Meet Jessica!

Jessica Hardy, College Counselor

Jessica’s higher education career spans nearly two decades, with ten years dedicated to her work as a college counseling professional. Jessica’s students have been admitted to a variety of colleges and universities, including Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Washington University - St. Louis, USC, Wake Forest, George Washington, Carnegie Mellon, the US Naval Academy, Howard, Morehouse, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, TCU, Parsons School of Design at The New School, and University of San Diego. She has served as Director of College Counseling at St. George’s Independent School, and further supplemented her advising experience with successful stints on the admissions side at Knox College, Sewanee, and Rice University (where she also managed international recruitment).  

Jessica is quite literally an award-winning counselor, having been recognized in 2022 with the “Counselors that Changes Lives” award. She has also served on the scholarship application review committees for National Honors Society, Colleges That Change Lives, and the Coca-Cola Scholars Program. This diverse set of experiences—not only advising students but also evaluating them from both the admissions and scholarship perspectives—allow her to bring deep expertise to her work at Collegewise. She understands how colleges and scholarship committees make decisions. She’s spent more than ten years honing her craft guiding students to successful outcomes. And she distills all this history, insight, and expertise into her individual work with her Collegewise students. 

Great college counselors embrace the tenet that admissions should be about the student first. It’s the student’s college experience and future, after all, and the most successful college counseling outcomes are born from a commitment to keeping the student at the center of the process rather than relegating them to a passive observer in planning their own futures. This philosophy is also why Jessica particularly loves helping her students find and share their most compelling stories in college essays. As Jessica puts it: 

I believe every student has a unique story to share; they just need to ignore the TikTok advice and listen to themselves. The biggest challenge I work on is helping my students become more vulnerable in their essays. Colleges want to know the person, not just their academic accolades. 

Jessica is a self-described “plant lady,” her passion for in-home herbage exceeded only by her love of Prince (the musician, not the royalty). When she’s not planting seeds or enjoying Purple Rain’s B-side, Jessica enjoys relaxing on the beach, doing Pilates, and watching Netflix comedies.

Education & Experience

Sewanee: The University of the South, B.A.

Northeastern University, M.Ed.

Director of College Guidance, St. George’s Independent School

Assistant Director of Admissions, Rice University

Senior Assistant Director of Admission, Coordinator of Multicultural & International

Recruitment, Sewanee: The University of the South

Professional Organization Memberships

NACAC: National Association for College Admission Counseling  

SACAC: Southern Association for College Admission Counseling