WHY I STARTED collab culture

Making higher education accessible for everyone, not just the rich.

College admissions are growing more and more competitive. As applicant pools increase each year, acceptance rates are dropping into the sub-5% range for elite schools. The accessibility of higher education and ostensible meritocratic prestige attached to university names are being called into question more now than ever before.

Hailing from Silicon Valley, I constantly felt the pressure to achieve and create a cohesive storyline about my passions. I’ve been in your shoes and felt the exhausting stress of comparison. The high schools in my area produced individuals who achieved incredible things in their own regard: Siemens finalists, world-ranked athletes, and even a prominent fashion designer. It felt like I had to have my entire career trajectory precisely mapped out with accolades to back it up. At such a young age, it’s incredibly daunting and challenging to look at your life from a bird’s-eye view and connect the dots, extrapolating where your path will lead as you pursue your college education.

I come from a place of extreme privilege for my primary concern to be centered around my academic career. As college admissions grow increasingly competitive, they are also becoming more tied to wealth and zip code. Students who can’t afford private college counseling or SAT prep, who work part-time jobs to support their families, who struggle with neurodivergence and disability, who experience systemic barriers to pursuing higher education–whether socioeconomic or racial; these are the students being left behind by our education system, and the ones we need to focus on bridging access to higher education.

What I think current university students understand better than professional college counselors is the unparalleled rigor that it now takes to get into competitive colleges. We’ve experienced the struggle of balancing personal passions with the ever-elongating implicit checklists to get into college, the stressful arguments with parents, the fearful anticipation... Foundational essay-writing techniques that may have worked a few years ago are now considered overdone. College counselors–my peers and I have experienced this first-hand–can hold back from providing honest or strong opinions on your essays and application strategy for fear of liability in face of rejection. We at Collab Culture are here to tell it to you straight, to give you the unfiltered advice we would’ve wanted when we were in your position. And we’re also here to tell you that you don’t have to change your authentic self to share your personal story.