Overview: CollegeAdvisor.com Client Success Stories
In our Client Success Stories, we interview CollegeAdvisor students who achieved their college dreams. Each story highlights how CollegeAdvisor assists students navigating the college application process. We discuss everything from crafting a college list to refining essays, and the advantages of our extensive support network.
At CollegeAdvisor, we take pride in helping our students achieve their college admission goals. For many students, applying to college is a stressful process. Our goal is to minimize that stress and help students from all backgrounds reach their full potential.
If you’re considering CollegeAdvisor for your college journey, take some time to explore our Success Stories. We hope you they give you a better sense of just how we support our students. In this Client Success Story, we interviewed Olani Aboro. So, without further ado, let’s meet Olani!
Getting to Know Olani
For her whole life, Olani has lived in the suburbs of Minnesota. She attended a Christian private school, where her class had only 40 people. She told us hers was the smallest class size in 10 years!
At school, Olani pursued a number of extracurriculars, including theater, student council, and the National Honor Society. “I just always love being around people and I think that’s where I thrive the most,” said Olani. She loved her English and science classes and enjoyed doing any type of writing in school.
What kind of support was Olani looking for?
Even though she thought of herself as a strong writer, Olani wanted another set of eyes on her essays. “It’s very difficult to be the only person looking at your essays, and you think that everything’s perfect,” she said. “Having that outside view is really good.”
Writing college essays is different from academic writing, which Olani already prided herself on being able to tackle. Especially when it came to supplemental essays, Olani worried about getting tripped up by specific formats. But Olani’s advisor, was able to ease her nerves.
“Hannah did walk me through it and she said that it doesn’t really matter, the format, as long as you get the point that you’re trying to say across about who you are,” Olani said. “Explain what it is that you’re trying to do, and what you’re trying to show the school that you can bring to the table, and why you’re the right pick to attend their school.” As you can see, Olani took Hannah’s advice to heart. She certainly knows a lot about how to write a strong essay!
Olani was also looking for some guidance on how to build her college list. At first, Olani had built a list that was mostly Ivy League schools and only one safety school—and it was a safety that she didn’t even want to go to.
According to Olani, Hannah pushed her to expand her list. With all of our CollegeAdvisor students, we try to communicate that getting into a great college is a lot of hard work, but also a lot of luck. After all, there’s only room for so many students, and even the most accomplished applicants don’t always get a yes. Olani understood and built out a more balanced list of schools that she was excited about.
How did Olani learn about CollegeAdvisor?
When she was starting the college process, Olani began searching online for resources that could help her. During her research, she saw CollegeAdvisor’s ads.
“I heard so many positive reviews where it’s like, ‘I got into my dream school because of this, and so many of these people were super helpful,” Olani said about CollegeAdvisor’s reviews. “So then I was like… Would it kill me to try?”
Olani went to her parents and explained to them how important she felt it was that she put together a strong college application. She knew it could affect the rest of her life. “They were very open about it,” she said. Olani’s parents agreed to help, and Olani began working with CollegeAdvisor.
Getting started with CollegeAdvisor
Olani began working with Hannah Chong, one of our senior advisors. According to Olani, she and Hannah were a great fit. Hannah graduated from Emory in 2022, and Olani appreciated that she and Hannah were relatively close in age.
“She understands my perspective, being another minority and another woman of color,” Olani said. “I think it was really easy to connect with her.” Olani especially felt that Hannah understood her when it came to her personal statement. Olani said, “I did write my personal statement essay on my experience with racism and how it affected me and how it helped me become different—the person that I am now—instead of letting it consume me.”
When Hannah and Olani started meeting, Olani had already started working on her Common App. She had filled in a lot of the extracurriculars and other information. Mainly, she needed help with her essay. Olani recognizes, “I’m somebody where if I know that something big has to happen, I start sweating if I don’t get to it.”
Because Olani had already done a lot of work on her application, she and Hannah didn’t need to meet that frequently. But, outside of meetings Hannah would routinely call and check in with Olani about where she was in her application process. Hannah recognized Olani’s drive and preparedness, which was something that Olani appreciated. “She kept motivating me and saying, ‘Wow, you’re a lot further ahead than I would have anticipated,’” recalls Olani.
What challenges did Olani face as an applicant?
One of Olani’s biggest challenges was navigating deadlines. She set a goal for herself to finish all of her essays by October. “I really wanted to get this done as well and as soon as possible just so that I didn’t have to put my academics on the line for the sake of my applications,” she said. “Because if my grades are going down because I’m trying to get my good application, they’re kind of canceling each other out.”
Once Olani set these goals, she needed to figure out how to write and edit all of her essays by October. She faced a lot of different supplemental essays and conflicting ideas on the best way to format and style them. “I would see so many examples where it was like some of them are ‘I’ statements, but some of them are in the same format as the personal statement,” Olani notes. “And I just didn’t understand what is the right way to write these supplemental essays, because I don’t know what is happening.”
“I’ve never done this before,” she said. This is very normal—for nearly all students, writing essays for college applications is a brand-new challenge! That’s why essay writing is a place where having an advisor to let you know you’re on the right track is helpful. Hannah and Olani worked together to create an application timeline and stay on track with her essays.
How Olani’s advisor helped her find success
Even though Olani’s school offered some resources for the college application process, she wanted more personalized feedback. Her school had a writing center—but, she worked there, and it was mostly older students helping younger ones with academic writing. “I think seeing CollegeAdvisor being a source that had so many opportunities to get one-on-one help directly to me and having it be so focused… That’s what I needed, and I thought that CollegeAdvisor would be exactly the source for that.”
Hannah, Olani’s advisor, gave her the specific feedback and advice that she was looking for. Hannah also helped Olani find schools to put on her college list that Olani would actually enjoy attending. Before working with Hannah, Olani didn’t know that much about that many colleges. “I feel like I knew the names of the schools, but I guess I didn’t really understand what these schools were or what they were about,” Olani said.
A knowledgeable resource to depend on
Hannah served as a knowledgeable resource. She knew a lot about different schools and could dive into the details to help Olani understand what life would be like there. “It was just really impressive every time,” Olani said about Hannah’s extensive knowledge. “I think it helped a lot with understanding, okay, I guess this is not exactly what I want—as nice as the name of the school is.” With more guidance, Olani could find schools that weren’t just the best, but were the best for her.
Hannah also was very attentive and went above and beyond the bare minimum of scheduling meetings. “Instead of just asking, ‘Oh, are you ready to have a meeting? Can we have a meeting about this?’, she would just reach out to me and ask me, ‘What point are you at? Like, how are you feeling about this? What do you need help with on my end?’,” Olani said.
“I also think that made it more personal and made me more comfortable with asking for that help,” she said. All of that together made Olani confident that Hannah could help steer her through the college application process. “I think that those elements helped me realize, she knows exactly what she’s doing and I’m very comfortable with putting my trust in her.”
Crafting the perfect application essay
Olani came into the process with an idea of what her personal statement would be. “I knew what I wanted to write—I just didn’t know how,” she said. She and Hannah went through a couple of drafts and worked together in order to create an essay that they both felt confident in.
“There was one sentence at the very beginning where I was like, ‘Hannah, I love you so much. I do not care what you change. That line has got to stay. I cannot compromise.’” Hannah was understanding and collaborated with Olani to reach a final product that included the writing that Olani was passionate about. “She was very good about ‘Okay, we’re going to work around this. I understand you have a vision. We can do that,’” Olani said about Hannah’s response.
However, Olani knew that even though she knew what the crux of her essay would be, there were some parts of college essay writing that she still didn’t understand. But luckily, she was working with an experienced advisor who knows the ins and outs of college essay writing.
Olani reaffirms, “Hannah understood it perfectly, so it helped a lot.”
What was Olani’s favorite part about working with College Advisor?
For Olani, the whole journey was “very smooth.” She says, “It felt natural.” But, there was one particular moment that stood out to her.
“My favorite was getting to tell [Hannah] what school I was going to and the reason why,” Olani said. “When I got to let her know and say, ‘Hey, this is where I’m going to school,’ her excitement also made me excited.”
Olani recalls the special moment saying, “It was like, ‘Wow, the person that literally walked me through this. She’s happy for me.’”
Olani’s admissions results and the road ahead
So what was Olani’s big news?
“I’m going to UW Madison in the fall,” Olani told us. “I’m going on a full-ride merit scholarship that they offered upon admission.” This scholarship will pay for the entirety of Olani’s education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A scholarship like this can be life-changing.
“I literally had that dream since middle school—that I would get to go to a college without having to pay for it because my academics were that good. So, the fact that it happened, that was crazy,” Olani said.
Olani remembers the exact moment when she got the news about her admission. “I’m gonna be honest, when I read that, I cried,” she said. “I had never seen or heard my parents be so excited in my life.”
Olani also earned acceptances to the University of St. Thomas with a scholarship and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
What will Olani major in?
Olani is planning to major in business accounting and neuroscience. During the application process, she looked for schools that had business and business entrepreneurship majors, but she also considered adjacent majors like economics, finance, and accounting.
However, Olani’s choice of schools came down to more than just the major. With Hannah’s help, Olani began to look at the schools’ offerings beyond academics. She wanted a school that didn’t just have a great academic standing, but also had a great social environment and offered opportunities to meet new people. “As much as I care about academics and making sure that I get a good degree from a good college, I also wanted to make sure that the next four years were something that I enjoyed, and that I was excited to go for,” Olani said.
The idea to pursue a neuroscience major came after she decided to attend UW Madison. Olani’s mom always pushed her to achieve, and she thought that Olani would excel at neuroscience. Since Olani will be attending UW Madison on a merit scholarship, she wants to get as much as she can out of her education.
“I’m like, you know what? If I don’t don’t have to pay for it, I might as well get two degrees,” she declared.
Olani’s advice to future applicants
Dealing with rejections is one of the toughest parts of college admissions. But Olani has some advice for students who are struggling.
“My biggest advice is not to take everything to heart or take everything too seriously from the colleges,” Olani said. “When it comes to the college application process, especially if you’re going for big name schools… there is such big competition that there can only be so many people that get accepted,” she said. “It’s almost a gamble in that sense.”
She clarified that her advice doesn’t mean that your application doesn’t matter but that you shouldn’t let rejections or waitlist placements affect you too deeply. “If you worked incredibly hard to get to the point that you’re at, and you worked to the absolute best of the ability on your applications, and you know that you put in as much effort as you could—and that was the result, then that shouldn’t diminish any of the work that you did,” she said.
“It shouldn’t be something that weighs super heavy on your heart and impacts your outlook on yourself and your capabilities,” Olani said.
Why CollegeAdvisor?
Even for a super-motivated student like Olani, CollegeAdvisor was still able to help her achieve her college goals. Olani came in very prepared and with lots of ideas. Her advisor was able to work with her and help her navigate deadlines, refine her essays, and build a balanced college list full of schools that Olani was excited about.
Whatever your anxieties are about the college process, CollegeAdvisor can help. If you’re looking for one-on-one feedback that is personalized to you and your dream school, we’re here to support you. Our advisors provide comprehensive advice on every step of the college journey: picking out your colleges, completing your Common App, telling your story through your personal essay, navigating scholarships and financial aid, and more!
If you’re still on the fence about CollegeAdvisor, read some of our 5-star reviews and other Client Success Stories to get a feel for what we can offer you or your child.
This article was written by senior advisor Rachel Kahn, based on an interview with Olani Aboro. Olani reached out to us for help on her college applications. If you are looking for assistance with your college applications and are interested in working with a CollegeAdvisor.com Admissions Expert, register with CollegeAdvisor.com today.
