How Strategic Planning Led One Student to His Dream College

Hello parents, is your teen college ready? This is Shellee Howard and I have such an amazing guest today, Mr. Ryan, one of our past students. Welcome to the show.

Hi, thank you. I'm glad to be here.

So, so excited to have you. So we're going to go through just a few questions to get our audience warmed up so they know who we're talking to. Can you state your name, the college you're attending, and the major in which you are hoping to achieve?

Yeah, of course. Hey everyone, my name is Ryan Obinoff. I go to UC Santa Barbara as a first year, and I'm an economics major at the moment.

Outstanding. And what year did you graduate high school?

I graduated high school in 2025.

All right, so he's fresh. This is his first semester, Perez. We're going to ask him some great things. He's a good, good person to be able to do this. So if a friend asked you who you are in 10 seconds, what would you say?

In 10 seconds, I would say I am an ambitious student and a hard worker, that if I want something and I want it seriously, then I won't stop until I get it. That's how I would sum myself up in 10 seconds.

I love it. Yeah, we're getting warmed up now. What's one win from your first semester or first few weeks that you're proud of?

Actually, this is actually a funny question. My first few, or my, so I did the summer program here, meaning I was here for an extra 6 weeks and I took an English literature class in which I did my final, which was a creative piece of fictional writing in which I like had to make a story, which is something I've never even done before. You know, I'm used to writing argumentative essays and stuff. And so I took a shot at writing that, uh, basically a fictional story for my teacher. And I actually got remarks from the teacher as having one of the best projects in the class, which is insane considering I don't pride myself on being the best writer. But when it comes to, I guess, fictional writing, I guess I have a hidden talent there that I never even knew about. So that is one thing I pride myself on in the first couple weeks being here.

Yeah. That's the beauty of college. You would've never known. I love it. All right, let's talk about the time before CollegeReady. So before you were a CollegeReady student, how did college planning feel to you and your family?

Yeah, so that's a bit of a tricky question. I've been in CollegeReady since my sophomore year, and just before that, freshman year, I didn't have a plan for college at all. I was just going through my academics same way I did in middle school, not thinking about my future at all. CollegeReady really helped me to you know, I didn't even know different colleges. Uh, frickin freshman year, I've barely heard of a bunch of schools. So even just sophomore year and stuff, being in this program helped me to just get familiarized with what different colleges are offered, what I could attend in the future. And then it just built upon going through my junior and senior year, get knowing more and more about different colleges, about what fits for me, about what I wanna study and about where I wanna attend for the next 4 years. So it definitely helped me. Gain a sense of where I would want to be in the future. So.

What were you most stressed or confused about? Tests, essay, money, picking schools? Which of those were the heavy thing?

In terms of the college application process, I would say in terms of choosing a school, definitely location, which is, I'm glad to be at Santa Barbara. I'm a, I'm an hour away from home. I actually just got back from visiting my family this weekend. Uh, That's definitely a big thing I was thinking about. And then also just like the, what's the word? What am I? It's not the integrity of the school. It's the prestige of the school. Excuse me. I'd like to have the honor of knowing personally and people who know me, knowing that the hard work I put in in high school landed me at a prestigious college. So that's definitely a thing I was looking for during the application process.

That's perfect. So let's talk about what made you decide to work with CollegeReady. Do you remember? I know you were a sophomore. Was it your parents saying this is just what you're doing? I don't, there's no option, or did you see the value?

It was my parents' idea and it definitely helped in terms of, because back then, even still kind of to this day, I, one, one of those students who can struggle a lot with time management and being in College Ready, having like a couple month, semi-monthly meetings and just having a Google Drive with a bunch of information ready for me, like easier for me to discover instead of me having to do the research on my own. Definitely helped me keep on track and keep with working at the college application process, not just senior year, but even, even sophomore year and junior year, you know, my resume and writing up my, like, I can put on my college application. So yeah, I'm very glad my parents introduced me to it and I honestly probably would not be here if my parents did not tell me about this program.

So kudos to parents. Love parents.

Yes.

Let's talk a little bit about the process. So walk me through When you first started with College Ready versus what you were going through without College Ready, so what changed as soon as you signed up?

As soon as I signed up, the main takeaway I'd say, the main change was personal counselor, Deborah Wood. Like, she just did so much for me, you know, meetings and she would just lay out, she's a pro, she just laid out a ton of information about, you know, college process, what I would need to do in my years, like coming up to the college process, you know, it's good to talk about on my application and on my resume, write my essays and stuff. Definitely just having a one-on-one person that you can talk to multiple times. You know, I talked to her at least 10 times within the span of 3 years. Having that one person to keep you on track and, you know, like a databank for college information. She can, you have a question, she's there to answer it. So that's definitely the main thing that changed doing CollegeReady because before then, you know, I had some prior knowledge due to my research of colleges, which isn't a lot. And then my parents' knowledge. But obviously college has changed since the time my parents were in college. So having, having someone like Deborah there was really great.

So, so agree. She's amazing. Did you happen to do a Passion with Purpose project?

I did not. No, I— something my parents were on my case for and Deborah strongly, me to try and get on. And I never actually ended up ended up doing it unfortunately, but he ended up in a great place. But that is definitely something I would change. Like look back on the past, I think just doing passion project would, it's definitely like I would highly recommend. It's definitely a great thing to make you stand out and stuff like that.

So what do you think it was? Was it your essay, your extracurriculars, picking the right school? What do you think every family listening?

Yeah.

To go to UC Santa Barbara, right?

Yeah.

Tell me, Ryan, help me understand, what does my child need to do to stand out to get accepted there? What do you think it was for you?

Yeah, I'll go with two things. The first one, which it's a bit different, like I think this relates more to every college and not, not just this one, but just my weighted GPA was, was ridiculously good. And not because I was super, not because I was the smartest person in my school, but just because I picked out a ton of classes I would take that I could still, you know, workload with, including I'll say a life hack is taking dual enrollment classes through your college because, uh, you're getting into love that and it's not too much of a time commitment, but it's still something great to boost your GPA and to put on your, uh, so that's the one thing I'd say is just my GPA was pretty good to consider. Um, weighted was 4 point, my index GPA, which is different than weighted, was 4.67. Which I think means my weighted was 4.72.

Outstanding, Ryan. You should be proud when you say that.

Don't be proud. I'm very proud. Yeah, it's definitely a big accomplishment. And you know, the battles, you know, through actually picking out your classes and, you know, like you can get a decent GPA taking 4 hard classes and then you can maximize it so much more taking 7 decently hard classes, but not the toughest classes in this, in school. It all depends on what you're trying to study in the future, but Yeah, obvious answer, but it's very important. Um, second thing I would say, definitely my, I think definitely the essays. You know, UC application, I believe had 4, you had 8 prompts and you had to choose 4 of them to write short essays for, which people will come to learn is actually harder to write a shorter essay than it is to write a long essay. It's a lot harder, but to just carefully, you know, the perfect prompts for you and just to write and, you know, those essays over and over and over again, get editors, you know, everybody has a bunch of resources. That helps with that. So definitely like spent 3, at least 3 months on all my UC essays alone. And that definitely got them to the point where they were, I'm very proud of them. And I think those definitely contributed to me getting into the school.

So how many colleges did you apply to?

That's a good question. Um, applied to all the UCs except for maybe like a couple that I had no interest in. Um, I don't think I applied to Davis. So I applied to all the UCs, California schools around, you know, the Cal States, SDSU. And then I applied to a couple out-of-state schools that interest me. For example, for me personally, my family lives in Indiana, so I applied to Indiana University. So in total, we're counting the UCs as, you know, schools, I probably applied to, I think, 13 or 14.

Okay. How many did you get accepted to?

Can I have a, I have a list on my phone. Let me actually double check.

It's okay. We're just talking in numbers. Parents are concerned.

Yeah, I get it.

Right. They're thinking how many is too many? How many is not enough? And I hear from a student who has an outstanding GPA. What did that look like for you?

Yeah. The thing I will say is if there are a couple, uh, colleges I applied to late in the process where they had an essay you had to write and it had the same prompt as a previous college you applied to. So literally it's an extra 2 minutes of work plus maybe, you know, application fee of $60 to apply to a college that might change your life. Like, uh, as long as you don't do too many in which the price goes up, you know, no point in not applying to the ones that literally, like, for example, the Cal States took zero essays. It's very easy to apply to. I would 100% recommend doing it because I have friends that are, you know, going to Cal Poly. Because they weren't even going to apply to the Cal States, but I told them, I'm like, might as well. There's no essay. It's really easy to do. So in that terms, you should definitely like a decent amount of colleges is great. Sorry, I'm pulling up my notes right now.

That is okay.

How many I exactly got accepted to? I know.

What high school did you attend, Ryan?

What was that?

What high school did you attend?

I attended Westlake High School.

Okay. Private? I know, but the audience may not.

That's a public school. Public Westlake High School. Yeah. Southern California.

Beautiful.

Okay, I got accepted to about half of my colleges. I got rejected from a decent amount of UCs. I did not get into UCLA, UC Berkeley, you know, the very rigorous schools. I got rejected from USC, probably the biggest stab to me just because my whole family went there. So I was thinking like, I can get in there, but that's okay. And then I got into a decent amount of, uh, I got into most of my out-of-states. I got into Indiana, into Michigan. I got into all the Cal States and then I got rejected from UC San Diego as well.

Okay. You ended up exactly where you're supposed to be, didn't you?

I did. From the start of the college process, I said this was my top school. This is exactly where I wanted to be just because it's the perfect environment in terms of a great mixture of both academics and also, you know, fun social life and being close to home.

So beautiful.

Yeah.

About, you talked about how many you applied to. Let's talk about the stress level for a moment. Think about if you were to do this on your own versus working with Ms. Debra, what do you think the stress and/or the outcome would've been?

Oh, it would've been so much more stressful without, without College Ready or without Debra because, um, like you see it at face value, you see a prompt. For to apply to a college and you got to write an essay to towards that prompt and it'll be a very, you know, prompt, but you doesn't tell you anything about what the college is actually looking for. You're looking for something way more specific than what the prompt says. And that also applies with the, uh, application part where you're filling out, um, I believe the activities list, like, you don't know exactly what they're looking for, uh, at least without a ton of research and, you know, already has all that, you know, available for you. They have the Drive. With folders with exactly what different, and different assortments and different types of colleges are looking for. And then you also have, you know, meetings with your personal counselor, like for me, Deborah, in which she would say like, this college is looking for this, like a bunch of people who did this, they get into that college, or this college has something completely different, you know, it's just a complete databank, completely readily available for you that, you know, the times, because, you know, change over years about what they're looking for and stuff like that. And, you know, CollegeReady and its resources change with those times as well. So even just doing research on your own without CollegeReady would be really hard to figure out exactly kind of colleges want from you and your application.

For sure. And as parents, right, I'm sure they wanted to help you, but it's been a little bit of time and things change. Yeah, I think it's wise that they set you up for success. Let's talk about life in college for a moment because you had to make a big decision. You knew where you wanted to go and you got in where you wanted to go. Tell us, what is it like? Is it everything you thought it would be?

Honestly, like, it sounds like the, like, obvious answer, but yes, uh, like, has been incredible so far. You've been here, the actual, like, quarter started about 3 weeks ago. I've been here for the summer, so I've been here like 2 or 3 months already. Um, it's just awesome. You live in a dorm right now. I have a roommate who I got randomly and I really enjoy his company. Entire dorm, like our entire floor. Plus the floor above me and the floor below me have like an entire group that just like does a bunch of games and does a bunch of stuff every night. Like they're always— the thing I like best about being in college and more specifically, I guess, being in a dorm is just there's always something to do. You know, if you're bored and you're in bed, you go outside and you go to like our floor. We each have lounges. If you go to the lounge, always something's going on that you can do. And then also with that, you know, to the left of me, if I walk like— if I go down the elevator and walk like this, I'm on the beach. Like awesome. Especially for me, I'm a beach guy. I grew up as a swimmer, so. That's a great thing for me. And final thing I'll say, you know, to Santa Barbara and also why it gets its social life reputation is because of the neighboring little town Isla Vista next to us, which is just an awesome place. You can do anything and everything there. Right before this, I just got back. My friends were touring a house to live in for next year, to rent for next year, which is awesome. And it's just a beautiful place. I've loved college so far.

Let's talk about your college classes. Have you any that have challenged you? Is it harder than high school? Is it— tell us a little bit about the academic fit.

Yes, I was very curious going into college to see how different or similar college classes would be to my high school classes. And so far, there's a lot of resemblance from high school. You know, obviously there's changes and your schedule works and stuff. For example, like, I don't have to wake up at 7 AM and go to class every day. Some days I'll have like classes and then, you know, Mondays, like, I have a single class in the morning and then I'm free the rest of the day. So like the scheduling works differently, but in terms of like the difficulty, I mean, in terms of the difficulty and in terms of the course content, I see a lot of resemblance from classes in high school. In terms of the question about the challenging courses, that ethnic literature class I took over the summer, It was challenging. It took a lot of work. It was, that one was different just from other English classes I had taken in high school. But, um, I've had some, but I've already, I've had like come in some history classes and they're very similar to high school classes in terms of the workload and in terms of the, uh, actual course load. Only thing that's different is the grading because most of the time you're only graded on like the midterm and the final.

So that's a big difference.

That is. Yeah.

Are there any myths about college that you have found to be false? Anything that you heard turn out to be true, or were you pretty much prepared for the reality?

Um, I think I was prepared for the reality. I'm trying to think. Um, no, I can't think of any myths, you know, into this college experience. It's kind of exactly what I had in mind. You know, the expectations I had set previously, you know, stayed with me to this day. So.

I love it. If you were talking to a high school student, why would you recommend that they work with CollegeReady?

It just goes back to that word I've been using this entire time, just databank. CollegeReady has everything available for you. It'll save you— if you're serious about getting into a good college and applying to multiple colleges and doing your applications to the best of your ability, CollegeReady will just save you hundreds— like, I don't know about hundreds, but dozens of hours of research knowing exactly what these colleges want. And then that's the first half. And then the second half is everything CollegeReady does to prepare you for that application. You know, what volunteer work you should be doing, if you should be doing volunteer work, if you like, you should be doing, uh, sophomore and junior year, maybe even freshman year, preparing up so that you have a stellar application and a stellar GPA so that you can do your application to the best of your ability when the time comes senior year. So.

Do you have any regrets at all in working so hard to prepare for your, your college?

Nope. No, not literally, not a single regret. I love where I am. Uh, I love that I got in here. I think it's important. Uh, it's an important thing to note. I actually got waitlisted from here originally. I was, I had my bags packed, ready to go to Indiana University, which I would've also loved, but I got off the waitlist here and I, I chose here instead. And I have no regrets. You know, I love the college experience so far. I loved working with College Ready. It's some, someone I will always value and always accredit her. My mom mostly are like two people in my life I will credit mostly for, you know, with me during this college process. And it's a long and a very stressful process, but you know, benefits that you reap if you do it well is definitely worth it.

Outstanding. Is there any last thing that you would tell a family who is approaching this time in their teenager's life, any words of encouragement, advice, anything that you would like to share that you haven't?

Yeah, I would say to just stick with it. You not sure, you might be joining sophomore year, junior year, freshman year. Um, stick with it. You know, sophomore year, if like you have a meeting and you're like, if you're tasked to do stuff that will be important in the future, for example, a passion project or volunteer hours and stuff, it may not seem like the most pressing concern at the time, but Seriously, colleges, what colleges notice most is how consistent you are with what's on your application. Did you actually do this for all 4 years? You know, builds up. So getting started early will definitely make you stand out in a crowd of people who are starting to build up their applications and their resumes, you know, junior year and like are not prepared when the senior year applications come. So yeah, stick with it. Um, you don't have to kill yourself over it, but if you stick with it and you do it, for over the course of, you know, 4 years, you'll be completely fine. And that'll also take a ton of stress off during the actual application. So that's my advice.

Outstanding. Ryan, thank you so much for being on the show. And parents, I can't wait for your child to be in Ryan's seat. He's living the life at his dream school. So thank you for being on the show.

Thank you.