11th Grade Counseling:
- Counselor Introduction: After learning about Student D’s goals, interests, and personality, we paired him with a Former Admissions Officer from Carnegie Mellon and a Graduate Coach from Washington University in St. Louis and Harvard.
- Introduction + Google Group: We created a Google Group which included Student D, and both of his counselors. All work and communication was executed in the Google Group to ensure that everyone was on the same page.
- Counseling Progress Spreadsheet: Student D’s counselors created a Counseling Progress Spreadsheet. After every meeting, they would take notes of what was discussed and action points to be completed before the next meeting. This spreadsheet made sure that Student D and his team continued to move forward.
- Academic Profile: One of the biggest obstacles Student D would have to overcome throughout his admissions process was his transcript. With quite
a few B’s, Student D didn’t know the best way to combat his academic performance.- Course Selection: To strengthen his transcript, Student D’s counselors strategized his senior year course selection. They encouraged him to push himself with a rigorous course load for 12th grade.
- Standardized Testing Strategy: Student D’s counselors also emphasized that he needed to focus on getting strong SAT and AP test scores. A good standardized testing profile would help balance out his low GPA. When it came time to apply, Student D had a solid SAT superscore and AP scores to strengthen his academic profile!
- Letters of Recommendation & Brag Sheet Guidance: In the spring of Student D’s junior year, his team coached him on how to take initiative with the letters of recommendation process. Meaningful letters from his teachers would help to further overcome his academic track record.
- Recommender Planner: Student D’s Graduate Coach created a letters of recommendation planner so they could first strategize whom he should ask, and the potential focus for each letter.
- Cover Letters: Student D’s counselors helped him draft thoughtful cover letters that thanked his recommendation writers, and also outlined specific components that he hoped they could discuss in their letters. To combat his low GPA, Student
D asked his recommenders to highlight his efforts in improving his grades. - Brag Sheet: For his guidance counselor, Student D needed to complete a specific brag sheet to discuss his interests, achievements, and goals. His admissions team helped him take advantage of these responses to advocate for himself. They advised that Student D use the brag sheet as an opportunity to directly address some of the B’s on his transcript, and also to discuss his hard work and persistence.
- School List Research:
- School List Planning: During Student D’s junior year, his counselors helped him begin school research to plan for college visits and to create a foundation for his application process. In light of his GPA, Student D was unsure of which schools he should reach for.
- Requirements Spreadsheet: His counselors created a detailed spreadsheet with the requirements, policies, and median SAT and GPA ranges for the colleges he was considering. This allowed Student D’s counselors to compare his profile directly to the institutions on his list.
- School Fit: As Student D conducted this school research, his counselors wanted to make sure that he was not only considering his chances from an academic standpoint, but also actively thinking about school fit. They encouraged him to keep in mind academic opportunities, campus environment, and school culture for every college he researched to ensure that he’d be happy spending the next four years at any of these institutions!
They provided guidance on key fit factors so that Student D did thorough and productive school research. - Final School List: Student D’s final school list included a balance of reach, target, and safety schools to ensure that he was pushing himself, but also working toward options that were more in reach given his academic profile.
Application Counseling
- Google Folders Organization: When it was time to start drafting Student D’s application components, his Graduate Coach created a Google folder system. Every folder contained curriculum, resources, and worksheets to guide Student
D through his admissions process. This system would help the team stay organized and keep all of Student D’s application work in one place. - Application Counseling Timeline: Student D’s counselors created a tailored timeline to help him understand the goals for each month and how their work would progress through the admissions cycle.
- Monthly Timelines: Each month, his Graduate Coach also created more specific timelines and deadlines to make sure they stayed on track.
- Application Persona:
- Background: Student D wanted to apply to business programs, but lacked hands-on experience in the field. Throughout high school, he had spent most of his time as the President of an Indian American cultural association and volunteering to help at-risk youth in India.
- Strategy: Student D’s counselors helped him strategize an Application Persona: a memorable, strong theme for his application that clearly captured his interests. To bridge the gap between his passion for business and community initiatives, his counselors conceptualized an Application Persona that focused on a desire to use business for social impact.
- Application Persona: “Community-driven entrepreneur with the desire to use business for a positive impact on Palanpar, Gujarat.”
- Personal Statement:
- Brainstorming: Student D’s counselors wanted his personal statement to capture his Application Persona. But when it came time for Student D to start writing, he didn’t know where to begin! His Graduate Coach guided him to reflect on the Common App essay prompts and write a few sentences for each idea that came to mind.
- Topic Selection:
- Concerns: Student D was concerned about over-emphasizing his Indian American culture, as it is a very competitive demographic in the admissions process. But through his personal statement brainstorming, it became evident that this cultural identity was central to his upbringing and community engagement.
- Topic: Rather than trying to hide this side of himself, Student D’s counselors encouraged him to write about his background with personal anecdotes and perspective. Discussing his culture in this way would read as thoughtful, and also embody his Application Persona.
- Edits: In Student D’s first drafts, his Graduate Coach provided high-level feedback to shape the narrative and structure of his essay. As Student D’s drafts evolved, his Graduate Coach gave in-line edits to fine-tune every detail of his personal statement.
- Final Personal Statement: In the end, Student D’s personal statement highlighted his individual motivations for staying actively involved with his community and culture.
- Activities List:
- Template: Because Student D lacked hands-on business experience, his counselors wanted to carefully strategize the order and content of his activities list. They started by providing an activities list template to keep Student D’s drafts for all 10 descriptions organized.
- Strategy: Because community impact and cultural connections were key components of Student D’s Application Persona, Student D’s team advised that he feature extracurriculars with these themes.
- Edits: They carefully edited every description to underscore his active engagement and tangible achievements.
- Final Activities List: In the end, Student D’s activities list highlighted extracurriculars that connected to his Application Persona and featured concrete accomplishments.
- Supplemental Essays:
- Strategy: Student D’s team made sure that he took advantage of his supplemental essays to demonstrate how an international business program would help him continue making an impact. Student D’s counselors also advised him to make his supplemental essays specific to show why the undergraduate business schools he was applying to were strong fits for his interests.
- Editing: To ensure that Student D included strong examples, they provided countless
rounds of feedback and edits until his essay was in its best form. - Final Supplementals: In the end, Student D’s supplements for NYU Stern and UMichigan included details about specific programs, curricula, and clubs to concretely show how these schools would support his goals.
- Final Review: Before Student D submitted his applications, his Former Admissions Officer
performed a Final Review to simulate reading his applications as if she was still in an admissions office. She provided detailed feedback on the phrasing, formatting, and narrative to ensure that all of the application components were as strong as possible. After applying this feedback, Student D got the go-ahead to hit submit!