…tap…tap…is this thing on?
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a new entry to the blog. It hasn’t been a priority. But after a recent caller mentioned the website, I remembered…”oh, yeah, the website. I’ve been neglecting it.” Since most of my clients are word-of-mouth, I tend not to use this website as a marketing tool, but rather, as a repository for odds & ends, of which there are many in the admissions consulting world. Still, even the odds & ends had fallen off the radar given everything that’s been going on.
To summarize the last two years, since the pandemic began: brutal. With round 3 deadlines extended to mid-summer in 2020, the pace was relentless. I didn’t have a moment to rest before r1 began. The 2020-2021 admissions cycle was particularly intense, with applications (and thus demand for services) way up.
My clients know that I make myself available pretty much every day, all day. I turn around essays fast, usually within an hour. I respond to texts, answer emails, and set up Zoom calls on short notice. I will jump tall buildings to ensure that my clients submit the best possible applications and nail their interviews. Sometimes I take on too much.
It’s exhausting.
By the time round 2, 2022, was in the books, I finally had to acknowledge that I was in chronic pain from too much computer. I have been trying to address that via reconfiguring my office setup, finding ways to reverse the damage to the muscles I’d been abusing, taking too many painkillers, and trying to give myself more time away from the keyboard. It’s a process.
I am currently helping launch a startup that is totally unrelated to admissions, and I considered transitioning away from admissions altogether. But I love working with clients, seeing people grow through the intense and introspective admissions process, kvelling on their behalf when they’re admitted to their dream schools, knowing that they are taking steps toward a brilliant future. It’s immensely gratifying. So for now, I remain in the game.
May is coming to a close, which means that schools will be posting applications for the 2022-23 cycle very soon. Harvard has already updated their prompt, and I am grateful that they decided to impose a word limit, thus removing one layer of anxiety. What can an applicant say in 900 words? Well, actually, a lot. I’ll be posting my analyses of each school’s prompts as they appear.
