Great College Advice testimonial: Ryan explains how Jamie Berger and the team at Great College Advice were instrumental in improving his college essays as he applied and was accepted to many selective colleges. Ryan ultimately decided to attend Washington & Lee after being awarded the prestigious Johnson Scholarship.
Hi, my name is Ryan O ‘Connor. I am from Tampa Bay, Florida, and I’m a rising freshman at Washington and Lee University as part of their Johnson Scholarship Program.
Initially, my family and I wanted to work with a counselor kind of just to alleviate a lot of the stress that comes with the college application process. I knew I was going to be applying to a lot of highly selective schools and programs, and that can cause a lot of stress….
So I started working with Jamie Berger, who’s been an incredible advisor over the past year and a half. So I started at the end of my junior year. And honestly, I don’t think I could have gotten the results I did of getting into some of the most selective colleges and scholarship programs, including both the Richmond Scholar Program at the University of Richmond, as well as the Johnson Scholarship at Washington and Lee University, without the help of my advisor….
The best thing also, honestly, was just how supportive my advisor was. Jamie was awesome to work with. He guided me in the direction I needed to go. And at the same time, was still supportive of me writing to my core belief. So it wasn’t, oh, I’ll take over and say, no, no, no, no, no, that doesn’t work. It was more saying, hey, this is great. But you need to add this and develop this more, because right now it’s unclear. And those comments were really something that allowed me to craft strong supplemental essays, and also as a whole, become a better writer, in my opinion, which is something I’m really grateful for.
And I’d say the only tough thing is in the beginning, I won’t pretend. I was like, no, I like my essays. These are good. No, no. And the hardest part for me was basically getting over the obstacle of realizing that sometimes what you think is perfect, when you read it from an outside perspective, it can sound very, very bad. So that was probably the hardest part. But getting over that hurdle, especially having my advisor who didn’t really just aggressively tell me no, but instead more said, hey, well, this isn’t bad, but you got to develop this more. It kind of allowed me to realize better how my writing really was not that strong in certain word choices I had on how I was able to develop my writing over the last year and a half.
Overall, like I said earlier, I really don’t think I would be in the position where I am today of getting into some most selective colleges across the US. Including Bowdoin, Davidson College, Haverford, Emory University, as well as being selected for two merit scholarships, the Johnson Scholarship and the Richmond Scholars Program, without the support from my advisor.
And the reason I know this the most is because during my Johnson Scholarship interview, it was mentioned multiple times about my essay, the supplemental essay submitted for the Johnson Scholarship. Parts I included that were specifically guided by my advisor. So yeah, I’m incredibly thankful for the support of Jamie and for Great College Advice throughout this entire process. And I really, it’s an incredible program. I recommend it to anybody.
So if you’re looking for someone to really help you through the whole college process, which is very daunting, and I can say that just having gone through the process, it is brutal, especially with over 20 schools that I applied to, but getting through that process, I can now really say that the support I got from Great College Advice was crucial to being where I am today. So I highly recommend it for anybody out there, but thank you.
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Since 2007, the expert team of college admissions consultants at Great College Advice has provided comprehensive guidance to thousands of students from across the United States and over 45 countries across the world. Great College Advice has offices in Colorado, New Jersey, Chicago, North Carolina and Massachusetts.
In addition to our one-on-one counseling, Great College Advice extends its support through one of the most active and resource-rich Facebook Groups for college-bound students and their families: College Admissions Experts. With nearly 100,000 members—students, parents, and experienced counselors—this vibrant forum offers peer support and expert advice like no other.
