College Application Support

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WHAT ARE THE QUALIFICATIONS FOR A STUDENT TO ENTER THIS PROGRAM?

  1. Your unweighted GPA by the end of the first semester of 11th grade should be at least 3.8 out of 4.
  2. You have
    • at least one national academic award from a national competition in science, math, business, or writing (You should not count any AP award or National Semi-Finalist based on your PSAT score though they are on the national level as well), or
    • at least two non-academic awards from national competitions in community service, art, music, and/or sports, or
    • prestigious awards from a military academy, a city, or other consequential sources, or
    • at least a very interesting experience, through community service, internships, interaction with people, etc., that you will proudly include in your Common App essay.

3. You are willing to include your parents in our face-to-face meetings and email communication during the program.

In other words, #1 is required, and the student must have at least one of the three qualifications in #2. The third qualification (interesting experience) in #2 sounds subjective, but it is not. Without fooling yourself, using a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 as the most interesting, you can tell how interesting your story is in comparison to many stories you have read. It must be at least on level 8.


WHAT SHOULD A PARENT PROVIDE IN THE EXPLORING EMAIL TO DR. HUANG?

  1. RESUME, listing at least your
    • academic excellence, including
    • GPA
    • PSAT score if available
    • SAT score if available
    • Class ranking if available
    • Number of AP tests you have taken and their scores if available
    • Community service
    • Leadership, and
    • Competition record.
  2. A list of five colleges that your child wish most to apply to, and
  3. An essay from your child (at most 650 words) that answers the following question: "Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story."


WHAT ARE THE SELECTION CRITERIA?

  1. How excellent you are in your academics. You need to fulfill the minimum requirement—GPA: 3.9. The higher performance, the better chance you will be selected.
  2. How impressive your extracurricular activities are. The more you have achieved, the better chance you will be selected.
  3. Whether your credential matches your wish list of the colleges you will apply to, according to Dr. Huang's experience. Dr. Huang will work only with those whose credential reasonably matches the wish list.
  4. How impressive your essay is in terms of content and writing skill. So impress Dr. Huang.
  5. Whether you are willing to include your parents in all our communications


If Dr. Huang finds it possible to work with a student, he will initiate an interview with the student and the parents via Skype for 20 minutes. The purpose is to make both parties sure that you are the right student for Dr. Huang to work with and that Dr. Huang is the right counselor to help you. Each side will have roughly 10 minutes to interview the opposite party. Dr. Huang's Skype is j21099.

Dr. Huang has a very busy schedule. Therefore, to guarantee the quality of his service, Dr. Huang can accept only a very limited number of students each year. The students who approach Dr. Huang early have a better chance to be admitted.


WHY DOES SUCH A SERVICE MATTER?

Around December 15 every year over the past several years, when early action (EA) and early decision (ED) announcements were made, Dr. Huang never failed to receive desperate phone calls or emails almost always from mothers to request for help with their sons’ or daughters’ deferred or rejected EA/ED applications. These panicking parents or children had not sought for help either because these (oftentimes overachieving) seniors believed that they could handle their applications by themselves and did not wish to share their applications with anyone, including their parents. At that time, these outstanding students had pretty much ruined one valuable opportunity and partially ruined their other applications as well since it would be very difficult to come up with quality applications in the panicking mood within half a month. Dr. Huang can no longer provide meaningful help within such a short time.

The above description is NOT what marketing people usually call scaring tactic. Rather, it is a factual description of what has happened in Dr. Huang's life. Too many students need Dr. Huang's time. He does not need to market anything.

Preparing a college application adequately and properly is a crucial part of a senior's college application process. Does everyone need external help for his or her college applications? Probably not. But, in case you do, this service might be what you need. Dr. Huang is willing to help those who can successfully demonstrate that they deserve Dr. Huang’s time. Dr. Huang takes students into the heart of the writing process and makes them come up with an exceptional final draft for each essay and a stronger presentation in resume and Common App.

This service has created tremendous impact in North America and beyond. Here are some thank-you letters from Dr. Huang's students or their parents:


On April 16, 2018, a senior wrote to Dr. Huang:

With your instruction, I significantly improved writing and communication skills (especially in interviews), received offer from UC Berkeley, and chose political science as my major... Everything went going smoothly after You helped me discover my interest and talents I'd been unaware of through the essay sessions and helped me draw a clearer blueprint of my future career. If there were anything to feel pity about, it is that we wish to have known and received your guide earlier. My family and I present the purest gratitude to you and wish that more and more students would meet a great teacher like you!

On December 11, 2017, a senior wrote to Dr. Huang:

Thank you for taking the time to help me with my college essays. I really appreciate your attention to each and every detail, and I can't even imagine how stressful writing college essays would have been without you.

On December 21, 2016, a senior wrote to Dr. Huang:

Thank you VERY much for all of your help over the past last four months. I was admitted early action to Harvard last week, and I am so grateful for your guidance. You have really changed my life.

On December 10, 2016, a senior wrote to Dr. Huang:

Thank you so much for everything you have done for me. I could not imagine having a better adviser guide me through the hectic college process.
I am excited to announce I will be joining the Stanford University of 2021 in the fall next year. This could not have been possible without you, and I am incredibly grateful for the lessons you instilled in me — teaching me how to reflect on myself and learn to write in a way that is genuinely me.

On October 17, 2016, a senior wrote to Dr. Huang:

I have immensely enjoyed working with you on my college applications. Your expertise has been eye opening, and your edits and advice have taken my essays to the next level. I cannot express how grateful I feel. You helped me brainstorm and execute a powerful Common App essay and then improve my supplemental essays. Through the difficult application process, I have always appreciated and trusted your constructive criticism. Thank you for taking the time to work with me through revision after revision. I can confidently say that your support has been essential to all of my applications. I would also like to extend my thanks to Mrs. Huang. Please thank her for helping me create a polished resume and activities list.

On the last day of 2014, a senior got accepted by his dream school and wrote Dr. Huang an email: 

In fact, the admissions officer even hand-wrote a note on my acceptance letter saying how much he enjoyed my personal essay about ramen noodles, so I'd just like to thank you for guiding me in the right direction on that essay as it seemed to play a pivotal role in my admission... I have enjoyed working with you and I wish you a Happy New Year!

Such written and verbal compliments from parents and students are abundant. At the end of this page, you can find a list of the colleges that the students in this program were admitted to in the past several years.


WHY DR. HUANG?

  1. Dr. Huang is an established author. His research articles have been published in prestigious journals, such as Journalism and Communication Monographs, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, and International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing. Dr. Huang has served as a reviewer for college application essays, graduate school application essays, grant applications, conference papers, journal manuscripts, and book manuscripts numerous times since 1998.
  2. As a faculty member, he served as a part-time admission officer for his U.S. universities both on the undergraduate and graduate level for some years. Therefore, he is very familiar with the admissions process.
  3. Dr. Huang has a high work ethic. He is a tough reader who rigorously controls the quality of any final product. He may make you feel frustrated in the process of preparing your college applications, but such frustrations are very likely to be rewarded with the congratulations from your dream schools. Except for class time, he gives response to each of a student’s essay submissions within 72 hours.
  4. Unlike many college counselors, Dr. Huang wishes to involve parents in the whole application process. All his emails to a student go to the parents as well so that the parents are always in the loop of communication.
  5. Over the years, Dr. Huang has provided extremely high-quality service to numerous seniors. Therefore, he has garnered rich experience of coaching seniors. He is way beyond the stage of having to prove how excellent his service is. Quite on the contrary, many students feel that they have to try hard to impress Dr. Huang so as to win his time for their college applications.


PROVIDED SERVICE

  1. Application Essay Writing Strategies Training Session—teaching students how to write a compelling college application essay
  2. Application Essay brainstorm and revision—The service starts with an initial consultation so that the service can be based on each student’s academic context. Dr. Huang will proofread, critique and fine-tune the student's common app and main/supplemental essays for up to three colleges. Each essay will go through the following four rounds of review:
    1. exchange of ideas regarding your new essay,
    2. review of initial draft, proofreading and editing,
    3. review of revised draft, proofreading and editing, and
    4. review of final copy before you submit it
  3. Common App review—Some students/parents think that Common App is just filling up the blanks. Nevertheless, Common App contains some questions that require additional writings, has limited spaces for activities and achievements, and provides options here and there. There are strategies for dealing with such fuzziness. You need to keep the quality of your blank-filling and that of your Common App essay consistent. The way you present yourself in Common App can make a difference. Dr. Huang will answer any question you have pertaining to Common App.
  4. Resume polishing—Some colleges allow you to submit a full-scale optional resume to reflect all your achievements and activities. Dr. Huang's team will help you come up with a resume that best presents you content-wise from the admissions perspective and that is professionally designed. A professional resume will be of great help for your counselor and teachers to know you well so that they can write brilliant recommendations for you. In addition, it will help you well prepare your Common App itself. Finally, it will present extra information to let your colleges better know you. Therefore, it is important that you get professional help with your resume creation. We will help you
    • dig your experiences and find all the shining points,
    • construct the resume based on the Common App’s need, and
    • proofread and revise your resume.
  5. Brag sheet if needed—Some high schools require that parents (and seniors) write a brag sheet for the counselor so that the counselor can write an informed recommendation letter based on the information provided.
  6. Scholarship application essays—Some students wish to apply to a scholarship provided by the college with which Dr. Huang helps. No extra charge will be applied for the scholarship application essays.


SCHEDULE:

The service in 2020 starts once a student has signed up and will last till December 15, 2020.


FEES

  1. Please email.


CONTACT

  1. If you are interested in this service, please contact Dr. Huang at SATEnglish@gmail.com. Demonstrate your strong credential to convince Dr. Huang that your child is a worthy student to work with.


DISCLAIMER

  • Admission into a college is determined by many factors, such as your GPA, SAT score, extracurricular activity credential, your wish to improve your application essays, the quantity and quality of the applicants for the colleges you apply to in that particular year, your competitors from your own school, your school’s profile, your recommendations, and so on. This service cannot guarantee that an advisee will be admitted by his/her dream colleges. However, it will guarantee that the student has best presented him/herself in terms of mechanics and content in his/her guided college applications.
  • Dr. Huang will help a student brainstorm and revise student writings, but he will surely not write any essay for any student because the latter constitutes cheating.


COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  1. How do I know which colleges are Early Action (EA) colleges or Early Decision (ED) colleges.
    1. Early Action college list
    2. Early Decision college list

2. How do I juggle the essays for EA/ED and for regular decision (RD)?

    1. EA/ED essays are your priority. You have to get them well prepared by November 1. Since Dr. Huang has quite some students to help, he may not have enough time to hep you if you start the EA/ED essays after October 1. So submit your EA/ED essays at latest by October 1. Coming up with quality essays takes much time.
    2. While you are preparing essays for EA/ED, you MUST start to prepare essays for RD colleges though you may not submit them after December 15, when you will get to know the result of your EA/ED. You may not have to submit anything after December 15 if you are happy with the EA/ED result. However, if you start to prepare your RD essays after December 15, chances are you won't have enough time. You have to prepare your RD essays earlier. In the past, quite some students finished all essays from the three colleges before November 1.

3. Does Dr. Huang help with deciding which EA/ED to choose?

    1. Choosing EA/ED involves your class ranking, competitors, judgment of your credential, and so on. You are the best person to make such a decision. Dr. Huang's job is to help you achieve your goal.

4. If I apply for financial aid, will my admissions be affected?

Financial aid decisions are made by the financial aid office based on your family need. Admission decisions are made by an office of admissions based on your merit. These two decisions are not connected in most colleges. Therefore, feel free to apply for financial aid.


GLORY FROM THE MOST RECENT FIVE YEARS

Some of the students who received this service in 2018 reported the following college admissions in 2019:

2 Boston College

1 Bowdoin College

1 Brandeis College

2 Brown University

2 California Institute of Technology

2 Carnegie Mellon University

5 Columbia University

4 Cornell University

2 Dartmouth College

2 Duke University

1 Elmhurst College

1 Emory University

1 Georgetown University

1 Georgia Institute of Technology

4 Harvard University

5 Johns Hopkins University

4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1 Northwestern University

1 Northeastern University

1 Pomona College

4 Princeton University

2 Purdue University

1 Rice University

1 Rutgers University

3 Stanford University

1 Swarthmore College

1 Tufts University

6 University of California Berkeley

5 University of California Los Angeles

2 University of California Santa Barbara

4 University of California San Diego

1 University of Michigan

3 University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (one student got a full ride)

3 University of Pennsylvania (one in Wharton)

1 University of Rochester

1 University of Texas Austin

3 University of Virginia

2 University of Washington (one got into its Foster Business School)

4 Vanderbilt University

1 William and Mary College

2 Yale University


Some of the students who received this service in 2017 reported the following college admissions in 2018:

2 Amherst College

1 Boston College

2 Brown University

3 Carnegie Mellon University

1 Case Western Reserve University

1 Columbia University

3 Cornell University

1 Dartmouth College

2 Duke University

3 Emory University

3 Georgia Institute of Technology

8 Harvard University

2 Harvey Mudd College

2 Johns Hopkins University

4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2 New York University

3 Northwestern University

1 Princeton University

4 Rice University

4 Stanford University

1 Tufts University

8 University of California Berkeley (one in MET)

4 University of California Los Angeles

1 University of California San Diego

3 University of Michigan (one in Ross)

3 University of Pennsylvania (one in Wharton)

1 University of Rochester

1 University of Southern California

1 University of Virginia

1 University of Washington

1 Vanderbilt University

4 Washington University

1 Wellesley College

1 Williams College

1 William and Mary College

3 Yale University


Some of the students who received this service in 2016 reported the following college admissions in 2017:

1 Boston College

3 Carnegie Mellon University

1 California Institute of Technology

2 Columbia University

2 Cornell University

3 Duke University

1 George Washington University

4 Harvard University

1 Harvey Mudd College

2 Johns Hopkins University

3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1 New York University

2 Pennsylvania State University

2 Princeton University

1 Oberlin College

1 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

1 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

2 Stanford University

1 The New School

8 University of California, Berkeley

4 University of California, Los Angeles

4 University of California, San Diego

2 University of California, Davis

3 University of California, Santa Barbara

1 University of Chicago

1 University of Maryland

1 University of Maryland with a full scholarship

1 University of Miami (with a $96,000 scholarship)

1 University of Miami

1 University of Michigan

1 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

2 University of Southern California

3 Yale University


Some of the students who received this service in 2015 reported the following college admissions in 2016:

2 Boston College

1 Carnegie Mellon University

1 Case Western Reserve University

2 Cornell University

1 Dartmouth University

1 Duke University

1 Georgetown University

1 Georgia Institute of Technology

2 Harvard University

2 John Hopkins University

1 Northeastern University

1 Northwestern University BS/MD Program

1 Princeton University

1 Purdue University

2 Rice University

1 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

3 University of California Berkeley

2 University of California Los Angeles

1 University of Chicago

2 University of Michigan

3 University of Pennsylvania (1 Wharton Business School)

1 University of Southern California

1 University of Virginia

2 Washington University in St. Louis

1 Yale University


Some of the students who received this service in 2014 reported the following college admissions in 2015:

1 Boston College

2 Cornell University

1 Dartmouth University

1 Duke University

1 Indiana University (full ride)

1 Johns Hopkins University

1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1 Northwestern University

1 Rice University

1 University of Michigan

1 University of Notre Dame

1 University of Pennsylvania

1 University of Southern California

1 Vanderbilt University

2 Washington University in St. Louis