Overview: CollegeAdvisor.com Client Success Stories
Over the years, CollegeAdvisor has had the distinct pleasure of guiding thousands of students through the college admissions process. While applications, essays, and deadlines can feel overwhelming, it’s our job to make the process a little less stressful. We’re grateful for the opportunity to help students reach their goals — whatever their path may look like.
Because every student follows their own unique journey, we think it’s important to highlight their individual accomplishments. Our Client Success Stories do just that. In these interviews, we learn more about each student, including their challenges and accomplishments throughout the application process.
In sharing these stories, we hope students gain both inspiration and practical insight for their own college journey. No matter where you are in the process, learning from those who have been through it can help you navigate the road ahead.
In this Client Success Story, we spoke with Andrew Balid, a high-achieving student who will be enrolling in the program of his dreams this fall.
Meet Andrew
Having grown up in a suburban area of Texas, Andrew has always enjoyed exploring the natural world around him. When describing his hometown he said, “It’s like if a suburb met a lot of trails that connected different places. One of the biggest things we have around here are nature trails that connect almost everything… I like going on nature hikes and exploring different trails. I actually just did that on my last day of finals. My last final, I had about three hours to kill with my friends, so we just walked from our school onto a trail into downtown and then back, which was very fun.”
In school, Andrew has always been extremely self-motivated to do well. When asked where this drive came from, he said, “I think part of it is how I was raised. People assume that my parents were super strict, and they wanted me to get high grades all the time because I’ve never had a class where I’ve finished with a B. But they don’t really care that much about that. They just want me to work hard and do my best… put your best self forward. And then for me, I think part of my motivation for a long time, and I talked about this in my essay, was I didn’t want to be average or like everybody else.”
Andrew’s Interests and Extracurriculars
Andrew has been not only motivated in the classroom, but outside of it as well. He has many varied interests and activities that he’s been involved in over the years.
He said, “So I had a content creation thing where I had a channel where I would build Lego sets, review them, and make custom Lego figures as well. And then within school extracurriculars, I was on the speech and debate team, the National Honor Society, student council, Yell Cru, which is like school spirit, National Art Honor Society, Studio Art, two very similar things. There’s a lot more. I was in choir for one year. I did a short film with art, and I directed my own short film. And then most recently I joined with a few friends from school and from out of school to play in a band, and we’ve been working on songs. We actually just released our first song on the day we all graduated, which is fitting ’cause the song is about graduating and growing up.”
Andrew has also had a strong academic interest in engineering. With the idea of pursuing it in college, he started to explore college level classes while still in high school. He mentioned, “I did a dual enrollment engineering [course] with UT Austin and my school.”
From composing with his band, The Prim Roses, to taking college-level engineering classes, it’s certain that Andrew was a college applicant with plenty of individuality. But that didn’t make navigating the college admissions process any easier.
How did Andrew feel going into the college admissions process?
Like many students, when it came to the college application process, Andrew was at a loss of where to begin.
He said, “I had no idea what any of it meant, if I’m being honest. Any college terms I would see, I didn’t understand a word… I only knew basic stuff like you have to fill out a Common App, and you have to do a personal essay, and get letters of recommendation. I didn’t know anything about the specific details, and when I looked at all of it, I was like, ‘This is way too much stuff for me to have to do.’ And I was super overwhelmed. But then CollegeAdvisor happened and made it so much easier for me.”
While Andrew knew he had a lot to offer, he wasn’t sure how to turn his experiences and accomplishments into a compelling application. Not quite sure how to get started, Andrew and his family came across CollegeAdvisor.
Getting Started with CollegeAdvisor
When describing how it all began, Andrew said, “If I remember it correctly, I took a Princeton Review course which I think is also connected to U.S. News and World Reports. And we finished that course, and I got a pretty high SAT score from it. And then because of the success of that, I think U.S. News and World Reports reached out to us and were like ‘Would you like to try CollegeAdvisor if this Princeton Review thing worked for you guys?’ And we got on a call with them.”
After having the call, Andrew and his parents agreed that it would be beneficial for him to have some support outside of his school and the family. Andrew said, “We had a family discussion about how we would go about it…because up until then I wasn’t really taking it seriously. My parents said, ‘If we try to tell you, you’re not really gonna listen to us…but if you have somebody from outside who’s telling you to be responsible about it, then you probably will take it better.’… So then we decided to go ahead and do it.”
Once the decision was made, Andrew was matched with his advisor: Sydney Mayer. From the moment they started working together, Andrew felt supported. He said, “She made everything super easy to understand. She gave me lists of things to do, and she knew exactly how to keep me from feeling anxious about things. She knew all the intricate workings of how the whole process worked.”
Andrew’s College List
With the help of his advisor, Andrew was able to create a college list that aligned with his goals and priorities. His interest in engineering provided a natural starting point. However, he also had some other general criteria in what he wanted from a school.
“I wanted a place where I could continue learning, but I wouldn’t just be head in the books all the time. So where there’s a good student life where I can still do things and have fun during college, but also still learn. I wanted that balance because I didn’t really feel like I had that balance in my junior year when I was applying… And I wanted to go to a place that had a good reputation for what I wanted. If I was going into engineering, I wanted a place that had a good reputation as an engineering college.”
Initially, Andrew had only planned to apply to three schools. However, Sydney stepped in and urged him to add more schools to create a more thoughtful and balanced college list. When speaking about the process of finding schools, Andrew said, “She made a whole spreadsheet about which things [I wanted in a school]. Then we went and looked [for schools with my major]. And then on her spreadsheet I would write the names down, and she would research what their decision timelines were and then put those into place. And that helped us have a schedule of when to apply to.”
Creating a college list with deadlines allowed Andrew to stay on track. And, since he started with his advisor the June before his senior year, he was able to get a head start on his applications before classes started again.
Tackling the Essays: Drafting and Redrafting
One of the most challenging parts of the application process is the essays. Like many other applicants, Andrew found the essays to be the most difficult part of completing applications — especially the drafting and redrafting process.
“The topics that I wanted to choose weren’t very typical, which is good ’cause it gives me a USP [unique selling proposition]. But I think getting the [idea] across was hard because I sent it to Sydney, then I showed it to my mom, then I showed it to the Essay Review Team.”
For Andrew, a big part of completing the essays was filtering the opinions of others. Luckily, he and Sydney were on the same page. Still, it seemed as though the drafting process would never end.
He said, “So we’d do a rough draft, and then we’d do an exercise, then we’d do a draft. Then we’d go back and go through it, then we’d redraft, then we’d go back and proofread it again. Then we’d send it to the Essay Review Team. They would send it back, and then we’d redraft. At a certain point, I was just like, ‘Enough drafts. This is it.’ I thought, if I put any more into it, it’s just not gonna be a good essay.”
After many drafts, Andrew was able to submit essays that he felt best represented himself and created a cohesive application narrative.
How did Andrew’s advisor support him through the process?
Emotions can be high as students prepare their applications. Stress and anxiety can accumulate if there aren’t clear goals and deadlines. Sydney played a large part in helping Andrew manage these emotions throughout the process, keeping him on track to submit his best applications possible.
When speaking about the difficulty of writing essays, Andrew said, “That was the thing that I really liked about Sydney, ’cause she knew it was [anxiety inducing]. It was stressful, and so she was helping [with that]. Whenever she would write her emails, she’d be like, ‘Yeah don’t worry. We’re gonna do this, and they’re just gonna do this.’ And she would keep it calm and explain every step to me. That way I was in the loop, and I knew exactly what was going on. I could understand everything.”
What was Andrew’s favorite part about working with CollegeAdvisor?
Though the application process isn’t easy, Andrew was grateful to have the support of an expert throughout the process. Indeed, Sydney played an integral part in Andrew’s experience. From helping him stay organized to keeping him calm about the process and explaining every step along the way, Sydney was a big support for Andrew.
When asked about his favorite part of the college application process, he immediately responded: “My advisor.”
Andrew’s Admissions Results and the Road Ahead
Prioritizing a strong engineering program and a healthy balance between academics and campus life, Andrew decided to apply to eight schools.
“I [applied to] Houston Christian University, New York Tech, Rice University, RIT, Southern Methodist University, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University at Lubbock, and then the University of Texas at Austin. And I got into pretty much every single one…I got waitlisted by Rice, but at that point I had already got admitted to my top school.”
In the end, a campus visit ended up confirming Andrew’s final decision to attend the University of Texas at Austin with a major in architectural engineering.
“We did a campus visit on a whim. That was the first school that we visited. We walked down the campus, and their main plaza, it’s called Speedway. It has all these stands with people and their tables for student organizations and things. They were doing a fair. And there’s so many trees. There’s a canopy cover over it. And when the sun hits it perfectly it’s just such a beautiful campus. And me being a person that loves nature, I thought, ‘This is great.’…I couldn’t wait to step foot on that campus again.”
Andrew’s Advice for Future Applicants
After making it through the entire college admissions process, Andrew has some advice for those about to embark on the journey.
“I would say break it down into a smaller process because you have months. So take time. Look at everything you have to do. Know what you have to do first, and then break it down into chunks because that’s the only way you’ll be able to do it without it being overwhelming or burning yourself out.”
Andrew’s a big proponent of creating a schedule and sticking to it. Whether that means working on things 15 minutes a day or a few hours each week is up to you and where you’re at in the process. However, he also has some advice for those who are earlier along in the process.
“If you’re a young high schooler who isn’t applying yet, I would say just do as many extracurriculars as you can. Sign up for random things. And then if you don’t like it, you can just quit it. But do more things so that you can have more [experiences]. I know for me, the only way I actually decided on the programs that I wanted to apply to was because I had other elective experience, and I knew, ‘I like this part about it.’”
Knowing what you don’t like can be an important part of finding what really interests you. These interests often lead to a major or future career. So, trying a wide variety of activities as you figure things out can be truly eye-opening.
Why CollegeAdvisor?
With varied interests, a high GPA, and impressive standardized test scores, Andrew was already a competitive applicant. However, he still had to decide what story he wanted his application to tell. Staying organized and navigating the admissions process proved challenging as well.
For Andrew, his advisor Sydney played a huge role in supporting him through the entire application process. She guided him in creating a college list, drafting essays, and meeting deadlines. However, arguably most importantly, she helped him manage his stress and anxiety throughout the process by being a pillar of calmness and organization.
We’re thrilled that Andrew was able to get into his top school, UT Austin, to study architectural engineering. We know he will be able to find the academic and social balance he seeks as he embarks on this new chapter of his life.
The experts at CollegeAdvisor are eager to support you through the college admissions journey — no matter where you are in the process. Most importantly, we understand that no two students will have the exact same journey. If you’re interested in learning more about our personalized advising, reach out.
This article was written by Sarah Kaminski. 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.
