Designed, Not Assigned

Helping young adults design their lives after high school

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If you’re like most parents, you have spent eighteen years teaching your child how to live an independent life. At the same time, the path through childhood is mostly predetermined: the schedule, the classes, the summers, the next step after this one. Most of it arrived already decided. The academic pipeline prepares children for a career, but it can also strip them of the agency they'll need in a landscape that keeps changing.

For many families, the academic pipeline extends beyond high school and into college. But times are changing. A generation of young people are learning only after they are in debt that a degree does not guarantee any particular job, future, or life. That isn’t a reason to forgo college. It is a reason to treat this as a real decision, not just an assigned grade thirteen. It is an opportunity to pause, reflect, and actively choose the next step.

College is a requirement for many careers, and it may also be the right step for a young adult who isn’t yet sure what they want, but that framing changes which institutions to target. The great books curriculum is wonderful for a student who needs more time, but the wrong choice for a student planning a career in engineering.

What comes after high school is the first thing your student gets to fully design. That's a bigger deal than the application deadlines make it look. It deserves more than a few rushed conversations in October of senior year.

Who this is for

This program is for young adults ready to thoughtfully explore what they want their future lives to look and feel like. It's built for students with intrinsic motivation who either haven't yet found their calling or discovered it late and now have a transcript that reflects that shift.

It asks something of the student. I can bring the questions, the research, and the time, but a student who isn't willing to engage won't get much from it and may not be the right fit.

Seventeen is early to be asking these questions, not late. Too many people don't do it until their thirties. A student who is actually asking what they want instead of following the herd onto the next step is ahead of the curve, even if their transcript is uneven, even if they spent a year or two unfocused, even if they still have no idea. Not knowing yet isn't a problem to be fixed. It is a world of opportunity to be explored.

What we actually do

Half of this is soul-searching and half is logistics, and the logistics don't work without the first half.

The first half is figuring out what your student actually wants: what they're drawn to, what comes easily, what they've been avoiding and why, and which of their current plans are theirs versus inherited. This takes months and it can't be rushed, which is why the full program starts in junior year.

The second half is the practical work: researching real options, building a list that fits, understanding cost, and getting the applications done well.

Options means all of them. Four-year college, but also trade and technical programs, apprenticeships, community college transfer paths, gap years, service programs, certifications, and working for a year. I research specific programs for your student rather than handing you a list of categories. Some of the options I present don't involve a bachelor's degree.

I don't steer students toward or away from college. I help them find out whether college will help them get where they want to go, and if it will we explore colleges and move onto applications. If the plan is elsewhere, I will guide them in building it out.

About me

Erin Wildermuth

Today I am a physician and published author, but my first professional job was as an AmeriCorps volunteer designing service-learning opportunities for middle school students in our nation’s capital. Working with young people is a thread I have never abandoned. I have worked for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, Higher Achievement, and Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America. I founded and ran a youth advocacy program in Cameroon for five years, managed an international training and grants program at the Atlas Network, and founded a nature preschool where I designed the curriculum and ran the school.

I came to medicine in my thirties, after twenty years of engagement with young people, program design, freelance writing, multiple stints abroad, and the threads of a career that didn't look like a plan while I was in the middle of weaving them.

Along the road I also edited Womentality (Three Rooms Press), a book about people who left the path they were supposed to be on and built something else. It received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was named to Entertainment Weekly's 30 best books of the year. I've written for Doximity, KevinMD, and the Huffington Post, and I hold a master's from the London School of Economics.

I've changed direction more than once, deliberately. That's the skill I'm actually teaching. This decision is the first of several your student will make and knowing how to make it well is worth more than getting this particular one right.

The Junior Program

Begins January. Class of 2028. Six to eight students. We start in January of junior year and work through the following fall. Long enough to actually ask the questions, and to let the answers evolve.

What's included

Six group sessionsJanuary through June 2027
  1. The Good Life (January): Before exploring options, know thyself. What do you actually want a week of your life to feel like? Where do you want to live, who's around you, what are you doing on a Tuesday.
  2. The Costs of Living (February): An honest look at what it costs to live in different parts of the United States, including real budgets, educational debt, and how they translate into lifestyle.
  3. Jobs and Industries (March): An overview of common career paths, what they require, job prospects, and salary.
  4. College isn’t one-size-fits-all (April): An overview of different college options and experiences.
  5. Beyond College (May): Other post-high school options beyond the college path.
  6. Decision Making 101 (June): A deep dive into different ways people explore tough decisions and come to an aligned answer.
Fourteen individual sessionsOne hour each, January through December 2027
  • Two as-needed sessions in addition to scheduled monthly sessions. These sessions are designed to allow for weekly sessions during peak-decision or application periods, though they can be scheduled at any time.
  • Getting to know your student. Several unhurried conversations about what they like, what comes easily, what they think they want and where that idea came from.
  • Exploring the real options. Specific programs, specific paths, researched for your student including college and any alternatives they have shown interest in.
  • Building a list that fits. If college is the answer: real research, matched to who they are and what your family can afford. Reach, target, and likely, with honest reasoning and an early read on cost.
  • Making the record make sense. However the last two years went, there's a way to present it honestly and well. We spend junior spring and summer making that story true rather than spun.
  • Applications. By senior fall I know your student well enough to help them find the story worth telling. Whether that story becomes college essays and applications, trade program applications, apprenticeship interviews, gap year applications, or a résumé and supported job search depends on what they chose. That part can't be rushed, which is why the program is built this way.
Two parent sessionsJanuary and July 2027
  • These are with parents, without your student present. I'll tell your student these meetings happen and roughly what we covered, but won't repeat what they've told me in confidence.
  • Intake Session (January): What you're hoping for, what worries you, and an honest conversation about money: what your family can spend, what you're willing to borrow, whether there's a 529, and whether you'd fund a gap year or a trade program. Most students have no idea what the real numbers are, and I'd rather know before I put options in front of them than after.
  • Opportunities List Finalization (July): What's emerging, what each option actually costs, and confirmation we're aligned before your student starts building a plan around it. Nothing would be worse for a seventeen-year-old than falling for an option their family was never going to support.
Between sessionsNotes, research, and a plan your student runs
  • Email access. Students are welcome to email me between sessions with questions, concerns, or ideas. I respond within 48 hours, either with a real answer or with confirmation that we'll take it up properly at our next session.
  • Written notes from each session and an outline of ideas to explore or tasks to prioritize before our next session.
  • A researched curated listing of options with application deadlines, calculated price differentials, and how this option fits into a unified post-high school trajectory. This may include colleges, trade schools, job possibilities or other unique opportunities depending on your student.
  • Collaborative development and management of an application plan. My default organization scheme is Trello-based, but part of this process is teaching your student to manage their own plans. As such we will default to their preferred organizational platform and style, whether that be a different digital aid system or pure analog. This will include a deadline calendar with a reminder system set-up for your student.
The application processCollege, trade, apprenticeship, gap year, or work

The College Application Process

  • The Common App personal statement, from first conversation to final draft. This is the one place in the application where your student gets to sound like a person.
  • Supplemental essays for their list. The "why us" and "why this major" prompts, which is where most applications quietly fall apart.
  • The activities section. Ten entries, 150 characters each. Underestimated and worth real points.
  • Strategy. Early Decision versus Early Action versus Regular, what a binding commitment actually means, and how the timing interacts with financial aid.
  • Deadline management. A written calendar and check-ins, so nothing arrives at 11pm the night before.

Alternative Applications and Explorations

  • Trade, apprenticeship, and program applications including managing requirements, deadlines, interviews, and any portfolio or testing components.
  • Preparation: A base résumé and cover letter to build from.
  • The Job, Internship or Gap Year Hunt: We will do our first round of job hunting together, looking through different website and matching positions to goals and skills. We’ll have quick check-ins beyond our hour-long sessions to review other positions and ensure an updated application calendar.
  • The Job, Internship, or Gap Year Application: Guidance and review of how to research a company and modify resume and cover letter submissions for a particular opportunity.
  • A Plan: Not every gap year requires an application. If you and your student decide on a self-directed gap year I will help you to arrange a set-up that feels aligned, safe, and practical.
$6,500 total

A $1,500 deposit reserves your student's seat and is non-refundable. The balance is payable monthly from January.

Early commitment: $6,000 for families who reserve before November 1.

Reserve a seat Book a call first
Terms in brief. The $1,500 deposit reserves your student's seat and is non-refundable. Once the program begins in January 2027, the full program fee is owed and non-refundable, even if your student stops attending; the monthly payment schedule is a convenience, not a right to stop paying. You'll be asked to agree to these terms, in full at terms, before you pay or book.