Scottsdale, Arizona is known for its laidback lifestyle. Due to the nearly perfect weather all year round, high school students spend a lot of time outdoors and playing sports. And while there are a few challenging schools, the area is not known for a competitive high school landscape. This means that there isn’t always a direct path to top-tier schools, and in speaking with students from the area, we’ve found that their course load is not as challenging as the students they’ll be competing against to gain attendance to college.
One of our primary areas of focus when working with students from Scottsdale is helping them choose which classes to take and putting together a plan to find opportunities outside of school. No matter what you want to study in college, it’s important to create a personalized game plan. One of the challenges of growing up in Scottsdale is that there aren’t as many resources. You’ll be competing against students who live in big cities, who’ve been interning and helping professors with research. One of our favorite aspects of the process is helping our younger clients along the path of finding their first, and second, meaningful job or internship.
Scottsdale Admissions Services: What To Expect
We’ll help you:
Build a Timeline: Every single year of high school is extremely important. Once we’ve gotten to know our clients, we’ll put together a comprehensive plan that aligns with their personal goals.
For example, here’s a sample timeline that includes overarching goals broken out by year:
10th Grade: Our client has adjusted to high school and completed their freshman year, and now wants our help creating a holistic plan for the next three years. We start out in an exploratory phase, and focus on finding 3-4 areas of academic and extracurricular interest. For some students, this means starting from the very beginning: we figure out what they Dz’t like, and aim to expand areas that they’re open to exploring. For others, this might mean finding creative ways for them to engage with interests they’ve come across on their own. We’ll compile a proposal complete with online classes to take, books to read, lectures to attend, documentaries to watch, and weekly news articles to analyze. During our weekly calls, we discuss their findings and keep track of what our clients are enjoying the most.
11th Grade: Since last year was dedicated to finding areas of interest, Junior year is all about exploring them. Depending upon what they’re interested in, we’ll help our clients find opportunities that suit their niche. This might mean doing a summer program, getting a job, applying for research opportunities, doing community engagement work, starting a club, or pursuing a passion project with the help of a high school or college professor. At the same time, we’ll start researching colleges that align with our clients academic goals. All of the “extra” work that’s done during Junior year, and all years prior, culminates to create a profile that will help our clients stand out when it becomes time to apply to college.
End of Junior Year / Beginning of Senior Year: Application season begins, and we’ll start with the common app essay and then complete the specific college supplements in the order in which they are due. We aim to finish all applications by December 1st.
Expand Extracurricular Activities: Colleges are looking for specialists. While it used to be impressive to be a member of every single club, we’ve found that top tier schools like to admit students who show tremendous commitment to their niche interests. If you’re not sure where to start, we’ll get to know you and go through various exercises until we find something exciting.
Create A College List: Local consultants are more familiar with colleges in Arizona and California, but most of the clients we’ve worked with from Arizona want to explore colleges on the east coast and in the Midwest. We’ll teach you how to research schools, consider how you’ll stack up against the competition, and put together a list that is properly broken out between reach, target, and safety schools.
Craft Essays: We brainstorm, write, and edit every single piece of writing that you’ll need for the college admissions process. Nothing will be submitted without going through the internal approval process, and we continuously edit all written works until they’re as strong as possible, and include all pertinent information. This includes:
Common App Essay
All supplements
Additional Information Section Essay
Artist Statements
Reaching Out To Our Scottsdale College Consultants:
If you’re from Scottsdale and you want to attend a top-tier college, you need to set yourself up for success early on in the process. Because you’ll eventually be competing against students from places like California, it’s crucial to get organized. We’ll help you figure out what you’re passionate about, put together a plan that aligns with your goals, and ensure that the college application process goes smoothly.
If you’d like to hear more, contact us here