Overview: Another CollegeAdvisor.com Success Story
In our CollegeAdvisor Client Success Stories, we feature CollegeAdvisor.com students who achieved their college dreams. For each of this year’s Client Success Stories, we’ll interview our students and talk to them about their college advising experience. We’ll discuss how they built their college lists and aced their college essays. They’ll share the CollegeAdvisor resources they found most valuable, and what they learned during the college application process.
Our CollegeAdvisor Client Success Stories and the positive feedback we get from our CollegeAdvisor.com reviews remind us why we do what we do. At CollegeAdvisor, we’re proud to help students from all backgrounds maximize their college potential. We hope these Client Success Stories inspire you as you begin your own college application process, start your college visits, apply for merit scholarships, craft your college list, and more.
Introducing Carter Oyer
Carter Oyer (they/them) takes the spotlight in one of our client success stories. Carter is a high school senior, preparing to enter their first-year at Emerson College in Boston. Their story is unique as they don’t have a traditional educational background.
Carter knew that the college application process was complicated. They would need some help if they wanted to gain college admissions to their dream schools. Having been homeschooled for most of their life, Carter knew they would need extra help with college advising.
Carter’s parents homeschooled so that Carter could learn at their own pace, and get involved in other activities and experiences, including extracurriculars for college. Carter has experience in speech and debate, working with attorneys, and writing their own political poems and essays. Check out this link to Carter’s self-published pieces.
Carter knew they had valuable experience, but was uncertain of how to portray those extracurriculars for college admissions. They were unsure of how to go about the college application process.
Check out how parents can best help their children in the college application process.
Feeling that they were at a disadvantage in the college application process, they sought outside help from the CollegeAdvisor.com team. The glowing CollegeAdvisor.com reviews didn’t let Carter down. With the help of their college advising team, they actually enjoyed the “stressful” college application process!
Applying to college as a homeschooled student: Why Carter was attracted to CollegeAdvisor?
Carter thought they were at a disadvantage in the college application process. They didn’t have formal classes in essay writing, college advising counselors or help deciding the best extracurriculars for college. They knew they’d need some extra help to achieve college admissions success.
With their eyes set on competitive, private liberal arts schools, Carter wanted guidance in the college application process. On the outskirts of a traditional education system, Carter wanted to be on an equal footing when it came to the college application process, college admissions and scholarship opportunities.
“I am coming into this as an outsider and I just need some help …someone who can help me stay focused and really walk me through this process – someone who knows more than I do.”
So, Carter started looking for college advising guidance. They stumbled upon one of CollegeAdvisor.com’s webinars while browsing YouTube, and they were persuaded. The CollegeAdvisor.com reviews secured Carter’s interest in our college advising services. They reached out that day and started working with the college advising team the next week.
Shortly after reaching out, Carter met with their Advisors, Amber and Anne. While they were impressed by the CollegeAdvisor.com reviews and webinars they saw online, Amber and Anne exceeded Carter’s expectations.
Personalized advice for the college application process
The Advisors gave Carter tailored college advising. They explained how Carter’s non-traditional education background could be an advantage when building their candidate profile. After all, they didn’t lack experiences or extracurriculars for college. Instead, they needed to know how to best portray these experiences to college admissions.
Amber and Anne helped Carter streamline the college application process. They started working together in August before Carter’s senior year. They worked quickly to identify Carter’s future life goals, and achieve their further education goals.
Carter and their Advisors applied for early action deadlines. Carter believes this was only possible with Amber and Anne’s college advising and support.
Applying to college as a homeschooler may seem overwhelming. However, as well as our college advising services, there are many resources to help you in the process.
Check out some of the differences in applying to college as a homeschooler. Then, read what U.S. News has to say about how homeschooling affects college admissions.
Building a candidate profile
Building a strong candidate profile is the essence of success in the college application process. A good candidate profile will show college admissions teams who you really are. Students give us positive CollegeAdvisor.com reviews largely because the college advising team helps them build an excellent candidate profile.
A good candidate profile doesn’t just list all of your extracurriculars for college. Instead, you must show how those experiences define you, relate to your goals, and have helped you to grow. Advisors help students realize how their activities have changed them for the better. Then, they can build a compelling, authentic candidate profile.
Carter received tailored college advising throughout the college application process, especially when building their candidate profile. The focus was on Carter and presenting their story in the best way.
When talking about building their candidate profile with the college advising team, Carter says, “They weren’t interested in, you know, my application. They were interested in me and making sure that I was adequately and thoroughly presented to these colleges in the best possible light.”
CollegeAdvisor is on your side
Throughout the process, Carter knew their advisors were on their side. They wanted to show Carter’s unique story in the best way possible. Anne and Amber really helped to focus their experiences and choose how to highlight Carter’s strengths and individuality.
Comfortable with vulnerability, Carter had no qualms talking about hard moments in their life and resilience. They just needed the guidance and focus of their Advisors to help along the way.
Carter had a résumé full of interesting experiences and extracurriculars for college, including self-publishing. Their Advisors, Anne and Amber, helped them use these to ace the college application process.
It’s not about listing all of your extracurriculars for college admissions success. It’s about showing how those extracurriculars for college make you an ideal candidate. How did they affect you as a student, person, friend, etc.? This is how to nail the candidate profile and ace the college application process.
Client success stories happen when our students and Advisors work together to build a powerful candidate profile, using those personal experiences and extracurriculars for college admissions success.
What’s the most challenging part of applying to college?
For Carter, the most challenging part of the college application process was avoiding the urge to “fit the mold.” Many students struggle with the same issue: trying to create a candidate profile that they think college admissions want to see. With the help of our Advisors, Carter learned to present an authentic image of themselves, rather than trying to be an “ideal student.”
The second biggest challenge for Carter was writing the college essays. Carter struggled to focus on the essay itself, rather than what college admissions would think when reading it. Our college advising team helped Carter get out of their head and focus on writing captivating essays that showed their voice, style, and experiences. With guidance from advisors and the editing team, Carter was able to write successful college essays that they were proud of.
Carter also said it was helpful to have experts explain terms like early action, early decision, and regular decision. Advisors with years of experience could answer technical questions about how these deadlines affect college admissions odds. This put Carter at ease during the college application process. Carter’s Advisors helped them decide which college admissions deadlines to use for each school. Together as a team, they decided to apply to Carter’s top picks for early action.
While Carter was pretty sure of their top choices, many students aren’t. Deciding what schools make the cut for college applications can be difficult. Check out this article on how to choose your dream school, reach schools, and lots of other tips about the process.
Carter’s experience with CollegeAdvisor’s essay editing team
Carter took advantage of CollegeAdvisor.com’s many services. They worked one-on-one with their advisors in the college essay writing process, but also used the essay editing team to write the best essays possible.
Carter found the experience extremely beneficial. “I knew that there was a whole slew of people just on the other side of the screen, ready to help.” Carter found the comments from the essay editing team invaluable. It gave them that extra confidence when turning in the final essays and applications.
They noted the turnaround was quick as well. Whenever Carter and their Advisors sent in a draft, it was back to them within 72 hours. This kept up the momentum in the writing process.
Writing college essays for the college application process is often one of the most daunting parts of college admissions. Advisors help to ease the process and create a support system for students so that they don’t feel alone.
Knowing what works for college essays is vital in the process. Here are some college essay examples that have worked for students in their college admissions process.
The value of Carter’s application dress rehearsal
In addition to the editing team, Carter also took advantage of the dress rehearsal that CollegeAdvisor.com offers. They noted that after all their hard work in creating the perfect candidate profile and college essays, “the cherry on top” was sending it in to the team of former college admissions officers for some final feedback.
Carter submitted their Emerson application – extracurriculars for college lists and essays – for feedback via an email review. Again, the process was quick, with a few days’ turnaround. The feedback gave Carter the confidence to finish the college application process and send in those applications they’d worked so hard on.
The dress rehearsal is a great opportunity for students to gain the confidence to take that final step in college admissions . It can be difficult to know when an application is done. Dress rehearsals can serve as the final feedback so students feel good about turning in their hard work.
Carter’s admissions results and what’s next
Carter found the knowledge of the CollegeAdvisor.com team invaluable, especially when it came to college admissions deadlines. Our team gave advice on the benefits and drawbacks of applying early action and early decision.
Firstly, Carter applied to Rollins and was accepted with a 70% paid tuition scholarship. However, Carter then applied early action to their top three school choices: American, Fordham, and Emerson. Carter was immediately accepted to Emerson and Fordham and deferred and then later accepted to American. After that, Carter’s decision was clear.
They ended up pulling their regular decision application to Boston College, Boston University, and Northeastern. The tight focus they’d put on Carter’s top three schools helped to streamline the decision.
Carter committed to Emerson College in Boston where they originally decided to study Political Communication, but recently switched to a new major: Health and Social Change.
Not only did Carter gain college admissions to their top schools, they also received various scholarships from those schools. While attending Emerson College, Carter will receive the Trailblazer Scholarship, which grants recipients $15,000 annually.
Final Thoughts: Carter’s advice for those embarking on the college application process
For Carter, the college application process is a team effort. “It’s cliché, but do not be afraid to ask for help and recognize that it’s not a solo effort.” With the college application process, the guidance of the college advising team helped Carter secure college admissions and scholarships at their ideal schools.
Carter notes how important it is to seek help if you come from a non-traditional education background. Both students and parents benefit from expert college advising through the college application process.
The personalized college advising that Anne and Amber gave them showed Carter that they were invested in their success. They cared about their future goals and finding a college that matched those. Carter knew the team was there for them, rooting them on, and guiding the way.
“I would recommend CollegeAdvisor to anyone. I really, really would.”
CollegeAdvisor.com reviews match Carter’s experience. Our client success stories show that our team of experts and former admissions officers truly care about their students’ success. Building a candidate profile, choosing extracurriculars for college, writing essays, and the overall college application process can be overwhelming for students and their families.
Why not streamline the process with expert guidance from our college advising team? You might even become one of our client success stories!
This Client Success Story was written by Sarah Kaminski, and based on an interview with Carter Oyer. Carter was looking for college advising so that they could be admitted to their dream schools. If you are also looking for college admission advice and are interested in working with a CollegeAdvisor.com Admissions Expert, register with CollegeAdvisor.com today.
