College Prep Support group - Parent Testimonials

It is rewarding to see the desired results for the work, effort and time I put in this group. The purpose was to reduce stress for parents by bringing awareness over college app process.

I am grateful for the parents/students who present to the group. I am grateful for all the other professionals (college counselors, financial advisors, and therapists) for doing their presentations for free.

This group was started in August 2023 and now with over 150+ members and over 50 session so far. Here is what parents shared about this group:

1. Its Fantastic. I joined with zero idea, but now understand admission process, essays, volunteering, grades, common app, fafsa etc. Thank you for organizing this and bringing everyone together. The experience shared is extremely valuable.

2. Big Shoutout to you @⁨Suryakala⁩. It’s not easy to do this on almost every weekend especially. Kudos to your hardwork, prompt responses, follow ups and organizing all these events.

3. I appreciate the constant effort, follow up and information sharing. I have used topic from here to open up conversation with my kid. So thank you very much for that.

4. Each Session is quite informative. Kudos to you @⁨Suryakala⁩ for organizing these sessions and bringing it to all 👏

5. I really liked how you managed to schedule talks on various topics and have sessions where students shared their experiences. One can only take so much PowerPoint and often, it is better to see all the options out there and then chart your own course. I feel Kala did an excellent job of collecting and arranging sessions that addresses a wide variety of topics. Thanks, Kala.

6. The information provided in the sessions has really helped us. Thank you Kala for organizing these sessions and bringing speakers to talk about different topics. I am sure lot of work went into organizing something like this.

7. Great Resource of information Kala. Thanks for organizing and finding a topic and the right person to the forum to help the parents. Appreciate it

8. Being new to the high school system/college admission system here, the information shared here is extremely helpful. Not only the presentations on various topics but also promptly helping us with insights into various recos and sharing relevant contacts is very helpful.

   Thanks for putting together this group and organizing various presentations on college prep related topics. This group of parents are also amazing and helping each other on high school/college prep related questions.

9. Very informative. Looking forward to upcoming sessions. @⁨Suryakala⁩ I admire the variety of topics you are bringing in for the parents of this group. Appreciate your sincere effort 🙏

10. The weekly sessions have been so useful. Parents sharing their first hand experience gave good insights on what parents go through along with how they navigated the admission process. I had no idea about the various research opportunities that kids do until I joined this group. Presentations from Counselors provided an idea of how various counselors go about it and also helped provide clarity on what I can expect. Thanks a ton Kala for doing this.

11. Thank you for coming up with this group. This is a great source of information. It is great to get information from primary sources - students, counsellors, teachers, and parents. I like that someone is always willing to share information - zoom links at a library, summer courses, intern opportunities etc. Thank you Kala!

12. These sessions have been so informative Kala! Your thoughtfulness and selflessness really shines through and I am so glad I joined this group. I had absolutely no idea on the process les and aspects of college admissions here in US. These sessions have provided a perspective of all the various aspects of admissions.

13. It's easy to reach to this group for any school clarifications ! All the sessions you arranged and conducted are very useful for us.We greatly appreciate you for this!

    Thanks!!!

14. Thank you Kala for all your efforts initiatives. One of the most helpful things for me about this group was the parents and students sessions, from our nearby schools, who talked about their own experiences, some decisions they had to take, choices they made to reach the colleges and courses they finally ended up choosing. I got most insights on from those sessions. especially on the counsellors they used, why they chose some specific extra curriculars, why they did some APs vs others and why they didnt choose some APs.

15. Kala, The sessions are exceptionally informative, especially those involving both parents and students. Hearing insights from parents provides a comprehensive understanding of what to anticipate. Thankyou

16. Thank you Kala.

    For the effort, time and care you take to organize these sessions. You made sure different aspects of college prep were covered. Most helpful was hearing from actual students and their parents. And one thing that stands out is that session imparted information without instilling any fear- instead reassuring that there is still time and a variety ways and pace to prepare.

17. Your sessions are highly informative, Kala. Some of us are first time high school parents and are clueless about so many aspects of high school and college. We are beginning to gain some insight into how to navigate things, slowly. Moreover I feel this group is like a safe zone for us to ask questions. Keep up the great work, Kala!

18. Most importantly this is a safe, knowledgeable group to ask questions, share. This part is invaluable 🤩 Thank you for creating a helpful environment 🙏🏽

19. Kala, just wanted to say a massive thank you for all the time and effort you're pouring into guiding us through this college app maze 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾. What makes this forum particularly special is that the college application discussions often focus on topics directly related to our school district, which we can't find anywhere else.

20. This group is a blessing! 😇

    Thanks for going above & beyond, we appreciate your time & effort you put in to organize & bring in speakers from different backgrounds.

    The information & resources are invaluable, especially that comes from students/ parents high school journey.

21. Thanks for putting together this forum and coordinating the weekly sessions. As a first-time high school parent, hearing from parents and students who’ve already been through the process, as well as from counselors, has been really helpful . This is a great support system especially since(as someone mentioned earlier ) several presenters are from same school districts, so topics, questions are very pertinent.

22. Being the first timer going through the college application process, we needed a lot of hand holding and you did an awesome job by guiding us. The sessions helped us to make informed decisions and made the whole experience less stressful.

    I got greatly benefited by the presentation on Financial Aid, College Savings plan and the session on making a college list. Though we can find most of the information online, nothing can beat hearing directly from the experts. This includes the parents led sessions, sharing their experiences. Thank you for all your support.🙏🙏🙏

23. Thank you Kala, for all your efforts! As a parent of a senior, the talks on financial aid and handling rejection were super helpful and am looking forward to attending the one on grants and scholarships. Thank you for finding someone to talk about our requested topic as well. That was very insightful. Really appreciate your support in this.

24. Would echo the same sentiments as everyone else, Kala. Additionally, it’s been a great learning experience for us overall - a wide range of counselor, financial aid and parent cum student sessions, and access to information.

    Thank you, for taking time to bring everyone together and supporting efficiently.

25. These sessions are so helpful and a lot of thought and hard work has gone into selecting each and every topic. And probably more effort into bringing the right person to present the information.

    There is lot of support and encouragement in this group. I am glad that you encourage parents to share information and their personal experiences with regard to any information they may share. I was not even aware of some of the things that may be required for college admissions that were discussed here which is very helpful.

    I would like to thank you for all the efforts you are taking to bring the information to parents. And the information caters to various categories as each child is unique and their interests are different. You have put in a lot of thought to cover various topics like middle college; pre-med; CS; physics major etc. to name a few.

    I have noticed and wanted to mention that you have gone above and beyond to find answers for questions parents have posted here or reached out to you privately. You don’t rest until you give back something that would help them.

    Kuddos to you for taking on this project all by yourself and doing it successfully.

    Can’t believe so much time has gone by since you started. And so many topics that are discussed every week without repeats. Thank you from the bottom of my heart ❤️

26. @⁨Suryakala⁩ , I have gone through the college process for my older one and honestly I was kind of relaxed thinking that I will do the same things what I did for my oldest.

    I heard a lot about this group through others who are in this group and I joined very late. I wish I had this support group for my oldest too. Many in this group have written about good resources, talks and everything which I completely agree. For me, when a question comes to my mind, I have a safe place to go to is my first experience after attending few sessions you had arranged.Thank you for your efforts and your willingness to connect to people is something I appreciate the most. When I expressed my daughters interests, you immediately connected me to the people you knew in that area which was so helpful. I am ever grateful for that🙏

    I think everyone will agree that having 2 kids will give 2 different experiences as their goals and aspirations mostly turns out to be different . I don’t want to generalize anything as each ones experience is very different. I am realizing that whatever I did for my first will not be the way I should go about for my youngest is what I realized after joining this group.

    I sincerely thank you and all others in this group to share their experiences and enlightening others.

27. @⁨Suryakala⁩ Kudos for creating this much needed support group and successfully driving to complete almost an year! 👏👏👏 I attended some of these sessions and all the time I learnt some thing new - some of the most helpful sessions were hearing from parents and students experiences - I also liked the non judgmental questions that you ask to the presenters - which opened up entirely new perspectives of looking at things differently.

    Can't thank you enough for all the hard work you are putting in running these sessions for the benefit of community. Thank you so much Kala. 🙏

28. Thanks so much for the sessions Kala. I definitely have enjoyed the presentations thus far. Thank you for the hard work & dedication in putting these sessions together.

    All the reviews I've read so far are spot on & there's very little to add to the appreciation you're getting for an amazing effort. Once again, thank you.

29. Dear Kala, I have been part of many groups on what’s app regarding college education and support. To be very honest, this is the easiest group for me to follow regarding all the important information. I don’t feel lost. Being parent of junior student and that also first time, I got some idea that how the college works and that’s only because of this group. You brought very insightful information and in a very organized manner.

    Also, all the parents here ask and provide the information which is very helpful.

    Thank you so much!