Crafting Your Unique Story: Personal Branding for College Admissions

Webinar Transcription

2024-12-17 – Crafting Your Unique Story: Personal Branding for College Admissions

Lydia: Hello, everyone. Welcome to, “Crafting Your Unique Story: Personal Branding for College Admissions.” My name is Lydia Hollon. I’m your moderator for tonight. I’m a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor and have been with the company for about three years now. And in addition to advising students, I’m a proud co-captain of our essay review team.

I’m also a graduate of New York University. And in addition to my work with CollegeAdvisor, I’m an education consultant and a former high school teacher. To orient everyone with webinar timing for tonight, we’re going to start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q& A. On the sidebar, you can download your slides and start submitting questions in the Q& A tab.

We’ll also be recording this session, so you can review the webinar again later if you miss something. Now, let’s meet our presenter.

Maria: My name is Maria Acosta Robayo and I graduated from Harvard class of 2020 where I studied sociology and global health policy and where I was also on the pre med track. I’m currently a social impact consultant living back in Cambridge after a three year stint in D.C. Um, and I’m really excited to get a chance to talk to you more about crafting your unique story.

I’ve been with CollegeAdvisor for a little over four years. Um, and I’m a senior advisor here and mainly focus on, uh, presenting at these webinars.

Lydia: Alright, so before we get started, we’re going to do a quick poll to see what grade everyone is in. And while I give you all an opportunity to answer that question, Maria, I’m curious, if you had to describe your brand when you were applying to colleges, how would you describe it?

Maria: Yeah, yeah. So I, um, really focus on like the well rounded brand of athlete who is really interested in, uh, becoming a doctor or an aspiring physician and, uh, loves to do community service.

So that was kind of my trifecta was. I played tennis my whole life. And so I applied as a, as an athlete and, uh, my career aspirations was to be a physician. And a lot of my extracurriculars were community service. That’s kind of how I, how I,

Lydia: So looking at the responses, we’ve got 8 percent in 9th grade, 50 percent in 10th grade, and 42 percent in 11th grade. So it seems like everyone joining us tonight is a little earlier in the process, which I think is great, especially since we’re thinking about personal branding, which, um, even before you start writing your essay, it really starts with.

Living your life and creating a story around the choices that you make. So I think it’s great that we’ve got some people who are a little earlier in the process. Joining us tonight.

Maria: It’s great to have a variety of folks in the room. Hopefully this is helpful at any stage of the process, especially for those who are juniors and are thinking about applying next year. This is a really great time to think about what branding you want to have your application take. Uh, so. Before we even get to, you know, how this works for applications and like what to focus on when it comes to strategically using a personal brand, it’s helpful to just set the, set a foundation of what is a personal brand.

Um, and I think this is true for not just college application, but for other. Creating a personal brand is just creating, um, an external expression of who you are and what you’re passionate about and who you aspire to be. Um, it’s a way to show others who you are. Um, some of the things that are really important to you, um, and when it comes to application, it is also one of the most important parts of the college application as it helps admissions officers to kind of get a sense of not just who you are, but how you fit into the potential cohort that they’re admitting for that year.

Um, and so, while they will definitely be looking at more of the granular details of your test prep and your essays and, um, letters of recommendation, extracurricular, um, this is kind of like your bio line or that, like, one sentence pitch of who you are, and of course they realize that, um, Students are a lot more multifaceted and multidimensional than that, but it’s just a helpful reminder as admissions officers are thinking about lots of different students and getting lots of different applications.

It’s that one kind of one liner personal brand that they will remember when they look at your application.

Um, so why is this important? So, um, it’s an opportunity to set yourself apart from other students who might have similar quantitative scores and qualitative experiences. So, again, what you see on paper, um, is probably just like a, a glimpse of who you are, right? They’re just seeing a couple numbers that might be your GPA or your AP scores or your, um, standardized test scores.

scores. Um, you’ll probably be seeing these large chunks of text, which are your personal statements, your short essay questions, your long essay questions. Um, but having that personal brand kind of gives them a lens from which to see all of those things in. And again, kind of allow you, allow them to see how you compare it to maybe a student who has maybe a similar GPA or similar standardized testing scores.

Um, and so again, it’s a bit of an identifier for you. Um, it also gives some personality and depth to your application, right? When you’re able to talk more about that qualitative aspect of who you are, um, it helps them to see that you’re more than, again, the, some of those quantitative scores. And, um, as I kind of mentioned this in the previous slide, it just helps admissions officers to remember.

As they’re looking through lots of different applications, it’s helpful for them to have, again, that picture, like an idea of who you are without having to memorize every single thing in all of your essays and all the quantitative scores. Obviously they look through that very thoroughly, but the personal brand is again, that key.

Summary bio or summary blurb of who you are that will stick in their mind. And so that’s really helpful for you to craft strategically. Um, so that when you stand out as they’re deliberating, um, in the admissions process. So what are some ways that you can build out your personal brand? So I would start out by just thinking about some key overarching values, characteristics, and passions that you might want to highlight.

So again, there might be. Okay. Lots of different things that you do in your free time. Lots of things that you’re interested in, but kind of really coming down to the core of what are the main things that you really enjoy doing? What are the topics you’re really passionate about? Um, you know, what are some of your key?

personality traits and characteristics that you think really define you as a person. Um, being able to kind of narrow down on those is going to be helpful for building out the brand, um, or your personal brand. Um, and then identifying some of the, some of the examples that highlight those values, characteristics, and passions from several areas in your life, including your academic side in school, extracurricular, any professional work that you’ve done, um, and personal experiences.

Because that will help to provide some evidence for those over overarching elements. And you’ll see that this work, while it might sound like, okay, how does this tangibly show up in my application? One is just going to help you to get a better sense of what type of applicant or the type of story that you’re molding around your application.

And this is also work that’s going to feed into probably some of your essays. Um, you know, a lot of your essays are also going to be asking some of these questions of what do you care about? And so some of this thought work and being able to think through some of the examples are also later going to feed into your essays.

Um, and then if you’re not a senior yet, um, I would definitely recommend getting involved or applying for some senior positions in clubs or activities that might highlight your brand. So. Being strategic about how you spend your time, um, especially again, if you’re a junior or younger, um, is going to be really helpful to provide some of those evidence points.

Um, if I had applied with a personal brand of an athlete, but I had never played a sport before, that could be really tough. So again, I, it was definitely, um, something that I reflected on, okay, where do I spend my time? Um, and I knew that I had spent a lot of time playing tennis, and that was a core identity for me.

Maybe for you it’s not something that you’ve done your whole life, but it’s maybe something you’re really interested in. So let’s say you’re a freshman, and you know you’re really interested in music, um, and you want that to be part of your brand. You know, maybe you only do a couple hours of, like, music practice or piano practice, but you want that to be, again, music to be a big part of your brand, then I would really think strategically about, you What are ways that you can be more involved?

So that might look like, you know, either going, um, a very rigorous path of just improving very quickly, going to competitions, going to classes or something like that. Or you can maybe take more of a community service and music role, where maybe you’re playing music at nursing homes, or, You know, starting a music club or something that shows that you’re really passionate about music, and maybe you’re not the most outstanding, uh, prodigal, um, or sorry, uh, like a prodigy of, of music, but you are able to connect your love for music to something else that doesn’t require you to be, um, you know, you know, extremely talented in music.

So those are some examples for how you can build in the same topic of music into both, you know, a more rigorous traditional route or into something that’s a little bit more creative and shows both your passion for community service and for music.

Lydia: Okay, so we’re gonna take a quick Breathe, pause, do another quick poll to figure out where you all are in your application process. And while I give you all an opportunity to answer that, I guess I’ll share what my personal brand was when I was applying to college. So, I think mine, which a little similar to yours, Maria, I wasn’t applying this pre med, even though I decided to be pre med later on, once I actually got into college and started taking classes.

Um, but I definitely portrayed myself as. Someone who was an athlete. I’d done multiple sports in high school and I also was really passionate about service. That was definitely a major part of my application as well as social justice. Um, and at the time I was, Well, I did apply as a politics major and I graduated with a politics degree, so I definitely focused on that and just having an interest in justice and helping the world and making the world a fairer place.

So, that’s a little bit about my personal brand, um, and I’m looking at people’s responses and they seem in alignment with what we noticed earlier, the fact that it’s a younger group that we have tonight. for having me. 55 percent have not started their application process yet, which makes sense. A lot of our audience members are in 10th grade.

And 45 percent are reaching, researching schools, which again, makes sense since we’ve got a younger crowd tonight. And I will go ahead and pass it back to you, Maria.

Maria: Thanks, Lydia. Um, so now as we think a little bit more about how the personal brand, um, gets used in the admissions process, um, we can talk a little bit about how you can use it to help you stand out. Um, so first, um, it’ll help you to just, you know, being able to have a well developed personal brand is going to help you to just take a step back.

And think about what you enjoy, care, and are interested in. Um, and so that’s just kind of a personal benefit of taking the time to actually go through this process. Um, and again, it might seem like something that doesn’t seem directly transferable to the admissions process, but having a clear sense of who you are is going to be really helpful for your, uh, the rest of your admissions questions, including your essays, any short answer questions.

Um, and so again, taking that step back is going to be really fruitful in the long run. Um, and also it’s going to be an opportunity for you to think a little bit more about what you want to explore in college, right? A lot of the college application process is just, I need to get into a school. Um, and you really, you don’t have often the time or space to think about, well, what do you actually want to explore in college?

Um, and I think creating a personal brand helps you to also take a step back and say, okay, what are the things I’m excited to do in college? You know, once I actually get through this hump of the application season, what are the things I’m looking forward to? And I think that’s also a really helpful reflection that’s going to help you to craft, um, the types of essays, the types of responses that could actually lead you to stand out in the application process.

Um, thinking through your personal brand will also help you to have a more cohesive story about who you are And what you want to do after high school So that’s kind of mentioning, you know or tied into like that part about Really being able to craft a good story for your personal statement and for very tangible parts of your college application And then once you have that for yourself It’s going to be so much easier to share it with others in a clear and convincing convincing way And that’s not just through the essays, um, it’s also through any interviews that you might get afterwards.

So putting, again, that kind of legwork at the beginning is going to be really helpful in the long run. And then, as I mentioned previously, uh, being able to share your brand with admissions officers will just help you, uh, help them distinguish you from other students. So all of these are really important elements for not just developing Um, a better understanding of who you are just as a person is like a personal benefit, um, but also very tangible parts of the application, such as the essay and the interview process, and then, um, in ways that you might not see, because this obviously happens, um, in the privacy of admissions officers, um, committees or selection committees, um, they’re all, it’s also going to help you just to stand out and to be memorable in admissions, um, officers mind.

Um, so where in your application can you highlight your passions and your personal brand? So I’ve kind of alluded to some of these, but I we’ve Kind of consolidated them into these very tangible parts of your, uh, your common app and your college application. So first in your activities list, um, and this is a way where you can kind of highlight your passions and personal brand in a way that’s very quantifiable.

They ask you a lot of questions around how many hours do you spend a week doing this? How many weeks a year do you do this during breaks, right? So it puts a lot of, um, emphasis on that. the frequency and the duration of your time in these activities and passions. And so I would think of this as like one of the greatest quantitative markers of your passions.

Um, and there’s obviously a part to like describe what your, what the activity is. And that’s a really important part of the application as well. But I would say this is one of the easiest ways for admissions officers to just quantify your level of involvement in your activities. Then there’s the essays, uh, which are more focused on the context and, um, the context for your, for your activities.

So, you know, you might not be writing an entire essay about, you know, your time playing soccer, but you might include the things that soccer or the way that playing soccer has, uh, impacted your life or your role on the soccer team as part of a larger story about who you are. And so that is a place where you can elaborate a little bit more about your activities in the context of a broader story about You know.

Your goals, your ambitions, maybe a challenge that you went through, anything that answers the prompt. Um, and just keep in mind that there is a word count there as well, and so you will be capped at, um, Uh, at a certain point, and so you need to make sure that you’re being able to talk about your passions in a way that also tells the story about who you are and answers the prompt for that essay.

You could also highlight your passions and personal brand through your coursework. So again, selecting, um, the types and the combination of classes will also demonstrate your brand. So for example, I, um, took a lot of pre med classes, but I was really interested in a community service and cultural studies and seeing how to help, um, different communities, experiencing different types of challenges.

And so I took a lot of classes that were in the social sciences, not just. The natural sciences like chemistry and biology and so having that, um, balance of natural and social sciences further, um, provided further evidence of my desire to be a doctor and also work in like humanitarian aid and do community service.

And then lastly, your letters of recommendation, um, who you get them from as well as what they write. So I specifically chose definitely a science or a STEM teacher to write my one of my letters of recommendation. And then I chose Morse of a social science teacher, my AP human bio teacher, to write my other letter of recommendation.

And so again, I had two folks who came from the realms of the natural and social sciences, which were also, um, kind of all of that built on top of each other, considering I also included my classes between the natural and social sciences. And so you could see how that all becomes like, Stronger and stronger evidence that my personal brand is actually something that I’ve invested time and, and, um, is real and not just something I just made up because I thought that would be a good personal brand for me.

Um, and then obviously what they actually write about you, um, is really important. And so make sure that if you have a personal brand in mind, that you take the time to not just think about who your letters are going to be coming from, but to actually meet with those teachers that you’re interested in.

in asking for a letter of rec to tell them more about the type of brand that you’re really using for your applications to kind of share some of your strategy with them so that then they can also incorporate that into their letters and really make it more, um, unique and specific towards you. Towards your application.

Um, so, uh, some final tips on how you can best build your personal brand for college applications. The first, and again, I’ve alluded to this throughout the entire presentation is just taking time to think about what you value, what you enjoy, and what you’re passionate about without the pressure of what sounds good to an admissions officers.

Or to an admissions officer. Um, admissions officers really love it when you care about things deeply and are heavily involved. Um, but they don’t care as much about specifically what, what it is. So it’s not necessarily that, like, someone who’s deeply involved in science will be considered more than someone who’s very deeply involved in math.

Like, what they really care about is, like, your, that you’re both, um, That whatever it is that you’re doing, that you care about it a lot, that you’re passionate about it, that you want to share it with others, right, it’s that level and, um, that level of depth and passion that they’re looking for. Um, and there’s another thing that you can’t control, which is you’re applying with a cohort of students who you will not know what their personal brand is, and maybe in a given year.

There’s a ton of pre meds and there’s a ton of people that have the same personal brand as you, you won’t know that, um, but it might be that that year it’s just a little bit harder to stand out because there’s a lot of folks that might have a similar profile as you, you don’t have control over that.

There might be another year where again you apply as a pre med and there’s less folks who fit that bill and so maybe you stand out more there. Um, those are things you can’t really control. All you can do is really try to be as authentic in your personal brand because it will shine through in the level of evidence that you can get for that personal brand.

And so I wouldn’t worry about what sounds best to an admissions officer or not because you won’t be able to control a lot of that. Um, what I will say is they, again, care a lot about your level of passion. Um, the evidence that this has been something that you’re interested in for a while, and that’s something that you just decided to be interested in this semester and has like no further grounding.

Um, although obviously you can learn new things and be excited about new things, as long as like, that’s not the biggest part of your, um, personal brand. Again, you want that to have some roots. Um, and then they also care about. And I’m speaking maybe specifically to a lot of the Ivy schools and a lot of, um, higher rank schools really care about your level of not just passion for something, but your passion for sharing it with others and becoming a leader in that field.

That doesn’t mean you have to be a leader in everything, but I think that they see a next level of passion when it’s not just something you do when you enjoy doing yourself, but something that you want to share with others. Um, and so that’s like an extra bonus. If you’re thinking about how to build a personal brand, like that’s an extra thing, that’s really helpful.

Um, yeah, so the bottom line there is just be yourself, do what you love, but do it really deeply and intentionally. Um, and then the second final tip is that take all the pieces of the puzzle. So your activities, your passions and your characteristics, and think about the clearest way to communicate them.

Um, right. There’s a million things you might be interested in right now. Try to put them into buckets. Something that is easy to explain to others. Take the time to maybe practice with sharing that with like a friend, or with your family members, or with a teacher. Just to really try to nail down, okay, what are the core?

Buckets of things that I really care about. That’s going to help you to just organize that in your mind and to later share them better in an essay and in an interview. Um, and it’s okay if you don’t get to share everything. Um, I often share, uh, with my students that I play tennis for most of my life. It was a big, big part of my life.

Uh, I played competitive tennis and it was just something I did almost every single break. And it just did not fit in well with the personal statement that I was trying to write. There was other areas in my life that I really wanted to talk about and I just couldn’t find a way to also fit in tennis and I was able to fit it in as just an activity on my activities list for some schools.

There are some schools that gave me an essay where I could write about tennis but that wasn’t the case for all schools and it was okay. I was able to write about other things and actually for my Harvard essay I didn’t write about tennis at all and so there might be things where you’re like I really need to talk about this.

There’s times where that is, it sounds good and like it fits within the essay. There’s times where it might not. I would say really work with your, um, CollegeAdvisor to, or yeah, your CollegeAdvisor advisor to, um, try to figure out when, when it’s most strategic to write about that and when it might not be.

So again, it’s okay to not share absolutely everything. Um, and I think that’s the last slide for me.

Lydia: Hey, well, as you just said, Maria, that concludes the presentation portion of our webinar. I hope that everyone at home found this information helpful. I know I did. And remember, you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab.

Now we’re going to move into the Q& A where I’ll read questions you all submitted in the Q& A tab and Maria will get an opportunity to answer them. And I might hop in as well. As a heads up, if your Q& A tab isn’t letting you submit questions, just double check that you join the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page.

You can also try logging out and logging back in through the link in your email. And if that doesn’t work, you can try logging in through the website launching page, though you will not be able to ask questions. Also, as a reminder, the webinar is being recorded so that you can review it again at a later time.

All right, so let’s go ahead and jump into some of the questions. So Maria, the first question that I’ve got for you is, is there an ideal topic to use for the personal statement?

Maria: Um, so there’s not necessarily an ideal topic. Actually, if you’re looking at your personal statements, there is lots of different ways that you can approach it.

Um, they give you some example prompts. I’m Right. There’s, you know, questions about, you know, have you had a conversation that really impacted the way that you think? Um, tell us about something you’re really passionate about. Um, what’s a challenge that you’ve overcome, right? So there’s a lot of ways to tackle it and different types of stories that you can share.

But there’s some key elements of success, regardless of which pathway you choose. One of them is that. Um, it should be something that is personal and unique and, um, authentic to who you are. And so it doesn’t have to be unique in terms of there’s no one else in the world who’s going to tell this, uh, similar story.

That’s, you know, oftentimes there is, uh, a lot of overlap with what maybe another student might write, but the way that it’s specifically written by you, the way that you describe the events, right? That’s usually one person that would go specifically through what you went through, um, or that cares about.

what you like in the specific way and format that you do. And so just really leaning into, let me be as authentic as possible is actually a superpower in terms of standing out because that’s the one way to make sure that you’re not sounding vague and broad in a way that can be confused with another student.

So being as detailed as possible, as specific as possible to your unique experiences, um, is a success marker, regardless of what topic you write about. Um, There’s also, uh, it’s helpful to just make sure that the main character and the topic is, is you, um, there might be other people involved in your story.

I mean, we, uh, there’s different people who support and, um, are part of your journey, um, by the time you get to apply into college. But the important part is how it’s affected you and how you’ve grown from those experiences and connecting with those people and just making sure that regardless of, you know, What the story background is, or what the events are, that you are the central character is another marker of success for those essays.

Um, and the last thing that I would share is, there are, it’s easier sometimes to talk about the things that are helpful not to write about than the things that are helpful to write about because again, as long as you’re talking about something that you’re passionate about, something that’s important to you, um, something that, you know, shaped the way that you think, all of those are within the scope of the personal statement.

Um, again, there’s several prompts there, but there might be a couple topics that are, that are, Maybe not the best. Um, and I’ve just seen that as some students, you know, they come up with their initial stories or drafts for how to answer this question. Um, the main kind of pitfalls there can be. writing about something in a way that’s just like everything is like doom and everything’s terrible and like it ends up being a story that just describes something that is really terrible that happened and even though that’s something that’s like really important to process and think about as an individual when it comes to writing an essay for for college the important part there is how did you think about how did your how did your perspective about the world change because of an event how It doesn’t have to be everything is roses afterwards and you’re a victor over every challenge But it is important about like how did you think about hardship and how did you change?

How did how do you want to impact the world because of what happened and it doesn’t have to be something crazy but that structure of Seeing difficulty and trying to figure out, okay, what are the ways in which I approach this and how do I see the world differently and being able to verbalize that is the important part.

It can’t be just a laundry list of difficult things that happened. Um, and some students fall into the pitfall of thinking if I just write. You know, my story has been so tough, like then admissions officers might, might say like, okay, you’re in, um, and that’s not the purpose of the personal statement. The purpose of the personal statement is to share more about who you are.

And, um, it’s usually more than just the sum of difficult things that have happened. Um, and so that I’ve seen that as a pitfall, another pitfall can sometimes be, um, sharing everything that you’ve ever done, but not kind of grouping them into a cohesive story or cohesive structure. Of, you know, maybe different passions that evolved over time.

And so finding a framework, a way of talking about the things that you’re interested in is also really important, regardless of the topic. And what I mean by that is like, I think about essays as structure and content. So the content is like, maybe what you’re Writing about like a specific list of passions that you’re interested in and then the structure is how do you categorize those passions into a story that is interesting and engaging and that shows an evolution in your personality, in your character, and it’s something that’s going to catch the eye of the admissions officer.

So, I think those are small bits of a successful personal statement strategies.

Lydia: I think that’s a great point. Um, I’ve seen many students kind of just make this assumption that, um, the way that you write a great essay, or what makes a great essay is just having the greatest sob story, or they assume that because they don’t have a sob story, then that means they don’t have a good story for college applications.

And that can’t be further from the truth. I think, you know. I’ve read so many great essays that come from students that really haven’t faced any major adversity. I think it’s more so about showing that you have a valuable perspective and a real passion for something. There are so many ways to be interesting without, you know, having some sad backstory for your life.

Um, A question that we’ve got from the audience is, is there any resource to review some great examples of personal statements?

Maria: Yeah, so I know CollegeAdvisor also has, um, a repertoire of example college essays, and so definitely I think the first place to go to is, is talking to your admissions officer, uh, sorry, to your CollegeAdvisor, um, advisor and talking with the essay review team.

to think a little bit more about, um, how to access or if you want to access those, those essays. There’s also, um, examples online, but I would be a lot more hesitant about looking at something that isn’t already either in a university’s database. Sometimes universities will share example essays, um, but I would say for the most part, it’s often, uh, these college prep, um, organizations or college advising organizations that will have the best, um, repertoire just because they often collect from students themselves and students who often get into very, um, highly ranked schools.

Lydia: Um, I know, for example, Johns Hopkins, and I think maybe University of Chicago as well, might have a few, um, sample essays from students that they’ve, that have applied in previous years that really stood out. So, some colleges do have them, but definitely, um, CollegeAdvisor is a great place to start, um, because we have such a wide database of students writing, um, that has been successful in the past.

Um, another question that I’ve got. Is, is it more preferable to use experiences and events from high school rather than earlier in your life? Or is it just about what experiences most pivotal for you?

Maria: Yeah, that’s a really good question, and I think it could be either or, um, I think definitely, usually the default is it’s better to write about things that are more recent, just because it shows or it’s closer to who, the type of person you are now, right?

Something that I did when I was five is probably not as indicative of who I am as a person now. Also, something that might have happened to me or an experience I went through when I was five or when I was younger, um, could have really shaped the way that I think and the way that I evolved as a person.

And so I think it depends on the story, um, and the type of evolution that you show and the character arc that you show in your, in your essay. I think the important elements is whether you choose to talk about An event that happened earlier in life or closer to, uh, this point in time. The important is talking about you as you are right now and how you, the person that you are, that they are admitting into, uh, the university.

And the way that I would think about this in the most practical sense is admissions officers are admitting who you are now and not who you were when you were younger.

Lydia: Yeah, I think that’s a great way to put it. Um, I have read essays that are great that talk about someone, you know, something that someone did or something that someone thought when they were little.

Um, for example, I have a good friend who when she applied to law school, uh, her personal statement included something about she. something that she did when she was five years old. And now when she was five, she convinced a lady to stop smoking and she gave her all these facts about how bad cigarettes are for you.

And it really represented, you know, who she is as a person even now. Um, so I think if you have a story like that of, you know, when you were young and you feel like it really captures a core part of who you are that’s still applies to who you are now. I think it can be great, but where I’ve seen essays go wrong in the past when I’ve read, um, students writing is when it seems like they are really hung up on the past.

Like they’re recounting a bunch of things that they did, um, or a bunch of things that happened to them when they were in elementary school or middle school. And then by the time you get to the end of the essay, you’re left kind of wondering, well, what are you doing now? Or what does this have to do with who you are as a person?

17 or 18 year old. So I think if you’re going to talk about something from earlier in your life, keep it somewhat brief. It should really just kind of be like a, this is an example of how I’ve kind of been consistent about who I am throughout my life and then move to the present day. Don’t use that as the focal point of your entire essay.

Okay.

Another one is, can you give a list of some memorable topics that you read or some topics that have been overused and you probably should avoid?

Maria: Yeah, so I think some memorable ones that I’ve read, um, were where folks really leaned into the community that they were, um, that they were raised in. So for example, I had a student that I worked with her, um, on an essay about growing up on a farm, um, in a not very rural community.

Uh, I think she’s from South Florida. And when you think of South Florida, you’re usually thinking Miami and Miami beach and, uh, downtown cities. But, um, she grew up on like a farm in one of the suburbs of Miami or a city lower, um, further South. Um, and. She really leaned into, like, her experience seeing more of the rural or the more agricultural issues, um, in an environment where folks are really focused on urban issues, um, and I think that was a really unique way of talking about her upbringing, um, right, so she was telling a story about who she was, but also gave a really interesting, um, um, I think rendition of maybe some of the divides that we see in our nation sometimes, like there was a lot of perspectives that she was able to bring out from something that just seemed like, you know, you live in the same South Florida community, how different can things be to really kind of, um, extract things that are more indicative of reflections on the broader nation and how folks think about, um, different socioeconomic issues and how people vote.

And so I think that was a really interesting way of her merging. Just the way that she grew up and stories about her childhood and her Years even now in high school, um to then also talk about the way that she thinks about the world and the socioeconomic policy She cares about so it’s an example of something that worked well Yeah,

Lydia: and I guess um, I can provide some insight on essays that are topics that are a bit overused so I would never tell a student to Unilaterally always avoid any specific topic I think you know For every example that there is of a essay that doesn’t do a topic well, there’s an example of an essay that can do it really masterfully and it works really, really well.

Um, but I will say at the same time that there are some topics that are a little bit harder to nail than others, just because they’re so commonly used. So, for example, I know that, um, The example of writing about sports or getting an injury and then not being able to play the sport anymore. That’s something that a lot of students write about, uh, or writing about COVID 19, especially since for a while, um, that was a topic that was an actual essay prompt for, um, every school, um, at least an optional essay prompt for every school.

So a lot of admissions officers are just. really, really used to hearing about that. Um, and so those are essay topics that if it is something that is really important to you or has played a pivotal role in your life in some way, um, you can definitely still write about it, but just be conscious of the fact that if you’re writing about something that you know for a fact admissions officers will probably read at least a hundred other times from other people, it’s just going to be a little bit more challenging to stand out rather than telling the story.

story about something that is more so unique to you. But something that I also tell students is even if you have, don’t really have a super unique experience, which a lot of us don’t, right, like a lot of us are pretty normal people and do things that a lot of other people do, we play sports or we spend time with family, even just including really specific details that will only be true for you, can take an essay that maybe is talking about something that is fairly common and make it feel really personal.

So just be mindful of that fact that you really have to put the person in your shoes, provide those vivid details, that imagery, so that we can feel like we’re really in your shoes while we’re reading that essay. Um, another question we’ve got from the audience is can you talk about how being bad at something has allowed you to grow or learn something in your personal statement or is that a bad idea?

Maria: Yeah, so I think Kind of so into what you said previously. I don’t, I don’t think anything is, you know, not unilaterally off the off the table. Um, I think that this can, it’s like a, I would call this more of a high risk, high reward type of topic because you’re introducing something that, you know, you’re not, It says you like something that you’re bad at or something that you’re not very good at.

So it introduces like a negative element, but the spin that you’re taking on it is how it’s helped you grow and learn. And so as long as you can really nail that grow and learn aspect, I think that’s okay. I think some things to, you know, watch out for is to make sure you’re not really harping on the thing you’re really bad or look that you’re bad at.

Um, making sure that that is just, um, something that is brought up and that it’s more the context that is leading you to grow and learn that’s being focused on. Um, and so I think that that is just one thing to be careful of and, and if I would work closely with the essay review team and with your, with your advisor to really make sure that you’re focusing on the right thing there.

Lydia: Yeah, and I would just add, it also depends the thing that you’re talking about being bad at, right? So, if you’re talking about being bad at, say, singing or dancing, but your plan is to apply to be, I don’t know, a biology major and eventually become a doctor, then that’s kind of a low stakes thing, right?

Like, oh, I love to sing, but I’m terrible at it, but I love to go to karaoke with my friends, and we all get a kick out of me singing terribly, and it’s kind of taught me to be humble, because If you’re good at a lot of other things, but this is just something that you’ve had to accept that you’re not good at, even though you really enjoy, right?

That’s not going to necessarily be a red flag if you’re not great at something that’s not super related to what you want to study or what you want to do. But if you talk about being bad at something that is core to what you want to do, right? Like, I’ve read an essay, for example, where a student was talking about being really, really bad at math, and there was never really a resolution of them getting better at math.

But they were also a plan. Applying to study engineering and so if you’re focusing on something that is a really big weakness and it’s also something that is important for what you’re trying to major in that can be a little bit trickier because then you are kind of painting yourself in a light where it’s like.

Oh, maybe you’re not as good a fit for this program as what we might be looking for. So that also plays a role. But even in those cases, if you’re able to do it in the right way, if you’re able to show growth, um, there can still be like, a good element to it. I think that sometimes it can be, um, endearing to show a little bit of humility or an ability to poke fun at yourself, but.

Whenever you’re talking about a weakness, there needs to be a moral to the story. There needs to be a way that you’re able to capture some positive thing about you by sharing that drawback to who you are. Um, another question we’ve got is, How do I identify and choose the most impactful experiences to include in my college essay?

Maria: Yeah, so that can sometimes be really hard when you feel like there’s a lot of experiences that you’re interested in talking about. Um, for folks who are maybe like, You know, I only have a couple and we’re going to make the, like, the best story out of these, like, that comes a little bit more easy, um, but for, more easily, but for folks who, Um, maybe have a lot of different topics and different routes that they could go.

I usually recommend writing them all down, just to get them off of your head. Um, and have them in a draft where you’re able to just kind of work through each and say like, Okay, what are the things that, you know, maybe what are some themes that some of these all bring together? Or choosing a couple and categorize them into, into buckets that you can talk a bit about.

More easily about or more clearly about. Um, and usually I think the 1st step is just writing them all down and then theming them.

Lydia: Oh, another question we’ve got is. In trying to convey my personal brand and my personal statement, how much emphasis should I place on discussing my future goals and aspirations compared to my past and my present?

Maria: Yeah, so I think that it’s something that you should definitely include in terms of Um, maybe wrapping up or like in the latter parts where you’re able to share like you know how to How have the some of the things that you’re talking about and the experiences that you’ve had kind of led you into having a vision For what you want to do in college.

That’s actually a very powerful way of ending oftentimes but I think because you’re Not yet at that stage where you haven’t gone to college where you haven’t kind of accomplished those future career things that you’re talking about It’s more about talking about aspirations than it is about the reality of again who they are Uh accepting into school and so considering that you are Again, putting your shoe putting yourself in the shoes of an admissions officer and thinking about who is a person i’m admitting right now That person is probably more Shaped and has become the person they are because of the things that happen in the past and in the present Um, because again, those things, those things can change.

Um, and if anything, they, you know, would be aligned with the things that happened in the past as well, right? There is, there’s aspirations and things that you’re thinking about doing in the future have probably been. Um, designed and, um, kind of carved out from experiences and ways of thinking that you’ve had throughout your life or, or presently.

And so talking about those things aren’t necessarily separate from the future things, um, they should be all together kind of tying into one another. But again, you want to talk about the things who have made you who you are now and not the person that you’re going to be later.

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And in the end, you’ll also learn more about the premium packages we offer that pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, and much more. All right. So now we’ll return to the questions. So the next question that we have is, Do you need to be obsessed with grammar and using professional words and a wide vocabulary to make yourself sound as smart as possible?

Or can you speak in a casual way when writing your personal statement?

Maria: Yeah, so I think the best answer to that is you should speak in a way that is reflective of, again, who you are and, and that shares your story in the most conducive way. And I think there are some parameters or guardrails around being too informal or being too formal.

Um, but again, the, the core of it should be your tone and your, the way you frame this essay should be just unique to who you are. It should be your voice coming through. Um, again, the two extremes that you want to avoid is one, being too informal and just having, um, you know, not being, not giving respect to, to the story that you’re telling, as well as to the admissions officer’s time of reading through this, and what I mean by that is, like, if you are using, you know, vocabulary that is not appropriate, or, you know, something that is more colloquial and might not be something that then admissions officers understand, or something that’s specific from, like, You know, a specific meme or a trend, a social media trend, like those are things that are maybe not easily transferable to what an admissions officer will understand.

And I think that’s a strategic choice for you to not include those things because again, you don’t know who is going to be reading your essay. So you want to make sure again that you’re not being too informal. You also want to think about, are you showing your expertise in writing? And that doesn’t have to mean that you are being super professional and that all these words like.

To show that you are, know how to use a thesaurus. It’s more about, you know, making sure is your syntax and sentence structure, not just good, but is it creative? Is it elaborate? Does it help tell your story? Um, an example of that is, for example, um, I, when I talked about like a challenge that happened in my life, I used not just the story and the content of the story to, um.

Or not just the content of what happened to tell my story, but also like the length of my paragraphs and how quickly I transitioned to things. So for example, when something difficult happened, and I wanted to like not just share how jarring it was through the words that I use. Um, I also like made a one sentence paragraph, which was like jarring in terms of the paragraph that came before.

And the paragraph that came after that was slightly longer. And it was a stylistic choice that I made. Okay. To make the, the, the reader kind of also react to the structure of my, um, of my essay and feel that experience of like, oh, wait, this is jarring, like a one sentence paragraph that’s uncommon. Um, that was an experience I wanted to align with the content of, you know, something difficult happening and like the jarring experience of how I was like, whoa, okay, this is not the norm.

Um, so that’s a stylistic choice that I use where I didn’t necessarily use bigger words or like was extremely formal, but I showed my, um, My understanding of how to use syntax and how to write, write well to kind of create that experience for the reader. Um, I will say specifically to the point about grammar is it should definitely be a proofread essay.

You don’t want to lose points on things as silly as grammar, right? Those are the easy wins. Um, and you can use a lot of, um, editing software online. You can use, uh, talking to your English teacher and asking her to proofread your essay. And so definitely say. Make sure that your essay is, uh, has great grammar.

Um, it doesn’t have to have the most high end vocabulary, if anything, that could actually detract. Um, so that’s the other side of the pendulum, or the other guardrail that I was talking about, where you don’t want to, um, sound impersonable, and not like yourself, and, um, kind of lose your voice by just using big words that actually you would never use before.

It just shows that, like, um, You know, you’ve looked up as many words as you could and found a synonym that sounded more intelligent, like that’s, that’s definitely not something admissions officers are looking for.

Lydia: Yeah, I agree. I, like, Guideline that I usually give students is imagine that you’re having a conversation with your favorite teacher.

So, you know, it’s an adult that you really respect and you want to sound intelligent when speaking with them, but you’re also still having a conversation. And so. When I’m reading an essay from a student, I don’t see an issue if a student has, you know, contractions here and there. They say didn’t rather than did not.

We want it to kind of sound like your authentic voice as if you were really telling us a story. But we’re not looking for all the SAT words and things like that. Because like Maria said, all that shows is that you know how to use a thesaurus. So make it sound like yourself, but also definitely be cognizant of the structure, making sure that things are clear.

Um, I know I’ve noticed that for some students, uh, sometimes there’ll be missing links between different, Parts of their story, because there’s this assumption that, you know, an admissions officer will be able to fill in the gaps or understand what they’re trying to say. You definitely want to avoid that.

Do not assume that, you know, an admissions officer is going to take the time to get what you mean. You really want to make sure that everything is crystal clear. Um, so. Make sure that every single point is clearly connected, um, and definitely be intentional. And being intentional does, is not necessarily the same as being excessively formal.

It’s just really thinking about, is every single word, is every single sentence that I’m using in this essay conveying a clear idea? Does it have an intent, a real purpose to it? I’ll ask one more question before we finish up. And that is, is it acceptable to use humor or should I stick to a more serious tone in my personal statement?

Maria: Yeah, it’s definitely acceptable to use humor. And again, I think it depends on the content and the topic of your essay, um, as well as just your, your personal tone and your unique voice. Um, I, there was parts in my story that were a little bit more serious. Other parts where. Um, I wanted to show more of like my goofy and fun side and so I think it doesn’t have to be just one tone throughout the entire essay.

Um, I think it should still be uniquely your voice, right? If you go from being extremely serious to being really goofy, that’s jarring. But if there is a consistent like undertone of, of a voice and there are moments where maybe you take a more, um, humorous approach and maybe a more serious approach. It doesn’t mean that the tone is very serious or like.

The tone of the entire essay is very funny, but you might just have like a slight leaning or approach to one, depending on the part of the essay that you’re on.

Lydia: Um, I would say that, yeah, I agree with that completely. I’ve noticed that sometimes students feel like they have to force themselves to sound funny. They feel like that’s, you know, the key. Oh, like, you know, if I can just Um, but really just make it authentic to who you are. Like, some people are naturally funny.

Some people are more serious. Don’t feel like you have to include a sense of humor, include a joke, if that’s not authentic to who you are. Just, yeah, make sure that it fits. Also, if you are someone that has a darker sense of humor or tends to err on the side of, you know, not taking things as serious, just make sure that you have someone else read over it to ensure that the jokes that you’re including in your essay are still appropriate because there’s nothing wrong with humor, but you definitely want to make sure that whatever humor is included in your essay is something that will land with the average person.

It’s not something that, It requires, you know, a person with a specific, you know, kind of humor or specific knowledge base to get the joke that you’re trying to include in your essay. All right. So that includes our webinar for tonight. Thank you to everyone for joining us. Um, as I said earlier, I always learned so much from these presentations, especially with our presenter, Maria.

I hope that everyone else who joined us tonight also gained some tips and strategies for making your personal brand stand out. Uh, also we hope that you join us again for some future webinars that we have later this month, for example, tomorrow, um, we are finishing up the month, um, with another webinar for tomorrow.

Uh, and I hope that you all also enjoy your holidays that are coming up as well, and thank you to Maria for an amazing presentation. Thank you. Have a great night.

Maria: Bye everyone.