For Parents of High School Students Applying to California Colleges
Help your child stand out to California’s top colleges,even among students with perfect grades.
Watch This Video If You Want to Get Your Child Into California's Top Colleges
Start with a free consultation about your child’s classes, activities, and college goals. Leave knowing what to prioritize next.
Personal guidance from a team of college admissions experts.
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Where our students get accepted
Help your child get into their top-choice colleges, even when they’re competing against students with perfect grades.
Colleges and majors
Know which colleges to target and which majors to explore, with a clear plan for getting into a school your child wants to attend.
Class planning
Choose challenging classes your child can handle, so they can show colleges strong grades in demanding courses.
Extracurriculars and projects
Build accomplishments that help your child stand out, even against students with perfect grades.
Essays and applications
Help your child write essays that show colleges what a perfect GPA can’t: what they’ve accomplished, how they think, and what they can contribute.
Good grades and a long list of activities aren’t enough to make your child stand out.
You can’t expect your child to stand out and get into top colleges if their application looks like everyone else’s.
The cookie-cutter application
College application
College application
College application
Activities & academics
Good grades
National Honor Society
Key Club
Volunteer hours
Joining another club doesn’t show a college why your child will succeed there.
A list of activities doesn’t explain what they care about, what they’ve taken responsibility for, or whether they keep going when the work gets difficult.
Without those details, it can look like they’re doing whatever they think will get them accepted.
Make your child stand out from cookie-cutter applicants by turning their interests into real accomplishments.
Student researchBiology
Air Quality Around Local Schools
Study locations
Air quality readings
Finding
Cedar Hill School recorded the highest reading and Oak Meadow School the lowest, showing that air quality differed across the three school locations.
Give them a real accomplishment to write about.
Instead of just listing classes and volunteer hours, they can explain a research project they worked on—like investigating air quality around local schools.
Show they actually care about what they want to study.
Their interest in biology goes beyond saying they like science. They’ve spent time investigating a problem and finding answers.
Show they keep going when the work gets hard.
They can explain what went wrong, how they worked through it, and what they learned. Colleges get specific examples of their determination.
Now they have more to say than the same “I want to major in biology and help people” colleges hear over and over in applications.
They can explain the questions they’ve pursued, the problems they’ve worked through, and why they want to keep studying the subject.
That gives colleges evidence of genuine interest, initiative, and persistence—qualities that help students succeed in college and in the real world.
Help your child stand out in the field they want to study.
From promoting a local business to launching an app, we help your child turn their interests into accomplishments they can show colleges.
Campaign creativeLocal bakery
Social adNeighborhood flyer
Audience
Nearby residents
Campaign
A weekend offer
Measure
Offer redemptions
Business
We helped a student run a marketing campaign for a local small business.
We helped one of our students plan a campaign for a local small business, put it into action, and track the response. The project gave them real work to discuss in their college application: how they promoted the business, what worked, and what they changed along the way.
Build the appLaunch at schoolImprove with feedback
Computer science
We helped a student launch an app for their school club.
We helped one of our students build and launch an app that their school club could use to manage events and sign-ups. The project gave them real work to discuss in their college application: what they built, who it helped, and how they improved it.
Whether your child wants to study engineering, political science, or another field, we help them build a project that shows colleges what they can do beyond earning good grades.
Biology
Business
Computer science
Engineering
Political science
Other fields
We help your child build that evidence and make it clear in their college application.
Help your child stand out with a team led by a UC San Diego PhD and former Harvard researcher.
I became the youngest person to earn a PhD in biostatistics from UC San Diego, on a full ride. I previously worked as a machine learning and AI researcher at Harvard. I’ve also built and run multiple six-figure businesses.
I start with your child’s interests, strengths, and college goals. Together, we decide which classes to prioritize and where they could take their interests further. They get a written plan with a project to work on, clear steps and deadlines to keep them on track.
Our team helps your child put the project into action and work through the problems that come up. We review their work, give specific feedback, and help them improve it, from planning a business’s marketing campaign to getting an app into people’s hands.
Along the way, we document their role, the time they put in, and the results. I help them use those examples in their college application, with feedback on how to explain what they did, why it mattered, and what they learned.
That gives your child specific accomplishments to show colleges, backed by the work they’ve done.
What your family gets
Get a clear plan for your child’s college applications and help putting it into action.
We help your child decide where to apply, which classes and activities to focus on, and how to show colleges what makes them different.
Colleges + majorsYour child’s options
LA
UCLACompare majors
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SD
UC San DiegoExplore courses
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D
UC DavisReview requirements
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Majors to explore
BusinessComputer sciencePolitical science
Choose colleges and explore majors that fit your child.
We help your child compare colleges and explore majors based on their interests, strengths, and goals. Together, we build a college list that includes the schools they’re aiming for and other options worth considering. They don’t need to have their major figured out before we start.
Your child’s class planLooking ahead
Current classes
Next year
ScienceBiology
Chemistry
MathAlgebra II
Precalculus
EnglishLiterature
Writing
College goals · Interests · A manageable workload
Choose classes that support their college goals.
We review your child’s current classes and help plan what to take next. The goal is a challenging schedule they can handle, with courses that support their interests and leave time for meaningful activities outside the classroom.
School club appFrom idea to launch
01
Find a problem worth solving
Help a club organize its events.
02
Build something useful
Create an app for event sign-ups.
03
Put it into people’s hands
Launch with the club and improve it with feedback.
Finished work to show in their college application.
Turn their activities and interests into reasons to accept them.
We help your child choose which extracurriculars deserve their time, where they can take on more responsibility, and what projects they could build. Then we guide the work so they have accomplishments to show colleges and specific experiences to write about.
Essay reviewDraft 01
Your child’s draft
I thought building the app would be the hardest part. Getting people to use it taught me more.
Show what you learned.
Coach feedback
What changed your approach?
Describe the feedback you received and the changes you made.
Revision focus
Your decisions · What you learned
Write essays that show colleges why your child stands out.
We help your child choose what to write about and improve their drafts with specific feedback. We also review their activity descriptions and help them stay on top of application deadlines, so the work they’ve put in comes through clearly in their college application.
Your child gets ongoing help putting the plan into action.
Monthly coaching calls, weekly progress check-ins, daily chat support, and weekly training with live Q&A help them work through questions, improve their work, and keep moving toward their deadlines.
Get a free action plan to help your child stand out.
1
See what their application could be missing.
We discuss your child’s classes, activities, and college goals to identify where they could strengthen their application.
2
Find ways to help your child stand out.
We discuss projects and activities that could give your child more to show colleges than good grades alone.
3
Know what to focus on next.
Leave knowing which classes and activities to focus on and what to work on before they apply.
Frequently asked questions
What if my child doesn’t know what they want to study?
That’s okay. Your child doesn’t need to choose a major before we can help them stand out. We help them explore their interests and turn something they care about into work they can show colleges.
Even if they choose a different major later, those accomplishments show curiosity, commitment, and the ability to follow through. That gives admissions officers specific reasons to remember your child beyond their grades and activities, helping their application stand out.
Does my child need perfect grades?
Your child doesn’t need a perfect transcript to start a conversation with us. During the free consultation, we review their academics, activities, and college goals to discuss where they could strengthen their application and whether our support is a fit.
When should my child start working with you?
We work with students from 8th grade through senior year. Starting earlier gives your child more time to develop projects, take their activities further, and build accomplishments that help them stand out to the colleges they want to attend.
We also work with seniors who are already preparing applications. We focus on making the strongest use of the work they’ve already done and improving their application with the time they have left.
What happens on the free consultation?
We discuss your child’s classes, activities, interests, and college goals. You leave with an action plan identifying where they could strengthen their application and what to focus on next. The ongoing program adds detailed planning, coaching, project guidance, and application feedback.
What changed your approach?
Describe the feedback you received and the changes you made.