Mentor
Charly Santagado attended Rutgers University on a Presidential Scholarship and graduated with highest honors in 2017 with a major in philosophy, and minors in creative writing, dance, and music. She won the W.J. Norton Alumni Prize for the female philosophy major with the highest GPA and the High Academic Achiever Award for the student athlete with the top GPA. Prior to joining Ivy Scholars, Charly worked for many years as an SAT and ACT tutor. She is also a freelance writer and the founding director of 501-c3 nonprofit arts organization Mignolo Arts.
Charly joined Ivy Scholars in 2018 as a test prep mentor and has since focused on the college applications and essay editing process. While she’s worked with students with a variety of interests and aspirations, she specializes in humanities and social science disciplines and particularly enjoys working with artistically inclined students. As an ex-D1 college gymnast, she is also familiar with navigating the NCAA.
Charly forges strong connections with her students that empower them to put their full selves into their college essays. Her students have gone on to excel at universities like Stanford, Cornell, UPenn, and Columbia, and Charly cherishes the many “I got into my dream school!” phone calls she’s had the pleasure of receiving during her time at Ivy Scholars.
Charly has helped students gain admission to the following colleges: Columbia, Duke, Emory, Fordham, Harvard, Northeastern, NYU, Rice, Texas A&M, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UMichigan, UT Austin, UVA, William & Mary
Alma Mater: Rutgers University
Based In: New Jersey
Here are some of Charly’s past successes with students. Click to expand:
Nika came to Ivy Scholars as an accomplished fencer, and a dedicated scholar. While she did not have the test scores she knew she needed, her extracurricular performance was remarkable. The only thing she needed was to show colleges what she was capable of.
Nika began working with Charly, and they had strong rapport almost immediately. They were able to bond over their shared athletic passion, and understanding what it meant to balance competing at a high level with the demands of course work, and the desire to continue their participation in college.
The initial challenge was helping Nika prepare for the SATs. While her score did improve, it was still on the lower end of what top schools accept. Luckily, Nika was a stellar athlete, and if the rest of her application was perfect, then that would be enough to push her application over the edge.
Charly and Nika began working on her essays, and on trying to find where her academic passions lay. Charly encouraged her to discuss her passion for engineering, and helped her describe how Nika had interacted with the field, the challenges she’d faced, and all she’d overcome.
The strong rapport Charly built with Nika came in helpful here; the essay process many students find grueling went by in a breeze, with an essay completed each session, and much mirth found by all.
In the end, the essays Nika crafted, combined with her amazing extracurriculars and athletic talents, proved sufficient to get her into Columbia. She plans to continue fencing, and we wish her all the best, in the Salle or the classroom.
Faizan was a challenging case. He applied to Yale early decision, and then rested, not bothering to apply to other schools. When he was deferred at Yale, he panicked, and turned to us for help. We matched Faizan with Charly, who is a master at helping students revise their applications under a tight deadline, and allowing them to show off all they had accomplished.
Faizan was a skilled debater, and a strong writer as well. Charly helped him quickly determine what he had missed in his initial application, and how to edit the essays he’d drafted for Yale to fit the prompts of the other schools on his list. SHe also helped him edit his Common App, so that his activities list more accurately captured all of his accomplishments.
While Charly only had a few weeks to work, she was able to get Faizan back on track, and help him face college admissions calmly, in spite of his earlier panic. Faizan’s hard work paid off, and he was accepted to Stanford regular decision.
Ivy Scholars is the leading educational consultant in Sugar Land, Texas, providing admissions coaching, test prep, and more to help students enroll at top tier schools.
Call us now: +1 (281) 215-5148
.
