People tell you that the Common Application essay is a personal narrative. But it’s not. It’s really a strategic marketing document masquerading as a personal narrative.
Top SAT/ACT scores and an excellent GPA and are no longer enough to get you into college. In fact, 77% – 90% of all college applications are rejected, and those rejections include many applicants with perfect test scores and 4.0 GPAs or better.
Given the intense competition for college admission, to get into college, you need to stand out from the crowd. And when we say stand out, we mean stand out.
College admissions officers read tens of thousands of applications eight hours a day, week after week, for months. During the review process, admissions officers spend—at most–5-8 minutes evaluating each application. Over time, each application bleeds into the next. If your college application doesn’t stand out, college admissions officers will quickly drop your application and move on to the next one, even if all of your test scores and your GPA are perfect.
To get into college these days, you need to show how you are better qualified for admission than all of your competitors. You need a plan, a strategy that will ensure that your application is outstanding. That’s where we come in.
During the past 15 years, over 90% of our students have gained admission to at least one of their top-tier schools.
Dr. Osborn hasn’t gotten students into the Ivy League and other top-ranked colleges simply by proofreading. Instead, she works with you to maximize your admissions chances by strategizing every single part of your application.
At WCP, Dr. Osborn helps you with every stage of the application process. That includes brainstorming, organizing, drafting, writing, and rewriting your Common Application (or Coalition Application) essay and your supplemental essays, revising your extra-curricular profile to show how you stand out, strategizing requests for letters of recommendation, and prepping you to maximize college interview opportunities. We do it all, and unlike other college counseling agencies, we don’t quit until every part of your application looks outstanding.
At WCP, we maximize your child’s chances of getting into to a top college by showing you how to:
- Create your college application brand
- Write your Common Application (or Coalition Application) essay and supplemental essays in a way that reveals how you stand out from your competitors
- Highlight competitive advantages across all college application materials, including your extra-curricular profile
- Build a distinctive academic and extra-curricular profile starting in 9th grade
1. The Experience of Our Founder and Head Admissions Consultant
Dr. Susan Osborn is not a novice. She’s not a recent college graduate. She’s not an out-of-work humanities major trying to get by. Instead, Susan Osborn (PhD in English literature, MA in English literature with a Specialization in Rhetoric and Composition, additional graduate work at Columbia University’s Teachers College and the University of Pennsylvania) has spent over 30 years in higher education: in admissions at Vassar College, in the Writing Program and English Department at Rutgers University, in the lab at The New Jersey Center for Research on Writing, and as a private tutor. In addition, Dr. Osborn is an award-winning fiction, popular, and academic writer and scholar.
Dr. Osborn is the reason we’re successful. She knows what it takes to get in to college and she works with you every step of the way—from generating outstanding application essay topics to the final revision—to ensure your admissions success.
2. Individualized Service
Dr. Osborn is an educator but she’s also a parent. She knows that every child is unique and has unique strengths that can be used to create a bold and compelling college application that maximizes admissions chances.
3. Our Reputation for Quality and Commitment
Dr. Osborn brings all of her insider’s knowledge as an educator and admissions expert as well as all of her professional strengths as a writer and editor to each student relationship.
In addition, unlike other college counselors, we don’t tie you into time frames or limit the number of times we’ll review your child’s application. Not us. At WCP, we don’t quit until the job is done.
4. Emotional Support
Applying to college (or independent school) can be emotionally difficult and often puts a strain on a family. At WCP, we know that one of our most important responsibilities is to be here for you and we take that responsibility very seriously. Whether you need to vent or just need to talk things over, we want you to rely on us to support you.
“My son had his heart set on NYU-Stern. But he only had a 3.0 GPA and SAT score of 1470. We were worried that he would be disappointed until we met Susan. She showed Rohan how boost his odds by deepening his extra-curricular participation and by helping him write amazing essays (In fact, his English teacher said that our son’s application essay was the best he had ever read!). He got into NYU-Stern ED as well as the other two top colleges on his list!”
Punitha and Sriram, parents of NYU-Stern freshman
for Students in 9th and10th Grade
Starting in your child’s first year of high school, we help you:
• Design a course load that will capitalize on your child’s learning strengths and interests, and make an impact on college admissions committees
• Maximize admissions chances by designing an extra-curricular program that will add value to your child’s academic profile and boost college admissions chances
• Prepare your child for the PSAT, SAT, and ACT
• Build a network of connections with community leaders, college professors, and experts who will write stand-out college recommendation letters
• Create an ideal college application timeline for junior and senior year
• Build self-confidence and independence
• Take the worry and stress out of the college application process right from the start
For STUDENTS IN 11th and 12TH GRADE
During the second half of your child’s junior year, we help your applicant:
• Develop a college list that suits your child’s intellectual interests and professional aspirations
• Pick essay topics that will show how your child is outstanding
• Write college application essays that show that your child is ideally qualified for every college on the list
• Strategically revise, edit, and polish college application essays
• Write supplemental essays that maximize admissions chances by adding value to your child’s application
• Write, rewrite, revise, reorganize, and reformat extra-curricular lists to optimize admissions chances
• Prepare for SAT, ACT, and AP exams
• Create compelling talking points for college admissions interviews
• Write requests for letters of recommendation that ensure letters will boost admissions chances
• Use a learning disability (LD) in a positive way that adds value to your child’s application and boosts admissions chances
• Maintain an organized admissions schedule
• Build self-confidence and independence
• Reduce stress
We also help parents write parent statements that will help you child’s guidance counselor write a unique and compelling letter of recommendation.
Amherst College
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NYU
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Rhode Island School of Design
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Washington University
Wellesley College
Williams College
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Yale University
Schedule a complimentary 20-minute consultation with our founder and head admissions expert, Dr. Susan Osborn.
Susan Osborn, Ph.D.
