Testimonials

All names have been changed for client confidentiality. The other details are true.

            Haoran L. (Undergrad, Chinese citizen)

Haoran grew up in Sichuan, China, but his parents had him attend high school at a private school in the northeastern United States. We started working with him early on in his academic studies, starting before his junior year.

Our team guided Haoran through course selection, helping him balance taking as many AP classes as possible with maintaining the 4.0 GPA he had achieved the last two years. Furthermore, Haoran was spending too much time studying. We advised him on the importance of extracurriculars to U.S. colleges, and mapped out activities that complemented his interests and impressed selective colleges. As a result of working with us, Haoran was admitted to a college in the top 25 of the U.S. News rankings, one of the “public ivies.”

            Yousef F. (Undergrad, US citizen)

Yousef attended a good public school in the United States, as a second-generation immigrant from the Middle East. He never studied as hard as his parents wanted him too. As a result, he got decent grades—just barely in the top half for his high school—but nowhere near competitive enough for a highly selective college. His extracurriculars were not spectacular, either. He was a member of some clubs, but did not have any leadership roles. Instead, he spent much of his time with friends.

Yousef realized senior year that he wanted to attend a college with better academics, so he hired us to help with his application components. With Yousef, it was too late to change much of his academic record or activities. However, we were able to help him write stellar essays. Thus, we guided him to submit a personal statement about biking with friends during his childhood, and how this helped him realize, when he started driving, the importance of responsibility and taking school seriously. With our help, he was able to attend a university ranked ~100 in the U.S. News rankings, despite his subpar academics, test scores, and extracurriculars.

            Emily C. (Grad School)

Emily attended a top engineering school on the east coast of the U.S. for university, majoring in electrical engineering and photonics. She got good enough grades as a student, but never engaged in research. Once she graduated, she got a job working for a mid-sized company using lasers. After two years, Emily decided she wanted to pursue graduate research.

She had some troubles with the application process, however. First, as an engineer, she was unsure how to write essays like a statement of purpose for graduate school. Second, she had some troubles getting letters of recommendation, as she didn’t engage in research during college and had trouble getting approval from her company.

This is where we came in—we walked her through writing a proper statement of purpose, and gave her advice on what she could do to secure letters of recommendation, despite her trouble. With our advice, she was admitted to her #1 choice, a master’s program at a top research department in photonics.