Cracking the Code: Building a Strong College Application

Webinar Transcription

2024-01-10 – Cracking the Code: Building a Strong College Application

Hello, everyone. Welcome to CollegeAdvisors webinar, “Cracking the Code: Building a Strong College Application.” 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. Um, if you would like to already start submitting your questions, you are more than welcome to do so, um, by locating the Q&A tab, and you can go ahead and add your questions in there, and then we will get to them during the Q&A, um, portion.

Also, if you want to download the slides, you can also click on handouts and the slides will be accessible to you. So with that, let’s go ahead and introduce our panelists. Thank you so much. Hi everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. My name is Aya Waller-Bey, and I will be talking to you today about how to build a strong college application.

So a little bit about me and my background. I am a proud first generation college student. That means I was the first person in my family to attain a four year degree, probably from Detroit, Michigan, where I reside now for college. I went to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Go Hoyas. Uh, and I also, um, worked as an admissions officer there at Georgetown University, where I covered primarily, uh, Four states in the Midwest, but also did the multicultural recruitment for that institution after my tenure and admissions, I went abroad or across the pond to England where I got my master’s in the philosophy of education.

At the University of Cambridge in England as a recipient of the Gates Cambridge scholarship. So had an amazing time and across the pond where I also did alumni interviewing for Georgetown. And then I returned to the U.S., uh, have done various admissions consulting and college advising capacities. And now I’m currently finishing my PhD in sociology at the University of Michigan go blue, um, where I actually studied the college admissions.

essay. So we’re going to cover a lot of ground in this conversation about the various components of the college admissions process. So I’m looking forward to speaking with you tonight. Yes. Thank you, Aya. And you all are in for a treat because you’re going to get a lot of great information to support you with your college application process.

So before we jump right into The presentation portion, we will love to get a sense of what grade you are in. It allows us the opportunity to find ways to speak directly to our audience that are with us live. Um, so please let us know. And I actually launched the poll a little sooner, so I’m starting to see the responses come in.

I’m just going to give it just a second. A few more seconds to see if there’s more.

Okay, cool. So we have 54 percent of our audience are in the 11th grade. Followed by that we have 20 percent other, which may be a representative, a parent, a guardian, a counselor. Then we have 15 percent 10th grade. Um, and 6 percent between our 9th and 12th grade students. So with that, I, I will turn it over to you to talk about the start us off with the components that make up the college application.

Fantastic. Thank you so much. So we have a nice diverse group of folks in the audience today, which is really great. There is, you know, truly never too early to really start thinking about the college admissions process if you are college going or aspire to attend college. So. So to start us off, first, we want to think about what components make up the college application, right?

So the first component is the standard biographical and demographic information. So that’s when you create your admissions profile, whether you’re using a common app or university’s independent application, you’re adding your, you know, your name, your birthday, gender, sexual orientation. Parental educational attainment, et cetera, right?

So you’re just putting in your basic demographic data where you go to high school, et cetera. Um, then you have the high school transcript. So that is either most likely uploaded by the college counselor where it shows your high school record, the courses you’ve taken and the grades you’ve earned in those classes.

You also have the college counselor letter recommendation, and that is often a form that the college counselor fills out that indicates your performance. Make sure you’ve completed the graduation requirements for, um, your school, your district, etc. And then you have that teacher letter or letters of recommendation, which often are from core subjects or educators from core, um, kind of academic areas in your school.

And it talks about. Your performance in the classroom, your leadership, where you kind of stepped in and help your, your peers in a classroom, whether you’re curious, if you have a particular strength and math, et cetera. So you have the teacher letter or letters of recommendation. You also have the activities list or award.

So there’s an opportunity, say, in the common app. where you can list 10 activities where you’ve demonstrated leadership, service, internships, research, etc. And then there’s also the honors slash awards portion where on the common app it’s five boxes where you can talk about whether it’s the AP scholar award or the governor’s award or maybe you made dean’s list at your school or honor roll etc.

And then you have the college personal statement and a personal essay. And again, that is my area of expertise. expertise where you’re writing, you know, an essay of about 650 words, uh, responding to one of the seven prompts. Also there’s an opportunity for you to choose your own adventure and you’re really talking about your background and you know, your identity or just responding to the question.

And we’ll talk more specifically about that. And you’ll notice there is an asterisk there because, uh, not all universities. X will require you to submit a personal statement for your application. Some, you know, they just need basic information. Some have automatic admissions, etc. So that’s why there’s an asterisk there.

You also have standardized test scores. So most notably the SAT or the ACT. There’s also the AP exams that people take. And again, that’s also an asterisk. We know schools are test optional sometimes, or in the case of California, test blind. So not all schools require you to submit test scores. Um, you also have supplemental essays, which are those school smaller essays, which can range from one word to 600 words, where they tend to be a little bit more school specific.

Um, and they ask you to follow or respond to a particular prompt. Again, not all schools have supplemental essays, not all schools require them. And then lastly, you have a resume, right? So some schools might invite you to upload a resume, or some students might want to upload a resume, which allows them to talk.

Give more in depth information about their activities and their honors because there are character limits on the common app and various other application platforms. So this is generally the components that make up a college application. Okay. And again, there is some variation depending on the type of school, um, and what type of platform you might use.

So in thinking about that, you know, what then does the application timeline typically look like? So I said earlier at the start of this conversation, I mean, there’s really no such thing as too early. Right? So there’s certainly, um. You know, opportunities to start thinking about the college application beyond or before the junior year, if you will, but it really is the junior year where people start to really kind of think more strategically about what does the college admissions process look like?

So, I will definitely encourage, you know, encourage students to think about in their junior year meeting with their high school counselors, right? So, meeting with their high school counselors. Um, You know, asking them, making sure that you’re on target, right? To make sure you’re able to complete those high school graduation requirements.

Because you don’t want to get to senior year and realize you needed to take an additional gym class or something, right? You also have the opportunity to take the PSAT, right? To really, you know, Take that exam to see if you qualify for a National Merit Scholarship. So that’s also an opportunity as well.

Your junior year, some schools will have a designated day, sometimes in the fall, sometimes in the spring. You also really want to kind of dive in more rigorously and make sure you’re researching your colleges and, uh, researching colleges and requirements. So, By this stage, I’ve heard students to develop a list of 20 to 25 colleges.

Now, these are not all, you’re not applying to all of these schools, but maybe you like a certain type of culture. Maybe you like a certain type of region. Maybe you say these are the schools that have the top pre, you know, pre med or biology programs, or these are the types of schools that are known for both athletics and intellect.

So you just create this robust list and begin to see what the college qualifications are. So what is the, you know, Do they have GPA cutoffs? You know, what types of students do they attract? You know, you just want to make sure you’re on target Also, this is a great opportunity, especially during your spring breaks or holiday breaks and winter breaks if possible To visit the colleges on this list, right?

This is virtually or in person. I can’t tell you how many people I know who Um, you know go and visit a school and realize that It was their dream school since they knew what college was and they visit and they’re like, this is actually not a good fit for me. I want a larger campus. I want a smaller campus.

The people were unkind. You know, it’s a great way to get a feel of the institution. You also really want to start thinking about teachers. You want to write letters of recommendation. Now you might see other guides online that say, ask for letters of recommendation your junior year. I’ll say this, um, You know, teachers and educators in our schools are often overran by seniors, so they might be juggling a lot.

But even if you just create a list of three teachers, you know, thinking about your junior teachers and your sophomore teachers that you would like to ask to write you a letter recommendation, and just starting to kind of think about what types of, how you plan to ask them. What types of qualities you will want them to talk about in your letters and just kind of priming them To say in the fall, I would love if you could write a letter for me You also want to study for and take sat and act exams, right?

So we talked about the PSAT But you really want to sit for those, you know those exams to really kind of gauge where you are to see if You want to qualify for a merit based scholarship at an institution. And they say to have a merit based scholarship, you need a 32 on the ACT. So you want to take the ACT to know where you’re going to fall.

When you first took it, was it a 29? Does that mean you need to study a little bit more so you can jump up to that 31 to be eligible? So you want to take the test, the various tests, if you are planning to submit test scores. And then finally, Researching a pile of lists of scholarships. I mean, it is not too early to start thinking about scholarships.

We know the cost of higher education in this country is ridiculous if you will. So you really want to make sure you are getting, um, you know, compelling lists of scholarships and things you might be eligible for. So when thinking about senior year, you want to create that common app. And I believe the common app, uh, It opens up for the incoming class.

I think it’s August 1st, right? So you want to create a common app account that has been your name, your email address, and you want to create a email address. I recommend a separate from your school email address. Back in my day, we didn’t have a So everyone had Yahoo, if you all know what that is, um, and then later Gmail account.

And I definitely encourage you to create an email account that is not associated with your school because when you graduate, you don’t want to lose access to that account. So create a Gmail account, your first name dot your last name at gmail dot, you know, dot com or Yahoo or whatever platform, but you want to create one.

That is not tied to your school. So and you want that to be specifically for common app and also your your applications, right? You want to complete your activities list. Um, so you really want to create you have that resume already created So you really want to kind of go through and start adding your activities to?

Your your common app profile. You want to draft a letter personal statement by September 1st. Now some students write Drafts of college personal statements in their high school in class. So you might do that in your junior year Um, you might do it in the summer Um, or you might do it in the fall But you really want to have a whole a full draft now just a draft by September 1 You do not want to spend so much time working on that personal statement And you get to October 30th, and you’re trying to scramble to submit applications, and you have 16 supplement essays to write as well.

So try to get that person’s statement out of the way. As I mentioned earlier, retake the SAT or ACT. If you don’t feel comfortable with the score, if you want a higher score, score, to be more competitive, to get that merit based aid, what have you. You also want to confirm your letters of recommendation, right?

You want to make sure you again, ask the letters, letter writers, and that they know that they’re invited to submit the letters in the common app, excuse me, portal. So you just want to make sure that they have, um, you know, that that is situated. You don’t want any outstanding letters again, seeing your, your drafting us and submitting I’m sorry, drafting and completing those supplements, right?

So you want to make sure you’re writing those supplement essays. And again, those are typically smaller and shorter, usually about 250 words or one word or one sentence. So you’re working on that. And then for financial aid, you know, submitting the FAFSA and the CSS profile, financial aid forms that are often needed for those who are interested in federal aid.

If they’re, if you’re interested in a work study and in some cases, some schools require, um, students and parents to submit the FAFSA for merit based aid as well. And then you really want to submit those applications on time, way before the deadline. You don’t want a match dash. And while you’re doing this, continue to research and apply for scholarships.

That is an ongoing process. Right before our call, I was just meeting with a student that I work with here for College Advisor, and we were working on scholarships. She got into her school early, early decision, right? Um, but we’re still working on scholarships because it’s, you can never have too much aid to help reduce the financial burden.

So in thinking about parts of the application that carry the most weight, this is a very important, um, and popular question that we get here. Not in just our college advisors conversations, but most people in the higher ed space could tell you. Um, so for schools that practice holistic admissions, the high school transcript.

That is the applicant, the part of the application that carry the most weight. Okay, so the high school transcript is a record of performance and achievement across our high school career. Why this is, um, perhaps more significant or carry the most weight and say a standardized test score is you can have the flu.

Or unfortunately COVID and go in and take a test and bomb it, right? You could be well prepared, but you are sick, you know, you’re fighting for your life, you’re cold, you’re in sweats. It’s a lot of things. You could have had a bad day, could have received bad news, and it completely throws off your ability to focus, right?

You don’t do so well, but with your high school transcript, you’re able to see a performance over multiple periods of time. You can see if there was an up upward trend. You can see if it’s a downward trend. You can see if a student has all C’s in English courses, but all A’s and AP chem and AP bio and AP physics and calculus.

And it’s like, okay, you can see the strengths again. It provides a more holistic view of a stronger picture of your performance. Okay. So that is why the high school transcript. You know holds the most weight you also have standardized test scores from some schools again If they are not holistic, they may say we just need your grades and test scores And that’s how we discern whether or not you’re miscible.

But for schools who are holistic those standardized test scores can show proficiency Especially if you’re applying to say an engineering program or computer science program or math program they’re really going to be looking at that, you know that um, The math score on the sat or your AP scores and your AP calc You You know, A, B or B, C, just to see if, you know, your grades translate to high performance on the test to demonstrate a baseline of proficiency.

Okay, and then a personal statement, right? The personal statement is one of the few opportunities in the admissions essay where you get to talk directly to the admissions office, right? So some schools are using it as a writing sample to make sure that there is some baseline, right? They’re also seeing what are we learning about a student, what they’re going to contribute to our campus community, uh, you know, how are they making sense of their lived experiences, their background, their identities, et cetera.

So again, there’s so many components to the application and luckily a lot of universities practice holistic admissions, but I will say hands down on my colleagues who work in admissions, they, and also the people I interviewed for my dissertation who happen to be admissions officers. Overwhelmingly says that the high school transcript is the most part, uh, important part or component of the college application.

So, I’ve referenced holistic review, and this is a great time to kind of talk about what that is. So, a holistic review in the college admissions process, essentially, is just like a comprehensive assessment of a student’s application. So, it’s taking into account various factors beyond the quantitative, uh, academic achievements and test scores.

So instead of just relying on your high school GPA, right, and just your test scores, it takes a broader, you know, uh, kind of picture of, you know, again, background, where you go to school, where you live, your essays or supplement essays, your resumes. Do you have a job? Do you babysit your siblings? Uh, are you a first generation college student?

Did your parents get their degrees abroad? It’s really just take it into consideration all these factors, right? Because for students, especially those who are applying to institutions that, um, that are incredibly, incredibly selective. So I’m thinking of those schools who admit 10 percent of their applicants or fewer.

You’re going to see students who have. You know, all aids and near perfect SAT Scores. So it is really the holistic review that allows universities to think about other factors that they have considered when shaping a class or other factors that might fulfill their institutional priorities. So with that in mind, how can students develop an application that showcases their strengths and unique experiences?

And one thing that’s going to be incredibly important for, you know, all of the young people on the call today is really thinking about how to prioritize authenticity. So essentially, I want you to think about how can you tell your story in your own words? Unfortunately, so often I hear people comparing, um, their lived experience or experiences.

Um, you know, their own identity and background to those in different places, you know, and I have in this last bullet here limit social media noise, but it’s incredibly important because so often people rely on social media, um, so heavily when thinking about how to showcase their strengths or it’s a lot of comparison happening and you can only tell your story, right?

You can only talk about your own background and your own experiences. So I want you to think about yourself and not think about what they want to hear and what you think they might want to know. Tell them what you think is important, right? About your passions, your background, your interest. And I think one way to develop the application that showcase the strength, you know, and, and really prioritize this is.

Doing a full inventory, you know, and I have what I call a master cd. So a master resume Uh where I list everything so in in the case of high school students, you’ll list your extracurriculars Right. Are you class president? Are you on the bowling team? Whatever it may be Any jobs you’ve had. So are you a barista at a local coffee shop?

You know, do you have a summer job? Do you admit do you tutor? Uh kids do you work? Do you have an internship? Have you worked at a dentist office or something? So include those and then any awards you received while in high school, so don’t go way back into middle school But any awards you’ve received in high school from you know, AP scholars to honors from deans, uh deans list Any award you receive nothing is too small poetry slam Award, you know, internships.

So if you had an internship or were able to, you know, shadow a doctor at a local hospital, or, you know, maybe your parents are lawyers and you’ve got to help them in the, you know, in the law office, et cetera, add that in there. Community service. Have you served? Did you volunteer at the local animal shelter for a few summers?

Have, again, have you tutored students? Have you taught dance to students in a local community? At that and then leadership so develop this master resume so you can see a full inventory of all the things you’ve done all the things you contributed to right also again lean into your passions if you really love to use your hands and therefore you spend time at home creating things with your hands see that is something you clearly enjoy when you are not on when you’re not in the classroom where you’re not studying for AP exams You are, you know, building things, you know, that is how you develop an application that showcase your strength.

You lean into your passion, right? And you also cultivate these interests and passions through the various activities through the various opportunities you participate in And again, please I cannot stress this enough and I know this is going to be hard to do but social media sometimes Can be a great resource and asset but you are inundated with a lot of misinformation and false information, right?

So you just really want to make sure You That you’re developing your own strengths, um, based on your own passions, based on things that you enjoy doing, right? If all you do is participate in one club in high school because you spend most of your time working, That is how you that is that’s something that you know, you enjoy doing or that’s something you’ve had to do That’s a sacrifice you’ve had to make for whatever the reason might be and that’s okay Okay, there are so there are thousands of universities out here and someone was a university will love that Love, love, love to have you.

So I just want you to think about, um, your own story and your own background when you’re cultivating a strong application. Okay. Thank you. That is, um, really great information that you’re sharing. Really, really good, insightful tidbits for our audience. Um, so at this time, we’re just going to take a short pause for our second poll.

We’re speaking about the college application process. So we want to know, where are you in your college application process? So I’m noticing that the responses are starting to filter in, and it looks like we have. Good percentage of 63 percent are currently researching schools. Um, 22 percent haven’t started, but I think after this webinar, they’re going to be ready to go ahead and start their application process.

And then 7 percent are almost done. Congratulations to those who are almost done. And then about 5 percent are working on essays and getting their application material together. So with that, I will turn it back over to you to. Share a little bit more about personal statement and supplemental essays. Got it.

Um, awesome. So supplement essays, right? So how can you use as students use their personal statement and supplements to stand out? So again, you really want to tell a story that honors your lived experience, right? So you want to be able to talk about something that is And I, and I, it sounds redundant, but it’s important you realize that because sometimes students will write essays that tell someone else’s story, whether it’s a grandparent or a parent or someone they admire.

And if the essay prompt doesn’t ask about that, you really need to make sure you’re talking about you. You want to use vivid experiences and specific examples and you want to paint a picture with your words. You want to help the reader understand your experiences. So again, we often say show, don’t tell, right?

So instead of saying you’re a leader, you know, you want to provide a story or example that demonstrates those leadership qualities, right? You want to steer clear of overused phrases and cliches, right? Again, admissions officers for those schools that actually read essays, you know, they’re seeing a lot of similar things, you know, so cliches like life is a box of chocolate.

Like I, I’ve read so many of those types of essays, right? Or people who use like, Oh, if I would be a recipe, I’ll be 25 percent ambition, 25 percent persistence, you know, 25 percent fun, 25 percent serious, you know, that’s. a little cliche, right? You also want to reflect on a personal growth and discuss challenges you faced and how you’ve grown as a result, right?

So not all essays need to about, uh, need to be about overcoming struggle, but admissions officers do enjoy seeing essays that reflect, you know, growth or opportunities for understanding. So maybe you started something, didn’t do well at it, but improved, or maybe you, Something impacted you deeply, and there was moments of growth there.

You learn something about yourself. You learn something about the world. You learned something about the person you will be later in life, or you had a spark of interest and curiosity because you were exposed to something. So they want, they like to see these moments of growth, right? You also want to research colleges, values, missions, and culture, right?

I went to DC. It is a Jesuit institution, right? Uh, we, we had a saying, cure personalis, care for the heart. The mind, the body, the spirit. It was a very social justice oriented culture in campus, right? So that’s something I took into consideration when I was applying, but also something, you know, when I read applications, those were values that I was seeing that students really, you know, leaned into because that was important to our campus community.

So some universities have a global approach. They really love students who are interested in the global world, the global economy who want to study abroad. Who wants to learn languages? Those are things to keep in mind. You also just want to make sure you explain why you’re a good fit for that particular institution, right?

And also why that good, that institution is a good fit for you. So a thing about supplements, right? And again, those are sometimes, um, shorter essays that some schools have. Those essays can be the wide essay. So that personal statement, you write one, it goes to all the schools on your list, right? But there are also essays that are specific to an institution.

So there might be, why do you want to attend Duke University, right? So you only submit the essay to Duke, and you really need to be able to show that you’ve done some research, right? You, uh, the supplement is an opportunity to showcase your knowledge, so that you’ve done your homework, maybe you visited, right, during your spring break.

Why do you want to attend there, right? And it can’t be generic. Oh, it’s a top university with pre med. Okay, that that’s like 100 other universities, right? So you want to be specific about why you’re interested and how you can or plan to contribute to a community again. So much of the lock. What I said earlier, you do want to research the university, right?

And tailor your essays to reflect that you’ve done your homework and explain why you are a good fit. For that school.

So how can students demonstrate their personal brand and stand out through their extracurricular activities? Um, again, despite the question here saying standing out, I always encourage students to worry less about standing out and just be more being who they are, you know, being authentic, right? So you want your activities.

So once you choose to dedicate your time to outside of classroom to reflect your priorities and passions, right? So if you are really not interested in the horses. Then don’t join an equestrian team, right? If you are not, you know, you don’t enjoy math. Don’t join like the math camp, you know, maybe you love to dance, right?

And so you join the dance, the Barry’s dance teams. Maybe you’re on the step team. Maybe you’re on the modern dance team. Maybe you’re on the ballet team if they have it, right? So you’re, you want your activities to reflect your priorities and passions. Also, I encourage students to, you know, start early with clubs and activities and you can experiment.

I mean, I did this in college as well, you know, my first year, your 9th grade year, 10th grade, you still getting used to the culture of the school, the campus, you know, making friends, especially if you start a school, that’s not where you live. So you might try out the Spanish club, you might try out the math a thon club, you might try out the robotics team, you might, you know, whatever, and then you realize, uh, don’t really like the math a thon, but I love the Spanish club, right?

So you want to try that out, and then start focusing on sustained engagement. Um, you know, we love to see long term involvement, that’s really signaling dedication, right? Your ability to sustain your interest. And also for students who tend to stay a product plus for two or more years. There’s often this natural growth in leadership, right?

So you may start as a member, then you might become the treasurer, and then by your junior or senior year, you may be the president, right? And as I said earlier, create a portfolio or resume that captures these achievements, right? You should have, starting your freshman year, you know, when you start participating, just start adding blurbs that describe your club and activities and the impact you’ve made, right?

Just start keeping that so there’s not a mad dash, you know, at the end. So thinking about best practices, uh, for choosing recommenders and requesting letters of recommendation. Again, start having conversations with teachers in 11th grade. Um, you really want to think about teachers, not only, you know, you got an A in the class, but maybe there’s that teacher you helped, you know, grade papers during lunchtime or teachers who start to feel like mentors.

Um, and for some students, they never really have those types of close relationships with their teachers, maybe because it’s just the type of school they attend. That’s okay too. Um, but you, you prioritize support classes or those teachers who teach subjects that align with your academic interests. So if you want to major in English in college, make sure you receive a letter recommendation from your English teacher, or if you want to major in biology, your AP bio teacher, or another science teacher should be writing a letter.

And again, keep that updated resume handy because you can share that with your writer, letter writers, and that’s especially important if you didn’t get a chance to make a really close relationship with them. Um, so in thinking about what mistakes you should avoid and forgive me if I’m talking really fast.

I want to be mindful of time and give you opportunity to, uh, ask questions or to be able to respond to your questions. Rather, um, this is really important here, though. So, what you should avoid is padding resume and activities list in senior year to create a facade of leadership and involvement. I see this a lot and it’s very clear when it happens, right?

So, um, students want to appear, you know, impressive or more impressive. So they just start joining random stuff and there’s just no, it’s not cohesive and there’s no true passion in it. You don’t need to do that. Avoid listening to, you know, just random people who’ve never worked in admissions before. Um, I often say there’s so many people supporting folks with the admissions process, and they don’t know how they got into college, so it’s very hard for them to help you learn how you got into college, or how to get into college, rather.

So, you really want to stick with the professionals. You should avoid waiting to the fall application season to discuss finances and paying for college. Okay, that conversation needs to be happening. Now, if you are in ninth grade, if there’s a parent here saving thinking about scholarships, applying to certain types of schools that are generous with marriage, face a applying to schools that might meet.

100 percent of demonstrated need if you need it, you know, that needs to happen today. Um, students should avoid applying to all Ivy League schools and reach schools. I see it all the time. The only schools they want to go to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Georgetown, Northwestern, Swarthmore, Stanford, MIT. All different schools in different regions, different parts of the country, um, different culturally, but they just want to be able to say, I got into Harvard.

Okay. Um, you do not want to apply to all rich schools because at a certain point, those are all lotteries. And what if you don’t get in to any of them and, you know, what do you do from there? So you want to make sure you’re applying to different types of schools. Um, you should avoid waiting until December break to send applications and writing essays.

Holiday break, you know, folks go on, the officers at the schools go on break, your teachers and counselors go on break, the computer crashes, the dog eats the cord. You just do not want to procrastinate with this. Um, a mistake also getting teachers and letter writers less than three weeks to write and submit letters.

You need to, when the school semester starts after that first week, you know, say, Hey, this is the application deadline. This is when I plan to submit. You need to give them a month. Okay, so they can have time. It’s not just you with hundreds of people applying, right? Uh, and again, avoid applying early decision without ability to pay if admitted, and there are some exceptions to that, but you really want to make sure you can pay if you’re applying ED, unless you’re a low income student and the school meets 100 percent of demonstrated need.

So, if you do get admitted, they’ll pay for it, right? And lastly, avoid comparing yourself to your classmates and other students on social media. You know, so, you know, John got in, Sarah got in, will I get in? Well, John and Sarah are different people. They are not you. You are not them. Okay, so avoid comparisons.

And then, you know, as we kind of near the end of our conversation, you know, what are some of the best practices, right? So we’ve spoke at length about various components of the application. You know, you really need to start early. Okay, so there’s a diverse group of folks on the call. Start early, right? So you can start researching schools now, create a spreadsheet, go into Google, create that new email account if you haven’t already.

Go into that Google Drive, start a spreadsheet. Say, you know, college list. Start adding the college list. Look at their acceptance rates. Look at the, you know, average GPA, average test scores. How many essays do they have? That may change, but just get that on there. Visit their website, right? Research. Visit websites of schools, their academic department pages.

So if you want to major in sociology, go to the sociology department’s page, right? Look at their social media pages. Visit campus. Connect with alum. Maybe there’s people from your high school that went to Northwestern, right? So, you know, keep a spreadsheet of your notes, right? So it helps you as you write essays.

You want to request thoughtful letter recommendations. So again, it’s not enough to be like, okay, I got an A in this class, so that’s the teacher I want to write it. If it, you know, you want teachers who can write thoughtful letters of recommendation. Again, keep that resume handy, give it to the teacher.

Say, these are, this is a little bit more about who I am, even outside of the class. You know, these are things you can incorporate in the letter. You want to showcase instances where you’ve demonstrated You know, growth, resilience and took initiative. Okay, so you really want to make sure you’re communicating that, especially in your college admissions essay.

And again, just demonstrate how you contribute to the college community through your essays, right? So really show that, you know, as much as you want to study biology, you also plan to contribute and give back and to be an active member of the campus community. And then more importantly, again, be you, right?

It’s okay to just be you. You are enough. And if you say, you know. You may get to every get inside or get accepted rather to every school you apply to and you may not right But you are enough regardless. So make sure at the end of the day you you’re prioritizing being you Okay, that is a great way to conclude the presentation portion is Authenticity being you and so with that we are now going to move into our live questions and answers So just a reminder that you You can download the handouts for this presentation by going to the handout tab and clicking on download, and then you can now begin submitting your questions in the Q&A tab.

So we do have a few questions that have already started to come in, so thank you to those who have submitted their questions. So the first question that we have is, how do we search for scholarships? That’s a great question. I literally the call I had today was all about scholarships. So there are several ways to do it.

Um, you can You can literally on Google say it’s scholarships for you know, high school seniors in Indiana interested in and majoring in And you can get scholarships that way. I mean, you can find identify them that way. You can also ask your high school counselors. Hey, I’m interested in researching scholarships.

Do you have any resources? Some high schools actually have scholarship databases on their website, right? Your teachers may know about different scholarships. Maybe they’re in a sorority or fraternity. And they can say, Ashley, my sorority has. So you really want to, uh, use and leverage your, your network. So a, again, Google searches, there’s also larger, um, kind of databases, you know, which I find to be a little wonky, right?

Like scholarships. com or bold and bold. org and et cetera. But even some of those places, if you don’t want to. Get stuck into any of those scholarship portals where you have to like create a profile. You can type, you know, you can go in to see what scholarships that they have. And if they only give you the scholarship name before you have to create a profile, this is what I do.

I just copy and paste that into Google and I go directly to the scholarship page them themselves, right? So there’s also scholarship, uh, Facebook groups. Uh, I don’t know if you also use Facebook, but for those parents here, there are various Facebook groups that are, where they only just publish scholarships.

Just share them online. And then locally, churches have scholarships, sororities and fraternities, local small businesses, government agencies have scholarships. So it is both Google, research, and then last but not least, one resource, and we haven’t, we didn’t really, I didn’t say much of anything about artificial intelligence, but even ChatGPT can be a resource.

So, You can say, but create a list of 10 scholarships in search identities for now. I’m a black woman, so I can say for black women in Michigan interested in studying science, and it can compile a list of scholarships. You’ll have to make sure they’re still active and etcetera, but you can get a list of scholarships that that might be applicable to you.

So you can also use chat GPT as a resource as well. Nice. Nice. I love that. Utilizing a technology of A.I. to help you with searching for scholarships. Um, our next question reads. Is there an ACT or SAT score threshold below which a score should not be submitted to test optional schools? Usually, um, people would say if you visit the common common data set.

So if you typed in Google right now, common data set for Tufts, you know, just a random school, you will be taken to a website. Um, uh, usually the iPads, I think institutional, just an institutional post secondary education data set. I think that’s what it’s called. Every school has one. You can literally download that PDF and you can type in, like, just search the document for like SAT, ACT scores.

And then you’ll be able to find the middle 50 percent range, right? Some people say, if you are below that 50 percent range, do not submit them. Um, because the average, you know, you fall below the average. There is technically not a number, and every school is different. So some schools are, have really, because of test optional policies, the numbers are very inflated.

So, um, some schools, you know, It’s like if you don’t have under, if it’s lower than a 750 and map and 760 and you know, verbal don’t submit, um, but there’s no hard cut off. It really depends on the school, you know, if the more selective the school is, the higher that range is going to be, um, the least selective school is the lower that range is going to be.

So there’s no hard fast rule. I just say, go to that common data set, see where your score falls. And if it’s below the 50%, maybe think about not submitting, um, but there is no hard. There’s no cut off. It’s a very case by case, school by school decision. Nice, nice. All right. So this question reads, how can a student stand out in a competitive school?

Meaning their current high school is competitive, I’m assuming, um, that I’m not quite sure. Um, maybe I can have the, um, I can have the audience member maybe add a little more clarification if they mean a competitive college or if they meet, if their high school is competitive. So we can come back to that question.

Yeah, if you can just clarify that. I’m assuming it’s the high school, but just, just follow up with that and, and we can. Okay. Um, so how many reach target safety schools should we apply to? Great question. So again, it varies. Um, I think one thing you have to consider if you, A, if you’re an international student, you need to apply to more schools than not.

So the international students I work with, they all apply to like 20 to 25 schools. Um, so that matters. And then B, Money. So if money is going to be an issue, if you will, um, and maybe you, you have to apply test optional, so that might limit the amount of merit base a, you might want to apply to more schools.

Um, so with that in mind, reaches, you know, I say four or less for reaches. I’m saying that I, for, for some reason, people like to apply to so many reaches. I don’t understand, but that is your prerogative. So four or fewer. Um, and then you want those target schools, you know, uh, you know, Four to six target schools.

Um, and then, I mean, I don’t use the word safety anymore. I like the word likely the way the college admissions landscape has changed. Very few school safety really, unless it’s just like an open access university that accepts 90 percent of students. I just use the word likely, you know, the likely schools, you know, Three or four of those.

I mean, I think applying average to 10 to 12 schools. Again, my caveat is, are you international student caveat is when you need merit based aid, you know, um, some students apply to more schools because the money is going to be a determining factor. So they need to make sure that they’re applying to schools where they can get dollars.

So in that case, you might have to apply to at least 15 schools, but the typical range is 10 to 12 with about three to four reaches. Again, that target range being the bulk and then about three or so for likely schools. Okay. Our next question reads, I keep hearing from people and seeing online that in order to get into a top college, I need to have a passion project or do a lot of research or publish something.

Is that really true? I’m happy this person started. I keep seeing people say online. This is why I emphasize that in the conversation though. Okay. This conversation. Okay. I’m triggered by this question. No, the answer is you do not need to publish. No, no, absolutely not. The stuff that people publish. No.

Again, I’m getting a PhD. There’s nothing a high school student respectfully could publish. And it’s like, this is a, this is like, I didn’t stop now. I agree. Don’t worry about that. Do not worry about publishing at all. Wrong. Um, passion project. Uh, I’m not sure who created this, but it, those also drive me nuts a little bit.

So passion projects, uh, became a thing, like, I feel like four to five years ago, maybe a little longer. Where students say, how can I demonstrate that? I can start something that I’m entrepreneurial that I’m creative. Essentially, you do not need to create something from scratch to demonstrate to colleges, universities that are competitive or special.

What if you do for some students, a passion project is merely a, um, uh, something that perhaps they were already doing in a smaller scale. So, for example, maybe they are already tutoring, um, like, um, you know, people in their community who’s, uh. Second language, you know, uh, is English. So maybe they were tutoring them in English, um, kind of locally.

So the passion project was how can I expand this to more schools? Because I’m already doing this, but I want to expand my reach, or maybe I can create a website. that can, can connect other folks interested in tutoring, uh, with people who are interested in providing that kind of a service or volunteering.

So I don’t want you to think about it as like, let me create something to like stand out and be competitive. I want you to think about like how, you know, what do you already enjoy doing what you may be doing and how can you just kind of, um, just increase your impact, right? It’s just, I want you to think about is, You know, maybe you just have a desire to impact more people, but don’t, again, I caution, um, folks to create things just to look more impressive, um, because it comes off very performative.

So, so it was passion project, it was, um, publishing and there was another thing, um, do you remember Third was it was passion pro research, research. Yeah. So similar to the, um, the publishing thing, I mean. Students will say, research with professor at UT Austin, and what they really mean is, um, they sent an email and the, the person was like, okay, you can like, come shadow me, and they like, looked at papers and, Walked around and sat and played, looked at TikTok’s on their phone.

So, you know, it is not everyone that has access to those opportunities, um, often those with more resources tend to be able to kind of really do like research or if their parents might be a professor or they might have access to, um, So if you do not do research despite your desire to do research in college, you still will be fine.

Okay, it wouldn’t hurt if you say again, got some research lab experience. There are summer programs like that students apply for and they can get to spend summer at MIT and do research and learn about laboratory sciences. There’s one at UT Austin. I was just researching yesterday for a student. So those opportunities do exist and they are great if you can get that hands on information But again, it’s not getting this information to look more impressive to colleges, it’s getting that information so you can decide, do you really want to study biology?

Right. So maybe you spend time shadowing or participate in this program and then you realize that if this is what it needs to study biology in college, I don’t want to do it. Or are you like, wow, I really thought I wanted to be a chemist, but I really want to be, you know, a mechanical engineer because of exposure.

So what you’re trying to get is the exposure. to be better informed about. Is this something you want to do? Is this something you want to study? Or if you are, if you know you want to do it, you want to be able to speak more eloquently about it in your application, but it’s not to look more impressive to the university.

It’s about you, right? So I want you to think about you and what you might learn from it, not how can you do it to look more impressive. So let’s reframe our, how Understanding about why some of these opportunities are valuable and, and, and less again, social media says a lot of things that is, it’s just not true.

So that was a very long response, but it is something I’m very passionate about because I hear students say that all the time. And I just don’t want people to be discouraged because you may not have the resources. You may not have the time and that’s okay. You can still get into a great college. That is a good fit for you and thrive.

So I just don’t want you to feel discouraged if you don’t participate in those opportunities. Yeah, absolutely. I think that level of death was needed just to demystify some of the myths or beliefs that kind of center around that. Um, so kind of going back to the question and I asked previously, um, how can a student stand out in a competitive high school?

Yeah, I figured that that’s what the person was asking. So again, there’s this thing about standing out that I also think that, you know, Consumes us. And I don’t know if that’s necessarily the best orientation. I want you to just think about doing what you enjoy doing. So I, you know, work with students with college advisor and half of students who are like, all this, you know, 10 people from my school get into Ivy Leagues every year.

Everyone is a class president. Everyone’s a 4.0. And I often ask them, what does that have to do with you? Right? So I want you to live like your journey is your journey. So, um, maybe if you feel like your school environment is inundated with a lot of the same things, think about what you can do outside of the school, right?

So maybe what you are called to do is something that’s in your local community, right? So if everyone is doing the same things in school and you feel like it’s just too competitive and overwhelming, Think about your the needs in your community. Think about even needs in your family. Think about the needs of like small businesses in your community.

So think about like what you could do outside of the classroom and outside of your like those four walls of your school because there may be an opportunity for you to give, to serve, to learn, to grow, but all in all, I think it’s just a reorientation about you. Just standing out is a I’m trying to I’m comparing myself to these other people.

And the best thing is, I mean, telling your own story, right? Also, because your essay should not be like a classmate essay because it’s, it’s tell your own story with your own experience, your own interests. What are you passionate about? You know, maybe it’s your family, maybe it’s your culture, maybe it’s a language, maybe it’s a trip you’ve had.

So again, I just want you to prioritize honoring your own lived experiences, what you enjoy doing, because at the end of the day, your application is going to have your name on it. The admissions officer is not going to read it and say like, this is great. Okay. Um, but Lonnie wrote about, you know, this thing.

No. So I want you to just focus on yourself and lean into your own passions and worry less about what your peers might be doing in your school because you can’t change the competitive, you know, culture of your school. Okay. Um, thank you. So we’re going to take just a short pause from our questions and answers because I want to share with you all about the work that we do within the college advisor as we think about building a strong college application.

And. So for those in the room who aren’t already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admission process can be. 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. Take the next step in your college admission journey by signing up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with an admission specialist on our team using the QR code on the screen.

During this meeting, we’ll review your current extracurricular lists and application strategy, discuss how they align with your college lists and outline tools you need to stand out in a competitive admission process. So now we’re going to go back to our Q and a and I’m going to leave the cure code on the screen for you to scan at your convenience.

Um, the next question is more specific to Georgetown. Um, knowing that you are an alum. Um, so, um, this just says, um, I think the Georgetown uses its own application portal, which it does. Um, why do they do that? And does that mean that they look for different things in the application overall? That is funny.

Why do they do that? Uh, you know, Who knows? Uh, well, I will say this. When I was there, the rationale was because of the common app application, um, universities are receiving, you know, tens of thousands more applications than they would otherwise get, and the dean of our undergraduate admissions really wanted to make sure that the admissions officers could spend the necessary time reviewing applications.

They also wanted to see that the students who apply really desire to go there. So they just wasn’t getting a lot of applications because people are like, Oh, I can submit my application by the common app. Uh, and also Georgetown, um, tries to guarantee all of his applicants, alumni interview, and they just would not be able to do that if they get 50,000 applications, right?

So they also want to, I don’t want to use the word suppress applications, but just really wanted that dedicated group of students who really wanted to go there to apply so they could Continue to provide more kind of holistic, um, gene and support. Because when I worked in the missions, we read full applications.

There was no AI that was skimming applications or there was no application automatically going to a denied pile, right? So That’s part of the reason. Um, and there are some slight different kind of questions that they ask. Like they do ask about, I think, like the summer activity or like a special talent or skill.

There’s like a small supplement essay, but generally, I mean, most of the components are the same, like the schools on the common app, but it’s really to make sure you can get that specialized review. And also if, you know, if you are in a place where we have, uh, alumni, which is in most, States and most kind of major cities across the world.

They also want to be able to make sure they can give you that alumni interview. So that’s part of the rationale. Okay, next question is how much should parents edit slash review their child’s essay? Do admission officers know if an essay has been heavily helped? We know it’s been heavily helped because we know what a high school, even a really incredibly bright high school student still writes like a high school student.

They still use passive voice. They still use different words. So, you know, we, I mean, we can tell, but I don’t think, unless it’s egregious, um, you know, unless I just read an essay that sounds like, you know, I wrote it, um, or I read an essay on Monday and then the same essay I read on Tuesday, it’s not, you know, incredibly offensive, but it’s okay for parents.

I mean, I, I encourage. Um, you know, for students to have someone look over their essays, you know, you do want to make sure that it’s free of, you know, typos. You want to proofread, but you also want to make sure it’s written in student’s voice, right? So you really want to make sure the student’s personality, the student’s kind of style, the student’s prose still comes through because you don’t want it to sound like a robot, you know, and you don’t, and this is why I discourage students from using, you know, ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence.

Websites to create essays. They sound the same. There’s a certain cadence that we’ve all now been able to pick up. ChatGPT likes to write in threes. So if you say a list like this student is determined, ambitious, and well spoken, it writes in threes. So there’s all these patterns we now have been able to pick up.

So I still have to say, please review. I always encourage someone to review your application. This is why you should not procrastinate, right? If this application is due on October 31st, you should not be working on October 30th at 10:30 p.m. Right? Because you want mom or dad or a teacher or a friend or even yourself.

You want to give yourself a day or so to review it and kind of make sure It’s free of typos. So for sure, you can say, uh, we’re choice or grammatically. That’s it. That’s not correct. But you want to make sure you’re not heavily adding it to the point that is no longer the students essay and it’s yours.

Okay, so we have time for just one more question. And this question is, where can we access great examples of college essays? I’m sure there’s some online. I will add first extra teachers. Sometimes teachers will have exemplars

There’s some a lot, but I will I’m curious to know. Oh, I think what schools Molly. There’s a There’s a few universities that actually post them. Is it UChicago? There are so there are also some colleges, universities that share essays online. I think it might be UChicago. Don’t quote me on that audience, but there are some colleges that also share, um, strong essays.

So I think there’s just like, you know, you can do a search, but I, I would. I would start with your school and ask your teachers, you know, your English teacher AP English teacher and say, Hey, I’m really interested in seeing some examples of some strong college essays. Do you have any, um, that you can share?

Start there, right? Because those have been vetted. Um, but at the end of the day, I feel the essay you write will be The essay that you’re you’re meant to write but start with your high school And then there are some colleges again that the ones are escaping me I think it’s UChicago for some reason have examples of essays on their on their websites But start with your school and your teachers or maybe in your high school counselor start there Oh Hamilton has an excellent essay examples on their website.

So That’s one. That’s another University that has Examples. Thank you Yeah, thank you. Thank you for sharing those resources with our audience. And thank you, audience, for your great questions that you asked. I also went through and was answering some of the questions that maybe didn’t get read out loud.

So with that, thank you again, Aya, for this great presentation. I want to remind our audience that we are, you know, in a new year, which means that we have some new upcoming webinars that are going to be occurring each month, all designed to support you through your college application process. And so we have a few more webinars that are coming up this month.

Um, we have some admission officer advice, webinars that are coming up, how to build your college list, um, even thinking about how to make the most use of your summer. And so we definitely look forward to seeing you in an. upcoming webinar, and you will be able to receive a copy of this webinar by tomorrow in your inbox.

So with that, have a great evening, morning and afternoon. Good night, everyone. Bye bye.