When Nadia first sat down with Eleanor, she had a list of twelve universities, four admissions tests on the calendar and a personal statement that began with a quotation she did not like.
Where she started
Her grades were excellent and her teachers were sure of her. What she lacked was a reason. Twelve universities had made the list because friends had applied, or because the names sounded right.
The first month was spent narrowing. By November the twelve had become five, and every one of them was a place she could explain wanting.
Finding the story
The personal statement went through nine drafts. The quotation went in the second. What stayed was a page about the debating club she had started at fourteen and the argument she had lost on purpose.
“Eleanor never told me what to write. She just kept asking why, until I knew.”
Nadia, now reading PPE at Oxford
