Admissions Advisors for Freshmen & Sophomore Students

underclassmen. own the game.

The smartest thing a young high school student can do is start thinking about the college application process now. It’s not because you can start on personal statements or pick an early decision school. It’s because when you start thinking about the end game, you know the right choices to make between now and then.

When you work with us, you’ll have an expert by your side to help you make the critical academic and extracurricular decisions that will benefit you in the end. Here is how we help young students get through the process:

build a Personal Narrative

Every student will eventually need to present a compelling story to colleges. One that uses their academic desires, extracurricular achievements and personal qualities to make the case for admission. As an underclassmen you are still building this story -but have all the time you need to shape it to your benefit.

You may already know how you want your story to read. If that is the case, we will help you solidify and provide direction on how to further enhance that story during the time left in your high school career. If you don’t yet know what you want to tell colleges, we will help you figure that out.

Either way, this step requires thinking reflectively. It involves asking and answering questions like:

What do I want to study and why? What experiences in my life led me to want this? What have I done to prove this? What could I do? What else can I bring to a college campus that they will want?

It’s tempting to gloss over these questions and get to dreaming about top schools. But if you think of yourself as a product that a selective college is going to buy, you want to be clear about your value proposition. The answers to these simple questions inform your admissions strategy and every application element and should be driving your activities between now and when you apply.

Remember that you need to know what you want before you can go get it. And then you need to prove that you’re worthy of receiving it. Don’t worry if you can’t come up with your entire life’s plan right now. That is not necessary and many kids switch direction once they are in college. Our goal is to prepare you for fall of senior year, which requires clear direction. When you start working with us as a freshman or sophomore, we can help you develop enough solid proof points to back up your application story. These are the academic and extracurricular pursuits that can be called upon later during the application process to show, rather than tell, that you have been thoughtful in how you’ve spent your time.

Our guidance will stem from an initial “Blueprint” session where we look at each element of your admissions profile and recommend how to enhance and improve them with the ample time you have remaining. This will include everything from course recommendations and testing strategies to extracurricular choices, to how to further relationships with the right teachers.

Solidifying your personal narrative is the first part of our admissions advising process for underclassmen and it happens through structured dialogue between you and our advisors. It will be a conversation that evolves over time but that always keeps the primary goal in mind - admission to a highly selective college.

get to know specific Colleges

Once you know what you want, and are building proof to support it, you can start strategizing where to go to college. At this point, you may or may not have a dream college. Either way, now is the time to help get you familiar with what is out there.

Eventually we’ll build a college list together that considers a variety of factors, like selectivity, affordability and fit. But for now, it’s about thoughtfully developing relationships with these colleges - from possible summer programs to research opportunities with certain professors. Showing colleges that you are serious about them is now one of the most important factors in the admissions decision.

The interactions you have now will help you to specify the exact reasons why you want to attend each school on your list and also decide what majors or programs you’ll be indicating on the application. These reasons will be critical for the “why us” essay that most colleges ask you to write. It’s like working backwards from your eventual application date to craft a narrative that fits a college almost perfectly.

write your story

When you work us as an underclassman all of the work we do prior to the summer after junior year eventually leads to the actual application work. We’ll help with the most important part of this process, which is the written Personal Statement. This essay needs to do a lot of things well and so the topic you choose is critical.

We’ll work with you to uncover a topic that serves all of the needs of the essay: highlighting your narrative in an authentic way, making you seem likable and presenting you as a good writer and observer. We’ll go through as many drafts as necessary for you to have crafted a piece that you are proud of and really stands out. And we’ll absolutely make sure that you don’t deliver a trite or cliche essay.

We’ll also tackle the Supplemental essays for every school on your list with the same care and rigor that you give your Personal Statement. The average student must write about 30 different essays which have become increasingly important for standing out at one particular school. We help students answer the “Why Us?” essays for each college with authenticity and specificity. These essays have become some of the most critical in the process because colleges need to believe that you are a good fit and will come if they accept you.

execute the applications

Everything else needed for each school application will be optimized to support the narrative. Together we’ll strategize your recommenders and write them “ask letters” so that they are working from the same narrative playbook you are.

We’ll order and prioritize the awards and activities sections, which will be made to read like an executive resume, pulling out the most important elements of each activity and giving a flavor to your work beyond the name alone. And we’ll keep you on track throughout the entire process, working to deadlines, reading every application, line-by-line before it ever goes out the door and preparing you for interviews as they happen once the applications are submitted.

field the offers

When acceptance offers start coming in during early spring of senior year, we’ll help you understand your options and any new opportunities that emerge like mid-year start-dates or invitations to join an honors college.

We’ll do a side-by-side comparison of financial aid offers and help you understand the details and true cost of each offer. Whenever it’s possible, we’ll also help prepare you to negotiate with colleges for even better financial aid offers, or appeal an existing offer based on new information. Finally, if you’re on a waitlist that you want to move off, we’ll help you position yourself for strong consideration.

Every year we help students get off of waitlists by going above and beyond to show commitment and merit

This is the way to smartly, calmly and efficiently navigate the college admissions process. And it’s a way that we’ve proven is successful in getting good students into great colleges.

present the best you

Today’s college admissions landscape is more competitive than ever. Work with us to have an expert help you every step of the way.