Case Study: Jaehee’s Northwestern acceptance
Context: Jaehee is a Korean American student from Maryland and the first in her family to go to a four-year college. Scholarships were highly important to her, as she needed them to help pay for college.
Student profile: Academically, Jaehee is a great student. She has a 3.9 unweighted GPA and has taken 13 AP classes. She was also an AP Scholar with Distinction and on the Honor Roll for 3 years in a row. She received a 1500 on the SAT (superscored) and reported her score. In terms of extracurriculars, Jaehee had a lot of leadership experience, including working with the local government and the governor of state in Washington. She was an Aspire intern at the John Hopkins applied physics lab, under a mechanical engineering mentor. In terms of awards, she’s performed at international festivals doing traditional Korean dancing, and was ranked 14th nationally in archery. She was also a QuestBridge National College Match Scholar, Gates Scholarship Semi-Finalist, and received the President’s Volunteer Service Award (Gold).
Why Jaehee joined Cohort: No one in her family had applied to college before, and though she was somewhat familiar with terms, like EA and ED, she had a lot of questions about how to actually apply.
How Cohort helped: 1) Cohort helped ensure that her essays were show, not tell. 2) Since affordability was at the center of Cohort’s program, Jaehee was able to win $350,000 from Northwestern in scholarships!
Show, not tell: Jaehee had heard a lot of people throw this term out regarding college essays. She found it incredibly hard to do, especially without guidance. Having her mentor, Hillman, explain and demonstrate the difference really helped her write essays that differentiated herself from others. Once she mastered how to show, not tell, she brought this learning into every essay, including her scholarship essays.
Winning $350K in scholarships: Although Jaehee was very motivated to go to college, and sought help from her high school counselors and mentors, she found the entire college application process intimidating. Having a college–dedicated community of both peers and mentors was excellent for her. She loved being able to go in-depth about topics, especially about financial aid and how to afford college. Not a lot of people were open about getting financial aid, nor were they open about how difficult it was to manage financial aid deadlines on top of the already complex college application deadlines. The mentors, the community, and the curriculum at Cohort were incredibly helpful around how to afford college, how to do it in a reasonable timeline, and how to distinguish yourself as a candidate worthy of aid. Cohort came to the rescue just in time, as the FAFSA was extra confusing this year.
