Common Issues Parents Have
If You...
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Feel worried that your high school’s college counselor won’t do enough for your student
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Have a student who won’t listen to your (very good) advice
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Can’t spend every waking moment of life reminding your student to work
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Aren’t sure how the SAT and ACT have changed
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Don’t know how to create a college list
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Have any questions at all about how the college application process works
We can help you!
What We Do In Sessions
Depending on what your student needs, a college application coaching session with us may involve:
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Brainstorming and editing the Common App personal statement
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Creating a list of colleges to research
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Crafting supplemental essays for each school
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Discussing which test scores to submit
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Calculating hours for the Activities section
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Writing professional emails to teachers asking for letters of recommendation
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Help filling out the Common App, UC, or UCAS applications
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Editing sports or performing arts videos
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Researching specific programs at each school
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Curating an arts portfolio
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Scripting video supplementals
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Interview prep
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Resume formatting
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Encouragement about the college process
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Discussing deadlines and setting up daily work goals
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Reviewing the final PDF of each application to catch mistakes
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Every student needs a different combination of these, and we make sure they’re getting all the support they need.
How many sessions do students need?
Every student needs a different amount of support with their applications. At minimum, our students need about 12 hours of help with their Common App personal statement, Activities section, and supplemental essays. For students applying to several Ivy Leagues and other top-tier schools, the final count is usually 40-50. Most students need somewhere in the 20-40 hour range.
Timelines
Calendar & when to start
We meet with most of our students either once or twice a week. The happiest students are the ones who start writing their personal statement in June or July before senior year and finish by the end of October; those who wait until late September or October to start generally have a pretty rough time with the process. For students applying to several top-tier schools, the process can last as long as July-December because of the many, many supplemental essays the Ivy League schools now require.
Deadlines & roadbumps
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The main deadlines for college applications are:
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November 1st: Early Decision and some Early Action deadlines
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November 15th: Early Action deadline
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Beginning of December: UC application deadline
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First week of January: Regular Decision deadline
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July: UCAS deadline
Note: The deadlines for each school can change, even in the middle of college application season. Some programs have deadlines before this for athletes and artists. Please check each school’s website or Common App tab frequently to make sure you have the most up-to-date information and deadlines.
How We Help Students Choose Schools
Tailored college app assistance for students
Many students have no idea how to choose which colleges to apply to. The Common App allows for up to 20 applications, and other schools like the UCs have their own application. We usually have students take a survey either through their high school (Naviance or Scoir) or an online site to get a general idea of what schools might fit them best.
It’s important to consider each school’s program, size, cost, scholarship opportunity, geographic location and distance from home, campus, student groups, extracurriculars, study abroad opportunities, sports, music, theater, internships, alumni network, relationship with the city around it, learning disability support, and access to health care. There are many factors, and each student and family weighs them differently.
We want each student to apply to about 8-12 schools. More is totally fine, of course. We usually get the list to about 15 and work on the most important (Early Decision or Early Action) schools first, then keep working in order of due date. By November of senior year, most students have an idea of the schools they like and don’t like, and a few always fall off the list.
Our goal is to help you get into your dream school(s), yes, but it’s also to be realistic about current college admissions rates and give you a full hand of cards to play when you have to choose your school in spring of senior year. We love getting Early Action applications in: this means that students will have some results in their hand by mid-December. This helps take some of the waiting stress out of spring of senior year, plus you’ll know what to get them for the holidays!
College Application Essay Support
What our students' essays look like & the style we aim for:
The Common App personal statement and supplemental essays are a vital part of a student’s application. We help students of all levels craft essays that feel authentic to them and represent the best writing they’ve ever created.
There are many styles of successful personal statements. We encourage students to use specific examples from their lives as hooks and to favor good storytelling over formal writing. Our goal is for each of our students to feel 100% confident in their writing and know that they did their best so that no matter what their admission results are, they have no regrets about the process.
How we address supplemental essay prompts:
In order to write supplemental essays, and especially the “why our school” prompt, it’s vital that students research the specific programs, extracurriculars, student groups, labs, performances, and community events they’d like to participate in at each school. This can be a daunting task, but our coaches teach students how to navigate college websites, find courses they genuinely want to take, and discover student groups they want to join so that our students can perform this research on their own.
While ideas can certainly be recycled from prompt to prompt, it’s important to write each supplemental essay specifically for the school it will go to. In November each year, when most students hit “supplement fatigue”, our coaches help them get through the slog and make sure that the final supplements they write are just as genuine and enthusiastic as the first.
College Attendance Success
Families who work with us have seen their students admitted to:

American University in London

American University in Paris

Bard College

Barnard College

Boston College

CU Boulder

Colorado College

Columbia University

Grinnell College

Harvard University

Instituto Marangoni

Kent State

Kenyon College

Macalester University

McGill University

Moore Theological College

New York University

Northwestern University

Oberlin College

Occidental College

Pace University

Pomona College

Princeton University

SCAD

Sarah Lawrence College

The Ohio State University

Tufts University

Tulane University

UC Davis

UC San Diego

University of Boston

University of Michigan

University of Minnesota

University of Oregon

University of Southern California

University of Washington