Hi, my name is Abigail Tutor. I am the student success advisor at Kings at Fisher College.
I would like to talk about some of my students’ success stories and some of the reasons behind their success.
This semester we’ve had a lot of students get into top universities like the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, Boston University, the University of Wisconsin—Madison, and I’d like to share with you what those students did and also how I helped them.
So, what did those students do?
1) Well, first, they were amazing students in class, they maintained a high GPA, they attended on-campus clubs, they did extra projects, they joined the honors program at Fisher College. All of this made their applications stand out.
2) Another thing they did was start their applications early: they started researching universities early, they started writing their essays early, they started asking for recommendations early. There was a lot of planning that went into their applications, and that really paid off.
3) The third thing they did is they didn’t just succeed in the classroom – they also succeeded outside of the classroom: they joined clubs on campus, as I mentioned, but they also volunteered off campus. They volunteered at animal shelters. They volunteered at local schools, and I think this really showed the admissions committees that these students would make a valuable contribution to the community at their colleges.
So how did I help these students?
Well, I tell our students: "It’s your dream, it’s your transfer process – I’m there to assist you, but I can’t do the work for you".
What I can do is help them communicate with professors, from writing an email to striking the right tone when asking professors for recommendations or support.
In some cases I helped students identify universities that they would like to apply to and I checked the admissions requirements to make sure that students had satisfied all the requirements to apply.
I also helped students find activities outside of class, apply for volunteer positions, find that volunteer opportunity at the animal shelter or in the Boston Public Schools.
I helped them develop their interests outside of class, so if they were interested in international relations, I found local lectures, events at local colleges they could attend to deepen that interest.
And I just provided support through the whole process, and it was a wonderful partnership, I’m so glad they succeeded the way they have.
