Attention, Sophomores and Juniors!

Want to be excited about college, and also confident you’re making the best choice for your future?

Here’s the fastest, easiest way to take control of the process before it controls you.

Signet Education’s

College List-Building Lab

Expert guidance to create your best admissions strategy —
without sweating the process or stuffing yourself into a mold.

This 4-Week Experience Is For Juniors & Mature Sophomores Ready To:

✓ Find great-fit schools you can’t wait to go to, and know how to authentically stand out so they want you back.

✓ Design a smart admissions strategy so you’re 100% confident you’ll end up at a place you’re proud to be.

✓ Unlock the motivation to ace your applications with less stress while making the most of high school.

Little Known Fact:

Building your college list is the single most important thing you can do to set yourself up for success.

Your list determines everything — which tests, grades, classes, and activities to prioritize — and which you can pull back on.

When you make a list that’s both strategic and authentic-to-you, the whole admissions process becomes way less stressful while your candidacy improves.

That’s why you really want to do this before junior year is up. (If you’re doing it as a sophomore, even better.) 

And yet most high schoolers don’t see list-building as a priority or anything that warrants much thought. 

I understand why… 

I talk to a lot of students who find themselves…

→ Working really hard to keep up with classes and extracurriculars, thinking, shouldn’t that be enough? Can’t this wait?

→ Facing pressure from parents, which turns them off because it doesn’t feel like college is about them.

→ Disheartened by a hyper-competitive culture of doing the most just to look good on applications.

→ Unclear about what will help or hurt their chances, so they overfill their schedules

→ Feeling uninspired by cookie-cutter suggestions from maxed-out school counselors 

→ Secretly dreading the possibility of ending up at underwhelming safety schools, while publicly hoping for the best

THERE IS A BETTER WAY.

I get that with so much going on right now, figuring out what you want for your future seems impractical if not impossible.

But I know you have more of an opinion than you may think. 

When you take back your agency to decide where you genuinely want to go and why, everything becomes so much simpler and way more exciting. 

And that's what you’re about to do in this course. 

The best plan for your future can only come from you.

Parents, rankings, and other kids’ opinions aren’t good predictors of where you’ll actually thrive. So let’s look within. 

In this four week lab, I guide you through a framework for targeting the schools you really want — who will also want you back. 

And not because you fit a mold, but because you’re motivated to show up as the best, most authentic version of you.

Yep.

You’ll walk away with a stronger sense of self, clarity on your potential career paths, and a game plan to get where you want to go. 

Other kids may be scrambling and stressing, but you’ve done the work to feel calm, collected, and confident in your prospects. 

And as for your parents? 
They’re not invited to attend. (Sorry folks!) But they’ll be relieved to get off your back, and on board with your self-determined goals.

Message to Parents

Message to Students!

MEET YOUR GUIDE

Hey, I’m Sheila Akbar.

Over the last 15 years I’ve helped hundreds of students get into their top choice schools. 

As Signet’s resident test prep and admissions expert, I know the landscape of colleges inside and out, from what programs they offer to what they want to see from candidates. 

Your folks may be thrilled to hear about my MA and BA from Harvard, plus two PhDs from Indiana University. But listen, I'm not another authority-figure here to tell you what to do. I’m here to help you get clarity on who you are and what matters to you, and translate that into an application your top-choice schools will love to see.

If you don’t know what you want to study or where you might fit in, this lab will settle that. It’s a meddle-free, competition-free zone for you to dream, scheme and get the expert advice you need to find your winning strategy. 

College will go from a giant cloud looming on the horizon, to a north star you’re excited to follow. 

As seen in:

Build an authentic list and a winning strategy. Unlock the motivation to get where you want to go.

Four 75-min Small Group Sessions with a Leading Admissions Expert

Sheila’s guidance at a fraction of the cost of private mentorship. Be invited to share and ask for advice each week in the group Q&A  — with two short 1:1 check-ins and individualized feedback. 

A Framework for Finding the Best Path to Your Desired Career

With so much competition for your tuition dollars, choosing wisely is tricky. Learn how to evaluate criteria based on your authentic needs and career potential, while using insider knowledge to see through the hype.

Meddle-Free, Non-Competitive Space to Discover What You Want

This group of 12 is curated to remove comparison and competition. And without your parents around, you’ll have the freedom to reflect on who you are outside of all the expectations, and find your best-fit schools.

An Exciting, Grounded Strategy for Ending Up at a School You Love

Instead of working really hard and hoping for the best, focus on standing out to the schools on your list. Having a smart strategy unlocks motivation, eases stress, and ensures you’ll land in a great place no matter what.

COURSE SCHEDULE

College List-Building Lab

WEEK ONE

Dream & Scheme

  • Get clear on your true interests and strengths to consider career paths and schools that speak to who you are.

  • Going deeper, think about what kind of campus culture and academic tradition suits your needs and preferences.

  • Calming any overwhelm, you’ll leave this class feeling like you’re in command of the entire admissions process.

WEEK TWO

Evaluate Like An Expert

  • Be given tools and resources to create a broad initial list of schools where you can imagine yourself thriving. 

  • Learn to see beyond glossy marketing and research a college to discern whether it’s really a good fit for you. 

  • Discuss ideas in smaller break-out rooms and have a short 1:1 with Sheila to boost your confidence and clarity.

WEEK THREE

Get Ready To Refine

  • Decide which colleges to visit and when, and learn what to look for on your visits so you choose wisely. 

  • Use my framework to easily refine your list into a strategic final line-up you can feel great about. 

  • Leverage your list to optimize your candidacy for top-choices and be a shoe-in at safeties you’d be proud to attend.

WEEK FOUR

Strategize Your Success

  • Use your list to organize your writing plan so you’re on top of all the required essays and cover letters.

  • Decide between early decision, early admission and regular decision in a way that minimizes regret and FOMO. 

  • Solidify your game-plan with peer support and meet with Sheila for a final 1:1 so you know what to focus on.

The Details

We have 12 spots available for juniors and mature sophomores
(no parents allowed!) in our Spring ‘24 Lab.

Meeting Dates:
Thursdays, April 18, 25, May 9 and 16 at 6pm ET

Tuition:
$499

If you're still reading, there's something holding you back.

You may be asking yourself...

  • This course costs less than one hour of private mentorship with me. You’re getting five hours of instruction time where you’ll be guided through the same framework I use with my private clients to help them figure out what they want to study, build their college list, and design their application strategy. You’ll have an opportunity to ask me questions and get my advice each week, and will also learn from hearing your peers ask questions. And, we’ll have at least two chances to meet 1:1 in a breakout session, get individualized support and ask me anything you haven’t felt comfortable bringing up in front of everyone.

  • In just four engaging weekly sessions, you’ll set yourself up for a winning college application strategy. This isn’t just a bunch of dry information you can find searching the internet. This is expert knowledge tailored to you. More than just the “how-to,” you’ll be guided through a proven framework that will open you up to more ideas and give you the tools to evaluate options. It all adds up to you being confident in where you’re going to spend energy applying, what you’re going to do and not do. So not only is it going to be time well spent, it’s also going to save you time and energy you might otherwise spend stressing, doing a lot of extra things you don’t need to be doing, or visiting schools that don’t meet your most basic needs and interests.

  • This can make all the difference in having a college experience you feel great about. So often people just quickly pick a few schools they’ve heard of or target the Top 20, but don’t pause to think about what education, environment, and culture will best support them to thrive. That’s what we’re doing in this lab. And it’s going to be fun. Taking this time to dream and scheme, you’ll get to be strategic about how you use your energy and unlock a ton of enthusiasm to carry you through the end of high school. You’ll be less caught up in comparison and competition, more focused and confident in your specific goals.

    Many of the high school students who go through this process with us say they should have done it even sooner. It’s a game-changer. Don’t miss out.

  • We’re curating this group so it’s competition-free. We know how much comparison and cattiness can go down between high school classmates. And we want you to have a safe space where you are only encouraged and supported in going for your dream schools.

    We run this group by application to ensure that there’s no more than one student representing their high-school, and no more than one kid per focus area.

    Plus, we’ll have smaller breakout groups within each session, plus an opportunity [ during week X ] for each participant to speak privately with Sheila and receive some 1:1 guidance, so if you’re feeling reticent about opening-up in front of everyone, these more intimate moments are here for you.

  • I can’t guarantee that you’ll get into a specific school. I can tell you that 90% of students we work with get into a top choice school, and those who don’t still feel pretty good about where they end up.

    This lab is a crucial first step to a successful application strategy. If you show up and participate, after four weeks you’ll have a list of colleges you’re excited about going to — schools and programs that may not have even been on your radar, that you’ll feel proud to have as a prospect.

    You’ll also have a smart, solid game plan for what you need to work on to impress those admissions officers. Instead of the stress of ambiguity, you’ll know what tests to take and not take, what activities to prioritize and which you can pull back on, when to write your essays and what topics will strike a chord, and where you want to apply early decision, early admission, or regular admission. Most importantly, you’ll no longer feel overwhelmed, but organically motivated to do everything in your plan — because your goals are coming from you, not outside pressures and expectations.

  • I’ve been working with high schoolers and their families on college admissions since 2011. I’ve helped hundreds of students get into their top choice schools, first through test-prep and then as a consultant who guides you to figure out your overall strategy. My success rate demands that I stay up to date on insider-knowledge of different schools’ programs, perks, priorities, and requirements. That way I can advise you on options that fit your personality, values, and interests — and help you evaluate those options for yourself. Now if you don’t know exactly what you’re interested in, I can help you get clarity. I promise you know more than you think you do, and in this meddle-free, comparison-free zone where your opinions are centered, those opinions are much more likely to surface.

  • We know how much is already on your plate so there won’t be formal homework. Most of the reflection and evaluation of list-building will happen live in our sessions, and usually this gets students excited to do some research and thinking in between classes, too.

Now Is The Time to Dream And Scheme.

If planning for college feels impractical or even impossible — let’s change that. 

This lab will take you from working really hard and hoping for the best, to feeling excited about an authentic admissions plan you can be confident will pay off. 

Take back the reins, dial down the stress, and end up where you really want to be.