Ita Collins, last year’s head girl of Roedean School in Johannesburg, is heading to Harvard University in the US. 

She graduated with nine distinctions. 

Her results earned her acceptance offers from six leading US universities, scoring acceptance letters from Harvard, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon and Harvey Mudd College. 

Ultimately, she chose Harvard, where she will study environmental studies, which combines science, policy and public health. 

She was drawn to the university’s strong policy programmes and its large international student community. 

The winning strategy 

Getting into a top US university is not just about accumulating achievements. Instead of just adding more lines to an already packed CV, Collins focused on a different strategy: Refining what she had already achieved. 

“With an applicant like Ita, the work isn’t about doing more, it’s about helping the student see what’s already there,” says Crimson Education country manager Brad Latilla-Campbell. Crimson Education is the global mentorship company that helped guide her application. 

“Top US universities aren’t looking for an endless list of achievements. They want a clear sense of who a student is and where they’re going. For Ita, that meant connecting the dots across everything she’d done and turning it into one clear story.” 

Collins had a wide range of achievements to draw on. On top of her top marks, she sat on the student representative council, played multiple sports, worked as an environmental activist and completed an internship at the Wits Reproductive Health Institute. 

Finding her own voice 

With so many achievements, the hardest part was figuring out how to package them without losing her own voice. 

“I had a lot going on and a lot of opinions coming at me about what I should do,” Collins admits. 

She says adds that having someone without a personal stake in the outcome was incredibly valuable. “They helped me see what was realistic and which of my interests would stand out the most.” 

She spent hours rewriting drafts of her essays, working closely with a mentor to ensure she sounded like herself. 

“Writing the essays was honestly one of the hardest parts, but probably the most rewarding. It forced me to think about things I hadn’t really stopped to consider before, like why I made certain choices and what I actually believed. I came out of it much more self-aware.” 

Collins will fly out to start her degree at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, later this year. 

Her advice to other hopeful South African students?

“You don’t need to have it all figured out. Trust what you’re drawn to, give it your full attention and let the rest take shape from there.” 

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