UNIVERSITY ADMISSIONS
University admissions consulting
has become a big business-
both in the west and now, internationally.
University admissions consulting has become a big business in recent years, and it's not hard to see why. Even the most well-rounded, excelling, top-tier students are competing in larger and larger pools, with shrinking acceptance rates. This is why it's all the more important to make university admissions about personal branding, growth, and self-discovery. At Anglia, we make this approach as exciting and meaningful for the student as possible- not just helping them with deadlines and essays, but helping them to figure out who they are and who they want to be. This is truly rewarding work for me- and I'd be very excited to go on this once in a lifetime journey with you or your child.
Whether you’ve found me here as a parent or as the student yourself- we’re probably talking about a top-tier student through the entire primary and secondary school career. Top grades in their class. Activities, clubs, internships, camps, sports, music, service projects. That means you as a family have all worked so hard to get to this moment. It’s the culmination of all these years of achievement and determination– from all of you.
In that respect, we can kind of think of this year as something like a championship season. It can feel like everything is riding on this. Where will the student go? What will their career look like? What will their future be?
If it feels like pressure, well, it’s because it is so important. Things have to be done flawlessly.
So let’s talk about what it means to be in good hands with an experienced admissions and application consultant. One who has shepherded many students through this process, at all levels. It’s going to go a long way towards your feeling safe, secure, and on the right track throughout.
Often when we start, students are nervous, unsure as to how the whole application season will go, or what their goals even are. Parents are tense, too. But this process shouldn’t be stress, strategy, hard work, and nothing more. My real, from-the-heart instinct and philosophy on doing this work with students has grown over some years.
And it’s this:
The seriousness of the moment doesn’t mean that doing a season of the university applications process shouldn’t be an enriching period of real growth for a teenager. A beautiful process, where we aren’t just teaching how to say the right things to get acceptances.
But actually, no less than learning who we are, and who we want to be. And so in fact, It becomes a pretty deep and meaningful experience- and we even have a lot of fun.
My name is Dr. Kerry McElroy, and I’m an international tutor across English and the humanities, with over 11,000 hours logged working with students.
Because I’m also a working writer and journalist, my tutoring came to develop a specific branch-off into essay writing and editing. This kind of help doesn’t just apply to literature or ethics essays for school, but to application essays- from university to camps and special programs.
Over the years, I found I have a real knack for getting students to not just write well, but write well about themselves: in a way that gets them accepted to programs and, literally, on the path to reaching their dreams.
After years of this work, I’m proud to say I’ve helped students get into top-tier universities around the world– Ivy League and beyond. From Cornell to Rice in the US to UBC in Canada and Sussex in the UK, I’ve successfully shepherded applications on the bachelors, masters, and PhD levels in Hong Kong, Germany, and Scotland, too.
I’ve also helped students get accepted at coveted spot summer programs at Cambridge, Wharton Penn, and Waterloo.
First, this kind of consulting simply means
having knowledge of the practical matters.
Someone who knows the application season from July to February, who will build manageable goals, plans, and workflow with the student week by week– as they keep up with all their current schoolwork and activities, too– up to essay writing season and beyond.
Someone with encyclopedic knowledge of the different schools, requirements, all the procedures and strategies.
Now add someone who’s also deeply empathetic, warm, kind, and welcoming with students. Over time, I realised my own personality– as someone fun for students to work with, someone who really listens to them so they feel safe, and someone with a gazillion life stories and experiences of my own that I share with them (including my own admissions wins and losses!)-- made me a good fit for helping to tackle this so-very-important moment in their lives.
Finally–let’s go back to that “working writer, editor, and international world traveler as your consultant” profile. This means I’m especially adept at interviewing any student, so we can “find their brand”. The interdisciplinary threads of their talents, skills, record, and interests- that are going to come together to make them stand out from quite literally thousands of other equally top-tier students.
From this, they are able to write authentically about who they are. And that goes a very long way in a sea of applications and essays that can all look the same.
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The bottom line is this: there are a lot of approaches to the admissions process. Some people can keep a student organised. Some people can edit their essays. But without heart and really getting to know the individual, essays become cookie cutter- they can harm and not help.
In some countries, admissions consultants are even writing essays for students. And then, they’re poorly written, impersonal, and plagiarised! My approach couldn’t be more opposite.
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My admissions students keep in touch with me, and write me on their progress from freshman and sophomore year at university. The clubs they’ve joined, and classes they’re taking- how they’re even taking part in activities first suggested in our sessions. That means a lot to me.
In fact the real goosebumps moments, for me, are when I hear a year or a two later that the branding we did for a student– something I was able to see about them that they maybe couldn’t see yet about themselves– not only got them into their dream school- but actually became the path they did take.
That is nothing short of powerful. And each time, I’m honored to have been such a part of this big moment in a student’s life. So it's really my privilege to do this work.
I’d love to talk with you, and meet with both student and parents, to see if this is a journey we might go on together.
Universities. Programs. Successes.
Riya
BA Economics
Rice University
BA Biology/Premed
Washington University in St. Louis
University of Michigan
University of Rochester
University of Pittsburgh
Temple University
Baylor University
St. Bonaventure University
Christy
BA Computer Science
McGill University
University of Toronto
University of British Columbia
MA Data Science
University of British Columbia
Alan
BA Vagelos Integrated Program
in Energy Research (VIPER)
University of Pennsylvania
BA Engineering
University of Toronto
Amanda
BA International Economics and International Business
University of Ottawa
University of British Columbia
BA Commerce
Queen’s University
McGill University
BA Management and Organizational Studies
University of Western Ontario
Sarah
PhD Evolutionary and Comparative Biology
University of Portsmouth
Summer programs
Crystal
Cambridge Summer Scholars Programme
Cambridge University
Engineering Science Quest
University of Waterloo
Dhivya
BA Public Health Policy
University of Pennsylvania
NYU
University of North Carolina
Tufts University
University of Michigan
University of Maryland
University of Rochester
College of William and Mary
Stony Brook University
SUNY Binghamton
Penn State University
Maria
MA International Relations
London School of Economics
University College London
Bryan
BA Economics
University of Toronto
BA International Business
McMaster University
University of Toronto
BA Commerce
University of Toronto
BA Business
Western Ontario University
David
BA Management and International Business
University of Toronto
BA Agricultural Science
Boston University
Washington University, Saint Louis
Ada
China Emerging Leaders Program,
Summer Session
University of Chicago
Sophie
McGill University: Math and Computer Science Joint Major/Software Engineering
Université de Montréal: Dentistry + Pharmacy
Université de Sherbrooke: Medicine
Masha
Yale: BA Environmental Science
(Early Decision)
