My first memory with SparkPrep is the intake phone call with Zoey in grade 10. I am intimidated to talk on the phone, so I was extremely nervous at the time, but Zoey was extremely kind and gentle, which eased my nerves. I was so looking forward to my first meeting with her at Spark Prep’s office. After that, I felt as if fate had brought me and Spark Prep together. 2020 might have been a pretty bad year for everyone, but for me it’s been a very good one, because I got to spend most of it working with lovely, sweet and smart people at Spark Prep. My house is very far from the office, so I have not come to the office very often. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel the sense of belonging that Spark Prep staff works so hard to cultivate for their students. Every time I’m at Spark Prep, I can curl up on the sofa with the blanket wrapped around me, or spend hours studying in the library. Their place is always comfy and quiet, and the library has a wide variety of interesting books. In addition, Spark Prep team’s warmth and helpfulness transcends the geographical distance. Ostin and Sa were very close to me during the application process, and were there to support me whenever I felt stressed out. I was even invited to Spark Prep’s Christmas party before working with them. I always knew that I was very cared for and respected. The most memorable memory I have with Spark Prep is the day when I, Sa, Sam and Thai Vu went to the Temple of Literature to pray that the students, who had applied in 2020, got their ED results as desired. I was very moved by this gesture. But it was more touching when Sa and Sam talked about some grade 11 students, who were pressured by their parents to attend more international tournaments or extracurricular activities, despite having solid scores and activities lists. Sam and Sa were worried that those students would be stressed out, and discussed a plan to help alleviate the weight of their parents’ expectation. Spark Prep students are obviously regarded more than just work concerns to Spark Prep team. They really do care about their students. I was so grateful and happy. Since most of my interactions with Spark Prep have been online, it would be a mistake without mentioning my wonderful coach. He has been the one who guided me both in the application process and in the personal development journey. He was the one who suggested me to start my poetry translation project as well as my personal blog – both of which are significant parts of my resume. He is also the first person I thought of when I wanted to discover new books to read – from meditation introduction to Western poetry. Not only did he help me explore and deepen my intellectual interests, he introduced me to many other topics such as racism and ethnicity. I used to fear that when I actually start working on the application and the essays, the process wouldn’t be as fun as the first few days of exploring the world of philosophy, reading books and writing poetry, but thanks to the teacher’s guidance, everything has passed quite smoothly, and more easily than I imagined. During the essay writing process, the teacher always gave me feedback on how to make my essays better – concise and eloquent. It never felt like he was writing my essays for me though – it was all my work. My writing skill has improved a lot throughout the time I spent working with him. More to that, I am especially grateful that he was very patient when I suddenly changed my personal statement a month and a half before the deadline. If I were in his shoes, I would not have been as calm and understanding as he was. He comforted me, and advised me to choose the idea that I was most confident about. He took a personal interest in his students’ well-being and . When I was in 11th grade, I had the opportunity to talk to his past students, and they would tell me about how he had talked to them about fanfic or worries about school. After that, I also shared many interesting conversations with him about Buddhism, or about Vietnamese grammar and structure. He has always given us care, support and above all is extremely precious friendship. After a long journey (and a long passage), I still find myself unable to fully express my deep gratitude to him and to the Spark Prep team. I sincerely hope everyone at Spark Prep will “keep the fire” – keep the passion of guiding students and giving them care and love. Send everyone my best wishes!

Before starting my journey with Spark Prep, I was very intimidated by the college essay process, struggling to craft the “perfect” essay. Spark Prep’s essay coaches had enabled me to develop myself personally and deepen my values while guiding me on how to express those values through essay writing. They didn’t position me into following the “perfect” formula but allowed me to freely discover myself and led me towards my desired destination. Spark Prep gave me all the guidance and advice I need, which I could confidently carry on to creative writing in the future. I’m extremely grateful to have worked with Spark Prep throughout the application process. Highly recommended to anyone walking into the college admissions journey!!!

I first knew of Spark Prep in grade 11, through Hamit’s SAT class at Spark Prep. I only knew I wanted to study abroad, but I didn’t have any plans. All the Anh 1 Ams kids would tell me how competitive the application process was. Halfway through that SAT class, I decided to sign with Spark Prep, partly because I was worried I started rather late and would not be able to prepare a stellar application, but mainly because of my positive experience with their SAT prep program. After talking with Spark Prep team, I was assured that this was a worthwhile investment.

The thing I like most about Spark Prep is that everyone here was rooting for my personal development. Before the application cycle in grade 12, Luke advised me to take a gap year to really figure out my interests, although my SAT score was solid to apply that cycle. After agreeing with Luke’s suggestion, instead of trying to craft a personal statement with no substance, I had a chance to explore political science major (my intended major then) by taking online classes and reading. Spark Prep let me study with Jeff – a political science PhD candidate – to go through the process more easily and thoroughly. Thanks to working with such an expert, I understood the subject and even myself more clearly, enough for me to quote Rousseu in my personal statement.

I worked on my essay with a handful of instructors at Spark Prep – Luke, Gwen, Andrew, and Kevin. Each of them has a distinctive working style and way of thinking, but one common thing is that they all tried to help me deepen my own ideas and express them as eloquently as possible. The instructor that I spent most time with has a PhD in philosophy, so he was a good fit to help me organize my essay flow, especially when I wrote about developing a thesis in almost all of my essays. Working with Spark Prep instructors showed me the true meaning of essay training, it’s not about editing my work with flowery language, but more importantly, they taught me how to enhance my ideas and how I expressed them through writing.

Additionally, the friendly vibe at Spark Prep was something that got me through the stress of the process. While prepping for SAT, there were weeks that I stayed in the office even more than I did in my dorm room. Spark Prep staff would buy me boba or food, which made me really happy. Whenever I got overwhelmed with stress, I could always text Sam, Zoey, or talk to Trang, Luat, Sa, Ngoc to ask for advice, so I was assured that someone was willing to listen to my ranting lol.
I’m very grateful for Spark Prep team for helping me prepare for my educational journey, starting at Wesleyan.

Most of you may be going through what I went through when I was in grade 11, which is picking a center to work with on my application. I tried so many of them, and many of them tried to fit me into a “mould”. Back then, I always sort of knew that I wanted to study linguistics, and there was this one time when I found Spark Prep for a free consultation session.

I told my coach about the languages that I was studying and that I wanted to try studying linguistics in college. He advised me to go try out classes at a university level. It was the best advice I’ve ever had. And I tried, and it made me realize my passion for linguistics and helped me understand the major that I intended to go with. I think that’s the reason why I decided to work with Spark Prep, and that’s what I also love the most about Spark Prep.

I feel like Spark Prep acknowledges and appreciates what I want to do, my passion. They don’t try to change me or fit me into any standard. They support me and help me develop and pursue what I say I want to do. That is such an amazing thing about Spark Prep and my whole application process. Working with Spark Prep – it wasn’t just application but for me, it’s also about self-transformation, self-awareness, and development. That’s all for me.

As I’ve been a senior at Spark Prep for around a year and a half, the one thing that I love the most about working with them, along with many other great things is that they are so supportive, and they’re willing to listen to you, and they’re always willing to help you, and be there for you, not just as mentors or teachers, but also as friends. They always help you figure yourself out, and find the best version of yourself, and that’s the thing I love the most about Spark Prep. Even till this day, I still talk to a lot of people there, and they’ve just become such great friends to me that I can really count on. So I hope you guys are going to have the same experience, because choosing Spark Prep has been one of the most correct decisions that I’ve ever made in my life. And even till this day, I’m so grateful and appreciative of everything they’ve helped me with. College is fun, so good luck to you guys.

With Spark Prep, the application progress is not just a time to impress admission committees, it is a time for personal growth and learning.
My biggest worry when I started working with Spark Prep was that I’d have to give up the freedom over how I present myself to others. However, my instructor respected my freedom and my boundaries. For each of my essays, he would help me learn about a topic, asking questions and helping me clearly articulate myself to others. I said to him once that he’s a good “word-putter”, but what I really mean to say is that he’s a great listener.
I don’t think I was a “safe” applicant. Other counselors were hesitant to work with me. I didn’t know what to do with myself. Spark Prep team took me in and allowed me to grow without judgement, only with kindness and sympathy. With their support, I learned how to ask good questions, think clearly, write coherently, believe in myself, be considerate towards others, and listen to understand others rather than to assert myself.
I’m so glad that I had Spark Prep as a companion on my college application journey. I cannot recommend Spark Prep more to anyone seeking to find their own value and bring it to the college of their dreams.