Research & Competitive Program Accelerator
This package is for students aiming at competitive research opportunities and selective programs, and it's built on exactly how I broke into them myself. We'll start by identifying research areas that genuinely fit your interests, then build your outreach system: a cold-email toolkit with templates plus a live session refining how you contact professors and labs so you actually get responses. I'll help you build a research-tailored résumé or CV, then provide full application support, essays and short answers, for one or two flagship programs of your choice, with interview prep if the program requires it. As a first-gen student who landed competitive research and leadership programs with no network to rely on, I'll give you the exact outreach and application system that works. Delivered over live 1:1 sessions with written templates and feedback throughout.
What's included
- A shortlist of research areas and target programs matched to your interests
- A cold-outreach toolkit (email templates + a refined personal outreach strategy for contacting professors and labs)
- A research-tailored résumé/CV
- Complete application materials for two to three flagship programs, plus interview prep if needed
Meet your expert
Davud S.
Ivy League admissions coach for first-gen & non-traditional students
As a first-generation, low-income high-schooler, I spent my afternoons researching for hours on how the college application process worked with nobody to explain how any of it worked. I didn't have perfect test scores or the best educational environment. Though I did have a story worth telling and the stubbornness to learn how to tell it, and that's what carried me to Columbia as a likely-letter admit and a C.P. Davis Scholar, with offers from schools like Johns Hopkins, NYU Shanghai and Georgia Tech. Since then, I've earned my way into fiercely competitive research programs with no network to lean on, from a synthetic biology residency in Barcelona to a global summer research program that took 16 students out of roughly 1,100 applicants. I truly believe that almost every applicant is far more admissible than they think; they just haven't found the real story yet. So that's where we start. I don't hand you a template and send you off. (Templates, in general, are never that effective. Run away from them.) I go deep with you, one on one, until we uncover the moments and strengths that actually make you you, and then we build a narrative around them that an admissions officer will genuinely love to read. We'll work through your personal statement and supplements draft by draft, shape your activities list and résumé so they pull their weight, and think strategically about which schools fit the story we're telling. My students have gone on to Columbia, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford, and into selective programs like the Summer Science Program (SSP) and Yale Young Global Scholars (YYGS). If you're first-generation, non-traditional, short on connections, or just aiming at something that feels out of reach — trust me when I say I know what it's like. But I also know the way through! You can do far more than you think. And I'd love to help you get there.
