Navigating an Entirely Unfamiliar Education System

Applying to university in an unfamiliar country is daunting, but with the right presentation, the challenge itself can become part of a compelling application narrative.

The Challenge

Gregor was a recent immigrant to the US (he arrived sophomore year of high school), and understandably not well educated on the American college admission process. He had unrealistically high expectations given his grades (MIT, CalTech) and was unaware of the role personality and individuality plays in admissions. Realigning (truly, resetting) expectations was important.

Possible Approaches

A well-meaning parent may have pitched Gregor as a chess prodigy (he won a national championship in his early teens), but we didn’t think his skills were quite strong enough to overcome his low test scores. The caliber of talent applying to elite schools is hard to comprehend if you haven’t been on the receiving end of applications, and the reality is that Gregor’s achievement, while more than we could ever do, was not rare enough. Put another way: there was almost certainly someone in the applicant pool with equivalent or better chess achievement AND superior grades.

The Admissionado Approach

With Gregor, we decided to foreground the immigrant narrative more than we may have done for other students, because he lacked the kinds of extra-curricular activities that showed attempts to integrate with the community. As such, we highlighted the challenges Gregor had to overcome as a very recent immigrant and tried to suggest a “buy him low” selling point. That is, he was going to be a star once he developed a better grasp of American culture and the English language; whichever school were to give him a shot now would reap the rewards in the future. Because he was applying to engineering programs, we highlighted the areas where he had performed well in school – math and science – and described his passion for physics and engineering. The implicit suggestion was, if he can do this well while he’s simultaneously learning the language, imagine what a rockstar he will be by the time he is a junior or senior in college!

The Result

Gregor received scholarships to several of his target and safety schools. He ended up matriculating at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While this was not his first choice, given his starting point, it was a fantastic outcome. We couldn’t be more proud.

Personal Shoutout

“I really want to express my gratitude to your team – especially my consultant whose unflinching desire for perfection helped substantially – for all of your time and efforts put into my profile and holistically bolstering my application. I certainly could not have gotten through this admission cycle without any of your help. I will always hold you all in great esteem.”