Ready for the Ivy League Challenge?

Transcript

SPEAKER A

Welcome back to season two of the Ivy League Prep Academy podcast, equipping you to successfully pursue the college of your dreams. We believe everyone deserves to reach their full potential, and the admissions process shouldn't hold you back. Well, hello, my friends. You are in for a treat this week because I'm so excited to invite Shellee Howard onto The Call with us into the podcast. She is so amazing. She helps students from all over the world find their perfect college match and graduate completely debt free. And she knows what she's talking about. Firsthand, her son attended Harvard for four years for free, and she has just, with her most recent class, generated over $10.7 million in scholarships. What I love about Shellee is she doesn't just focus on one or two pieces of the puzzle. She says, let's help you identify who you are. Let's help you figure out what the right match is for your school, and then let's figure out the financial element of that, which is this beautiful, beautiful package. And so, Shellee, I'm so excited to have you on The Call today. Thank you for joining us, and it's my pleasure.

SPEAKER B

I look forward to it.

SPEAKER A

So fun. So can you tell us just a little bit about yourself as a mother? I understand that you have a son who attended Harvard and two others. Is that right? Two other children.

SPEAKER B

I actually have three others.

SPEAKER A

Three other children. Okay. So you're not a rookie at this process from firsthand experience.

SPEAKER B

Correct.

SPEAKER A

And so over time, you've worked with all of these students. How do you help students figure out what they should be thinking about when they decide which college to choose?
SPEAKER B

Well, we really start to focus on their who am I? And for some students, it comes easier, and for many, they don't do a lot of self reflection, so we help them to do an intra analysis. So it's just by having conversation. My son, I had him take a personality test back when he was about 15 because I wasn't so sure that medicine was his thing. And the personality test said he should be a grape farmer, so he doesn't even like dirt. We found it to be very interesting because it really did not suit him well. So as much as those can be helpful, I really believe speaking to an adult who can guide them through this look inside of themselves is really where the important piece comes in. So when we start to work with students, we ask them, what are your gifts and your talents? And it may not be a natural academic fit, but what is it? And then the second piece to that is we help them to get clear on what they would like to see changed in the world. We call this purpose. What is their purpose? And unfortunately, in this world we live in, we're trying to shelter our children from a lot of the chaos and not so great things in the world. But what that's doing to this generation? Is it's putting them in their bubble and so helping them find truly their gift and their talent and truly, what is their passion for change to make this world a better place? They get a very good idea of their gifts and their talents and what's important to them. And once they have that, then we help them to become a leader of change.

SPEAKER A

So let's talk about the scholarships then. What is it that sets these students apart, that allows, I mean, just 61 students to earn $10.7 million in scholarships this last year? What's the secret?

SPEAKER B

The secret is making each student uniquely themselves and stop trying to fit a student into a brand name school. It's really putting the best school with the student and it be an academic fit, a social fit, and a financial fit because ultimately that is the perfect fit and that is where the big money comes in.

SPEAKER A

I love it. What I tell my students, and I don't want to cut you off because I think there's more coming, but I tell my students, look, you want to love your college, but you want your college to love you back. So you need to become familiar with the college's values and the culture and the little characteristics that that college values so that you can know for sure that they're going to love you right back 100%.

SPEAKER B

I think the other piece that sometimes people lose sight of is college is a business. And if you can take some of that emotion and just kind of set it aside for a little bit and focus on if you are going to apply as an employee or independent contractor, whatever you want to call it, to business a, what would you look for in a fit? And sometimes that takes a whole new perspective and a whole new meaning with the family because they get so wrapped up in, but this is the best school. And I ask them, well, why is this the best school? And they're like, Because it's number one ranked on US news and World Report. And they say and I'm like, but that's how they feel. How do you feel? Do you want a school that teaches the theory of engineering or do you want to go build stuff?

SPEAKER A

Right.

SPEAKER B

Those are two very different colleges and universities, and that is the fit. So instead of trying to just look at what somebody else thinks is the fit, I help students individually find out, is this a fit for you?

SPEAKER A

Yeah. Great. So if you had just one message, one piece of advice, what message would you hope that teenagers today just understood better?

SPEAKER B

Who are you and why does it matter? That's it. That's all they're looking for. Colleges want to know, who are you and why does it matter? It sounds so simplistic. The hard part is I know adults who still don't know how to answer that. And so without help, what you do in your program and what I do with the college ready plan, I wish I could get to millions of people. Colleges want to know, who are you and why does it matter?

SPEAKER A

So to teenagers out there just barely became teenagers. Maybe you weren't really thinking that much about what this journey holds for you. And maybe you felt like you could put off college admissions until it was time to apply to college, but you heard it here, and I totally agree. I completely agree with Shellee that doing the work to identify who you really are, what your values are, why those are important to you, and then why does it matter? Correct me if I'm wrong, Shellee. I think, what are you doing about it? Right? How do you make the world a little bit better? Because you exist, because you live according to your core values, because you make choices in congruence with who you really are, you impact the world in meaningful ways. So what are those meaningful ways? And the sooner you can do that introspective work, the better life gets. Because you become more confident when you know how to make decisions. You're not trying to fit in to someone else's idea of what's valuable. You're making choices and living life based on what you understand is most valuable to you.
SPEAKER B

Absolutely. I think that is probably the key. When I look at my students who are going to their dream school, what did they do differently than my students who came to me in their senior year and were in tears and figured it out really late? This work should be fun. I hate to even call it work because really fun.

SPEAKER A

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER B

I don't want them to be like, oh, this sounds awful. It should be fun. College admissions should be fun, if you're approaching it correctly. My son and I, we had a blast figuring out his standout strategy. We did some crazy stuff that he was like, wow, I didn't see that coming, because we had to push the envelope a few times to see what was his core values and where was that line? In the sand. So, students, please know if college planning is not fun, something is not right. Because in our world of college planning, we talk about things like if you had a million dollars, what would you do with it? Those are the things that you want to think about. What is your five year plan? What is your ten year plan? Do you even care about money? Or are you interested in saving the planet? What is your thing? And as soon as you become clear on what your thing is, be you. That's what colleges want, right?

SPEAKER A

Yeah, absolutely. That's amazing. Can I ask you just a little bit more about how did your son enjoy Harvard? Was that a good choice for him?

SPEAKER B

It was a phenomenal choice for him. And how he got there is a story for another day. He thought that he was on America. What was that show where they surprised you? He didn't believe when he got his.

SPEAKER A

He thought he was being punked.

SPEAKER B

Yes. He just like, mom, you have to call them. Somebody's messing with me. This is so not fair. And when I seriously had to make that phone call, he did not believe it because it seemed so far of a reach. And he only applied there because one of his teachers said, that is the perfect fit school for you. And we thought the whole time he was going to another amazing school. We bought the sweatshirt, we learned the fight song like, we were all in. And then he got the acceptance for Harvard. So for us, we were not really emotionally prepared for what that meant, because, like I said, I was the first to go to college. So this was like Superman leap. Why was it a good fit? He was with his people. He walked on campus, and he just knew. He's like, the clubs are awesome, the inner mural is awesome. The classrooms are small. And then we went into the dining hall for freshmen, and it was like walking into Hogwarts, right? And here's a kid that read every Harry Potter book probably twice, and he's like, wow. And you could just see that it was his home. And my daughter was there, and she goes, can we leave now? And we had so much fun. He ended up rowing crew walk on and just rowing on the Charles. Everything about it was so him. He was part of a final club. He had the full experience and the connections that he still has to this day. His best friends are his six roommates from Harvard. I can't tell you, it was the perfect fit.

SPEAKER A

Yeah, it's amazing. And I just have to second that the first time I walked into the lunchroom. Lunchroom, the dining hall. I mean, what an unbelievable place. And it's the entire building right there's, the Opera Theater, right next to the dining hall, that's just across the hallway there in that same building. And all of these buildings that are some of them 400 and more years old. Yeah. You walk on campus, and it feels magical, especially those first few weeks as a student at the school. And I did want to point out one thing that I think is really important in your situation with your son. There was zero desperation around Harvard. Zero. Because it was kind of on a whim that he applied and you were planning on going to a different school. So Harvard, there wasn't that kind of desperate energy around it. And I love that. And I can't tell you how often I heard that story on campus. Almost everyone didn't really feel like they needed Harvard to be successful, or that they needed harvard to fulfill them. They were living their life, and then they applied to Harvard for this reason or that, but they didn't have a lot of desperation around that. And it sounds like that holds true with your experience as well.

SPEAKER B

100%. Honestly, there was nothing about his resume that was screaming, I only want to go to Harvard. He was going to go to a university about an hour and a half away from home. And I was a single mom at the time to send him across the US. It was hard on both of us. So we were almost fighting against Harvard versus begging to go there. And I will tell you, a lot of my students, we only focus on making them the best them they can be. And then when they get into the best match school, it's amazing. The fit, because they've been working on them the whole time. They'll fit where they get in, and that's a beautiful thing. And I think that's why it was such a great school for him, is because he was just focused on him the whole time.

SPEAKER A

Absolutely. Well, Shellee, I am so impressed. Your advice is spot on. From my experience, obviously, you've got the results in the students that you've worked with, your your own children as a single mother, my goodness, my hat is off to you. Very impressive, very exciting. Those who are listening in, how can they get more of that? How can they find you? Tell us what they should do to find you and find your program.

SPEAKER B

Absolutely. So the easiest way would be going to my website, and that's www.collegereadyplan.com. Now, I am all over social media because I'm all about helping, and I do this on social media. So every channel you can think of, just look for College Ready or College Ready plan. I also want to encourage students, if they would like a copy of my best selling book, how to Send Your Student to College Without Losing Your Mind or Your Money, just reach out to me. You can email me directly, and that's  [email protected], and I will get you a signed copy of my book. I want you to be successful, and most importantly, knowledge is power. I want you to be in the power seat as you apply to college. And doing that, just reach out to me. I'm happy to gift you a strategy session, and let's just talk. Let's have a conversation. How will you stand out? My gift to you, just let me know that you heard me on the podcast.

SPEAKER A

Wonderful. Thank you so much. Shellee, I think this has just been an absolute goldmine of wisdom and experience. You've lived it firsthand from multiple perspectives, and I really appreciate you taking the time for our listeners, I believe that they've gotten a lot out of this, and we all thank you.

SPEAKER B

It has been my pleasure. And students, just be you, enjoy being a teenager. Enjoy this process. It goes by really fast.