When an 11th or 12th grader looks at the Upgrade Education platform and sees that we offer mentorship for admission to universities in the US, the UK or Europe, the first natural question is: "Fine, but what does this actually look like? What happens in a session? What exactly do these mentors do?"
These are good questions, and they deserve concrete answers, not marketing slogans. The most honest way to answer is through the real stories of students who have been through the process. Not short testimonials, but concrete stages, with examples, with what worked and what was hard.
We chose two complete stories here: Tudor, admitted to Harvard, and Carina, admitted to Cambridge for Law. Two very different profiles, two very different journeys. What they have in common is the way the mentors guided their path.
An important note before we continue: This article describes the process of admissions mentorship, for students who already know what they want to study. If you are in your early years of high school and have not yet decided which field interests you, your journey begins elsewhere: with the Career Path Clarity Diploma vocational guidance program. Once you have vocational clarity, you enter the process described below.
Stage 1: First contact, what you discover about yourself
Tudor's story
Tudor graduated from "Gheorghe Lazar" National College in Sibiu, a strong high school with very good academic results. He was always among the active students: the debate olympiad, Interact, the Student Council, civic activism. On paper, he seemed perfectly prepared for a top US university.
But when he came to Upgrade, he understood something important: the "recipe for success" he had been raised on, top grades, olympiads, diplomas, was not enough for admission in the US.
"At school, creative writing is not encouraged at all. But at Upgrade I joined a Creative Writing course with Bianca, a mentor who taught me how to find my voice. It wasn't just about technique, it was about introspection and expression."
The first sessions with Bianca were, as he puts it, "striking", a visible change in the way he built his ideas and conveyed them further.
Carina's story
Carina had a different journey. She knew in high school that she wanted to go into Law, but the road was not linear. She started with the idea of journalism, discovered Model United Nations (MUN), reached around 20 conferences, got involved in the school magazines, then pivoted naturally toward Law, where all her interests intersected.
For Cambridge, where she was admitted, she worked with two mentors:
- Sabina Popescu, who deepened her legal content (jurisprudence, constitutional law)
- Alexia Anghelescu, who guided her in preparing for the LNAT
The beginning of the process is always similar, even when the profiles are different: onboarding, assessment, matching with the right mentor. It is not a quick form, it is a structured conversation, personality tests, a real understanding of who you are, what motivates you, where you need support.
Stage 2: Matching with the mentor, why who you work with matters
Our method is called Hyper-Fit Future-Self Mentoring, and that name is no accident. We match each student with a mentor who has a personal profile and a set of interests close to their own, not just academic credentials.
Why it works this way
A good mentor does not mean a mentor with an impressive CV. It means someone who:
- Understands you: your profile, your aspirations, your doubts
- Has been through something similar: whether admission to a comparable university or a relevant personal journey
- Knows how to challenge you without overwhelming you
- Gives you honest feedback, not just encouragement
About Bianca, Tudor's Creative Writing mentor, students often speak about the transformation they experienced. Bianca does not teach "writing technique", she creates a space in which students find their voice. You feel it immediately in the way you write after 3 to 4 sessions.
About Sabina and Alexia, Carina's mentors, their specialization in Law and the LNAT means they have seen dozens of Cambridge applications, they know the pitfalls, they know what the committee is looking for. That translates into precise feedback, not vague encouragement.
Other names you will frequently come across in our programs: Francesca (US Admissions Coach), Ina (Architecture Applications), Paula (Essay Coach), Meg (Math and English for US applications).
"A mentor in the US is not just someone who explains a few steps to you. It's a person who comes to know you very well, academically, personally and in terms of extracurriculars. With Francesca I discussed everything: from projects, to personal dilemmas, to how I relate to the world around me."
Tudor, admitted to HarvardStage 3: Building the profile, what you do before the application
Many students believe that admissions mentorship begins with writing the essays. In fact, it begins many months earlier, by building a coherent, authentic profile that tells a story.
For Tudor
Besides Creative Writing, Tudor took math and English courses with Meg, a mentor with a rigorous and adapted approach. The goal was not only academic preparation, but building critical thinking and fluency in English, essential skills for the US.
Then he joined the Coach Me program with Francesca. This is where the hardest work happened: identifying a coherent story about who he is, what shaped him, what he wants to build.
"It was an enormous amount of work. I rewrote paragraphs dozens of times, I analyzed every comma. I had to learn how to present myself, not as a CV, but as an authentic person."
For Carina
Carina already had a very diverse profile: MUN, publications, the New York Times Summer Academy, the National English Olympiad, academic debates. Her mentors did not build the profile from scratch, they helped her articulate it coherently.
The LNAT was, in her words, "the most stressful exam of my life, I'd rather take the baccalaureate five times". She started preparing six months in advance, doing one test a day. Alexia worked with her intensively on the essay part, the most challenging one. Constant feedback was the key to her progress.
Stage 4: The essays, where mentorship makes the biggest difference
For both students, writing the essays was the most demanding part. And the most transformative.
Tudor's essay for Harvard
"The hardest part was making the most of my extracurricular activities in the essays. I was used to emphasizing concrete results. But in the essays, the personal impact, the nuances, the emotions and the context were essential."
The process with Francesca was not about "correct answers". It was about helping Tudor see what truly matters.
"Information exists everywhere. What makes the difference is how you apply it. A good mentor doesn't just tell you what to do, they help you understand why. And, more importantly, how that 'what' applies to your own life."
Carina's Personal Statement for Cambridge
She started writing it in August. The first version did not convince her. She started everything over from scratch. The moment of inspiration came at around four in the morning, she remembered how, at the age of ten, she had taken part alongside her parents in the protests over Ordinance 13. That had been her first real contact with the idea of justice.
She wrote more than ten versions before reaching the final form. Constant feedback from Sabina on legal content, from Alexia on the argumentative structure.
The result was an essay that blended personal life with academic motivation in an authentic way. Cambridge received it well.
Stage 5: The interviews, the final test
At top universities, the interview is not a formality. It can be the difference between an offer and a rejection.
Carina's interviews at Cambridge
Two interviews. In the first, focused on contract law, she got stuck on a question and panicked. She felt it had not gone well.
In the second, she was much more relaxed. The final question: "What book about law have you read recently?", the answer came naturally, because she had just read a collection of eight legal cases from the Anglo-Saxon world. She talked about a case from Australia, and the coincidence was that one of the interviewers was actually Australian.
Tudor's interview at Harvard
"It was hard. I didn't know whether it was going well, I had no reference points. But because I had practiced in simulations with Francesca, I managed to get past the nerves. Toward the end of the interview, I felt more confident, more relaxed, and I managed to be myself, not a formal version of myself."
Preparing for the interview is not something you can do alone from a manual. It is about simulations with someone who knows exactly what the committee is looking for, and who can give you honest feedback, including when it is not going well.
The details that make the difference
Two specific moments from these students' stories deserve to be mentioned separately, because they show how the mentor can make a concrete difference:
Tudor's additional video
Together with Francesca, Tudor decided to send a video as a supplement to his application. It was not a standard video, but a compilation of testimonials and quotes from people in his life who spoke about the way he had influenced their lives.
"The admissions officer told me that the video helped him remember me. It was one of the most inspired decisions, because it was sincere."
The idea did not come out of nowhere. It came from a conversation with the mentor, who saw something in Tudor's profile that could be communicated better in another way than through words.
Carina's preparation for a specific question
Carina walked into her second Cambridge interview prepared precisely because Alexia had recommended she read concrete legal cases, not just theory books. That book of cases from the Anglo-Saxon world, read shortly before the interview, was exactly what gave her the natural, confident answer to the final question.
Details matter. And a good mentor tells you which details to build.
Agora, the platform where everything happens
All these interactions take place on Agora, our internal mentorship platform. More than just a meeting space:
- Sessions are recorded and automatically summarized with AI, you can revisit what was discussed at any time
- Progress is monitored, the team and the mentor can see where you have grown, where you have fallen behind
- Parents receive detailed feedback after every session: what was discussed, what comes next
- Materials are integrated: assignments, resources, exercises, all in a single place
We invested over 200,000 euros in developing it and we update it constantly.
What you should take away
From Tudor's and Carina's stories, and from the more than 1,500 student journeys we have guided in recent years, a few lessons keep recurring:
- Real mentorship is not consulting. It is a long relationship, based on trust, in which the mentor knows you well enough to tell you things no one else would tell you.
- Hard work does not disappear, but the mentor helps you know where to focus it. The difference between an essay written 3 times and one written 10 times is mentorship.
- Details change admission. A well-thought-out additional video, a book read at the right time, a paragraph rewritten in the final week, these decisions come from conversations with the mentor.
- Finding your own voice is the most important part. Top universities are looking for real, authentic people. Not template applications.