<p>But if were to write a book, I'd call it The Indian Post with the byline, "Applying to US colleges" or something :p</p>
<p>Title: The Indian post: how to waste time and make friends while getting into the top American colleges :D</p>
<p>oooh I like this idea more and more every minute!</p>
<p>
[quote]
no I think SAT prep is fine-primarily because SAT verbal is the only strength I can think of.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>ditto here </p>
<p>Other strengths: resume writing, application package
Weaknesses: Essay writing, utter lack of financial knowledge, school research</p>
<p>That's seriously a great name, astrix.</p>
<p>adides - I'm in Patna, shikhar is in Gurgaon.</p>
<p>Business plan - I'm not sure we can have an "offline" office. I think online is fine. Because if you have an office, you have to keep it open and then pay the rent and put a person there and blahblah. I don't think we can do it at this stage.</p>
<p>My strengths
[ul]
[<em>]Essays (from the language perspective, NOT what/how to write)
[</em>]Financial aid
[<em>]General Application process / timeline
[</em>]"Searchback" (lookin for things that will look good on an app)
[<em>]Government stuff (getting passport etc. - insider information)
[</em>]Recommendation "tweaking" and "leeching" ;)
[<em>]Online/website/computer things (we'll need a website, right?)
[/ul]
Weaknesses
[ul]
[</em>]SAT/ACT - I'm against SAT prep as well, because it has changed and we can't compete with PR or Kaplan, e.g.
[<em>]College selection (esp. LACs)
[</em>]Regular connectivity to the net :(
[li]Money[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>That's a rough list.</p>
<p>yeah essays from a language and editing POV would count as a strength for me too.
As for recs, well I've written quite a few so far for differnet people and have neglected to keep the copies. But yeah, I'm also good at 'tweaking' recs :)</p>
<p>I can consider 'essay ideas' i.e. coming up with a basic idea/format for essays as my alright strengths. But my writing skills sucks...but tht dont matter since merc and such have tht</p>
<p>Add Oh! Laila to the list of writers too (infact make her the HOD). She's an accomplised poet and I've read some of her stuff.....</p>
<p>lets revisit the initial confusion about whether we want to have a book or a counselling company.</p>
<p>I agree with the initial idea of the book first. If all of us can collobrate to write a book, it will
- allow us to see how well we can work together
- provide some credibility for marketing purpose
- serve as a good reference for our combined thoughts
- hopefully give us some $$ to start an online counselling co.</p>
<p>i am not shootin down the counsellin idea, but i think tht it involves a lot more logistical challenges than writing a book does...</p>
<p>Strengths</p>
<p>College selection
Resume writing
Essay editing(cutting words,rephrasing ,etc)
General application process
Financial Aspects
Form filling
Discovering Hooks</p>
<p>Weaknesses</p>
<p>Essays
Recommendations
Printing stuff(like business cards/advertisemnets/our own forms)</p>
<p>oh,and I think we cud charge a bit more.
for 6 colleges,complete application package -10 K</p>
<p>also,we need to build contacts.My suggestion,go to ur nearby schools,make a presentation to the Principal,ask permission to put up ur posters on notice boards/give handouts/talk to prospective students</p>
<p>GET THE BOOK DONE FIRST!</p>
<p>At least start working on it as that requires the least 'overhead'.</p>
<p>I'll start today. We can work on individual chapters. I'll post a draft of Chapter 0 - The procedure in a nutshell. How about first compiling a list of chapters we'll include? And who writes what..</p>
<p>Suggestion,go to schools we dont genrally hear of</p>
<p>Also,I think we should first write the book in April,then start the company after we graduate.After all,we ll get plenty of experience and possibly even a BBA(adides and me) after we do a college degree</p>
<p>
[quote]
go to schools we dont genrally hear of
[/quote]
yeah, you'll find takers in summer fields school, gurgaon :) people in rkp like places are already in the know.</p>
<p>but i'm so glad everyone wants to do a book... april to august is five months, enough time to collectively come up with something really good, with relevant stuff from an involved rather than detached perspective</p>
<p>i repeat my interest post-april is reliant on where i get in :p or maybe i could write the chapter on how not to get so caught up in the process that you neglect everything else and forget to have a decent fallback in india</p>
<p>one more point,how about each of us asking a certain school to appoint us as Guidance counselors without any pay,but charging fees from the students???</p>
<p>And then once u're appointed as guidance counselor, will u provide counseling to the students through video conferencing from harvard or what? :D</p>
<p>Shikhar, if u're from summerfields school, do you know a Anchal Dhar there?</p>
<p>Astrix,Bruno is the same guy who deprived u of ur Canada trip</p>
<p>wow, if i did anything wrong, i didn't know it!
HI astrix, were u selected for the interview? and hi akash!</p>
<p>btw,Why do u call urself Bruno?It sound like a dogs name to me.Arent u comfortable with using ur real name on this forum?</p>
<p>wow I don't believe this. do I know anchal?! haha yeah. so you must be, akshay.</p>
<p>i applied with anchal as well, and she got through while i didn't. the bitterness has wore off now so i don't despise you bruno :p</p>
<p>See,we are all interconnected</p>