AO Advice: Building Your Personal Brand

Webinar Transcription

2023-02-07 – AO Advice: Building Your Personal Brand

Lonnie: Hello, everyone. Welcome to CollegeAdvisors AO Advice Building Your Personal Brand webinar. To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll first start with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q& A. On the sidebar, you can start downloading our slides, and you also can start submitting your questions in the Q& A tab.

Now let’s meet our panelists.

Aya: Hi, everyone. I’m so happy to join you all today. My name is Aya Waller-Bey, and I’m a former admissions officer from Georgetown University. I’ve been working with CollegeAdvisor now just about two years, I believe, so it’s been some time. A little bit about my background. As I mentioned, I’m a former admissions officer from my alma mater, Georgetown University, where I study sociology.

I then joined the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, where I also oversaw multicultural recruitment. Additionally, in that role, Um, I supported, uh, students for our, our multicultural students, our low income first generation college students. Soon after, I graduated and went to England, where I got my master’s at the University of Cambridge, where I began to do, um, some alumni interviewing.

So I’ve, I’ve interviewed, uh, students who are applying to Georgetown or who have submitted their applications for about five or six years. I’m now currently getting at Mich college admission. So a l higher education and I’m to talk to you more about brand.

Lonnie: Yes, definitely. A your background, I feel v information you’re going our audience this evening personal brand.

So before the actual presentate pre portion of our webinar. Um, wanted to get a sense of what great you are in. So we’ve already launched the poll and thank you to everyone who have started to submit what grade you’re in. So right now we have a pretty good, you know, mix of everyone from every grade level all the way from eighth grade to 12th grade.

With a good percentage of our participants are in the 11th 63 percent that are in the 11th grade and then about 4 percent that is other. I’ll turn it over to you, Aya.

Aya: Awesome. So, um, the fact that we have such a widespread of young people in the audience actually makes it really good. This is a really timely and salient conversation, especially for those, again, though, here we have quite a few juniors who are really thinking about how to market themselves and support, um, you their college admissions application.

So to start with this conversation, you know, what is a personal brand? So when thinking about a personal brand, I think there are a few questions that you should pose to yourself. And these are guiding questions, right? So you want to think about how do you want people to remember you? Right? So when someone meets you, when someone reads your work, whether it’s your college admissions essays or your college application at large, if someone interview interviews you for opportunity, whether it be for, um, admissions or scholarship or fellowship or what our job, you want them to, you know, have a perception of you.

So you’re always thinking about how do you want people to remember you? The second question is, Thinking about, you know, what qualities do you want others to know you possess? Right? So you want to be able to leave them, um, thinking about how your strengths and the traits that you maintain, you know, areas where you shine, areas where you exceed, you know, so if you have strong leadership skills.

skills. You have strong public speaking and communication skills. You want to think about how you’re leaving that impression, right? And then thirdly, you want to think about how you add value to your communities, right? So there are areas where you are already doing the work areas where you’re already shining, probably quite naturally.

And you want to think about like how you’re adding value to the various communities to which you maintain membership, right? So and thinking about your personal brand, think about these guiding questions. So given those questions, um, and defining this personal brand, you were forming an intentional message to an audience, right?

So there’s intentional messaging. Yeah, you’re being strategic, uh, and very precise about how you’re communicating the story of self, as I like to say. You also want your personal brand, or a personal brand also tells your story, your guiding principles and contributions, and I mentioned a little bit about that earlier, but your personal brand should signal to your audience, you know, what values are important to you, what values guide how you contribute, what values guide how you make decisions, what values guide, uh, you know, how you decide to give to your community or the type of student or young person you are.

So that is what your personal brand is communicating. And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it reflects your authenticity, right? So one thing I want to keep in mind is even though the message is intentional or perhaps strategic, that does not mean it’s inauthentic, right? So you could do both of those things, but you want to make sure you are being truly authentic and being honest about who you are, the types of contributions you make to your community, the contributions you want to make to a college campus or a campus community, and you want it to be genuine, right?

You want it to reflect who you are, um, and make sure that it is, it’s reflecting the core principles that guide who you are. So you really want to be intentional about that. Again, we are not asking you to perform, right? Or reinvent. You know, a persona, right? Your brand should already reflect who you are and what you’re doing in your community, in your school, or just in your personal life.

Now, why is a personal brand important at all, right? And I think with the um, the increased use of social media from TikToks and to Twitters and YouTube and Instagram, you know, people are often thinking about branding, right? How do they present themselves? And oftentimes it is associated with the opportunities that may come after you’ve branded yourself in a very particular way, right?

So when you think about some of the brands that, uh, or people who have personal brands that resonate with you, there’s oftentimes you can associate them with a certain type of thing, right? So a personal brand is important because it clearly communicates who you are and it gives valuable information to an audience.

Such as admissions committees, right? So again, it is clear by reading your application or by looking at your extracurricular list. It’s you’re communicating something to an audience, right? And it’s giving valuable information. What do you prioritize essentially, right? So it helps to communicate your priorities and things that are most important to you.

A personal brand also helps to control your narrative, right? So we ought to talk about where in the college admissions application can you, as a student, talk about who you are. So, you know, you have the quantitative factors, so your test scores and your GPA, which communicates who you are in a very, you know, specific way.

And then you have the letters of recommendations that your teachers or coaches may write. And then that’s them telling their story of who they think you are in their own words. And then you have the personal statements or supplemental essays, which really gives you an opportunity to talk a little bit more at Lyft about some of the, the, um, People that matter to you, some of the ideas or areas of that interest you.

So when thinking about your personal brand, you want to think about how I’m controlling the narrative, right? You want to be able to tell the story in your own words and on your own terms, right? A personal brand is also important because it emphasizes how you differ from your peers, right? No two people are alike.

Even if you want to study chemical engineering and you’re You know, your best friend wants to study chemical engineering, and you go to the same high school, and maybe you’re both on student council, and maybe you live on the same street. Those things can all be true, and yet you are two different people, right?

So your personal brand, how you tell the story of self, how you communicate who you are, the narrative and the story you create about your identity and your experiences, that is different than what your peer is going to have about themselves, right? So a personal brand also helps to align you. and make you distinct from other people that even may share a similar background, right?

So, personal, a personal brand is important because it helps to you, you know, differ from your, from your peers or people in your community. Also, in thinking particularly about the college admissions process, the personal brand is important because it also communicates to you. bit, right? So when looking at a personal brand, you know, say you’re applying to a perhaps a very stim, um, institution that is known for being stim focused, say, um, say a Carnegie Mellon University, right?

Where a lot of students are applying, they want to study computer science. Right? If there is an alignment between your personal brand, the story of self, your interests, your priorities, that also makes signal that you’re a good fit for that institution. So that’s something to think about. Of course, there’s a diversity in a range of experiences.

You don’t have to be met on exactly what the, you know, said institution, right? You want to reflect your authenticity. But a personal brand can also communicate it. So that is something to think about. And that’s also something to, and thinking about why is important. You want to consider these, these four factors.

So now we have, you know, this, this question, a very, very important question. What are some of the ways you can build your personal brand? Right? So one thing I want you to think about, uh, is taking a inventory of what you are already doing, right? So for a lot of you all, um, maybe your high school, um, might require you to build a resume.

Maybe there’s a course in your high school where you actually create a resume. But if you don’t have a resume, even if you’re a middle school student or a ninth grade student, I will consider. I strongly encourage you to consider Creating a resume, right? And it doesn’t have to be the traditional resume where your name is on the top and you have your address and those things for this purpose I I encourage you to create what I call them A master resume and that allows you to do your personal inventory So on this list and this can be it can be 10 pages long a traditional resume For those with 10 years experience or less, it’s usually one page, but for your purpose, create a master resume.

Uh, I want you to think about your strengths, like list what your strengths are, right? So maybe you are very skilled, um, in, in, in solving, um, you know, or, Coding, right? So maybe coding is a strength that you possess, right? And because you have a strength in this particular area, you’ve been able to, you know, create programs or maybe you are a skilled debater, right?

And therefore you’ve won awards or you’re the president of your speech and debate team. Or you have been told that you are able to carefully and thoughtfully and eloquently craft messages. Um, so think about your strengths, right? List those on this personal inventory. And then leadership, right? So again, we are thinking about authenticity.

So I don’t encourage anyone to just start doing things to present themselves in a certain way. I want you to think about the things you already enjoy doing. You know, maybe as a sophomore, you can’t get the class president, but you’re a class officer for your sophomore class. You really enjoy programs.

You really enjoy kind of diversity and equity type of work. You know, think about where you’re already shining and performing, right? So your leadership. In addition, activities, right? So maybe you are an athlete, uh, and you really, really, really love, uh, You know, basketball and, and swimming and ice hockey.

So think about the various activities and sports you were a part of. And then you have, again, some of those awards and honors that you may have received, but within your community or within your school or within your class or by the state, you know, think about awards you may have received and what areas do they fall under.

Uh again service opportunities Research experiences and that can be both research you are interested in doing or research that you have done Or research that you’re currently doing It could be personal research. Like maybe you just love a particular topic and you find yourself on youtube reading about it and learning about it.

Uh, and then of course your skills, your talents, those are the things you want to consider. And then personal, not academic highlights also. So for some students, you know, they’re, they shine in the classroom and then some people shine outside of the classroom. So there, there can be really cool things that you do outside of the classroom, things you taught yourself to do, whether it’s like learning a new language or whatever it be.

Maybe you love arts and crafts or drawing. Think about how you speak to yourself. Think about the story of stuff you’re telling to other people. And then so, and so that is one way to really kind of dig deep about where, how does my personal brand even come together ways I can start building it. So do a personal inventory.

And then secondly, I research models, right? So consider the brands and reputation of those you admire and respect. There might already be people that you follow on social media or students who graduated from your high school or friends in your community. And you’re like, wow. I love how they are so dedicated, you know, and committed to the, uh, telling, you know, young children and particularly young girls that they too can major in STEM, right?

And maybe their entire, uh, kind of like online presence is dedicating to addressing or demystifying some of the processes of majoring in computer science for girls, right? Or women. So think about some of the people you already admire. Who has a clear, cohesive, inconsistent story, right? So research models.

And then finally, write your story, right? So, you know, you are, if you’re applying to a college or university that has or requires a personal statement, which a lot of them do, you are going to be required to write a personal essay that you submit by a common app or a university’s personal application portal.

So it’s really important to use for you to start thinking about your story. What is it that you want the audience to know about you? Right. What do you want to communicate? Okay. What do you want to communicate about yourself? How do you want to show up in that process? How do you want them to associate you?

So when they read your application, what are the associations that they’re making? Right. So those are ways to build your personal brand. Okay. Take a look of what you’re already doing and write a master resume or personal inventory, research the models. So people you are already following and engaging that you might respect, and then write your story.

You know, write that down, you know, it could be if you think about it, like your bio, you know, I have to write a lot of bios for talks that I give for work and school. So think about what would your 250 word bio say about you? That is how those are three ways to start building your personal brand.

Lonnie: Okay, so speaking of building your personal brand and writing your story, we want to get a sense of who you are.

Where you are in the application process, so let us know, um, perhaps you haven’t started yet Or you are in the research phase and you’re looking up schools thinking about where you would like to apply Maybe you’re working on your essays Or getting your application material together, or you may be almost done.

Let us know. Let’s see Give it a few more seconds Okay, now I think I got a good, a good amount of responses. So we have 68 percent of our participants are researching schools followed by that we have 24 percent who haven’t started but I know after this evening, they’re going to be ready to start. And then we have 7 percent working on essays 3% Getting your application material together and 2 percent almost done.

Okay, I’ll turn it back over to you, Aya.

Aya: Awesome. Thank you so much. Um, again, a lot of diversity there, um, in the responses, but I also think that reflects the diversity of our audience tonight. So in thinking about, um, you know, developing a personal brand that is well developed and that can help you stand out in the college admissions process, you want to think about, um, Or rather, like, how this could aid you in the college admissions process.

You want to think about how the impression is going to leave, right? So a really well developed personal brand will leave an impression on admissions officers. So admissions officers, when I said, Or should be a connection to a topic idea, right? So bear in mind, you know, some schools, they’re reading 30, 000 applications, or they may not be reading.

There might be some automated process for a larger public universities. So, you know, those are kind of less personalized experiences may alter some of this. But, uh, when you think about our, our smaller institutions that are reading these essays or reading your applications, you know, you, you might want to think about, okay, what story am I telling, you know, what impression am I going to leave on the office?

I think about when I used to read applications with my colleagues, and I remember, you know, a student who, uh, started her own cupcake business, um, and was, uh, it was, Looking quite successful, um, for her to be a high school student. And I never forgot that young lady, you know, I remember connecting, she was applying for the business school.

And I remember thinking about how her, her, her brand, her story really connected to her entrepreneurial instincts, right? And she was a first generation college student and she was doing, creating a successful cupcake business that was actually helping her contribute financially to her family, but also with something she loved and something she enjoyed, right?

So that was. Communicate it through her activities list and her essay and also in letters of recommendation. And we’ll talk a little bit more about that as where you can communicate personal brand. Also think about how a well developed personal brand can help you stand out in the college admissions process.

You know, they can really help. They help you define your strengths and reputation. You know, so admissions officers have positive associations with your name and application. So similar to what I mentioned before, you know, a well developed personal brand will really show where you shine. Right. How are you known in your community?

How are you known by your peers? How are you known by your teachers and your counselors or your interviewer? If you are interviewed or applied to a school that requires or offers, um, interviews. Right? So you will a good person. Really shows where you shine, you know, maybe you love foreign affairs. Uh, maybe you have done work and model you in, uh, and maybe there’s just a clear connection between what, what your strengths are and like who you are and admissions officers can connect.

That right. So again, a good, a well developed person’s brain can really personal brain can really help you stand out in that regard. It also, and this is quite important, right? It communicates what type of student you will be on a college campus. You know, admissions officers, you know, can picture the type of contributions you might make to a college campus or a campus community, right?

So you have some students who based on the work that they’ve done at their, in their local communities, based on how they talk about their experiences and based on how they talk about the universities that they’re applying to. they can really signal that what type of student they might be on campus, right?

So for an example, you might have students who are very committed to student activism, right? And they kind of talk about the activism that they’ve done in their local communities. They may write about it in a personal statement or a supplemental essay. They may talk about it or list it in extracurricular activities and you might notice a theme or a pattern, right?

So then as an admissions officer, I’m saying this might be a student, you know, who may also engage in activism as a student on our campus, right? This might be a student, you might contribute to some of the social movements that we have on our campus. So again, a well developed personal brand can really help you stand out in the college admissions process.

And the way to do that is, you know, you’re making sure, you know, it’s leaving an impression. It’s helping to define your strength of reputation. And again, it’s communicating what type of student you may be. on a college campus.

Now, where my application can I highlight my passions and personal brand? And I said a little bit about this earlier, but everywhere there’s opportunity in almost every part of the application for you to talk about your passions and your personal brand, right? So naturally you have personal statements where, you know, the Common App has, I believe, six prompts and also a choose your own adventure type of prompt, right?

So you can use it there. You also have supplementary essays where students that might be more niche or idiosyncratic or, you know, there’s all types of ways that universities use their supplement supplementary essays. So that might be a place where you could talk about your passions for biking or your passions for baking or your passions for coding, right?

Your activities list. You don’t get a hundred activity spots, right? So you have to kind of list your activities in a way that communicates your passions and your personal brand. And we know that students have a diverse, you know, diverse interests, right? They’re students who like to juggle and code and volunteer at, you know, local animal shelters.

And that makes up who they are, right? But generally there tends to be a pattern for students in our leadership, you know, uh, and activities that they enjoy doing. You start to see how students are spending their time and the things that they choose to highlight and focus on in their applications. So that also helps you kind of see, um, where Their branding and their passions lie.

So the activities list is a great way. Class schedule. So I know that, you know, oftentimes there’s very limited kind of wiggle room, especially if you’re going for a more rigorous and selective kind of institution. Therefore, your courses you have, there’s kind of mapped out four years of math, four years of language, four, you know, et cetera.

However, when you have those electives and you have those moments, if you can take robotics and et cetera, you’re, we’ll be able to see like, okay, They’re part of their president of the school robotics team. They also took robotics. They also competed in the state competition. So you start to see, um, themes and patterns.

And that is again another opportunity to signal personal brands. And then finally, Or not, you know, this is not a exclusive list, but thinking about interviews, right? So there’s an opportunity if there is an opportunity for you to talk to an admissions officer or a alum An alum from an institution, you know interviews is a great way also to highlight your passions and personal brand, you know If they ask, you know, tell me a little bit about yourself, you know, you can say hi.

Um, you know, i’m aya Um, I am a junior at you know, renaissance high school, you know You When I’m in class, I’m really, you know, really focusing. I really love reading. So I really thrive and like my AP English courses. I particularly love reading Toni Morrison. I feel like her, her literature really speaks to me.

And because I wanted to read more of it. I started a book club at my school. school and really got other students together who were also passionate about learning about more, you know, African American literature, right? So just in those two statements, I’ve already kind of highlighted what I’m passionate about.

I’ve already started to, you know, brand myself as a leader, someone who loves literature. Therefore I founded a book club at my school. So interviews also give you an opportunity to talk a little bit more about your passions and your personal. Brand.

Yeah. So in thinking about, you know, final tips on how to best build your personal brand, I really want to encourage you to start with your why. You know, so what, you know, what’s your, why, what is driving you, uh, what is motivating you and what is exciting you again, it’s important for you to talk about, you know, you know, why you’re doing, you know, and for whom are you doing the work that you do.

You know, why, why is it important for you to go to college? Why is it important for you to do this work? Why is it important for you to study this particular thing? What’s your why? You know, what’s driving you? Also, I want you to focus on the me, so the you before the we, the university. And I’ll, I’ll let, let me explain what that means.

Again, it is very easy to say, Hey, I looked online. It looks like these, these are the types of students they want. So therefore I’m going to contort to myself to fit their mode, right? That doesn’t really prioritize the you, the me, right? The authenticity. You want to show up as your full self because you also don’t want to fabricate a persona that doesn’t really align with who you are, that may fit the mode for university.

And then you get there and you’re unhappy because you couldn’t be your full self, right? We don’t want that to happen. Okay. Okay. You really want to go someplace where you will thrive, right? And you want to be honest and open about that. So focus on that. Again, what do you need? You know, do you find yourself thriving in environments where, do you are, do you prefer to be a big, a little fish in a big pod or vice versa?

Right? Do you want a smaller institution? Do you, is sports important to you? You know, therefore you want to be a part of a school that’s a sport culture. ’cause you feel like you all thrive in those type of environments. You really need to prioritize you, right? You also wanna tell your personal story.

Again, that is very important. As someone who studies college admissions essays. I’ve given quite a few, uh, webinars on college admissions essays. Your personal story is really important in telling you know, who you are. Um, the type of student you will be, right? So you want to think about building this brand by telling your story.

You want to share your passions, right? Share your passions. Uh, you really want to communicate what’s important to you. And something being important to you is, is, is. is vital, right? Who cares what they, those people say? It needs to be important to you. And then you want to look at the evidence. And, and, and again, that’s my sociologist jumping out, but you want to say, what, what does the data say?

Right? What have you shown? And what, where’s your proven track record? If you looked at your personal inventory that I encourage you to make, and you realize you’ve been doing a certain type of thing for several years, like you’ve been in the French honor society and the German and the Italian and the Swahili.

So. The data will say the evidence would say you, you may love languages, right? You may love culture, right? So that might be a part of your personal brand. So look at the work at what you’ve done. And then finally, this is a really interesting thing. So ask those who you trust to describe you. So earlier I mentioned, you know, you have a letter of recommendation and it can be, you know, sometimes some universities You You can do a sibling letter.

Um, you can do a teacher, coach, et cetera. But ask people you trust, you know, say, you know, if you can describe me in a sentence or two, what would you say about me? What do you think my strengths are? And then do, you know, ask yourself, do they name qualities and strengths you find most important to you? So think about how you are showing up in the world.

How are people receiving and perceiving you? You know, again, I say, start with self and focus on the me before we, but then after that, you want, I will love to You know, I encourage you all to ask others. How are you receiving me and see if there is an alignment between how you see yourself and how others see you because that can give you some insight about how, how is your kind of personal brand being communicated thus far?

You know, how, how, how are you communicating your passions thus far? And believe it or not, Even if it’s less crafted, we all have a personal brand. We all have a personal story. We all have our own identity, right? So it’s all about the intentional messaging and the intentional communication of such.

Lonnie: Thank you. That now concludes the presentation portion of our webinar. I hope you found the information very helpful. And just a reminder, you can download the slides for free. From the link in the handout tab. Now we’re going to move on to the live question and answer. I’ll read through your questions that you have submitted in the Q and a tab.

I’ll paste them into the public chat so that you can see them and then read them out loud before our panelists gives you an answer. As a heads up, if your Q& A tab isn’t letting you submit questions, just double check that you have joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not the webinar landing page.

And then you will also receive a copy of tonight’s webinar. It will be sent directly into your email. Okay, so our first question that we have is, I heard, I’ve heard that, excuse me, I’ve heard that colleges look at applicants social media. What if you don’t have one? I’m in the process of creating a LinkedIn, but that’s about it.

I have no socials. I

Aya: mean, so I’ve heard that too, student. Well, I’ll say this, you know, no social media is better than having social media that may portray you in a negative way. So I don’t, you will not be penalized for not having social media. Um, and I think a LinkedIn is just fine. If you find it, if you feel like you need one, if, I mean, you may not even need a LinkedIn, you are not required to have social media when applying to colleges and universities.

And frankly, I mean, I started with, I’ve heard that too, because. And my several years of working in higher education and college admissions, I never Um went to look on a student’s social media Because I just didn’t have the time, you know, unless there were some red flags or if someone kind of brought something to our attention in the admissions office, we were not spending our time perusing people’s social media.

We would, we would run out of time. Like, we just don’t have, we wouldn’t have it. And now, if a student talked about their social media, except for, You know, I don’t know if I could have done it more explicitly saying an application or they may have said they found it a club or something. I may have Googled, but not too, um, not just scrutinize, but to get more information, especially if I was nominating the student for like an internal award or for a special program.

Being able to have more data or information to justify said award might have been helpful. But, overwhelmingly, I would say yes. You are not being penalized for not having social media. And if you feel compelled to, to have a LinkedIn, because it is a more professional networking type of space, by all means do that, but not having other platforms or, or not even having a social LinkedIn at all, you will be fine in the admissions process.

Lonnie: Great. Our next question, I understand that essays need to be tailored to colleges. How do I know what is important for a specific college?

Aya: That’s a great question. So often colleges communicate what’s important to you, right? So I encourage you to go into the college’s website, right? First of all, see what’s on that home page.

What’s on that landing page? Are they talking about a new award that they just, you know, received from a donor? Are they talking about that they just established a new multicultural center? Are they profiling a student who just won a Rose scholarship? Um, so see what’s on that landing page. And then often, I mean the motto, The university’s mission.

You know, the mission often is very explicit about that was what the values are of the institution. So think about that. And then you want to think about what’s important to you and find that alignment there, too. So, you know, some universities might highlight that they’re in like a certain city. So in the heart.

Washington, D. C. Our students are very engaged in politics and they go, they intern on the Capitol. So they are telling you intentionally because the universities are, you know, they have a personal brand too, right? So they are intentionally messaging and signaling to you and your parents and other people who visit their website, what’s important to them.

So I say, you know, I say all that to say you can certainly just go onto their website. Okay. Click around some tabs, see how they’re communicating, look at their mission statement, read their, they’ll have a brief history, read that because that also will show what they choose to highlight, you know, what they choose to prioritize, which is what I said in our earlier conversation.

What are they prioritizing, right? What are they telling you or communicating? So that is a great way to figure out and that’s generally that type of level of specificity is often used in supplement essays or interviews because that personal statement you’re going to use to send that to all the colleges that you apply to.

So there’s not really room to personalize those, but the supplement essays is, you know, they might say, you know, why Dartmouth? And that then requires you to do a little bit more research using the websites as the tool. And I forgot to mention this the college social media. So we talked about social media a little earlier colleges are You know increasingly leaning in to various social media platforms, whether it be you know, tiktok or instagram You’ll see colleges and universities highlighting the students and they’ll say like today is Aya takeover day and then they’ll have me walking around showing you where I eat and where I live and the classes I’m taking.

So that’s also a way for them to signal, you know, what type of students that that are attending the institution, et cetera. So their websites and their social media are a great way. Are great places to start.

Lonnie: Okay. Um, thank you for that response. Next question is, uh, would you say there’s a certain limit to the number of clubs or extracurricular One should be a part of regarding volunteering student government, a job sports.

Oh, no question of sports and clubs. How much is enough, but also what is too much?

Aya: Well, I’ll say, um, the too much part. I mean, One thing to think about and this is why I say prioritize kind of the self and what’s important to you. Um, there’s only so many hours in the day, um, and especially for students who are taking full course loads, uh, and may have home responsibilities and sports and activities.

Um, too much would be clubs and activities that is clear you just joined in your junior year or your senior year to beef up your resume and there’s no, um, You know, no visible leadership or meaningful contributions or impact and they always started. They were you only joined within the last year. Of course, there’s difference.

If you just move to a different school and etcetera, we’ll have that context. So too much is just, you know, you know, we’ll add in the common app, you know, and applications tell you to indicate how many hours you spent, uh, onset activities during the week. And you know, if the math isn’t adding up, also that might present a red flag because you know, when will you, you know, when were you sleeping?

When were you eating? When were you actually in school? So the too much is really just anything that, um, appears to, that you just join for the sake of having, you know, for padding your resume. That never is a good sign. Or that the amount of hours you indicate that you’re committing just far exceeds what you will have a capacity to do as someone who’s.

eating, sleeping, and also attending school. Now, as far as a minimum, I mean, this is, it depends, right? You know, universities are looking for sustained engagement and meaningful impact, and that is defined by their student. Um, so if you have spent the past three years as a student officer or a student council, and, and by the time you’re a senior, you are then the vice president, that is showing some sustained engagement, that shows something you’re passionate about, right?

Okay. So student leadership, student government may be a passion of yours, and that’s a part of your brand. But then we also have students who literally just do not have the capacity to participate in clubs and extracurriculars because they’re working 20 to 25 hours a week after school to, for whatever reason, to save for college, to help support a family member, to help support their immediate household.

And those students are not penalized in the admissions process. We also have students who might have to stay home to help watch younger siblings while their parents work, right? So we often see students perform the roles as caretakers and supporting or tutoring siblings or, you know, changing diapers and etcetera.

So they can’t participate in a lot of pleasant activities. And we, That that’s important for us to know. And we consider that and thinking about the holistic context. So there is no particularly number, right? We just want students to show, you know, sustained engagement and meaningful impact. We want students to do what they’re passionate about, do things that speak to them, but there is no specific number that I can give you.

Lonnie: Okay, so what do you mean by interview at colleges? How do you do that?

Aya: Yeah, so great question. So some colleges and universities, um, once you apply, um, require that you are interviewed. So they all have different processes. Some universities, like my alma mater Georgetown, have alumni all over the world. And once you submit the first part of the application, they in their system that you’ve started an application and you are assigned to a alumni interviewer in your area if they are available, and they’ll do a virtual interview or somehow I think they’re going back into person.

Well, there’s an opportunity for you to tell a little bit more about yourself, get to know alumni, get to know them a little bit more. So, um, Are a member of the alumni community in your particular town or city or region, and that provides additional context for the application. So after they conclude the interview, they’ll write a report, submit it to the admissions office, and that’ll be just another piece of information that the university has to make an admissions decision.

You also have, um, Some universities who may provide the option to interview if they’re, if it just, if alumni, a member of the alumni community is just available in your region. So, for example, you know, Northwestern might invite you to do an interview, or you might, they may say, if you’re interested in interview, click this box, and if they do have interviewers available, that they will assign you one.

And then some only, you know, interview students, uh, for like scholarships. So there’s just various levels of interview, but for some applications from some universities, there’s an alumni interview or university based interview where they’re asking you questions to get to know more about you, to supplement and complement.

So it is not always required. Some universities requirement require it, but not all. Um, oftentimes it is there to help you and not to hurt you. So, you know, it’s giving them an opportunity for them to get to know you so you they can hear your voice and your own words. And then some interviews are really used to help make funding decisions as far as scholarships and grants.

Or they might ask you specific questions, uh, to see if you’re a good fit for a particular scholarship program. So, that is what I mean, uh, uh, about interviews.

Lonnie: Okay. Uh, next question is, Uh, how much does interaction with colleges before starting the application process make a difference? For example, signing up for newsletters and taking tours.

Aya: That’s a fantastic, fantastic question. So thank you to the person who asked that. It’s important. Um, you really want to, um, demonstrate interest and some schools are very explicit about that. Um, so, um, Signing up for newsletters, doing virtual tours, uh, visiting on campus during your spring break, sort of summer, if you can signing up for in person tours, sending emails to admissions officers where appropriate.

Those things matter for universities that are really concerned about demonstrated interest, because for them, a student who has demonstrated. consistent interest if they are admitted or more likely to attend, right? So they’re thinking about what we call yield. Yield is the percentage of students that after you’ve, uh, students that you’ve offered admission decisions, um, the, the percentage that actually accepts of that particular of the, those amount of decisions.

So they really want to have a high yield. They want the students that they admit to attend. And for them, demonstrated interest or students who have shown interest indicate that they’re more likely to come to that institution if admitted. So when in doubt, you know, start making those touch points now, getting on their listservs, you know, following up to newsletters, you know, just checking out the, um, websites to see if they have any opportunities to, to request more information.

Um, back in my day, when I was applying to college, uh, a lot of, they were still sending, um, a lot of universities were still sending, um, like physical pamphlets in the mail. Um, so I remember just requesting for all, you know, I remember UPenn and Northwestern and Georgetown requesting mailings and having like a stack this big.

Um, I didn’t even realize at the time that that was me signaling my interest, but that was also me demonstrating interest. So the short answer is yes, You want to, you know, request those newsletters, get on those mailing lists, you know, uh, and continue to stay engaged throughout your high school because for some schools it really, really matters, um, that you have, um, established interest in their school.

Great question.

Lonnie: Yeah, that was, that was a really great question. Um, our next question is, could you please explain the difference between an essay and a supplementary essay?

Aya: Yeah, sure. Great question. So, uh, so we have the college personal statement. The personal statement is usually, um, I believe it’s 650 words.

Um, it is found on the common app, but also other schools that who are not on the common app usually require a personal statement. And there are anywhere from six to seven essay prompts, and they range from what are you interested in studying and why to tell me about something you had to overcome. And it’s just an opportunity.

There are no requirements except, you know, the word count, which is, I believe, 650 for you to answer the question, tell the university more about yourself. What do you want them to know about you? And of course, making sure you answer the question. Now, you will write one personal statement. via the, especially via the common app.

And that one essay will be sent to all universities that you apply to. Okay. So in that essay, you’re not specifying, this is why I want to go to Georgetown, right? And that essay, you are just talking about who you are. Then you have supplement or supplementary or supplemental essays, which are often smaller or shorter, um, university specific essays.

And universities often use those to demonstrate fit. Now, not every school has a supplement. essay, right? Not all schools require them, but they are very university specific. So, you know, you might have an institution like University of Chicago, which is, you know, notorious for having very funky essay topics.

You know, you know, a question might be, if I was a, what would a wisdom tooth, what type of advice would a wisdom tooth give? That could be a supplementing essay. And again, for those essays, They are school specific, right? So you’re, you’re, you’re responding to a question that is created by a specific university and only that university will read it, right?

So if a school asks you why, you know, why Cornell, you know, or why Howard, that is very specific to the school itself. And the other schools on your list are not going to get those essays. You’re just responding specifically to that question. And again, they’re usually smaller. So anywhere from, you know, five words.

to, you know, 250 words usually on average. Some might be a little longer, but those are good. Again, they’re supplementing the other parts of your application and it communicates to the university, you know, the fit. It really shows that you’re really interested because you made the effort to respond to that essay.

And it just gives a little bit more context. It gives you some more. It gives the university more specific information about your interest in their school.

Lonnie: Okay, next question. Um, can you be bold to apply to some colleges that has a higher average GPA than yours? Of course,

Aya: why not? It’s average, right? So that means they accept students higher and lower.

So I mean, yeah apply

Lonnie: Okay, so we’re gonna take just a short pause Uh for me to share more with you all about CollegeAdvisor So for those who are In the room who aren’t already working with us. We know how overwhelming the admission process can be, especially for competitive applicants like yourselves.

You all are getting an early start with learning how to build your personal brand. Uh, so our team of over 300 former admission officers and experts are ready to help you And your family navigated all in a one on one or in one on one advising sessions. Take the next step in your college admission journey by signing up for a free consultation using the QR code on your screen.

During the consultation, a member of our team will review your current extracurricular list, discuss how it lines up with your college goals, and help you find opportunities to continue to Build and enhance and showcase your brand after scanning the QR code. You’ll be able to select a date and a time for a phone conversation with a member of our team.

So we will leave the QR code on the screen as we move forward with our remaining questions. And thank you to everyone who has been submitting questions. We’re going to try our best to get to most of the questions. So let’s see, next question.

Okay, so this question is, is it bad to put down extracurriculars outside of what you want to study in college? Such as, I want to be an engineer, but you know, I’ve started off something different that maybe isn’t similar to engineering.

Aya: Yeah, no, that’s not bad at all. I mean, they’re, um, I’m sure you will have engineering or STEM, you know, based activities already on that list.

But, you know, what universities are also looking for are students who are well rounded. So it is not bad to have a diverse range of interests, right? I mentioned that earlier. It’s okay to say you also enjoy skiing and also enjoy building robots. Those are, you know, they’re just showing other parts of your identity.

So the short answer is no, that’s not bad at all.

Lonnie: Okay, so next question. When submitting a college application, should you include a resume? Or is that like literally what the application is for?

Aya: I I say only submit a resume if they ask you to submit a resume. So there’s an opportunity to upload one upload one if there’s not that they have your activities list.

So I do not encourage. Um, students to submit anything, um, additional, uh, optional questions and things are different. But if it’s not even an option, do not give them more. We are inundated and bombarded with documents and papers and pages. I mean, there’s so much. So, uh, if it asks or gives an opportunity to submit a resume, sure.

But for many students, that activities list is basically their resume. So it is not required or necessary. So if they ask for one, of course.

Lonnie: Okay, how can I build a personal brand if I’m indecisive and can’t figure out what I want to do? In the future, I’ve tried narrowing down my likes and dislikes along with my interests, but I’m still struggling.

Aya: That’s a great question. So again, your personal brand is about who you are now. Um, so I want you to think about, you mentioned likes and dislikes, which I think is an incredibly important, uh, step, but also just think about like, what are you currently doing? So maybe there are 30, 000 things that you really enjoy doing, but think about where do you see the themes and the patterns, right?

Uh, where do you see the overlaps? So maybe you like doing, you know, five different activities, but they all happen to be outside. So maybe there is a love or passion for the outdoors that you discover because there are some similarities or commonalities between the things that you’d like to do, right?

Maybe you find yourself being more talkative in certain classes than others, right? So maybe you feel like you come alive in the English class as opposed to calculus. So there are seemingly something that my students. a passion of yours, um, inside of certain courses, that means you may enjoy them a bit more.

So, you know, I really want you to think about, um, again, that personal inventory, you know, what are you doing now? Uh, what are honors and awards that you may have had? You know, what does a, what does a day in the life look like? What would you like to do? Like, if you could, you know, build a day, what would you love to be doing?

How would you like to be spending your time? And that’s outside of classroom and academic. How would you like to spend your time? I think that’s a great way to think about. And again, look, I mean, there might be people you already have in your life or people you might engage with on social media, um, or someone that you may have discovered on an admissions website that seems like they’re doing some really cool stuff.

And you might say, huh, okay, I like to do something very similar or, huh, that’s actually not something I want to do, but that in itself is helping you to kind of decide your, your, your likes and dislikes. So, again, I really encourage you to keep digging with that personal inventory because your personal brand is going to be authentic and natural, you know, and your brand, frankly, could be.

You are just a person who enjoys doing a lot of different things. That’s also a brand as well, right? Um, that also might communicate that you are a lover of many things, right? And that you’re so multifaceted and you love, you know, you know, love language as much as you love, um, you know, engineering. So I think it’s okay too to have various activities or really be passionate about a lot of different things because that too in itself is a, is a brand.

Lonnie: Okay. Um, does the S. A. T. help you get accepted to college?

Aya: Um, it will, it depends on how you score. So not, not the act of taking the S. A. T. Helps you get in. Um, but if your score, um, and you know, it’s above the media, it definitely can help, you know, um, Yeah, so it can certainly help not taking the test just to take it.

It’s not effective. Um, but there also are schools that are testing optional or like in a California school system testing blind where they don’t even consider your SAT. So it really depends on the school policy and how well you perform on the test.

Lonnie: Okay. Um, I know before you said that time spent doing different activities need to add up and make sense. But do you think colleges will believe you if you are deeply involved in a lot of different activities such as sports and a variety of clubs and organizations? How do I prove that I’m committed to each organization?

Aya: Yeah, that’s a great question. So one thing about time, um, I met like things that You know, you can’t have 100 hours a week in activities like it. That just doesn’t make sense just for a human with capacity, especially a student who’s in school from 8 a. m. to 4 p. m. or however long school days are nowadays.

So that’s what I mean about unrealistic. I, you know, I serve as an external missions reader. For organization where the students are. I mean, they blow me away as far as they work. They work, you know, at the local grocery store. They founded a club, they played on the football team and they help to their younger siblings and they do all those things and those are things that are important to them.

So it’s okay again to have diverse interest and be a leader and committed to a lot of different things. Increasingly. I feel like I see that more than not, but you, you know, What I meant by the time dedicated was the tallying, you know, they’ll look at the hours, you know, you spend and if the, if the amount is just, it just wouldn’t be possible for a young person to have that amount of time, then that would be suspicious.

Also, I mean, just so you know, I mean, our, we are looking for consistency in application. So if what you are presenting in the activities list and what a teacher might say in a letter recommendation or. How you tell your story in a personal statement, uh, if there’s some inconsistencies, then that’s also something that we, we would notice as well.

So we are looking for a consistent application and, and during our holistic review processes. So that’s also a part of us being able to discern, Oh, this student really is passionate about these things. This is, it shows up in this part of the application as well. So we will have the information. So I wouldn’t worry about, um, you know, being a leader and committed to a lot of different things.

That’s fine. But when it just seems like abnormal for a student to dedicate an exorbitant amount of hours to the point where it just wouldn’t make sense that they’re actually sleeping or actually going to school, then that will just be something that will, um, raise a suspicion.

Lonnie: For elementary school and middle school, I went to a private school and where we had no extracurriculars and I did nothing outside of school. Now that I’m in public high school, I do so much more. Would my true personal brand not have started for me until high school?

Aya: I mean, maybe. I mean, you didn’t have extracurriculars, but there was other things that you enjoyed.

I mean, you could have enjoyed, you know, painting. At home, you know, and that is part of who you are and what you like to do. Maybe you like to, I don’t know, do karaoke or sing with friends. That is also, if that’s something you also enjoy, that’s also part of who you are. So, I also want us to think about, um, personal brands are not necessarily as, uh, rigid.

That perhaps even this presentation suggests. I mean, this is about you articulating your passions and being intentional about what you communicate to the world, but it doesn’t mean that they start at one point and the end at one point, you know, and they continue to evolve. Like, your brand is always evolving as you involve, um, so you, and you certainly will be penalized, but by a middle or elementary school not having, you know, information or whatever.

extracurriculars or activities. I mean, the universities are only looking at your high school performance and experiences anyway, so they won’t even have that context. So just who you are, you know, at that moment and who you, um, you know, the type of person you want to communicate to the world. I would worry about that.

I wouldn’t feel discouraged because, um, your previous educational experiences were limiting in that area.

Lonnie: Thank you. Uh, next question is, uh, when should I start asking for recommendation letters? And from whom? And yeah, we’ll do that question first. When should I start looking for letter recommendations?

Aya: Yeah, so I mean, you cannot start submitting applications for college into your senior year, right? So, in some cases, the application portals, I think the common app refreshes in the 1st in August 1st. Um, so. You really want to have letters of recommendation from teachers who, uh, a are in core subjects and B are, you know, it would be great if they are more recent teachers that can talk about your more recent academic experiences.

So, you might have the case where a student may have had a teacher in 9th grade and then had him again at 11th grade. Would that make sense? Um, so you want to ask teachers where again. Hey, if you’re applying to say to study computer science, and I keep using computer science because increasingly a lot of the students I work with are interested in computer science.

You want to have a teacher in a STEM discipline, right? You want to show you want the teacher, you know, your calculus teacher to write that letter of recommendation to really show that you have proficiency and competency in that particular area, right? Um, you also want teachers who know you well. I mean, and I recognize the way our school systems are.

You may not have a strong relation with all your teachers, but you really, you know, want those letters of recommendation to shine and you want them to add value to the application. So, usually, you know, some students. Um, I would say it’s early in the fall as possible. So and say, you know, say you start school in August, you know, after those first two weeks of getting settled, you know, think about the schools that you’re applying to see how many letters of recommendation that they require and start planting seeds, right?

Start requesting, asking those teachers that they’d be willing to write a letter, a positive letter of recommendation on your behalf. So I think starting early in the fall. in the fall semester of your senior year, especially if you’re thinking about those early action or early decision applications, which are often due in November or November 1st.

And then you have some of the California schools that are due, I believe, a little sooner. You want to get those letters in earlier than later. Uh, I, uh, it’s really hard for letter writers to write, uh, letters at the last minute, especially if they have, if you have counselors or teachers who have really large caseloads.

So again, in your senior year, um, as within the, I think the first month of going back, um, really start asking teachers to write letters of recommendation. You want teachers who are going to write positive letters. You want them to write strong letters. And you want them to write letters that can speak to your strength in particular areas, especially if you’re applying to very, um, you know, STEM based or kind of very specific programs.

You want to show if you are interested in English, you know, majoring in English, it will be really good if you have an English teacher write your letter of recommendation.

Lonnie: Okay. So with that, that actually is going to Conclude our webinar. So that was our final question for this evening. Um, thank you, Aya, for sharing all this great information on how to build your personal brand.

You also started making me think about my own personal brand. Um, and thank you everyone for all the great questions that you asked. Here’s the list of the upcoming webinars that we have for this month. We look forward to seeing you in the future webinar. And thank you and have a great night. Bye.