Where are my students now?
I left Pomona College in 2023 and began working with my first group of High Schools Seniors and Transfer Students shortly after. In total, I had 4 high school seniors this year, who were thankfully admitted to many of their top choice colleges (USC, UC San Diego, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, LMU, Chapman, NYU, Vanderbilt, and Duke, to name a few). I have highlighted where they will be attending college this Fall 2024, as well as a concise synopsis of their portfolio.
Now let me be clear: my students did not get accepted to these institutions simply because they worked with me. They got admitted because they were absolute all-stars. I simply had the opportunity to help them make that clear to the college, shaping their narrative into something compelling and interesting.
Class of 2024
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Harvey Mudd College
This student attended a high school in Orange County, CA and was in the top 10% of her class. While her GPA and test scores were solid, we needed something more. To highlight her diverse interests, we collaborated to create a college application that showcased her abilities in both engineering and art. We shaped the narrative from one that was academically talented, to a candidate who valued interdisciplinary thinking and problem-solving. We ultimately decided to target Early Decision 1 - and she got in!
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Boston University
This student was an international student who attended a large, public high school in Los Angeles County. While academic performance wasn’t at the top of his school group (middle 50%), we were able to leverage his extensive experiential experiences. This was a case where we wanted to provide context for the middling academic performance with all of the time he spent doing community-oriented service work.
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Pomona College
This student attended a high school in Taiwan, with her dream school being Pomona College (I can’t think of a better student-to-counselor match!). For her, our work together mainly focused on 2 aspects: multiple essay revisions/edits and application strategy. With my background in Liberal Arts Colleges, we brainstormed and talked about the themes of her essay and short answers, specifically how best to showcase and tell her story. And with her being an international applicant, there’s a lot of strategy that goes into her application (financial aid, major choice, institutional priorities, etc.). I’m so glad it worked out for her!
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UC Berkeley
This student attended a high school in Diamond Bar, CA, where many of her peers apply to similar selective colleges at a very high rate (with over 90% of her peers going on to 4-year colleges). It’s competitive, to say the least. While her ‘dream school’ was UCLA, through our time together, I think she began to see more of what life could be like outside of Los Angeles. While she had many great options in Southern California, I’m so happy to see her taking that leap and getting out of her comfort zone by moving up North!