With Writers Qi, Anjali Raghbeer has been helping students to achieve their dreams of gaining a world-class education. She does so by making the college application process both easy and fun.
Anjali spoke at length about WritersQi, her journey so far as an educational consultant, the upcoming educational fair called ‘College Brew 1.0’, and more.
Speaking about Writers Qi and how she helps students opt for the right college, she said, “I run WritersQi, which is an educational consultancy, and we are based in Delhi. Much before the lockdown began, we have always had international clients from Singapore, the US and the UK. I help the students with their college application journey and students from as early as grade 9 come to me. I feel that grades 9 and 10 should be taken slower so that children don’t burn out by the time that the applications are going out. The bulk of the work is done when one is in the 11th grade and grade 12 is when you end up applying to colleges. I have been doing this for the last six years and I am passionate about it. It fits well with my writing background. That’s how I got into it and I enjoy it.”
Writers Qi also advises students on which courses would be good for them. Anjali emphasised, ”When students come to me from grade 10 onwards, the first thing we do is give them a psychometric test, which is an aptitude test to find what the child is best suited for. As per that, we build the profile of the child, keeping in mind his/her interest and passion. I think it is crucial to correlate that and not have a manufactured result based on what colleges are looking for. I think it is very important to note what they are interested in and then make them passionate about what they are doing and eventually help them shortlist colleges. We do it based on ‘Dream-Target-Safety’. The dream could be the college that one wants to get into, Target could be what we think is best suited for them, and then, of course, you want some safety which is a fallback option.”
Talking about College Brew, an endeavour of Writers Qi to help students coming from different backgrounds to gain insights from global experts and counsellors with a series of webinars and events, she expressed, “College Brew is a baby of the lockdown. When the lockdown happened, one needed ways to reach out to people. I started doing webinars. Since the world was closed, I think I had a lot of access to great resources such as NYU and Georgetown. So many people came on board and were happy to go on this platform. Then it took a journey of its own. It has been almost a year now since we did the webinars every month. College Brew is the mother of it all. We are using all of it under one platform in one day.”
“College Brew is a series of talks with about 12 talks in a day by several experts. We have Viral Doshi from Mumbai, who is a world-class counsellor. He will be coming to the platform to talk about applications. We have people talking about psychometric tests, some experts from the UK and the US, people from the University of Sydney who will talk to students about opportunities in Australia, and Ashoka talking about India. So, we have tried to give it a mix of everything. There will also be workshops on SATs by experts who will help with the application process. If you are thinking of applying to an Ivy League college, it is better to start the process early. This is a place where you can come in and get all the information you require. We have got a tremendous response and received over 500 registrations already,” added Anjali.
On being asked if people prefer one country over another for college and whether the pandemic has changed their priorities, she responded, “Not really. People who aspire to go abroad are anyway aspiring. Everyone wants to go to the best. The US is still a very coveted place. There is a lot of interest in the UK, more so than pre-lockdown. That’s why we are bringing experts from there.”
When prodded further on whether there is a session at College Brew that she is looking forward to and will be the most useful to students, Anjali said, “The way I structured it, anybody from any stage, for wherever they want to apply, can come and get something out of it. If someone is in grade 9, I recommend psychometric testing and a session with Viral Doshi. This will help them get an overview of how to progress. For students in grade 12, we have workshops in writing and an expert from UCLA for it. I also have two companies who will speak about research opportunities. If someone is a design student, I have a person who will be talking about how to build your portfolio as well as special one-on-one sessions. If you are interested in food, we have an expert on that. We have tried to bring everything under one umbrella so that whatever your interest might be, there will be something for you there.”
On a parting note, she spoke about what made her get into the field of counselling. “I think it has to do with my writing background because I studied writing and did a lot of creative writing courses. I have also done a lot of children’s books. People used to come to me seeking assistance with their college essays. While helping them out, I sort of decided to get into the field and started doing it on a full scale rather than in just bits and bobs. I found it so fulfilling because a lot of my students have won full scholarships and it has been rewarding in that sense,” said Anjali.