Applicant A came to meet us for a free consultation session in the beginning of Year 10. She and her parents were fairly certain about their plan for her to study in the US and already knew what to prepare in terms of school performance, SAT, and activities. But they didn’t know what exactly to do, especially in terms of extracurricular activities. A didn’t know what would be really ‘useful’ for her application.
At that moment, we suggested that she not prioritise ‘usefulness’, but instead she should explore her interests more thoroughly. That’s the philosophy Elite Admission applies to help A and many other applicants in similar situations with their preparation work. At the end of the day, your application should focus on you. In the first year of supporting A’s admission process, we invested a great amount of work in assisting her to try out various activities from school leadership to out-of-school volunteering and collected her feedback on each activity. Meanwhile, we carefully monitored her progress at school. All these actions gradually led our team and A to realise her talent and interest in mathematics and statistics, which became our direction for her application.
For A to demonstrate and strengthen her interest, we recommended that she join a modelling competition, which is different from traditional mathematics competition that A was not particularly good at but more relevant to her passion for statistics. She had never had any exposure to math modelling before, so we linked her with one of our previous clients who participated in modelling competitions. A gradually found more capacity and passion through this communication and her own study. The next step was to start and lead a group of peers to join competitions. It was a process where our effort was used to encourage her to speak up and be a leader. In the end, the participation in competitions showed her academic quality and more importantly highlighted her leadership skills.
Additionally, we suggested A maintain her involvement in sports and cheerleading, which created a remarkable balance with her academic achievement. When it came to the application work in Year 12, because of our long-term collaboration, it went smoothly with two tasks standing out. The first is that we managed to help her find a new layer in her favorite childhood memory, which we then turned into an excellent Common Application personal essay. Many applicants divulge information about important experiences they have had, which may not suit the tone and purpose of college application essays. At Elite Admission, we like to learn about, discuss and workshop these experiences to help craft them into unique, memorable stories showcasing the applicants’ best qualities. Secondly, A didn’t know much about Rice University before starting the school research process. We introduced Rice to her because her background and personality make her a solid fit. This helped A to decide on applying to Rice via Early Decision and eventually receive her admission.
Summary
We were thrilled to see A’s growth and progress through our two and half years working with her. For her, collaborating closely with the same team for this long period and overcoming problems together is one of the greatest fundamentals for her college application success.
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