Building Your Personal Brand for College Admissions

Webinar Transcription

2023-07-10 – Building Your Personal Brand for College Admissions

Juliana: Hi, everyone. My name is Julianna Furigay and I’m your webinar moderator today. Uh, welcome to, “Building Your Personal Brand for College Admissions.” So to orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’re going to start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q& A. On the sidebar, you can download our slides, and you can also start submitting questions in the Q& A tab.

Now, let’s meet our presenter, Maria.

Maria: Hi, everyone. My name is Maria Acosta Robayo, and I graduated from the class of 2020, um, uh, from Harvard, where I studied sociology and global health policy, and where I was also on the pre med track. I’m currently now a consultant, a government consultant in DC, but have definitely, uh, can talk a lot about my experience being pre med for years, my experience applying as a pre-med and then also making that pivot.

So I’m really excited to talk about this as well as just building your own personal brand, whether that’s pre-med or otherwise.

Juliana: Perfect. Thank you so much for introducing yourself, Maria. Um, we’re soon going to start a poll for all of you guys. Give me one sec. Apologies. I’m having some internet issues.

Hi, I’m back. Can everyone see and hear me alright?

Maria: We can see you.

Juliana: Okay, perfect. Um, so the poll has been sent out to all of you. Uh, so what grade is everyone in? Um, and I guess in the meantime, Maria, I would love to ask, Um, if you could describe your personal branding in high school, how would you describe it?

Maria: Two things. I think I alluded to it a little bit previously when I mentioned I was pre med, but I, uh, definitely, uh, part of my brand was being a pre med student, being someone who wanted to not just be pre med, but I wanted to do international studies. um, relief work and be a physician in that type of field.

And I was also an athlete. And so I think both of those, uh, were a bit of the cracks of my, of my student profile, as well as other things relating to, um, being like a first time, a first gen applicant, uh, coming originally from Columbia. So being a first gen immigrant as well, my faith background, um, and just the diversity of, I was one of those students who had like a lot of, um, Different, uh, extracurriculars and passions.

And so I, I kind of own that. Um, although there’s also a lot of people who kind of really dive in into one or two things and become really great leaders in those things. And so there’s lots of different paths, but mine was a little bit more of the versatile activities that included. Uh, lots of sports and then also being a premed.

Juliana: Thank you, Maria. That was really interesting to hear about. Um, and I guess it’s time to close this poll now. So in terms of the distribution of what grades our attendees are in tonight Uh, so 13 percent of you guys are in ninth grade 38 percent are in 10th grade and 50 percent are seniors right now Um, so welcome to everyone in the room today Um, and back to the presentation.

Maria: Great. So I think, uh, most people who are here probably heard about a personal brand, but if you haven’t just to start on the same footing, uh, a personal brand is pretty much just an external expression of. Things that are going on internally. So who you are, what you’re passionate about, who you aspire to be, what are some of your core values and characteristics?

And so we call that a personal brand because it’s really unique to you. Uh, but it’s actually not something that’s like, I think sometimes when I hear a brand, I’m thinking like something that’s like really marketed and like, Um, you know, so there’s been really thought out as like what would be best to market, uh, in like for consumers to buy.

But when we’re talking about personal brand here, this is more about being introspective about who you really are and being thoughtful about connecting those dots of different places in your life You know, experiences again, values, characteristics, and having a clear way of showing that to admissions officers.

So again, it’s not about building a brand for the sake of what will be the best thing to get me in, but more so how do you think about who you really are, what you really want to do, and how do you communicate that well? Um, and I would say this is one of the most important parts of your application, and I’ll talk about why in the next slide.

So, um, I’ll just stop there and just mention that that’s like a very big piece that you should be thinking about. Um, whether you’re a senior or earlier on, as I saw a couple people on the call are, um, so why is it important? Uh, it’s an important, uh, it’s, it’s an opportunity to set yourself apart from other students that may have similar quantitative scores and experiences.

So what I mean by that is that when you’re applying to schools, You’re usually applying with a wide variety of people from, especially if you’re applying to some of like the top schools, it could be a lot of people who are international. And so there’s a lots of, um, diverse experiences, but also a lot of people.

And so there might be a lot of people who have the same diverse experience as you. And so Maybe that is whether you’re, um, an athlete or a musician, or maybe you’re someone who, like, is coming from a specific background. So again, when you’re applying to a lot of these schools, sometimes there’s a lot of people that might have similar stories, but if you’re able to communicate all the different pieces that are uniquely you, like, maybe you played the same sport, but you had a different experience playing it.

Maybe you did something with like music. We played different types of, uh, musical instruments, and maybe you merged that with some of your like academics. I know one of my. Um, one of the students I advised was applying as a math major and she was able to communicate like her love for math for her understanding of music and how music worked.

Um, and so being able to connect those dots, especially if they’re dots that again, like a lot of people share, but if you’re able to connect them creatively and uniquely, um, that really helps you stand out among a lot of other people who are just saying like, These are my passions, like, these are the things I enjoy, but aren’t able to, again, create some through lines into, like, why those things merge together in, like, your unique story.

Um, it also gives personality and depth to your application. So, um, as you know, like, there’s a lot of opportunities to share in your personal statements and in your essays about, like, who you are, but having a cohesive, like, Kind of just like identity of how you’re presenting yourself to admissions officers will help you to just carry out like a cohesive like theme or backstory even throughout multiple essays.

A lot of people call that like the voice or the tone of your essay. So even if you’re answering different types of questions, who you are and your characteristics, maybe you are someone who’s like very scholarly or someone who’s like very goofy or, um, you know, like what, like, say, add humor to things.

Like there is lots of different ways in which if you identify how you want to present yourself to an admissions officer, you can add those things even to your, to your essays, the way that you describe even like short answers on the common app. So it’s important to be thoughtful about what you want to, um, How you want to present yourself with tone or voice you want to carry throughout your entire application.

Um, and lastly, and I think this is a really important point is that when you’re thinking about admissions, there’s lots of things that that could come to mind, including, um, your GPA, your test scores. Um, but how many, uh, AP classes you took and your scores. And so there’s a lot of quantitative points that go into an application.

So being able to share a cohesive story about who you are, being able to get deep and share your personality and the character, your characteristics, um, the values that you hold, all those things help to add a different layer to the application. Something that’s a lot easier for admissions officers to connect with and to remember.

You know, this person with a name and with a story instead of this person with like these quantitative data points. And so you want to be remembered for those things that stick more with the heart, which is usually stories more than numbers.

So what are some ways that you can build your personal brand? So again, I want to stop here to make sure that everyone understands that this is not about like, how can I best understand what will get me to college and then build my brand in order to best market myself. Like that’s not the way to think about this.

It’s more so how can I be really introspective about who I am, what I love, what I enjoy and how can I best communicate that as a quote unquote personal brand. So some of the ways that you can do that is first taking a step back and I know this is really hard because Uh, especially for those who are seniors you might already be thinking about okay I need to be writing my essays.

I need to be doing x y or z Um, you also have a summer and like, you know, you want to enjoy part of that And so there is a lot going on But if you have time and especially because it’s the summer like try to take Um a step back and think about what are your key overarching values? What are the things that you care about is like more than just that Um, you know, a specific experience, but more so like, what are the values that you really care about that you want to bring to a college community?

What do you want to be known for? What are your characteristics? Like, what do people, and this is like a good time to ask like close friends and family, like, you know, it can sometimes be really hard to be introspective, but it can be easier to hear from a trusted loved one. You know, when you think of me, like, what are some of the characteristics that you think about?

What are some of like your passions? What are things that you enjoy doing when you’re not being told? Like you have to do X, Y, or Z. Um, and think about all of those. I would, I usually just like made a running list, whether that’s with my advisees or for myself. Um, and so after making this list, I was able to prioritize, okay, which are the key things that I want to share?

Like, what do I think are, you know, I had lots of different passions, but which ones were like the most core to my identity and I’ll give you an example. Or like I played. Competitive tennis in Florida my whole life It was a big part of who I was how I spent my time It was a huge part of my summers and my vacations and my weekends were playing tournaments And I realized like being like playing tennis was obviously very important to me in high school I got injured and I wasn’t to play as much and I wasn’t able to play as much And what I realized is it wasn’t really being a tennis player.

That was important but being an athlete for the sake of like I really cared about like wellness and health and these things were important to me and it actually tied in really well with my love for medicine. Um, I thought it was two sides of the same coin, being able to understand the biology and the chemistry that goes on inside of your body and also the external like joy and community that it gives to be able to play a sport, to be able to be in a community of other folks who have, who really prioritize health.

And so for me, I was able to writing it down, realize, okay, Tennis, yes, is a huge passion of mine as a sport, but actually maybe a, a deeper like joy and passion was health and wellness, which also translated well into, um, what I was going into in school. So I say that to give an example of how something like just writing a list can start helping you kind of weed out, like, what are the things that I thought were really important that maybe aren’t?

And what are the things that are really important that I just hadn’t like thought about before? Um, And then, um, identify examples across school, extracurricular, professional, and personal experiences. So again, maybe that’s something like I realized. Something that just started out with like, I like helping people like I like connecting or I like helping people one on one.

I like connecting with people. I like hearing their stories. Um, and I was like, okay, well, how do I share that without just seeming like, yeah, well, everybody likes to help people. Um, or at least a lot of students say that in their applications. And so I had to start thinking about like, okay, in my actual life so far, how have I helped people?

And so thinking through. Okay. In school, I tutored a lot of students. Um, in my extracurriculars, I coached a lot of students for, um, at my tennis academy. Uh, professionally, I guess, again, I wasn’t like a professional yet, but related to my professional career, uh, I spent thousands of hours at the hospital doing community service.

And so, and a lot of that involved, bringing like food to patients and bringing them like gifts from the gift shop and moving different specimens around in the hospital. And so some of, well, some of it was a little bit more again, critical, like professional, like I got to learn about like the different units and go to like watch surgeries and things like that.

A lot of it was helping people in like helping bring their food and like, um, connecting with them, especially patients who were like Usually didn’t have a lot of visitors. Um, and so I say that again, as an example to say, I realized something very generic, like I like to help people and was able through my different examples, give evidence for like, I really enjoy connecting with folks one on one, especially folks who aren’t, uh, don’t have a big community or support system.

Um, and so I was able to do my experience again, give evidence, but also narrow down the way I like to help. Um, and then I know there’s a lot of seniors on this call, but if you’re not yet a senior, I would think about how to get involved or apply for more senior positions in clubs or activities that highlight your brand.

And you can still do this as a rising senior. It’s just I know that at least in my school, a lot of times if you wanted to be in leadership, you had to apply the year before. Um, and then you also don’t want to just like last ditch effort, join something you’d never joined before, and put that on your application, right?

Like that is not a good strategy unless like you’re like, You’re just genuinely really interested. Um, like I would say, like, I was always interested in music and I had experiences in the past playing different instruments. And then my senior year, I decided to start playing violin for the first time. Um, and so that’s an example where.

I wrote it down in addition to having played like piano in the past or like having tried the viola and like things like that, that like, because my brand was, I love trying new things. It made sense. But if your brand was like. You know, I’m a musician and then you started playing your first instrument your senior year, it’s going to be a little bit wonky, um, uh, to, to have that be like your main brand, it’s going to raise some eyebrows.

Um, and so, um, if you’re again, not a senior, I would just start thinking about, okay, maybe you have a little bit more time, what are the ways in which you could do that? Incorporate the things that you’ve already recognized are true, overarching values, characteristics and passions. And how can you start getting involved in clubs or in places where you can act on those experiences?

Juliana: All right. Thank you so much, Maria. All of that information was really helpful and insightful so far. So right now I do want to release a poll to our audience here. So where are you in the application process? In the meantime, Maria, I’d love to throw a fun question toward you. Uh, so what was your favorite class that you took at Harvard?

And could you talk to it, talk about it a bit to our audience?

Maria: Sure. Um, so I think kind of on brand with, um, my, my personal brand, um, I really enjoyed, it’s, it’s a tie between two. I took medical ethics and history, um, my freshman year, and I just thought that was absolutely fascinating. Um, It wasn’t like a STEM class where I had to be continuously like studying, uh, like remembering a ton of things.

It was more reading and like reading about case studies and Supreme court decisions and thinking about like the ethics behind lots of different medical procedures, uh, medical action, especially in the U S um, which just worked a different part of my brain. And that was really interesting. And then I also took, Um, anatomy and physiology with the lab, and I just had the best, like, lab section leader.

She was someone who just, like, brought the joy in a lot of the experiments that we were doing. And, um, labs were, like, mandatory, like, three hours, like, straight. And so, and usually, like, during dinner time. So having someone who just, like, brought a lot of joy to the room and having, Um, a group of students who are also just willing to, like, have fun and, like, enjoy the experiments was really great.

Juliana: Yeah, those both sound great. Thanks for sharing that with us. So, in terms of the poll results. We have that 45 percent of you are researching schools currently, 36 percent are working on their essays, and 18 percent are getting their application materials together. So closing that poll now and shifting back to the presentation.

Maria: Great. So, um, I think another question that a lot of students ask themselves is, Okay, now that I built a personal brand, like, or if I’m going to build a personal brand, how is this actually going to help me? Like, how does this translate to better chance of getting into the school? So, um, first I think it would just be helpful for you individually to take a step back and think about what you enjoy, care, and are interested in.

Um, it’s, I think a lot of students just kind of dive into, you know, everyone says I should go to college. Like, I’m, I want to go to college. But then don’t take a step back to think about what are the ways in which, like, I specifically want to use my time in college. Um, and so I think the first thing of having a well developed brain is it’s going to help you to have a better understanding of why you are going to college and why, how you want to spend your time there, how you want to help people and what you want to get out of it.

Um, and I think that’s going to be really important. not just for you, but I think that’s going to help you have an easier time writing genuine essays and having, carrying through and being persevering when those applications get hard. Because I think there does come a time, especially when you’re in high school, juggling your normal classes and sports and extracurriculars and all these other things.

Um, It does get really overwhelming. And so having a sense of like why you want to go and what you’re going to get out of it just really is going to help carry you through. Um, so I would say first, like that step of being introspective is just going to help you. Um, second college applications are opportunities to be reflective and just think about who you are and what you want to explore in college.

And so again, it’s more of also an identity finding opportunity that maybe you haven’t been asked a lot of these questions and it’s just going to be helpful for you, regardless of. It’s effect on the college application process. Um, and then I think again, kind of alluding to what I said previously, just thinking through your personal brand will help you to have a more cohesive story.

Um, so if you’ve thought about before, like why you want to go, what are the things that you want to do there, what are your passions, then you’re going to be able to, regardless of what question is asked, you’re at least going to have some foundation of like, Okay, this is who I am. This is what I enjoy doing.

Um, and again, it sounds a little bit like rudimentary, but there’s a lot, like a lot of folks who just haven’t been asked a lot of these questions and you kind of know, like, you know, how you like to spend your time, you know, things you like, you don’t like, but maybe it isn’t like that defining, whereas like here it’s really helpful for you to kind of define some of those key things in order to have, um, just a more cohesive story to share about yourself.

Um, And then once you have that for yourself, again, this was a lot about like how this will help you. Um, it’s so much easier to share it with other people in a clear and convincing way. Uh, a lot of the struggles that I see students have when they’re writing their essays without knowing that much about themselves is that they’re trying to talk about themselves and then they feel like disingenuine because maybe something doesn’t match up.

Maybe there’s things that is like, you know, is this the most important part of myself or is that and just going through the process of thinking about like, like, what do I love to do? What are my characteristics? What do like, what are those key parts of my personality and then prioritizing what you want to share is just going to help you to not have those doubts when you’re in the process of writing and you’re halfway through an essay and having like an identity crisis.

And then, as I mentioned previously, um, being able to, uh, share your brand with admissions officers would just help them distinguish you from other students. I think that’s the biggest plus of like, if you’re able to clearly communicate who you are and the uniqueness of your situation. Again, you don’t have to worry about someone being exactly like you.

I would just say, as long as you’re true to yourself, like there is, there’s no one else who’s exactly like you. So you will stand out. You just have to communicate clearly, like the things that you care about and what you’ve done, uh, and your experiences. So that’s full circle again from getting to know more about yourself to actually standing out in a unique way in an admissions officer’s eyes.

That’s why a personal brand is going to help you through the admissions process.

So where in your application do you highlight your personal brand? So I say, I think that there’s like a couple different, um, areas where you could do that. The first is the activities list. Uh, there is 10 different slots in which you can talk about all the things that you enjoy doing, all the things, all the experiences that you’ve done.

And so the focus here is more on quantity. Um, And more quantitative data and what I mean by that is you have very little like not even word count It’s like character counts. You have very little space to write about what you do But you do have a lot more questions about like how many hours a week do you do this?

How many weeks per year what seasons of the year? And so this is a lot this is an opportunity to write more about like, okay Maybe in my essay i’m not going to say like I spend, you know, uh, 49 out of the 52 weeks playing tennis, but that’s something that I can very clearly say in my activities list and it’s going to highlight like, hey, this person was like a competitive athlete or like very serious athlete.

Um, the second is your essays. So this is where you have a lot more word count and you can give a lot more context, but it’s also where you should be more selective about, okay, In my activities list, I put literally everything that I was doing. Again, tennis was a big part of my life, but I actually didn’t write any essays about tennis.

Um, I decided that I wanted to share other parts of myself that I thought were more, um, true to the things that I care about. And I talked about, uh, my, my experience immigrating to this country and my experience growing up in South Florida in a very diverse place, and, uh, my love for medicine and some of the obstacles that I faced and, and, uh, My education in sports and in my extracurriculars, um, as a result of lots of different socioeconomic factors.

And so I, um, did talk a lot about my passions. Like I did talk about my passion for sports in general. I talked about music. I talked about, uh, medicine quite a bit, but I actually. I tried really hard at tying tennis and it just wasn’t hitting the same and so I chose to not to not write about that, but I definitely included it in my activities list.

Um, so that’s just an example of how two different elements of the application can help you showcase your brand in different ways. One more quantitatively, the other one a little bit more, um, qualitatively and with more context. The third one is coursework. So just being able to talk, uh, just showing like the types and combination of classes that you’ve taken can also show your personal brand.

Like if you’re someone who is very dedicated to a specific field, then like you, you might have taken a lot of classes in just one place. Like, you know, high school, you have to take your, your basic courses, but maybe your electives were all really in one area. If you were more like me, and again, my personal brand was more of like, I’m more of a dabbler.

I’m very curious about different things. I try a lot of different sports, lots of activities. I took a greater combination of diverse classes. Um, that really stood out. Um, and so it gave evidence for my personal brand, right? If I took lots of different types of classes rather than just the same like ones that maybe other folks who were pre med would have taken.

Um, and then lastly, the letters of recommendation. And I think this is the one that you have the least control over, although you do have some level of control. So you have control over who you’re going to ask for a letter of recommendation. Obviously, you’re not allowed to, I mean, unless you waive the FERPA.

Um, I think it’s called FERPA. There’s like an option to, uh, not read your letters of recommendation, which is what you should, what I advise most students should do. Um, because again, And this is like getting a bit like on a side thing, but, um, when you’re going to submit your letters of recommendation, you need to say, there’s like a check, uh, a box that you need to tick to say like, Hey, I have not seen what my recommenders like wrote about me.

And the purpose of that is so that, uh, the admissions officers know you didn’t just like read everybody’s letter of recommendation and choose the ones that were the best or worth talking the best about yourself and also make sure that, uh, in, for an AO, it like gives reliability to the fact that your recommenders wrote something that was very true, uh, because they, they weren’t like under pressure of like, Oh, the student’s going to see what I wrote.

And so. When you decide to ask your recommenders and hopefully or like most likely you will not see their what they wrote, they will have some level of control over what they describe about you. But before you actually said, um, you know, before they submit their letter, something that you can do to again, gain a little bit more control over what they could say about you is you could either ask to schedule a meeting where you like share with them.

Things about yourself and make it easier for them to write a letter. A lot of these teachers are writing letters for lots of students and so they will for, I mean, just think about like if you were writing the same assignment, the same assignment for lots of different teachers, you would probably kind of copy and paste some of those things.

And so you want to make sure that your letter of recommendation has a lot of unique things about just you. And the best way to do that is making sure that you give the teacher that you’re asking more facts about who you are, what you love, what you enjoy. And so, in that process of sharing that, whether it’s verbally, I often recommend that it’s written down so that teachers can refer to it later and that’s not to say, like, you don’t tell them, like, hey, can you write this about me?

Rather, you usually give them, like, your resume or a list of things that you do with a little bit more information that they can draw from as examples for what they’re going to write in their letter of recommendation. And so in that process, you do have a chance to highlight, Hey, you know, I do all these things, but you know, you were my, the sponsor for this club that I was in that like, I really want to highlight.

Can you please talk more about this? Or like you were my anatomy and physiology teacher and I’m a pre med. Can you please talk more about not just your experience with me, you know, in other classes or as like an individual person, but can you talk about more of like my academic precision, that area? And so those are different, uh, four different areas in which you can talk more about your personal brand or you can give evidence for your personal brand.

Um, and as we’re approaching, uh, the halfway point of this, of this session, I’ll just give some final tips on how we can best, or how you can best build, um, your personal brand. And again, this will be a little bit repetitive, but I think just taking time to think about what you value and joy and passionate and are about.

Without the pressure of what sounds good to the admissions officer is really important. Um, I think a lot of students just think about like, I need to get into a school, so I will just do whatever it takes. Like, even if I just have to like, say like, what admissions officers want to hear. But what they don’t realize is admissions officers don’t want to hear a specific story.

They just want to like, they care, they want to hear about people being passionate about any of the stories that they’re going to tell. So it’s less so, you know, these are the, all the activities I need to do. And more so like whatever activities you actually do and you should again, like I would say The the caveat there is like there should be things that like you’re doing outside of school whether even if that’s like Taking care of like family members or some extracurriculars or something like that that show that like you’re interested in doing other things And you’re intellectually curious and experientially curious Um, but regardless of what those things actually are What’s important is that you’re passionate about them that you can talk about like why you spend your time doing that What about those things like what have you learned from those things?

How have you changed because of those things? You And so they care a lot more about you, uh, just loving things and thinking about things deeply and being involved instead of a prescribed field or topic that you’re, that you’re involved in. Um, and so the bottom line to that is just be yourself and do what you love, but do so deeply and intentionally and share that with an admissions officer.

Um, and then the other point I wanted to share is just, uh, take all the pieces of the puzzle. So like all your activities, your passions and characteristics and think about the clearest way to communicate them. So the first step is identifying those pieces, right? That was what the first bullet is. The second piece is, okay, now that you know this about yourself, Or, as much as you could know about yourself at like 18, um, think about how you can best communicate that in the way that you write your personal statements, in the way that you build your activities list, in who you ask for letters of recommendation.

And like I mentioned with my tennis example, it’s okay if you don’t get to share everything.

That’s all for my spoken part of the presentation.

Juliana: Presentation part of the webinar. Um, so I hope all of you found this information helpful and remember that you can download these slides from the link in the handouts tab, and we’re going to be moving on to the live Q& A portion here. So I’m going to read through the questions that you submitted in the Q& A tab.

And put them into the public chat so you all can see them. And I’ll also read them out loud before our presenter here gives you an answer. Um, so as a heads up, if your Q and a tab isn’t allowing you to submit questions, uh, just double check that you join the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page.

Um, and the first question we have here is, From a student who submitted a question during registration. So this student is interested in starting their own club where they invite speakers from colleges to discuss their college application process and college journey. So they’re hoping to help kids who, like them, were very concerned about the college application process and didn’t really have the resources of where to look.

They’re also hoping to expand. this club into a podcast so that students outside of their school can have access to this information as well. Um, so they’re wondering Maria, if you have any tips or advice for jumpstarting this idea and helping tie it into their personal branding.

Maria: Yeah. So I think first of all, that’s a great idea and something that’s definitely needed, uh, all across the country.

And so I applaud you for even thinking of that, having the initiative to think out how that could best help other students. I would say something that’s very, um, I think there’s a couple of things that, um, would be helpful to think through. Uh, but I think the ones that connect the most with how that helps build your personal brand or how you can connect it to that is thinking deeply about like your mission and goals for that podcast or for that organization.

So I think a lot of times students can get carried away by like how cool this idea is getting people involved and just starting like. getting it going, but taking a step back and thinking about like, okay, why am I doing this? What is this show about myself? Is it like, what is it that’s deeper than like, I like helping other students?

Like. Is it something about your own experience that was really difficult that made you realize like, okay, there’s a lot of students that, that don’t have this. Is it that you’re very like social justice, um, like warrior oriented where you really care about, like where there’s inequities, like, I want to be there.

I want to help solve this problem. Um, and so thinking more deeply about like, what is the fact that you even like notice this and want to do something about it, tell you about yourself. Um, because I think that’s going to help you to recognize elements that you should like. Point out in your personal brand whether that again whether that be in essays Um or activities lists and not just like that those points exist But how you can connect them to other characteristics or values that you have Or other experiences like right?

This is a passion project, but maybe it’s also related to like Things that you’ve written about in your like English essays or things that you’ve learned about in your history lesson in your history classes about social inequality, socioeconomic inequality in the past and how that affects students and education.

So again, thinking more deeply about why you started this and how it’s going to affect people will help you find maybe things that you didn’t know about yourself that could help you better build your personal brand.

Juliana: Great. Thank you, Maria. Yes, I definitely agree with that, that it’s important to kind of look into your motivations and see, you know, what’s driving my interest in starting this passion project.

So thank you. Um, and the next question we have here is from a student that is also interested in the pre med track and potentially majoring in public health. Um, so they’re wondering kind of the logistics of your branding in high school. school and just everything about how you applied.

Maria: Yeah. So I think again, every student has a different brand.

And so sometimes in, in like sharing mine, I just want to like, say, this is one of many paths. And I think what I want to stress is like, this was the right path for me because it was true to my passions and it could be a very wrong path and seem very disingenuous for someone who might not share those passions.

And so I just say that to caveat, like. What I share isn’t like the magic recipe for getting into Harvard, but more so the best way that I could communicate what I truly enjoyed doing. And that was the brand that I was able to use and like showed very genuinely to an admissions officer that this was, um, this, this was like who I was and what I would be bringing to the campus.

So with that caveat, um, something that I thought about my personal brand for, for being pre med is, um, I didn’t just want to become a, I thought more deeply about why I wanted to be a doctor. And it wasn’t just because I, you know, was just in love with science and like just wanted to be, uh, doing anatomy and physiology all the time.

It was more so it started with Recognizing the inequalities in health that I saw in primarily like in my low income community in South Florida, but also I was originally from, or I am originally from Columbia and seeing the disparity between the access to healthcare that I had versus that the ones that my family had in Columbia.

Um, recognizing that that was true all over the world and that, um, there was different things that were just not a problem in, in America, but that people all over the world were dying from because there wasn’t enough, uh, resources or doctors or funding. And so, I decided that, okay, I’m going to be a pre med, I’m going to have a pre med branding, but I’m going to have a humanitarian, like undertone to all of that.

Like, I want to make sure that folks know that, uh, the first thing that drove me to this is a passion for helping people and addressing inequalities and that the pathway to do that was like, Oh, I also really love science. I love studying, um, about like the pathophysiology or like the, you know, The way the disease like works in a body, like how the immune system or how different parts of our bodies like respond to diseases.

And I just found that really academically fascinating. And so my branding was a mix of primarily passion for the work. And then on top of that, the academic interest and. intellectual curiosity around this topic. Um, and then what I did is in order to show evidence for like, you know, I could, I could say I like all these things, but someone else who is like, actually not, who actually doesn’t care about these things could say the same thing.

So the way I gave evidence for my personal brand was I Thought about like, okay, and this was even again, like I thought about this retrospectively, but I generally just wanted to volunteer at the hospital. Like I thought it was really cool to just be able to walk through the hospital with my badge and be able to get into different rooms and watching like surgeries and getting to like carry around different specimens throughout the hospitals and seeing doctors at work.

Like I found that fascinating. And so it wasn’t that I. You know, thought like, Oh, what is the best way to show my pre made pre med brand branding? It just ended up being like, I really wanted to volunteer at the hospital. And when I looked back, I had like thousands of hours of like, of volunteering at the hospital that I could use as evidence because it was so true.

And so I didn’t even have to work for it. So I would say there is other things that are, are not that easy to translate. So for example, That was easy to say, you know, like this genuinely came from me. There was other things that were harder. Like I took a lot of classes that were, uh, like in chemistry, biology, anatomy, and physiology that were really hard.

And like, I was scared. We’re going to like dip my GPA. Those were things that like, I was nervous about taking. And so it didn’t come naturally to take all of those classes, but I knew. Okay, if I’m going to apply with a pre med branding, I need to make, or I wanted to make sure that they knew I was academically rigorous in those topics, and that I had explored enough to say like, I really love this and I want to study this at Harvard.

Um, and so, uh, in a nutshell, that’s an example of how I thought deeply about, like, why I wanted a branding. And then two examples, one in which, like, my activities genuinely reflected that branding because I really cared. And then an example of how I had to sacrifice some of my, like, fears around dropping my GPA in order to take classes that more accurately represented my academic interest in that branding.

Juliana: Great. Thank you. Um, so actually at this point in the webinar, I did want to include an introduction to us here at college advisor. Uh, so for those of you in the room who are not already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be. So here at college advisor, we have a team of over 350 former admissions officers and admissions experts who are ready to help you and your family navigate everything in one on one advising sessions. So you can take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with an admission specialist on our team using this QR code on the screen.

So during this meeting we’ll be able to review your current extracurricular lists and application strategy As well as discuss how they line up with their college lists and outline the tools that you need to stand out in this competitive admissions world. Um, so now we’re going to go back to the Q& A.

So the next question that I have for you, Maria, is, um, if you faced a lot of adversity in your life, Can this be a part of your personal brand and your application? And if so, how are you able to articulate that?

Maria: Yeah, I think that’s a really good question because the truth is a lot of folks like do experience a lot of personal hardship and something that can be kind of hard is being able to share about that hardship and how it’s made you, how it’s genuinely like affected who you’ve become while also not making it sound like a sob story.

And I think that’s just the most blunt way of putting it because like I experienced something similar where I, I, there was a lot of different, like very difficult factors that led to me moving to the U. S. I had a very difficult time with like very specific experiences like being in a very low income neighborhood and seeing my parents struggle and the things I had to do to help.

And so there’s other folks who have like, you know, gone through like childhood cancer, had the death of loved ones, like, you know, gone through the foster system. So there’s a lot of folks who have genuine and like very, um, like powerful stories of overcoming adversity. And the biggest part to remember is like, there’s a lot of people.

First, like, is it true that there’s, um, I think there are some folks who they experience something that can be very difficult, but in some ways, like, doesn’t affect as much of, like, who they become. Like, there are those folks, and so for those folks, like, I wouldn’t say, like, try to go back and, like, unless, like, it’s helpful and it’s cathartic and it actually does help, um, I would say, like, don’t just say, like, hey, this is, like, the adversity I went through, adversity I went through just for the sake of, like, a story.

Because it might come out as disingenuous. And I would say that when admissions officers see that, that can sometimes be a bit, it can throw off your application in a negative way. So I would say, if you fall into the camp of someone who’s like, Hey, I did experience this difficulty. It’s very genuine. Then you also know the ways in which it has affected you.

Oftentimes, like if you’ve gone through some of this, like through an adversity, you recognize things that you’ve, the ways that you’ve grown, the ways that maybe, you know, you really struggle with and like that. forms part of your character and your characteristics, so I would say try to parse out how, how that adversity actually affected you.

Try to make bullet points, think about like genuinely, like how can I best communicate this to somebody else? And I would think, I would make sure that as you’re sharing that story, you’re not focusing on like, Look at all the difficulty I had to go through. Please let me enter your school. Like, I, I just have gone through so much already.

Rejection from a college, like, you just can’t deal with it. I wouldn’t go that route. I would think about, like, how have you overcome your adverse, adversity? How have you grown as a person? What have you learned about the world? Like, how has that adversity made you realize that there’s other people who might have faced the same thing and, like, how you could help them?

And so, an example of that is like, I, again, as like an immigrant, I experienced like a lot of difficulties with the immigration system, and a lot of doors that were closed, and, uh, the difficulties of my parents trying to navigate this while not speaking the language at first, and so, I started a non profit in high school where, for a lot of folks who couldn’t travel abroad for whatever immigration, like, Issues that it would cause.

Um, I, again, I mentioned, I wanted to be a doctor in the first place because I wanted to provide international relief. And so what I did in that, in that project that I started was I didn’t just do it by myself. I realized there were so many other students, especially in South Florida, who couldn’t travel.

And I just gathered a lot of them was like, Hey, all of us really want to help people in like our home countries. We can’t go back. We can’t be part of service. Um, Like projects there, but we can start this organization where we collect a lot of resources that we know are needed in our countries and we knew that because we partnered with different service organizations who would go to the countries that we were thinking of and actually talk to the community members and like said, like, Hey, what are the needs here?

They would tell us what they need. Then we would do fundraisers. We would collect donations at hospitals and universities and schools, and then we would give it to the service organizations to distribute when they went on, uh, different missions there. And so that’s an example of like, I like experienced a difficulty.

I talked about the ways that it genuinely affected my life, but the tone of that was like, I persevered. I found other ways in which to help people despite this adversity. For somebody else, and this was not my experience, but another student my year who applied, had childhood cancer and talked about the difficulties of like, continuing to do school and like, learning how to like, navigate like, bullying in middle school when like, everyone’s a little brutal, but especially so if you don’t have like, if you’re like, a lady and don’t have hair and like, Genuinely, like, the struggles of trying to just do school when you’re so concerned about the bullying.

And so, that, her experience was obviously very different, but she didn’t just talk about like, oh, I was bullied, or like, I, you know, missed so much class, and like, this was really hard for me, and like, my GPA was like, good, even though I, I like, struggled really hard. It was more so like, You know, I found ways in which to connect with teachers in ways that other students couldn’t because I needed to get tutoring.

I found ways to, like, connect with other students at the hospitals because we were able to form tutoring sessions because we really wanted to learn. And so, I mentioned those two examples to just give evidence of how two difficult, very different difficulties can be talked about in a way that is either, like, just focused on the adversity, or it can be talked about in a way that talks about learning.

Like how you overcame, how you grew as a person, how you helped other people’s, other people and recognize other people’s adversity through your own. Um, and so I would say if you’re someone who falls into that category, and I think the person who asked this question mentioned that, like, then think through how you’ve grown and how you’ve helped others through the adversity.

Juliana: Great. Thank you. Um, and the next question that we have is, uh, for each different school you apply for, whether public, private, et cetera, should you change your personal brand to connect with each individual school that you apply for?

Maria: Um, so I don’t recommend that. In the in the sense of like you shouldn’t change your personal brand if we’re talking about your personal brand being the key things that like your key characteristics your key values like you shouldn’t be compromising on the things that make you you for a school like more so should be like you know does that school fit who you know you are and like what you want to do and like I think like there are some extreme cases of that of like You know, if there’s a school that, like, you really care about, like, understanding the school’s politics and, like, the decisions they make, and maybe they make decisions that you think are, like, inequitable, especially, like, racially inequitable, like, that might be a place for, like, you don’t want to compromise, like, some of your personal values to go there.

Um, or to like fit into that school. And so again, this is an extreme example. Like, I think most schools are not in that category. But I would say like, I say that to justify, like, think about very clearly, like, who you are, what are your values, and like, that should be your personal branding. Now, you definitely should, especially in the essays that are like, why us?

Like, why do you want to come here? If You are trying to go to a school for a specific program, like, yeah, that might not be the same program at a different school, and so don’t write about the same exact things. Like, really cater to, like, how will I best stand out as someone that, like, You know belongs at this specific school so i’m not trying to at all diminish the importance of being specific and targeted when you’re writing your essays to a specific school, but You’re a key thing to remember is your personal statement Which is usually where you talk more about these personal branding things is going up to everybody So, I think that that’s an incentive to just be true to yourself, and like, you are not, like, if you try to cater to, like, Yale, who, that might be very different from, I don’t know, like, another school that you’re trying to apply to, and you’re trying to, like, balance both, like, that’s going to be a little bit confusing in your personal statement, or, again, it’s going to make things less about who you are, and more so about specific schools, even though that same essay is going to everybody.

And so I would think about this question more when you’re looking at the supplements. When you’re talking about the supplements, that’s where maybe you want to tweak things. It shouldn’t be changing your personal brand entirely, but it should be like, for example, if you’re applying to MIT versus Harvard.

MIT is a lot more of like, it’s a, I think the way they describe themselves is like, um, a technical school with a liberal education. So it’s a lot of technical things. Usually people, they’re like very STEM related, like very STEM focused, um, have a big, like academic, academic interest is a very big thing, or, uh, sorry.

Intellectual curiosity is like a very big thing there. And like, there’s different like words that are spoken or by admissions officers that talk about that school and different things on their website. It could be helpful to borrow from versus if you’re talking maybe about Harvard, that maybe their focus is a little bit more liberal arts education, but in like, you know, being curious about the world and being more open minded and learning more about other people.

And like, there’s a different vibe to both schools that you can tell from both websites. And if you like go on tours or if you speak to any students, and I would say that that’s where in those supplements. That’s where it’s helpful to tweak things. But again, uh, and maybe it’s about talking about different, um, core things that you want to highlight about yourself.

Like when we, at the start of this conversation, we talked about the first step in finding your personal brand is figuring out the things that you really love and enjoy in your characteristics and then prioritizing them. And we mentioned that not all those things you might have a word count to talk about in your essays.

So that’s where maybe you think about, okay, in this school, this is, they really care about this. It’s on my list of things I love. But maybe I didn’t prioritize it for Harvard because, you know, that didn’t fit their brand. But maybe I want to prioritize this other one. For MIT. And so I think in a nutshell, what I’m saying is there shouldn’t be these macro level changes to who you are just for the school, but I do think that it’s important to find those micro level tweaks in order to say like, Hey, I’m very interested, like I’m a good fit for you specifically.

So that’s the best way I would answer that question.

Juliana: Right. Um, so on that note of unique personal branding, the student is wondering, um, how can I ensure that my personal brand is unique? Does my personal brand have to be unique or do schools understand that there’s going to be an overlap in applicants personal branding?

Maria: Yeah. Schools for sure. I know that there’s going to be overlaps in personal branding. It’s like, there is a limited amount of like things that you could be. Um, like the things that you could be interested in terms of like for experiences, like most people, you know, either like play some sports, do music, like music related things, do things in the arts.

Like there’s a lot of people who will have overlap there and it’s not about finding that niche thing and all and. Any of those categories, but more so about talking about the things that you do love regardless of whether other people love them Like hopefully other people love them too And like that’s great like way to build community and to share these hobbies or these passions together But it’s more talking about like how have you stewarded that time or that gift or that talent?

Well, and what have you done with those things?

Juliana: Definitely Um, and the next question that I have for you here is how does having a strong personal brand benefit you other than looking good on college applications?

Maria: Yeah, so I think I alluded to that a little bit in the ending part of the presentation, which is, it’s just going to help you better understand, like, be more introspective about, like, what you love and what you care about, and that’s going to help you have a better vision for what you want to do in college, how you want to spend your time, what clubs you might want to join.

Um, And so I think, again, it’s like a very creative way, even though it’s, it seems like a hassle when you’re in high school and you’re trying to like balance high school classes and experiences and social life and then also college applications. I think it, but I do think it’s a good process not just to figure out like who to accept, but it’s a good process to push students who may have like not asked themselves these questions of like, what do I love?

What do I enjoy? What are my passions? And giving them like kind of forcing folks that to have a stopping point and thinking about that before they go to college and make this huge financial and time investment, um, to, in order to figure out like how do they want to use that time wisely and to, In a way that best fits their personality and who they are.

Juliana: Definitely. And the student is wondering here. What if my personal brand changes throughout high school? Is that a bad thing? For example, if I go from wanting to be pre med to wanting to do business.

Maria: Yeah, I don’t that’s not a problem at all. I think it’s definitely a little bit trickier to connect the dots just because like there’s dots in different places, but I think that what’s important there is.

The genuineness of like if you change from pre med to business then there’s probably a reason for it Like just explain the true real reason for it like maybe it’s and it shows probably that you’re someone who’s willing to pursue your passions even if it feels like you’ve already gone down a route and you’re someone who’s willing to do the research behind like Okay, like what like what what else is out there?

What are other things that I hadn’t considered before when I started on the pre med path? And so I think what’s important there is Less thought there was a shift and more so being honest and clear about why that shift happened And how that’s and I think I get really excited when folks shift like what their passions are because there’s usually good reason behind it like they’re they’re they found something out they didn’t know before and I think that’s already a plus like a lot of folks see that as like oh I wasted like two years of my life like I was pre med for four years of college like definitely and I’m not going to medical school so I know the feeling of like oh my gosh what did I do but I am a different person because I did those four years of pre med and so I love hearing about like when folks transition from thinking about this, I was like, Oh, this, like, I lost so much time.

I shouldn’t, I should have just known this earlier to be like, but like, what did you learn during those two years? And like, how are you a different person because of those two years and recognizing like the benefit behind that when all you saw was like the like loss. Um, and I think that’s a powerful thing to write about as well.

Yeah.

Juliana: Thanks so much, Maria. Um, the next question I have for you here is what are some common mistakes or pitfalls to avoid when building a personal brand?

Maria: Yeah, so I think I talked about one already about the, uh, in reference to the question about, uh, adversities. Uh, so I think having, uh, a personal brand that’s just focused on, like, all the difficulties you experienced or, like, the, you know, the struggles that you’ve had can, is one of the biggest pitfalls.

Like, a lot of students think, like, if I just sound like my life has been the hardest, then, like, admissions officers will take pity on me and, like, let me in. Like, I would say that is the wrong perspective. Um, the, again, I mentioned it before, but the, the reverse of that, or like how to talk about that well would be more to figure out how have you grown as a person, how have you helped other people, like how has that adversity changed who you are, um, and like who you are today, and how you’re going to use that experience to help others or to maybe focus more on something during college.

Um, another pitfall, I think, is when people, uh, assume that, like, they just need to dive into one thing and they need to be known as, like, the person who’s just this. Um, I would say, like, yes, it’s great if, there might be something that just, like, overarchingly, like, takes the biggest part of your life. Like, I had a friend who was in computer science and, like, he just loved coding and, like, it was a big part of his life.

Just genuinely. And so applying for a personal where we’re like, most of the things he did was coding related was true to himself. Like, that is fine. Like admissions officers, like, again, care about having a diverse campus of folks who like, maybe really love one thing. Maybe they really love and also folks who are like, love lots of different things.

So I think the pitfall there is thinking that you have to fit into one of those categories and to get in instead of realizing like, okay, I might genuinely just really love this. The caveat there that I think is again, another pitfall to avoid is like, if or not a pitfall to avoid, but something that could really highlight some, uh, your passions is if you’re able to mix community service or sharing that passion with other people.

So, for example, my friend who was a coder, again, did a lot of coding, took a lot of classes, went to a lot of camps, um, but then he, like, developed an app that, like, helps students, like, find tutors in the area. And so, it was a way for him to connect, like, I don’t want to just Have this passion. I want to use this passion to help other people.

And he also did like coding camps for students. And it was about like, I love to code and I want to share that love with other people. And so I would say in whatever you do, this is again, not a pitfall, but something that could really highlight is if you’re able to find ways in which you could help others through this passion.

Juliana: Thank you. And I think we just have time for one last question tonight. Um, so I want to ask you Maria What’s the last piece of advice that you want to leave with our audience tonight? I know that you kind of ended off your presentation in this way So it can just be some general college application advice not related to the pandemic.

Maria: Yeah, I think starting early is Usually like my biggest advice of like if you’re able to write your some of your essays during the summer and stuff It’s going to be really helpful if you’re able to start thinking about who you want your letters of recommendation from building a school list, even for folks who aren’t raising seniors, if you start getting a school list that are able to double dip, like, I don’t know, like family trips or like, um, Uh, like vacationing or something where you’re able to see schools in the area, that’s just going to be helpful.

Um, and I would just reiterate what I said at the end of the, um, of the presentation about just being really genuine and trusting that, like, admissions officers care that you’re passionate and less so about, like, what specifically you’re passionate about.

Juliana: All right. Um, so huge thank you to everyone for coming out tonight and thank you so much to our presenter Maria again.

Um, and that is the end of our webinar here. Uh, we had a really great time telling you guys about personal branding and here’s our July series of webinars to come. Um, so on the 12th, we have, “Applying to College as an International Student.” Uh, 13th, we have, “Q&A With a Former Admissions Officer.” Um, on the 17th, we have a, “Comparing Ivy League Colleges Panel,” um, which both Maria and I will be serving on. Um, so definitely check us out there. On the 18th, we have, Writing About Extracurriculars in Your College Essays.” And to round out the month, we have on the 19th, “Building Your College Resume.” Uh, so thank you so much everyone again for coming out tonight.

Um, and have a great rest of the night.