College Admissions Strategies for Sophomores and Juniors

Webinar Transcription

2023-10-23 – College Admissions Strategies for Sophomores and Juniors

Lonnie: Hello, everyone. Welcome to CollegeAdvisor’s webinar, “College Admission Strategies for Sophomores and Juniors.” To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we are first going to begin with a presentation, and then we’ll have the opportunity to answer your questions in a live Q& A. However, before we get started, let’s first introduce our panelist.

Brandon, you want to introduce yourself to the audience?

Brandon: Happy to, happy to. So good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to everyone. My name is Brandon Mack, pronouns he, him, his. I am a former admission officer from my alma mater, Rice University. I’ve been in the field of college admissions for the past 14 years.

I started as an admission officer and worked my way up to being an associate director of admission at Rice. So I actually got the opportunity and honor to chair admission committees for all of the undergraduate schools at Rice. So that would be natural sciences, Engineering, Humanities, Social Sciences, Architecture, Music, and Business.

Uh, I’ve also worked with the National Association for College Admission Counseling, which is the main organization dedicated to people who work and support, uh, students in the college admission process, on how to make the college admission process more accessible and equitable. And I’ve been with CollegeAdvisor for the past year.

So, very happy to be with y’all this evening to talk about strategies for sophomores and juniors.

Lonnie: Okay. Thank you, Brandon. So before we get into those strategies, we would like to get a sense of where you are in the college application process. So believe it or not, the college application process does not begin in the 12th grade.

Um, and so let us know, perhaps you haven’t started Maybe you’re in the research phase, you’re looking at colleges, getting a sense of what you want to major in. Maybe you’ve gotten an early start on your essays or just trying to pull what the different application material may be. So let us know. Okay.

Thank you. Audience. Everyone started to put their responses in. And so, uh, Brandon, it looks like 67 percent of our audience are currently researching their schools, followed by that. We have 20 percent that haven’t started, but I’m sure after this presentation, they’re going to be eager and ready to start their application process.

Brandon: I hope so.

Lonnie: Yes. And then we have 9 percent that are working on their essays and 3 percent that’s getting your application material together. So with that, I will turn it over to you to kick us off in our ideal 10th grade timeline.

Brandon: Awesome. Awesome. Well, I’m so glad to see that so many of you are already starting the process of researching colleges and universities.

That is a great way to start off the process because as, as Lonnie mentioned, it’s The college admission process doesn’t start in 12th grade. It really does start beforehand because exploration and figuring out what you want out of your college experience definitely sets you up for success in the college admission process.

So what we’re going to discuss tonight is some things that you could be doing, should be doing during this time of the 10th and 11th grade to really set yourself up for success for that senior year. When you ultimately put in your applications, so first, let’s start off with 10th grade. 10th grade is a great time for once again, exploration.

You have gotten over the adjustment of going to high school. You’re now fully a sophomore and a part of your high school community. And now it’s time to really explore. What are you interested in? So utilizing those wonderful opportunities for extracurricular exploration, for delving deeply into classes that really challenge you, also trying to ask yourself some really serious questions as to what do you ultimately want to study and want to do, can definitely set you up for success.

First and foremost, make sure that you’re taking very challenging classes. So this would be your advanced placement classes, dual enrollment classes, honors, whatever the highest level of curriculum is within your school. You want to challenge yourself early and perform well in those classes. So the focus should be challenging yourself, but also focusing on great grades because In the admission process.

Ultimately, we want to see that you took advantage of those upper curriculum options. So when you had the opportunity to take honors classes, did you take advantage of that? If you had the opportunity to take AP/IB/dual enrollment classes, did you take advantage of that? And once again, think about the things that you’re potentially interested in.

So if you know right now that you’re interested in potentially going into pre medicine. Making sure that you’re taking those advanced related courses in math and science, because that’s definitely going online with something that you’re interested in going into being medicine. If you’re someone who knows that you may be want to go into political science or government, it would make sense then to make sure that you’re taking those advanced placement or honors courses related to the social sciences.

So once again, having that kind of initial interest that Um, it’s going to be important because it helps you to make great curriculum choices and making sure that you’re challenging yourself to the best of your ability and demonstrating that you’re going to be a great student for potentially what you’re interested in studying.

Also, 10th grade year is a great year to take the PSAT. So this is the practice. It’s a great way of getting familiarity with the test as well as preparing yourself for the national merit qualifying test, which you will take in the 11th grade here. So I definitely recommend in the fall of your 10th grade utilize those opportunities to take advantage of the PSAT.

You also want to use this time to continue to study and prepare for the PSAT, SAT, and the ACT. Now once again, while many schools are test optional, having a great SAT or ACT score can be an additional piece of information that you can leverage in the admission process. So once again, not saying that it’s going to be a make it or break it decision maker in the admission process, but definitely suggesting that this could be an additional strength that you add to your application that can strengthen your candidacy for admission To any of the schools that you’re interested in, so you definitely want to make sure that you’re putting the time and attention into your standardized test to see if that could be an additional aspect.

You could add to your application. Once again, I definitely encourage you to start thinking about your academic interest. This could be a great way for you to talk to people who are doing things that you’re interested in. So if you’re. Once again, interested in pre medicine, talking to doctors and seeing about their experiences and seeing if that would translate into an experience that you would want to have in a career.

Uh, this would also be a great opportunity to look at those, um, job experiences, read up about these industries. So really getting a sense of. What you’re interested in studying will help you ultimately in the application strategy and the ways in which and what institutions you could be looking at to figure out.

Ultimately, where do you want to go to college? And then I definitely encourage you to stay engaged in your extracurricular activities, or maybe start to get engaged in your extracurricular activities once again, the 10th grade year is all about exploration. So I definitely encourage you to try out. Any particular extracurricular that you’re interested in.

It’s a great way of getting a sense of do I like this or do I not like this? It’s also a great opportunity to remain engaged. Maybe start getting into those leadership positions, maybe initiating projects, maybe even initiating your own passion project. For those of you who are interested in maybe working is maybe a great time to look for a part time job that you can have over two years of experience by the time that you graduate and go on to college.

So, once again, this is another great way of exploring your different interests by engaging in those activities that are both similar to what you’re currently interested in, but also maybe some things that are very, very different and important to you. Now, all of this happens during the fall and the spring, so you definitely are utilizing all those wonderful opportunities that you have during the school year, but I definitely encourage you not to, uh, slack off during the summer.

Summer is also a great opportunity for exploration. It’s a great time to rest up and enjoy your break from school, but also utilizing that opportunity and that chance for, in the downtime, to explore more schools and more opportunities. So I definitely encourage our sophomores to attend a college summer class or a camp.

It’s a great way of once again exploring your particular academic interest, but also getting that experience of what it’s like to be on a college campus. Every single college and university is different in terms of their environment. Some people like really big schools. Some people like really small schools.

Some people want to be situated in a major metropolitan city. Some want to prefer to be in a secluded smaller town. This is a way of trying out those different opportunities and those different environments by attending a summer college class or a camp. So I definitely encourage you to engage in that.

Also go on college visits. College visits can be conducted both in person, but also online. This is a way for you to learn even more about those schools. And trust me, learning about the schools is definitely going to be key when you get to the 12th grade and have to ask the question, why? Why Rice? Why University of Southern California?

Why do you want to go to that particular college or university? And the more and more research that you do to determine why you want to go to that school, the better off you’re going to be. So utilize the summer as a way of visiting these schools, both in person as well as online through virtual information sessions and virtual campus tours.

And then also the summer is an excellent opportunity for you to get once again a job or an internship. So I definitely recommend you to reach out to companies that are, that you might be interested in working in and ask them, are they willing to work with a high school student? Um, reaching out to maybe private practices to see if you can shadow a doctor or even reaching out to maybe a law office to see if you can shadow a lawyer.

So this would be a great way for you to get that experience once again. figure out is this something that I potentially want to do or even have any important information of maybe this isn’t what I want to do. So 10th grade is all about exploration and utilizing all those opportunities to explore. The 11th grade year.

Now many people will say the 11th grade year is the most important year when it comes to college admissions and in some ways it is because it is the last full academic year that you will have. On your transcript. So for that reasons, it is very important. But I always remind students that 12th grade year is also very, very important.

So we don’t want you to get senioritis. We don’t want you to forget about your grade performance because we will definitely still consider your senior year courses in terms of your academic rigor. As well as your grades. So all those things will still matter. But the 11th grade year is when you do start to get a little bit more serious about the college admission process because it is more imminent.

So some of the things to keep in mind. Once again, you want to continue to take more challenging courses, especially now that you’ve done that exploration that you did in 10th grade, you can come into that junior year knowing. Hey, maybe I’m really interested in going into pre med and I’m making sure that I’m taking advantage of those upper level math and science classes, or I know that I want to go and become that next great American writer or that great international writer.

I need to make sure that I’m taking the literature classes that I need to really demonstrate that and making sure that they’re at the highest level. So once again, taking advantage of those challenging classes and performing very well. So once again, A’s is what we want to see, B’s are alright, very few C’s, no D’s or F’s.

But always remember, in the event that you happen to go down in your grades, if there are reasons, you always have a way of being able to explain it. And on top of that, you always have a way of improving. Because we do take into consideration, did you improve? So keep those in mind that once again, the challenge needs to be there, but also the great, great performance.

Then we have the PSAT and the National Merit Qualifying Test. So once again, you, this is another opportunity to practice and take the SAT and see if it is the test that fits you, because maybe it doesn’t fit you as much. And then you have the ACT, so you can be able to take advantage of that. But also, the National Merit Qualifying Test is the PSAT in the 11th grade.

This particular test is used to determine which students will be considered National Merit Semi Finalists. who would then participate in the National Merit Scholarship Competition. And those finalists will then receive a scholarship if they are deemed to be, um, a National Merit winner. And then you also have those students who are given a commendation, a letter of commendation for their performance on the PSAT or the National Merit Qualifying Test.

So this is a great opportunity once again for you to receive an accolade that you can put on your college application. And some schools do offer scholarships based on your national merit status. So that’s why it’s important for you to study for that test in your 10th grade and be ready to take it in the 11th grade to possibly qualify for the national merit competition.

Then we also have your initial college list. So this is where you want to think about. What are those schools that you’re interested in? Having a sense of those schools that you’re interested in will help you to understand, well, where do I need to be in terms of being a competitive applicant for that school?

So if you’re looking at a lot of highly selective schools, having a sense of what their middle 50 percent of the SAT and ACT will let you know what kind of score you need to shoot for. Maybe getting a sense of what their middle 50 percent of their GPA can help you Do you need to improve upon your grade point average and take even more challenging courses?

And also, how do they do their admission process? Are you applying by major? Are you applying by academic school? That means that you have to have your academic interest Um, pretty much kind of set a little bit, but also that there’s going to be some experiences related to that, that you want to make sure are within your experience and within your high school career before you apply.

So, making that initial college list definitely sets you up for success because it gives you something to shoot for. And it also gives you a sense of some of the benchmarks by which you will be evaluated in the admission process. But once again, remember, it’s an initial college list, so it definitely can and probably will change.

But having that initial sense of some of the schools that you’re interested in, but also some of the preferences that you have. So as I mentioned, do you like a small school? Do you like a big school? Do you want to go to a school that has a Greek life? All those different preferences can help you in developing your college.

In defining your college list, but also will help you in refining it later on. But having those sense of what those schools are looking for can set you up for success in the college admission process. So once again, encouraging you to continue to study for the SAT and the ACT, because you want to perform to the best of your ability on that particular test, but also engaging in your extracurricular activities.

This is a great time to become a leader in that particular organization. Now, when I talk about leadership. I’m not talking about just the position. Leadership is also about the impact and the actions that you take. So once again, do you have a project that you could do as a part of that organization and and getting other people who are a part of it?

To make your initiative and make your project a reality is a great demonstration of leadership, even outside of a position. So once again, you want to utilize all those opportunities. And once again, extracurriculars are a great way of exploring what you’re interested in. So are you working towards, let’s say in speech and debate that you want to go on to the national competition?

Are you putting in that work to advance from the local level to the regional level to the state level to the national level. So this is also another way of exploring those different things that you’re interested in. Also receiving some excellent achievements and give giving yourself a lot of things that you can put into your college application.

So during the spring is usually when you’re going to take your SAT and ACT. Um, it’s also a great time to be taking your AP exams or your IB tests. You can often receive credit for your performance on these particular tests for many highly selective institutions. A four or five on that test will on the test will get you credit for an I.

B. It’s usually you have to be an IB Diploma candidate and a six or seven on a high level test will get you credit. But usually you take those, uh, many of those tests in the spring of your junior year. One of the great things is a great performance on that particular test. Well, once again, demonstrate your capability of doing academic work and also demonstrate your strength in a subject that may align with what you want to do when you go to college.

This is a great time once again to refine your college list. Maybe over time, some of those things that you thought were great. Are no longer great or fit you or you looked into that particular school and maybe made the determination. Maybe not the best environment for you. That’s perfectly fine. But this is a great way of refining that college list.

Also, it’s a great time to think about your summer plans. Do you want to do another course at a college or university? Do you want to do a shadowing opportunity? Do you want to do research? Because utilizing that last summer before is another great way of really demonstrating your commitment and seriousness to a particular academic subject, but also another opportunity for exploration.

And then the summer, the summer before senior year is a great time to work on your personal statement or your common application essay. Okay. In general, the prompts for the Common Application are going to be solidified during the spring, so you can utilize that time during the summer to think about those different ideas for what you want to write about.

When it comes to the Common Application or any essay, what I always tell students to do is to take a step back. Look at what all the different parts of the application could potentially say about you. Your transcript can say that you’re a strong academic student. Your letter of recommendation is what someone else thinks about you.

Your extracurriculars are the things that you’ve engaged in and how you’ve conducted exploration. The essay is about you. This is our way of getting to know who you are and what perspective you’re going to bring to a college or university. So in taking that step back and looking at all those different parts of the application, you should ask yourself this question.

What is important to me that hasn’t been said? Whatever that is, it’s probably going to be a great topic for your essay. And so, utilizing the summer to help craft those mini drafts, get the opinions of other people, your advisors, your family, uh, your English teacher, if they’re willing, or anyone else who’s writing you trust, can be a great way of setting yourself up for success utilizing your summer.

Also, college and universities will definitely be open and welcoming visitors. So this is another great way of you getting those college visits in and learning more information about those schools and helping to solidify your list once again, and then taking advantage of those summer college courses and internships.

So, This hopefully is helping you to realize that even though you are a sophomore or a junior, there are definite things that you can do right now to set yourself up for success in the college admission process by the time that you become a senior. So once again, This is about building your application strategy.

So one of the things that you definitely want to make sure is that you have a variety of schools that you are applying to. So this could be your reach schools, those schools that are going to be difficult for anyone to get in. Generally a school that has an acceptance rate. Under 20 percent is definitely going to be a reach for everybody.

Even if you have a perfect SAT score, a perfect ACT score, or a perfect GPA, there’s no guarantees in those admission processes. So you want to make sure that you’re giving yourself a variety of options because it will be a reach for everybody. Target schools are going to be those schools that, um, your GPA and your class rank and your standardized test scores are within that middle 50 percent for that particular school and are generally are what is accepted by that school.

So you want to have some of those that, you know, you’re going to have a really good chance of getting into those schools, even though it’s not a 100 percent guarantee. Now your safety schools are going to be the schools where you know you’re definitely above the parameters for admission. So often this will be the schools that are, that have assured admission that tell you, you have to have this GPA, this SAT and ACT score, this class rank, and you automatically get in.

Many of those schools can be your safety schools because you know, that’s automatically going to be an option for you. But once again, utilizing that GPA, that class rank, that standardized test score that you have developed from your 10th and 11th grade years can help you in determining. What are my reach schools?

What are my target schools? And what are my safety schools? Also, that exploration that you’ve done in terms of knowing what your preferences are also helps you to add schools to this, to this list. And once again, helps you in building up that application strategy. Because you want to have a really strong strategy of understanding These schools over here are going to be ones that are going to be reaches, but I really want to go to them and I’m going to give myself that opportunity and ability to know that I want to go to those schools by submitting a great application to those schools that are target schools that you know you have a really, really great chance, but you still got to put in the work for that application to those schools that you know that are going to be a sure bet because you meet their minimum admission requirements.

It also helps you determine what is going to be your workload because you have to put in the time and attention into all these applications. So are you going to be committed to putting in all that work? Developing that initial list helps you with that initial strategy. Also, as I mentioned throughout this presentation, alignment to your academic interest is something that is definitely considered in the admission process, so it is also a part of your application strategy.

Do your courses align with that particular academic area of interest? So, for example, if you’re interested in going into engineering, For most people who go into engineering, you’re going to need to have a strong record of math and science courses. So do the courses that you are taking align with that?

So if you take in your APs and you know that you are taking AP calculus, AP physics, AP bio, that’s probably going to demonstrate that you’re really strong in math and science. So the application strategy could be, okay, we’re going to apply for math and science based subjects because my curriculum Really demonstrates that I’m a committed student and very strong in that particular subject area.

Or it could be that you like your humanities, which would be your English based classes, your foreign language classes, as well as your social sciences classes. Maybe my strength is over there, given my curriculum is really strong in those particular, uh, classes. Cause I have the honors. I had the AP, I had the IB in this area, but I’m also performing well.

Cause that’s where my A’s are. Then your strategy would be, okay, let’s look into those, uh, humanities and social sciences, uh, areas. For those who are interested in business, are you really strong all across the board and can bring all those different perspectives into business? So, once again, thinking about all these different things that you cultivated during your 10th and 11th grade years helps you build up that application strategy to see, do the work does the work that I’ve done in terms of my academics, the work that I’ve done in terms of my extracurriculars, my own interests, do they align?

To that particular area of study, and if so, maybe that’s the best way for me to apply. And if not, maybe I need to reconsider how I’m applying to this particular school and selecting another avenue. That may be a better fit. So, once again, it’s thinking about all 3 of those areas and then. What if you’re multi decided?

Now, many people use the phrase undecided. I prefer the phrase multi decided. Because generally, you do have an idea of what it is that you want to study. It’s just that you’re not necessarily 100 percent committed to that particular subject. That’s also perfectly fine. But if you are multi decided, Why?

What are those things that you’re interested in? Why are you interested in those multiple things? Maybe you can combine all of those things into one unique major, one unique experience, and is the institution going to give you that ability to be able to do that? So once again, having a sense of what it is that you want to study is going to help you in your application strategy, because schools are going to ask you, why do you want to go into what you want to go into?

Merely saying, I don’t know, not going to be helpful, but giving a school an idea that maybe I want to become a poet, but also maybe I want to become an astrophysicist. Give us those reasons why that’ll definitely help you in terms of your strategy. So then it becomes about putting it all together. So some ways in which you can put all these things together through your exploration, through the work you do in your junior year, all the way up until you’re ready to apply, here are a couple of things you can do to put it all together.

One is definitely making sure that you’re maintaining a resume or a BRAC sheet. This will definitely come in handy when it comes time to think about how are you going to display your extracurriculars, but also information that you can give to your recommenders so that they know the wonderful work that you’ve done and be able to include that information.

In their recommendation letters. And you can also use this information when it comes time to prepare the common application. So keeping track of all those amazing things that you’ve done in a resume is great. Cause then if you’re applying for a job, if you’re applying for an internship, you’re already ready to go with the demonstration of the things that you’ve done.

And also keeping track of this helps to organize. And helps you to remember all the amazing things that you’ve done throughout your high school career. I also encourage students throughout high school to engage in journaling. Think about, what are your whys? What are your motivations? Having a sense of that, once again, will help you to craft a great statement as to why you want to study what you want to study.

It can also help you in terms of understanding your motivations to go to a particular college or university. And you may want to keep track of your thoughts. So journaling can definitely help you in determining your why’s thinking through some of these questions and also getting that information down.

Once again, I cannot stress enough. The summer before your senior year is a great time to work on those essays. You want to set yourself up for success. So the earlier that you work, On these drafts, the better. So utilizing that opportunity to put all that work together in a great draft into your responses will be a great use of your time.

But also, please remember, most institutions will be using a holistic admission process. This means that it won’t just be the GPA, class rank, and standardized test score that determines admission. It will be the combination of all of your factors that will lead you to admission. So you have to have not only great academic performance, a great academic curriculum, also you will need great record letters of recommendation.

So think about Who is that teacher that aligns with your interests that you want to speak for you? Or maybe you have a great mentor or sponsor of an organization that you want their letter of recommendation so they can bring that perspective into the application process. You’ll also need extracurriculars.

What are your involvements and your engagements? The things that demonstrate that you have explored what you’re interested in, but also the things that you’ve done for fun and the things that you’ve done well and the achievements and experiences you’ll bring to that particular college or university.

And then once again, your essays will always be important. The two main questions you’re definitely going to see as a part of the essays are going to be, Why do you want to go to that specific school? And we do mean specifically to that school. So we should see very unique and specific elements related to that school.

It’s something that I like to do called the Cheesecake Factory Test. If I can put the Cheesecake Factory into a why that school statement and it still makes sense, you probably need to change it. So for example, I want to go to Rice University because of its variety of options and its great location. I want to go to the Cheesecake Factory because it’s a variety of options and it’s a great location.

See how both made sense? Exactly. That would mean you need to change that up. But once again, if you’ve engaged in that exploration work in 10th grade, and also done those college visits and checked out those different schools and information in 11th grade, it’ll set you up for success when it comes to writing that essay topic.

And then also engaging in all those different activities to really get a firm sense of why you want to study what you want to study can also help you in crafting an excellent essay that demonstrates the All those wonderful experiences that you put the work in. So once again, why does this matter? This matters because the earlier you start, the easier it will be.

Trust me, many of our students currently wish that they could have used a lot of that time earlier to engage in some things to make this process easier. You’re being given that opportunity and ability to do that just now as a, as a sophomore and junior. So definitely take advantage of these opportunities because the earlier you start with this, the easier it’s going to be ultimately when you get to the admission process.

You want to position yourself the best way you can. So once again, Having that sense of why you want to study, what you want to study, the experiences that have demonstrated that you’re going to be a strong student for this potential academic area of interest or this potential career, all of those things can help position you very well when it comes to applying to a college or university.

Ultimately, it’s your future. It’s your life. So put in the time to invest in yourself. Give yourself that opportunity and ability to explore. One of the things I love the most about the college admission process, this is a time to dream. This is a time to explore and think very, very broadly. What do you want out of life and giving yourself that opportunity by experiencing all these different, wonderful opportunities.

So make sure that you’re doing that because it ultimately is your life and you’re worth the investment. And always remember, we are here to help you. We’re here to help you as your advisors, your community, your counselors, utilize all these wonderful resources that you have to help you. So hopefully this helps you see why all of this ultimately matters because

So with that, I want to open up the floor to questions and hopefully some great answers, and I hope that this was helpful.

Lonnie: Yes. Thank you, Brandon, for sharing all this great information for our sophomores and juniors to get them prepared for submitting their college applications and doing it the right way.

Um, so with that, we will move now into our questions and answers. I just wanna let our audience know that you are able to download the slides by clicking on the handout tab. Um, and with that, we will move right into our questions. So, The first question, I just seen it up here. Okay, so here we go. So since I’m a sophomore, my parents are reluctant to let me participate in summer college programs and internships or jobs.

I’ve explained that it will help strengthen my application, but do you have any tips for this?

Brandon: Absolutely. So definitely I would say, why don’t you show your parents this wonderful webinar, right? So that they can hear it directly from a college or university admission officer’s perspective that engaging in those opportunities will be helpful for you.

Also, what I would recommend is, um, giving them the information about the program and really talking about, well, how does this program fit into your overall interests? And your own commitment into going into that particular program. One other thing could be, especially if there is a cost, maybe associated with the program, or you actually doing some initial work to show that you have that commitment to go into that program by saying, hey, I’m I am willing to work and contribute this amount of money towards this program.

Will you meet me the rest of the way if I satisfy that? Because that could be a great way, once again, of demonstrating your commitment to engaging in that particular program. When it comes to internships and jobs, I always say come prepared. So if you’re prepared with that resume, if you’re prepared with that list of companies that you’re going to ask, that probably will help demonstrate to your parents, once again, They really are serious about this.

And also having a plan for how you’re going to get to and from home and to that job or internship could also help in terms of explaining your commitment to wanting to go and pursue that experience.

Lonnie: Um, our next question asks, what are some specific characteristics that Rice University is looking for?

Brandon: Well, happy that you asked that answer that question. Rice University is definitely a community centric organism, uh, institution. So we definitely looked for students who are going to contribute to the overall community at Rice. So you have to be someone who wants to be in an environment where you’re going to engage, where you’re going to, um, speak in class, where you’re going to participate in activities and be a part of the residential college community.

So definitely one of the things that they value and are looking for is what type of community member are you going to be? So making sure that you really talk about, well, what is that perspective that you’re going to bring and how you would interact in the overall university environment. The other things that Rice students all share is that they’re intellectually curious about something and they want to share that curiosity with their fellow students.

Lonnie: Okay. Uh, next question is, uh, should I take the SAT? Will it still be required?

Brandon: So, generally, I do recommend that students take the SAT or the ACT one thing to remember, we don’t privilege one versus the other. We don’t say that the SAT is better or that the ACT is better. Now, once again. While many schools are test optional, many schools still will consider once again the SAT or the ACT.

So taking advantage of those opportunities to take those tests to see if you get a great score could be an additional piece of information that is added to your application and helps to strengthen your candidacy for admission. So I definitely recommend trying those tests out, seeing how well you perform.

And once again, if you’re not necessarily the best test taker, that doesn’t mean that you won’t get admitted. It just means that some people will have an additional piece of information. You don’t necessarily have that additional piece of information. Therefore, you need to also make sure that the other parts of your application in terms of that transcript, in terms of the academic rigor and those extracurriculars are also very, very strong.

Lonnie: Okay. Uh, what is the best mental strategy for college admissions?

Brandon: I love this question. So thank you to the person who submitted this question. The best mental strategy when it comes to college admissions, take a deep breath in, deep breath out, relax. Honestly, all you can do is put forth your best effort.

Okay. Aside from that, remember, you don’t know what that particular college university is looking for. You don’t know what their institutional priorities are. All you know is that you want the opportunity and ability to go to that school. The only way you’re gonna know if that is an option for you is to apply.

So the best mental strategy that I always tell students to do is make sure that you have a lot of options. So making sure that you have those reaches your targets and your safeties and that you want to go to any school that you put on your list. Do not just put it on just because, oh, you think you’ll get in.

No, you gotta want to go there. So one, one, you have to want to go there to put forth the best effort in all the different parts of the application. As long as you’ve done that, you can hit submit, breathe and let the process play itself out. But there’s no reason for this to be a mentally taxing situation.

As long as you’ve done a lot of this advanced work, trust me, it’s going to be easy and a breeze because your 12th grade year should be you enjoying being a senior. It isn’t about applying to colleges and universities. That’s one aspect. It isn’t the only aspect.

Lonnie: All right. Um, what is the best way to go about applying to college?

Um, a college major in pre-med.

Brandon: Okay, great question. So remember, pre-med in general is not going to be a major. Pre-med is a set of classes that every medical student needs to take. Okay. to prepare to go to medical school. So the thing you have to think about when it comes to if you’re applying as a pre-med, why do you want to go into medicine?

What have been those experiences that have demonstrated why you want to go to medical school? So have you done some shadowing? Have you done some hospital volunteering? What are those things that have led you to that decision? When it comes to a major, you can literally major in anything and be premed.

So you can major in French. You can major in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. You can major in history and go into premed because you’re going to bring those experiences from what you majored in into the medical profession. And they want to see that you have that commitment to it. So when it comes to applying first, just have some experiences that demonstrate why you want to go into, uh, why you want to go to medical school.

But also really think about what it is that you want to study because you don’t have to be a biology major unless you really, really love biology and go for it. But if you don’t really, really love biology, remember all you need is those prerequisite classes. That’s enough biology that you need to go on to medical school.

They will give you the rest. Trust me when you get to medical school, but once again, that shouldn’t be the guiding thing to think about when it comes to your major because you can major in anything and be pretty mad.

Lonnie: Good advice, really good advice. Um, would community service hours be better to have on a portfolio compared to sports?

Brandon: Good question. So once again, we don’t privilege certain extracurriculars over others because for one, not all extracurriculars are offered to every single school. Um, we don’t say, oh, service is better than sports or debate is better than karate. That’s not what it is. It’s about what are you involved in?

Every single year I do have a student who asked me, what’s the minimum number of community service hours I should do? My question always to them is, Do you like doing service? If the answer is no, don’t do it. The reason you do community service is because you want to be in service to the community and you want to give of yourself to that community.

You should not do it for the purposes of college admission because guess what? It’s going to read like that in your application. Remember, you have to describe the things that you’ve done. We can read between the lines in your description. If you really like doing something, It’s going to be a lengthy description is going to be filled with, um, great words that describe what you’ve done, the impact of what you’ve done is going to be demonstrated in your letters of recommendation and in other parts of your application.

So, once again, that is meaningful because it was meaningful to you, but we won’t necessarily say, oh, we want this person to do a sport. Not everyone is athletic. So therefore, we don’t go in requiring everyone to have certain extracurriculars. So don’t worry about is one more so important than the other is about you and your experiences and what you bring to the table.

Lonnie: Great. Um, the next question reads, How should I choose between my interest that I would like to do? Should I, um, per use the career that is for me naturally, or that would be in my favor. Personally, I want to start applying to programs, but I’m unsure.

Brandon: Sure. So I think this is it with respect to, um, the application strategy.

Usually what I tell students when it comes to your application strategy is let’s look at all the different parts of the application and see what’s going to make sense. So if your academic curriculum, once again, is leaning more so one towards the other, then you probably want to go in the way in which it is leaning.

So for example, if all of your AP’s are in math and science, that means more than likely you need to apply for a math and science based subject because the school is going to see that that’s where your academic rigor and your challenge and likely your interest is in, right? For others, it could be in the opposite.

But once again, You’re not, many of these schools are going to use this for the purposes of admission. Once you get to college, it’s a different situation. Once you get to college, many times you’re not married to that particular major or that particular college or that, uh, within the university. You have then the opportunity to explore.

So this is once again, just about getting yourself an initial interest of what you’re interested in using that to show that you would be a great student for that potential interest, but also a great student overall. And then once you get into the school. You have the ability to maneuver.

Lonnie: All right. Uh, next question is, do extracurricular activities need to be related to your major?

For instance, joining the debate team would make sense when I would like to study engineering.

Brandon: Debate and engineering make a lot of sense. So think about it. A debate, and I am a former debater. So yes, I am very, very biased, very, very biased when it comes to debate. Debate is a skill that you can apply to any subject because you know how to make an argument.

You know how to present yourself. You know how to speak. That can be applicable to anything. Engineers need to be able to present their ideas. So we actually love seeing engineers who engage in debate. So not everything is automatically going to be a perfect alignment to a particular subject, but at least engaging in things that you can make applicable to your subject.

Is what is important. So it’s also once again about how do you communicate these ideas and the things that you’ve been involved in to what it is that you want to study and you do that through your essays in your application. Right? So, once again, there’s not going to be a 1 to 1 oftentimes with your extracurriculars, but I generally do recommend the students engage in things that are similar to that thing that they’re interested in studying.

But also, this is a great way for you to try out different things as well.

Lonnie: Okay. Next question. Is it better to ace a regular course or get a B minus, et cetera, in an honors course to show rigor?

Brandon: Oh, I get this question all the time. Um, here’s the honest, the honest answer is best to make an A in an honors class.

What I mean by that is this. We want both the rigor and the great grade. So, honestly, there’s a lot, lot of factors that go into that question. So, for example, is that regular class associated with something that you weren’t interested in studying? Okay, that’s going to look a little different than if it’s in a regular class, but it’s not necessarily something that you’re interested in studying because if I’m looking at you as an engineer and let’s say you did regular geometry, but you had the option to take honors geometry.

My question is going to be why didn’t you go honors? You could have had that opportunity to really demonstrate that you’re challenging yourself. So once again, it’s not just a question of the great performance and, um, the rigor in isolation it’s together. So generally you want to have the great grade and the great, great performance.

Lonnie: Alrighty. And then our next question is, is summer the best time to visit a college? Um, for a tour.

Brandon: So generally, I, um, recommend visit when you can. Many times people will prefer to visit during the fall and spring because that’s usually when the universities are going to be in full swing and students are going to be present.

Um, but that may or may not necessarily align with your availability to go visit a school. So visit a school when you can. Summer, Universities are open to students being able to visit. So that’s why I recommend utilizing that free time because generally that’s when you are free. But if you have free time during the school year, let’s say during a fall or winter break.

That’s also a great time to go and visit a school. And sometimes if it aligns, it could be during a time in which, um, the school is in full session and you can get a sense of what is the environment is like when students are on campus. Also ask your counselors. Do they give you days to go and visit schools?

Some schools do give students the ability to go on a college visit, and it doesn’t count against their absences, and it is excused. Use that as an opportunity to maybe go and visit a school during the fall and spring semester.

Lonnie: So we’re gonna take a short pause from our questions and answers for me to share more with you all about the work that we do here at CollegeAdvisor.

For those 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. And just like we said, it’s never too early to start on the college admission process. This is actually the right time to start. Our team of over 300 former admission officers and admission experts are ready to help you and your family.

Navigate it all in one on one advising sessions. That is you and an advisor working together to support you through the application process. Take the next step in your college admission journey by signing up for a free consultation using the QR code on the screen. During the consultation, a member of our team will review your extracurricular lists, discuss how it lines up with your college goals, and help you find opportunities for growth and leadership.

After scanning the QR code, you’ll be able to select a date and time for a phone conversation with a member of our team. Okay, so we’re going to move into our next question, and it reads, how do I go about receiving a scholarship to college?

Brandon: Awesome. So, um, I want to answer this question with respect to keeping in mind that there are merit based scholarships and there are also need based scholarships.

So first we’re going to talk about merit based scholarships. Merit based scholarships are going to be, um, scholarships that you’re awarded For pretty much anything that you bring to the table, so it can be great academics. It could be sports. It could be debate. It could be any number of things, but you’re getting it because of the merits of your application and the merits of things that you have done.

Usually you’re applying for those scholarships. During the admission process. So during the admission process, not only are you being considered for admission, you’re also being considered for all of those scholarships. So once again, that’s the reason for why you want to be as detailed as possible in your application, because not only is that your admission application, oftentimes it is your scholarship application.

Now also. Sometimes schools will have those supplemental questions that are specific for scholarships, and they’re using that information to determine if you’re going to receive a scholarship along with the other aspects of your application. So utilize all those opportunities to apply for those merit based scholarships, but you usually apply for the major ones when you apply in the admission process.

Now, need based scholarships need based scholarships are going to be based off of your family’s financial circumstances. For those type of scholarships, you have to submit the appropriate financial aid information. So generally that’s going to be the FAFSA for some institutions. It’s going to also be the CSS profile, um, which is available through the college board and then your family’s most recent IRS tax information based off of your family’s financial circumstances.

You could read or receive a scholarship based off.

Lonnie: All righty. Thank you, Brandon, for explaining that to our audience. And we have no more questions that have come up in the Q and a tab. Um, but with that, I wanted to share. Um, just what’s coming up for our webinars. So we do have more webinars that are going to be happening this month. And then we also have our November webinars that are going to be coming up in.

We have some college specific workshops that you can participate in. So as we speak about getting that early start. Why not, you know, attend another webinar so you can get more information to help you prepare for the process. And so with that, Brandon, I want to thank you so much for your time sharing all this really great information.

It was, I know it was definitely useful for our audiences. I also was finding some really great tips to support my students with. So thank you so much. And with our audience, thank you again for your participation and for asking your questions. And we hope to see you in the upcoming webinar. Have a great one, everyone.