This Client Success Story was based on an interview with Harry Herman and his mother, Robyn Herman. Harry connected with us for help on his college applications. If you are also looking for assistance with your college applications and are interested in working with a CollegeAdvisor.com Admissions Expert, register with CollegeAdvisor.com today.
Overview: CollegeAdvisor.com Client Success Stories
In our CollegeAdvisor reviews and Client Success Stories, we feature CollegeAdvisor.com students who achieved their college dreams.
For each of our CollegeAdvisor Client Success Stories, we’ll interview our students and talk to them about their college advising experience. In these CollegeAdvisor reviews, we will discuss how our students built their college lists, aced their college essays, and which CollegeAdvisor resources they found most valuable. Our CollegeAdvisor reviews will also share what they learned during the college application process.
Our CollegeAdvisor Client Success stories and the positive feedback we get from our CollegeAdvisor reviews remind us why we do what we do. At CollegeAdvisor, we’re proud to help students from all backgrounds maximize their college potential. We’re proud to have strong CollegeAdvisor reviews that highlight how our advisors can make a real difference in our students’ lives.
We hope these CollegeAdvisor Client Success Stories and our CollegeAdvisor reviews inspire you as you begin your own college application process.
Now, let’s meet one of our favorite students, Harry Herman, and his mother, Robyn.
Getting to know Harry
Harry was born in New York before moving to Bethel, Connecticut in 2009. Throughout middle and high school, Harry pursued a wide variety of extracurriculars before finding his passions in drawing, martial arts, and model-making—among other things.
“I’ve been in the photography club at my school, [and] math competition club. I’ve done many different martial arts,” Harry said.
Beyond his organized extracurriculars, Harry has a variety of passions. “I’m very interested in drawing, making models, building models, wood, paint, painting wood, usually painting metal, Legos, that kind of stuff. So I’m really into model constructing,” Harry said.
On an academic level, Harry has found a passion for finance—and one that might lead into his future career. “My favorite class was personal finance,” he told us. “Because it taught me a lot about, you know, the finance side of the college process and living on your own in all different forms, [as well as] different government interactions.”
Starting the college admissions process with CollegeAdvisor
Harry and his family first reached out to CollegeAdvisor to get more support in the college application process.
For Harry’s mother Robyn, investing in personalized college advising was a major decision.
“I wasn’t really sure, is it worth it?” she shared. “Can you use a guidance counselor? And all my friends said, no, you need to hire someone. And people were sending me individual [advisors], but I felt hiring [CollegeAdvisor] was better because it was a brand.”
For Robyn, the extent of the CollegeAdvisor network made a major difference. Even the best college advisors won’t have firsthand experience with every aspect of a given student’s needs. With over 350 college advisors in our network, Robyn and Harry knew that they would always have support.
“There was a big pool of people, so I knew [Harry’s advisor] would have other people to navigate the system with,” she told us. “I wasn’t just hiring one individual person who maybe couldn’t access more information. And you also had all those webinars and you know, I felt like it.. it was a really good company.”
Connecting with CollegeAdvisor
Initially, Harry wasn’t sure what his experience with CollegeAdvisor would look like. After all, what does a college advisor do? And how can the best college advisors help students in the application process?
“I was given a coach,” Harry told us, “And my coach turned out to be an amazing person.”
When students enroll with CollegeAdvisor.com, our dedicated Match Team connects them with the best college advisors for their needs. Harry was matched with one of our expert college advisors, Gabriel Hall.
“I was originally unsure of how this would go,” Harry said. “I thought it would just be another thing. My school… was helpful, but it was telling me things [about the college process] I already knew. So I thought it would be just another repetition of the general college admissions knowledge.”
“But when I first got my coach and he went over everything, I immediately knew this was something completely different,” Harry said. “Something that cannot be offered anywhere else. It was really special.”
Getting started with Gabriel
Harry and his advisor, Gabriel, immediately connected.
“I remember the first class/session, more than anything,” Harry said. “My mom was with me. I was being introduced to the college coach and he… he’s just such a good person. He’s been so helpful. It’s been life-changing, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of CollegeAdvisor.”
What did Harry work on with his advisor?
Harry and Gabriel spent a lot of time perfecting Harry’s college essays, including his Common App essay and his supplements.
“[We spent] the majority of the time discussing writing supplementals and the college essay, which was really helpful,” Harry said. “It’s something that my school and a lot of other places I’ve tried to get help [from] couldn’t even match up to the level of familiarity that Gabriel had with the college process.”
Together, Gabriel and Harry worked with each essay prompt “in a way that would target what they’re actually looking for, instead of just a general thing, a general rubric.”
“It was really targeting and helped me look at what I needed to [do] specifically,” Harry said. “Overall, I would say helping with writing things was the most beneficial part of [working with Gabriel]. On top of everything else, which was just as good. But the writing stuff I could not have done without him.”
How did Robyn interact with the advising team?
Gabriel was also always available to answer Robyn’s questions as she supported Harry through the application process.
“We really felt like Gabriel was on top of it and always writing to us [to schedule meetings],” Robyn said. “And I was able to reach out myself and say, like, what about financial aid?
And he would steer me to the people to talk to within [CollegeAdvisor]. Or he would take my list of questions and figure it out and call me back. So it worked perfectly.”
Robyn also learned a huge amount about the application process during her time with CollegeAdvisor. “Honestly, I’m obsessed with it. If I could have a third career, I would be a college admissions advisor,” she said.
How Harry’s advisor helped him navigate application deadlines
College advisors can make a huge difference for parents and students alike.
For Robyn, Gabriel’s support in helping Harry meet his deadlines was essential. “Because I think holding your kid accountable by yourself, it’s not gonna happen. But when you know, with your advisor—you’re doing it. So that was why I would recommend to anybody to go with someone like CollegeAdvisor,” she said.
“Because they’re being held accountable to meet a deadline. And then, especially when it came to other things like the scholarships, or there were extra essays and all different components, [Harry and Gabriel were] so on top of it,” Robyn told us. “Even though we were [only applying to one school] Early Decision, we were early everything. We got everything up by October 1st. I think he was the first kid to hit the button.”
Building a College List
For many students, building a college list can be challenging. CollegeAdvisor reviews every aspect of each student’s profile to help them find their best-fit colleges. Throughout the admissions process, Gabriel was there to help Harry navigate this process, looking beyond rankings to find the perfect schools for him.
“Deciding on what colleges I wanted to focus on. Again, that was a big thing they helped me with,” Harry shared.
With Gabriel’s advice, Harry started researching colleges and building his school list early. Robyn shared how this early start can help students as they prepare to apply to college.
“I think the good thing [CollegeAdvisor does] is make us think about how important it is to start looking at schools in 11th grade,” Robyn said. “We went to colleges in March of last year and April. I mean, his friends haven’t even looked at a college.”
Planning for Early Decision
One critical part of Harry’s college research was choosing an Early Decision school. “[One of the] most challenging [parts] for me personally was deciding [where to apply] Early Decision,” Harry shared. “I really wanted to lock in that because there was no going back otherwise.”
With Gabriel’s guidance, Harry solidified his Early Decision school and could get to work crafting the rest of his applications. Once again, Gabriel’s support—especially in the midst of Early Decision deadlines—helped Harry feel confident through the admissions process.
“There’s so many kids that I know, so many friends I have [who] struggled with the deadlines because they didn’t really have someone to guide them like Gabriel guided me,” Harry said. “We stayed on top of things. We got things in either right on time or early.”
What factors made the college application process challenging?
Another challenging part of the college application process? Writing supplemental essays—and staying on track.
CollegeAdvisor reviews students’ essays in a holistic way, looking at how each essay can contribute to a student’s application portfolio. For Harry and Gabriel, this meant keeping on top of a full catalog of supplements. Harry shared how Gabriel’s guidance made the essay process far easier to manage.
“Another difficulty was, and this is something that would’ve been difficult for me if I had not had Gabriel helping me, was keeping on top of [supplemental essays] and having a deadline,” Harry shared. “Because I would never have been able to make a decision on what I wanted to write about and how I wanted to write it and get the feedback that I did.”
When it came to the writing process, CollegeAdvisor made a huge difference for Harry. Together, Harry and Gabriel decided which elements of his resume to highlight and how to highlight his strengths.
“It’s like two different worlds,” Harry said. “Without the help of Gabriel, the writing would’ve been so much harder. [The essays] weren’t difficult, but they would’ve been very difficult otherwise.”
Harry’s admission results and the road ahead
Harry has been accepted into five schools so far. He’s excited about his options as he prepares to enroll.
“Currently my top choice is Fairfield University due to their Dolan School of Business,” Harry shared. “UConn is up there due to its business school and location as well. Being in the middle of the city, there’s a lot of internships. But yeah, Fairfield, UConn, due to their finance departments. So those are the two leading ones right now. And if I can’t go with those two, then Marist would be next.”
Harry applied to a variety of different programs, largely in computer science, finance, business, and economics. As he plans for his future, he’s looking toward colleges with strong programs and internship opportunities in business and finance.
Harry’s advice for future college applicants
Harry’s biggest piece of advice for other applicants? Start early.
“Start as soon as you can,” he said. “You can never be too early in terms of getting things done, even if it feels like it.”
This means thinking about the college process long before you start the applications themselves. “Like in eighth, ninth grade, you want to start getting ready because the minute you get into high school, everything that you do, colleges are going to have eyes on,” Harry shared. “So it’s important that you do things right. You do things to the best of your ability, and then you know what you’re going to target before it’s too late.”
Robyn’s advice for other parents
Robyn agrees with Harry: the earlier you start planning for the college process, the stronger your applications will be.
“Start in eighth grade,” Robyn said. “Because in eighth grade you should be figuring out what you’re taking in ninth grade, and we were not hearing that from our high school.”
For classes with prerequisites and AP programs, this can make a particularly huge difference. “We had no clue that there were prerequisites to an AP class or that he should have been in the honors class.”
“And people have no idea,” Robyn shared. “They were in 11th grade going, I needed to do that? I didn’t know I needed a passion project. I never heard the word ‘passion project.’ I think if I’d known what that was in ninth grade or eighth grade, [it would have made a difference].”
Why CollegeAdvisor?
For Harry and his family, Gabriel’s support made a huge impact.
“It’s almost impossible to list everything [I learned with CollegeAdvisor] because looking back at how I was before and now after, it’s like I read an entire dictionary,” Harry said. “It’s huge how much I’ve learned.”
“[Harry] had a great experience,” Robyn said. “He loved Gabriel. It gave him a lot of confidence. You made a great [match]. He’s a star. Standout star.”
Gabriel also helped inspire Harry as he approached the college application process. “[Gabriel is] a superstar in life, and I feel that,” Robyn shared. “And I think that passed on to my kid. To see what kind of person he is, working for your company. Someone who’s like, it’s five o’clock in the morning and you know, lifting weights and having a job and doing this. And it made my kid want to be like that.”
How Gabriel made a difference for Harry
Throughout the application process, Gabriel’s constant guidance and support was crucial.
“Gabriel specifically is the most encouraging, kind, awesome person,” Harry said. “One of the most awesome people I’ve ever met. He makes you feel like every decision in every part of the process you do, you really put the effort into, and you really did the work. And he definitely increased [my] confidence.”
“The college coaches, the help that you get can really change you as a person. They really show you how much you can do, what makes you, you,” Harry shared. “A lot of times, [at] some schools, you know, it’s really cookie cutter sometimes, but [working with someone like Gabriel] really singles you out and shows you how special and how capable you are as a person.”
We’re so proud of Harry for all he’s accomplished, and we’re excited to see what he does next.
This CollegeAdvisor Review and Success Story was based on interviews with clients Harry and Robyn Herman. It was written by Abbie Sage.
We’re proud that our CollegeAdvisor reviews highlight how our advisors can help students increase their confidence and turn the college admissions process into a learning experience filled with growth and value. Even the best college advisors are only as great as the students they support. At CollegeAdvisor, we’re grateful that our college advisors get the chance to support so many incredible students every day. Every CollegeAdvisor review reminds us how wonderful our community is.
For more Success Stories and CollegeAdvisor reviews, visit our website or our CollegeAdvisor reviews database.
