UNIVERSITY BOUND
Expert Advising.
Admissions Success.
Are you University Bound?
We are.
And we believe that higher education should provide students the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive. Our company was founded by independent educational consultants and international high-school guidance and careers counsellors who, as professionals and parents, have worked extensively inside a university admissions system that is complex and constantly changing. And for international students, the challenges are multiplied. Choosing the right school is a lifetime opportunity and investment. Let us help your student explore, prepare, and apply with knowledge and confidence to achieve great choices and admissions success.
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Admissions Notes
7 April 2025
Ready, Set, What? Waitlist?
Students applying to university in the US have spent these spring months nervously awaiting acceptances or rejections, but by now many will have peered into portals and encountered a worse fate, the dreaded wait list. This is cruel. Some schools put as many students on the wait list as they accept, or even if they list fewer, they don’t rank students nor issue updates, leaving students with a neither-this-nor-that status that can feel like a black hole. The best guidance is to save yourself the torment and fall in love with a school that gave you a clear admissions offer. Put down the deposit, celebrate your achievement, and enjoy the rest of your senior year. If you insist on waiting, follow the previous advice while choosing one school where you’ve run the numbers and believe you have a strong chance, follow any instructions issued by the school, write a continued interest letter without Chat GPT but with updates of your achievements and plans, and, you guessed it, wait. April’s a short month anyway and most wait-list decisions are issued in May. Georgia Tech’s inimitable Rick Clark has the best advice for times like these.
What Does 'Deferral' Mean?
UCAS's CLEARING Can Fix It
Are you disappointed with your UK offers? Don’t worry. UCAS has a process called Clearing to help match students unhappy with their offers with universities that still have places to fill. And lots of students use it to find excellent matches at loads of UK schools. Clearing runs from July 5 – October 20, 2025. (IB results are released this year on July 6.) It is available to students who: are applying to UK schools after June 30, didn’t receive any offers (or none they wanted to accept), didn’t meet the conditions of their offers, or who have declined their firm place. The process usually requires that students call the university directly to express their interest and qualifications. If a vacancy is available and they meet entry requirements, they may need to commit quickly. In this sense, Clearing can feel a bit like speed dating, but with an up-front 3-year commitment! Research and preparation are key. Start with this UCAS guide, and contact us to help.
Comms 101: Beyond the Eye-Roll
High school students are always told to develop their communication skills. But what does that actually mean?? Yes, the phrase relates to the ability to speak or write effectively, but it also refers to an ability to interact with another person or audience to make one's meaning clear. This post explains some of these interactive and interpersonal aspects of the communication skillset. Students can work on these skills inside, outside, and beyond the classroom, in every conversation, every day. After all, what good is an important opinion or an interesting idea if you can't communicate it effectively? It's what makes us stronger students, applicants, and colleagues, and better humans.for future employment.
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Make Your Summer Count
Summer is a crucial time for students to get a break from school and give their brain a rest. But it can also provide opportunities to explore an area of curiosity, which can enhance self-knowledge and help students develop life skills that support well-being in high school and beyond. For example, students who have summer jobs or volunteer report developing resourcefulness and self-reliance, improved people skills, and increased confidence in coping with "real-world" challenges. Independent summer projects and online courses are a terrific way for students to pursue an interest or fill a gap in their learning. Job-shadowing or even short summer internships can help students identify skills and ambitions they have or might seek to develop (or not). For students seeking admission to selective universities, being strategic about the summer can help build an admissions profile that sets them apart. Deadlines for some summer programmes come early, so start researching and applying now.
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Study in the Netherlands!
International students looking for excellent educational options should consider studying in the Netherlands. Ignore the rumours about restrictions on international admissions: these universities want you and have amazing programmes to offer. There are research-focused courses that prepare you for a Masters degree and hands-on practical courses designed to launch you into the job market. They are narrow and focused or broad-ranging and multi-disciplinary. They offer opportunities to study elsewhere in the country, study abroad, or elect a minor. They are in towns and near the beach, or in cities like Amsterdam, Maastricht, Rotterdam, and The Hague. They will teach you how to ride a bicycle if you don't know how, and train you in AI and aerospace engineering, global justice, or urban studies. They are affordable, student-centred and globally aware, and offer the experience of a lifetime! Talk to us for more information.
Boston Is an Academic Powerhouse
For generations of university-bound students, Boston, in the northeast corner of the US, has had an enduring allure. “It’s the densest concentration of academic talent in the world,” a former Harvard University president says. There are 64 colleges and universities within 30 miles of the city centre, including the University of Massachusetts, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern University, Bentley University, Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Babson College, Simmons College, Tufts University, the Berklee School of Music, Worcester Polytech, and Wellesley College, to name a few that tend to turn up on international students’ uni lists. Approximately 80,000 international students study in the city, and an estimated one third of faculty members on some campuses has an international background. The economic impact of these schools is immense. Harvard alone received $686 million in federal research grants last year, and Massachusetts universities as a group took in more than $2 billion. On the flip side, colleges account for 320,000 jobs across the state and $70 billion in annual economic impact.
How China Educates for STEM
Together with artists, it may be engineers who save the world. So, it’s helpful to recognise that China’s prowess in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math — starts with its education system. Here are a few fun facts: each year, China produces some 3.5 million STEM graduates, reportedly about the same number of students that graduate with any degree in any subject in the US. It has 39 universities with programs to train engineers and researchers for the rare earths industry, an area that unis in the US and Europe are exploring only sporadically. And, in a sign of its global ambitions, by the end of 2030 it is expected to educate more high-school students in English than all of Europe combined. To fathom its impact as a function of its sheer numbers, remember that China has a population of 1.4 billion people. That means, to quote a prominent commentator who did the maths, "if you’re a one-in-a-million talent, there are 1,400 other people just like you.” That’s critical mass.
We provide advising by the hour to address the needs of every family and student.
We also offer targeted packages, described below, to provide extended support and savings.
An initial consultation is free.​​
Building the Profile
Students considering selective schools or foreign study destinations benefit from early planning. The goal is to avoid surprises and missed opportunities, and build a profile that is competitive when application season arrives. Advising can begin pre-IB, pre-A levels, or in sophomore year to guide smart subject and extra-curricular choices and ensure a student is on-track to fulfil entry requirements down the line. This package starts with an assessment and includes several consultations at strategic points during the year to set the foundation for admissions success.
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Junior Year Prep
University preparation for many students starts in junior year (G11, Y12). Students are ready to reflect on their strengths and goals, and starting to plan now will build knowledge and confidence and reduce senior-year stress later. This package provides for a sequence of consultations beginning in the fall or spring. It starts with an assessment to identify goals, and then helps the student develop an application strategy with a focus on ''fit.'' Depending on a student's needs, advising can be targeted to help define a focus and identify a course, select subjects and extra-curricular activities, explore destinations, understand entry requirements, begin research and compiling a list, brainstorm essays, and plan summers and senior year.
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Building the Uni List
​The list is the thing. Whether for medicine, art school, engineering, the UK, the Netherlands, the US, or elsewhere, university admissions are competitive and unpredictable. A ''smart'' list is a hedge against risk and ensures good outcomes. Building the list usually starts in the spring of junior year. It is time-consuming and tedious and demands reflection and research. It also requires strategy, since admissions trends are constantly shifting, and there is so much more to choosing a school than the name. This package is meant to strengthen student confidence by guiding effective research and delivering a tailored and "smart" set of choices.
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Senior Year Check-in
Senior year (G12, Y13) is a balancing act. It starts with a bang and the demands can pile up. Organisation is everything. This compact package provides essential oversight and support to help the student stay aware, on track, and ahead of deadline throughout the application process. It starts with an assessment and checklist, and is followed by a tight sequence of consultations to produce a to-do list and target guidance in the areas where the student needs help most. These may include course or major selection, research, country-specific entry requirements, financial aid, admissions strategy, list-building, gathering supporting materials, writing essays, and reviewing applications.​
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Senior Year Comprehensive
This robust package starts at the beginning and continues until applications are done. It provides tailored advising and support on the entire discovery, research, application, and admissions process, from A to Z.
Essay Coaching
Whether it's 4,000 characters, 650 words or 50, and whether it's a personal statement, a motivation letter, or for the Common App, the essay challenges the student to write for distinction and impact. We offer basic or advanced support because brainstorming a topic, finding one's voice, selecting evidence, and writing effectively are key. And every writer needs a coach.
About Us
Expert Advising. Admissions Success.
Our Mission
University Bound believes that higher education should offer students the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive. In a constantly changing university landscape, we aim to help students increase knowledge, build confidence, manage risk, avoid stress, and make healthy decisions. We believe in mobility, access, and opportunity for every student. We are avid researchers who are alert to the latest admissions developments and careers trends, and equipped with experience and expertise to help every student maximise choice and gain admission to a
''right fit'' school.
Who We Are
Joanna Levison is an American expat in Prague, where she has worked as a university admissions and careers counsellor at an international IB school. She has also worked as an adjunct reader of international applications for the University of California. She launched University Bound to help international students and families navigate an increasingly complex and global university application process. She trained as an independent education consultant with the University of California/Irvine, and recently received her counsellor accreditation from Times Higher Education/UK. She has over 20 years of experience in human rights advocacy, international relations, and strategic communications.
Our Approach
University Bound offers individualised one-to-one consulting to help students and families navigate higher education pathways. Our approach is student-centred, research-based, and ethical. We put fit and well-being at the centre of our process. We provide strategic guidance and planning for every step of the research and application process, coaching and feedback on personal statements and essays, and insight into financial aid. We help families assess admissions offers and we celebrate results. We work by the hour and offer customised packages to address every student need.
University Bound Acceptances
UK
Brunel University, London
Cambridge University
London School of Economics
Oxford University
King's College London
Manchester Metropolitan
University of Aberdeen
University of the Arts London
University of Birmingham
University of Bristol
University of Durham
University of Edinburgh
University of Hertfordshire
University of Leeds
University of Manchester
University of Reading
University of Sheffield
University of Warwick
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US
American University
Bentley University
Boston University
College of the Atlantic
Gonzaga University
George Washington University
Georgetown University
Haverford College
Ithaca College
Northeastern University
Parsons School of Design
Pratt Institute
Purdue University
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of Rochester
University of Southern Florida
University of Washington
U.S. Airforce Academy
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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EUROPE & ASIA
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Bocconi University
Brussels School of Government
Charles University
EHL Hospitality Business School
European School of Business
Glion Institute
Hong Kong University of Science & Tech
IE University, Spain
Jinan University, China
KU Leuven
Leiden University
Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti (NABA)
Politecnico Milan
Prague School of Finance & Economics (VŠE)
Stockholm School of Economics
University College Utrecht
University of Amsterdam
University of New York in Prague
Vrije University, Netherlands
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