From "Average International Student" to Duke:
Priya's Differentiation Strategy

🎓 Our Student Success Story

The International Student Paradox

Priya Sharma had everything on paper: 3.9 GPA, 1520 SAT, president of two clubs, 200+ volunteer hours. But when she looked at other Indian applicants to US universities, she saw the same profile repeated thousands of times. How do you stand out when everyone looks identical?

"I knew my stats were strong, but so were 50,000 other Indian applicants," Priya says. "My counselor kept telling me to 'be authentic,' but I didn't know what that meant when everyone has the same activities."

The RightWay Differentiation Framework

When Priya took RightWay's assessment, the AI did something unexpected: it ignored her stats entirely and focused on three "throwaway" lines in her profile:

• "I teach my grandmother how to use WhatsApp every week"
• "I redesigned our school's website because the old one was impossible to navigate"
• "I get frustrated when apps don't work for non-English speakers"

Before vs. After RightWay

What Changed?

Priya didn't fabricate new activities or change her interests. RightWay helped her reframe existing experiences through a coherent lens:

Original Activity	RightWay Reframing	Impact
CS Club President	Founded "Tech for All" sub-initiative teaching elderly community members basic tech skills	Showed leadership + social impact
Redesigned school website	Led accessibility audit, added Hindi/Tamil language options, improved mobile navigation for low-bandwidth users	Demonstrated technical skill + cultural awareness
Taught grandmother WhatsApp	Conducted user research with 50+ elderly users, built prototype app with voice-based navigation	Turned personal anecdote into research project
NGO volunteer	Partnered with NGO to pilot digital literacy curriculum for 200+ underserved adults	Scaled impact + showed partnership skills

The Application Strategy

With RightWay's guidance, Priya built an application around a single, compelling narrative: "Making technology accessible for the 1 billion people left behind by the digital revolution."

Key Components:

• Common App Essay: "The WhatsApp Lesson" - how teaching her grandmother revealed systemic barriers in tech design
• Activity List: Every item connected to digital accessibility (tech skills, community impact, research)
• Duke Supplemental: Specifically mentioned Duke's "Code+ Program" and professors working on HCI (Human-Computer Interaction)
• Portfolio: Submitted prototype of her voice-based navigation app with user testing data

The Results

Why International Students Need RightWay

Priya's story reveals a critical challenge for international applicants: differentiation in a hyper-competitive pool. Here's why RightWay's AI is especially valuable:

• Pattern recognition across 60,000+ cases - identifies what actually makes international students stand out
• School-specific matching - knows which US universities value which types of international profiles
• Cultural translation - helps frame experiences in ways US admissions officers understand
• Narrative coherence - connects scattered activities into a compelling story

Key Takeaways from Priya's Journey

• Stats alone won't differentiate you - especially in competitive international pools
• Your "spike" might already exist - you just need the right framework to see it
• Authenticity ≠ randomness - genuine interests need strategic presentation
• School-specific research matters - Priya's Duke supplemental showed deep program knowledge
• AI can see patterns humans miss - especially when analyzing complex, multi-cultural profiles