Why We Started Bello Advising
People ask me sometimes why my daughter Helena and I started a college advising business at this point in my career. The honest answer goes back a lot further than my daughters' college applications. It really starts with my own.
My own process, or lack of one
I'm Gen X, and if you're around my age, you probably remember what applying to college looked like for a lot of us: you were mostly on your own. My parents didn't help me navigate the process at all, not because they didn't care, but because nobody in our world really knew how. There was no one sitting with me talking through a college list, no one explaining financial aid, no one telling me what admissions officers were actually looking for.
So my experience was limited to applying to my in-state public university, because that's what we could afford, and honestly, because I didn't know there was much else to consider. I didn't know about scholarships or other opportunities that might have been available to me. I didn't apply for a single one, not because I looked into it and decided against it, but because I genuinely didn't know they existed. I look back now and wonder what might have been possible if someone had just told me what I didn't know.
Doing it ourselves, twice
When it came time for my own daughters to apply to college, I knew right away that the typical DC-area college advisors, the ones charging upwards of $30,000, were not something our family could or would spend. Honestly, that price tag felt icky to me. It still does.
So with our oldest daughter, Helena, we went through the process side by side. She's a driven, organized person, so honestly, she mostly needed me as a thought partner rather than someone directing the process. But we both learned an enormous amount, together, about what colleges are actually looking for, what the process really involves, and how to navigate it well.
By the time our younger daughter, who's only a grade behind her sister, was going through the process, I felt like we understood it much better. She's also driven and organized, with genuinely impressive stats. My real challenge with her wasn't logistics, it was opening my own mind to the full range of possibilities for where she could go, rather than narrowing things too early. Once again, we weren't interested in spending $20,000 to $30,000 on advising, so we did it ourselves. And once again, we learned so much, this time about how to position a student so colleges see them as genuinely interesting, a standout, someone who'd actually contribute to their campus, not just someone with good grades.
The student who changed everything
After going through the process twice with my own daughters, I ended up advising my best friend's daughter. By that point, I'd built the first version of what would eventually become my modules, and I met with her regularly, walking through how to build a college list, develop an application theme and back it up with real evidence, write essays that actually sounded like her, and get every piece of her application across the finish line.
She built such a unique, thoughtful application, and working with her was genuinely fun. She's a hoot. She ended up choosing Cornell, and she's about to enter her junior year there now.
That experience is when three things clicked into place for me all at once. One, I love working with young adults, helping them discover things about themselves they didn't already know. Two, I actually know a fair amount about the college admissions process and what colleges are looking for. And three, families who aren't wealthy don't have access to the kind of support that they genuinely deserve.
Starting it together
Bello Advising was never just my idea. Helena and I had gone through the whole process side by side, and we both came out of it seeing the same thing: good guidance made an enormous difference, and most families were priced out of getting it. So we decided to build Bello Advising together. I lead the coaching with students and families, and Helena runs the operations side of the business and works with me on our content. Having just been through it herself, she keeps us honest about what actually helps students and what doesn't.
Where that leaves me now
I'll be honest: I don't have the kind of long track record that some other advisors have built up over decades. Not yet. What I do have is real leadership experience in education, a genuine understanding of how kids learn and how to support them, and some real, direct experience helping students get into colleges they actually wanted to attend.
Bello Advising exists because I know firsthand what it's like to navigate this process without any guidance at all, and I've now navigated it successfully, more than once, for people I love. Helena and I started this because we believe families who aren't rich deserve real support too, not a watered-down version of it, and not a price tag that feels icky to pay.
If that's the kind of support you're looking for, I'd love to talk. Book a free intro call, or join one of our free info sessions to learn more about how we work with families.
Maggie