The Admissions Machine

Most students spend months building a college application without ever seeing how an admissions officer actually reads one, or what story their application is really telling. In this 90-minute live session, Feiyang Liu, a former UC Berkeley admissions officer, breaks down real admissions examples, comparing actual awards, activities, essays, and student stories to show what stands out, what gets lost, and how a file changes when it is read in context, at speed, and next to everyone else in the pile.

You'll see how to uncover the experiences and patterns that make your story yours, how the same student can authentically present different parts of themselves to different schools, and why something that sounds impressive in isolation may fall flat once an admissions officer sees the full file. Nico Berlingeri then shows how to use technology to move faster and make better decisions throughout the admissions process, from finding schools and programs you would never discover through rankings alone and comparing true four-year cost after aid, to pressure-testing your writing, researching opportunities, tracking requirements, and making sure scholarships, forms, and deadlines do not slip through the cracks.

You leave knowing how admissions officers actually evaluate you, how to find and communicate your story, how to choose schools around fit instead of prestige, and how to use technology to do the entire process better without letting it do the thinking for you.