Overview: CollegeAdvisor.com Client Success Stories
One of the most common questions students and families ask our advisors is how other students successfully navigated the college admissions process. More specifically, families want to know how our students landed a spot at one of their top-choice colleges. In our Client Success Stories, we get to know CollegeAdvisor students who recently applied to college. More specifically, we look at how they approached the college application process to get into their dream schools.
Through these stories, we showcase the many pathways and options students have when applying to college. Throughout, we highlight and discuss the strategies and resources they used to help them succeed. Certainly, each student’s journey is unique. But, with CollegeAdvisor, they receive individualized support to help them find the right schools and opportunities.
In addition to showcasing our students’ brilliance, these stories demonstrate the power of CollegeAdvisor’s world-class counseling services. Students often share that CollegeAdvisor does more than simply provide essential guidance. Our expert advisors also help ease their worries and make the process more enjoyable. In this feature, we’ll highlight the unique relationship that Joseph Brandwen shared with his two advisors. We’ll see how they made him feel more comfortable, confident, and empowered throughout his application process.
At CollegeAdvisor, we strive to make the college admissions less confusing and more accessible to a wide range of students. We hope getting to know Joseph will help you feel inspired—and excited—about starting your own college application process!
Getting to Know Joseph
To start, let’s learn a bit about Joseph’s background. Joseph grew up in New York City. He is a recent graduate of the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, a public high school located in Manhattan.
In high school, Joseph really enjoyed his humanities classes. Particularly, his Advanced Placement courses, which included AP World History, AP US History, and AP US Government. However, his most unique academic experience was the immersion courses he took at Columbia University in Globalization and International Law. Through these courses, he got to experience life on a college campus. And, he got to learn about topics that interested him from real lawyers.
Outside of classes, Joseph’s extracurriculars further showcased his love for the humanities, as well as his leadership skills. Joseph was an editor for his school newspaper, participated in Model United Nations, and attended a jewelry club. He also played Junior Varsity baseball and badminton. In baseball, he mentored other students, coaching them and helping them improve their game.
How did Joseph feel going into the college admissions process?
Late in his junior year of high school, Joseph began preparing for the college process on his own. He started working on his essays, earlier than many students do, but he didn’t feel very confident about them. Joseph said he wasn’t sure if what he was writing was “up to [a] standard…that would get [him] into a good college.”
However, Joseph was self-directed enough to approach his father and ask if he could seek college admissions help. After an online search, Joseph’s dad found CollegeAdvisor. Together, they met with a sales representative who explained how CollegeAdvisor works. They discussed how Joseph would be matched with our advisors based on his background and interests. His advisors would then provide personalized guidance, feedback, and strategic support throughout the application process.
After the call, Joseph’s dad asked him if he would like to sign up. Joseph enthusiastically said yes!
Getting started with CollegeAdvisor
Once he was signed up with CollegeAdvisor, Joseph was matched with his two advisors, Psalm Brown and Kate Brown. They immediately helped Joseph start drafting up a college list and a strong personal statement. His advisors recommended schools to add to his list that fit into the reach, target, and safety categories. They also gave him copious feedback on his essays, helping him to strengthen everything from the ideas to sentence structure.
Joseph and his advisors met every other week throughout the summer. When Joseph began his senior year, they continued their weekly meetings. In between meetings, he would send them essay drafts and they would provide feedback on Google Docs. As such, Joseph and his advisors were constantly in touch.
Joseph’s advisors’ quick responses to his questions and essay drafts are what helped him stay on track to meet all his application deadlines. Since the college process is very informed by how organized students can be, having the support to stay on track to meet all of his deadlines was critical to Joseph’s success.
Another important aspect of his experience was his comfort level with his advisors. Joseph shares that his advisors “were both very insightful, very knowledgeable, always willing to help out.” Their approach to advising made him feel “comfortable asking them questions.” With so much unknown in the college process, being able to freely ask questions is incredibly important. That’s why our advisors prioritize making sure that students feel secure being vulnerable with their concerns, questions, and personal experiences.
Balancing your college list
A critical step in the college process is deciding where to apply. With the help of his advisors, Joseph built a balanced college list of 19 schools. These schools fell into the reach, match, and safety categories. As Joseph so expertly describes: “You should have safety schools, which you’re very confident that you’ll get into, and target schools, which you want to aim for that you might not get [into]. And then you have reaches, which are colleges that are pretty far out of your reach, but you still have a shot for them.”
In building his college list, Joseph’s advisors recommended schools based on Joseph’s preferences and major interests. Then, Joseph and his dad researched those schools to learn more about them. Joseph noted that “a lot of the schools that my advisors suggested were really good fits. And I ended up getting into some of them, which made me very happy. So, I’m very thankful for the college recommendations that my advisors gave.”
Our advisors are experts in helping students expand their horizons by exploring new schools. In addition, students benefit from having access to our College List team who can help them and their advisors look into schools they may not be familiar with.
Fine tuning essays
The bulk of Joseph’s advising hours with CollegeAdvisor were used in the essay editing process. Joseph and his dad made a spreadsheet of all the essays he needed to write and their due dates. This is extremely helpful to stay on track, as many students must write many essays in a short period of time.
Once Joseph drafted an essay, he would send it to his dad for a quick review. Then, he would send the essay to his advisors. His advisors gave him feedback on how to strengthen his essay so that it would stand out in the admissions process.
One of his advisors, Kate Brown, was also a former admissions officer. As such, she has extensive experience in reviewing student applications and could give Joseph specific guidance on how to make sure each essay was compelling to admissions officers.
Joseph emphasized that his favorite part of working with CollegeAdvisor was the essay feedback. His reaction to their suggestions was often, “Oh, this is a really good change. And this would definitely make my essay better.” In some cases, he needed 30 drafts of an essay to get it to a final state. But, through persistence and hard work, Joseph was able to take their constructive criticism and ensure he submitted the strongest essays possible.
Going test-optional
In the wake of COVID, many schools made test scores an optional part of the application process. As such, Joseph decided to go test-optional for some of the schools to which he applied. For example, he did not submit his SAT scores to Cornell. After attending a webinar with a Cornell faculty member, he learned that the essay was “the most important part” of his application. So, he put a great deal of effort into writing an excellent essay, which admissions likely weighted more heavily in his application due to his decision to not submit scores.
While school policies are changing rapidly and more schools are requiring test scores, there are still many schools that have test-optional policies. Joseph reminds other students that while they should study hard for the SAT, “not getting a perfect SAT score is not the end of the world.”
What did Joseph find most challenging about his college applications?
As most students know, the college process comes with many challenges. For Joseph, the most challenging part of his college process was “keeping it together and not worrying about, oh my god, am I going to get into this school? What happens if I get rejected?”
For many students, the anxiety of simply not knowing what’s going to happen, especially when it comes to such a big life decision, is extremely stressful. However, Joseph relied on the support of his dad and his advisors to help him to stay organized, on task, and focused on the parts of the process he could control.
In addition to the emotional hurdles of applying to college, Joseph also found “the grind” of writing his essays difficult. Indeed, applicants typically write their essays throughout the summer and fall of their senior year. Like many students, Joseph was writing countless essays while having to stay on top of his schoolwork. Luckily, the support he got from his father and CollegeAdvisor helped him stay on track and meet his goal of applying to the 19 schools on his list.
Joseph’s admissions results and the road ahead
Thanks to his hard work, Joseph earned an acceptance to his top choice school, Cornell. In addition to Cornell, he got into Penn State, the University of Miami, Stony Brook University, and Trinity College. Though Joseph did not get into every school he applied to, he got into the ones that he was most interested in attending.
In building his application strategy, Joseph decided to apply Early Decision to Cornell. Though Early Decision is binding, he was confident that he would be happy at the school after having done extensive research. “[Reading] about their curriculum and what they had to offer, I knew that this was the school that I really wanted to go to more than any of the others.”
CollegeAdvisor is committed to helping students understand all the benefits and disadvantages of applying Early Decision. Our goal is that students understand all of their options and can make an informed decision about whether to apply early to a school. And, to be prepared when they receive their admissions decisions.
Getting deferred
Initially, Joseph was deferred from Cornell, which is neither a rejection nor acceptance. A deferral means that Cornell would reconsider his application in the Regular Decision round. So, Joseph had to wait for a final decision.
In that lapse of time, Joseph and his dad worked on a letter of continued interest. This is a letter to admissions officers that emphasizes a student’s interest in a school. It also provides updates to the school on any new accomplishments or important changes to their circumstances
Before sending his letter, Joseph had his advisors review his draft and give him feedback on how best to make his case to Cornell. In the end, his letter had the desired effect, and Joseph was thrilled to receive his acceptance.
What will Joseph major in?
At Cornell, Joseph will attend the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Uniquely, the school only has one major, which is industrial and labor relations. In his coursework, Joseph will take classes in history, law, organizational psychology, management, economics, and statistics.
Through his coursework, Joseph will explore topics such as leadership, teamwork, and negotiations, as well as the impact of technology on work, globalization, and labor relations and rights around the world. With his Cornell education, Joseph can pursue a wide range of careers in whatever field he chooses!
Joseph’s advice to future applicants
Joseph has several pieces of advice for future college applicants. First, he recommends starting your college process early, specifically during the summer of your junior year. He says, “If you start then, then you will have a much, much easier time.” Since many students must write several essays in their college journey, starting early helps to avoid the stress of too much essay writing colliding with schoolwork in the fall.
When it comes to building a college list, Joseph recommends having “as many safeties as you want.” While first developing his college list, Joseph had many reaches and target schools on his list. Then, he noted, “My advisor said, ‘You might want to add some more safeties.’ And those safeties that they added, I got into, so I’m happy about that.” Joseph also notes the importance of applying to schools “you’re genuinely interested in that you would like to go to” rather than solely focusing on a school’s name or prestige.
When working on your application strategy, Joseph recommends being aware of test-optional policies at the schools to which you are applying. In doing so, you can be strategic about presenting the strongest version of your application, whether that includes test scores or not.
When it comes to writing essays, Joseph has a wealth of wisdom to share. He recommends writing about “something that’s unique to you,” rather than trying to sound like someone else. Joseph emphasizes that colleges “want to see you in your essays.” He also recommends putting “as much effort into all those essays as you can. Don’t just go around copying and pasting one [school’s essay] to another and just changing the name of the school in the essays… Definitely give it your all and try as hard as you can.”
Why CollegeAdvisor?
The college admission process is one of the most complex and multifaceted processes that students will go through in life. While the process offers students the opportunity to explore their interests, it can also bring up anxiety, uncertainty, and self-doubt, as Joseph mentioned in his interview.
With CollegeAdvisor, students have the support to navigate those experiences and successfully apply to a school that meets their academic and personal needs. Alongside his advisors, Joseph was able to write essays that he could be proud of and be strategic about where and how he applied to schools.
In addition to expert counseling services, Joseph used our freely available college essay guides to learn about what would make his essays strong. While Joseph did not need financial aid guidance, many students also benefit greatly from the support of our financial aid resources and our team of financial aid specialists.
Without a doubt, the support Joseph received helped him get into his top choice school, Cornell. Joseph states that signing up for CollegeAdvisor was “maybe the best purchase that [my dad and I] have made in our life. It was 100% worth it. And the help they offered was invaluable.”
This article was written by Courtney Ng. Looking for more admissions support? Click here to schedule a free meeting with one of our Admissions Specialists. During your meeting, our team will discuss your profile and help you find targeted ways to increase your admissions odds at top schools. We’ll also answer any questions and discuss how CollegeAdvisor.com can support you in the college application process.
