Overview: CollegeAdvisor.com Client Success Stories
Our CollegeAdvisor Client Success Stories help showcase the amazing resources and assistance our clients receive when they sign up for our programs. These stories highlight a client’s positive experience with their advisor and demonstrate how crucial help can be in the college application process. At CollegeAdvisor, we aim to help students from a wide range of backgrounds through the college application process, tailoring each client’s experience to their unique needs.
Our Client Success Stories will explain how each client used our services and resources in a way that was helpful for their specific situation. From building college lists, perfecting college essays, and connecting students with key resources throughout the process, CollegeAdvisor has guided students from all over the world with their college applications.
Client Success Stories demonstrate the wide range of services CollegeAdvisor has to offer and show you how you can make your college-going dreams a reality! In this edition of our series, we spoke with Gokul Ramanan and his mother. Now, let’s get to know them!
Getting to Know Gokul
We sat down with Gokul Ramanan and his mom, Buvana, to learn more about his experience with CollegeAdvisor. Currently heading into his freshman year at Northeastern University, Gokul joined CollegeAdvisor in January of his junior year. Beyond his interest in the saxophone and cricket, Gokul had his heart set on studying business. With Gokul’s interest in business, Buvana knew she would need greater assistance in the college application process to help her son gain admissions to competitive business schools.
While Buvana had an extensive background in STEM fields, she felt out of her depth navigating business program requirements. Buvana was invested in ensuring that Gokul gained admission to the best business programs available, and she knew they would need assistance. With Gokul’s impressive resume, Buvana knew that the best business schools were within reach–he just needed some guidance.
How were Gokul & Buvana approaching the college admissions process
Gokul and Buvana weren’t strangers to the college admissions process. Buvana says, “Initially we had thought of using, I mean just doing it ourselves … Just doing the college searches on our own. Because that’s what we did with our daughter.”
With Buvana’s extensive STEM background, she felt confident when it came to helping her daughter navigate applying to STEM programs. With Gokul’s goals and interests so different from her own and her daughter’s, Buvana didn’t feel equipped to help him alone. She says, “But then it so happened that Gokul’s skills are slightly different from my daughter.”
Gokul’s unique interests and experiences encouraged Buvana to reach out to CollegeAdvisor. Buvana wanted expert advice on business school programs and knew she and her husband wouldn’t be able to do it on their own. “We needed help to get there,” she said.
Getting started with CollegeAdvisor
They decided to try out another college admissions company, but Buvana wasn’t satisfied with the progress Gokul was making. After seeing an advertisement for CollegeAdvisor, Buvana was intrigued by the SAT prep services offered through our programs. As Gokul was entering the second half of his junior year, Buvana knew a good SAT score would be crucial to Gokul’s success.
After reaching out and enrolling with CollegeAdvisor, Gokul was paired with his advisor, Gabriel Hall. Buvana says, “Gabriel, oh my God, he is such a positive thinker and motivating factor in our life.” Gabriel’s expert advice and reassurance made Gokul and Buvana confident that CollegeAdvisor would help Gokul achieve his goals.
How Gokul’s advisor helped him find success
Gabriel brought energy and enthusiasm to his meetings with Gokul. “Gabriel, he just told me information from his heart,” Gokul reflects. Gabriel’s positive attitude made Gokul and Buvana more confident in the application process. Gokul says, “He knows the business schools in and out … He is there to back us.” With Gabriel’s expertise in business programs, Gokul and Buvana knew they were in good hands.
Gabriel primarily helped Gokul with his essays, as well as navigating the SAT. Gabriel was able to jump right into guiding Gokul through the drafting process, and helped him perfect his college essays. Gabriel’s deep understanding and familiarity with the college application process provided invaluable insight into the highly competitive schools on Gokul’s list.
By building such a strong rapport with Gokul and Buvana, Gabriel was able to serve as a trusted resource. “We felt so safe in his hands,” Buvana recollects. Gabriel’s enigmatic personality and expertise allowed Gokul to jump right into the work, feeling assured that he had the support needed to succeed.
What was Gokul’s favorite part about working with CollegeAdvisor?
When asked about his favorite part of working with CollegeAdvisor, Gokul described how helpful Gabriel was with his essays. Specifically, referring to his personal statement, Gokul says, “I think my first draft was close to 1,300 words. [Gabriel] edited that down all the way to 650 words–in his first try, which was crazy.” Despite cutting Gokul’s personal statement in half, Gabriel was able to maintain the integrity of the essay, helping Gokul hone his focus. “I think I would have been in a much trickier situation if he wasn’t there for me,” said Gokul.
In addition to his personal statement, Gokul needed help with his supplemental essays. As Gokul juggled many different supplemental essays, Gabriel helped keep him on track. Gabriel helped him draft supplemental essays that answered similar questions across college applications. Gokul recalls, “So, all I needed to do was just tweak [an essay] in order to fit that same question for those other colleges. So it saved me so much time.”
Using the same core supplemental essays for different applications helped Gokul keep his overall application consistent. Gabriel helped Gokul build that consistency, making his application stronger. “It had the same type of heart. It had the same type of thoughts,” said Gokul when reflecting on his supplemental essays. In helping Gokul tackle his essays systematically, Gabriel helped him stay organized. “It just helped me a lot. It saved me days, weeks. I thank him a lot for that,” says Gokul.
Writing your best college essays
Colleges use your essays to learn more about who you are and to get a sense of what you’ll bring to their campus. As Gokul experienced, many students have a wide variety of essays to complete during their application process. In addition to personal statements, many colleges have supplemental essays. College essays can quickly become overwhelming, so it’s important to plan ahead.
Gokul applied to 13 colleges–that means he had to write plenty of essays. Luckily, Gabriel was there for him throughout the whole process. Gokul recalls, “Gabe helped me with six or seven colleges. And then, many of those supplements were pretty much indicative of the other colleges, so it had the same type of structure. So all I needed to do was just tweak it in order to fit that same question for those other colleges.”
While recycling college essays can be useful in the tedious application process, you still need to adjust them for each school. It’s important for college essays to be specific. However, many college essay prompts are similar, as Gokul mentioned. Therefore simply adapting your essays to the different prompts can help you save a lot of time while still maintaining the quality of your applications.
Gabriel was essential in guiding Gokul through the process of adjusting his essays for different schools. Gokul says, “It saved me so much time, and I knew that the essays that [Gabriel] tweaked were just so much more professional than my style of writing. So [the essay] had the same type of heart. It had the same type of thoughts into it. It’s just the structure of it. It was just so well done…”
In the end, for Gokul, one of the most challenging parts of the applications (essay writing) also became his favorite with the help of Gabriel. If you are worried about writing your college essays, there are plenty of free resources to use to get you started. For more tips on writing your best college essay, you can watch our webinar, Cracking the College Essay: Tips for a Stellar Personal Statement. We’ve also compiled 39 Essay Tips from CollegeAdvisor.com’s Admissions Experts.
What was Gokul’s biggest challenge?
There are plenty of challenges when it comes to applying to colleges. While essay writing can be daunting, it wasn’t necessarily Gokul’s biggest challenge. So, what was the most difficult one for Gokul?
“SATs were such a big struggle for me,” reflects Gokul. After studying for two years, Gokul was still unsatisfied with his SAT score. Knowing that he was applying to competitive programs, Gokul had a specific score in mind. He had worked extremely hard over the previous two summers studying for the SAT, and didn’t feel as though his current score reflected his effort. While he was close, it still wasn’t where he wanted it to be, and he sought Gabriel’s advice.
In discussing whether Gokul should retake the SAT or not, Gabriel encouraged him to think about what was important to him. “He just motivated me to pursue the SAT because he knew that it meant a lot to me….’Cause he knew I felt pretty bad about that score,” Gokul said.
After Gabriel’s encouragement, Gokul retook the SAT in December of his senior year and got a score within his goal range. “So in the end, it worked out. I got into one of the colleges that I dreamed of,” says Gokul. With Gabriel’s advice, Gokul was able to navigate the SATs successfully and work towards a personal goal of his. Gokul was able to take his biggest challenge and turn it into one of his greatest accomplishments.
Navigating SAT Scores
As Gokul’s experience highlights, the SATs can be a difficult process for students to navigate. Ideally, students should start SAT prep early. This can help identify strengths and weaknesses in your knowledge, and can help you map out a studying plan. It will also help you become more familiar with the SAT question format–this can be the trickiest part of the SAT for many students.
Researching the schools on your college list to see their median SAT score is a good way to give you an SAT score to strive for. Gokul was set on getting his goal SAT score and Gabriel saw that and encouraged him to work towards it. However, Gokul only sent his final SAT score to one school. He says, “I reached my range of expectations. So I was happy about that. I only submitted that to the school I ended up going to, which is Northeastern.”
Gokul worked hard to achieve his SAT score. He says, “I had to study for over two years to get the score that really satisfied me the most.” Many students have the same challenge when it comes to standardized tests. If you’re struggling with the SAT, consider taking the ACT. Some students score higher on the ACT, and most schools will accept either exam. You may also consider finding schools that do not require the SAT or ACT. You can learn more about SAT-optional schools, as well as the ACT, by watching our webinar: SAT vs. ACT vs. Test-Optional: Standardized Testing Strategy for College Admissions.
Gokul’s admissions results and the road ahead
After months of working with Gabriel, Gokul came to the end of his college application journey. They were both pleased with the results of Gokul’s hard work.
Gokul was admitted to Northeastern as part of their Early Decision program and got into every other college he applied to (except for one). Gokul was also granted a number of scholarships at various colleges, reflecting the hard work and dedication he put into the application process.
As Gokul prepares to enter Northeastern this fall, he appreciates the guidance and assistance he received from Gabriel. “We wanted to say thank you so much. It was so great knowing Gabriel. I don’t know if all the advisors are like Gabriel, but he is amazing. He gets, on a scale of zero to ten, he gets a hundred,” says Buvana.
What will Gokul major in?
Gokul will be studying data science and mathematics at Northeastern. While he started out applying to business programs, Gokul’s interests shifted through the application process. This can happen to many students as they start investigating colleges and their programs.
Gabriel was able to help Gokul shift his application strategy to reflect his new interest in data science. While still applying to business programs, Gokul was able to do some additional research with Gabriel to identify strong data science programs as well. In the end, Gokul was able to find a different major that he was excited to study.
Gokul & Buvana’s advice to future applicants and their parents
As college application experts in their own right, Gokul and Buvana have a lot of advice for future applicants. Gokul says, “For kids who are in freshman year, just start joining clubs immediately and do extracurriculars that you really enjoy and you think you’re pretty good at.” He reflects on his own experience playing the saxophone, which he started in middle school. Gokul joined the jazz band at his high school and says, “We ended up being state champs back to back in my sophomore or junior year, and we were second my senior year.”
Gokul emphasizes starting extracurriculars early so you have time to develop them and demonstrate your commitment. “Do something that you really have a great vigor for,” says Gokul. He also suggests doing a research project connected to your intended major. He says, “This is what’s going to make you stand out. This is what’s going to help colleges differentiate you from those others.”
Summers are a great opportunity to build up your extracurriculars and explore research projects, as Gokul recommends. If you want to learn more about how to utilize your summers early in high school, you can read our guide on the matter: Summer Planning for 8th, 9th, and 10th Graders: How to Get Into College.
As for Buvana, she has some advice for parents. “They should do the search themselves… They cannot expect someone to do all the work for them,” says Buvana. Getting involved with the application process allowed Buvana to supplement the work Gabriel was doing, ensuring that Gokul had the support he needed to achieve his goals.
Both Gokul and Buvana emphasized the importance of planning for classes and being strategic with your AP classes. They suggest picking AP classes that align with your intended major. “Don’t get too greedy signing up for too many AP classes. You should be a good judge of who you are, right?” says Buvana.
Why CollegeAdvisor?
Whether it’s helping you pick a major, draft your essays, or crush your college interviews, CollegeAdvisor has plenty of resources for you to explore. From webinars to articles to one-on-one application advising, CollegeAdvisor is best suited to help you with every aspect of the application process.
“CollegeAdvisor is great. It has lots of resources,” reflects Buvana. As Gokul and Buvana’s experience shows, the combination of resources and individual attention helps our students succeed and achieve their goals. Having a personal advisor to walk them through the process was invaluable. “I felt so safe that Gabriel is on board,” says Buvana.
Still unsure if CollegeAdvisor is right for you? Be sure to read our reviews, CollegeAdvisor Client Success Stories, and learn about our impressive results here.
This article was written by Jessica Klein. Looking for more admissions support? Click here to schedule a free meeting with one of our Admissions Specialists. During your meeting, our team will discuss your profile and help you find targeted ways to increase your admissions odds at top schools. We’ll also answer any questions and discuss how CollegeAdvisor.com can support you in the college application process.
