In our Client Success Stories, we highlight the experiences of students who have worked with the CollegeAdvisor advising team. We’re so grateful to be a part of their college journeys — and we think these hardworking students deserve to be celebrated for their impressive achievements.
CollegeAdvisor works with a range of students and families from all different backgrounds. Whether students started working with us freshman year or just before their senior year, each has a story and a unique perspective worth sharing. For students in the early stages of their own college planning, we hope these personal stories offer helpful insights into what lies ahead.
In this edition of our Client Success Stories, we talked with John, a motivated student who took the early application route and saw it pay off. Let’s hear his story!
Meet John
John is from upstate New York, but his college ambitions were never limited by geography. From a young age, he’s had his sights set on prestigious schools across the country. Not being a fan of East Coast winters, John mentioned his early interest in a well-known California university. “A big part of why I wanted to go to Stanford and why it became my dream school was because I wanted to get away from the winters here.”
Driven by his own curiosity, and with a nudge from his mom, John started researching colleges in middle school. He said, “Over COVID, I didn’t really have much to do, so I was looking at colleges…even in sixth or seventh grade.”
Having taken advantage of the time in lockdown, John had a college list long before senior year — though that list would continue to evolve and change.
High School Interests and Extracurriculars
John has quite the resume of extracurriculars. “I’ve done a bunch of different clubs, from Model UN to Math Team to Economics Club [and] Chess Club. I also played in an orchestra outside of school.” School breaks didn’t slow John down — he stayed busy then, too. “I did some research [and] a couple STEM summer programs.”
Although John got involved in plenty of different clubs and activities, he found himself drawn to all things STEM. When it was clear where his passions lied, he focused on getting into competitive summer research programs. Those programs helped him explore different STEM fields so he could see what he enjoyed most.
Investing in STEM
Through these summer programs, John was able to build an application that clearly showed his interest and experience in STEM. Here’s how John described his summer experiences: “For the first summer, I worked at a nearby university, doing some lab work. Then I moved on to MIT and did a program called Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI). That was [about] chip fabrication, chip design. Then I ended up doing some more research at another local university.”
His favorite part about these summer programs? Learning and working alongside students just like him. “I like MIT because it was one of the first times I was exposed to working with a bunch of colleagues who were my age…working towards a team goal, a team objective. I liked this summer for the same reason… There were 16 of us, and though we didn’t work on the same project — we each had our own project — it was nice because we were able to interact with a bunch of research scientists, professors, and of course our peers.”
Being around like-minded peers gave John valuable experience in teamwork and collaboration. His summer experiences also helped him hone in on his college major. “It solidified my interest in materials science and engineering,” John said, “which is what I want to do in the future.”
Getting Started With CollegeAdvisor
As we mentioned, John began thinking about college early on. With his mom, he started investigating different college advising options during freshman year. “We’d looked through a bunch of different options,” he told us. In the end, he decided to work with CollegeAdvisor.
“We did those preliminary meetings where they get to know you…and I found the CollegeAdvisor customer service was really nice.” John went on to say, “We had a lot of options, and we also got a good amount of value. We had a lot of hours on the package, which is what we really liked.”
He also mentioned that where other college counselors had focused on the negatives, making John feel like he was already behind, CollegeAdvisor took a more supportive approach. Ultimately, he said, “We’re glad that we went with CollegeAdvisor.”
John’s Advising Team
John had a couple of different advisors throughout his high school years, however, his main advisor was Alvin Carter. John said this about working with Alvin: “He’s been very helpful. I think probably one of his biggest strengths is with interview prep.” Beyond interviews, John said Alvin helped him narrow down his college list. Alvin also encouraged him to take advantage of CollegeAdvisor’s resources, like our essay review team. “He has been very helpful with coordinating the whole process.”
Conrad Kisunzu was another of John’s advisors. John found the guidance especially helpful since it focused on his top choice college and major of interest. He said, “[Conrad] actually got his degree from Stanford in the same thing I wanted to do, which is material science and engineering… It was really helpful to have him as a technical person, especially for some of those summer programs where they ask you to write about technical stuff.”
With a dream team in his corner, John had the support and expertise he needed to enhance his college applications. And, since John started working with CollegeAdvisor early, his advisors were there to help him find and apply to summer opportunities throughout high school. “CollegeAdvisor definitely helped me more with the very competitive STEM programs,” John said. “I believe the MIT program I got into had a 9% acceptance rate. I think the help with the essays definitely was a great thing.
Interviews and Essays: Preparing to Impress
While John was confident about the college application process, he still benefited from the personalized attention of his college advisors. When it came to preparing for interviews and writing essays, John leaned on the resources found at CollegeAdvisor.
Interview practice
When asked about his favorite part of the college advising process, John said, “I think the interview prep for sure… I think verbally being able to express yourself is obviously a very important skill.”
John then explained how Alvin helped him prepare for his interviews, “Alvin would ask me a bunch of common questions, [then] he’d give me feedback on my answers…which is nice to have in real time.” He went on to say it was nice to be able to make mistakes during practice, instead of during his interviews.
He also had this to say: “A lot of college interviews are with alumni, so it doesn’t seem high stakes. But if you come off like someone they wouldn’t want to have on campus, that can really hurt your application. It’s something that really matters.”
Essay feedback
Although John felt confident in his writing abilities (he’s an editor at his school newspaper), he found the extra guidance he received from the Essay Review Team especially important. “I thought that it was nice that we were always able to send something along [and] get feedback on it. It was especially helpful when a teammate would give inline edits.”
While the technical notes were valuable, John found getting an outside perspective on his essays even more valuable. “They definitely helped with content,” he said, emphasizing that the feedback helped him answer the question, “What do they wanna see in these essays?”
Useful CollegeAdvisor Resources
In addition to using the Essay Review Team to get his essays to their best version possible, John also benefited from a “dress rehearsal.” Application Dress Rehearsals help students get feedback — essentially a full review of their applications — before they submit them. This simulates a true admissions evaluation, allowing students to tweak their application to make the strongest positive impression on admissions.
Speaking about the dress rehearsal experience, John said, “I thought that was helpful. They did a review of Harvard. I think the nice thing about these services is that they do boost your confidence if you know it’s a good review.”
John also took advantage of the financial aid team. He explained, “Financial aid was a little bit of a hassle for us… [The financial aid team] was helpful in helping us get the FAFSA [and] the CSS profile done.”
Apart from personalized advising, CollegeAdvisor offers a myriad of resources. From articles to webinars, students can find help on everything from applying for financial aid to writing essays.
Finding the Right College Fit
Though his interests remained with STEM throughout high school, John’s top schools changed quite a bit. When he came to CollegeAdvisor, John had quite an extensive college list. “I started with close to 30 [colleges] and we pretty quickly narrowed that down.” So, how did John decide which schools to apply to — and how did Stanford come out on top?
Looking back at his middle school years, John mentioned, “I think at that point my dream college was MIT, and that lasted for probably three or four years.” But even though MIT had been a dream school and he had participated in a summer program there, it didn’t make his final list. “I actually didn’t end up applying to MIT, which is ironic.”
While John had a positive experience at MIT’s BDOS program, he didn’t think the culture was the right fit. “I thought the culture [at MIT] felt a bit one dimensional, very STEM focused,” he said. Compared to Stanford’s “diversity of students,” MIT just couldn’t compare.
Ultimately, John decided not to go through the lengthy process of applying to MIT. But that decision allowed him to focus his attention elsewhere. John’s final college list included plenty of top schools — Harvard, Yale, Duke, UCLA, UC Berkeley — but, as you may have already guessed, one continued to stand out from the rest.
John’s Admissions Results and Road Ahead
“Stanford was my number one [school] for the past year and a half,” John told us. Like many students with a top-choice school, John decided to apply early.
“I wasn’t expecting to get in,” he mentioned. However, when admissions decisions came out in mid-December, John saw all of his hard work, dedication, and experience pay off. “I was very happy when I did [get in] and very grateful for all the help that [my] college advisors provided.”
John was admitted early action to Stanford’s Materials Science program. While any acceptance is worth celebrating, an early one is particularly beneficial. With an early admission decision to his top choice school, John decided to not finish several of his other applications. “It’s a lot of essays, a lot of work, and I know I’m not gonna go there, so I [didn’t] bother spending the money and applying. That pretty quickly cut off nine schools, which was nice.”
John has also been admitted to UT Austin’s ECB Honors Program. It’s a dual degree in electrical and computer engineering and business administration. He’s seriously considering both offers.
When asked about where he’ll enroll next fall, John said, “I think we’re gonna have to wait and see.” He’s still waiting to hear back from Harvard, Yale, Duke,and a few UCs. So, while John has had exciting early admissions results, he’s still deciding where he’ll end up.
What will John major in?
John has been interested in a STEM degree for years. However, he was very thoughtful about the type of school he wanted to attend. While he has been involved in STEM-related extracurricular activities and summer programs, he’s also interested in the humanities.
When speaking about Stanford, John said, “I really liked it because it’s very strong in STEM, but also very strong in pretty much any field you could think of. I think Stanford’s very unique in that it has engineering, business, medicine, law, literally anything you can think of…” Highlighting one of the main benefits of attending a university with strong graduate programs, he said undergrads can really benefit from the school’s strong research culture.
While John is set on studying materials science, he’s debated pairing it with an economics major and is considering dual major programs. However, only time will tell where he ends up and what other major or minor he decides to take on.
John’s Advice for Future Applicants
After having been through the college application process, John has some words of advice for future college applicants.
“I think it’s definitely very important to get involved.”
John explored diverse interests throughout his high school years, which led him to his main field of study: materials science. John explained, “Throughout high school…I really tried to find things that I liked doing… I have friends who are like, ‘oh, I’m just doing this for college,’ and I feel like that shows. If you’re just doing something for college [and] you’re not passionate about it, you’re not going to be someone who wants to make a big change in that organization or someone who’s going to make a real measurable impact.”
John explains the importance of finding extracurriculars that genuinely interest you — and he’s right. Your authenticity and passion will naturally weave into and strengthen your application narrative, and it can help you discover what you’d like to study.
John reaffirms his advice: “Definitely explore a lot of things and figure out what you like, because if you find out what you genuinely enjoy, it’ll make your college application a lot easier.”
Why CollegeAdvisor?
John is one of many students who has had college admissions success while working with CollegeAdvisor. The college application process can be intimidating, but having an experienced team of experts, advising you every step of the way, makes the entire process easier to handle. And, with the perspectives and insights of admissions experts and former admissions officers, you up your chances of having positive results!
CollegeAdvisor offers personalized guidance on creating a cohesive college application narrative that helps you stand out at top schools. With access to our essay review, dress rehearsal, and financial aid teams, students and families are supported through every task, big and small.
We’re thrilled for John on his early admissions results and we can’t wait to see where he ends up!
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.
