The student we met
She arrived at the end of DP1 with strong predicted grades (44 predicted IB), a clear academic interest in computer science with cognitive science, and a list of twenty target universities her family had compiled. The list was not the problem. The plan to apply to twenty was.
What we found
Her academics did not need fixing. Her narrative did. She had spent two years as a high performing generalist, with no single thread that told an admissions reader what she actually cared about. We restructured the extracurricular profile around computational neuroscience, the area she lit up about in the consult.
The plan
Shortlist reduced to twelve universities: four reach, six target, two safety. Six month essay calendar with one personal statement, one US supplemental essay set, and one UCAS personal statement. Mock interviews recorded every two weeks across the application season. We held every deadline on a shared calendar.
What changed in the outcomes
Of twelve applications, nine returned offers. Two of those were among her top five aspirational choices. The personal statement, rewritten across seven drafts, was the difference. So was the interview rehearsal. Her admitting US university noted her interview as one of the strongest of the cycle.
Where she is now
Studying computational neuroscience at her first choice university in the US with a partial merit scholarship. She still messages our counselling lead with questions about her final year. We still reply.
“The counselling was the difference between a list of dreams and a real plan.”