It all started 10 months ago when I decided to apply to university in the United States. A decision usually preceded by a long and thoroughly thought process, yet a rather impulsive one for me.

I knew that I was running out of time and that everybody else had already started the process. Nonetheless, I was determined to give my absolute best to make this happen and, knowing that I could not do it well on my own, I decided to call Upgrade Education. I was afraid the initial meeting would only be an acknowledgement of my unfortunate situation, instead, I was greeted by a mentor with the most enthusiastic and optimistic mindset, already thinking of the next steps to take and supporting me in trusting the process.

The next 6 months were probably the period in my life when I created a life-changing college application and I developed the most as an individual, as a person.

It was the period when, thanks to my mentor and his close and constant support, I got in a position where I could fully embrace myself. I understood where I stand and what I seek to do in my life, ultimately finding the perfect words to describe my complex persona to the Admission Committee, in just a few essays.

Apart from the direct, organized and effective admission coaching process Upgrade Education offered me, the team made sure that I documented my university choices and that I was aware of all the aspects regarding my next 4 years as a student: from a social and academic perspective to the courses offered and the future career options. Moreover, my mentor emotionally prepared me for all the potential drawbacks that I might encounter and supported me throughout the whole application process and the post-admission period.

From the slightest details in my Common App to the successful interview, I owe Upgrade Education a considerable share of my admission, as they taught me how to take all the “sand granules” that represent my life in the past years and turn these into a shiny “diamond” that showcases the best version of myself, a version that thanks to them, I learned to fully embrace and be proud of.

My journey with Upgrade Education began after a call and a one-on-one free session, where we established what parts of my then-nonexisting application had to be constructed, enforced and insisted upon. I first took part in the Creative Writing course, which managed to undo years and years of writing anxiety. Although in the beginning I doubted myself when it came to my essay-writing skills, I emerged out of the program with a newfound interest in expressing my thoughts, experiences, and aspirations through prose. Through this course I was able to carry out profound introspection that was later of fundamental use in my supplementals, all the while creating multiple solid drafts for my CommonApp essay. I had now gained a better perspective on what is relevant for admission officers when it comes to written pieces, and I understood how to efficiently convey useful information about myself in anywhere from 100 to 650 words. Furthermore, I am convinced that the three-month-long individual collaboration with Upgrade Education was crucial to the smooth flow of my application process. During the personalized mentoring sessions, I was motivated not only by the fact that a highly experienced mentor would give me suggestions on how to strengthen my essays but also by the determination and courage that Upgrade Education’s mentor instilled in me during the most demanding and difficult application cycle in recent history. With his help, I constructed an extensive personal narrative that best revealed my values and identity. Having started out as a stereotypical participant in STEM olympiads with written self-expression abilities which were close to nonexistent, I was aided by Upgrade Education in showing my true, nuanced colors to the offices of admission all around the USA. I can thus assuredly attest that Upgrade Education has played an essential, pivotal role in the acceptances I received, which that from MIT, an institution I will call home for the next four years.

I can still recall the overwhelming feeling of breathless panic when I first decided to sit down and write my college essay drafts. I would look at the prompts and hundreds of small ideas would instantly pop into my head, but when my fingers touched the keys of my laptop no word felt right. My sentences sounded artificial, my experiences came across as superficial and vague, and my voice got lost among the cliches of high school writing. How could I distill who I was, what drove me and defined me, what made me an ideal candidate, an interesting scholar and a curious mind? I tried for days to crack this code, but I quickly found I couldn’t do it alone. That was the moment I decided to work with Upgrade Education It wasn’t an instant change. I didn’t suddenly become a wordsmith, but after each session with my mentor, my ideas and what I wanted to say about myself became clearer and clearer, not only for the unattached and unfamiliar readers but also for myself. I had difficulties with brevity, each draft coming out 1000 words over the limit, but after my discussions with my mentor, I would always come out knowing how to separate the meaningful content from the fluff in my writing. We didn’t stop at what my essays should be like, but instead, we explored what they could be. Introspection may sound like a simple buzzword, but it truly was the name of the game and what I believe truly separated my applications from all the others. I was encouraged to experiment with my writing and apply absolute honesty, to not be afraid to delve into topics deemed “off-limits” by popular admissions websites, to express myself in the same ways that make me who I am. The sessions not only helped me prepare for the unpredictable admissions cycle in the US, but they pushed me into creating applications that I was truly proud of, which represented me together with all of my experiences. For me, Upgrade Education isn’t just a service: it’s a community perfectly equipped to help with and to ease the overwhelming nature of applying to college, a community willing to provide words of encouragement and constructive criticism and capable of inspiring students to be more thoughtful and introspective. I would have never thought that my dream of studying at MIT would come true. Nevertheless, through my collaboration with Upgrade Education, the panic and fear I once felt towards college were gradually replaced by newfound confidence. My profound gratitude towards them is a feeling that is impossible to express. I wholeheartedly believe that the work we’ve done together, all the hours we spent deliberating over my essays, their content and structure, and even my choice of words, were crucial to my success.

Upgrade Education is a community of passionate people, truly eager to help, who enjoy the successes of their students and are saddened by their failures almost as much as the students themselves. Nothing in the Upgrade Education experience seems impersonal, artificial, or ordinary. Working with my mentors, I realized one crucial thing: they were people from Harvard, Yale, and Oxbridge. They were flesh and blood in front of me, deeply human, wonderfully imperfect, and amazingly like me. And more than that, they believed in me and my ability to succeed. As soon as I realized that, quite late in the process, I really felt that I was moving towards a tangible goal. I embarked on this journey knowing exactly where I wanted to get, and I’m now disembarking knowing also that, once I get there, I’ll manage to adapt myself to it, to integrate myself, and to get by really well. Because I know it is something I truly deserve, but also because I know what I should expect, thanks to the Upgrade Education community. The mentors I had been working with always helped me put things in perspective, perfect my essays or improve my exam techniques. I knew I could always rely on them: when they applauded, as well as when they criticized me. And they encouraged me to permanently challenge my boundaries. I am quite different from the person//Ana who started to prepare for the admission more than one year ago, and I can tell I am more confident and I have somehow overcome many of my irrational fears. However, the things I learned at Upgrade Education go far beyond the aspects regarding the admission process. These are things I will practice and apply my entire life, and for which I will always be grateful to Upgrade Education.

At Upgrade Education, I found exactly the support I needed. The mentors’ teaching style catered to my specific needs and motivated me to continue pursuing my objective even when I ran into difficult situations. Here, I found a very dedicated and enthusiastic team, devoted to helping me accomplish my dream, who stood by my side the entire time.

My experience with Upgrade Education has been a very enjoyable one and I owe most of that to my mentor. She’s an incredible mentor and an amazing person from whom I’ve learned a ton of things. We communicated well and had great synergy. I could share with her all the anxiety, hope and joy that comes with applying for US Universities and she’s been nothing but supportive.

My journey with Upgrade Education started at the beginning of the 10th grade, as I wanted to prepare myself for the admissions process to universities in the United States. My mentor was the first to introduce me to US summer programs and helped me research and find the best programs for my academic development and to achieve my goals.

The admissions process in the United States is very creative and requires you to be able to showcase what sets you apart. The creative writing classes and mentoring sessions at Upgrade Education helped me learn how to structure my essays so that they reflect not only information but also my personality. I was able to turn essays that I initially found difficult and impersonal into engaging stories that highlighted my true values and experiences.

Upgrade Education and the mentor I have worked with helped me grasp and value my potential to get into top universities. My mentor and the work we have done together have made me acquire self-confidence – an essential part of the application process as well as a powerful skill for the future. Collaborating with Upgrade Education was the best decision I could have made and I am deeply grateful for all of the professional and amazing people I have met. The communication has always been fantastic, and a kind of “family” has been created around the common purpose to fulfill the dreams of Upgrade Education students.

The Upgrade Education mentors were friendly, caring and professional. They helped me discover my strong suits and my weaknesses, and with their support, I finally found the courage to apply to my dream university programmes. The most important part for me was that, through conversations with my mentor, I learned to look deeper into my passions and ambitions, finding the words to express myself in a professional and authentic way.

I wanted to mix business (by trying to get admitted to a top-tier university) and pleasure (by choosing a country with a culture that I felt could help me grow gracefully) and this is how I came to the conclusion that the Netherlands will be the most suitable place for me. Upgrade Education provided me with most of the pieces of information I needed, while the meetings, discussion, and homework they had been assigning me worked really well with my style and schedule. Upgrade Education played an important role in my evolution throughout the admission process because it made me discover weaknesses I had encountered before but treated superficially. Through open discussions with the mentors, I began to look at the work I was doing not as a burden that I would eventually get rid of, but as a continuous process I had to enjoy along the way. After almost an entire year spent preparing with the Upgrade Education mentors, what I truly achieved was neither the fact that I managed to be admitted to all the universities I had applied to, nor the books and articles I had read, or the essays I had written, but a better version of myself. What I truly achieved were the transformation I went through and the new approach I gained towards the problems I face. I discovered my true, authentic self and have been sticking to that ever since.

I would say that a big percentage of my success in getting accepted into MIT is due to my mentor’s help and effort. The most valuable thing throughout my coaching is that he kept me motivated, encouraged me and made me realise I was moving towards a real goal. At the beginning of the process, it was extremely difficult to really open up in my essays. That’s why I spent a lot of time with my mentor discussing the pressure to impress what was inherent in all of my first attempts and to build a more natural voice together.

It all started with a dream of studying in the US. Turning the dream into reality was, nevertheless, an extremely demanding process. Only those who have walked this path know how difficult it can get to harmonize the preparation for the SAT exams and the writing of your essays (lots of essays!) with the studying for high school classes and exams, the extracurricular activities, and the social life (the lowest priority most of the time, indeed!). The key ingredient throughout this process is, in my opinion, perseverance – the intrinsic motivation to keep going, especially when things don’t seem to work out as well as they should. To the ones who don’t feel this strong desire or embark on this journey following any source of external motivation, I would suggest they take a step back and ask themselves what they truly want. Besides the fact that an enormous amount of effort is involved, the essays you create will eventually reveal if your motivation is authentic or not. As I started to work on my essays, I was striving to sound more academic in my writing, to achieve a more grandiose and interesting expression – but I could feel something was not going right. I began to work with my mentor and understood that I needed to learn how to write so that every story I tell, every single word I put down on paper represents me, reveals to the reader who I truly am. It might sound easy, but trust me, it’s not! I wrote and rewrote thousands of words, I walked the memory lane and relived things I’d previously believed to be unimportant, I thought about people with whom I hadn’t spoken in years or who are no longer with us. It was a very intense search. However, the purpose was not to find the perfect, Ivy League approved essay theme, but to find my true self, the things that define me. Throughout the entire process my mentor was both the catalyst for my introspection, asking questions that determined me to dive deep into my consciousness, and the one who answered my questions with other questions, making me re-analyze the situation and rewrite it all. And I want to thank him for all these things.

During most of the time I have been at high school, I never aspired to study in a different country. Late in the 11th grade, however, something pushed me towards considering the opportunity to enroll at the most prestigious universities in the United Kingdom.

Acknowledging that the time until the deadlines and exams was short, I knew that I had to seek help in order to make sure that the whole admission process would go smoothly. Searching on the Internet for companies that aid students follow their academic dreams, I came across Upgrade Education, and I thought I could not get any better help than from people who took the same road that I am going to pursue.

At first, in the strategy meeting, the mentor told me that the UK universities were fitting perfectly with my way of thinking and my academic goals and encouraged me to regard myself as a powerful candidate, guaranteeing that, in my case, hard work and determination would undoubtedly lead to success. He then referred me to my strategist, with whom I have been in contact ever since. She has helped me not only with the preparation for the exams but also with writing my personal statement by highlighting the capabilities that stood out and distinguished me from my peers.

My mentor prepared me for my interviews, asking me to solve problems whose reasoning and original solutions seemed eye-catching for these universities, and the fact that she herself finished a course in engineering at Cambridge offered me a whole new insight into their requirements. She encouraged me to be honest and to tell her whether a mathematics or physics problem we discussed was fully understood because it is no shame in admitting we are not perfect, as not even these top universities expect that we are so.

Due to my efforts and Upgrade Education’s help, I was offered the opportunity to study at the Imperial College of London. I am very thankful of my mentor’s expertise and to the whole enterprise that allows students like me to follow their desired career paths.

My mentor prepared me for my interviews, asking me to solve problems whose reasoning and original solutions seemed eye-catching for these universities. She encouraged me to be honest and to tell her whether a mathematics or physics problem we discussed was fully understood because it is no shame in admitting we are not perfect, as not even these top universities expect that we are so. I am very thankful of my mentor’s expertise and to the whole enterprise that allows students like me to follow their desired career paths. During most of the time I have been at high school, I never aspired to study in a different country. Late in the 11th grade, however, something pushed me towards considering the opportunity to enroll at the most prestigious universities in the United Kingdom. Acknowledging that the time until the deadlines and exams was short, I knew that I had to seek help in order to make sure that the whole admission process would go smoothly. Searching on the Internet for companies that aid students follow their academic dreams, I came across Upgrade Education and I thought I could not get any better help than from people who took the same road that I am going to pursue. At first, in the strategy meeting, the mentor told me that the UK universities were fitting perfectly with my way of thinking and my academic goals and encouraged me to regard myself as a powerful candidate, guaranteeing that, in my case, hard work and determination would undoubtedly lead to success. He then referred me to my strategist, with whom I have been in contact ever since. She has helped me not only with the preparation for the exams but also with writing my personal statement by highlighting the capabilities that stood out and distinguished me from my peers. My mentor prepared me for my interviews, asking me to solve problems whose reasoning and original solutions seemed eye-catching for these universities, and the fact that she herself finished a course in engineering at Cambridge offered me a whole new insight into their requirements. Due to my efforts and Upgrade Education’ s help, I was offered the opportunity to study at the Imperial College of London. I am very thankful of my mentor’s expertise and to the whole enterprise that allows students like me to follow their desired career paths.

During high school, I was more concerned with Olympiad results than multidisciplinary development, so when I started thinking about applying to college I realized I was not at all prepared for this challenge. The application process to a top university requires a detailed presentation of your passion and motivation and I lacked the skills necessary to present myself beyond a list of qualifications and awards.

I discovered at Upgrade Education a team dedicated to my dream and eager to prepare me not only for admission but also for college life. My mentors have always emphasized the value of introspection and sincerity, forcing me to reveal in my essays everything that is most captivating about me, to present myself as a capable, passionate and motivated candidate.

They were by my side all the way, constantly reminding me of the importance of perseverance, conscientiousness, and punctuality.

My interview tutoring and the discussions about studying in the UK helped me get rid of my nervousness and transformed applying to university into a pleasant experience.

Even when I did not meet the requirements for the conditional offer by scoring below expectations in my final exams, the Upgrade Education team was by my side. Together we composed a letter in which I expressed my commitment to the program, and, as a result, I was finally accepted.

To me, Upgrade Education represents the people who helped me complete the demanding process of applications in a short time and I owe it to them that today I can follow my dream of studying at the University of Cambridge.

My first interaction with Upgrade Education came shortly after I had finished 10th grade when I signed up for the SAT Summer Intensive Study program. Although I was used neither to writing argumentative essays nor to participating in debates, thanks to my mentor’s observations I rapidly figured out that a well-written essay doesn’t consist of bombastic phrases, but of a strong introduction, a set of well-structured arguments, and clearly expressed straightforward ideas. My mentor went beyond what you would expect from an ordinary teacher and became a true mentor, at its very best: ranging from the Wish You Were Here album cover to the importance of introspection, through our discussions he encouraged us to think deeply and, more importantly, to always make sure our opinions are grounded on strong arguments. Those two weeks of the program played a very important role in achieving my target SAT score, as well as in my growth as a person unafraid to express her opinions. During the training sessions we had in the first months of 12th grade, as we were focusing on the essays needed for the US application, my mentor had always been receptive and kept encouraging me to get out of my comfort zone with every essay. At first, I used to feel somewhat reluctant and shy away from writing sincerely about my experiences. However, the fact that I never felt judged helped me loosen up and allow myself to write thoroughly about my parents, about my deepest fears, and the difficult moments I encountered throughout my teenage years. I always trusted that my mentor offers honest feedback, making sure that I get the most out of every single essay. I am convinced my US application would not have been so comprehensive and would not have reflected my personality this profoundly without my Upgrade Education mentor’s support and guidance. I also worked with Masha on my UK application: on the personal statement, as well as on the preparation for the interview. Throughout our discussions, he helped me refine my ideas and figure out which literary works, experiences, and activities determined me to wish to study Literature. Under her guidance, I approached an original perspective on the books I wrote about in the Personal Statement – a perspective that reflected my passion and interest in this subject. The mock interviews with Masha were very similar to the real ones, helping me to get familiar with the interview structure and with the specific question types. I warmly recommend Upgrade Education to any student who wants to discover himself or to apply to university in a foreign country, regardless of the field of study.

Working with Upgrade Education has been a pleasant and unique experience, especially due to the people I have worked with. My mentor was very involved in the application process, and because he was in the same position as me a short time ago, he knew the questions I had about applying to the UK. His advice was effective and helped me develop my skills very strongly. The people with whom I prepared for the exam and interviews were also very important, as they helped me cope with the stress I had because of these two tests, and taught me to use certain working methods that I had never encountered before.

Upgrade Education put me into contact with my mentor, without whom I would not have been able to get this far. It’s hard to find someone who studies the same subject and at the same university that you want to apply to, so Upgrade Education made that easier. I had constant support throughout the entire admission process and was able to find my own rhythm whilst knowing I have someone to go to if I got stuck. After all, Upgrade Education is about showing you how to do it and then letting you fly. My mentor became a model to look up to and that has certainly motivated me.