Introducing ILUMIN Education's NEW Educational Consultant: AZURE BROWN!

Azure Brown
Educational Consultant

We can't tell you how OVERJOYED we are about the new addition to our staff!

Azure Brown comes with a wealth of experience:

1. Senior Admissions Evaluator and Counselor - University of California
2. Reviewed 1000+ applications within the UC system
3. 10+ Years - High School English Teacher and Administrator
4. 6+ Years - College Admissions Counselor
5. Worked with students admitted to: Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley

AND is the mother of TWO beautiful daughters! Read the rest of her bio HERE.

It's rare to come across someone with Azure's credentials. She is an amazing advisor and mentor and we're excited to have her on the team! 

Azure is providing free 1-hr consultations to discuss how she can help with the college preparation and admissions process. Contact us at info@ILUMINeducation.com or (408) 479-4742.

ILUMIN INTERVIEW ON BAY VOICE READIO - CURRENT TRENDS IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS

Last week, John continued his series of radio interviews on Bay Voice Radio, 96.1 FM (Bay Area, NorCal). Throughout this series, we'll be highlighting aspects that help students find the right majors, write the best (and most honest) essays and reach the right universities.

The interview is primarily in Chinese -- apologies to the non-Chinese speakers! If you would like to find out more, we'd be happy to do a free consultation and discuss how we can help. Click HERE to contact us and click on the link below to listen to the interview!

BAY VOICE INTERVIEW - PART 2 - CURRENT TRENDS IN THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS LANDSCAPE

ILUMIN Interview on Bay Voice Radio - Helping Students Find the Right Careers

Last week, John started the first of a series of radio interviews on Bay Voice Radio, 96.1 FM (Bay Area, NorCal). Throughout this series, we'll be highlighting aspects that help students find the right majors, write the best (and most honest) essays and reach the right universities.

The interview is primarily in Chinese -- apologies to the non-Chinese speakers! If you would like to find out more, we'd be happy to do a free consultation and discuss how we can help. Click HERE to contact us and click on the link below to listen to the interview!

BAY VOICE INTERVIEW - PART 1 - HELPING STUDENTS FIND THE RIGHT CAREERS

5 Tips For Writing Your College Personal Statement Essay

Are you getting overwhelmed with even the idea of writing your college essay? I understand, because when I was in your shoes, I was too. I remember sitting in my senior year AP Lit class one day, and feeling like I just walked out of a rabbit hole with no idea what just happened the last 45 minutes. And Lit was my favorite class! All I could think about was the fact that it was October, and still had nothing to submit for any of my early action schools. Sure, I had gotten advice from my guidance counselor, older friends who were already in college, my genius of a cousin who got into Hahvad and Yale, and even my immigrant parents who didn’t know the first thing about writing a college essay. I borrowed books, scoured the Internet and got my hands on whatever I could. But in the end, I still felt overwhelmed with all of the different information and advice that I was getting, I became paralyzed out of fear that my essay wouldn’t be good enough (spoiler: it ended up great).

Here are my top 5 college essay writing tips you should keep in mind before starting your college essay. So, put down that book full of essays and read this instead!

Tip #1- Be Honest and Remember Why It’s Called a “Personal” Statement

Fear makes people do funny things. Students often get so paranoid about writing the “right” things in a college essay, that they end up writing very average and uninteresting essays. I once worked with a student who had a perfect GPA, near perfect test scores, was the Editor-In-Chief of their high school newspaper, and wanted to be a journalism major, but when it came to their college essay, their first draft read like a resume (one of the most common mistakes that students make when writing their college essays). Don’t be tempted to write what you think an admissions officer wants to read – it’ll be both boring and disingenuous.

My advice? Start with your laptop, get comfortable, and just let the words flow. Pretend it’s your own private blog that no one else gets to read. Back in my day, it used to be called a “diary.” I used to keep one and write down inane things like how my Lucky Charms that morning turned my milk into a delicious cereal smoothie that I wanted to bottle and sell to the kids at school or how I couldn’t decide between wearing a pink polka dot scrunchie or the one with neon green zigzags. Thoroughly exciting details from my 80’s childhood. But, every so often, I would write down things about my dreams, my struggles and my life that surprised me. And that’s when it got interesting. Because I didn’t take writing in a diary seriously, I didn’t feel the pressure. And when you don’t feel the pressure, it becomes real and something worth sharing.

Tip #2- Show One or Two Important Stories, Instead of Telling Twenty Three Different Things in Your Essay

Show, don’t tell.

I can’t stress this point enough to my students: describing yourself or your life through one or two descriptive stories does more for your essay than a whole bunch of statements ever could.

Case in point: If you’re writing your college essay about your love for Nutella, don’t start off by describing the origin of Nutella, all the reasons you love Nutella and why it’s your “cannot-live-without-it” food. Instead, tell a story about the first time you ate Nutella, that delicious, sweet, creamy, hazelnut chocolatey goodness. Straight out of the jar, from your spoon to your mouth. See how much better that sounds? How that feels? Show, don’t tell.

Tip #3- Start Your College Essay Early, Like, Summer Early

You can’t rush perfection. You can’t even rush above average. If you’re reading this in your junior year, it’s a little early to start writing, but not early enough to start thinking about your college essay. If you’re reading this in your senior year, and it’s not yet September, then you’re golden. If you’re a senior, and it’s past September, start NOW.

Don’t try to write a masterpiece on your first try. If you’re a perfectionist like me, that’s hard to swallow. But the more time you have to work with, the better your essay will be. It’s not about the quantity of drafts, but the quality of the drafts. Word length, topic, structure—throw all of that out the window the first couple times. You’ll get to it later. When you give yourself time to let your essay rest, you give yourself the opportunity to churn milk into butter.

Tip #4- Start Strong and Take Some Risks

Don’t be afraid to sound a little crazy in your first line. Just as you eat with your eyes first, the first few sentences of your college essay are what grabs the reader, and can help turn a common essay into an uncommon one.

This is one of my favorite college essay articles, because most of these one-liners are just so cool and fun to read. Of course, you’ll need to back up a great one-liner with stories later in your essay in order for it to make sense and lend itself with maximum credibility.

Some risk can pay off, but not so much that you run the risk of turning off an admissions reader (for more on how to help figure out if something is too risky, read on to the next tip). 

Tip #5- Get Feedback From Someone You Trust, But Not From More Than Two People

The worst thing that can happen to your college essay is that it becomes someone else’s essay, not yours. Remember that the best way to preserve your own voice is to really believe in your written product. Because if you start asking too many people for feedback, your head spins and suddenly, everything you once thought was right, now just sounds wrong. Limit the amount of people who read your essay to two at most three people.

So who do you ask? Whether it’s your older sister, best friend, English teacher or college counselor, pick people that you trust and aren’t afraid to give constructive criticism. Don’t take feedback personally, because something that sounded like an epiphany to you at 2 am the night before, may not have translated well on paper to your reader.

I get it, writing well is hard. Especially when so much is at stake. But it doesn’t mean that you should fear it, because we all know that saying, starting is the hardest part. But, starting is often the best part because it only gets easier from here! So, what are you waiting for?!­

Introducing: the ILUMIN College Application Bootcamp

This year we're going to introduce a new workshop that will improve the quality of a student's college application and help him or her finish well before the deadlines. 

Introducing... the ILUMIN College Application Bootcamp! It sounds scary, but our goal is to help students get a head start - the students who start early, ALWAYS write better essays. In the span of four days, students will:

1. Learn what admissions officers are looking for and how to write effective college essays.

2. Complete multiple drafts of the two University of California application essays and the main Common Application personal statement (private schools).

3. Complete a resume they can submit with most college applications.

4. Enter in all the required information for both the University of California application and the Common Application.

5. Have a plan for how to complete the "Why Us?" essay which is required for most private school admissions.

6. Have access to experienced consultants who will provide feedback on all their work.

This is an exclusive workshop for our students and will help them SUBMIT BETTER APPLICATIONS and REDUCE STRESS during of the college admissions season. After the bootcamp, students will continue working one-on-one with our consultants to further develop and polish their essays and submit their application on-time. 

The workshops are tentatively scheduled for:

June 8-11
August 10-13

Contact us if you have any questions! Looking forward to the coming application season! 

Why Reading More Will Help You Reach Your Dream College

There are so many good reasons for you to read outside what is assigned by teachers and posted on your friends' Tumblr pages. Reading deepens your understanding of the world and how you fit into it. A long term reading habit benefits writing skills and correlates with higher scores on standardized tests like SAT. Not to mention that reading comes in handy in all types of social situations by supplying you with interesting conversation topics. If nothing else, some colleges want to know what you’ve been reading regularly and for fun. Columbia, Princeton and USC (among others) all provide space on their application to share with them what you read. Surely an application to Princeton calls for more than Harry Potter and Reddit.

Here are seven kinds of reading recommended for every high school student.

1. Think Local

Via blog, free weekly, or local paper, reading local news is critical if you want to effect positive change in the world, and there's no better place to start than your own backyard. Understanding local problems as well as the solutions community leaders are working on can also inspire meaningful capstone projects.

2. Stay Current

You can fight the "I grew up in a bubble" mentality by increasing your understanding of regional, national, and international events. This can be accomplished by reading a major newspaper or news magazine regularly. LA Times, Washington Post, Time and The Week are examples of good options.

3. Read Stories

There's much to be gained from fiction. You can learn about racial injustice in the Deep South during the Depression era, but you will gain a new understanding of what it was like to live in that period by reading To Kill a Mockingbird and other fictional accounts.  That's not to say that you should only read historical novels - fiction in all genres offers something to be learned, from the personal to the political. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's words: "Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures." Check here for recommended titles.

4. Learn from Others

As you prepare to make significant life decisions as an adult, there's never a better time to read biographies. Not only does learning about other people's life experiences increase your capacity for empathy, thinking about choices people make and where those choices take them provides valuable life lessons. Biography options here and here.

5. Be Socially Responsible

If you already use social media, you can easily follow at least one organization that is doing good work for a social cause of choice. Students who love the ocean or want to study marine science can follow Save Our Shores. Students concerned about hunger can follow No Kid Hungry or The Hunger Site. The possibilities go on and on.

6. Struggle to Understand

It’s worthwhile to read an online professional or scholarly journal related to an industry or field of your preference. You can expect this type of reading to be slow, requiring the decoding of unfamiliar vocabulary. It's likely you will not understand every point. However, the laborious reading will bring with it an expanded vocabulary and knowledge you might build from to pursue future goals. Lists of journals are here and here.

7. Try Something New

It’s advisable that you read a nonfiction book to learn about something new once in a while, regardless of how relevant it may seem to your goals. Expanding your knowledge base helps you develop intellectually and make interesting connections between different concepts. Browsing Amazon or the New York Times Best Seller List are great ways to find something to read "just because."

Adding more reading to your perhaps tight schedule might seem challenging. At the very least, you can try reading news an hour a week. You can aim to read one article per month from a professional or scholarly journal. You can check the socially-responsible social media from time to time. And each year, you can choose three books - fiction, biography, and other nonfiction - to read during school breaks. Over time, your reading efforts will pay off in multiple ways.

Five (5) Things to Consider for Finding the Right College

A sometimes overlooked factor in deciding which admissions offer to accept is whether a college really is a good fit. No matter how well ranked a school, it isn’t a good school for you if you don’t embrace the campus environment. Determining the best fit means you can be assured on college move-in day that, despite any initial jitters, you are in the right place to pursue meaningful opportunities and be successful.

Here are five points for the consideration of college fit.

1. Competitive vs. Supportive Feel

Some students work better in a shark tank. They will push themselves to perform to their highest potential and maintain a laser-like focus on their goals within a highly competitive environment. Others will shut down, overwhelmed and inhibited from working to their potential. The feel of the community will vary across majors and social circles, but it’s worth becoming aware of details that influence campus culture. For example, UC Berkeley is known for cutthroat competition among students as a result of bell-curve grading policies in some departments.

2. New Locale

Many graduating high school students are bravely seeking new adventures. Students in the suburb want to move to the city; students in the city want to experience life in a quaint college town. However, for those of you who will be away from the family home for the first time, it’s worth becoming informed about what it’s like to function independently in the new location. A student from an LA suburb might struggle to navigate NYU’s decentralized urban campus in the snow. A student from Boston might be surprised a car is necessary to take full advantage of internship opportunities offered by UC San Diego. In some cases, it’s wise to make a less drastic location change for your undergraduate years.

3. Unexpected Benefit and Hidden Cost

Although public universities offer predictable tuition rates, private schools routinely include price breaks with their admissions offers. The most substantial price breaks go to the most desired applicants in the pool, such as those with high test scores, specific interests, or backgrounds serving to diversify the student community. It is therefore advisable that you apply to at least a couple private colleges, regardless of tuition rates, to see what your offers are. On the unexpected cost side of things, there are various aspects of student life at both publics and privates that may add to the cost of college, such as parking permits, plane tickets home, membership fees, common forms of student entertainment, and off-campus housing rates.

4. Greek Life and Athletics

You should know in advance how strong a presence both Greek organizations and athletics have on campus. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a large number of students are sorority or fraternity members. At the University of Michigan, competitive sports are an integral part of campus culture. Students who aren’t interested in these activities may feel as if their ability to network and make social connections is adversely affected. Students who are interested in these activities may be disappointed with a college life devoid of Greek traditions and big rah-rah football games.

5. Access and Size

A large university will offer a dazzling array of opportunities, but what’s important for you to know is the percentage of undergraduates who get involved and to what extent. The best research opportunities and field experiences tend to go to graduate students, so small colleges without substantial grad populations may offer you the best access to the kinds of opportunities that will prepare you for career and grad school. Furthermore, if you haven’t learned to be assertive about finding resources and achieving goals, you may achieve more in a small college setting.

Every year, thousands of college freshmen drop out of school by the second term. Taking the time to look beyond rankings and majors before accepting an admissions offer can save you from future regret. With a combination of self-knowledge and practical considerations, you can determine which college is your best fit.

Four (4) Characteristics Common to Successful High School Students

The most successful students aren’t always the smartest or most talented people in the room. They are the hardest workers, the most passionate students or the ones who genuinely care. Whoever they are, they find ways to set themselves apart from the rest.

We’ve worked with many successful high school students and have noticed a few common qualities. Here are four traits we see in the students who consistently reach their college admissions goals and beyond.

Quality #1 – Be an Effective Communicator

Successful students learn to be effective communicators. They’re not only good oral and written communicators, but have good people skills and use appropriate body language.

Two great ways to develop communication skills is to join the debate team and participate in theater. Both activities help students formulate clear ideas and effectively deliver those ideas to an audience. We’ve had both shy and outgoing students grow tremendously from their experiences in both. Universities view debate and theater involvement very positively and they know how important it is for all students regardless of their major to communicate well.

Quality #2 – Cultivate a Passion

The most successful students also develop clear passions. We see this over and over – students who pursue their interests remain motivated and diligent throughout high school.

Admittedly, it’s not easy to discover one’s passion, but students should always be going deep in the areas they’re interested in. If a student loves computers, find a computer programmer and interview them to find out why they love it. If a student is interested in gardening, start your own garden and develop it into a hobby. Successful students curiously explore side interests and many times it’s the most engaging aspect on their college application.

Quality #3 – Give Back to Others

Most schools require service hours where students volunteer to serve the community. Unfortunately, for many students, it’s just a box they check off. The most successful students however understand the importance of giving back.

I have a student who works with a 2nd grader who has trouble reading. He helps this child with his pronunciation so he can catch up with the rest of his class. The 2nd grader shares about his family and reminds him that there is more to life than just getting good grades. My student finds a lot of joy helping this 2nd grader and it actually helps him do better in school and lead a more balanced life.

Quality #4 - Manage Stress

Lastly, the most successful students know how to manage their stress. Stress is good in the right context. But in a hyper-competitive environment, too much stress can lead to poor academic performance and compromised health.

With that, many of our students manage their stress by getting more organized. They make to-do lists, set boundaries on their internet use and make study plans for the week. One of our students began limiting his Facebook viewing to thirty minutes a day and it reduced his total study time by fifty percent! Before he regularly slept at 1am and now he sleeps before 11pm. Organized students are more efficient, sleep more and are less stressed.

Our goal at ILUMIN Education is to help students reach their college admissions goals and find success for years to come. We help students find their passions, perform better in school and give back to their communities. Contact us for a free consultation to see how we can help. 

ILUMIN's Scholarship Student >>>>> Chu Hui Fu

Every year ILUMIN works with a small handful of bright, amazing students who do not have access to educational coaching services. We provide, at no charge to them, essay editing assistance, college list formation guidance and coaching throughout the admissions process. We had the privilege of working with a really amazing student from San Francisco named Chu Hui Fu.

We were extremely impressed and encouraged by her story as a recent immigrant to the United States. We know her hard work and passion will lead her to great success! Watch the video above and read the interview below - I know you'll be inspired. Thanks Chu Hui and good luck at Haverford!

INTERVIEW WITH CHU HUI FU:

Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m ChuHui Fu, a senior at Galileo High School. I was matched with Haverford College (PA) through QuestBridge. I am planning to major in chemistry, biochemistry or some other science. I love the gratification of getting stuck, and stuck and more stuck, then finally coming to a solution. When free, I enjoy long walks. Some of my obsessions include chocolate, mint, music boxes and mystery novels.

What was your biggest challenge when moving to America?

I immigrated from China four years ago, with limited English skills. But that wasn’t the biggest challenge. I found it most difficult to adjust to the cultural diversity here, which was initially intimidating. But after time, I've learned to move beyond the stereotypes and be more social with people from different backgrounds.

What’s your proudest moment during high school?

I was most proud when I was accepted into the lab internship iCLEM (Introductory College Level Experience in Microbiology) because it was the first time I would work in an actual lab and because of the low acceptance rate. 

How did you discover your passion in science?

When I took biology, I was fascinated by genetics and cell divisions. See, in middle school, biology was just about memorization. I was never exposed to actual concepts, and that class was eye opening. Then I took chemistry, which I considered to be the first class besides math that made perfect sense to me. The labs were well-developed and filled with what my chemistry teacher called the "critical thinking questions.” At one point, I realized that I secretly wanted to mess up a lab just so I could redo it. That was probably when I discovered that I had a passion for science.

What advice would you give high school students to thrive in high school?

Explore the opportunities around you—both academic and extracurricular ones. Ask questions now when you don't understand something. If you don’t ask now, you won’t understand it any time soon. Also, join a club; be a part of something.   

What advice would you give to seniors applying to college?

Don't procrastinate until the last minute; don't start on your UC App at 11 pm on Nov. 30. It's going to be extremely stressful if you procrastinate. Apply to the scholarships that are available to you; it won’t hurt to have money in your pocket. 

What did you struggle with most in high school?

I struggled the most in my U.S. History class because I had difficulty memorizing dates, places and people's names. Unlike mathematical formula that can be derived, these facts couldn’t be deduced or rationalized, so I could not remember them very well. 

What’s the key to your success?

I take advantage of the opportunities around me. There are many free programs, and when one interests me, I apply. By doing so, I was able to go on a backpacking trip and a community service trip, conduct research in a laboratory, and try out creative writing. And from these experiences, I became more self-aware, fearless and confident.

What’s the hardest part about the college app process?

The personal statement was the hardest for me because my initial draft was over two thousand words and it had to be reduced to five hundred words. Also, as I revised my personal statement more and more, I started losing the passion I initially felt, and I started doubting if it really mattered to me. I once heard “I write to understand what I think"--and that was the case for me.

How did we (ILUMIN) help you?

ILUMIN encouraged me to start researching private schools early in the fall, which allowed me to learn about different schools and helped me discover what type of college I wanted. ILUMIN also proofread my college apps and personal statements, providing very practical and straightforward feedback. 

Top-Tier Colleges: What do they really want? (Part 3)

Please note that this is a three part series on what traits colleges are looking for in competitive applicants. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

Ivy Leagues seek students who develop and pursue their passion

When Drew Faust, the President of Harvard, was asked for her best advice to parents she remarked “Make your children interesting!” Easier said than done—but interesting students only emerge when they pursue their passion.

Many parents dismiss their children’s area of passion as a childish waste of time. Unfortunately, this dismissal develops in students a sense of directionlessness--and may even curtail their success later in life.

For example, a friend of mine was raised in a typical “Tiger parent” household. She was prodded into academic excellence and was finally admitted to Berkeley as a pre-med student. She later attended UCLA for medical school and graduated as an M.D. Yet only a few years into her medical practice, she dropped out completely to pursue a career in graphic design.

In our most recent conversation, she admitted bitterly to me, “I was the perfect child, always doing what was asked of me. But I kept wondering if happiness was real, and why, if it was, I missed it. It wasn’t until I finally left medicine that I realized happiness was real--but that’s after I wasted eight years of my life and racked up $300,000 in debt." 

Unfortunately, my friend is not alone. We see many students who do not pursue a genuine interest, and end up with a resume that blends facelessly in with all the others. However, parents who encourage the pursuit of a passion--any passion--enable their children to shine.

Mary’s mother dreamed of her daughter becoming a savvy business woman--but Mary, an introvert, had other plans. Much to her mother’s dismay, Mary became obsessed with science. She lived and breathed it. She spent her Freshman summer at the UC Davis COSMOS program, and immediately emailed her professor begging that he let her work in his lab for the rest of her summers in high school. She spent three years helping him research the effect of second-hand smoke on rat lungs, and later went to Harvard where she is currently studying Biology.

Our students’ story and the growing voices from Ivy League schools all send the same message: give us students who are driven, passionate risk-takers.

So what can you do to help?

First, empower your child to make his own decisions. Give him choices, and walk him through (without lecturing) each decision’s consequences. Ask good, meaningful questions and leave the ultimate decision up to him. Each decision is an opportunity for growth for your child--if you let it be.

Second, let your child fail. Sit with him as he faces the consequences of his own choices, and support him no matter what. Give him the tools to think logically about how he will do things differently in the future. Let him learn that taking risks is the key to success, and quite possibly, the key to Harvard.

Finally, foster your child’s passions. When they’re young, help them explore all their interests--don’t weed out the ones that you don’t approve of. Look a little deeper. Does your child spend time playing video games? Maybe encourage him to join a video game camp that teaches him how to code and create his own game. Does your daughter love fashion? Consider teaching her how to create goods to sell online. Many parents complain that their child isn’t motivated--but we believe all students are motivated--it’s leveraging what they’re passionate about with a direction for their future.