Dev Patil says: I had harboured a dream to go abroad and study writing and literature since a couple of years before I graduated high school. But I was never really sure about actually committing to this idea, and deliberated about joining a liberal arts college in India itself. I was confused between what appeared to be an unclimbable mountain of work and decision-making that applying abroad required, and my doubts about whether I would actually get admitted.
These doubts and myriad little uncertainties cleared themselves one by one like a receding fog after I met Mrs. Seema Patnaik. During our initial talk, she explained the various procedures and steps required for securing admission abroad in considerable detail. With her help and guidance, I was able to finally decide that I would apply to the United States. After I let Seema Ma’am know of my decision, she laid out the various stages – giving the SAT, the TOEFL, writing college essays, making and sending packets, etc. – that were involved in the process. Right from the beginning, she started to work on my essay-writing skills, and gave me invaluable advice and practice for both the SAT essays as well as college essays. After a while, writing an essay for either was as easy as lifting and picking from paragraphs that I had already written. She also helped tremendously in preparing for the grammar questions in the SAT, interacting actively with me through regular Skype sessions. Her help not only made me better attempt the Critical Reading and Writing sections of the SAT, but also improved my overall grammar and greatly elevated my understanding of the English language.
Seema Ma’am put me in contact with Mr. Saranjit Arora, whose brilliant insight into the art of essay writing and suggestions on my writing also went a long way in crafting great college essays. He met me several times in Ahmedabad and explained to me the various particulars of the process, while answering several queries that I had. I was also put in contact with Prashansa Ma’am, without whom the laborious task of preparing application packets and mailing them to colleges would have been immensely frustrating. Instead, she properly described the particular way in which I was to put together and mail the packets and smoothened the entire progression.
Seema Ma’am and the rest of the Wings to Soar team worked with me all the way to make the gargantuan task of college applications a properly conducted, unhurried, and step-by-step process. Exposed to inspiring individuals like them, in addition to fellow students with similar goals to mine has made me a better, well-rounded person, and has immensely increased my confidence as I write a new chapter in my life in the United States.
