College Essays for Athletes: How to Write About Sports Without Being Generic
Athletes write some of the most forgettable college essays I have ever read. Not because sports are not a meaningful part of their lives. Because almost every athlete writes the same essay. The match, the injury, the comeback, the team. I have read hundreds of versions of that essay. Let me show you how to write one that actually stands out.
If your student is an athlete applying to college, they have a genuine advantage: sport has shaped how they think, manage failure, lead others, and push past what they thought was possible. That is real and admissions readers know it. The problem is that almost every athlete writes about exactly those things in exactly the same way.
The generic athlete essay follows a predictable pattern: describe a big game or moment, describe a setback (often an injury), describe how they persevered and what they learned about themselves, conclude with a universal lesson about hard work and teamwork. This essay lands on admissions readers every application season by the thousands. It does not stand out. It confirms what they already assumed about athletes. It does not tell them who this specific person is.
The Real Problem with Most Athlete Essays
The problem is not writing about sports. The problem is writing about sports the way every other athlete writes about sports. Admissions readers want to know who your student is beneath the jersey. What they think about. How they see the world. What is specific to them that could not be said about any other athlete in the same sport.
Here is a test: take your student’s draft essay and replace their name with any other athlete’s name from any other sport at any other school. If the essay still works perfectly, it is too generic. A strong essay cannot survive that substitution. It is specific to this person, this experience, this particular way of thinking that belongs to no one else.
The other common trap is the injury essay. I do not have a problem with injury essays in principle. Injuries are genuinely significant moments in an athlete’s life. But when every athlete who has ever been injured writes the same ‘I was sidelined and found out who I really am’ essay, the format has been written to exhaustion. If your student wants to write about an injury, the essay has to show something genuinely unusual about how they experienced it, not just that they learned resilience.
Three Approaches That Actually Work for Athlete Essays
First approach: use sport as a lens to explore something else entirely. What does your student think about while running mile repeats? What does the drive to a Saturday morning game feel like and where does their mind go? What does being a water polo player teach them about how they approach schoolwork, relationships, or problems in their community? The sport is the backdrop. The essay is about the thinking, the observation, the unexpected connection. This approach is rare and memorable when done well.
Second approach: focus on a specific, small, ultra-concrete moment that no one else could have written. Not the big game. Not the championship. The moment during a random Tuesday practice when something shifted in how your student understood the sport, a teammate, themselves, or something about the world. Small and specific reads as more genuine than big and dramatic.
Third approach: write directly about what your student does when the sport is not enough and they have to find something else. What happens in the off-season? What did your student pursue during the period they could not compete? What interests, projects, or relationships grew in the space that sport usually fills? This approach reveals character that the standard athlete narrative obscures.
How to Show Character Without Saying You Have Character
The worst version of any college essay, athlete or otherwise, is one where the student spends the whole essay describing their own positive qualities. ‘I am a leader. I am resilient. I work hard.’ These are claims. Readers are not looking for claims. They are looking for evidence that lets them draw the conclusion themselves.
Show a specific decision your student made under pressure. Show a moment where they disagreed with a coach but had to decide whether to say something or not. Show what they did with a teammate who was struggling. Show the internal experience of a competition, not just the external result. The reader should arrive at ‘this person is a leader’ without your student ever using the word.
The most powerful athlete essays I have read are ones where I finish reading and feel like I know exactly what it is like to be this particular person in this particular sport, in a way I could not have imagined before. That specificity is what makes a reader remember your student’s file in committee.
A Note on Writing About Recruitment and Division I Dreams
Many student-athletes are writing applications as recruited athletes at Division I or III schools or are navigating the recruiting process alongside their standard applications. If your student is a recruited athlete, the essay is not the place to lead with recruitment status. Let the athletic information speak where it belongs on the application. The essay is the place to show who they are when the sport does not define them. That is actually what coaches and admissions officers at schools with recruited athletes most want to see.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should student-athletes write about their sport in their college essay?
They can, but only if they can write about it in a way that is genuinely specific to them and not a version of the standard athlete narrative. The injury-and-comeback essay, the big game essay, and the team-as-family essay have been written so many times that they read as generic regardless of how meaningful the experience was. Athletes who write about sports the right way, using sport as a lens into something specific and personal, write memorable essays. Athletes who use sport as a backdrop for universal lessons about hard work and resilience write forgettable ones.
What makes an athlete’s college essay stand out?
Specificity and surprise. The essay should show something about this particular student that no other athlete in the same sport could have written. A specific, small, concrete moment rather than a big dramatic event. An observation or connection that reveals how this person’s mind works. A story that ends with the reader knowing exactly who this person is in a way they could not have anticipated from reading the rest of the application.
Can I write about getting injured in my college essay?
Yes, if and only if there is something genuinely unusual about how your student experienced the injury, not just that they recovered and learned resilience. The injury-and-comeback narrative is one of the most common essay formats in the entire college application pool, not just among athletes. If your student wants to write about an injury, the essay needs to take the reader somewhere unexpected.
How should recruited athletes approach their college essay?
Recruited athletes should not use the essay to lead with their recruitment status or athletic ambitions. That information belongs in the athletic section of the application and in communications with coaches. The essay should show who the student is when the sport is not defining them. Coaches and admissions offices at schools with recruited athletes want to know if this person will contribute to the academic and campus community beyond their athletic performance.
How long should a college essay about sports be?
The Common App personal statement is 650 words maximum for all students. The same length rules apply whether your student writes about sports or anything else. Shorter is often stronger if the writing is precise. Many of the best application essays are under 500 words. The goal is not to fill the word count but to leave the reader with a clear, specific, memorable impression of who this person is.
Tony Le is a former UC Berkeley Admissions Reader and UCLA Outreach Director with 15+ years of college admissions coaching experience. A full-ride scholarship recipient to UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UCI, Tony has helped 500+ students gain admission to top universities including Stanford, Harvard, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Columbia. Featured in the Wall Street Journal. Official TikTok College Admissions Educational Partner. Founder of egelloC.
Tony works with a focused group of families each year. Book a free strategy call to see if it is the right fit.
How to Negotiate a Better Financial Aid Package Before the May 1 Deadline
May 1 is 25 days away. If your student has a financial aid offer that is not working for your family, this is the window to push back. Colleges expect families to negotiate. Most families do not know that. Here is how to do it in a way that actually gets results.
The May 1 deposit deadline is the most important leverage point you have in the financial aid process. Before May 1, a college wants your student. They have offered admission. They want them to enroll. After May 1, if you have not deposited, the leverage disappears entirely.
Families who appeal or negotiate financial aid packages before May 1 get improvements more often than most parents realize. Studies of financial aid negotiation show that between 40 and 60 percent of families who appeal in writing receive at least some improvement to their package. The families who do not appeal are leaving real money on the table.
When Negotiating Makes Sense and When It Does Not
Negotiation works best when you have one of three things: a competing offer from a comparable school, a change in your family’s financial circumstances since you filed the FAFSA or CSS Profile, or information about your family’s finances that the formulas did not capture accurately.
A competing offer is the strongest negotiating position. If School A offered your student $30,000 in grants and School B offered $20,000 for the same program, School B’s financial aid office may be willing to close that gap if you ask directly. They want your student to enroll. Show them what it would take.
A change in circumstances is also valid grounds. If a parent lost a job, had a medical expense not reflected in last year’s tax data, or experienced another significant financial shift, the financial aid office can take that information into account through a process called a professional judgment review. You have to ask for it. It does not happen automatically.
Negotiating without any of these three elements is harder. ‘We just want more money’ is not a compelling appeal. Tie your request to specific information and a specific ask.
How to Make the Call: What to Say
Call the financial aid office directly. Email is slower and easier to ignore. A phone call puts a human on the line and creates a real conversation. Ask to speak with the financial aid counselor assigned to your student’s file.
Be respectful and direct. Start by confirming your student’s strong interest in the school. Then state the situation clearly: ‘We have received an offer from [School Name] that is [amount] more in grants. We would very much prefer for my student to attend here, but we need the financial picture to be closer. Is there any flexibility in the package?’
Do not be apologetic or aggressive. The financial aid counselor has heard this conversation before. They will either tell you there is flexibility, ask you to submit a formal appeal, or tell you the offer is firm. Any of those answers is useful information. Most will ask you to submit something in writing.
What to Put in Your Written Appeal
When you submit a written appeal, include three elements: a clear ask, specific evidence, and a short explanation of circumstances. Keep it to one page. Long appeals get lost in the paperwork.
The clear ask: ‘We are requesting a review of [Student Name]’s financial aid package to bring total grant aid closer to [amount].’ Be specific about the number you need. Vague requests get vague responses.
Specific evidence: Attach the competing offer letter if applicable. Document any changed circumstances with a brief explanation and supporting documentation if you have it, such as a termination letter, a medical bill, or a year-to-date income statement if earnings have dropped since your tax return was filed.
Short explanation: One or two sentences on why the school is a genuine priority for your student and why you need the package to work. This is not a plea. It is context. Keep it professional.
What to Realistically Expect
Financial aid offices distinguish between grant aid and loan adjustments. If a school replaces grant money with a new loan offer in response to your appeal, that is not a real improvement. Read the revised package carefully and compare grants to grants and loans to loans separately.
At need-blind schools with large endowments, appeals tied to competing offers sometimes result in meaningful grant increases. At schools with smaller endowments or less flexible aid budgets, the room to move is genuinely limited. Not every appeal succeeds, and a final answer of ‘this is our best offer’ is a real answer.
If the package cannot be improved and it does not work for your family, that is important information. It means the net cost at that school is too high for your situation, and choosing a different school is a financially sound decision that has nothing to do with school quality.
The Conversation Your Family Needs to Have Before May 1
Before your student deposits anywhere, have a clear family conversation about what each school’s actual net cost looks like over four years, not just year one. Financial aid packages can change. Grants can decrease if family circumstances change or if the school’s aid budget shifts. Loan amounts compound. The four-year picture is the one that matters for the family’s financial health.
Families who approach this conversation calmly and with real numbers in front of them make better decisions. A student who enrolls at a school their family can actually afford, without taking on unsustainable debt, is set up for a more successful four years than a student who starts college with financial anxiety already in the background.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you really negotiate college financial aid?
Yes, and it works more often than most families expect. Between 40 and 60 percent of families who appeal in writing receive at least some improvement to their package. The strongest appeals have a competing offer from a comparable school, a changed family financial circumstance, or new information that the original FAFSA or CSS Profile formulas did not capture. A polite, direct, specific request is the starting point.
What is the best time to negotiate financial aid?
The window between when decisions come out in March and April and the May 1 deposit deadline is your best leverage point. Colleges want your student to enroll. Before May 1, you have their attention. After May 1, if you have not deposited, the conversation is over for that school. Do not wait until the last week. Start the appeal as soon as you have all your competing offers in hand.
What should I say when I call the financial aid office?
Be respectful and specific. State your student’s name and ID. Confirm your student’s strong interest. Then say directly: you have received a more favorable offer from a comparable school and ask if there is flexibility in the package. If they ask for it in writing, follow up with a formal appeal the same day. Do not be apologetic or aggressive. Financial aid counselors have this conversation every day during April.
Can I appeal if our family income went down this year?
Yes. This is called a professional judgment review or special circumstances appeal. If a parent lost a job, had a medical expense, experienced a business loss, or had any significant financial change not reflected in the prior year tax data used in the FAFSA, you can request that the financial aid office recalculate your need using updated information. You will need to document the change. Call and ask how to submit this type of review.
What if the school says no?
Accept their answer as real information. If the school has genuinely offered their best package and it does not work for your family’s finances, choosing a different school is a sound decision. Do not let prestige or campus preference push your family into debt that will stress your student’s experience for four years. A school where your student can thrive financially is the right school for your family.
Tony Le is a former UC Berkeley Admissions Reader and UCLA Outreach Director with 15+ years of college admissions coaching experience. A full-ride scholarship recipient to UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UCI, Tony has helped 500+ students gain admission to top universities including Stanford, Harvard, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Columbia. Featured in the Wall Street Journal. Official TikTok College Admissions Educational Partner. Founder of egelloC.
Tony works with a focused group of families each year. Book a free strategy call to see if it is the right fit.
Pre-Med at UC vs Private University: What Actually Gets You Into Medical School
I talk to pre-med families every week. Most of them have the same question: does the name of the college matter for medical school admissions? The honest answer is more nuanced than either ‘yes, go to a prestigious school’ or ‘no, just get good grades anywhere.’ Here is what the data and experience actually show.
The college your student attends before medical school affects their path to an MD in real ways. It is not the only thing that matters, and it is not the first thing medical schools evaluate. But it is not irrelevant either. Understanding exactly how and when it matters is what lets you make a smart choice now.
Medical schools care primarily about four things: GPA, MCAT score, clinical experience, and research. The college’s name is a distant fifth. But the college you attend affects how easy or hard it is to achieve the first four. That is the real question every pre-med family should be asking.
The GPA Reality at Highly Competitive Pre-Med Programs
Medical schools want a GPA above 3.7 and ideally above 3.8 for competitive programs. The average GPA of accepted students at US allopathic medical schools is approximately 3.72. For the most selective programs, it runs higher.
Here is the critical issue for pre-med students: grade inflation and grade deflation are real and vary significantly between institutions. UC Berkeley is well-known in the higher education world for grading rigorously, particularly in the sciences. Students who enter UC Berkeley as pre-med students in a pool that is already highly competitive face a harder path to a 3.8 science GPA than students at schools with more generous grading curves in introductory biology and chemistry.
This does not mean UC Berkeley is the wrong choice for pre-med. It means the GPA math is harder there. Medical schools know this, and many evaluate GPA in context of institutional grading culture. A 3.6 from UC Berkeley’s rigorous biochemistry track may read as favorably as a 3.8 from a school with less competitive pre-med cohorts. But that contextual evaluation is not guaranteed. The safer path to a strong GPA is a school where the pre-med curriculum is rigorous but not grade-deflated to the point where even high-performing students struggle to maintain the numbers medical schools expect.
Research Opportunities: Where UC Genuinely Wins
For undergraduate research access, the UC system, particularly UCLA and UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, is among the best in the world. These are research-intensive universities with working laboratories across every biomedical science. Undergraduate research opportunities are real and competitive but accessible to motivated students who start pursuing them early, ideally by the end of freshman year.
Strong private schools also have excellent research opportunities, but smaller liberal arts colleges that pre-med families sometimes consider may have fewer active research programs and less faculty bandwidth for undergraduate researchers. The research question is not automatically answered by ‘private vs UC.’ It depends on the specific institution.
Medical schools increasingly want meaningful research experience, including ideally a publication or poster presentation, or at minimum substantial lab hours with a faculty mentor. Students who graduate with genuine research experience are at a significant advantage in medical school applications. Choose a school where that access is real.
Clinical Experience and Volunteering
Medical schools want hundreds of hours of clinical experience: hospital volunteering, shadowing physicians, scribing in clinical settings. This experience is available to students at virtually any university because it happens in the community, not on campus. A student at UCLA, UC Davis, USC, or Northwestern can all access hospitals, clinics, and healthcare settings in their city. The college name has almost no influence on this dimension of the application.
What matters for clinical experience is starting early, tracking hours carefully, and choosing experiences that expose your student to patient interaction, not just observation. A student who scripts or volunteers for 300 hours in a clinical setting and can speak articulately about what they observed is far better positioned than a student with 50 hours of passive hospital volunteering.
The Private School Advantage: Smaller Class Size and More Mentorship
One genuine advantage of smaller private universities for pre-med students is access to faculty mentorship. At a school with 2,000 undergraduates, a motivated pre-med student can build close relationships with science faculty, get strong letters of recommendation that are personal and specific, and have advisors who know them well. At a UC campus with 30,000 to 40,000 undergraduates, those relationships require more initiative and persistence to build.
The letters of recommendation required for medical school applications need to be specific, substantive, and from professors who genuinely know the student. A generic letter from a well-known professor who does not know your student is less valuable than a strong letter from a less famous professor who taught your student in a small seminar, watched them think, and can speak to their intellectual character in detail. The environment where those relationships are easier to build matters.
The Bottom Line for Pre-Med Families
The best school for a pre-med student is the one where they are most likely to achieve a 3.7 or higher GPA in a rigorous science curriculum, access real undergraduate research with a faculty mentor, build close enough relationships with professors to get strong letters, and stay mentally and emotionally healthy enough to sustain the work over four years. That calculation is specific to each student.
For many California students, UCLA or UC San Diego or UC Davis meets that criteria at a lower sticker cost than comparable private options. For some students, a smaller private university in or outside California is a better fit for the mentorship and GPA environment they need. The name of the school is less important than an honest assessment of where your student will thrive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it matter where you go to college for medical school admissions?
Less than most families assume, but more than nothing. Medical schools evaluate GPA, MCAT, clinical experience, and research primarily. The undergraduate school is not the primary factor, but it affects how difficult it is to achieve the GPA medical schools expect. Schools with grade deflation in pre-med courses can make a competitive GPA harder to achieve. Schools with strong research programs make research experience more accessible. The college choice matters in how it shapes the path to those outcomes.
Is UC Berkeley pre-med hard?
Yes. UC Berkeley is known for rigorous grading in the sciences, and the pre-med cohort is highly competitive. Students who enter Berkeley as pre-med face a harder path to a 3.8 science GPA than at many other schools. This does not make Berkeley the wrong choice, but it does mean students should enter with clear eyes about the grading environment and have a realistic plan for maintaining competitive numbers.
What GPA do you need for medical school?
The average overall GPA for accepted students at US allopathic medical schools is approximately 3.72. For the most competitive programs including research-focused MD programs and MD-PhD programs, the average is higher. A science GPA above 3.7 is generally considered competitive. Students with lower GPAs can be competitive with exceptional MCAT scores, strong research, and compelling clinical experience, but the GPA bar is real.
Should pre-med students go to a large public university or a small private college?
Both paths can work. Large research universities like UCLA and UC San Diego offer excellent research opportunities but can have larger introductory science classes and require more initiative to build faculty relationships. Smaller private schools may offer closer mentorship, smaller class sizes, and stronger letter-writing relationships. The right choice depends on where your student will achieve the best GPA, access research, and build strong faculty relationships over four years.
When should a pre-med student start undergraduate research?
Ideally by the end of freshman year. Many medical school research programs and faculty labs accept applications from first-year students, especially those with clear interest and preparation. Waiting until junior year limits the amount of time a student has to build a meaningful research experience before applying to medical school. Email faculty directly, visit office hours, and be specific about your interest in their research area.
Tony Le is a former UC Berkeley Admissions Reader and UCLA Outreach Director with 15+ years of college admissions coaching experience. A full-ride scholarship recipient to UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UCI, Tony has helped 500+ students gain admission to top universities including Stanford, Harvard, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Columbia. Featured in the Wall Street Journal. Official TikTok College Admissions Educational Partner. Founder of egelloC.
Tony works with a focused group of families each year. Book a free strategy call to see if it is the right fit.
9th Grade Summer 2026: What Incoming Freshmen Should Do Before High School Starts
The summer before 9th grade feels far from college admissions. It is not. The choices your student makes in these three months and the habits they build before August will shape every decision they make in high school. I have worked with enough students to tell you exactly what the most prepared incoming freshmen do differently starting this summer.
Your student’s college admissions story does not start when they sit down to write the Common App in August of senior year. It starts with how they choose to spend the summers. It starts with the habits they build before they walk into their first day of 9th grade. The incoming freshmen who do the most work this summer are not doing it because they are anxious about college at 13 or 14 years old. They are doing it because the summer before 9th grade is a genuinely low-stakes moment to build foundations that get very hard to build later.
This is not about filling a resume. It is about building habits, exploring interests, and setting up the academic foundation that will determine whether 9th grade feels manageable or overwhelming. Most students do not use this summer well. The ones who do enter high school with a significant advantage.
Build the Academic Habits Now
The academic habits your student develops before 9th grade are the ones that will carry them through four years of progressively harder coursework. High school moves faster and has higher stakes than middle school. Students who arrive with established study routines, note-taking systems, and homework management habits adapt more smoothly to that pace change.
If your student does not yet have a consistent homework routine, a reliable way to organize assignments, and a basic approach to managing their time, this summer is the time to build those. Start with something simple: 45 minutes of focused academic work each weekday morning, even during vacation. Use it for reading, math review, writing practice, or exploring a subject they are curious about. The content matters less than the habit of sitting down and doing focused academic work every day.
If your student is going into a school that offers honors or advanced courses in 9th grade, preview the subject content. An honors biology student who has read one book about genetics or evolution before September already has context when the teacher starts introducing concepts. That context reduces the cognitive load of learning new information in a fast-paced environment.
Explore One Genuine Interest More Deeply
One of the biggest mistakes families make in high school planning is treating extracurricular activities as a list to be built rather than interests to be discovered. The most compelling college applications come from students who found something they genuinely care about and pursued it consistently over years.
The summer before 9th grade is a good time to explore interests without pressure. Not to join every possible activity, but to go deeper into one or two things your student is already curious about. Does your student love to code? Spend the summer building something, even something small. Does your student love history? Read primary sources, not textbooks. Does your student love a sport or a performing art? Invest in it with real focus this summer, without worrying about whether it is ‘impressive’ for a college application.
Passion looks different from compliance on a college application. Students who found their interest early and pursued it because they loved it are far more interesting to read than students who assembled a list of impressive-sounding activities for four years without ever being genuinely engaged in any of them.
Understand the A-G Requirements Before They Start
California students applying to the UC or CSU system must complete the A-G course requirements: a specific sequence of academic courses in English, math, history, science, foreign language, visual and performing arts, and an elective. These requirements span all four years of high school. Many students do not realize they are missing a required course until 11th or 12th grade, when it is too late to fix easily.
Before your student starts 9th grade, sit down with their prospective four-year course plan and check it against the A-G requirements. Make sure the math sequence starts in the right place. Make sure the foreign language will reach the required two years by the end of high school. If your student’s middle school counted for high school language credit, confirm that with the school.
This conversation takes one afternoon and prevents a significant problem from developing silently over four years.
What Not to Do This Summer
Do not sign your student up for college prep programs that promise to make their application stronger at 13 years old. A student who genuinely enjoys a local coding camp or a community writing workshop this summer gains something. A student who is enrolled in a high-pressure ‘college admissions boot camp’ at 14 years old is being asked to perform anxiety, not build capability.
Do not overschedule the summer to the point where your student has no unstructured time. The ability to be bored, to invent things to do, to follow curiosity without external direction, is one of the most undervalued developmental experiences in adolescence. A student who knows how to occupy themselves with genuine interest during unstructured time is doing something important, even if it does not look productive from the outside.
Do not talk about college every week. Your student is 13 or 14. They need to be 13 or 14 right now. The habits you build this summer matter. The anxiety you introduce does not help anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a rising 9th grader do over the summer for college prep?
Focus on three things: build academic habits, explore one genuine interest more deeply, and understand the A-G course requirements before classes start. The summer before 9th grade is not about building a resume. It is about building the foundations that make all four years of high school more intentional and manageable. Students who arrive in September with study routines, genuine interests, and a clear four-year course plan are ahead.
Do summer activities in 9th grade matter for college admissions?
Not directly. No admissions officer cares specifically what a student did the summer before 9th grade. What matters is the pattern that emerges over four years. A student who found a genuine interest the summer before 9th grade and pursued it consistently through 12th grade has a far stronger application than a student who accumulated activities without ever developing real depth. The value of this summer is in what it starts, not what it looks like on a list.
Should I enroll my 9th grader in college prep programs?
Only if the program genuinely matches your student’s interests and provides real skill-building, not just college application coaching for a 14-year-old. Local programs in coding, writing, debate, science, or the arts can be genuinely valuable. Programs that promise to make a 9th grader’s college application stronger through resume padding are not. Focus on genuine interest and real capability development over impressiveness.
When should a student start thinking seriously about college?
Seriously, with decisions about course selection and activity focus, by the end of 9th grade or the beginning of 10th grade. Before that, the goal is building habits, exploring interests, and getting a strong start academically. Parents should avoid introducing high-stakes college anxiety to students in middle school or early high school. The pressure does not improve outcomes and often produces the opposite effect.
What A-G courses should a 9th grader plan to take?
The A-G sequence requires four years of English, three years of math up to Algebra 2 or higher, two years of history and social science, two years of laboratory science, two years of a foreign language, one year of visual or performing arts, and one year of an approved elective. In 9th grade, most students are starting English 9, completing a math course in the sequence toward Algebra 2, beginning or continuing foreign language, and completing the first year of the history requirement. Check the specific courses at your student’s school against the UC A-G list.
Tony Le is a former UC Berkeley Admissions Reader and UCLA Outreach Director with 15+ years of college admissions coaching experience. A full-ride scholarship recipient to UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UCI, Tony has helped 500+ students gain admission to top universities including Stanford, Harvard, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Columbia. Featured in the Wall Street Journal. Official TikTok College Admissions Educational Partner. Founder of egelloC.
Tony works with a focused group of families each year. Book a free strategy call to see if it is the right fit.