Maximize Your Child's Potential

All right, everyone, so glad that you made it. My name is Shellee Howard, and I'm the founder and CEO of College Ready, and I am so excited you're here. We're going to dive right in, and we're going to talk about how do you maximize your child's potential. So for a moment, if you have multiple children, I would encourage you to write down each of their names because as I say things, you may be like, yes, this is perfect for that child. I'm going to share some insider secrets, and I'm also going to share where we have received our biggest scholarships of the year. I've never revealed that. And so these are truly insider secrets because we have proof that they are giving huge scholarships. So here we go. Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining. Just as you think about the— this next 60 minutes, I'm going to go for just 1 hour. I want to prepare you to transform the admissions journey. I want you to get rid of all of the old thoughts and really be open-minded to what is available to you. So first and foremost, I think it's important for you to know who you're listening to. I am the founder and CEO of College Ready, and I have had the opportunity to help students, including my own 4, get into college and graduate debt-free. Hundreds, actually thousands of students at this point. Over the last 3 years, we have earned 20— a little over now, $23 million in scholarships on top of need-based. So first misconception, my family makes too much money, we won't get scholarships. That is truly not the case. So I want you to be thinking, how did they do that? So we have been supporting families secure admissions to the Ivy League, to state schools, liberal arts. We can get your student into any school, literally all over the world. I'll talk about my 4th child. She is at the Czech Republic of Prague at AAU. And so we have figured out in the US, out of the US, and everything in between. Here's our mission, is to empower your family with knowledge and strategies. We are here to maximize your child's potential and to secure admissions to the best fit school for your family. That's the best academic fit, social fit, and financial fit. So let me take you on my personal journey. I'll make it short and sweet, even though it was a very long 4 years, um, with my firstborn. So my son came home from 8th grade and he says, Mom, I know exactly where I want to go to college and I know exactly what I want to major in. In 8th grade. I don't know about you, but my other 3 did not know that. And so of course I said, where do you want to go? What do you want to do? And he says, well, I want to be a brain surgeon. I want to go to one of the Ivy Colleges. And I said, okay, and he walked away. And I remember he turned around, he goes, can you help me? And so we faced some challenges that I want to share with you so you don't face the same challenges. Number one, we had no plan and no guidance from our high school counselor, unfortunately, because he was at a, um, a large public university or large public high school, sorry. And I took him in prior to starting 9th grade, and I said, you tell her what you told me about your dream. And he very matter-of-factly said, I want to go to an Ivy League school and I want to be a brain surgeon. And I'll never forget, she said, Why would you waste your time or money? They just don't make money anymore. And the look on his face was so— I'll never forget it. It was so hard to listen to what had been said. This doesn't mean that every high school counselor is like that. That's not what I'm saying at all. I have a lot of friends that are high school counselors. What I'm saying is Be careful whom you let speak to your child about their future, because our goal is to support them in their goal. Our goal is to have a strategy. We are all about creating an opportunity for that academic, social, and financial fit. So the very first thing I did after that is I went back to school. Then I got a degree as an Independent Certified College Consultant. From there, I reverse engineered what his dream was. So I literally had to figure this out on my own. We built a conservative plan at first, and then we started thinking, actually, he's outperforming what we originally thought. So then we had a Plan A and a B and a C, which was 33 spreadsheets. I don't think he ever wanted to see another spreadsheet when I was done with him, but he was willing to try, and he did everything I recommended. I don't know about you, but put in the chat if you think your child would do everything you recommended, either yes or no. I think it's important to understand who will be leading the strategy I'm helping you to build. So it's an investment of time and effort. But more importantly, here's the thing. Google has actually made it more confusing, more overwhelming. It's actually made it kind of sad because I'm in Facebook groups and I'm on Instagram and all I'm hearing is some negativity. And I want to assure you, there is plenty of money There is plenty of opportunity. It's just knowing how to get it. It's truly playing the college game. So back to my firstborn. His result was he did get accepted into Harvard pre-med, and he graduated debt-free. I'm gonna stop right here because everybody says Harvard doesn't give merit scholarships. I get it. But what they don't tell you is My son got a full ride, full ride to USC, and they matched it. So they have about $53 billion, and colleges, they have big endowments. That money is open to be used for the right opportunity. He had actually multiple full rides, actually 7 of them. And the nice part is he was able to balance high school and his achievements. I'll never forget, I was sitting at his college or his high school graduation, and I was just so proud of him, right? Just like every other parent. And a young man sitting next to me said, dude, I didn't even know that kid was smart. And that's what I'm talking about. He had a very balanced, not overwhelming, not over-the-top opportunity during his high school years. Your child can succeed too. I have 4, 2 boys, 2 girls, and I promise they are no different than your children. With a strategic plan, any dream can be achieved. The goal is not having the financial strain while securing top opportunities, and this was where most people get super frustrated because they don't know how. First off, the strategic plan has to be by each child. There's not just one plan to get in. It is what is your child's unique positioning and their unique strategy. So when the admissions person reads their application, that they hold on to it, they fight for it for that acceptance. So please know it's not one size fits all. Your family success story starts with a roadmap, and that's what I'm trying to help you understand. It's not just a wish, a hope, um, I guess. It is a strategy. So for those of you who just joined, again, my name is Shellee Howard with College Ready. This week we opened up a new division called University Ready, where students from outside The US can come in and inside the US can go out. It is on our website if you have any curiosity about a gap year, about an international education. But right now, College Ready is helping you to understand that 93% of our students got into their top 3 schools. I'm telling you this so you can understand that we've been successful with this strategy. We've earned over $23 million. So this is what we're gonna cover today. Step 1, discovering and showcasing unique strengths. Step 2, developing passion projects with purpose, which is my favorite. Step 3 is navigating admissions with confidence. And step 4, implementing financial strategies for peace of mind. All right, now you have the umbrella, the overlay. Now we're going to dive in to how you can help your child. Step number 1, what is their unique strengths? What is their gifts, their talents? What do they advocate for? What are those things that will set them apart? What activities light them up? An example, I met with a student yesterday who could not get more excited about coding. Not every child gets excited about coding. Some get excited about volunteering, some about writing, but every student needs to have their own unique strength. Don't do what your neighbor's doing or that well-meaning aunt or uncle. What, what are some challenges that, that, that your child wants to solve? What's their passion? What are they driven to win their free time. Let's talk about why unique strengths matter. Colleges are seeking diverse contributions. Why? You'll hear me say this time again. College is a business. They cannot have all accountants, all communication majors, all music majors, because they would have to fire teachers every single year. So they're seeking diverse contributions, which is, you know, where you're located, what is your major, what is your ethnicity, what are those things that truly are going to make you stand out. Your child is a unique piece to the whole college puzzle. Not only does your child want to get in, but college needs them to pay the bills. At the same time, if your student is better than most of the students, they're going to get big money. That's what I'm talking about. How have they made an impact? Many times when I get on a call and I love to do discovery calls, so just know we'll have an offer for that in a little bit. But I love discovery calls because it helps me help the family. When I get on a call and a student tells me, I've done this, and it simply isn't anything that is going to wow a university, I don't shoot it down. No, because that child spent time doing it. But I encourage them to, to think differently, to think bigger, to think outside the box, and then I help them navigate what that looks like. So reflect on those moments. What are those things that you're, you're proud of your child? The next one is uncovering your child's strengths. I don't know about you, but I remember when my son, my firstborn son, he was playing soccer. Yes, 3 years old. I was one of those parents, and I remember there were other kids, not him, who could just plow down and score goals, and my son was still trying to figure out how do I even dribble the ball without tripping. So, you know, those kids, the spelling bee, the gifted and talented children, or just somebody who has a really great unique strength. What are those activities that your child loses all track of time? What are the problems they want to solve, right? This week I had an opportunity to speak with a young man who was a sophomore, and he was super frustrated because he could not figure out on his own how to do a Passion with Purpose project. And we had to get down to what did he want to solve. So I'll talk about that in a minute. And then moments that, that you were proud, Grandma was proud, aunts, uncles, siblings, those type of things. That's what we need to uncover. I'm gonna share with you a case study because sometimes I believe it takes understanding what a good passion project looks like to be able to stand out. So Dress a Hope was a wonderful passion idea. This was created by a student of mine who had a passion for fashion. I don't know if you have one of those students, but This one was on fire and also had an empathy for underserved children. So we came up with an idea of a project where she was able to get gently used pillowcases donated, where she taught herself how to sew using YouTube, and she was able to create pretty little dresses with donated materials that were distributed globally. Then she got all of her local friends at all of the different schools and got them to come over on Friday nights, and they would have pizza and they'd play music, and they had so much fun. It wasn't community service, it was a bunch of young girls having a great time impacting other little girls who may never have had a pretty little dress. They actually got so resourceful, they used Doctors Without Borders to deliver them for free, take pictures and video, and that got her a full ride to University of Alabama. Thousands of these dresses were delivered. She earned recognition, not only, uh, 8 national awards, 4 leadership certifications,, but she was written up as Student of the Month and Student of the Year. That's what a passion project's all about. You want to turn their— your child's strengths into a standout applicant. Do not do what everybody else is doing. They need to take what they're doing, and they need to craft a compelling essay. Tell a unique story, something memorable about them. The impact is going to be so much stronger. The resume is going to be solid. Did you know that the Common App requests 10 activities, honors, and awards, where the UC app is 20 activities, honors, and awards? What does that mean to you or your child? Well, if they want to apply to like UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, any of the UCs, They need to— they're going to be competing with students who have listed 20 activities, honors, and awards in the way colleges want them listed. This is what I'm talking about. Next, it will prepare them for interviews. Students are having incredible opportunities right now being able to interview online. Back when my firstborn was doing this 17 years ago, they would have to fly to that university if they wanted an interview. So now they have a much better opportunity. Let's talk about case study number 2, Daniel Parker. This young man was so much fun to talk to because his passion, he was fired up about, but it was so different than anything else I'd ever done. So he was fascinated with space and astronomy. He loved the stars, the black hole. He loved the universe. He would tell me stories about how his mom had painted stars on his ceiling that glowed. This young man was fired up. His ultimate dream, to be an astronaut. So what we did is we brainstormed together. What did he want to do and what did he want to see changed? He created space backpacks for underprivileged children really leaning into astronomy-themed materials. He organized stargazing nights, conducted black hole research. This research, when him and I were interviewing people, professors to help him with this, the energy and enthusiasm these professors were putting into him— he even got his paper published. The beauty of it is the impact was massive, and he got into his dream school of Brown University, and he is going to be an astronaut. So let's talk about your child's unique strengths. What does that look like? What makes your child or children's eyes light up? How can we showcase these qualities? So The next thing, the passion project. This is how you do it. The child, your child, needs to demonstrate initiative and leadership. So at this point, I wanted to pause for a moment, and I wanted to give you an example of what I'm talking about. Community service is checking a box, and colleges are not going to be impressed that your child tutored or that they fed the homeless, because everybody does that. Let's take a look at what one of my students has led other students into creating. So let me share my screen and continue on. All right, let's take you to the beginning. It's short. It's just a couple of minutes.

We have people in California, New York. I'm Leila.

I'm Henry.

My name is Mila Rubin.

My name is Rex.

I have led my group to have reached our fundraising goal of $7,500, and this year we have sent over 300 copies of our different medical-related booklets, which are all written and illustrated by our committee.

What our group's goal for this project was, was to raise funds in order to buy all of the soccer equipment that they could ever need to play safely and happily.

Countless young female students face challenges attending school regularly because they lack access to menstrual products. Each pad we sew, each educational booklet we make, And each fundraising effort we undertake is a step towards restoring not only their hope, but my hope for an empowered—

In the future, I hope to expand our project to the greatest magnitude it can possibly be.

Together we can create a world where no girl has to choose between her health and her education.

I hope that in the future I can help these kids in Uganda with more than just soccer.

I hope to be able to spread Empower Education all over the world.

Awesome. So I hope you can see what I'm talking about. Passion with Purpose projects are a lot more than just community service. They are something that's powerful, something that your child is truly passionate about, and something that's going to change something significantly. So I'm going to go ahead and, and keep going. And I will answer your questions as we continue on. All right. All right. So now, how do we do this? How do we— this is where people get stuck, if you will. And so I want to make sure that we're able to help your child move forward. All right. So the very next thing is you need to and demonstrate initiative and leadership. If it is sign up and show up, that's not doing either of these. So that's why not all community service is equal. Align their passion and interest for impact. So how do you start one? Like, I'm gonna get right into exactly what does this mean. So step 1 is you need to identify a cause they care about. Parents, please understand that if you give them a lot of ideas and they don't like any, it's because it's not their passion. And sometimes it takes speaking to somebody like myself to help them understand what does that mean and how do they identify that. So please, I just want to let you know, with my own children, I had a a challenge with this. Once you identify a cause, then they need to identify what their role will be, set clear goals, engage others, and reflect and document. That's it. All right, let's go on to how does this meet college expectations. Colleges are looking for students who proactively can contribute. Colleges are not looking for students to come, go to class, go back, study, and leave. That is not what they're looking for. They're looking for students who have proven that they are going to come to that college and make it better. They want them to leave with memories to share and promote. College is a business. A passion project aligns with your child's interests and future goals. And making a significant impact, that is proof of concept. That's what colleges are looking for. So here's what Henry and I built together. Henry came— well, actually, I came to Henry. I had just gotten back from Uganda, and I said, Henry, Henry, I had this amazing experience, and I know how much your education means to you. I said, let me tell you how lucky we are here in the US. And he says, well, wait a minute. How do, how do I help them? So he said, I really want to lean into this. I'm not sure how. So I helped him build his mission statement. Who, where, how, why, what is his specific and measurable goals? He started with Uganda, and now he's already gone into Oaxaca, Mexico. Egypt, and I believe we're going to expand to India this year. He is now, as of this past week, at 52 high school students all over the globe, and they've raised well over $28,000, built 2 classrooms. I could go on and on and on. This is what I'm talking about. The outcome is the essay. It's the interview. It is their resume. This is what students need to do. We encourage students to raise their hand and join leadership. Can you imagine your child leading? Is that something that comes easily to them or something they need to be coached on? What cause could inspire them to take action? I know that when I'm inspiring students, until I hit that one thing, they're not very interested in taking on another responsibility. But when I do, just like you saw those students in the video, they absolutely stood up and said, I want to lead, because they saw the impact they could make. Step 3, navigate admissions confidently. You must first overcome the myths and misconceptions, and there's a lot of those. Empowering your child through the process. I can't emphasize this enough. I want you to take a moment and think about this. Applying to college, there's a lot that needs to get done, and one could get very overwhelmed as an adult. It is extremely overwhelming as a child. And so you want to think about who will do each of these things, who will come up with the passion with purpose, who will make it happen, who will lead it. What does that look like? They don't know how to do this on their own. So if you want to navigate it as a parent, please know they need you. Utilize tools and guidance. We give away so many free resources. I want you to know we're here to support your family. So here's some of the admissions myths. Believing that only perfect students get into top colleges. That is simply not the case because my oldest, who got into Harvard and, you know, 11 others, he didn't have a perfect GPA or a perfect test score, but he had a perfect standout strategy. Thinking that standardized test scores are all that matter. That is simply not the truth. They help on many occasions, and if you want scholarships, absolutely critical, but that's not the only thing it takes. Assuming that the process is too complicated to navigate successfully. Well, it's like anything else. The first time you drove, the first time you bought a home, the first time you paid taxes. Yes, if you don't want to spend the time to learn how to do it, then you hire a professional that can help you. That is what we're trying to help you do right now. Supporting your child, encouraging independence with support. Let them take ownership, but if they procrastinate or they just are like shrugging their shoulders, they truly don't know what to do next. And if you don't know what to do, then it's really important that you get assistance. Building a personalized roadmap for your child, breaking it down into small pieces. At College Ready, we only have our students work on 3 things at a time. Very simple, planned-out methodology. Methodology, sorry. Providing resources and tools like checklists, calendars, blocking time. All of these are skills they need to learn. So a few of you may be going, I don't want to do all of this. I don't even know how. I don't have the time, whatever that is. I'd like you to consider the benefits of hiring an expert mentor. What we do at College Readies, we provide insider knowledge, like I'm going to share with you scholarships at what schools and how much they were given. We can show your student, your child, what GPA they need, what test score they need, what service hours are good, better, and best. It's important for them to understand. We save family— families just like yours, saving time, reducing stress, streamlining the process so you can enjoy the last few years of your child at home. The most important thing is it's custom tailored to your child, not to the average student. And let me explain. You will find if you ask some well-advised, uh, consultant, when should my child be taking the PSAT, the SAT, or the ACT, you will get different answers every single time. Why? Because the real answer is as soon as your student has completed Algebra 2. End of story. That's different for every student. That's what we're talking about. So I have one more case study for you because I think this one will hit home for a lot of families navigating the admissions process. Kaylin Kohlberg and her family came to me because they were determined to succeed in the US. Now, It's because Caitlyn's family was the first generation. They had immigrated here and they were so overwhelmed just understanding what it took to apply. So the first thing that I did is I demystified the process. I made it personal. I gave them a roadmap every step of the way. The result is Caitlin was accepted into several top-tier schools. She got into her dream school, which was UC Berkeley, and she's gonna be graduating debt-free. She is a perfect example of many families. So let's talk about how do you navigate the process? How confident do you feel in understanding how to get this done? Would having a little bit of guidance or a lot of guidance help with some of those concerns. Let's talk about the financial step, right? We got through the academics. Let's look at, okay, when they get in, how am I going to pay for it? That's always the next question. Understanding the true cost of college, including the hidden costs, which means transportation to get there. It could be football games. It could be sorority, fraternity. It could be housing, it could be a tutor, it could be so many things. You need to maximize financial aid opportunities now, and it is not just for students who can't afford. All right, so here's the true cost of college: extracurricular activities, travel expenses, and personal expenses. Now here's how you're going to reduce them. The very first thing you need to do is you need to maximize your chances. For those of you who haven't completed your Student Aid Index yet, SAI, hop on a, on a call with me, and I'll help you find out what that is, because your Student Aid Index is going to tell you how much colleges think your family should be able to pay for college. Now, let me tell you, I've never had a family say, oh yeah, that sounds lovely. I'd love to do that. No. So then we have to strategize how to help you decrease your student aid index to increase scholarships. These are not small $100 scholarships. These are full-ride scholarships. I had a student last year get a $91,000 a year scholarship to Northeastern all 4 years. He was making money on that opportunity. Understanding that the FAFSA is going to look at the second semester of your sophomore year and the first semester of your junior year. I know now is the right time. There are merit-based scholarships, there are need-based scholarships, and there are institutional and independent scholarships. You want it? Also do financial negotiations. These all drive down the cost of college. So here's your keys to success. Number 1, start early. The earlier you begin, the better. I have students in our program that are in middle school, 7th and 8th grade, because we believe starting slow and not making mistakes is way more beneficial than waiting until your senior year and having to really catch up. Build a strong profile. The best scholarships go to the students who stand out academically and personally. Research generous colleges. This is key. I can tell you based on the past 17 years what schools are going to give your family a lot of money and which schools are going to give them no money. If money is important, don't apply to those schools that aren't going to give you money. And the financial case study. This is important. The Auberg family. They were so worried they were losing sleep. I remember getting on the call and mom was in tears. She's like, my daughter's so smart, but I'm really worried, Shellee. I don't know how we'll ever pay for it. So what did we do? We put together a custom plan. We figured out what her student aid index was. We looked at her financial house. Where were the assets? Where was the investments? Where were, uh, What was her income? Then we built a strategic college list. If you take nothing else from this, this opportunity, just know picking the right colleges in the right order, applying during the right time with the right student is huge money. That is important. The result is Karina got to attend her top college with minimal debt. It wasn't completely free because she chose to pay a little bit more for a different school that didn't give her the same financial opportunity, but we did drive down the price by doing financial negotiations. So take control of your finances. Understanding I am not a financial planner, I'm not here to sell you a financial product, but I am here to educate you on how this impacts your retirement, how it impacts your 529, how it impacts your student loans. We don't want student loans. Financial planning reduces stress. It is possible to have a debt-free degree, and I want that for you. So what I want to share with you is how we do it at College Ready. So it's a comprehensive personalized plan. Like I mentioned, some of my students start in middle school, some Freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, some are college transfers, but there's always potential. Maximize it and minimize the stress. I'm gonna show you, this is how we do it. It is not overwhelming when you start early and you break it down and you know what to do in the right order. The 7 most important components are your academic, Testing, community service with passion, leadership with awards, extracurricular with awards, recommender strategy, and the essay strategy. Parents, please know this year was the first year that we had seen AI hit, and 25% of my students, I detected AI and had to turn it back to them and have them redo it, because if I can detect it, so can the university. So be very careful with the essays and AI. So you want to make sure that you have a comprehensive academic plan. The first thing that we do is we help personalize the whole academic strategy. We put together a roadmap of the whole Plan. We include course selection, the amount of rigor. What is a backup plan? Are they going to have the right classes to get into any college they want to? Then you want to make sure that it has a fit. Not every college has every major. You want to make sure that it's an academic fit, social fit, and financial fit. Planning on college tours and demonstrating interest. You wanna make sure that you evaluate the GPA properly. Are they going to allow you to do 9th through 12th? Are they only gonna allow you to do 10th and 11th? Are they only going to look at the major and the classes affected by that? You want to know how all of these numbers are put together. It's not just looking at their transcript. You want to understand test strategy, when to take it, where to take it, how many times to take it. And yes, you need to take it. So many students got burned this last year because they thought it was optional. In one day, in 24 hours, a school says we're no longer optional. All of those students were not able to apply to those schools. I know students are telling you that it's optional and they don't need to do test prep. Who wants to do test prep? Again, I am not a tutor. I do not sell test prep. I am here to tell you that we need to understand when to take the PSAT, how many times should they take the SAT or the ACT, how many AP exams should they take, what are their target scores. Will that save them money in college? There's a lot to the test strategy. We start with a diagnostic test and evaluation. We take care of all of this so you don't have to worry. We don't like to go by, well, my friend told me the SAT would be better for me. That happened to my firstborn. He said, Mom, so-and-so told me the SAT is a better test. Well, after he got his score back and then he took the ACT, he found out that wasn't the case. Your child does not need to take both. They do not. Test preparation can be very easy or very difficult depending on how your child does it. If they just wing it, it is going to be painful. If they do it with our strategy, it is simple. It is painless and it is so important to scholarships. Community service, personalize a passion project with development. I think I bet I beat this one up. Become certified at a national level. We certify every community service hour. As a parent, you cannot You cannot certify any hours. Only somebody over 18 who is not in your family can do that. We are certifiers for 8, as of probably next week, 10 national awards. Leadership training and global engagement. Our students have the opportunity to interact on a global level. Carrie, can you put in the chat and invite these families to empowereducation.world, where it is completely free to your family. You will have the opportunity for your child to engage globally with students all over the world to learn leadership and to do something they're totally passionate about. The leadership strategy— understanding if your child is not the kind of student who wants to be a student government leader, Or they don't want to be the lead in the play or the first chair in music or the 4-year varsity athlete. How are they going to show leadership? It's critical. There is a certain number of leadership opportunities your child needs to have. International leadership is better than national, which is better than regional, which is better than local, which is better than school, which is better than school club. So make sure your child's spending their time wisely. Leadership development and accountability. Good, better, and best. Colleges, they know if it's easy to do, it's not impressive. At some schools, the National Honor Society is a pizza party. At other schools, it's insanely rigorous and challenging. To get, get in, let alone stay in. So it's up to your child to explain that. Colleges will not know. Extracurricular strategy. Having a comprehensive extracurricular profile will be important. Remember I told you at some schools you need 20, at others you need at least 10. They need to be polished. They need to know how colleges rank. I will never forget 3 years ago, I had a student that I was working with and I was looking at their activities and at the very bottom, very bottom was Eagle Scout. And I'm like, how come you put Eagle Scout as the very last thing? He goes, oh, I hated it. My parents made me do it. Well, in college, the world of college admissions, that's a very prestigious accomplishment. So here's an example of where a child self-evaluated based on how he felt. Once we redid his extracurriculars, it was a completely different student. You want to understand what should they do over the summer. Should they do internships, research projects, business ventures, educational programs, leadership? We have a strategy for all of that. We guide your student. It is not left up to the teenager to figure out what it is that they need. Personalized support and resources. This is so important because if your child has a ton of, uh, computer science but nothing else, that is not a comprehensive application. They need to have a comprehensive application because somebody else will. Remember, somebody's going to have a higher GPA and a lower GPA, higher test score, lower test score. What is going to help them stand out? The recommender strategy, identifying and selecting the ideal recommenders. Oh my gosh, this is so important. I've had students who ask their PE teacher to do this. It was disaster because the PE teacher didn't really know them other than they thought they were a good athlete. That is not the right person. It is important for your child to understand who to ask, when to ask, how to ask, and how to say thank you. All of it is important. Strategic timing and a professional approach. So helping your child understand how do we set this recommender up for success. It's not just asking them. Also remember, recommenders don't get paid to write all of these letters, and most students will ask the same teacher whom everybody loves to write. What happens is that poor teacher gets buried, and if your child doesn't do it well, It's first come, first serve, except if you do it with our strategy, the essay strategy, having professional application reviewers and essay editing support. Our students have quarterly writing workshops and boot camps. All of this is online. We have professional essay editors that come in and talk to students as young as middle school all the way through. What topic is a good topic? What essay prompt is a good essay prompt? I can tell your child right now what are the essays they're going to be writing their senior year. Wouldn't that be a competitive advantage? Understanding that the organization of this process can be overwhelming. Each college will ask your student to write between 0 and 18 essays per school. If that doesn't blow your mind, parents, I don't know what will. Well, maybe the cost, but it is crazy what these colleges are asking our children to do. We have built a tool that takes every college and all of their essay prompts, and we've built an algorithm that helps list all their activities, honors, and awards and links them to the right essay prompt, because each essay has to have a totally new topic. If you have a scholar athlete, it can only be one essay about that athletic performance. That is critical. So invest in success. Working with me one-to-one could be $25,000 a year. I want to make this proven strategy accessible to more families. So I've hired a team of certified college consultants, which allows us to offer the entire College Ready plan for an investment of only $11,997 in total. That's from the beginning till they leave for college. It is critical to understand that each of our students gets a minimum of double their investment back in scholarships. So it is a true investment. So now I would encourage you to take a screenshot of this and ask your child and your significant other or whoever's going to help, who is going to plan the academic strategy, the financial strategy, the testing strategy, the leadership strategy? I encourage you to ask your high school counselor, will they help you with a financial strategy? Or any of these strategies for that matter. They just do not have the bandwidth to do that. They're dealing with mental illness, truancy. They have a full plate. I remember my son's counselor saying, "Don't worry about your son. He's getting great grades. Let him be." And it would have been a disaster. So I want to encourage you to act now. Because we only take 20 students per grade level, and it's completely personalized. Once we fill up, there is no waiting list. It truly is, I'm sorry. So I'd like to encourage you to schedule your consultation today. Carrie, can you put in the chat for me, um, how they can do that by going to www. College-ready-plan.info, and there we will discuss your goals and challenges. We will explore program alignment. We will determine if we are the right fit and you are the right fit. So here's all you have to do is go to college-ready-plan.info, take the first step today so you do not have to figure all this out on your own. I'll leave you with one final story, the importance of early planning. The situation is Noah came to College Ready as a senior, as many students do, because back in the day that used to work. He was totally overwhelmed by procrastination. His family was unprepared. It was the perfect storm. So we immediately jumped in. Luckily, we had one more spot for him. We did an urgent assessment. We conducted a rapid evaluation of his situation and created a tailored plan to address his needs. That plan had action steps with deadlines and due dates. We focused on the most critical first and the deadlines. The result was Noah met all application deadlines without stress. Because he had a roadmap, he had a plan. He submitted competitive applications and gained acceptance to his top schools. Our child's potential is limitless. Do you want them to achieve their college dreams without stress or debt, or do you want to navigate this on your own? Do we not want our child to thrive with complete confidence I know that you as a parent put in the time to listen, and I thank you for that. We're going to go ahead and open it up for questions at this time.