Overview: CollegeAdvisor.com Client Success Stories
Every year, hundreds of students work one-on-one with CollegeAdvisor admissions experts to achieve their college dreams. But even with support, the road to an acceptance is far from easy, and our students know that better than anyone. That’s why we created our Client Success Stories series — to celebrate their hard work and achievements.
For each article in this series, we interview one of our recent clients to learn more about their time with CollegeAdvisor. What did they love about the process, what was most challenging, what did they learn along the way? Through these interviews, we get to shine a spotlight on our amazing clients and advisors. We hope their stories inspire you, and maybe even help you feel less alone as you begin your own college journey.
For this edition of our Client Success Stories, we interviewed Maria Bezerra, a recent grad who is excited to begin college at a top east coast school this fall.
Meet Maria
Maria has a pretty unique background that’s taken her to many different places. “I actually grew up in São Paulo, Brazil,” she told us. “I lived there for five years, and I moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and I also stayed there for five years. Then I moved to Miami, Florida, where I’m currently residing.”
While moving to other countries and cities is already a huge change, Maria also grappled with different languages. Her native language is Portuguese, and she had to learn English when she relocated. “I had a really hard time adapting when I moved to the US… English became a really important part of me,” she said. Then, moving to Miami was another pivot. “Spanish is a very common language; it’s spoken [by] almost everyone. It was also a big challenge to adapt to everyone speaking Spanish.”
Maria met these challenges with gusto, and she found a passion for public speaking and the arts along the way. “One of my favorite clubs was Model UN… I think it really helped me with speaking out and learning about different cultures and heritages,” she said.
What about classes? “I was never a huge fan of science and math… I always thought I was more creative,” she told us. “So those were my favorite classes. Theater was always my favorite class.”
In fact, Maria loved theater so much that she joined a thespian troupe at her school. “I loved that thespian troupe. I think it was just one of the most important parts of me. It always felt like my family, and every single day, I would always be excited to go and learn something new with my teacher, which I’m very grateful for.”
How did Maria feel going into the college admissions process?
As much as Maria enjoyed her activities and classes in high school, college admissions lurked just over the horizon. Even in the best-case scenario, the admissions process can be stressful. Essays, transcripts, interviews — it all piles up. For Maria, theater auditions added an entirely new layer to the application process.
There are countless articles and advice out there about writing essays, but niche paths like theater can be lacking in information. “I actually had no idea how to work the college application process. I was really nervous,” Maria said. “I had a really hard time trying to find resources on how to do the theater audition process. I didn’t really know much about it.”
Like any specialty, theater is its own little world. To Maria, entering that world seemed daunting. “There were people that had these hidden languages about it. I really wanted to learn how to become a pro in that and how to really stand out,” she said.
By the time junior year approached, Maria already felt like she was behind. “I had that pressure of not knowing what to do and [thought] how everyone around me was already three steps ahead.” Facing not one but two applications — the traditional application and the theater major application — Maria knew she needed guidance.
Getting Started with CollegeAdvisor
Amidst all these concerns about researching and applying to colleges, Maria sat down with one of her classmates, Murilo. “He also had the same problem as me,” she said. “He had a lot of difficulty trying to figure out how the whole process was like, and he is a very smart student.”
Murilo, who was a year above Maria, had previously worked with CollegeAdvisor. He reached out to Maria to tell her about his positive experience with advising, which got him into the University of Michigan. Impressed by Murilo’s testimony, Maria mentioned CollegeAdvisor to her parents. “They said, ‘Well, if this is gonna really help push you forward into the process, we’ll do it.’”
Why starting early matters
Starting in the spring of her junior year gave Maria something many students don’t have: time. “They wanted to introduce me a little bit earlier,” Maria recalled, “so I can have more time to think about ideas for a college essay, start the whole Common App process, [and] think of what my major is and what I’m planning to do.”
Like many students, Maria was torn between several possible majors, from theater and psychology to criminology. In the early stages, her advisors helped her sort through all her interests.
“They were very calm about it, which is very surprising,” she said. “I really thought that they were gonna step up a little bit, be more urgent. But they really took time with me because they knew that I was already having a lot of pressure during junior year with SATs and AP classes already, and that big final stretch of junior year. It was really great seeing that tranquility with them.”
The power of a strong support team
Leading up to applications, Maria worked with three different advisors: one for essay writing, one for theater, and one for her overall application. But just weeks before several application deadlines, she unexpectedly had to switch her main advisor. “I was so stressed,” Maria recalled. “I had no idea what to do.”
Maria and her family reached out to the CollegeAdvisor support team, who quickly matched her with a new advisor. “They found a second advisor, which was Meg, as soon as possible — I think the day after,” she said.
Her new advisor, Meg Hutcheson, along with writing advisor Navilla Burns and theater advisor Rachael Dec, helped Maria regain confidence and stay on track with both her applications and theater auditions.
“They assured me that everything was gonna be okay and that I was gonna have a really strong application,” Maria said. “I was almost about to give up, but they really assured me that everything would be okay. They were telling me, ‘If you really need anything, don’t forget to email us. We will be here every step of the way.’”
Looking back, Maria said the experience became one of the moments that stood out most. “It was honestly great. It was one of the greatest moments that I’ve ever had at CollegeAdvisor.”
What were Maria’s biggest challenges?
When we asked Maria about her biggest challenges, there were a few that came to mind. First — and perhaps most relatable — was the Common App. “Writing … about myself and how I affect my own entire bubble with my family and my friends and my relatives and people at school and all that, and how that affects college” was challenging for her, she said. “It can’t be something bland or out of the ordinary, or you can’t put yourself in a position of guilt or blame or something like that.”
More unique to Maria’s experience was the challenge of auditioning for theater programs. “Doing recordings and monologues, all of that constantly to get the perfect video to turn in, and somehow be rejected from a few schools or accepted from a few schools — it’s a really complicated process,” she told us. Musicians and actors faced with recording audition pieces almost universally find themselves redoing something over and over until it’s right. Maria was no exception. “I’m also a perfectionist, so I can’t accept something [if] I feel it is not myself, or I feel like I’m not doing enough. I feel like I have to be perfect.”
For Maria, going through the application process helped to counter her perfectionism. “It has helped me show that I’m not perfect,” she said when reflecting on her challenges. “I’m human — there are so many things that I can’t change, but I can show people how I don’t need to change. I can be myself, and I can be the strongest version of myself.”
The Theater Application and Audition Process
Most art-focused students know that applying to niche programs like theater or music requires an audition. However, Maria found it difficult to learn much about auditions and special requirements before applying. She explained, “It’s a very small piece of the whole college process that you don’t really hear much about. Basically, for many schools, they ask for a video before, and they have a bunch of guidelines. You turn that in, and then they give you an audition.”
With an interest in musical theater, Maria was invited to audition with spoken and sung excerpts of her choice. That choice, it turned out, was as challenging as anything else. “It’s really difficult, because you want to find a piece that’s very niche or very specific, and you want it to sound like it’s coming from your own person.”
Working with a specialty advisor
Fortunately for Maria, she had her advisor Rachael to help. She told us, “I took a lot of time with Rachael to try and find the perfect piece for myself.” Rachael also helped Maria workshop emotionally charged performances. “I had a lot of difficulty expressing my emotions. Rachael really helped me [by saying], ‘Hey, you just need to be more angry. Why are you angry? Why are you frustrated? Why are you sad? Why are you happy?’ She really helped me pick out my emotions more, so by the time I landed in the audition room, I knew what I was doing.”
Unless applying to conservatory — a school exclusively for the arts like Juilliard or Curtis Institute of Music — being rejected from a theater program isn’t the end. If your application is otherwise acceptable, you may still get admitted to the university. Maria herself was in this situation. “For many other colleges, I was just rejected for the theater part.” Thanks to her choice in schools, even with a couple rejections, she had many options.
Finding Colleges That Resonated With Her
Before approaching CollegeAdvisor, Maria had tried to make a college list with the help of her high school counselor. “She helped me put a list of 12 colleges that were kind of my fit, but I didn’t really feel like I was fit for them,” she recalled. “There were some schools [where] I didn’t really resonate with their culture, or how their major program worked.” So when Maria got connected with her advisors, she wanted to rework that list.
Maria had a sense of what she was looking for. “I … [was] looking for that connection, and then seeing, does it have what I want? Does it have the major that I want? Does it have great people? Will I find good connections and keep them in my future? I think those were the main two that were the most important to me.”
While researching colleges with her advisors, Maria was deeply impressed by New York University (NYU). “They really resonate with people who want to connect and want to be in different cultures and different heritages and different religions,” she said. “That’s what I told Navilla and Rachael, that I wanted something big that could really touch me in my heart, and it didn’t have to be a religious school.”
She was also drawn by NYU’s audition requirements. “I really liked how their theater [audition] process is not the traditional type… They don’t ask you to perform a piece or do anything like that — they ask you to talk about yourself in a story,” she said.
At the same time, not every school made the cut; UCLA was on Maria’s list initially, but it ultimately wasn’t a good fit. With her advisors’ help, Maria put together a list of 11 schools that were right for her.
Maria’s Admissions Results and the Road Ahead
Among the many acceptances she received, Maria highlighted a few she was proud of, including DePaul and St. Louis University. Ultimately, she narrowed her list to four finalists: “It was between New York University, Texas State University, Penn State, and The New School in New York.”
Making her final decision wasn’t easy. Maria went to her family for help. “Me and my dad, we did an excel sheet,” she told us. They evaluated every school by a variety of metrics. “How much does it cost? What’s the weather like? How are the people? Does it have a sports program? Does it have a lot of really good connections?… We would put them in a point system.”
Even with their detailed ranking system, NYU and Texas State were tied, leading Maria to compare them more closely. “New York is a very expensive place, while Texas State, they gave me a really good scholarship. But it would be in the middle of nowhere,” she said. Texas State’s home city of San Marcos is by no means rural, but it’s hard to hold a candle to New York City. “Even my family was saying, ‘We wouldn’t really see you at Texas State. I think we would see you in a big city, living a big life, making new connections, finding new people…’”
In the end, Maria followed her heart and made her choice that most aligned with her values and dreams for the future. She’s now preparing to double major in psychology and theater at NYU Tisch this fall.
Maria’s Advice for Future Applicants
At the end of our interviews, we always ask our clients what words they have for future applicants. Maria suggested trying to find time to relax, regardless of the stakes: “If you feel stressed, take a moment to breathe. You’re still juggling high school and preparation for college at the same time, so it is so tough. You have to take care of the tiny little moments that you still have in high school… even though you’re still in a huge whirlwind of everything that you’re doing.”
For high school juniors in particular, Maria says to keep some perspective. “Take a step back and realize how great of a position you’re in,” she said. “Whether you’re smart, or you’re talented, or you have such great potential, you still have a whole year left to really make you you and show colleges who you are — not who you want to be.”
If you’re already thinking of your college application strategy in senior year, Maria says, you’re on the right track. “Be a few steps ahead of the crowd,” she emphasized. While she had CollegeAdvisor, there’s some kind of help out there for everyone, whether that’s mentors, family, or even online resources. “If you are scared and can’t find help,” Maria said, “search for it, because it will be there to help you.
Why CollegeAdvisor?
“I think without CollegeAdvisor, I would be completely lost. I don’t think I would’ve gotten into NYU. I don’t think they would’ve seen my true self through essays and through pieces and through performances. I don’t think they would’ve seen that,” Maria said near the end of our interview.
Maria’s journey is a reminder that every student’s path to college looks different. That’s why the right guidance can make such a meaningful difference.
If you’re looking for support with the college application process, don’t settle for a one-size-fits-all approach. Our pool of admissions experts covers a wide range of states, backgrounds, and academic and professional paths. Whether you’re set on performing arts or a more traditional path like pre-med or econ, there’s an advisor who can help you navigate the process.
This article was written by Gina Goosby. 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.
