Professional Qualifications

Jan Freund Halloran has over twenty years of teaching, college counseling and academic advising experience, and currently serves as a College Counselor at Ursuline Academy of Dallas, responsible for over fifty juniors and seniors. Additionally she guides and directs freshmen and sophomores through their preliminary college goals to create a strategic plan in their four years of high school. With over fifteen years of college guidance experience, Jan has a keen understanding of current trends in higher education. Her students have been counseled in all aspects of the college process—standardized testing, academic placement, career identification and interests, and special requirements, including athletic, religious, academic support, financial considerations, and international goals. She has students who have attained acceptance to the most highly select colleges, including Yale, Stanford, U-Penn, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, University of Chicago, Northwestern, Notre Dame, ,Washington University - St. Louis, and international institutions, including the University of St. Andrew in Scotland, and Durham University.

Earning a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Houston, Jan is a member of the National Association of College Admissions Counselors [NACAC], the Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools [ACCIS], and the Texas Association of College Admission Counselors [TACAC]. She has traveled and toured over fifty colleges throughout the United States and overseas, including MIT, Brown, Harvard, Stanford, College of William and Mary, Purdue, Indiana Loyola Chicago, Loyola Maryland, Loyola New Orleans, Xavier, Ohio State, Santa Clara, University of Puget Sound, Reed, Willamette, Whitman, Mount Holyoke, Smith, UMass, University of San Francisco, University of California (multiple campuses), UT, Texas Tech, KU, Indiana, Lehigh, Lafayette, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Missouri S&T, San Diego State, Emory, Oxford College of Emory University, Amherst, Tulsa, OU, Ohio Wesleyan, Illinois Wesleyan as well as international campuses such as the University of Edinburgh, University of St. Andrews, and New York University Abu Dhabi.

Each student with Aspire College Counseling will have a personalized strategy that incorporates the balance of academic placement, geographic needs and family financial requirements. Jan will consult regularly with students and parents throughout the process and encourages families to reach out whenever they have questions or concerns. She offers in her consultation essay writing, developing a student resume, interviewing skills, a testing plan and college recommendations and works continuously with a student until all goals are met. As a counselor and parent of three college graduates, Jan understands the needs of students and parents when navigating the college process.