About

Heather V McCowen, PhD

Heather McCowen, Ph.D., has spent more than 30 years on every side of the college admissions table — as an admissions counselor at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, Associate Dean at the Longy School of Music at Bard, Assistant Dean at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts, and for nearly a decade as ChiArts' first-ever college counselor, where she built the advising program from the ground up and worked with over 1,100 arts students. She has read applications, awarded scholarships, run auditions, decoded financial aid packages, and guided families through one of the most confusing processes they'll ever face — and she has done it across every discipline: Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, and everything in between.

She founded College App Study Hall because she believes students deserve a guide who has genuinely been in the room — on both sides. Her specialty is the arts, but her experience spans the full college admissions picture, and her approach is the same no matter the student: honest, strategic, and completely free of fluff.

Follow along on Instagram and TikTok at @heatherm_collegedoc for real talk about the college admissions process — no sugarcoating required.

Education

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
Ph.D. Higher Education Administration, Minor: Marketing

Harvard University
Coursework completed toward PhD and transferred to UNT

SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY
M.M. Bassoon Performance

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
B.M. Bassoon Performance

Activities & Affiliations
• IECA, Associate Member