Our Services

Show me, don’t tell me a story.

When it comes to the Common App prompts, we encourage our students to choose the prompt that will best represent and highlight such things as their personal qualities or traits, resilience, discipline, and personality. We encourage students to think about the change that has occurred within them as a result of their story or experience and to share with the reader how the lessons learned will benefit their intended schools. We help achieve this by brainstorming, through numerous discussions, and the creation of multiple outlines. In addition to showcasing a student’s characteristics, we of course make sure that the prompt is fully answered as well as assist them in keeping it within the word count. We offer our comments and suggestions via Google docs or Zoom if needed.

The difference between the personal essay and supplemental essays is that supplemental essays should contain elements specific to the school as a part of their response. These are more tailored, university-specific essays that cannot be “cut and pasted” from other applications. There is some research involved in successfully answering these essays, and we offer assistance in the areas of the school that a student could focus on or highlight in their response. For example, what areas of the school or campus community are of interest to you? How and where can you make positive contributions? Although these essays tend to be shorter in length, they carry a lot of weight, for they show a student’s understanding of the college and act as an indicator of a student’s true interest in attending.

The ability to have a dialogue with a peer, admissions rep or a potential employer are skills that we like to hone with students. We believe it is important that students can confidently present themselves in person. Interviewing, specifically, is a skill that is never perfected but can be conducted confidently with the proper preparation.

We break down the interview process with our students, covering everything from understanding the culture of the school or company, to the importance of punctuality and dress code, to Zoom etiquette. We review common interview questions and responses and assist students in crafting responses that are true to who they are while also showing their strong interest in the school or company of interest.

An important part of our preparation is our mock interview. Here, we video our practice session. We then go back and watch it together, pointing out the strengths and areas of improvement for the applicant. Our goal is for our students to walk into their interviews confident and armed with the necessary information and practice to leave the interviewer with a positive, lasting impression.

Some colleges allow students to include a resume as part of their application. Additionally, many of our students are looking for summer jobs or internships. Our resume preparation involves having our students gather their academic information along with a list of their extra-curricular activities and all paid and unpaid work experiences. We then organize all of this information, discussing various templates for a resume, and lay out the information in a consistent format which includes categories such as their education (and any awards), resume objective, and relevant work experiences, with their daily responsibilities. We do tell our students that they should have several variations of their resumes, depending on where the resumes will be going. As a result, we offer guidance as to how to tailor their resumes so that they are relevant to the intended positions.