YOUR LAST HIGH SCHOOL SUMMER: GET A HEAD START ON COLLEGE
by Stephen Wells
June 09, 2016
Those of you who are ending your junior year of high school have no doubt seen all the âCongratulations, Graduates!â signs that sprout up on lawns at this time of year. And it has probably struck you that a year from now your name will be on one of them.
Knowing that the first semester of senior year will be incredibly busy between schoolwork and college applications, more and more students in recent years have smartly used the summer months to get a head start. And hereâs where we can help you!
Most importantly, the summer months are an ideal time for you to begin writing your application essays, which in some cases can be an overwhelming task. What we do that most high school counselors donât is guide you through the process, starting with the Common App essay. In this era when very few colleges offer personal interviews to applicants, the essay is your main opportunity to let admissions officers know who you are beyond your GPA, and why they should select you over others with similar academic records.
Weâll tell you if your topic is one that might resonate with those reading and evaluating the essay, and weâll work closely with you to keep you on track. We obviously wonât write it for you, but weâll make suggestions on what you might want to cut or add.
Weâve seen cases both where the poor quality of an essay has hurt an applicantâs chances of admission and where the high quality has made all the difference. One student of ours a few years ago was admitted to a top-tier university we believe because of her essay, when several classmates of hers with higher GPAs were denied admission to the same school.
The other thing we can help you with that many high school counselors donât is to give you and your parents an idea of how much financial aid you could reasonably expect to receive from a given school. If that is a factor for you, this could significantly impact where you apply. We can determine very early in the process approximately what the federal government is going to calculate your family is able to pay for your first year of college â sadly, an unrealistic amount in most cases â and which colleges may meet or exceed the differential. There are even some cases when a top private university ends up being less expensive to you than a state school; it all depends on the given circumstance. Our point is, why not know all this as best you can before beginning the application process?
So shoot us an e-mail, or give us a call. We donât hit you with expensive contracts or ask you to commit beyond any one single session. Further, we come to you (or meet in a place near you of your choosing). The reason we are able to charge so little â less than half the current market rate for similar services â is we keep our overhead down; we believe you should only pay for our expertise, not our office rent.
We look forward to hearing from you, and to making your college application experience easier and more fun!
Contact Stephen Wells at:
(973) 713-3819