As juniors and seniors start their final high school years this week, thoughts of college are likely rumbling through their schedule-ladened minds.

Where to go and how to get there can be confusing, and individual help may seem hard to find.

“The college pre-year is overwhelming,” said Rebecca Tibbits, a part-time English teacher at Park City High School. When it comes to researching colleges, “parents don’t have the time or don’t know where to start.”

School counselors are helpful, Tibbits said, but they don’t offer personal time that many students need.

“It’s an extremely time-consuming process,” she said.

That’s why she started Student Success Services, a business that mentors students to prepare them for college.

“I do everything from start to finish,” Tibbits said. “The test prep is my biggest part of it. I originally wanted to do a mentorship program but I’m doing more of an a la carte thing now.”

When she started the business last January, she wanted to design a mentorship program for the entire year before students would go to college. But, as things worked out, she found the highest demand was for test preparation.

“I focus on ACT and SAT test prep and selecting a college that’s a good match for them,” Tibbits said. “I help them pick a program to study, help them with their college application, meet timelines and help them with admission essays. I find scholarship opportunities for them and make them more marketable to colleges.”

She also does tutoring but says there are so many other tutoring companies in town she’s decided to focus on preparing students for college. Her students receive on-on-one instruction, which she said gives custom individual help that students normally don’t have.

“This is more focused. My test prep is individual and personalized for their individual needs. It’s exactly the areas that they need work on,” Tibbits said.

As her business expands, Tibbits plans to hire more tutors. But so far, she is a one-woman student success mentor.

“I do everything,” she said. “When the business gets bigger I want to hire some people so I’m just waiting for the business to catch up.”

Tibbits has set a cap of 12 students to mentor at a given time. Currently she has six students.

“If I take too many, that takes away from the purpose of the individual mentorship,” Tibbits said.

Tibbits, who has a master’s degree in education, said she has a broad range of expertise and can help in a variety of subjects.

“My aptitude is actually higher in math even though I teach English,” Tibbits said.

Because most families don’t have the time or resources to prepare their teenager for the college experience, Tibbits says a mentorship program also benefits the family by relieving stress.

“It’s a great help to the families,” Tibbits said. “I’ve gotten great feedback from the families; it’s really mostly for the parents. I’ve done this privately for my own family and friends for a number of years and I wanted to do it on a larger scale.”

Tibbits said through the mentor program, students get higher test scores. Her last students raised their scores anywhere from one to four points.

“One student went from a 26 to a 30 in the ACT,” she said.

An ACT score of 26 was still a “very good score” to get into competitive colleges, she said.

“But a 30 is a shoe-in,” Tibbits said. “With a 30, you can pretty much go anywhere you want. Ivy Leagues accept a 30. She basically has her pick.”

Higher test scores also give students a better opportunity for scholarships.

“Merit-based scholarships go off of GPA and or test scores,” Tibbits said. “You definitely will have more opportunities for scholarships. Any time your score goes up, it gives more opportunity for scholarships and more options.”

The cost of her mentorship programs range from $195 to $595 for a test prep course, which Tibbits says will pay off in the end.

“If we find scholarships, it’s really an investment,” she said.

Without direction in choosing a school or major, some students end up wasting semesters because they began without focus, Tibbits said.

Under Tibbits’ mentorship program, “you’ll likely find a college that’s a good match for you and you’ll likely finish college in four years. One or two years of extra tuition and fees are very costly,” she said.

Tibbits recently has worked educating students in inner-city schools in Los Angeles and Brooklyn, New York where, for many, college wasn’t an option.

“I just went back to my freshmen students and it was great to see them graduating and some of them go to college,” she said.

It’s a different realm in Park City, she said, where most of the kids are college-bound.

“Being here, it’s really fun to work with students that can get into great schools. That’s really satisfying for me,” Tibbits said.

Helping students in Park City become more successful has been just as rewarding for her as helping kids in inner-cities.

“I get a huge satisfaction about it,” Tibbits said. “The parents’ gratitude alone makes me love this job. I’ve gotten such good feedback from the parents, whether it’s just a one-point jump with their ACT score or getting them motivated and college minded is extremely gratifying.”

For more information on Student Success Services, call 718-916-7136, e-mail [email protected] or log on to www.studentmentorship.com.