How Ravjot Proved the Doubt Wrong and Won $200,000 on Her Way to Queen's Commerce

There is a sentence I will never forget. It came from someone I had trusted to help me, a few months into the most important year of my life, and it was about as blunt as words can be: you are never going to win any scholarships, and you will never get into any program. I was a kid from BC with a big dream and a long list of schools, and a person who was supposed to be in my corner had just told me, to my face, that none of it would happen.

I could have believed him. Part of me wanted to, because believing him would have been easier than the alternative, which was to keep going and risk proving him right. Instead, something in me dug in. If that was the no, I decided, then they were going to have to watch me earn the yes.

Three Years in the Making

My story with AdmissionPrep did not start in Grade 12. It started back when I was finishing Grade 9 and moving into Grade 10. A family friend, the son of someone my father knew, had gone through the program and done really well, and that one real example was enough to make us look into it. I joined, and I stayed for three years.

I will be honest about what I thought I was signing up for. My one real weakness was writing essays the right way, so I assumed the program would teach me that and not much else. It taught me that, and then it kept going. The biggest things I got were the ones I never thought to ask for: mentors who guided me, workshops where I could hear exactly how other students approached their applications, and a community of people chasing the same kind of goals I was.

From One School to Seven

When I started, my whole world was one school. I live in BC, so UBC was the goal, getting into Sauder specifically, and honestly I had no idea how I would do it, or whether a scholarship was even something a student like me could win. What changed that was watching it happen for other people. When you see student after student accomplish the exact thing you are scared to attempt, it stops feeling impossible. It starts feeling like your turn is coming. That morale, more than any single tip, is what carried me.

So I aimed higher. I applied to seven universities, partly because I was not sure I would get into any of the top programs, so I cast a wide net: UBC, the University of Toronto, Waterloo, McGill, Queen's, and more.

Building a Real Profile

At the start, my idea of building a profile was the same as everyone's: join a club or two, collect some volunteer hours, done. My mentors pushed me past that. They taught me that schools are not counting hours, they are looking for leadership and real initiative in your community. So I went and built something of my own.

I started a sustainable candle business called Flames and Fragrances. It began as a batch of ten candles I made just for myself, for the fun of trying something new, and then I thought, what if I actually sell these? They were made to avoid the paraffin wax that is so hard on the environment, and sustainability is something I genuinely care about. I lived in Ethiopia for two years as a kid, in a place where we only had running water two or three days a week and had to store the rest, so the environment was never an abstract cause to me. I also run an annual fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society with a team of friends. None of it was the biggest initiative in the world. But it was mine, and it was real.

Pitch Yourself Like It Matters

The single piece of advice that changed everything came from one of my mentors. He told me to think of the whole application like a pitch competition. You are standing in front of investors, and your job is to make them understand why they should bet on you, why you are worth a place in their program. The moment I heard that, my essays changed. I stopped listing what I had done and started making the case for who I was becoming.

That was the thing I had been missing. Not the activities, not even the grades, but knowing how to present myself so a stranger reading my file could feel what I brought. Learning to express my ideas in a way that actually lands on the reader is the skill I am proudest of, and it is the one I will use for the rest of my life.

The Hardest Part Was Starting

People assume the hardest part of applications is the work. For me it was starting. Every scholarship asked something different, and staring at a blank first draft, weeks from a deadline, with writer's block setting in, was the worst feeling of the year. On top of that I had the ordinary weight of Grade 12 grades, and the pressure from home, because my parents cared so much about scholarships and top programs that I felt it from two sides at once.

What got me unstuck was structure. AdmissionPrep gave me one place with every scholarship and school organized, so I was not also drowning in the search. I learned to reuse and adapt pieces of my strongest essays instead of starting from zero each time. And when the doubt crept back, I kept hearing that sentence, the one telling me I would never make it, and I used it. Every application I finished was one more answer to it.

Seven for Seven

I got into all seven universities I applied to. Every single one. And then the scholarships came, and the part that still does not feel real: I won at least one scholarship from every school that accepted me, close to $200,000 in total. I had hoped, on a good day, for maybe one or two. Getting something from everywhere showed me what years of work had actually added up to.

This fall I am heading to Queen's, to the Smith School of Business, for Commerce, one of the most competitive programs in the country and the one I had always quietly wanted. The number was never really the point. The point was that I get to walk into a room I once thought was closed to me.

The Word: Critical

If I had to choose one word for what AdmissionPrep was to my journey, it would be critical. Not nice to have. Critical. It was the difference between a student who only hoped and a student who knew how to turn that hope into a plan, a pitch, and a result.

But the deepest thing it gave me was not an acceptance or a dollar figure. It was the proof that I can try something new, work hard, and actually get the result I am reaching for. That belief did not exist in me three years ago. Now it is the foundation I stand on.

A Note to the Student Being Told No

Start early, and take it one step at a time. The big things, getting into university, winning scholarships, feel so far away and so impossible that most of us just procrastinate. The fix is a long plan made of small days. Decide which extracurriculars you want to grow into. Chip away at your essays a little at a time. The mountain only looks unclimbable from the bottom.

And if someone tells you that you are not good enough, that you will never win or never get in, do not hand them your future. They do not get to decide your ceiling. I had every reason to quit the day I heard it. I am so glad I let it make me work instead. Let them give you their opinion. Then go prove it wrong.

Where I Stand Today

Three years ago I was a girl in BC with one dream school and no idea if any of it was possible. Today I have seven acceptances behind me, close to $200,000 in scholarships, and a seat in a program I was once told I would never see.

The person who doubted me did me a strange favor. He showed me, early, that the only voice that gets to decide what I am capable of is mine. I cannot wait to see what I do with that.