Student Spotlight: Riddhish

In this series, we spotlight a student who worked with Vanguard on their Test Prep and College Application process. Here is our interview with Riddhish, who applied to numerous colleges in chemistry and neuroscience for the Fall of 2025. He was accepted to UT Austin, Case Western Reserve University, Baylor University, University of Miami, University of Washington-Seattle, and more!

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

Right before the college admissions process, I really didn't know what I was going to do. I thought I was just going to do it by myself, and then see how it would go. But then after realizing how hard TAMS’ [Texas Academy of Math & Science] junior and senior year are, I don't think I could have done it alone—write all the essays and plan everything strategically on my own. I would have taken so much more time, and then I probably would have done worse academically if I had done it by myself. My mom had a couple friends who also did Vanguard, and they recommended it wholeheartedly. A lot of them performed very well. Also a lot of people at TAMS did Vanguard as well, and they were all getting into UT Austin and all these other great schools, so I just wanted to try it out.

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

Probably above everything else, organizing and planning everything. Before Vanguard, I would say I was a pretty above average essay writer. The college classes at TAMS, they helped a lot with writing, but the planning stuff kind of got to me a little more. I didn't know how to organize and keep everything on track and by what date I should do it. The planning process at Vanguard was a lot better because over the summer I had a lot of time to pick colleges and do all the essays in the right order.

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

With the organization and planning, I was way more prepared than them. I knew what order of colleges I wanted to apply to and what essays I could reuse over and over again. I was way ahead of my classmates, because by the time school started in August, most people didn't even start on their Common App essay, and I was already finishing up UT Austin and Texas A&M. I was able to give some advice to my friends, so I could help them too.

What was your experience like in Vanguard’s Test Prep program?

It was a good experience. I feel like I really didn't take it as seriously as I should have. I ended up getting a little lower test score than I thought I was capable of. So, I feel like overall it was good, but on my end, I should have done more.

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

I had [Essay Specialist] Laura, and she helped a lot. She was also pre-med, so I was able to connect with her a lot more with my experiences. She helped me fill in some gaps I had with knowing how to explain my research. She would also chime in with her own experiences because she did research at Princeton and then at Cambridge. So it was very helpful. And she really knew how to frame my Common App essay and my supplemental essays to highlight all my unique opportunities and experiences. Everything was great.

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

I like how y'all are very flexible with picking colleges and highlighting the pros and cons of each one, so I can see which one's better. It was [Director of College Counseling] Alina who helped me out in the summer. She knew a lot about each college and what the pros and cons were, and she was able to name it off the top of her head, which is a lot better than just reading a document! 

What was essay coaching like at Vanguard?

The essay coaching was really on top of it, so I was able to complete all my essays in time. I finished my Common App essay by July, I think. It took two months of good hard work to do it, and all the feedback was great. It went through multiple people, which I really like because I don't really like when only one person reads an essay and only their one opinion gets attached to it instead of more and more and more people getting to review it. My supplemental essays went great. I started in August. The flexibility was great. I was able to balance my coursework and essays at the same time.

If you are willing to share, what did you end up writing your college essay about and how did the end result turn out?

I ended up writing my personal statement about my fear of blood and how going to TAMS and hosting blood drives kind of mitigated my fear of blood.

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

I got accepted to Case Western Reserve University with a $112,000 scholarship for undergrad. I got into University of Miami for a special Math and Science Honors Program with a $100,000 scholarship. I also got into University of Washington Seattle with scholarship and UT Austin to name a few acceptances. I also got into all my matches and safeties with scholarships as well! I'm committed to UT Austin for now. 

A big part of picking a school for me is how prepared I'd be in the location of the school compared to where I live right now. Austin is only about two or three hours away from me, so it's not that far away as opposed to going out of state, which I kind of don’t want to do. I kind of eliminated all the out of state schools off my list when I had to make my decision. Austin is a really big area with lots of opportunities, because it's in the city where there's a lot of hospitals around. And the public transport is great. And then the price was pretty affordable compared to other schools—a lot less than some of the privates where I got scholarships.

What are your future goals with your degree?

I hope to do pre-med at UT Austin—maybe two or three years because I already have a good amount of college credit so far—and I want to probably minor in statistics, data science, and business just in case my plans don't work out as a pre-med student, so I can fall back on business. For statistics and data science, I hope to use that in my research labs to make data processing a lot easier. So, I guess it will probably extend to three and a half years with those minors, which I'm perfectly fine with. I want to go there—the time doesn't really matter to me. Just learning and growing as a person, that's the most important part of college. I plan to apply to medical school and see how that goes. I hope to stay in-state for med school. And then after that, ideally residency, so probably doing a neurology or cardiology residency, which I've been interested in for a while now. And then, just be a doctor from there.

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?

I'm pretty proud of being on top of everything, never falling behind. I feel like Vanguard brought out my creativity a lot with my essays. None of my essays were similar. I really like that. I sometimes go back and read my essays! I'm pretty proud of how those turned out, especially my personal statement. That's probably my favorite part of the whole process, because it was such a unique personal statement. I got to read some of my friends’ personal statements because they needed a little help, and I'd say mine's way more unique than anything I've ever seen and found online!

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

I think I talked about this a little before, but I really developed my writing skills during my time with Vanguard—even in my classes. I've been doing really well in my English classes, especially because of Vanguard. I've been getting A's, my essays have been very good. My professors comment on my essays saying, “I love your unique idea or unique viewpoint on this” and stuff like that. Vanguard really helped me with my academic side as well!

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

Take everything seriously. Sometimes during the process, I didn't take it too seriously at the very beginning, but as time progressed, I saw how important it was. Hearing from other seniors about how you probably should take it seriously also motivated me, so talk to older classmates at Vanguard and Vanguard alumni. And then another piece of advice would be, like, you don't have to always work at 100%. These essays take thought; you can do each one at 50% over a couple days and that will add up to the work being accomplished over a week or two. Take it one step at a time. That's probably my biggest piece of advice.

Specialist Madison L.

Hamilton College