Student Spotlight: Aditya

In this series, we spotlight a student from Wisconsin who worked with Vanguard on his College Application process. Here is our interview with Aditya, who applied to numerous colleges for Mathematics with Vanguard for the Fall of 2026—and got into his dream school Carnegie Mellon University!

In what ways did you feel more prepared in your college application journey than your peers who did not seek our services?

I felt the most prepared for my Common App essay since I felt that [Essay Specialist] Dr. Sara Lackner's supportive and immediate feedback on ideas and structure helped me craft a Narrative Essay that brought out my personality really well.

Why did you choose Vanguard to work with you during the college application process? What was the biggest help to you in our process?

We had a family friend that recommended their essay writing services to us. The biggest help was definitely from my essay coach, Dr. Lackner. When we were generating ideas for essays, it was very collaborative and she helped me figure out ways we can incorporate my like personality into the application to fit the prompt as well as possible.

How did the skills you learned at Vanguard help you after you left the program? Perhaps at school or other areas?

The skills I learned at Vanguard will help me in other areas since I feel like I've definitely become better at writing as a whole throughout this process, and this will serve me well in terms of being able to communicate my thoughts well.

What were you the most nervous about going into the college process?

I was the most nervous about needing to use my essays to craft a cohesive narrative that ties in all of my extracurriculars and interests.

Was there anything else Vanguard helped you with during the college selection/college counseling process that you would like to highlight?

They kept me really informed about how the process works and different deadlines to be aware. At the beginning, I didn't really know when the deadlines were, but Vanguard explained them and kept me on schedule. Also, because I like STEM and I like math, I thought I might as well just go into engineering. But when we were deciding our colleges and picking out majors that they thought my application fit best with, applied math was one of them. I looked more into it and realized I’m interested in that. So, Vanguard introduced the idea of doing applied math to me and I'm grateful for that because it’s something I genuinely want to pursue.

How did your Vanguard Specialist help you through the process and with the anxieties you had going into college applications?

Going into the process, I didn't really think I had a shot at any of the selective universities since I didn't have the craziest extracurriculars or awards, but Dr. Lackner helped me through the process by helping me combine different aspects of my application into one cohesive narrative. When I was still not sure if I wanted to Early Decision to CMU, I didn't really know much at all about the college admissions process. I thought the people that get in are accepted just based on how impressive their extracurriculars were. Whenever I had questions and I asked Sarah—like when I see those videos online of those students with crazy extracurriculars and it's discouraging—she explained how those extracurriculars can be helpful but it's more about being authentic and creating a cohesive narrative for yourself. After that, I had a direction to go with. Without Vanguard’s help, I would have just created some scattered essays.

What was essay coaching like at Vanguard?

It was amazing, I felt really ahead of schedule for all my schools. My essay specialist, Dr. Lackner, was very quick to respond to questions I had and really helped me bring different aspects of my application together.

If you are willing to share, what did you end up writing your college essay about and how did the end result turn out? How does the essay you wrote with Vanguard compare to what you would have written about on your own?

I ended up using a weeding metaphor to tie different qualities I had together, and I thought the essay turned out really well. Compared to what I would've written on my own, I probably wouldn't have been able to fit different elements of my application into the metaphor so well. I think one of my qualities is how thorough I am with my work and extracurriculars, and I was able to show that aspect very well though different things like yardwork, tennis, and even Taylor Swift. Keeping the essay in that linear extended metaphor helped me show my personality and make it unique and authentic.

What colleges did you get into? Where did you choose to go and what are you studying?

I got into Carnegie Mellon University and will be studying mathematical sciences. I'm excited about college in general but more specifically, when we visited CMU, it seemed like people were very passionate about what they do. In my high school there's not too many people that are really interested in math enough to do a math major, so I've never really been in that environment. It'll be cool because at CMU there's going to be a good amount of math and STEM majors. I'm excited to be in an environment with like-minded people. And I’m excited to be in Pittsburgh, but the funny thing is that I'm a Bengals fan, so it'll be kind of funny to see the Steelers fans all around.

What are your future goals with your degree?

In terms of career, I am not entirely sure yet, but during college I want to do research in mathematics. I'll see where it goes after I learn more about my options. I think I’m going to start with theoretical machine learning but I'll look for research opportunities early on in college to see what my options could be.

How did it feel applying Early Decision? How did Vanguard help you make that decision?

I'm happy with my decision to go Early Decision. Some people say “You don't want to bind yourself so early” but I think if you have a top choice it’s worth getting the boost that you get from ED. CMU was my top choice and I was willing to take that risk along with the boost. I don’t feel regret that I don’t get to see the rest of my decisions. Vanguard helped me make that decision—as well as understanding the rest of the whole college admissions process—since I only got started in February of last year.

What was your favorite part of working with Vanguard or your most proud achievement during your time working with us? Is there anything else you would like to highlight about your experience?

My favorite part of working with Vanguard was brainstorming and redrafting the CMU supplementals, since I had a lot of fun writing those. Dr. Lackner and I would spend lots of time pining over what the best word choice or the best structure for a certain essay was, and I was really proud of how the essays turned out since we spent by far the most time on them.

What advice would you give to younger Vanguardians embarking on their College Application process?

I would give them the advice to not spend time comparing their application with other students they see online and instead to spend time working on writing essays that bring together their application in the most cohesive way. It's important to really communicate and bounce ideas around until you get to the best one. For instance, on my CMU essays, the second essay took so long—I think we changed the structure like three or four times. That was definitely the one we took the most time with. I think it's also really important to stay on top of your homework—it will pay off. 

Specialist Madison L.

Hamilton College