Straight answers. No jargon.

When you decide you want to be awesome.

Applying to university is a big step, but it's a step. Life goes on after applications. University happens. Then real life. For a long time. As long as you're still alive, it is never too late to make a difference.

No. But, you're welcome to meet for a free counseling session with Ohm or Aim or David to hear about the program AS would design for you.

Alpha Scholars seeks students wherever they are on their path who want to make outstanding change and build themselves to lead their generation. The experiences you build inside and outside the classroom will be your calling card as you embark on your career. Those don't stop happening because you started attending college, and they certainly don't stop because you finished your applications.

At AS, you are an Alpha Scholar for life. And that life of being an Alpha can start anytime — maybe you're finally ready to see what you can do? Maybe you're doing fine already and AS isn't for you. We'd certainly be happy to chat to help you find out.

We hope that you do. And chances are, we already know them and they already know us. We are here to support you, just like they are, and we are proud to be transparent in everything we do with our families. Our support is an extension of and a complement to the guidance your school provides, and we will help you get the most from your limited time with your school counselor.

You won't need us to, because we'll get you so ready that you can't wait to write about what you've been doing and all the ideas that are getting you excited about your next steps. But we will show you how to be sure you're reaching your audience to maximize the impact of your hard work, and help you coordinate and perfect all the essays you'll need to submit.

Check out our team page for more details, but they are all leading experts in their fields. And we've got the track record to prove it, with acceptances every year to highly selective universities in the US, Canada, and England.

No. Like a coach cannot guarantee that you will win the French Open. But we guarantee to give you the precise tools and training and guidance to take your best shot and be ready wherever you land.

Our team has extensive experience in all specialized application areas. Please let us know what your goals are, as often specialized applications require contact with universities long in advance.

Yes. We can offer guided tours hosted by high school college counselors from top international schools, or we can help you develop your own plan to fit your schedule.

Fact 1: AI is available to everyone all over the world, and it is becoming a go-to tool for many students who need to write. Fact 2: Universities are not growing — they still have the same number of spots available. Fact 3: Using an AI chat bot to write your essays is a sure-fire way to sound like everyone else.

If a bot helps you with something along the way, that's probably okay, but if you're doing this right, you won't need them anyway — your application will already be packed full of everything universities are looking for. Fact: AI isn't helping you meet people at the cutting edge of society. AI isn't using years of personal connections to help you reach the people who can help you the most.

Probably. That's because if a student can earn a strong score, it will likely help his or her application quite a lot. So it's worth trying for most students. A practice test is almost always a good idea for high school students trying to get ready. There are many options if the test can't work for you, but start with the assumption that it's probably happening.

No, but somehow the percentage of international students tends to stay similar from year to year at any given school, as well as the split between the countries the students are coming from. Thailand, of all the southeast Asian countries, has no specific advantage or disadvantage over a US citizen applying to a US University.

Thailand's academic reputation is generally quite solid, and as a country it sends relatively fewer students than some others, so the level of competition in the application process is similar to what an American student would face — whereas a student applying from South Korea or China or India has no choice but to compete against a much larger pool of strong applicants.

None. In the dictionary, yes — a university usually has graduate programs as well, and a college doesn't. But these days, the terms are used more or less interchangeably. Sometimes, a special program or specified dormitory within a larger school may be referred to as a college (The Honors College at Purdue, for example, or the Residential Colleges at Rice University), but many schools use the terms in whatever way suits them, frequently taken from how the school was founded.

Perhaps you should take a gap year, but if so, hopefully you planned it out ahead of time. In that scenario, you apply as normal, are accepted, and pay your deposit at a university but say you'd like to take 1 year off before starting. Usually this is not a problem, as schools are used to students who have to delay start dates for military service. In that case, it's up to you what you want to do with that year.

The other type of gap year is for students who are not happy with their options after applying to colleges in the normal schedule. For these students who want to aim higher, a gap year that is well thought out and highly productive might be worthwhile, and then apply anew with your gap year experiences now part of your profile. This is a rare spot to be in, but it is possible.

The Common App offers space for 10 activities and 5 awards/honors. The more awards, the better, but that isn't critical. For activities, 5 is a safe minimum. And no matter how many you have, your top 3 should be legitimate, longstanding, and significant commitments.

For the activities listed out 6–10, they probably won't get much attention, so if you're planning to go out and get 5 more activities to pad your application, the payoff of building that list out might not be worth the investment. Perhaps the quality and depth of a few activities is a smarter path forward.

Yes and no. If you are lost, then yes, being unsure will hurt your ability to show them what they can expect from you. But if it's because you have multiple interests, then no — that is totally fine.

Your high school may set a limit or encourage a specific number — they probably set that for a reason, so default to whatever they tell you. But if you think that one size doesn't fit all, consider what other experts suggest as well. The most common recommendation is around 10. However, if your intended area of study is highly specialized, frequently there are fewer schools that fit your specific interests. Applying for Food Science? The average number of apps is closer to 6.

Our team has helped 100s of students earn acceptances from all top schools, including the Ivy League, MIT, Stanford, Chicago, Berkeley, and more. We can provide the same level of personalized care and insight for your application as well. See our Results page for highlights.

3-2 Programs are awesome. For those who are truly willing to bet on themselves and their academic ability. In a 3-2 Program, you attend a school for 3 years, then go to a different school for 2 years, and when you graduate, you have earned 2 Bachelor's degrees in 5 years from 2 distinct schools.

The hook is that you are not accepted into a 3-2 program from the start — you simply attend the first school that participates in the 3-2 Program with another school, and you take all the classes needed to qualify. And you have to do well enough to be attractive to that second school. So if you don't do well, then you must remain at your current school and graduate from there (doesn't sound that bad actually), but if you maintain a good GPA and fulfill the requirements, then you can apply for the last 2 years at a participating school.

Imagine this: you go to a small school for 3 years and study physics. Small classes, lots of time with professors. Then, apply to Columbia University to earn your Engineering degree. They are happy to take you because you've shown them that you can do well in a college classroom. 2 years later, not only do you have an Ivy League engineering degree, but you also earned a bachelor's in Physics, you got an extra year of university, and you're in 2 alumni networks. On the downside, it costs more, and you have to make friends a second time. But you'll also be ready to rock your engineering classes — you just spent 3 years in college studying physics! And unless you're already both highly qualified and extraordinarily lucky, getting into Columbia through the front door is a long shot for anyone.

Yes and no. In some cases, sure. It's even encouraged. If you apply to Purdue or NYU for engineering, your application is also considered for the larger school. If accepted, you would be expected to choose your major by taking the classes that major requires, and that could very well be engineering, or History, or Spanish, etc. But at other schools, certain programs are applied to only as an incoming freshman — Wharton School of Business, Rice-Baylor BSMD, Jerome Fisher, UIUC Computer Science…

All of them. But, they have seen them all before, 100s of times. And they will see them 100s of times this year as well. So don't try to impress the universities — they are not looking for some particular model of a student anyway; they need all kinds of people to create a diverse and interesting class. Instead of trying to impress them, impress yourself. Be the person you want to be, and be great at it. That is what all schools are looking for more than anything.

Frequently this means showing drive, ambition, and passion. That's often demonstrated through your résumé, but it is just as important to show through your application why your time as Secretary General of Model UN was a step or chapter inside of a larger story that takes you beyond university — or else you risk fading into a pool of 100s of other Secretary Generals applying this year.

No. Universities know all the curricula standards, so they can interpret them and do a decent job in comparing students no matter where they are from. However, a university representative might not know your high school very well, so some things may be lost in translation. This is why tests like the SAT can be helpful, as well as a profile that demonstrates your academic and personal interests outside of the classroom. That part is always up to the student.

Your High School Counselor will also write a letter on your behalf as part of your application — this is an important component that can explain anything a reader might miss about your transcript, including the rigor of your particular courses.

The one that fits where they're actually going — not the one with the most impressive brand name. A future engineer learns more in eight weeks inside an EV startup than in any certificate program, and a future designer grows faster shipping real work than collecting summer courses.

That's why we don't hand out a menu. We start with your child's interests, test them against the real world, and then place them with pioneering companies in fields like AI, Bio-Tech, Fin-Tech, Sustainability, and Experience Design. The best summer experience is the one they'll still be talking about in their interviews — because it changed what they want to do.

Directly. Every Alpha family has a direct line to their counselor — by email, Line, or a scheduled call, whichever suits you — plus regular progress check-ins so you always know where things stand. We are transparent in everything we do with our families. You will never have to wonder what's happening; that's a promise.

Some of the best leaders we know are introverts. Leadership isn't volume — it's initiative, follow-through, and the ability to bring others along. We don't train students to be loud; we train them to be effective, in whatever style is naturally theirs.

As for internships: we choose placements to match temperament as well as talent. A thoughtful builder can make a bigger splash quietly shipping great work in a lab than anyone makes by talking in a boardroom. And universities know this — admissions officers read plenty of applications from confident extroverts who never actually did anything.

As a parent, you will be in this situation regardless of Alpha Scholars. At AS, your family is one we can help most: you get experience-driven guidance to find the right path, and industry insight to help figure out which path suits your child's past experiences in particular. Changing direction isn't a setback — every internship and project builds skills that carry into whatever comes next.

Because the first thing we do is subtract, not add. Most "swamped" students are busy with activities that aren't fulfilling a passion or contributing to their ability to succeed — and we will happily prescribe abandoning anything that isn't. What remains is fewer commitments, done more deeply, which is exactly what universities want to see anyway.

School always comes first: a transcript is still the backbone of every application, and our counselors plan around exam seasons, not through them. The goal is a calmer, more focused student — not a busier one.

A student's photo would show up online in an AS page when she does something worthy of public recognition. We are proud of our students' success stories, and we want our current students to know what is possible for kids who were just like them when the process started. We encourage our students to learn how to not only follow their dreams, but to use tools of communication to achieve them.

We would never post anything that specifies a student's full name or identifies them in particular, but we do believe showing families what they should expect is an important part of helping our students become Alpha Scholars. But please tell us if you have any concerns, and we will be sure they are addressed.