Samaira Gaind
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2027 Cycle
Samaira’s intro
From high school, I’ve mastered taking initiative across multiple areas. I’ve cold-emailed professors until I landed university research opportunities, ran two clubs as President, and juggled 16 weighted classes on top of starting my own projects. This experience has taught me how to make a scattered resume look intentional as I now study Economics and Data Science at UC Berkeley.
I now act as a counselor to help other students get accepted to their dream universities. I’ve led 5 students to acceptances to UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, UC San Diego, UMich, Northwestern, and USC. As a previous Editor-in-Chief of my high school newspaper, editing over 100 articles, I’ve seen every version of a sentence that doesn’t convey what a writer wants it to. I was also named runner up in the New York Times Summer Writing Contest, an honor given to less than 1.9% of submissions. When I work on UC PIQs or supplemental essays, I don't simply fix grammar or structure. I ask what they seek to say and help them figure out what parts of their story they should emphasize and which parts they should cut.
I applied two years ago, so I still remember what it feels like from the student's perspective. I know when an essay sounds polished but ingenuine, and I know when a student is overthinking the draft into a worse version. My goal is to help build both strategic and polished applications that sound like each student. If you’re interested in hearing my advice, book me for a free call and I’ll explain how I can help your child.
Common questions
Before you book
What does this cost?
We are flexible, and there is a plan here that fits your family. We share pricing on the free call, it is the same for every counselor, and it is in writing before anything is agreed. What changes between plans is the kind of experience in the room: a current undergraduate at a school your student is applying to, someone who interviewed applicants for a university as an alumni volunteer, or a former admissions officer who read files and sat in committee. Every one of them is somebody we would put in front of our own family.
Do we need to know what we want before the free call?
No, and most families book before they have decided anything. That is the useful time to listen. It costs nothing, and you leave knowing what we can do for your student.
How many students does one counselor take?
Few enough that the person you meet is the person who reads the drafts. Every counselor sets their own cap and prints it on their page, so you know exactly how much of their year you are getting. If your first choice is full we will introduce you to someone on the roster who suits your student just as well.
Our student is already a senior. Is it too late?
It is not too late. Several counselors here run compressed engagements and take seniors into the autumn, and there is usually more still open in a file than a family expects. Ask about your student in the small room and we will tell you what we can do with it.
Free one-on-one call
How the call is booked.
Samaira is booking the five remaining places in the 2027 Cycle, and is the counselor who reads your student’s file and builds the plan. The first call is one-on-one on Google Meet and costs nothing.
Meet SamairaOr text Samaira firstSamaira reads what you tell us about your student before the call, so it starts there rather than at the beginning.
If something changes
The agreement is held by Aristo Scholars rather than by Samaira personally. If Samaira cannot finish the cycle we move your student to another counselor on this roster at the price you were already quoted, and everything written down so far moves with them.
Where Samaira’s students got in.
Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by UC Berkeley or any other institution named on this page. Samaira Gaind is an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, speaking only as an individual, with no role in its admissions office and no influence over any admissions decision.