In college admissions, each success story is a testament to hard work, dedication, and commitment. At InGenius Prep, our goal is to give each student the best chance at getting accepted into their dream school, which is why we’re thrilled to share the journey of “Hailey” from Maryland, who recently secured early admission to Northwestern University.
For this case study, Hailey’s original name has been altered to protect our student’s privacy.
Hailey’s path to Northwestern began with a vision to pursue a career in health communication.[1] To give her the best chance at success, our team at InGenius Prep worked closely to identify the challenges, strategically plan out her application, and guide her to create the best application through a combination of strategic planning, honing an application persona, enhancing her essays and personal statements, and creating compelling writing to show off her skills to her admissions counselors.
The Value of an Excellent Student Profile
Hailey is a high school student from Maryland interested in PR, communications, and marketing. She boasts an impressive transcript, maintaining a 4.0 GPA and scoring 34 on the ACT. In addition, Hailey is very involved in extracurricular activities. Some of these activities include editing for her school newspaper, writing for other publications, fundraising for hospitals, and volunteering for animal rescues, among other extracurriculars.
Along with these strengths, our team also identified weaknesses in Hailey’s application that needed to be addressed before it was sent out. These challenges revolved around three core weaknesses: Hailey had a wide range of interests and activities that seemed unclear for her major; she had many ideas for her personal essays but lacked a clear vision on how to balance storytelling with personal reflection; and her list of extracurricular activities was too vast and needed to be strategically cut down to include only the most impactful events.[2]
How InGenius Prep Helped This Scholar Succeed
Developed Strategy Report
Hailey worked with a team of admissions counselors and industry experts to identify her goals and the weaknesses in her application. The team members she worked with included Rebecca Temerario, former Director of Admissions at Columbia Teachers’ College, and Graduate Coach Emily Campbell. Together, they put together a Strategy Report to lay out a roadmap and evaluate her candidacy.
Hailey displayed outstanding achievements in her studies. Regarding her grades, she was among the top 5% of her class. Her extracurricular engagement demonstrated her as an effective leader who had an impact on her school and community. She contributed to charitable causes, captained sports teams and other clubs, and led her school’s newspaper, among other activities. Hailey also proved herself to be a good communicator with effective attention to detail; the adults around her recognized her work ethic and personal drive and spoke well of her interpersonal and intellectual qualities.
With these traits in mind, Hailey’s counselors set out to improve her application and showcase them in the best light.
Enhanced Application Persona
Based on her activities, interests, and experiences, her team workshopped a compelling Application Persona: an overarching theme that would distill her character into a unique theme that would stick out to college admissions officers. This persona would incorporate the wide variety of her interests and unify them all under one mantra.
Hailey’s Application Persona was “Future health communication professional with fundraising experience and an interest in PR.”
Researched Ambitious School List
The school should fit the student’s personality just as much as it should fit their goals and aspirations. Once Hailey’s counselors had decided on her Application Persona and evaluated her qualities, they put together a list of schools based on her needs and preferences. These schools ranged from safety schools, for which Hailey had a solid chance of admission, to target schools that matched her qualifications and to schools that were somewhat beyond her reach but were still challenging goals to achieve.
Along with this list of schools, Hailey’s counselors also outlined the reasons each school was selected, including details and data that informed our decision. These reasons ranged from “Matched the student’s preference for campus culture” to “having strong communications and English programs.”
With a compelling persona set and a list of schools gathered, Hailey’s team moved on to tailoring her applications
Organized Student Activities List
Hailey had a very robust and expansive list of activities. While being very versatile in one’s interests can definitely be a strength, in the context of college applications, listing too many diverse interests can make an application read as unfocused and discordant. The first step in improving Hailey’s application was to organize her activities—categorizing each one so we could clearly address each aspect of her Application Persona, especially communications, fundraising, and sports.
Hailey’s counselors helped her narrow her list to 10 activities that all fit this criteria. Some of these activities included:
- Online Editor-In-Chief and News Writer for a student-run newspaper
- Investigative Journalism student reporter for the New York Times
- President and Founder of a school club, fundraising for the Children’s National Hospital
- Nonprofit volunteer for animal rescue charity, soliciting donations from 30+ businesses
- Publish Forum Debater for high school speech and debate club
The goal of this activity list is to showcase Hailey’s leadership qualities, her involvement in her community, and her interest in communications. These traits and activities would bolster her Application Persona and provide a solid background for admissions officers to analyze when they delve deeper into her profile.
Provided Guidance for Letters of Recommendation
Thanks to Hailey’s extensive involvement in her school and community, she had many adults to contact for letters of recommendation. However, the best candidates for these letters would be those she had worked closest with and who were involved in subjects or experiences that Hailey was interested in further exploring in college.
For this, her recommended list of mentors included:
- AP Physics teacher: demonstrate Hailey’s dedication and commitment to her academic studies
- AP Language: highlights writing strength, significant as a student applying as a journalism major
- High School Principal: highlight Hailey’s impressive fundraising efforts and work in charitable causes
Wrote Compelling Personal Statement
Hailey had to write about her experiences in a way that combined her chief interests—health and communications—a combination that was especially important since her personal statement would reflect not only her character but also her prowess in written work and her ability to express herself and communicate effectively—something students with her interests should be very adept at.
Hailey worked with her counselors to craft a story with her personal statement that would accomplish this. They focused on the “reporting” nature of her application, digging deep into her experiences as a journalist would and diving deep into the story of her statement. “Cutting down” the superficial aspects of her writing helped distill it to its natural, “purest” form, which highlighted her unique writing voice.
In its final version, Hailey’s personal statement was a compact, well-crafted piece that showcased her significant achievements, journalistic skills, and talented writing voice.
Mentored Writing of Supplemental Essays
Hailey’s counselors helped her with her essays by guiding her to showcase more of her qualities as a student.[3] They focused on Hailey’s coursework, her professors and teachers, the programs she is interested in, and her reasons for applying to her target schools.
A critical aspect of these essays was to explore her interest in her schools beyond superficial elements, such as location or campus atmosphere. College admissions officers are interested in applicants who can provide a profound, positive impact on the student body. Students who demonstrate this level of interest are more likely to be considered for admission. Hailey’s counselors encouraged her to tailor her answers to each school, especially Northwestern, to demonstrate a deeper level of interest.
In their final versions, Hailey’s supplemental essays displayed in great detail how she envisioned herself at Northwestern, pointing out the courses she would take, activities she would do, and how they related to her past experiences in fundraising, medicine, and community events—writing almost as if she were already a student partaking in courses in that school.
Final Review
After several revisions and suggestions for improving her application, Hailey’s work was nearly complete. Throughout her time with her counselors, Hailey was very receptive to feedback. She demonstrated a good-faith effort to address her weaknesses and present her qualities in the best light for her admissions officers in her application.
As the final part of her Application Counseling, FAO Rebecca Temerario reviewed Hailey’s whole application as if she were the admissions officer deciding on whether to reject or accept her. Rebecca provided her review, and after a final round of feedback with some minor updates to wording, formatting, and style, Hailey was approved to submit her application!
Hailey started her Application Counseling program with InGenius Prep in the summer before her 12th grade of high school. After working with our mentors, Hailey was admitted to Northwestern, Early Decision!
How to Boost Your College Application
Like Hailey, many of our students who’ve worked with us have seen tangible improvements in their college applications, resulting in acceptance into one or more of the top 50 national US colleges.[4]
Our team, comprising experts in higher education—including Former Admissions Officers from top schools—is prepared to provide all students with the guidance they need to navigate the hyper-competitive landscape of college admissions and give them the best chance of being accepted into their dream school! For more information about our Application Counseling program or other programs designed to help students with their applications, schedule a free strategy call with one of our counselors to learn how to make a difference in their college journey.