Pam Ohriner

Pam Ohriner is the Founder and Independent College Counselor at Helping Hand College Guidance, based in Los Angeles County, California, where she has been providing expert advice and one-on-one support since July 2010. An enthusiastic and dedicated consultant, Pam’s goal is to maximize the college process for every student to ensure their best chance of admission. She works meticulously with families to cover every detail of the application process, from essay development to line-by-line application reviews. While she advocates that starting early is the best approach, she consults with students at any stage of the process to provide support where it is needed most, helping to relieve student anxiety and confusion.

Before establishing her private practice, Pam gained experience in the standardized testing industry as a Test Proctor and Marketing representative for The Princeton Review from 2012 to 2015, where she administered exams including the SAT, ACT, MCAT, LSAT, and GMAT. She also gained school-based experience as a College Guidance Intern at Malibu High School in 2011. She holds a graduate certificate in College Counseling from UCLA, earned with distinction in 2011, and a combined B.A./M.S. in Psychology and Urban and Policy Sciences from Stony Brook University, where she served as a staff journalist for the Statesman Newspaper.

Pam has maintained active professional memberships in the Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA) since January 2011, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), and the Western Association for College Admission Counseling (WACAC).

Services Offered

• Comprehensive college search and selection?
• Admission strategy development
• Essay topic development and editing
• Financial aid consulting
• Complete line-by-line application review
• Mock interview preparation
• Curriculum and extracurricular planning
• Stress management and anxiety relief for students