Meet Our Counselors

Parents come into that first meeting with a lot of questions. About process, about results, about what working with you actually looks like. But underneath all of it, there’s usually one they’re not quite saying out loud: Does this person actually care about my kid?

With Jen Rice, it doesn’t take long to find out.

Families describe her as a “mind reader,” a “confidence-builder,” and—the one that really lands—a “fabulous listener who speaks teenager.” In practice, Jen is always watching for what she calls “the twinkle”: the moment something clicks for a student, mid-session. The shift she helps them make—from overwhelmed to clear, from anxious to confident, from What am I supposed to do? to This feels right for me—is one she’s guided hundreds of families through. And her students have been admitted to a variety of selective colleges, including all the UC schools, Yale, Cornell, USC, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Purdue, Clemson, Boston University, Northeastern, and Boston College.

Before Collegewise, Jen ran her own independent college counseling practice, building experience with applications to schools across the country. Independent consultants carry a particular kind of accountability: when you’re the only person in the room, you own every outcome entirely. Inside Collegewise, she contributes to the Wiser Together Team, delivering professional development to fellow counselors. She also serves on the Board of College Consultants of Colorado.

Her counseling philosophy, in her own words: “My role as a college counselor is part teacher, listener, compass, researcher, project manager, and cheerleader. It is my job—my responsibility—to open my students’ beautiful minds and help them see what is possible for them to achieve and to become.”

Away from work, Jen volunteers at the Temple Grandin Equine Center on Colorado State’s campus—one of the few places in the world where she can talk horses and college admissions in the same breath. She once took a genetic test and discovered she carries the ACTN3 gene, better known as the sprinter gene. She uses it to chase mountain views, not finish lines. And long before college counseling, she restored a 1969 Mustang from the ground up—because she’s always been more of a figure-it-out-herself, get-her-hands-dirty kind of person.