Finalizing Your School List

Webinar Transcription

2021-08-30 Finalizing Your School List

[00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Welcome to CollegeAdvisor’s webinar on Finalizing Your School List. To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start off with a presentation. Then answer your questions in a live Q and a on the sidebar. You can download our slides and you can start submitting your questions in the Q and a tab.

Now let’s meet our panelist. Hi, y’all. Um, I am a computer science major at Stanford. Um, I’ve been an advisor here for almost two years now, actually. Um, and I, so I took a gap year. It’s kind of split the class, but, um, and, uh, yeah, I’ve been helping, uh, kids create college lists and I’ve occasionally am called in to help specifically with the computer science college list.

Cause it can be a little bit different sometimes. Um, but yeah, I’m sad to give a presentation on how I personally like to, um, create college lists and how I think you should, uh, as well. Um, let’s start off with a poll. Uh, [00:01:00] what grade will y’all be entering this fall? Um, personally, I’m going to select the other, but I don’t know.

Hopefully not one of those if you’re also starting college participation. Yeah. Okay. So looks like we have a lot of rising seniors, great time to be here, uh, as well as a decent number of, uh, sophomores and juniors as well. Two lovely, uh, ninth graders. Great, good time to start thinking about it, but yeah.

Good. Start to time. All right. Good. Start to time. Uh, so we have 3%, ninth grade, 12%, 10th grade, 30, 2% 11th grade and 48% 12th grade. Awesome. I’m going to close the poll. Awesome. Yeah, personally, I started actually I think. I didn’t finalize my list until yeah. Coming into my senior year. So a lot of you good and right time.

Um, [00:02:00] so, um, a what does a school list it’s just generally defined. So we’re going to define the term before we actually go. So I like to call it a roadmap for your college applications, right? So like, obviously, like, let’s say you pull up Google maps a lot of the times you’re going to follow it. Right. Um, I kind of like to think of that with the applications, but it’s not necessarily set in stone.

Right. Um, I think that it is at least a solid core group of schools you’re going to be applying to. I do not think you have to absolutely stick to a list and then not apply anywhere else or apply to every school on that list automatically. Um, personally, I like to, uh, kind of view it as like, okay, this is like where I’m planning on going with my applications.

Right? Because again, you get into the process you like might decide, Hey, I actually love this other school. I didn’t think about, or I kind of hate the school or I really don’t like their essays or something like that. And I want to, I want to sub it out for another one. So again, it’s kinda like. Alright.

Um, so what it is, I always like to say what it is and what it isn’t. This is my opinion, but I think these are pretty [00:03:00] generally good rules. Um, it is balanced. Uh, so that means that you have a good distribution of reach schools, target schools and safety schools. And we’ll talk about what those means later in the, in the, um, presentation, following what I like to call the three, five, three rule, um, it’s pretty standard.

Uh, you can modify that to your kind of where you’re trying to apply, but I always like to say, you should have at least three reaches, four to five targets and three safety, sometimes four targets, but five is generally a good idea. And that’s to ensure that you have a lot of schools that you can choose from, right?

So you apply to all reaches. Uh, it might not go super well. You put all safeties on. You’ll probably get in, but like, you might want to try for like a school that like is harder. So 3, 5, 3 kind of gives you the best of both worlds. You get to try for some of those hardest schools, you have some schools that you will have options.

And there, and the targets kind of provide a nice like balance between the two. So I like to go heavy on the targets personally. Um, and it’s a general guideline for your application cycle, as I [00:04:00] said, it’s kind of like, I like to think of it like Google maps, right? So, um, you have like these set of directions.

You generally know where you’re going to go, but, um, it is not necessarily set in stone. Let’s say this, maybe this detour here or there. Um, so, and again, you just recalculate and you’ll find a new list. Right? So what isn’t, uh, final slash and flexible. That was a dash there. Um, and so final, like, I like to say you can’t have your list be final come September, but I think it’s better to keep it open.

So like, I don’t really like to include one or two flex spots for my students. Um, but that’s, again, your prerogative again, don’t like change your list right before the application page, but like definitely, um, definitely be keeping an open mind. Like if you have like a spot open or you want to something out and you have a month, go ahead, definitely try it.

Um, and unreasonable, um, is my other thing. So. Don’t apply to 35 schools. I see that occasionally don’t do that. That’s a bad choice, quality over quantity. You’re going to hurt yourself if you do that. Just [00:05:00] saying like, from people I know from workload is a lot of times essays really matter and college admissions.

And if you’re writing that many essays that are probably not going to be as good as if you wrote it for 10 schools, um, or 11 in the case of the three, five three-year-old, um, and reasonable for competitiveness, um, again, don’t go too heavy on the safeties. Don’t go too heavy on the reaches. It’s better to go heavier on the safeties than the reaches.

Um, just because I prefer the element of choice, but, um, try to stick to the 3, 5, 3 rule. You can do something like, in my opinion, like a 3, 5, 5, so five reaches, five targets, three safeties, I think is okay if you really want to do that, but I want you to have at least three safeties, four to five targets and three riches.

You can T you can get away with four targets, but I like, I like to see five, um, personally, just because I think that’s the best way to do it. Um, Good. So what factors should a student consider when beginning of school is? So I actually, am I kick when you do a kickoff call with, um, one of our advisors, we basically, it’s like a get to know you session.

Um, and [00:06:00] I will on the first kickoff call, normally I’ll do a rapid fire kind of like this, like, let’s think about, have you thought about each of these? I can kinda explain the, um, pros and cons of different things on each of these, but these are the main questions I always ask. Uh, I’ve I have a few unique ones here that I think are really important that people don’t think about.

Uh, but first is size. That’s probably, I think the biggest, um, this other than actual academic curricula size is very important. Um, big school, small school vantages of small school. Um, typically better relationship with professors. Know your classmates more often, um, but less resources, oftentimes big school, the opposite, um, much more resources in specialization.

Normally don’t know your classmates as well. And normally don’t know your professors as well. So if you like. What do you want to do something really specific? You go to a big school. If you like, if you want to go for a pretty general, typically humanities major, and you really want to know your classmates, your professors go to a small school again, if you’re thinking more like [00:07:00] athletics, it can be going to a big school.

Um, and then of course there’s a middle ground, right? So, um, I normally like to define school size as a 4,000 or less a smaller, um, so think, for example, Boden college is a great example of a small school. Um, I like to say 4,000 to around 15,000 is medium. Um, so like Harvard’s a classic example. They have like 10,000 maybe like medium, large there.

Um, and then, uh, about 15,000, I like just to consider large, um, an example would be like Michigan, which has like 40,000 people, I think, um, very large, but you can do pretty much anything you want there. Um, yeah. Uh, location, uh, dream beg again, there’s a lot of colleges in the United States and all over the world, really, um, to.

You really can be picky about location. Definitely look in the geographical areas that you want. So, one thing I always tell students to do this because, um, people always want to go to new England. I’m from new England. It is called here. So if you are from Southern California and you are doing it purely off of [00:08:00] prestige, not caring about the location, you are not going to like having to walk through two feet of snow in the middle of January.

Jessica said that right now. And conversely, from new England, you are not going to like going down. Well, you may, you might like the heat going down to like two bottom of Texas for like Baylor or something like that. I did go from Southern California to new England. I knew what I was getting myself into, but it was definitely like, it was a choice that I made and had to live with.

Yes. Um, so just think about it. Um, but again, don’t exclude schools necessarily off of that, but think about if location matters to you, um, like if you don’t like the cold, don’t go to like, try to stay out of new England. Um, you know, like. Try to stay out of this like Southern areas. Um, but yeah, just general and then, um, setting.

So I use this term over location, um, for this. So there’s a few kinds of schools. There’s rural, they’re suburban. There’s what I like to call city. And then I like to call city suburban. I’ll explain kind of what that last one means. So [00:09:00] rural wouldn’t be like small town, not college town, like small towns.

So like a great example is, uh, Colby college in Maine, um, Waterville, Massachusetts, I’m from Massachusetts. Wonderful. Maine is a very small town. Um, got that small town feel. So if that’s what you’re looking for, like there might be a few things to do here and there, but really like the colleges that have like, for their great, um, or their suburban, um, basically where you have like a college town might be residential as well, like pretty residential as well.

Um, so like you might have a fair amount of people in there. Actually. A great example is my school. Stanford is a suburban school it’s in Palo Alto. Um, and so, or like, uh, Uh, like in, uh, this kind of rural borders on, in between like Cornell is another good example. Um, then what I like to call city suburban, which is probably the most common, um, in my, from what I normally see, um, which is basically it’s inner nearest city, but it has a defined campus.

So for example, Harvard, um, or Tufts [00:10:00] or, um, Columbia, those are all like city suburban schools. So I like to, I like to differentiate because cities, most, I think cities most common that’d be wrong on that. But, um, from the ones I normally recommend, uh that’s I like to differentiate between the ones that have like a set campus and what I like to call full-blown city schools, which are where it’s fully integrated with the city.

So like your classes may be in skyscrapers. Um, like the university will probably own a large chunk of like housing and buildings, but it’s kind of interspersed. So like NYU is a great example. Uh, George Washington university is a great example. Boston university is a great example. Um, yeah. So think about what you want.

And so benefits, uh, kind of as you’d expect, uh, kind of this depends on where you like to live, um, in the area. Um, the only distinct thing that distinction I make between city and city suburban, uh, city suburban, kind of like closer to the suburb than city. So if you want kind of the middle ground, it’s a good idea.

Um, [00:11:00] but if you’re a full-blown setting, you are probably walking distance to everything you could want. So depends on if you really want that campus feeling, um, core curriculum. This is one I never see students look at and I think it is extremely important. Um, so every school is going to have some variation of this.

Um, well, with the exception of a few notable ones, but, um, I’ll get into that, um, which is basically a court. When I refer to a core curriculum, those are the classes that everyone has to take to graduate. Right? So, um, schools typically fall into one of three categories. Um, there’s what I like to call tried and true core schools to schools with heavy, normally humanities sometimes.

Um, cores where you have to take like, uh, classes in like philosophy. You have to take classes in English, you have to take classes in like all the history, all this stuff, um, are the most famous example of which is Columbia. Uh, Columbia is famous for its core curriculum, uh, very big difficult. Um, but it’s really good for, it’s really good for uniting the student body [00:12:00] won.

It’s kind of like a shared experience, which is good. Um, it’s also really good for if you’re going pre-war or pre MBA sometimes. Cause they’re going to want to normally see a lot of liberal arts education. Um, a lot of critical thinking stuff like that can be really good. Or if you’re going into humanities field, normally schools with big cores are good for that.

Um, they’re more common in small liberal arts colleges. Um, then I would say in like large research universities. Um, so again, that’s kind of that being said, it’s not like they aren’t in others, like, um, but they’re typically more common in those. Um, then you have open curriculum is probably the least. Um, in my opinion, like a true open curriculum or near open, uh, which is where there’s very few required classes.

So brown is a great example of this. Um, I think they have, I might be totally, I might be wrong as last time I checked. I think they had only two required classes and they were writing classes. Um, and then the rest of it, you can do what you want. Um, this is great for, if you just really don’t want that kind of shared experience and you want more to be able to [00:13:00] specialize or take classes you want more, um, you don’t want to get like brought down by Plato, stuff like that.

Um, so that can be a good option too. And if you want something in the middle, um, you can do what’s called distributed requirement. Um, which is that’s. I think that’s Dartmouth’s term for it, but that’s the term I typically use for it, which is, um, basically they’ll have classes in certain areas. So at Stanford, that’s what we do.

Um, and so it’d be like social inquiry, like, um, uh, quantitative reasoning. I think it’s applied quantitative reasoning, I think is another one. Um, Stuff like that. So it’s kind of like areas more. So some schools might do like languages, like you have to take a language class or like, um, like some sort of like quantitative class, right?

So like math, CS, uh, statistics, something like that. Um, so that can be a good middle ground between if you’re kind of looking to go one way or the other, but typically I recommend, um, more towards open for people in stem, more towards, uh, core for people in humanities also because stem [00:14:00] majors tend to be a little bit more intense on a quarter unit spaces.

Um, so you want that space in your schedule sometimes. Um, but again, cores are great if you really want them, but you should, you should want one is fine. Like a second, um, specialties, uh, look at the strengths of each college, right? So like, um, some schools are gonna have weirdly good programs in certain areas.

Um, so like my favorite favorite example, and I love seeing the school kids less is Carnegie Mellon, which is, they’re kind of interesting cause they’re. They like to specialize for their student students. So they actually have home colleges and they’re really good at, in particular two fields, which are computer science and drama never would have expected that it’s a very strange mix.

I think it’s great. Um, but they both have two very good, they have very good schools and everything, but those two are kind of like, um, they’re like, if you didn’t do research about school, you might not have known that. So it’s kind of this, it’s why it’s important to kind of research. You can use generic lists at least to get a baseline, but don’t base your [00:15:00] list off of it necessarily look at these other factors as well.

Um, there’s a lot of good lists. I like Nish, uh, personally, um, for this kind of stuff. I think they do a good job cause instant reviews. Um, think about if you want to do undergraduate research. Um, this is really, really, really important. Um, some schools are going to have a lot more opportunities for this and others.

Uh, typically you get a lot of, uh, opportunities, especially for specialization at large public universities. Michigan, for example, or Berkeley, you’re probably gonna get, have a lot of access to research. Um, and it’s probably gonna be a lot easier to get into like a specific area that you want. Um, so that’s another thing to look at, whereas that might be more difficult at, um, the smaller school.

Um, and lastly, uh, I always liked, so this is kind of, this is an optional one, but I like to say, especially for those, um, especially for theoretical fields. So like for example, math, uh, computer science, um, sometimes like economics, political science, stuff like that. Right. [00:16:00] Um, I want you to think about theory versus application.

So some schools are famously theoretical, like university of Chicago is an example of that. Um, some schools are famously application-based like Penn, um, or pre-professional uh, so some schools are better at preparing you for the application side. Some schools really want you to do the theory. Right. Um, so that’s another thing I want you to look at.

So like, if. Um, so like for myself, I was a theory kid. I really liked math and computer science. So I wanted the school that a lot of theory separate kind of has both, but they actually had a theory track. Um, so I was kinda interested in that. Um, but look at kind of that for your major as well, see, like, Hey, is this more like going towards, um, going towards preparing me for job or more towards graduate studies or it’s kind of like a mix, see what you think there’s a lot.

So let’s go to the next slide. Good. Um, so what is a good time to begin your school list? Um, I like to say the summer before college applications, I was a little bit earlier, but I don’t think it was necessary that I [00:17:00] was, I didn’t finalize mine until like December actually. I think I was still out of the school in December.

Um, but it was, I didn’t have like my actual official college list until September. Um, but I like to say summer before college applications probably best. And ideally after your act and sat, if you’re submitting, so most schools are test optional this year, um, Yeah. I’ve only encountered one school. I think that is not test-optional.

Um, but most schools are test-optional this year. Um, so be aware, you’re going to know your GPA. You’re going to know kind of where you stand for competitiveness. Um, but I would wait if you’re going to be submitting your act and sat until after you’ve taken it, because you want to know kind of generally, where are you?

Right. Because that is an important metric for colleges. So you don’t want to be applying way outside of a middle 50. So like 50 points below or 50 points above middle 50. Well for safety is that’s fine. But, um, so you want to try to land in the middle 50 for at least for your targets and your reaches, um, ideally above it [00:18:00] for, uh, your, um, safeties.

And so just to clarify what a middle 50 means, that means if I have a percentiles for students, middle 50 is the 25th to a hundred, 170 fifth percentile of normally they do. They show admitted students. Sometimes you can find enrolled, enrolled. Um, for kind of guessing this, but admitted as good too. Uh, just, I, I personally think enrolled is the best way to do it, but that’s admitted is that it’s just, it might be a little harsher.

Um, so, uh, that’s going to give you a good idea of, okay. What’s the average admitted student going to look like. Right. Um, and so I like to say after act slash sat, um, just because you can get a better sense for that. Um, and I also like to say, uh, meet with your school counselor. So, um, obviously we have admissions admissions advisors here, uh, a CollegeAdvisor, but, uh, um, your school is going to have a registrar counselor meet with them because oftentimes they’re going to have data about your, about previous students.

And so [00:19:00] they can give you a good idea about kind of like, Hey, what schools might I be in range for in my area that you’d recommend? Um, because again, uh, GPA can vary widely from school to school. Some schools are way harder. Some schools are easier. Some schools have much higher out and average sat scores and others and college admissions is a holistic evaluation.

So like not all scores are created. Um, as some areas do better than others, just kind of how it is. So I would also meet with a school counselor for that reason. Um, and also after you’ve thought about the previously mentioned criteria, don’t just look up top 10 college in the United States have put those on your list.

Uh, one, because that’s a top heavy list, like I was talking about, um, make sure you’re balancing, but uh, really think about the criteria really be picky, um, and use those, those, those are my questions. You can even look up more if you want. Um, but I think those roles give you a good solid foundation for what you’re looking for.

All right. So what are some tips to help students narrow down their list as they get closer to applying, be picky, picky, picky, picky, picky. There’s so many colleges in the United [00:20:00] States and elsewhere you can be picky. Don’t have like eight schools that are all the same necessarily on your list. Have some also have some like a little bit of diversity of school.

I think that’s a good idea. So you can be presented with different options. Um, look closely at school course. Uh, this is another one. The one thing I will say that is different from pretty much university universities, how they handle the core curriculum. Um, pretty much every school has a different way of doing it.

Even within, uh, majors. Some schools are going to have requirements for like different schools. So like at Stanford we have requirements for the engineering school in addition to the major and in addition to the university. Um, so it can really, uh, go anyway with that. Um, so look at school course. I think that’s a good idea.

I’ll look at the academic departments, um, look at what they offer. So like, let’s say you’re really interested in political science. Uh, what are their programs? Um, what, like classes do they offer? Even? I like to look at someone else’s when I was applying, um, professors, uh, don’t be afraid to really engage with the academics of the school.

Cause that’s kind of the most important part in [00:21:00] my opinion. But again, all those other factors you’ve got to think about your application time. Um, some schools like to ask a lot of questions. A famous example is Stanford and Princeton have very, very long applications. Both of those schools. So think about that.

If you’re thinking of like quantity, you want to get more out, um, cut schools that take up a lot of time versus Northeastern doesn’t have any supplements. So again, thinking about kind of balancing out, how much do you wanna apply to school? How much time do I have? Right. If you have all the time by all means submit it, but don’t also apply to 35 schools.

I do not recommend that. Alright, Paul, where are you in the college application process? Had I got a ticket where, uh, I personally haven’t started my application process this year.

okay. It looks like a lot of people are researching schools and working on their [00:22:00] essays, all that make sense? Perfect. Both of those are great right now. Quite a few people haven’t started that’s okay. Um, Good job to the one person who’s almost done. I almost thought off in the head. Yeah. I gave him mine.

It’s not like you’re late if you’re starting now. Um, I just like when I advise, I typically like it around now, but it’s again, you got time and it’s just do your own research. They’ll do your research. It’s very, I would say research in like researching college can save so much time down the road. Cause you’re, you don’t know what time you’re gonna be wasted and supplements can also start to align your supplements.

Um, very important. Okay. So looks like the numbers are evening out. We have 18%. Haven’t started 47% are researching schools. 26% are working on their essays. 8% are getting your application materials together and 1% is almost done. Alright, that’s fine. Oh, okay. How many schools should be on a [00:23:00] final student’s list?

Um, depends on the student. I would never put a hard and fast rule. I would say probably at least I would say 3, 5, 3. So I’d probably put a minimum of 11. You could maybe do 3, 4, 3. Um, and I wouldn’t go above 20, like, and that’s on the high end. I know some students who really, really spend a lot of time really prep these essays and do that.

But do I recommend it? Probably not. I would absolutely not go above 20, um, ever in any circumstance ever. Um, that’s and that’s like a really upper limit. It really should say like 16, 17 is pushing it. Um, so somewhere in there, but again, I’m not gonna, I normally don’t like to, some of my students are applying to like 15, some are applying to like 10.

It really depends on the student how much time they want to do. Um, and also you gotta think about kind of where there’s overlap. So some schools are not going to have supplements. If you’re not going to have a lot of supplements, you can apply to more schools. So like, Um, if you have your common app done, that is a one-click application.

So [00:24:00] obviously that’s not going to be the same as like Princeton, which has multiple 650 word assets. Um, so time-wise so like not all, not all applications are created equal. Um, I’d also like to say if you’re in the California system, you’re applying to the UC system, um, you can have more. So like, let’s say you’re applying to like six UCS.

Don’t count that as six separate applications I’d call, I would count every UC application as three together. So no matter of how many you see, that’s my typical rule is no matter of how many, um, schools you’re applying to in the UC. It’s three applications. Uh, just cause those are very intense. That’s a big app.

Um, but again, you can kind of get bang for your buck. You can apply to eight and have it count as three in my book, um, apply Texas has kind of the same situation. Um, I know that’s their system. I know that you can also use, I think coalition actually not common app coalition app, uh, for some of them. And yeah, the no supplements is something that can Mount and quality over quantity.

Please, please do not apply to 20 schools or more like [00:25:00] really, really, really look at like, I want to go to these specific schools. Don’t throw out application with school just cause it’s prestigious. Well, I won’t say that. I always like to, I always like to say like a, Hey, why not? I like one, why not school on his kid’s list every time?

Um, just one. Uh, but after that it really should be based on your preferences and what’s a good fit. Whereas you going to be in good range for you, um, and quality of the essays, you’re probably going to get more admissions, uh, just purely because your essays won’t be better. My S my opinion. Um, so, uh, what our reach, target and likely schools.

So this is kind of the general guideline for it. I’ll explain where, how you can determine these if I had to guess. Um, and again, there are some special cases I’ll talk about it. Um, safety’s generally accepted as a greater than 75, 75 or greater percent. Where you’ll be admitted targets about 50, 50 reaches 25 or less, um, and score difficult yet possible for admission [00:26:00] to inspect it.

And 3, 5, 3, you should have three safeties, five targets, three riches. I can’t stress this enough. Um, four is maybe okay. But 3, 5, 3 is probably the healthiest list you can do. So, um, so how do I determine if a, read your safety? So there’s a few rules here, but, uh, safety, I would say if you’re in the 75th percentile or above for statistics for both sat and GPA and keep in mind or act, uh, this is not for the university as a whole.

This is for this specific school you’re applying to, or if it is a whole university. Another great example is Carnegie Mellon they’re sat. And for the admitted student to the university is much lower than it is at the school of computer science school of computer science. It’s like 15, 40 to 1590 versus the university at home.

So you really gotta be looking at that. So like, I’m not going to be a shoe in for Carnegie Mellon at like 15, 20, like S even though that might be above the 75th, I don’t think it is. That might be above it. [00:27:00] Um, there, so really, really look specifically at your major, if that’s information’s available. If not, you can go with the school, uh, like the university at large, uh, target.

Um, you’re in, so some advisors include 25 in this I don’t, um, I like just because college admissions is, was very competitive last year. It’s probably going to be competitive this year. Um, 50th to 75th is normally where I like my targets. So you can go maybe a little bit lower, but, um, just because I think it just gives you a good chance.

Um, I think it just makes it more likely more of a 50 50, because again, it’s like these schools have like 20% acceptance rates for some of them. Um, it’s not necessarily 50, 50, it’s not an even distribution. So. Just because it’s in the middle of 50 does not mean you have a 50% chance of getting it. Uh, so that’s why I typically like 50 to 75 is my cutoff.

Um, and reach generally, you were in the 25th to 50th percentile, um, of statistics, uh, just for most students, same thing, [00:28:00] GBS 80, that’s a reach, uh, anywhere below that as absolutely reach. Um, I’d say maybe some targets. If the school has a high acceptance rate, sometimes like 40 to 50 can be a target, but that’s just, I like to be conservative with the lists.

So that’s what I like to say. Um, and this is a rural, uh, I’m sorry, but this is just true. Uh, IVs in schools with less than 10% admissions rates are like practically always reaches regardless of your statistics. Like, I don’t care if you’re in the top 75% for Harvard, that’s not a safety or a target. Like it does not work off of just GPA and sat.

Like that’s something like the Dean of Harvard was saying like 80% of the students who apply are qualified for admission. So. Um, it is by no means a safety or target for anyone. So I was at say, IVs are always reaches same with Stanford. Same with duke, uh, Northwestern, MIT, Caltech, all those schools. Um, occasionally for very, very top end student, um, a school [00:29:00] pushing 10 can be at target.

So like USC, sometimes I like to say just because they have a lot of applications, I occasionally rarely will put them in like a reach slash target category. Sometimes we’ll put something if it’s straddling the border. Um, yeah. Also, uh, keep in mind for out-of-state in-state versus out-of-state students, um, in state students have a huge admissions rate boost.

So maybe that does knock it up a category to safety or target. Um, great example is Michigan, uh, Michigan is significantly easier for in-state students. So definitely a part of your in-state university. Cause you’re more likely to get, um, the best example I know is Texas because. I think it’s, they’re mandated by a lot of have like 90% of their students be from Texas.

So you are way more likely to get into Texas if you’re from Texas than out of state and out of state, it is very difficult. So something about, um, really it’s kind of, so you can’t just have a hard and fast rule. Like the school has this statistics, I’m going to go here. You really got to take all this into account.

Um, but this is what I generally consider when I’m, [00:30:00] um, picking schools as, okay, this is the reach. This target is safety for students. Um, so once their school list be finalized, uh, I don’t think there should be assaulted. Um, I think obviously don’t, don’t like apply to three schools on a whim the day before and cut half your list.

Don’t do that. But like, I don’t think it’s necessarily something needs to be finalized. I, but I would say it’s absolutely a good idea to have your 3, 5, 3 core solid by December 1st. Um, that is a very late deadline. Um, ideally you’ll have it done September, maybe October. Cause you should know where your early plan is.

If you have. Um, but I would like the 3, 5, 3 court done by December 1st. My students actually, all of them do have their three-five three course done. Um, but it is something just, I would say that is a pretty harsh, definitely not after December 1st. You gotta have that month for supplements at the bare minimum.

Um, and you should already have some supplements by them. So is it very, I’ve tried to go back. I’d probably change this to November 1st, if not looking at it like that is an outer limit, [00:31:00] very outer limit. Please do not still be making your college list in December 1st and not have supplements done. Um, yeah.

And finish the obligations you use for schools you have before you add any more, please. Don’t do, please. Don’t just be like, I like this school. I have them. I’m going to add them. I’m going to add them because you’re going to forget where your original core is, and you’re not going to have your supplements done for them.

And you’re going to miss out on a reach, target or safety. Suddenly you’re applying to one safety, three targets, and nine reaches. Don’t do that because really, really keeping your 3, 5, 3 core intact. All right. Um, So, uh, again, this is kind of what factors should a student take into account when taking schools off your list, be pecky you got a lot of time, right?

Uh, so we will go over that. Like you can, you can really like, yeah. Be shallow about a school. Like I like the location. I don’t like the size. I don’t like that apartment fine. Yeah. Be picky. Um, and all those used in the colleges for choosing your list, the same criteria [00:32:00] applies, uh, and I’d say overall fit is number one.

If you don’t like the culture of a place, if you visit it. And you’re like, I don’t like this place don’t go. That kind of happened. I applied, I still applied. But I remember when I stepped onto the MIT campus, I did not get a good vibe to that place. It was not the school for me. And, but when I stepped onto the Caltech campus, I actually was like, I actually really liked this place.

So I actually ended up applying and previously I was not considering applying, um, simply off that. And, uh, Caltech actually upon for the reachers became my number two school. Really trust your gut. Um, and trust the fed. You can talk to students at those universities if you know any, um, because you’re going to be, you’re going to do best, um, at a university where you fit best.

So, and again, that’s part of the beauty of admissions. So I like to think that admissions officers select kind of for that for like, Hey, who’s going to like it at our school and who’s not gonna like it. Right. College admissions is kind of like casting for a play as the line. I was like, he is sometimes you’re gonna get the park sometimes you’re not, but obviously you should probably apply to parts that you’re better suited for.

Um, and [00:33:00] if you’re S uh, oh, wow. Pro pro chart, uh, sorry, I that’s my radiation for it. Um, if you’re stuck between two similar schools, I use a pro contract. Um, I wrote pro chart. I always like to do that. Like, I like to compare the pros because I like positive, but pro-con chart is probably more, um, better for more people.

Um, I just, I just like to all the positive, so obviously cons are important too. Um, yeah, I did that actually for a few schools, so I think. I think I cut Columbia like that is I used a pro-con. I really did not want to be in a core school. Um, I did not like heavy core cause I’m a computer science major.

Typically those have a lot of classes. So I was worried I was not going to get to take what I wanted. Um, and I would always say, err, on the side of safety slash target, um, it is harder to find safeties and targets and it is fund reaches always. So, um, if you are in between, definitely go towards safety and target, especially also because there, the schools are gonna be easier for you to get into.

You’re probably going to have them as an [00:34:00] option, more likely than the region. So what factors should students take into account, uh, while finalizing applications for other schools? Um, so, uh, for like for their schools, I would say, remember why you applied, right? You shouldn’t just apply randomly. This is why you don’t just take the eight IVs and make that your list.

Don’t do that. That’s a bad idea. Um, because you’re going to need to be able to write about it and why college essay. Right. So think about the strengths and what sets that college apart and write about in the white colleges. A great example for me is I wrote about, um, duke has a program called program to, and their Trinity college arts college of arts and sciences, which is basically like a design, a major, which is what I wanted to do.

Cause I’m interested in cryptography, which is kind of the art of hiding information using mathematics. Um, so like cybersecurity kind of, it ties into a lot of that. Um, and so I actually talked about that and my do guess is programmed to, so really look at baby, keep notes to the side of like, Hey, this is what I really like about schools.

Um, this is what I’m going to do with it. [00:35:00] Uh, and yeah. Um, so talk about how the school is uniquely equipped to help you reach your goals. I can’t stress that enough, please. Like colleges love to hear about why they are the best school for you. Um, and keep notes on that. Keep up. Obviously one school is gonna be the best school for you, but, um, keep notes on why each college can really be good for you and what programs could be helpful for you for actually applying to a place.

Right? So. So, um, what was my experience of college was like, see, this is a classic example is do, as I say, not as I do chaotic, I was like you, I was in the process that I was stressed out of my mind, um, a 7, 3, 3 spread, which I do not recommend. I got on, frankly, I got a little bit lucky in my process with my reaches.

So, um, but I’d never would recommend a 7, 3, 3 spread on my worst enemies. Don’t do that. That’s a very bad idea. Um, I know sometimes you can struggle to find targets, but really, really look for that cat’s running around. Um, and I didn’t go for [00:36:00] fitness. I went, I actually did a decent job of it. Um, I knew I wanted a theory school.

I knew I wanted an open curriculum school or distributed. Um, but I didn’t focus necessarily on that. So like a school again, like, um, and MIT would not have in hindsight, not have been good for me because that’s a core school. They have a heavy science core. Um, so again, do research like that or, uh, Columbia would not have been good for me.

I didn’t end up applying. They have a heavy core? Um, I don’t think Cornell, I would’ve liked it there because they’re in a rural area. They have college town, but it’s very rural. Um, I wanted more suburban at least, uh, and, uh, I failed to consider application slash supplement time fun fact, I did apply to U Chicago in 45 minutes.

Do not recommend it at all. Very bad idea

and bylaws, the device fit. And I don’t know how many greater than sides I’ve put in there, but I put it in there a lot. And that is for a reason, fit is way more important than prestige. Like I can’t stress this enough one because you’re [00:37:00] more likely to get into a school that you’re a better fit for it too.

Like you’re probably gonna find more opportunities at school. You are a better fit for, because it is a better fit for you three. Like it makes no sense to apply to eight, all eight IVs. I sometimes see students do that. Please don’t do that. Cause the IVs are incredibly different. Like, I normally don’t put more than two to three IVs on a school students less because that’s kind of all the intersection as the only two schools that may be considered similar enough between them or like Yale and brown are like the only two that I would consider pretty similar.

Like every other one of those schools is very different. So they’re kind of all, so definitely think about that. Um, create a balanced list. 3, 5, 3, maybe 3, 4, 3, depending on the situation. Um, 3, 5, 3, uh, and don’t be afraid to add schools. If you have time, I would not go below 3, 5, 3 or 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 3.

You can also do like 4 43, but I think three, five, three’s a little better. Cause again, try for targets. Um, I don’t really think you need more [00:38:00] than three to four safeties, uh, and very much consider your application plans as it relates to your list. Um, for example, Michigan is a really common school, David.

Um, so think about, Hey, I’m going to early to these schools because of how it interacts with other schools EA. So like if you’re a pine restrictive early action, for example, to a that’s Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, those four, and probably some other schools, but those are the main ones that I see. Um, daylight apply early action there.

So it’s not binding, but you can’t apply early action anywhere, but public universities, um, or for scholarship deadlines. So I was able to apply early to Michigan because it was public. Um, but again, you gotta, you really gotta consider application plans as well. I think that’s, um, something that people don’t think about.

Um, and now we’re in the Q and a and to let Hannah take over. Okay. So, um, yes, this is the end of the presentation part of the webinar. I hope you found this information helpful, and remember, you can download the slides from the link in [00:39:00] the handouts tab. Moving on to the live Q and a I’ll read through your questions.

You submitted in the Q and a tab, paste them in the public chat. So you can see and then read them out loud before our panelist gives you an answer as a heads up. If you’re a Q and a tab, isn’t letting you submit questions, double check the, you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not the webinar landing page.

All right. Our first question is about specialties. What’s the best way to know about the university’s core curriculum and specialties? Yes, that is a great question. Whoever asked that, um, that is by looking at the university’s, uh, online curriculum. So for example, most, most, most universities advertise their course, like Chicago.

They love to talk about the core Columbia that’s, the whole culture is the core. So you can normally find that out from some, uh, universities. They will tell you something like that. Um, so normally the more. [00:40:00] Kinda hard of the information it is to get about the corner that normally means it’s a lighter court.

Um, so it’s just something to know. Um, you can also look at specific requirements for schools. So some schools are going to have requirements like within colleges. So you might have a dual headed thing. Like I do, right. Have a score requirements and I have a university requirements. So I would say that’s kind of the best way.

And was there a, sorry, what was the second part? Uh, oh, and specialties specialty as yet. Yeah. I would actually, online lists are really good for that. Um, they can really help you determine kind of like, Hey, what schools might have, like a strangely strong program in that. Um, also check out the departments.

Yeah. Um, of each school, some schools will have specialties in certain departments. Um, so like for example, my sister goes to GW George Washington university, and she’s a criminal justice major. Um, they happen to have a specialty in that, so it was a really good fit for her. Um, also just for a lot of things like, so yeah, that’s another thing.

Yeah. And, [00:41:00] and if, you know, you’re interested in a particular subject, try and focus on those subjects in certain schools and see if there is a professor, if there’s, you know, certain people who you’re like, wow, that’s, that’s the kind of education I want. That’s someone I want to work with. Yeah. Okay. Our next question is, um, what do you do if your school counselors are not very supportive and involved?

So, okay. So I’m going to guess you meaning like, so I’ll take for the sake of argument for like the most common situation I see. Um, which is, um, you will, uh, um, so you, so your school counselor will submit what’s called school profile, um, and a recommendation. Sometimes it can be cookie cutter. I wouldn’t really worry about that too much.

Um, just because like, If you’re at a large public school, for example, um, Mrs. Officer’s are gonna know that [00:42:00] it’s holistic admission. Um, but they’re not very involved. Um, yeah, I would say research is key. Like you should be the main driver of your own college journey in my opinion. Um, so yeah, that’s kinda what I did.

Well, I had a great counselor. Um, I, I really liked my counselor, but, um, I would say that’s just kind of what I would recommend. Uh, and if you work with one of our advisors, our advisors are great at lists. We have a list team. Uh, we always check with each other. Um, yeah, I would just say research is your best friend.

If I hadn’t been on him, kind of take it into your own hands. Um, yeah, next question. Our next question is, um, what are the advantages and disadvantages between applying to in-state versus out-of-state universities? Oh, this is a really good question. Okay. So, um, there there’s practically no advantage to apply out of state.

I will tell you, I cannot think of like a second. Uh, other than if you want to go out of state, there are schools that other, or it’s like a really good university, like Cal [00:43:00] Berkeley or UCLA, or like Michigan. Um, in-state normally you have a much higher admissions rate depending on the school. Um, much, much, much higher, like California, huge advantage, Texas, insane advantage, UNC insane advantage.

You have UVA insane. Like it’s a huge difference. Um, and also you’re more likely to get scholarships in state, um, like Regents for California, Cal, um, for UCS. Uh, sometimes they’ll do it off of like your percentage in public schools. So like that’s what Texas does, I think is they automatically admit the top 7%.

I might be wrong. That number might be around there. I think it’s something like that. Um, of students from their high school are automatically admitted. And so scholarships in Massachusetts, we have the Abigail Adams scholarship. Um, it’s pretty big. Uh, also you pay way less than tuition. So that’s really, really, really nice.

Because typically financial aid is not as good at, um, large public schools. Uh, but in state you pay way, way less. So it’s good. Um, [00:44:00] uh, yeah. Um, cool. Yes, also, sorry, I’m going to quickly answer a few PMs. Uh, if you all can, uh, ask questions the Q and a, just so everyone can hear it. That’d be great. Yeah. Um, but yes.

Okay. Our next question is what if you’ve never visited a campus? How do you get a sense of the culture? Virtual tours highly did the justice and showing the culture of a campus. Um, virtual tours are great. Uh, most schools will offer a virtual tour. You can even do it on yourself with Google maps. I did that.

It was really cursed. Um, so I don’t recommend that, but you can, if you really want to. And yeah, I did that too. I literally just turned on street view. I’m like, this is pretty cool. They’re like YouTube videos can be great. Like there’s a lot of college YouTube. Um, and that can, that can be really good. Uh, I’d also say information sessions are your best friends.

So many students don’t take advantage of these. So that’s one thing I always had. My students is how many information [00:45:00] sessions have you gone to, um, basically running an admissions officer will tell you about their school. It’s also a great chance to read. What’s oftentimes your regional admissions officer.

Who’s going to be reading your application. So introduce yourself, say hi. Um, I love these kinds of things you should definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely look out for that. Right. Um, yeah. And of course, uh, per questions like about personal stuff are fine for PM, but for like general questions, it’d be great for that.

Uh, okay. Our next question is how do you finalize your college list when you still aren’t really sure about your major? Uh, oh, the sexually, the segments. I one.

I will say one thing about the last question is also if you, the more students you can talk to who have attended. Absolutely. Um, I, okay. Actually I have, I had this new life. This is, it actually has a pretty good answer. So you, the spice surprising. So [00:46:00] if you don’t know what you want to major in, but you want to go to college, you should apply to core curriculum schools, schools with a heavy core curriculum.

All right. Um, yes. Um, so, uh, I would say you, uh, KV core curriculum is really good for, uh, students who don’t know what they want to do. So, um, that’s because you’re going to get to do a lot of different, uh, um, you’re going to have a lot of different exposure to different, uh, subjects. That’d be really, really, really good.

Um, like just who knows, you might want to take ethics. After you do that. Um, also it can prepare you for advanced degrees. So like, let’s say you do want to maybe do an advanced degree, but you don’t want to study undergrad. Um, course are better. Um, so obviously school at Columbia is great. If you don’t know necessarily what you want to do, but you want to go to college.

You really want to work on critical thinking, Chicago big course. Cool. Great for that. Alright. Uh, yeah. Cool. All right. Our [00:47:00] next question is, um, for reach essentially for reach schools, um, is it okay to have two schools that are the main reach schools or should you have more or less? So for if you’re, let’s say you’re like a Ivy qualified students, so like 15.

Yeah. It looks like this one’s specific to music conservatories. Oh, that’s actually a special process. So you don’t want to spend a portfolio arts for Forleo, if you can. Um, Yeah, they, they’re going to admit mostly off music. So like you’re applying to Carnegie, Mellon, Juilliard and stuff like that. That’s going to be the bulk of your application, but let’s say you’re applying to like a Yale.

Yeah. They’re going to look at your statistics. I had a friend who applied to musical theater to Yale. Um, but they’re gonna look at both. Um, but so for general advice, so let’s say you’re applying for Ivy you’re in that range, like say 1500 plus SATs, strong GPA. Um, yeah, that’s, that’s the situation which I’d have more [00:48:00] reaches.

Um, I would try sometimes targets can be tough to find in that range. I’m not going to lie, so maybe you can get away with four, but maybe backfill with another safety. Um, yeah, you can apply to more. You can do like six reaches, four targets for safety. I don’t love it again. I did 7 33 and I did not like that.

Um, only if you have time, I’d much rather it be even numbers. Like have it be similar across the board? Um, For a student like that, just because those reaches, regardless of your statistics are very difficult to predict and are very difficult to get into. Um, I’d say it can be appropriate. You just gotta, you just gotta balance your, um, your workload.

Okay. Our next question is, is it better to apply early decision or action then to apply regular decision? Um, so it depends on the tense. So you kind of have, like, I like to say you have looked one early, uh, we get to use your early don’t like, [00:49:00] think like you have to use your early on. It’s like the superpower now.

Like I got admitted regular decision to pretty much actually fun fact. I got deferred four times in a row, then wait-listed four times in a row then rejected wait-listed at other three times that I got admittances. So I’m not kidding. Like I applied to, like, I had 7 23 is my core. I had, I actually applied to like 20 schools, which is why I don’t recommend doing yet.

Don’t do that. Um, Sorry, it’s beside the point, but, um, so early, early is really good, uh, early decision, if you really want to go to a school, um, it can also carry extra weight if your legacy can be a good idea. Um, so some of the pros, um, kind of being done with the process early is nice. Yeah, I applied early.

That was, it was nice, huge preferences. Um, in early, like duke this morning, um, Dartmouth, a lot of the IVs do actually most of the schools that allow ed and Ivy are pretty give a pretty big preference, pretty much every school with the exception of, I can imagine them again as Carnegie-Mellon it gives a pretty big preference [00:50:00] of the ed.

Um, I know for their SCS school of computer science, which is their fame, one of their famously competitive ones. I know they actually don’t give a preference. They don’t, um, do it’s just like for at least the last time I taught, so my information might be outdated, but, uh, last time I talked to an admissions officer there.

Um, it’s so I would say if you really like a school it’s appropriate to ed, you will have a higher rate, almost always. Um, one, one phenomenon you will know. With ed. It is especially good. If you’re pretty qualified for the school. Uh, you see a lot of students who are on the edge, applying ed. Um, you don’t see a lot who are under-qualified and a lot who are overqualified, uh, maybe at the IVs, we’ll see some, there’s no overqualified for IDs, but like somewhere around there, um, you typically see that.

So that’s how I recommend, um, areas. You see a lot more strike action throughout regular. Um, yeah, I would say legacy is something to keep in mind with that, especially if you’re a legacy, but again, don’t restrict yourself. You can still apply EA [00:51:00] under ed just don’t apply to two schools. You need, that’s not loud, but yeah, I definitely as someone who applied DD and that was like the only school I applied to, um, make sure you’re really certain about it.

Don’t do it because you want the higher admissions. Right? Do it because you know, that that is your first. Um, okay. We’re going to take a quick break in the middle of the Q and a, and I want to let you know what you can do. If you want to work one-on-one with an advisor from our team of over 155 admissions officers and advisors, you can sign up for a free consultation with us by going to CollegeAdvisor.com and clicking the green chat button in the bottom, right of the screen from there, just write in consultation and the live team member will get back to you to help coordinate your free consultation with us.

All right. Back to the Q and a. Yes. Our next question is, um, how do you know about your fit or what you like about [00:52:00] schools when you haven’t experienced that yet? I really adore this question. Thank you to whoever asked us, cause I was trying to talk about this and I forgot about it. Um, how do you know about fit?

Um, honestly this is going to sound weird, but I found the best fit through college jeepers. That’s a really good way to do it. Cause you’re going to kind of get a sense for this new. You can look up traditions, right? So like some schools are going to have some weird traditions, so you’re going to like, you’re going to be like, I think that’s awesome.

Or what is that? I don’t want to go here. Um, you can get a good sense from the essays actually. So like U Chicago is famous for a quirky essay. U Chicago is a very quirky school. So be ready for that. You can kind of get a sense for what a school values for that. So like Stanford, they ask Stanford really cares about students’ desire to learn and their admission.

So like, you have a like, like with my classmates, like people discuss things all the time. So like, that’s kind of a hallmark of Stanford is typically people really like discussion. Um, and people have like special interests, like areas. So that’s like our culture thing. Um, some schools like, [00:53:00] uh, trying to think of others, uh, Penn is famous for being pre-professional.

So a lot of the students at Penn are pretty pre-professional they really, really want to like, kind of like. Um, trying to think of other like good ones. Uh, yeah. Look at there’s some schools that have an insanely strong culture, like Penn state. Um, I don’t know w there, they have the largest, uh, like legacy admissions.

I wrote like, uh, alumni network of all, like they’re like head state is something that knows polite. It’s like, uh, yeah, stuff like that. Um, I too, the athletes are really good source themselves also about the school. Look at the traditions, look up clubs, uh, talk to students, you know, see about if you know, students who went there.

See what they’re like. Maybe if you, if you like them, then you’ll probably like the people there. Um, yeah, just general advice for all that. I think traditions is a huge one. That was a unreasonably large factor in terms of like the school. [00:54:00] That’s my personal favorite is the baker 13 at rice. I don’t know what that is.

Oh, it’s something. Okay. Our next question is. When should you start applying to scholarships? Ah, okay. So a few deadlines to keep in mind. So actually one of the major ones, which is QuestBridge, I say, uh, once, once, you know, planning, um, QuestBridge is a really big one. So if you are looking for financial aid, uh, especially if you’re a first generation low income, um, uh, Piper QuestBridge QuestBridge is the end of it’s like mid end September.

Uh, they are amazing. They are probably my favorite scholarship organization. They’re massive program. It’s like, uh, hundreds of students, full rides to top universities. They have partners, um, really, really, uh, do that. Um, I will say a lot of financial aid comes nowadays through need-based merit aid and need basis as opposed to merit, some schools do merit aid.

Um, so that’s where you’re gonna get the bulk of it. Um, so [00:55:00] again, sticker price for university is often not what you. Um, it depends on your family’s. Um, your family’s finances. What’s called the EFC as well as you’re going to fill out two forms. All right, October 1st, you need to fill up these two firms that called the FAFSA and the CSS profile.

So the goals will only need the FAFSA, but probably one of your schools is gonna want the CSS profile as well. Um, kind of gives context for this. Um, some schools will actually let you apply for financial aid, even if you said you weren’t going to, but I wouldn’t say that on your application, because again, most schools are neat.

A lot of schools are need blind, so there’s no advantage in saying you’re not gonna apply for any financial aid normally. Um, but, uh, so that’s something to keep in mind too. Um, but if I were to say the scholarships, um, I want to see any time is a good time. Uh, some are even after the process. Oh, oh, this is really important.

If you’re a national merit semifinalist, which is coming up, you’re going to find that out soon. I really wanted to sat. There are lots of schools that will offer scholarships like Alabama, for example, your semifinalists, you have a full ride. [00:56:00] Like USC university of Southern California, you get a half ride at least.

Um, so really, really look at that. Look at your personal context with scholarships is also especially helpful. Um, because there’s often targeted scholarships are more likely also look at local areas for scholarships. Um, that’s something that lot students don’t do. So a lot of like areas, specific scholarships that can be good.

Um, you do need to report them. Sometimes it’s a university. We’ll take them out of your financial aid. Not like all of it, but some of it, so be aware of that. Um, but yeah, some good ones, QuestBridge gates Coca-Cola uh, Jack hen. Um,

so those are the ones that Tom I had. I like a lot. I normally have Coca-Cola and QuestBridge a lot. So. All right. Our next question is, can you go further into depth on what a research university is and its advantages and disadvantages? So I would classify a research university as a university that has a very high risk.

Um, so some universities are focused [00:57:00] more on the undergraduate experience like Dartmouth some and the other side is they like to go more and graduate students. So the best example I know for this is Caltech. Caltech has like 900 undergrad students and all of which are extremely involved in research.

Normally, like it’s a very research heavy school. Um, and most of the students are graduate students. So research is very abundant there. Um, and typically you’re going to find the same thing at large public school. It’s like Michigan, I think actually is the highest research output of any school in the country.

It might be MIT, but I think it’s Michigan. Um, I like an Ivy. You’re going to also find a lot of research output, but I would call research school where it’s a very easy and common for undergraduates to do for the department because they want to get you excited about it. Um, and also it can be really cool to do undergraduate research.

I’m going to try to do undergraduate research, uh, than my first year. Um, so if that’s something you want to do, definitely look for it. If it’s. Then it’s not a big deal if you don’t have it, but if you’re really looking for it, um, definitely see if you can find there’s something called the Carnegie classification.

Um, [00:58:00] I forgot what the abbreviation were, but like Carnegie classification, one is a research output of a school. It’s like an art one. It’s like some letter and then one or some letter. And then two, um, basically they, uh, that measures the research output. So like pretty much every school in south top 50 or near every school in the top 50 is gonna be a hard one, um, like a top tier.

Uh, but that can also be a good sense for beyond the top 50. Hey, which schools are going to give me a lot of research opportunities. Normally large publics are really good for, okay. This is going to be our last question, I think. But is there any way to get out of an ed contract once you get accepted? Yes.

So, um, there are okay. Storytime don’t recommend doing this. Absolutely. Do not recommend doing. My sister actually got out of an EDD contract cause she wanted to EDD to Northeastern, but then got cold feet. I mean he needed GW and then got cold feet because she was thinking about Northeast. She wanted to see about them.

Uh, and they let her out of it. Cause it was early. [00:59:00] Um, it was like the week after then she ended up getting an 82 there. Um, so that, uh, and, but the only real legitimate, but I would not do that. Breaking and ed is very bad. They might tell other colleges about it. So definitely, definitely try to avoid it.

The only situation in which you’ll be granted clemency or it’s not a big deal is let’s say you get accepted ed and the financial aid is not enough. Yeah. We actually have an advisor here who, who was in that situation where they got accepted financial aid was not enough and the school allowed her to break the contract.

And so then she got a full ride. Yeah. That’s pretty a lot. A lot of schools will let you break the contract in that case. Yeah. But that’s really the only reason that like legitimate. Occasionally. There’ll be nice if it’s like a week after submitting, but again, if you were like, actually I don’t want to eat, what does that tell the school about them?

Oh, I’m actually not that interested in you. So don’t do that. Don’t eat unless you were absolute one you can use, what’s called a net price calculator. That’s what I always have my students [01:00:00] do. Um, if they’re applied for financial aid, um, to kind of price it out and be like, okay, this is probably how much the university is going to cost.

Pretty much. Every school has some version of that. So you can get an idea of it before you apply. But financial aid is really the only reason I can think of that would work. Okay. So this is the end of the webinar. Thank you everyone so much for coming and Austin, thank you so much for presenting. All right.

This is our September series coming up. So hope to see you there. Bye.