Create a college application that leaves admissions officers wanting to meet the student behind the page.

When my daughter started getting ready for college applications, I suddenly realized how difficult it was to turn everything that made her remarkable into a compelling application story.

I spoke to consultants. One quoted me $20,000, no hesitation. Another offered $1,500 an hour. I said no thank you, and kept researching on my own.

When my daughter started getting ready for college applications, I suddenly realized how difficult it was to turn everything that made her remarkable into a compelling application story. It wasn't at all obvious to me how to communicate to admissions officers her many amazing qualities. For example, she was a great friend. How do you communicate that in an application? She spoke two foreign languages and a huge factor in accomplishing this was her own resourcefulness in finding friends and social scenarios where she could practice, so there was no club or class or award to list. She had a few very interesting extracurricular activities, but would it be enough?

So I called some consultants. One firm quoted me $20,000, no hesitation. Another offered $1,500 an hour, discounted if I referred my friends. I said no thank you, and kept researching on my own.

I asked myself, "If I were a college consultant, how would I go about creating an application strategy for my daughter?" I didn't have admissions expertise, but actually, the process of how to do this seemed pretty clear to me. First I would do an extensive intake and learn everything about the applicant that I could. Then I would find the main story that we would use the entire application to communicate, using each section as strategically as possible to tell the story from multiple angles. I would also look carefully at the stated priorities of the universities to see where these intersected with the applicant's qualities. And finally, I would use all of this to inform every part of the application. I created an app to do just this, and Tavni Insights was born.

The first thing it produced was her Portrait, the extensive intake where I would find her story. I read it, and WOW. There was my daughter, articulated in a way that surprised even me, and scattered through it were moments that stopped me, small, specific, and unmistakably her, that I suddenly wanted an admissions officer to see too. That's when it hit me: I had known all of this. All along. I'm her mother and nobody knows her like I do. I'd just been too close to see her story clearly and never had the tools to say it in a way that would resonate with someone who'd never met her.

“I'm her mother and nobody knows her like I do.”

From there, her main Common App essay came into focus. Fast. It wasn't manufactured, it was just finally visible. The supplements took more work, they always do, but for the first time we had a direction, every one of them building toward the same true story instead of starting from zero each time.

We went from researching in circles to having real direction in hours, not weeks. That's why I built Tavni Insights: To help students and parents find the applicant's own story. Not a stranger's version, but one that was already there, waiting to be seen clearly. I want families and students to have the peace of mind that comes from having a real direction, a real story arc, for the application. I can't make any guarantees about admissions, but what I am betting is that you will find that authentic and compelling story to tell in the application, and that admissions officers will be looking forward to meeting the student behind it.