For more than 20 years, Hughes College Prep has guided students and families through college admissions and standardized test prep. Today that means the new Digital SAT and Enhanced ACT, and we have built our materials from the ground up for both. Based in Missoula, Montana. Meeting students nationwide over Zoom.
A tailored school list, a realistic plan, essay coaching that keeps your student's voice, and a scholarship search that leaves no stone unturned. Weekly Comprehensive support or a block of Essentials hours, your choice. See our services.
Both tests changed. Our materials changed with them. For students who choose to test, every plan is built from their own practice test results, not a one-size-fits-all boot camp. For students who should not, we say so. Learn more about test prep.
Starting as early as 9th grade: course selection that keeps every door open, authentic exploration of interests and future majors, leadership and service projects that mean something, and subject tutoring or study skills when needed. The foundation for a successful college experience, not just a successful application.
Hughes College Prep is a Missoula business. We know Hellgate, Big Sky, Sentinel, and Loyola, the MUS Honor Scholarship, and what it takes to get a Montana student into the University of Montana's Davidson Honors College or across the country to Harvard.
We also meet most of our students over Zoom, which is how we have come to work with families in more than 20 states and overseas, from Connecticut to California to Switzerland, including students at international schools and on military posts abroad. Every meeting is one-on-one, wherever you are.
Our last three graduating classes were offered more than $30 million in scholarships. Recent admits include Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Rice, UC Berkeley, UCLA, the U.S. Air Force Academy, McGill, and the University of Montana's Davidson Honors College. See the full list.
"The college search and application support was top notch, resulting in a nearly 100% college acceptance (24!), and MANY merit-based scholarships that weren't even applied for (resulting in hundreds of thousands of $$ in value) for each child."
Scott, parent of two HCP students, Google review
Nineteen former students, from recent graduates now at Vermont, Notre Dame, Claremont McKenna, and Princeton to alumni of Yale, Harvard, Bowdoin, and Scripps, describe what the process was like and where it took them.
Families come to us for a school list and a strong application. What their student leaves with is bigger than that: a clear sense of what they want to study and why, interests they have explored in real and productive ways during high school, a transcript with the courses that keep every door open, and the planning and self-advocacy habits that make college itself go well. We start that work as early as 9th grade, and we measure it by how students do long after the acceptance letter arrives.
Two things tell us it is working. Students come back years later for help with medical school, law school, and graduate school applications. And we have had the privilege of working with a long line of younger brothers and sisters after supporting their older sibling first.
We identify school-specific and outside scholarships, support every application, and help you decode the aid letters when they arrive. Our last three graduating classes were offered more than $30 million in scholarships.
Your student's list is built from academic, financial, field-of-interest, and personal factors gathered from both parent and student, never from a generic ranking.
When testing is the right path, one-on-one Digital SAT and Enhanced ACT prep with a plan charted from your student's own results. When it is not, an honest conversation about where their time is better spent.
We help students find a leadership style and a field of interest, then build a real-world project that connects the two.
Detailed checklists, deadline tracking, essay editing, and interview prep keep a complex process manageable, for your student and for you.
GRE and LSAT prep, program research, and application and essay review for medical, law, and graduate school. Many of our students come back for this round.
"The Hughes staff have all made the effort to get to know my student as a person—not just a set of scores or achievements—and so working with Hughes has also been an exploration in self-discovery for my student... Kelly manages to make staying on-track, studying for SATs, formatting resumes, researching schools and summer opportunities and extracurricular activities all tasks that my student wants to do... [She has a] deft ability to keep this process realistic for my student while also infusing this process with a totally positive energy about how bright and exciting the future is."
