Q&A With Former Admissions Officers

Webinar Transcription

2024-04-23 – Q&A With Former Admissions Officers

Anna: Hello, everyone. Good evening. Good afternoon. Good morning. Wherever in the world you’re joining us from, we’re so happy you’re here for CollegeAdvisors “Q&A With Former Admissions Officers.” My name is Anna Vande Velde. I’ll be your moderator today. By way of background, I’m also a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor. I’ve been with the company for about two and a half years now. And in addition to advising students, I’m a proud captain on our essay review team. For my undergrad, I studied psychology at Carnegie Mellon, really thought I was going to be a clinical psychologist, but life surprises us. I ended up at Harvard Law School where I graduated a couple of years back.

So in addition to the work I love doing for CollegeAdvisor, I’m a nonprofit defense attorney and I live in Ottawa, Ontario. Orient everyone with webinar timing. We’re going to start off with introductions, a brief poll, and then jump right into answering your questions in a live Q&A. So please start submitting your questions as you think of them in the Q&A tab.

And please do remember though, that our presenters are going to be unable to answer questions that are very specific to your situation. Um, those really require one on one conversation. So higher level questions will be easier for us to address in this format. Without further ado, I’m going to turn it over to our panelists to introduce themselves. And Hannah, you’re on my screen first, so I’m going to pass the baton to you. Sure.

Hannah: Great. Thank you. So my name is Hannah Deisinger. I am currently an independent educational consultant, so I work full time helping students in the college admissions process. Um, an awesome part of doing that full time is that I get to do work with a CollegeAdvisor as part of that.

And so I am a former admissions officer on the team here, so I work, I do work with students on their path to college. Um, do the college process here. And before that, I had a number of different roles. Um, in terms of my admissions experience, I worked at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York, and it is the 1st University in the country to give an engineering degree.

So very much known as an engineering school, but really it’s a STEM based research university. So I read lots and lots of applications in terms of pre med, accelerated med, um, engineering, architecture. I was the architecture liaison. So did a lot, a lot of STEM based STEM based applications. Um, but we also had some other programs as well, business, arts and humanities, things like that. So, uh, otherwise in my career, I’ve also worked as a school counselor, uh, most recently. Uh, so I worked with the students in a number of different levels of their application process. And for my undergrad, I went to Brandeis University out by Boston. Absolutely loved it. It’s a social justice oriented university. So I fell in love kind of as soon as I stepped on campus because I was a big fan of volunteering and community engagement stuff as a teenager. So. Yeah, I’m looking forward to answer your questions today.

Chelsea: Hello, everyone. My name is Chelsea Holley, and I have been with CollegeAdvisor around 2 years. I’ve worn a number of hats since I’ve been with the company and A.O. working with students now, and I have the pleasure to, um, introduce myself. Serve as a webinar host, as well as a member of our content team. Um, this is, uh, 14 years for me in college admissions or admission adjacent. Um, Hannah, you and I have some similarities. I spent the bulk of my career at Georgia Institute of Technology. Um, I also work with architecture students as well as product design students very closely. Um, I’ve had the opportunity to work at a variety of different of institutions, including liberal arts institutions, women’s colleges, HBCUs, community colleges. So I’m super excited to talk about what holistic admissions means and how you can best position yourself.

Anna: Thank you both so much. We’re lucky to have you here with us. Before, I know I’m excited to get to the Q& A, but before we do that, we have an audience, or a question for you, our audience. Um, Please let us know what grade you’re in. That will help our presenters maybe tailor their responses. If you are here as a parent, guardian, educator, support person, whatever, feel free to answer other instead of choosing a grade.

While I wait for those responses to come in, Chelsea and Hannah, I was wondering, and it’s okay to be brief, um, if you had to go back, knowing what you know now, and redo your college admissions, if Would you do anything differently? And if so, what? So

Chelsea: I’ll jump in. Um, I think I would do tons of things differently. Uh, but the one that sticks out the most to me is I would have been more in the driver’s seat. Parents, I’m so sorry, you all are super helpful and you are part of the village, but I was a student who really let my mother speak. Specifically, um, really drive my college, um, application process.

Um, and I think if I could go back, um, I actually probably would have felt more connected to the admissions process and had kind of more gratification. Once, uh, that college choice process actually happened.

Hannah: I love that. I was very excited about the college process. So I did actually, I think, invest a lot of my own personal energy into the process. And I think that was a huge benefit for me. I think that I would have been, uh, more intentional with my applications. So I was one of the students that fell prey to the free application, um, thing that happens.

So a lot of colleges will send out free applications and they’ll make it sound like you are like the top tier student and you are a prize winner already and you’re going to get in. So one school I really loved, Tulane, sent me a free application, and because I thought I was basically was a shoo in because they sent me a free application, I, like, used half an already written essay as my essay, and just really kind of didn’t put in the effort that I would put, that I put into, like, my Common App applications.

And therefore I didn’t end up getting into Tulane, so I didn’t have that opportunity at a school that I ended up really liking. Um, and then otherwise I think I just would have been more intentional and really put in the time and effort with my essays. Uh, and made sure that I really put in my top effort for every single one of my schools. Um, and that I liked all of my backup schools or my safety schools. Always say I love every single school on your list.

Anna: Good advice. Thank you both for sharing. Um, so you know, in the room with us, we have almost 50 percent are in 11th grade, about 30 percent said other, and then 20 percent 10th grade, and a few 9th graders here. So thank you everyone for submitting your answers. We’ll close that poll. And okay, finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for.

I have been reading through the questions you submitted when you registered and also the ones that are coming in now. We’re going to get to as many as we can. As we do, I will read them out loud, paste them into the public chat so you can also read them, and give our panelists time to respond. As a heads up, if your Q& A tab is not working, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email, and not from the webinar landing page.

Alright, so, the first question was a theme in the pre registration questions. I’ll try to summarize them. What is the best way to stand out to colleges in my application? And Chelsea and Hannah, I will let you navigate who’s going to answer that first.

Chelsea: Yeah, it is no surprise that that was one of the most popular questions.

I’ll add kind of two things to think about. One, there is no one size fits all standout strategy. So the first thing to do is have a really intimate understanding of the colleges that you’re applying to. Standing different in each college admissions process. Um, one of the ways to drill down into what a college is looking for, um, is reading their mission and value statement.

Um, what do they say matters to them? Um, what types students maybe have graduated from that campus before. Um, I think sometimes those, um, pages can feel like fluff, but really oftentimes there are some strands that are very connected from the mission and values to the rubric that admissions committees look at to, um, think about what students would be the best fit.

Um, so getting to know the college or university, um, Is the first thing that you should do. Um, the second piece, uh, is really being authentic. If you find that you are having to over strategize or bend the truth in order to appear like a good fit to a college, um, that is an indicator that you’re being authentic.

probably not a good fit for the institution and the institution isn’t a good fit for you. And so standing out works best when you’re telling an authentic story and giving evidence of why that college is a good fit.

Anna: Sorry, Hannah, I was leaving time for you. Do you want to add to that?

Hannah: Um, I, I mean, I really agree with that. I think It absolutely starts with making sure you’re knowing the schools building a college list of colleges that you truly want to go to and that you’re truly excited about helps you stand out.

And I think a lot of times people think that those are 2 separate parts of the process. But really, they do go hand in hand because if it’s a school that you’re excited about, you are going to approach that application differently than a school that you don’t want to go to. Um, so I think that that’s the case.

Um, I also would say, um, and this is kind of similar to what Chelsea said, but, um, definitely catch yourself if you’re feeling like you’re trying to check off a checklist. Right. If you’re trying to say, oh, did I have volunteering? Did I have a job? Did I have research experience? Did I have all these things?

Unless those are things that you know your school requires. So if you’re applying to like an accelerated medical program, yes, you might spec your school, might specifically want research experience or volunteering experience, but otherwise. really following your passions and then allowing those to take you deeper, allowing those to give you opportunities to be a leader.

So if you’re excited about video games, establishing a video game competition team at your school and leading it and following through on that, that it shows just as much as, um, something, something else that some other student is doing. Um, so it doesn’t have to be a specific activity. It has to be true to yourself and then creating that depth, showing that you’re going to be the type of citizen that any college you want to go to is going to be excited to happen.

Anna: Thank you. Um, we’ve also had a host of questions about ACT, SAT, test optional. Um, what? What are you telling students these days about standardized testing?

Hannah: I’m sorry. Go ahead. So, um, I’ll let Chelsea answer probably about test optional and what schools are looking for in that. Um, SATs and ACTs are part of the process. They’re not the whole process, right? So I definitely recommend that, um, every student give them a shot. If you are STEM oriented student, you have some talent for science, then the ACT is a good one to try out because there is a science section.

If you know science is absolutely not your expertise, then maybe just focus on the SAT. For some students who don’t, who are in between, they can try both. Um, it’s a tool that you, that can really help you in the college process. So if you try to, and you take that SAT or ACT, you take it a couple times and you see how you do, and then you can compare that to the colleges and the averages that you, that at, that exist at each of the different colleges.

If it’s something where you are finding that your score is above the average, above the kind of the middle, middle of the middle, 50%. Then this is, then you’re looking at colleges where your test scores are going to be kind of an asset to you in the application process. The awesome thing about admissions nowadays is that so many colleges are test optional.

So it is just a tool in the toolkit. Um, a lot of colleges, you know, even that are returning to tests, having tests as part of the picture are not relying on them as heavily as they were pre. COVID, um, too. So it can be, it’s a tool that can be really helpful, but there’s also the option of going test optional, which means that you can, if you’re a strong student in other ways, you can use that and kind of put that at the forefront and not really not use the test scores as much.

Um, but I, Chelsea, I imagine you have some experience with test optional admission. So I’ll let you kind of speak to what specifically that looks like.

Chelsea: Yeah, so I’ll talk a little bit about what test optional means, um, and how you can begin to parse through different policies. Um, so to Hannah’s point, So many more institutions are test optional.

Now, post coded, um, there’s over 2,000 four year accredited bachelor’s degree granting institutions. Fewer than 100 of those actually requiring test as part of the admissions process. Um, I think it can be easy to, um, read the headlines of all of the kind of top 25 institutions that are going back to requiring standardized test scores.

Um, but if you look at the higher ed landscape as a whole, um, there is still the majority of institutions are test optional. Um, so with that being said, you want to find out exactly what the testing policy is. And keep in mind, these policies are shifting year by year, cycle by cycle. And so it’s possible that an institution that required test scores this previous year, um, May return back for the next year.

And so keeping up to date on the policies of these institutions so that you know how to plan. Um, to Hannah’s point, um, if you have the resources to test, um, you should be seeking out, um, one of the two tests just to see if you’ll do well. Um, once you find that out, um, then that can help. Um, you may find that you are not a good test taker and you have no interest in continuing to test.

And so then your college list may be filled with institutions that are test optional. Um, you may find that you are an amazing test taker, um, and then that may feel like a bit of a boost to your academic profile and you can tailor your list in that direction. Um, what I will say is, um, the best indicator of performance at college is student success.

still a four year high school transcript. Um, and so test scores, while they can help you in the process, um, cannot outweigh, um, a high school transcript that is not a good fit for the institution academically.

Hannah: I just want to add one thing too that I’m, I just so everyone knows if, uh, there are costs to taking the SATs and ACTs, um, there are also fee waivers.

So, um, Talk with your school counselor at your school. If you think you cannot afford it or it could be a financial burden, talk to your school counselor and make sure that before you decide not to take it, make sure that that you’re taking advantage of whatever options are available to you. Same thing goes for college application fees.

Um, so there are also fee waivers, both, um, kind of, uh, through the common app and also through individual schools. So, um, when you see those types of fees in the college process, make sure you’re asking questions to your school counselor or to the admissions officers at the school that you’re looking at and not kind of crossing it off your list and, um, right at the get go.

Anna: Thank you. I wasn’t going to go here quite yet, but Chelsea, you mentioned the importance of transcripts. As I said at the beginning, we’re not going to be able to get into everyone’s specific situations, but we do have a handful of questions that I think can boil down to how important are grades, especially if I, maybe my grades aren’t the strongest, but I’m a strong athlete, or I did well on the SAT, et cetera, et cetera.

Chelsea: Bottom line for us, how important are grades? So, uh, I think an admissions officer’s favorite answer is it depends, um, because it does. Um, so one, it depends on the school. Um, I do not want to assume that everyone that’s attending this webinar is planning to apply to, um, very selective institutions, right?

So, um, if you’re in the moderately selective or less selective range, um, grades can matter less. More selective at the institution. Oftentimes, the more grades do matter. Um, the kind of rule of thumb with your transcript is admissions. Officers are trying to see if you can succeed academically when you get on their campus.

So they are evaluating you. What the grades are. retention in mind and grades that are not in line with the academic profile can be a red flag that a student may not be able to do well once they get on campus. And so I think the the answer is if you’re looking at a selective institution, grades absolutely do matter.

And it is one of the first pieces of information that admissions officers are looking at. With that being said, the more selective the institution, the more all of the other things matter as well. Um, because students self select into selective institutions. So that means if there’s an institution that has a single digit admit rate, It’s a greater chance that their applicant pool is incredibly talented academically because these are the students that think that they might be able to get in.

Um, and so if these types of schools are on your list, um, yes, grades are important, but you must also be competitive in the other areas that they are looking for. Maybe it’s an institution where leadership is incredibly important. Um, or research. Um, again, it depends on what that institution values and what they’re looking for in a candidate. Um, but you must be well rounded in a selective and holistic admissions process.

Hannah: Agree with that 100%. I think one thing to add to is to think about the rigor of the courses that you’re taking. So, um, most schools, not all schools. So if you attend a very small school, this might not apply, but most schools kind of have a range of classes that you can opt to take. So there’s, you know, standard level classes and then there’s honors classes or AP or IB or something like that, college and high school courses.

So generally colleges are looking Um, especially competitive colleges are looking to make sure to see if you’ve challenged yourself. Have you pushed yourself to, to the degree that you’re really, um, engaging with coursework that is, um, really taking you to the kind of the college level of thinking, critical thinking.

So they are looking at for not only the great grades, but great grades in some more challenging classes. However, That does not mean drown yourself in higher level courses to the extent that you can’t succeed in the courses. Um, a B in a rigorous course, I would definitely say is better than an A in a non rigorous course.

However, you don’t want to be getting straight Cs. So there’s, it’s finding that balance because a straight, you know, a C, um, that’s, you know, you know about your understanding about three quarters of the information, right? Because it’s 75%. And so at that point, the college doesn’t, isn’t getting the evidence.

Kind of what Chelsea was saying is we’re looking for, when we’re reading applications, we’re looking for evidence that you’re going to be able to be successful at our institution. Right? And so when you’re getting, and obviously a C here and there and a really tough course. I get it, it totally happens.

I’m not saying a C is terrible. I’m saying if you’re drowning yourself in really high level courses, so that you’re, you know, consistently getting C’s across the board, then it’s thinking about how do I lighten this up? How do I, how do I focus the challenge into the areas that make the most sense for me?

So, but yeah, the colleges are looking for evidence, right? So Chelsea and I both worked at STEM based universities. So for me, it was really important to make sure that these students could succeed in math and science classes. So while I wasn’t as concerned if they may be struggled with an English class or social science class at some point in time, I needed to see evidence that they were going to be able to be successful in a math and science class.

And if maybe they struggled with one of those, then I’m looking at their, um, letters of recommendation. I’m looking at other aspects, seeing if they talked about that experience and what they learned and what they, what, um, strategies they put into place to try to be more successful in the class and to overcome those obstacles.

So, um, just, just pointing that out there, we’re looking for that evidence and that evidence comes through the transcript, but you also can speak to those difficulties, those challenges. I said my background, part of my background is in school counseling. I’ve worked with a lot of teenagers through the college process, and I know things happen in your life, right?

Um, unfortunately life doesn’t stop when you’re a teenager and things can get really hard for periods of time. If you have something go on in your life that makes your grades go down, whether it’s. difficult period with mental health, loss of a family member, a medical issue, concussions, um, make sure that you communicate that in your application.

And make sure that, uh, and you can, you don’t want to say your whole life story, but make sure you’re communicating this, this is what happened. Uh, a school counselor letter of recommendation can also explain that, and that’s a really great place to have someone kind of explain what, why your grades might have looked a little bit lower. So, um, you can express that.

Chelsea: Hannah, I also wanted to add to your comment about rigor, um, because I know there’s many questions about what’s better, AP or honors or IB or advanced, um, and that question, um, is absolutely valid, um, but I want you all to center yourself in your educational context, um, what college admissions officers are trained to do is to review you in the context of the opportunities Available to you.

Um, so essentially, that means that if you are at a high school that offers to AP courses, you would not be held to the same standards of rigor as someone who was offered 25 AP courses, or maybe there are no AP courses offered to you at all. Um, we are looking for you to have challenged yourself, um, based on the most challenging or rigorous course.

courses available to you. If you’re at a school that has a little bit of everything, oftentimes we may not know that the honors course is harder than the IB Course and the IB Course is harder than the AP Course. Those are nuances that might live at your high school. Um, we just want to see that you’re taking something above the on level course.

So, again, I think students get more caught up in what is, what looks better, um, more so than, um, how admissions officers are really viewing the rigor.

Anna: You predicted my next question, Chelsea, which was going to be about APs and context as someone who hadn’t heard of AP until I went to college and made friends who had APs at their college.

school. Um, I think it’s really important to know that colleges see the context of your high school. Um, how, how can students of color best navigate college admissions? Um, we talked about standardized testing coming back for some schools, but also with the, uh, recent Supreme Court case about affirmative action. What advice do you have for them?

Chelsea: Yeah, so, I think, one, to summarize, um, the effects of the Supreme Court case, um, college admissions officers are no longer to explicitly consider race, and so what that means is, um, two years ago, we opened up a Common Application, a student’s race, Um, would be listed on their Common App.

Now, when you all go to fill out an application, you will still note your race, that is data that the federal government collects, um, that all of these boards, um, and educational data, um, organizations collect, you’ll still fill that out, but it will not make it to the desk of the admissions officer, reading your application.

It will be redacted. Um, so that is what has changed. Um, Other than that, not much has changed about the way that admissions officers contextualize your background and your identity. Um, I think that the knee jerk reaction for high school counselors has been to instruct students of color to talk about their lived experiences as fill in the blank of whatever their identity is in their essays.

That’s something that the law says is absolutely okay. Um, and if that is true to you, feel free to do that. Um, but I’ve talked to students that said, I don’t want to spend my personal essay self identifying for the sake of self identifying. Um, and so again, I want, um, to encourage. Students of color in particular, um, to, uh, do what feels good to you and authentic to you in this process.

Um, and sometimes that is not parading around your identity just because. Someone told you that you should now. Um, with that said, um, there are so many other ways that we get background information about a student. Um, it could be the country you were born in. It could be the language that’s spoken at home.

It could be your religious organization. It could be, um, a cultural organization that you’re in. Um, in high school, there’s all of these clues that give us, um, some insight into your background. Um, and so I think if it’s something that’s that important to you, there’ll be other areas where, um, that is shown in your application and you may not have to go out of your way to mention it.

Anna: Thank you. Just pausing. I see. Oh, go ahead, Hannah.

Hannah: No, I was just going to, I was just going to say that was, that was spot on and that was beautiful. So

Anna: yes, I, as a co-captain of our essay review team. I’m grateful that you said that. I, I instruct my students a lot that the rule for your essays is every sentence needs to be conveying something new about you and something that’s important for you that the colleges know about you.

Um, so you need to be comfortable. You need to want to Whatever is going in those essays. So thank you so much, Chelsea. Can you walk us through the timeline? When should students be working on their applications? When do they apply? And if students are interested in playing sports in college and being recruited, does that shift the timeline in any way?

Hannah: Okay, so I can answer this. So the timeline, generally, the The process kind of depends on the individual and your goals, but I definitely recommend by junior year of high school to be starting the building your college list. So if I’m talking this, I know we have half the room is juniors right now. If you have not started your college list, you are fine.

Um, now is a great time to start. Um, but junior year of high school is really, I really recommend it. Students start exploring colleges, start ideally visiting colleges, getting their feet on campus or their virtual feet on campus. There’s a lot of really great virtual tours these days. Um, I recommend to students oftentimes to, even if they, even if you can’t visit other colleges that are further away, if you have any local colleges, try to get on that campus, um, ideally through an actual formal tour through the admissions office, which you can sign up on the website.

Um, to start getting a sense of what types of schools that you like, and this is something you can even do earlier on in high school to just get a feel. So I’m not saying freshmen and sophomores should spend every day, every weekend visiting colleges, but starting to get a sense of what you might like and what you might not like gives you that kind of a boost in terms of deciding on your lessons.

So junior year, a lot of that is building that list, right? Um, and then in going into the summer, that’s when you really can get started on your essay. So the common app has already released their essay topics for next year, which are the same as last year’s. And so you can, um, start taking a look at those.

Um, Um, start brainstorming, start journaling, start thinking about what you want your, um, your essay topic to be, and start working on your essays over the summer before senior year. Um, if you’re applying to more competitive colleges, um, you will have a number of other essays, so it’s in terms of supplemental essays, which are some small ones.

And there’s quite a few of them if you’re applying to a number of competitive colleges. Um, something else to be doing right now if you’re a junior is thinking about who you would like to have write your letters of recommendation. Um, so generally most colleges want about two, um, from core, um, teachers.

And so you can talk to your school counselor and find out what the process is for at your school for requesting letters of recommendation. But it is really nice to get those out of the way now, especially if you go to a school where a lot of students tend for your colleges, because a lot of students will be requesting those and you want to get your request into your teachers early.

If not many students attend four year colleges at your school, you getting that in a little bit later will probably be more okay, but it definitely doesn’t hurt to show that enthusiasm and get it in now. Um, so, and then by senior year, that’s really when you’re really digging in and you’re, um, doing the rest, the rest of the process in terms of actually completing the app, the common application, completing all the supplements, um, So, and then you usually submit your applications.

The first deadlines are usually as early as October 15th. A lot of times, more times than November 1st, November 15th. Um, and then deadlines go all the way out through February. Typically some schools are rolling, which means they continue to take out applications until they’re full. So there’s quite a bit of time throughout senior year.

You can choose which deadlines make the most sense for you. A lot of students do like to get them done early, so they can focus on the scholarships and other things like that and enjoying their senior year. Um, and so a lot of times after students finish their applications, then they go on and they can work on, um, applying to scholarships as well.

So that’s a little bit about the timeline. Do you, Chelsea, would you like to speak to the athletics piece?

Chelsea: Sure. I was going to say that’s a lovely timeline. I have nothing to add. Um, I think the, the athletic, um, piece, complicates the process a bit, right? Um, it is less of a linear process. Um, you have kind of two angles that you’re working, right?

So you are still tracking on all of the admissions. Deadlines and preparation. Um, but you’re also an athlete. And so you may be focused on getting highlight reel and making connections with coaches, um, coming to, um, trainings to make sure that they’re able to see you in person prior to, um, the actual application process.

And so I think You have some additional work to do if you are an athlete, um, because you are also needing to make a connection on the athletic side at a certain point of the process. The admissions office talks to the athletic office, but oftentimes, um, you’re already building connections on the athletic side before the admissions process even begins.

So I think that’s something. Thing to be mindful of, um, for student athletes. If you’re highly recruited, that starts very, very early, as early as ninth and 10th grade. Um, if you’re not a student athlete that’s being highly recruited, um, I would say by second semester of your sophomore year, um, you’re beginning to find ways to get yourself out there and make connections with coaches.

Anna: Thank you both. Um, how do students start compiling a realistic college list? And how, if it gets a bit long, Hannah, how, how do they pare it down?

Hannah: So, um, that journey, I think that, that journey is a, it should be a journey, right? So that’s why I do say start it early if you can. Because this should be kind of a iterative process. So, generally for students, I recommend that, um, the first part be some kind of self exploration. And some deep family talks, um, that it’s really important before you really start building a college list that all the expectations are out on the table, right?

So that the, um, parents, this is the time to talk with your kids about how much you’re willing to spend on college, um, whether or not you’re okay with them going across the country, uh, those types of conversations, whether or not the student wants to live on at home, whether, whether they need to live at home.

those those expectations, making sure that the parents and the students are on the same page is really critical because the student, as Chelsea mentioned in her kind of early intro, the students should drive the process. They should be in the driver’s seat. Um, but you don’t want them taking off and going in one direction.

The parents think they’re going in the other direction. So, um, that those conversations can be really, really helpful and create that family unity and that family bond throughout the process. So that there’s not as much tension, conflict, things like that, that can arise. If there’s. The expectations aren’t lining up.

So that’s the, that’s the first thing I think anyone should do with the college process. And then, um, do some introspection. There’s some great resources out there, um, even if you just Google, you know, uh, creating a college list, you can find types of questions and aspects of a college. How big of a school do I want to go to?

What major do I want to have? Or what type of, what type of area would I want to study? What type of vibe do I want on campus? Do, you know, is it, do I want a hippy dippy campus? Do I want a campus that is very academically motivated? Do I want an athletics campus? Do I want that rah rah sports culture?

Starting to really think about what do you envision your college experience being like, this is a place that you’re going to live. This is your little city or town community when you get to college. So really starting to process that. And then once you feel like you’ve figured as much as you possibly can on that note, Then you can start listing off colleges that seem to meet some of your requirements.

Um, so you can, you know, a number of different, um, search platforms that you can utilize. If you have access to Naviance through your high school, you can utilize that, um, to start identifying colleges that you might want to go to. And the first initial list can be long. It can be like 30 to 50 colleges if you want, it doesn’t, it doesn’t have to be short at first, um, but try, but, but starting to kind of build out those, those colleges that you might be interested in, and you don’t have to do tons of, if you just list off colleges that seem like they’re the right size and the right amount of, um, the right location and the right major at first, and then you can start to learn about them.

Um, so once you have a list. Then you really can start diving in and learning about these schools and pay attention to your intuition. Pay attention. If a school just seems off to you, okay, note that make, make a note of that. Um, and at this point in the process, when you’re starting to really learn about these schools, attending those virtual visits, like I said, and really, if you can try and start attending some in person visits, um, as well, cause those give you so much information about what would be a good fit for you.

Um, and. Colleges do pay attention to whether you’re attending their virtual visits, whether you’re paying, you’re attending their regular visits. They, they, it’s called demonstrated interest, and it helps them know that if they accept you, you’re likely to come. So, and most of them do actually track which students do virtual visits, so it’s not just the in person.

Um, so that, really the more time you spend personally, kind of learning about the schools, learning about the things, and reading about the different academic programs, reading about the culture, um, that helps you narrow it down. One thing to think about is you want to have a balance list, right? You don’t, you want, you don’t just want to have a list.

So, um, we usually have kind of categories. that you want to think about. So the first is what some people call the safety, um, here at CollegeAdvisor, a lot of us like to call it the anchor. Um, anchor schools. So those are the kind of the schools that you that you’re very likely to get into. So schools where all of your stats kind of are above their, um, general middle 50 percent averages all that.

So those are schools where you’re very likely to get in and that can be your local community college. Um, but that can also be private schools, state schools where you’re just above that. Those schools are a please make sure you like those schools. You want to like every school on your list. Those schools can sometimes be the best, um, in terms of the finances that you end up getting.

It’s in the best package, scholarships, so you don’t want to have that be the best financial option at the end and not even like the school. So definitely make sure that you have. And so for the list itself, I usually recommend six to twelve colleges. It depends on kind of what you’re applying to and Um, if you’re applying to a lot of very competitive schools or competitive programs, then you want to have more colleges.

Um, and if you’re not, if you’re applying to kind of a more, uh, focused list and you really, really like your, um, your anchor schools, then you don’t need to apply to as many schools. The next, the next group is the match school. So those are schools where you’re generally in the range of the other students who are getting in.

So that doesn’t mean you’re definitely going to get in because there’s so many factors that apply in terms of admissions. But it does mean that you have that, um, you have some schools where you have, you have a solid chance, like you’re, you’re in play, and then there’s the reach schools, um, and then, So three schools are schools where they’re, they’re above what you typically, you’re not typically in the range of who would get into those schools, but you really want to try also for students are straight a kiddos on here that also includes any student for even for you, where you’re the kind of average kid.

academic profile for say an Ivy League school or a top 25 school, those schools that have very, very low acceptance rates will automatically be reaches for any student, regardless of how good your grades are, because like Chelsea pointed out earlier, it really comes down to much more beyond grades because they are so selective.

So you really just can’t say, Oh, I have a good chance of getting in. Even if you have the most salary rates in the world, so making sure that your list is balanced between those options, and you have options of each of those categories is the best way to ensure success down the line. Um, so take time, work through that list, get it down to the point where you have a balanced, um, balanced list and all of those parts.

So that would be my recommendation.

Anna: Thanks, Hannah. I’m sorry. I called you out because you mentioned your college list, um, during your intro. Chelsea, anything you would add?

Chelsea: Um, I, that’s, that’s spot on. Um, that’s a very comprehensive explanation of list building, and particularly the categories. Um, I think I saw a comment from, um, from a dad in the chat about managing expectations and how do you do that?

Um, and I think it’s being realistic about the list building from day one. Um, to Hannah’s point, when we’re talking about super selective institutions, it is a reach for every student. There is no way to quantify your likelihood of getting into a school with a 3 percent acceptance rate or a 10 percent acceptance rate.

It’s just not possible. Um, and so the sooner students can internalize that part, um, and know that not getting into said school will not be a value judgment. It’s not a reflection of how hard that they worked in high school. Um, the better off you will be in this process. There

Hannah: are

students every day, every day that get accepted, or maybe not every day, every year that get accepted to one Ivy and not the other, um, that get accepted to one top 25 school and not the other. Um, and that is a kind of a great representation of the fact that it really has nothing to do with. You, uh, it is so much to do with just the nature of the fact that it’s a very, very selective school.

Anna: Absolutely. I’m going to pull up some slides that I want to show everyone. While I do that, Hannah, you mentioned, um, that colleges track certain types of engagement. Um, so we had some questions about, you know, should students reach out to their regional admissions officers? Should they sign up for email lists?

Like, what sort of things Do show that intent to attend.

Hannah: Oh, I love this question. I think that one of the things that I encountered so much as an admissions counselor is that families didn’t know how much they can utilize admissions counselors. So admissions counselors really are there as a resource and they’re usually very open when you ask them questions about their school, about their admissions processes.

So it, you absolutely can utilize the admissions counselor. Who should be utilizing the admissions counselor? The student. 100 percent the student. Um, that, like we said from kind of like Chelsea said from the beginning, the student should be in the driver’s seat. And what is going to be benefiting the student most is if they’re the ones in contact with the admissions counselor.

So at some, at some schools, they don’t track demonstrated interest. That means that they’re really not like looking at, you know, whether you have engagement at all, some colleges track it. So they’re looking at more kind of the data points. Have you visited campus? Have you done a virtual tour? Have you. Um, reached out by email.

Have you signed up for a mailing list? So, you know, fill out the, I don’t know if they still do cards at college visits or if you fill out some form, but those those are attending a visit when a college admissions officer comes to your school. Those all can count as kind of data point at the smaller liberal arts colleges or just smaller colleges in general, you actually can develop a relationship with your admissions officer.

You can, you can actually ask them questions and they’ll remember your name. They might remember your actual face. Um, if you come to campus and you set up a visit with them, if you do, um, an interview with them, or if you just send them a decent amount of emails, every time you have a question, a smart question, not something that you can Google.

Um, but so especially if you’re interested in some of those smaller schools, definitely, definitely do that engagement because they really are remembering those people and they’re, um, part of the admissions process and that missions review process is what’s called committee and that looks very, very different at every school.

But at those smaller institutions, a lot of times committee is a very engaged process where people are sitting in a room together, and they’re actually really talking about students. And if someone knows you and knows your name and knows your face, and they can say, Oh, this student emails me all the time with the greatest question.

And then that can really speak to something when they’re really making those, those decisions.

Anna: Thank you, Chelsea. Anything you would add?

Chelsea: Nope, nothing to add on that one. It’s perfect.

Anna: Awesome. Thank you. Well, I’m going to give you two a break for a second because you’ve been, um, sharing so much wisdom with us because I want to point out some opportunities for folks here. So on Saturday, May 4th, which is Saturday.

coming up soon. Um, there we are co hosting a virtual event, um, for students to engage with college admissions reps, industry leaders, and other students and parents. It’s a great opportunity to network and connect with former admissions officers from pretty cool colleges. Um, so check it out. You can scan the QR code on the screen to register.

You can also download these slides if you go to the handouts tab, um, it should be available there. You can download those and have the QR code for you in case you’re not ready to scan it right now. Uh, so that’s the first thing I wanted to share. The second is for those in the room who are not already working with CollegeAdvisor.

We know how overwhelming the admissions process can be, and we have a team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts who are ready to help you and your whole family navigate the college admissions process in one on one advising sessions. We’ve already helped over 6, 000 clients on their college journeys, and I’m really excited to share that we recently analyzed our data from 2021 to 2023.

And we found that our students are 3. 6 times more likely to get into Stanford, 4. 1 times more likely to get into Vanderbilt, and 2. 7 times more likely to get into Harvard. So increase your odds, take the next step in your college admissions journey, and sign up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team.

You can do that by scanning this QR code, which again will be available for download in the slides in the handouts tab, um, and check out that pre 45 to 60 minute meeting where you’ll get a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations. And then at the end, you’ll learn more about the premium packages we offer that carry you an expert who can support you and build with your college list, everything, your essays, everything we’ve been talking about here.

Um, so there was a question in the chat. Is it helpful to have a CollegeAdvisor? We think yes. Why not check out the free 45 to 60 minute strategy session by scanning that QR code. All right, I’m done with that, but that QR to stay on the screen, so give it a scan anytime. And we’ll use the rest of our time to go on for your questions.

Um, we have a couple questions about financial aid. So high level, what does that process look like? And then in terms of scholarships, is there any, any one or two sites that you recommend for finding Scholarships. So

Chelsea: I’ll cover high level. Um, so I think the first step for all of our domestic applicants, um, is to fill out a FAFSA.

Um, if you all are in the know with what’s going on this year, there’s been tons of changes to FAFSA. Hopefully by the time you all, um, are applying next year or the year after. All of those changes and issues will be straightened out. That is my prayer. Um, The FAFSA matches you with federal funds as well as state funding that, um, considers need.

It is also an avenue for, uh, federal Student loans, parent plus loans, all of those things. And so it’s often the very 1st, um, introduction that the institution has to you from an aid and financial perspective. In addition to, um, the fast, um. Individual institutions have their own merit scholarship or need based scholarship programs.

So typically you would fill out the FAFSA, you would note all the schools that you would like to send your FAFSA information to. The institutions receive that information and they have a sense of your need, your financial picture, and then they are able to match you both with federal and state funding.

As well as institutional funding that exists, um, all of that leads to the generation of a financial aid award letter. Um, I think when folks hear financial aid, um, it always feels need based, um, but that’s not the case. The aid letter is. everything that the institution is willing to do to help cover your costs.

Oftentimes, merit scholarships will also be included on a financial aid award letter. Um, some institutions have a separate merit scholarship process where you fill out a scholarship application. Um, other institutions, the merit scholarship process is baked into the admissions process. So there’s nothing that you need to do.

Um, they would also review you for scholarships and award students at the time that they’re awarding you for admission. Um, I think the big idea here is to have the conversations about finances early. Um, whether it is with your parent, Um, no matter where you fall on the income spectrum, the conversation about finances is important.

Um, for a student who, um, has high need, um, they might be only looking at institutions that are going to meet their full need, which means if you demonstrate that you are unable to pay tuition and fees, the institution is willing to meet and cover that gap, um, for families that may be considering full pay.

There’s still a number oftentimes that they’re not willing to go above. And so what is that cost of attendance number and how will that, um, influence that college list? Because affordability is also a part of that college list. Um, you want to consider that very early on. Um, merit, merit scholarships can cover the gamut.

Um, for some institutions, there is a minimum GPA and test score, um, that will. grant you a merit scholarship. Um, sometimes there are accolades like being the valedictorian of your institution that might award you a merit scholarship. And other times it’s just as competitive as the admissions process. And so it really depends on the school.

Um, and so it’s super important to do your research about scholarships at the schools that you are interested in applying to.

Hannah: In terms of outside scholarships, um, there’s a couple different ways you can get outside scholarships. So I’ll talk primarily about kind of, well, first we’ll talk about junior scholarships.

This is a part that I think sometimes people don’t know about and then they get upset because they didn’t realize about it sooner. So a lot of colleges offer what is kind of traditionally called a book award, um, in our junior scholarship, and that is a scholarship specific to their school for a pretty significant sum of money usually.

And it’s usually given out to one student at each, at a number of different high schools that are participating in the, and um, in their book award program. Right? So this is each high school. The high school is usually who determines how they’re allotting these scholarships, right? So some high schools, this is actually a competitive process where students have to apply by writing essays or books.

Some other means, um, for these scholarships, some high schools, it’s purely a kind of behind the scenes committee process of deciding who gets these scholarships. So why I mention this is because if you attend a school that has a competitive process, it’s really good to know that that’s happening. Um, your school counselor will probably try to make sure you know, but it’s good to be aware of it.

And you can even ask ahead of time, are there junior scholarships? What’s the process? What does that look like? It’s also a good thing to be aware of if the school’s on your list. Just have those programs because sometimes even if a school, if the college on your list doesn’t typically partner with your high school, they might actually be able to partner with your high school if you, if you initiate it and you ask about it.

Um, so those are specific scholarship opportunities for juniors. So some of you, it might be helpful to look into it, some of you it might not, it might not matter, but I like to point that out. Typically, most students do the bulk of their outside scholarship applying to during senior year, although there are a few scholarships that happen during other years, um, But the bulk of them are senior year and how I recommend looking for those scholarships.

Uh, I would say two of the good websites are goingmary.com, scholarships.com, both good websites. However, make sure you make a separate email account before you give your, I mean, this goes for just general, I would say for a lot of, um, anything you’re signing up for that’s. Where you could get flooded with things, but definitely those scholarship websites, you’re going to get so many emails from them.

So make a separate email address and give that to the scholarship websites, um, because you’ll get a lot of emails, but they are great because you can really kind of hone in on what your talents are, what, what you out aspects of you in terms of, um, your, everybody. Everything and people don’t realize that another area that there’s also scholarships is local scholarships.

So, um, most communities, most high schools, most You know, cities, towns have a number of scholarships that they actually offer through community organizations and things like that. So your high school likely has some filing cabinet somewhere of, or on Naviance or another platform like that of scholarship opportunities.

And those are usually less competitive than these big national opportunities. Sometimes one person applies depending on if, you know, what type of school Go to, so

Anna: I see that we are at time presenters. If you have another minute or 2. I just, I, I think the theme of a lot of the questions that are left in the chat. Is, you know, Yes. How many activities should I do? But really, like, is there just one thing? Is there just one that I can do that I need to do that will absolutely help me get in?

Um, I, I’m setting you up for the answer because I, I think I know it. Um, and then in like 30 seconds, so if you haven’t answered that, then 30 seconds, last minute advice.

Chelsea: So, um, first question, there is no number that you can walk away with, and this would be such a much easier process. If we could give you kind of some, um, direct do this activity. Um, it has to be 9 activities for this many hours, but it just doesn’t exist. Um, you can, however, pose for questions. A version of that question to the colleges you’re interested in, um, what types of activities, um, do you like to see on a student’s activity list?

Um, how important is being highly involved, um, to you in your admissions process? So, um, those types of questions can maybe get a little closer to what you’re asking. Um, and the second question, last bit of advice, um, when I went through this process, Oh, God, probably 20 years ago. Um, there wasn’t social media.

There wasn’t the level of performance and presentation about the college admissions process and and where you attended. And so I really encourage students to kind of focus on themselves. Um, if. Where you’re going and where other people are going is a source of anxiety. Um, then walk into this process and say, Hey, I’m going to talk about this with my college counselor, my, um, CollegeAdvisor, my parents, and a couple other people, and that’s it.

Um, so don’t fall victim to comparing yourself and your application process. To other folks, um, that almost always ends in turmoil. Um, so I just encourage you to, um, focus on yourself. Comparison is the thief of joy in this process.

Anna: Thank you, Hannah. Any last 30 second piece of advice to students?

Hannah: Yeah. I, my big thing is. Really don’t be afraid of rejection. Rejection can be really beautiful and sometimes it’s really painful, but the college process is an awesome opportunity to practice. putting yourself out there, trying something, applying to a scholarship that you maybe wouldn’t get. Um, it’s been shown with, um, like job applications that, um, white men tend to apply more aggressively to jobs over their, um, over their, their actual abilities or at their abilities.

And then other parts of our other members of our communities. Women, people of color tend to not go for those opportunities, those same opportunities as people with equal qualifications. And I think that my guess is that goes for the college application process too, and for scholarships. So even if you think maybe something is a little bit beyond your reach, put in your best foot, put your best foot forward and go for it. And then still love yourself and still be proud of yourself. Even if you don’t get it.

Anna: I love that. Thank you. I have goosebumps. So eyes on your own paper, put yourself out there. Thank you so much, Chelsea and Hannah. This has been fantastic. We could keep going. Thank you, everyone, for the questions. Um, I want to point out, especially since there are a lot of questions still, that we do webinars like this quite frequently and the recordings of them are available on our website.

So check out the upcoming topics and also check out our database of webinars that will go into more depth in all sorts of topics. Thank you all. That is the end of our webinar for tonight, and have a, have a great evening.