Taking Advantage of The Athletic Route During Covid-19: In Conversation with an Aspiring Student’s Parent, Their Journey and More

2020 has certainly been a very stressful year for most students, especially those who were looking forward to applying to universities all over the world, as they wrapped up their High School years. The Covid-19 pandemic unleashed a series of uncertainties : High-School final exams being called off, the rather abrupt end to the Spring Term at most schools and universities, the cancellation of fall and winter sports etc. The bad news seemed never-ending. No one had any way of knowing what would happen : neither the colleges nor the students. But, our team of counselors were ready with a Plan B to handle the curve balls that Covid seemed to be throwing at the world. Cameron Lin, one of the top Rugby players in Singapore, approached us with several questions about his chances of making it to a good university in the U.S. After assessing Cameron’s profile, we laid out a plan for Cameron that would help him get to his top schools of choice, leveraging on his extraordinary sporting talent. That was exactly a year ago. Cut to Feb, 2021. And we found Cameron laughing excitedly over his admission offer from Emory University. Despite all the setbacks Cameron had achieved the unthinkable! And we are glad to have helped his dreams-come- true!

We recently caught up with Cameron’s mother – Grace who shared her experience of the recruitment process with AddedSport during Covid-19. Read on.

1) Why did you choose AddedSport to support Cameron in his college admissions journey?

With many universities switching to “test-optional” and uncertainties on the admission evaluation process, we thought sports recruiting could be an alternative to put Cameron on the radar of his top-choice radar. And AddedSport was definitely recommended by a friend who used the service.

2) How do you think that having AddedSport added value to your lives?

I don’t have the bandwidth or the knowledge to guide Cameron on the college application process. Having Ashilla guiding him on how to engage with college coaches and sending him reminders on the tasks he needed to complete, was really helpful to ensure that he followed through with his action items. Cameron also learned to present himself confidently with coaches throughout this process, which will take him a long way when he goes to college. It was also important that we came up with a strategy early on,so Cameron could better manage the application process. Cameron wanted to “perfect” his essays and we appreciated Ashilla’s patience and support, even at wee hours.

3) In your experience, what were the critical or stressful moments that you would remember from the process? How did AddedSport provide you guidance through those moments?

I think the most stressful moment was when Cameron’s dream school put him on the deferred list. That threw us off and we had to re-evaluate the next option. Ashilla came back with feedback from the other two back up schools and was helpful in our decision process

4) How was your communication with your counselors at AddedSport?

It was great to have a few initial zoom meetings to set expectations and strategize, and then we moved most of the conversations to whatsapp when a quick response was needed.

5) If you had to give advice to another parent who is thinking about sending their child to the US for university and is considering whether or not to engage a counselor like AddedSport, what would you tell them?

Given test-optional is being extended for at least one or two years in many colleges and the residual effect from the pandemic, if your child is a passionate student-athlete and is interested in continuing to pursue the sports in college, then this is a service that can help your child get in some of the highly selective schools. It’s also important to set the expectation that AddedSport is a support service, they’re not there to do all the work for your child. They work with your child to get into the school that best matches his/her skill sets and capabilities.