Upward Path Institute — Local services in Palo Alto

For my previous kids, the college application process seemed like a sprint, and there were some regrets that they should have planned and done a more thorough job on essays and extracurriculars. So, we know we needed some assistance for our next child to plan for a more deliberate approach. We either spend some money now to give our son a more competitive advantage or let him navigate the application process himself.

There is a reason college preparatory services exist, staffed with ex-admission counselors: They work, and those advantages are necessary. We were lucky enough that UpwardPath selected my son to work with them, and we certainly don't regret the money we spent based on his admissions acceptances.

His UpwardPath counselor, Anne Semone, had quite a prolific background. She had dealt with stressful juniors who were dealing with hard class workloads and unmotivated seniors with whom writing compelling college essays was the last thing they wanted to do. After removing the SAT/ACT this year from the criteria that universities accept, the subjective nature of essays became the primary means for those to be selected above those more qualified in other areas.

Starting around June after his junior year, Mrs Semone's interactions with my son were crucial to getting his essays well-rounded, compelling, and concise. Throughout the essay-writing process, Mrs Semone provided feedback on capturing the reader's attention while still giving the impression that the student is humble and not exaggerating. She recognized the humorous parts of my son's essays while keeping them concise and on the subject of the essay prompt. On the 9th or 10th version of the essays, I know my son was hoping Mrs. Semone would say... "it looks good; I have no other feedback." But they are the best essays he has written, and I know they impacted his college acceptances.

Another thing to consider is the major the student is considering. One weakness of the US education system is that schools don't tell the kids what they are not good at. Recognizing your weaknesses is crucial to knowing when to seek help. Our counselor knew writing essays was a challenge for my son, and being an engineering major, there are other things he wants to do than writing essays.

Half of the UCs my son applied to sent him acceptance letters, and his profile was only in the lower median when you look at the university's incoming freshman class stats. At his high school, valedictorians who applied to the same college and major as my son did not receive acceptance letters. I know his essays were the primary reason he got in, and without Mrs Semone's assistance, he might only have had one or no choice of his target schools.

Was he unmotivated to write these essays? 100% But Mrs Semone's deliberate and planned approach minimized his procrastination so that he didn't sprint the essay. We appreciate UpwardPath and recommend its services. We will miss Mrs Semone for the last...

My daughter had great chemistry with her UCEazy counselor - Karen Rowe. Karen's counseling style was direct, to-the-point, and provided timely counsel. This definitely played a part in my daughter getting admitted into the computer science program at UIUC. During the intense high school years, Karen systematically helped plan for her AP course selection, essays, internship planning and helped maintain the right balance of volunteer activities. One blind spot for us was how to structure the 25-30+ different essays/prompts during the college application process. This is where Karen's experience of having worked with the UC admission officers (on essay grading etc.) helped guide my daughter. Karen's promptness and productive feedback on the essay prompts was quite crucial in instilling confidence that was much needed during the college application process. She was frank in providing her opinion at times, even suggesting rewriting an entire prompt without needing to sugarcoat her feedback, which my daughter found extremely useful. My daughter also got admissions from CS programs at Purdue and University of Maryland. However, the story was quite bleak on the UCs side, given this year being called the harshest year for UC admissions. She did get admitted into UC Riverside and Santa Cruz but not into CS. There were many macro level factors that came into play to produce the admissions chaos in 2021, and most readers would know about it. A couple of places where UCEazy can get better is at providing analytics on historical admissions data especially for UCs, and data on past UCEazy students' profiles and the admissions they got. Essentially UCEazy, having counseled so many California and other students, has a great scope of employing more technology to provide useful insights/analytics for prospective applicants. In the absence of that information, we had to wander around on so many blogs/websites just to get an idea of her chances of getting admitted into the schools...

UCEazy Made a Great Impact On My College Application Process: When my mother and I began our pursuit of a good solid destination for the next 4 years which would not only provide me with great opportunities, but also allow me to grow as a human being, the landscape was rather foggy. We had a myriad of questions, ranging from what schools REALLY consider to how to even make attending them a financial possibility.

When things got stressful, we contacted UCEazy, who put us in contact with their exceptional counselor Mrs. Katy Watts.

From day one, Katy listened to what my mother had to say and to what I had to say about my passions. Together, we persevered to get me into the top schools in this country; I was even wait listed at Harvard. I was able to land a full scholarship to UC Davis, and this would have not been possible without the help & support of Katy and the entire UCEazy team.

Communication over video call made the process very transparent, and of course, Katy is great with email as well.

Where I am today: Today, I look back at this experience and credit not just Katy, but also the executive team at UCEazy for instilling a culture within their program that this is really more than a business. Their mission is to enable students to pursue a successsful trajectory in their careers and education. They even offered us flexible payment terms, making this about more than money, not letting finances concern my family's dreams.

Today, just coming out of my first year of engineering, I'm getting to work at the most innovative and cutting-edge companies in my field, and without making the decision my mom and I made to join UCEazy's program, I'm not quite sure how I get here. I wholeheartedly look fondly upon my time with UCEazy, and encourage all you students and your parents to take advantage of the great counseling and support UCEazy...