Thorin requested 1:1 assistance with his entire College Application process. In particular, he needed expert guidance on the Application Essays because he didn't want to submit stories that sounded the exact same as every other student from his school. Scholarships & Student aid were also a priority for Thorin and his family.
Consultation Strategies
Vishnu began by providing Thorin with a comprehensive overview of the entire application process. It's often true that students find College Admissions overwhelming because there is a lot of uncertainty. This involved helping him create his Common Application login and credentials and assessing the DOs and DONTs of it all, in order to avoid common pitfalls and mistakes that are easily avoided with a little advice.
When it comes to the Application Essays, Dewey Smart College Counselors created dedicated Google Drive folders for each of their students in order to stay organized but also to provided step-by-step insights. This also allows us to add comments and feedback in live sessions, as well as asynchronous moments between sessions. We begin by helping students breakdown and understand individual schools' application prompts. Many students fail to even address what's asked of them from the onset! From there, Vishnu entered into brainstorming sessions to develop potential content for Thorin's storylines. We want our students to stand out in unique ways; thus, content needs to be compelling. Once a good story was fleshed-out, Vishnu would help Thorin structure it. Application Essays can require formal or informal structures that have an affect on readers from the admissions committees. Once an Application Essays was outlined into an effective structure, Vishnu and Thorin would work together on language, grammar, and rhetorical devices to complete each and every one and stay ahead of the deadlines.
Scholarship & Student Aid Applications were also a top priority for Thorin. Dewey Smart College Counselors access our databases of financial opportunities in the form of needs-based, merit, and private funding in order to make their college dreams come true, and Vishnu ensured that Thorin made the most of them!
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My biggest issues was understanding how write a proper application essay. For my entire high school career I've been groomed to write in an academic way, but college and scholarship applications didn't want academic writings. It took some practice but eventually I was able to start writing in a way that really conveyed my personal struggles, emotions, and triumphs.
My main goal was learning how to manage and fill out all of the applications that I needed to fill out; ranging from college applications to financial aid and scholarship applications. My counselor really helped me hone my writing and overall research skills. They taught me what colleges were looking for and how to make me stand out in my applications, even if my resume wasn't particularly impressive. Furthermore, they taught me how to look for other financial aid opportunities.
Overall, I would have to rate my experience as incredibly positive. Every time I met with my counselor they helped me work through everything and cut down on a lot of my college related stress.
