of the most significant decisions a person will make in his/her life. This decision will determine a student’s future more than any other decision they will make. The gravity of this decision innately creates a significant amount of stress and pressure for both the student, but also the family. It is our goal to lead the college search process for students and families and remove this stress – we got this.
Who We Serve
At With Purpose Consulting Group, LLC, we are prepared to serve every student no matter how early or late in the college search and selection process they are.

Individuals
We are ready to serve any student, whether they aren’t sure if college is for them, or if they already know which college they want to attend. We are here to serve students from small towns in the Midwest to students on the coasts or even internationally. We are prepared to start working with the middle school students and creating a path of success for them to seniors in their last semester needing to wrap everything up. Whatever the case, whoever the individual, and however we can help, we are prepared and ready.

Schools
We are ready to work with any school or school district no matter the size or the need. We are prepared to serve a school as the preferred college counseling service vendor and work in conjunction with school administrators to provide professional college counseling or to serve as a supplement to what a school already has in place. Whatever the case, whoever the school, and however we can help, we are prepared and ready.

Private Entities
We are ready to support academies, foundations, non-profit groups, athletic clubs, charter schools, homeschool groups, academic coalitions, or any other private entity that has a vested interest in making sure their students are equipped, well-informed, and educated with the college search process. We will customize our services to meet the needs of your organization and provide professional college counseling to your students individually or as a group.
Our Services
Find the right fit; secure your future

Goal setting session

College application assistance

FAFSA completion assistance

Scholarship negotiation training

Financial Aid Training And Guidance

With Purpose Consulting Group, LLC
With Purpose Consulting Group, LLC was founded by Merritt Nelson on October 4, 2021. After over 25 years of successful careers in both K-12 education and Higher Education, Merritt launched ‘With Purpose’ to inspire students to aggressively pursue their future aspirations with purpose by providing strategic support and guidance throughout their college and career search process.
Start Your Journey Now
Let’s get started. Time is of the essence. The college search and selection process is competitive and those who start early always have an advantage. Click the Schedule Your Consultation button and LET’S GO!!!!

Schedule a Risk-free Consultation
Each potential client will have an opportunity to participate in a complimentary 30 minute consultation session before agreeing to any services. This risk-free session will include an overview of services offered, a value proposition conversation, guaranteed deliverables, and an opportunity to ask questions. To get started, click the ‘Schedule Your Free Consultation” today!

Choose Package
Each client will have the opportunity to choose the services they want that are unique to their situation and customized to their needs. We’ll listen to you and do our best to understand what you want. We’ll present everything from the comprehensive concierge package to the general application package and subsequently make a recommendation based upon your situation. You just tell us what you want and we’ll make it happen.

Get Accepted; Get Money
It is our goal to get you accepted into the colleges you want and secure as much financial aid as possible. We know the tips and tricks of the college’s admissions and financial aid process and will leverage our expertise, and the time we spent on the admissions side working for the colleges, to work for you and to serve as your personal advocate and concierge to maximize your opportunities.
Testimonials
“Heading into her junior year of high school, Natalie had an idea where she wanted to go to college, but didn’t know where to start or what the first steps were. Her high school counselor is great, but just didn’t have the time to work individually with Natalie on her application and answer her questions. Merritt and his team took the reins and is currently leading us through the process. The personalization has been the most impressive part of College Counseling 360 and I highly recommend any high school student strongly consider working with this dynamic and talented team to help them with the college search process. “
“Was college the right choice and which college is the right fit? Recommend without reservation: Jayson didn’t know if college was going to be right for him. Merritt put Jayson through an extensive inventory and worked with him on identifying his strengths, passions, and goals among other things. Upon completing this we not only were able to confirm that college was the right choice for Jayson, but Merritt was able to put together a list of 8 colleges that fit Jayson’s needs and our family’s non-negotiables. We are in the process of applying and visiting several of these schools and are confident that the right fit will rise up and be clear to us based upon the great work of the College Counseling team.”
“Needed financial aid guidance and didn’t want debt; 10/10 recommend: Moving into his senior year, the thing that we were most nervous about was how we were going to pay for Ethan’s college. We have a little bit of money saved through our 529 Plan, but we knew that wouldn’t be enough. One of the most important factors in Ethan’s college choice was being able to find a college that was the right fit for him and getting him graduated with as little debt as possible. The financial aid team at College Counseling 360 identified a series of scholarships Ethan would be eligible for and he is applying for those now. We are confident that the schools Merritt and his team provided to us will allow us to meet our goal of little to no debt. I highly recommend anyone who wants to hear about all the tricks and trades of the higher education financial world to work with Merritt and his team; they are amazing and very focused on helping meet each client’s goals.”
“We didn’t know what we didn’t know; Highly recommend College Counseling 360: We’ve had two children go through the college search process before, but when I spoke with Merritt about how I thought I could do this alone, he said, ‘You only know what you know – and you don’t know what you don’t know.’ I told him I’d be willing to schedule a consultation and give him a chance to show what he meant. In less than 30 minutes, he blew my mind with information and explained with clarity the different financial aid models across higher education. He articulated the difference between loans and grants and which ones to stay away from and which ones to pursue; he explained the difference between unfunded institutional aid and funded institutional aid and why that matters and how to leverage it to get more money. With my two older children, we thought we got a good deal and did well handling things ourselves. I had no idea how much money we left on the table and how much more money we could have gotten in aid if we would have worked with Merritt and his College Counseling 360 team. My youngest two children are in 8th grade and 10th grade and we have already hired Merritt to work with us for their college search.”
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