The Situation

John’s mother called us regarding her son’s college application readiness. There was no rush since John had just started the 11thgrade. His mother wanted to see an evaluation as well as a road map of her son’s potential. In other words, she wanted us to prepare a report that would include academic recommendations.

The Challenge

Although John had just entered the 11th grade, neither he nor his parents were aware of the importance of grade point average (GPA) at the time of college applications. John’s academic performance during 9thand 10thgrade was lackluster and his GPA from those two previous years was 2.89/4.00 (unweighted). He needed to increase this GPA. Further, since it was the first week of the fall semester (11th grade), we were able to include some recommendations regarding course selections at his high school.

The Result

John increased his GPA to over 3.1/4.00. Since he has a clear picture of his potential, he is highly motivated toward his high school classes as well as his college applications (as reported by his mother). He completed the extracurricular activities suggested in the report and will continue more activities during the summer (just before the 12thgrade). Information (acceptance rates, SAT scores of accepted students, rankings, etc.) about the universities that we listed in the report also set specific goals for him and increased his motivation.

How USA International Education Consulting Helped Him?

After a 45-minute pre-consulting session (25 questions) we identified all of John’s academic potential. We prepared a Road Map Report that especially focused on John’s previous academic progress (9thand 10thgrades). However, we knew that he needed a road map that would help him to increase his GPA to over 3.10/4.00. We recommended changing 2 classes in his current schedule. In the report, we also suggested ways that he could increase his SAT scores. We specifically highlighted those resources that were convenient for him. When designing the report, we always used a motivational language. Further, we highlighted potential extracurricular activity developments for John. Lastly, since John had already decided his college major, we were able to prepare the list of schools that best matched his profile (college list broken down into safe school, best match, and “let’s try” categories).