Making college admissions educational and engaging - Every step of the way
Essai is an education start-up company based in New Delhi. We help students navigate the entirety of the United States' college application process. Using creative and non-traditional methods, we offer instruction for the ACT. We also work with students to craft their personal statements and essays, creating a comprehensive college application that is bound for success. Our team - made up of creative thinkers and communicators from a variety of academic backgrounds - has had the pleasure of sending our students to some of the most prestigious universities in the United States. Essai is committed to engaging students beyond rote memorization and helping students become independent, critical thinkers.
TEST PREP
We make test prep an important step in your education.
A full course consisting of tuition in all sections of the ACT can take between two and six months. Our curriculum has been developed by our own team of tutors - we focus on teaching the skills necessary to succeed at the ACT, not merely on repeated testing. We are both creative and thorough in our preparation.
To optimize individual progress, our ACT preparation classes are run in small batches. Each batch consists of no more than five students and usually meets two or three times a week. For those with special requirements or schedules, we also teach the same content in one-on-one classes.
We are registered with US-based Academy Technologies, which allows both teachers, parents, and students to keep track of individual progress. This online system makes it possible to focus on the specific needs that each student might have, whether it be in punctuation, trigonometry, vocabulary, or data interpretation. It gives us insight into how individual students think and, thus, brings us closer to each student.
SAT: Farewell, for now...
Due to the remodelling of the the SAT in March 2016 and the resulting scarcity of good teaching resources, we advise prospective students to take the ACT. The College Board has only released seven official practice tests for the new SAT, while the ACT has over forty official tests which one can use to prepare well.
Note: It is a common myth that one must take the SAT. The ACT and the SAT are both accepted and equally regarded by all American universities.
Learn more about the differences between the SAT and ACT here.
COLLEGE APPLICATIONS
Putting you in the centre of your application
Our College Application Service is a one-on-one comprehensive service that focuses on helping each student prepare memorable and creative common application essays, effective and academic supplemental essays, and comprehensive but concise administrative materials (like Activities Lists).
This experience is fun, challenging, and rewarding. We focus on helping each student discover their personal voice and understand their own passions, interests, and achievements. The goal for each Essay Set is to convey each student's academic interest, leadership potential, and extracurricular excellence in a coodinated and coherent fashion.
Specific services include:
- Helping students identify their intended academic focus: the area of specialty within any given college major choice (i.e., Labor Economics within the field of Economics).
- Helping students draft and finalize their Common Application Essay: through a series of discussions, we lead each student through the evolutions of the Common Application Essay in a series of drafts and discussions.
- Helping students develop and finalize their College List: based on school grades and testing data, we help each student develop a Provisional College List, which will evolve into the Final College List as new data points emerge.
- Helping students plan and draft their Supplemental Essay Sets: each college typically requires between 2-4 additional essays that ask questions about community, extracurricular activities, leadership, and academic interest. We help students plan and coordinate dates, deadlines, and overall messaging that articulates a clearly defined academic focus.
SCHOOLS
Essai offers a suite of services for school that require assistance with the college admissions process.
DIAGNOSTICS
Essai administers large-group ACT diagnostic tests for high schools. We proctor and grade the exams, which includes providing individual students with a detailed score report. This gives students, parents, and teachers important insight into the skills and abilities of each student. Subsequently, we can advise schools on how best to prepare their students for the exam.
ACT WORKSHOP SERIES
Essai conducts a series of workshops in schools to develop the skills necessary for taking the ACT. We focus on all four sections of the exam - English, Math, Reading, and Science - as well as the essay. Please contact us for more information.
CONSULTING
Essai advices high school counselors on how to improve their college counseling processes. This includes effective ways of filling out the Common Application, writing letters of recommendations, and advising students on how best to pursue their academic and extracurricular interests.
CUCU
Putting teaching into technology
Essai has recently taken the first step into the app-world by creating Cucu, a reading game aiming at teaching the skills necessary for critical reading at grassroots level. It is the result of our realisation that many students who come for the ACT and SAT preparation classes lack basic critical reading skills. School prepares them very well for math, but not for the kind of higher synthetic reading abilities demanded by the tests.
This makes our job to get them a high English score much more difficult because we are constantly struggling against gaps in their knowledge and mindset that should never have been allowed to remain until so late in their intellectual development. Cucu is an attempt to foster early development of critical reading abilities in young people who are more than ever used to consume more than they can reflect.
In today's world we consume so much that we become less and less critical about what we consume. Cucu makes consumption more reflected by giving usually silent texts inquisitive voices that throw a number of challenges at the reader's feet as he or she navigates through the flow of data. Cucu is a game that that oils your synapses, polishes your grey cells, and gets your lobes firing on all neurons.
Learn more here.
Our Team
Farhad Anklesaria
Farhad Anklesaria graduated from Yale in 2010, where he read sociology, and spent some of his spare time as the president of Society Electronica. Farhad has worked with UNESCO in Senegal, in New York as a consultant with ReD Associates, and with the One Laptop per Child Project at MIT. He likes writing short stories and is working on a novel.
Nicholas Henderson
Nicholas Henderson graduated from Harvard in 2006, during which time he rowed for the heavyweight crew and occasionally read philosophy. After graduation, he taught at the Shrewsbury School (UK). In 2010, he wrote Pearson's "Official Guide to the SAT". In his spare time, he enjoys writing plays.
Bethel Assefa
Bethel Assefa graduated from Yale in 2016, where she studied psychology and child development. She has worked in various preschools, as well as tutored and taught music lessons for young children. With an interest in refugee mental health, she developed children's programming for Syrian refugees with the Collateral Repair Project in Jordan. She enjoys reading poetry and listening to podcasts.
Silvio Zinsstag
Silvio Zinsstag graduated from the University of Lucerne in 2013, where he studied piano and pedagogy. From very young years his passion for music was accompanied by an equally great interest for languages and poetry. In self-study he acquired a working knowledge of several ancient languages and their poetry, such as Ancient Greek, Old English, Old Norse and Sanskrit. Now he is working on bringing these two passions - rhythm and words - together by writing poetry.
CONTACT US
Our Office
R-19 Hauz Khas Enclave, Ground Floor
New Delhi
India
Call us at +919831044594, +919560622100
Email us at info@essai.in