Stand Out College Prep

Soraya is in her first year at Northwestern. When she showed me her first draft of her college essay, it screamed: Little Miss Perfect! I challenged her to peel back the layers and get to the crux of her story, one that was riddled with failures and things not always going as planned. She took a risk and wrote about her struggles with body image. It took a lot of courage to be vulnerable. But as a result of digging deep, her story was compelling and made the case that she was ready to study an intensive writing program at NU. I'm so proud of my client's wins and happy I can share them with you.

This posts gives you step-by-step help with appealing your financial aid offer. Also, download a template to send to financial aid offices. You can access it at https://buff.ly/36Y16We

This is for those who spend a lot of time planning the future. There's something sweet about being present in the moment and creating habits TODAY. If COVID has taught us anything, it's that we have little control of what the future may bring. We should focus instead on what we can control: how we spend our time, who we spend it with, and being grateful for what we have.

Sandy contacted me a week before Stephen’s applications were due. In her Instant Message, she wrote, My son is a senior, and I’ll be honest, he has been struggling. She proceeded to tell me that COVID had impacted him socially, emotionally, and intellectually, not being able to attend school every day. I reassured her that it was ok. There’s never a TOO LATE. She brought in help at the right time. I immediately started working with him on his essays for Fordham and Northeas...tern. I help him hone in on a unique topic, an essay about his grandmother’s empanada recipe and how it reflects his identity. It was quite a risky essay to write...it reads like a recipe from a cookbook, but it allowed Stephen to open up and dig deep into who he is and who he has become. I love celebrating my client’s wins and hope you’ll join me in congratulating Joey on his accomplishments.

A student contacted me on my website and asked: ... I finished submitting all my college applications. I'm supposed to hear back from my top schools in the next 2-3 weeks, although I want to make sure that I'm doing the most to demonstrate to those schools my interest in attending their institution. I'm not sure about what I should include in my email, because I'm afraid they might just read my email as a way to 'kiss A' to the school... so I want to make sure that if I'm goi...ng to write an email to them, I want to have a good balance between being both professional and authentic?" In this week’s post, I advised him that it won’t hurt. I go through strategies to continue demonstrating interest to ensure maximum attention to your college application. Checkout this week’s blog post: buff.ly/2MreHhR Read the post and check back here to share what you did to demonstrate your interest.

I struggle with being perfect. If I don’t see myself doing well the first time, I shy away from the risk of failsure. But realizing how much this has prevented me from growing, I’ve adopted the mantra Progress over Perfection. I can’t count the number of times I’ve told students that mistakes are gifts. So now I’m taking my own advice.