Navigating the College Application Timeline: Spring Edition

Webinar Transcription

2024-04-29 – Navigating the College Application Timeline: Spring Edition

Anna: Hello everyone, good evening, good afternoon, good morning, whatever time it is, wherever you’re joining us from, we are so happy you’re here. Thanks for joining us tonight for “Navigating the College Application Timeline: Spring Edition.” My name is Anna Vande Velde, I will be your moderator today. They asked me to give you just a bit of my background so you know who I am.

I’m a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor. I’ve been with the company for about two and a half years. And in addition to advising students, I’m a proud captain on our essay review team. I studied psychology at Carnegie Mellon. Thought I was going to be a clinical psychologist. The life’s full of interesting twists and turns.

And I ended up at Harvard Law School, where I graduated a couple of years ago. So in addition to my work with CollegeAdvisor, I’m a Nonprofit defense attorney, and I live in Ottawa, Ontario. That’s more than you needed to know about me, probably. Uh, to orient you with the webinar timing, we’re going to start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q&A.

On the sidebar, you can download our slides, and you can start submitting questions in the Q& A tab now. Please don’t feel the need to wait until the end to submit your questions. You can submit them as you think of them, um, but we’ll address them at the end. So I’m going to turn it over to our presenter tonight, Lindsay, to introduce herself.

Lindsay: Hey, everyone. I’m excited to be speaking with you this evening. My name is Lindsay Brunner. Um, I am a former admissions officer for CollegeAdvisor. So I have worked in higher education for 10 years and worked in admissions offices. So I included two of the schools I worked for on here at University of Illinois.

Springfield and Indiana University. Um, basically what I did for those institutions was, um, review all the incoming application and applications from freshmen and helps kind of navigate, um, the application process, answered a lot of inquiries from students and parents like yourself that called in and ask questions about the application.

I spoke with a lot of high school guidance counselors about, um, Kind of course progression that students were taking in high school, making sure they were meeting all of that. Um, and just, yeah, reviewed applications as they came in. And then at Indiana University, I was part of the online MBA program and, um, an admissions officer for that program.

So kind of the same thing, only for graduate students. And that involved doing some phone interviews as well, um, when reviewing the applications and admission status. Um, I also got the chance to work in academic advising, though, so, um, I’m from the Midwest. So I worked in academic advising at Indiana University as well, and really enjoyed that also because I got to work with freshmen all the way up until their senior year and saw them through graduation, um, but also was able to work with the online graduate students.

As well for that, so it’s so nice to meet you all, and I hope I can kind of provide some insight into the college application timeline and process, um, and I apologize. I’m working through a cold right now. So hopefully you can hear me. Well, and my voice isn’t cracking too much, but, um, yeah, we will get started on what this entails.

Anna: Before you jump into it, Lindsay, I would love to poll the room just so we can get a sense of who’s here with us. I’m going to open a poll. If you’re a student, please let us know what grade you are in. If you are here as a parent, guardian, educator, support person, the list goes on. Please just select other.

Um, and while you do that, Lindsay, I was wondering, because it’s something I know a lot of my students are trying to figure out for themselves right now, how did you choose what college majors and programs that you wanted to apply to?

Lindsay: Oh, man, well, I was one of those students that changed their major multiple times.

Um, I do feel like there are a lot more resources out now. Um, and processes like college and advisor and other ways that you can kind of talk to people and do job shadowing and kind of figure out maybe what you want to major in before you go to college than there was, uh, when I went to college, but I, I’ll talk about this a little bit more probably, but like, I, I was.

I was all over the place, honestly. And I started out as an architect, interior design major. It was a double major when you first started. Um, I lasted a semester, even though I did well, it was over my head and then kind of came back to community college, tried to figure out what I was going to do. Um, and then went back to school, um, at a four year university and did a major called media promotions.

Um, I later went and got my master’s in communication. So for me, it was really hard. I had a lot of interest. It was hard to kind of pinpoint one thing that I wanted to do as a career. I guess I felt like if I chose one thing, I was stuck with that. Like I had to do something within that. Um, but that wasn’t necessarily the case.

And Largely, I chose a communication major, which is kind of broad and you can do a lot with so that was part of my decision was just saying, okay, I don’t want to pigeonhole myself into very specific major. I want to choose something that I can kind of go in multiple directions with. Um, so that’s, that’s kind of where I decided, but I did all the career assessment.

and, um, the things you can kind of do to show you, okay, where you belong, I guess, or where your interests lie. Um, and that helped me weed out things like the medical field where I would not have done well in, um, in other fields of study.

Anna: Thank you. That’s so helpful. Um, and I think most students still today change their major at least once in college.

So it’s good to do like the work upfront to try and figure out what you want to do. And it’s just a best guess. And there’s flexibility once you’re on campus. So just so you know, we have about 80 percent of the folks here are in 11th grade and 20 percent are in 10th grade.

Lindsay: Okay, great. Well, I’ll be chatting about all the years, freshmen, sophomore, junior, mainly.

Um, and so hopefully y’all will take a lot of, um, away from this tonight, but great. So this is kind of an overview of college admissions, and you may be thinking, okay, we’re talking about the application timeline, but what does that mean? Don’t we just like apply when we’re seniors in high school? Like, what do you mean application timeline?

You just sit down, you fill out the application, you submit, right? Well, yes. Um, but applications are more than that. Um, they’re all colleges are getting kind of inundated with applications every year where it used to be. You know, if you had an awesome score, you had straight A’s. Like, yeah, you may have had a great chance of getting admitted, but nowadays, especially for those top schools, um, everyone has awesome SAT or ACT scores.

Everyone has straight A’s. So, you really have to kind of think about other components to help you stand out in your application. Um, so when we talk about the application, Itself, you know, it also includes essays. It includes your activity list or reporting your extracurriculars and your awards and really just showcasing who you are.

So, it takes a little bit of strategy. It takes a little bit of planning to really market yourself to colleges and this is easier. The sooner you begin, um. Because if you were to wait until you’re a senior and you really started kind of thinking about these things and you tried to sit down a couple of days before a deadline of a college and tried to do everything, you would be so overwhelmed.

I’m telling you, you don’t want to do that. So, um, what we’re going to talk about is kind of some ways you can prepare for the college admissions as early as freshman year. Um, so you can see here. You know, I’ve got kind of, um, some bullet points under each grade. Really, yeah, preparation can be done at each grade level, and we will talk more, um, when we get to, like, the junior year, spring semester, and going into senior year, kind of, that’s when you’re really doing the most, um, but you can start as freshmen.

So, we’re going to be digging in more, but for now, I’m going to kind of touch base on some of these bullet points and emphasize, um, some points. So for freshman and sophomore year, this is really an important time to explore your interest. Um, and what we mean by that is maybe you already have an idea of what you want to do in college.

Maybe you’ve had an idea for a long time. You’re like, I’m going to be a doctor. I’m going to be a veterinarian, something along those lines. That’s great. Now’s the time to get involved with in different ways, whether it’s joining a club or doing some job shadowing or, interviewing somebody in that field, um, to make sure that’s what you really like.

Um, I’ve seen students that always thought they wanted to do something and then they actually maybe do some job shadow or they see what it looks like on a day to day basis and they’re like, okay, maybe I don’t want to do that. Um, or maybe you find out, yes, this, this is what I thought it was. I love this.

I definitely want to do this. So you kind of figure out, um, if what you had in mind for that interest, if it’s, um, accurate or not, I guess, um, or maybe you have no idea at this point what you want to major in and that’s okay. So this is a time to think about what you do like. Um, and just explore, join all the clubs.

It can be a knitting club. It could be, um, martial arts. It could be all these random things, but you’re exploring it. You’re seeing if, hey, could this turn into a college major or something I do, um, in the future, excuse me. And at freshman and sophomore year, you might not have a lot of choices to take electives.

If you do, definitely take the classes that your high school offers where you can choose classes that are different and kind of help you explore those interests. Even if you don’t, though, and you, you know, you kind of have a set amount of classes you have to sign up for, and they’re kind of Your standard English and math and that sort of thing.

Think about those subjects that you do enjoy from those classes. Maybe you really like, um, writing. Okay. Could that be something in the future that you pursue a little bit more? Could that be something you major in? Um, for me, it was like, I was really good at math, but at the same time, I didn’t like love math.

I didn’t hate it. I just was like, okay, I’m good at it. And. So I don’t mind it kind of thing. Well, that means I would not have done well, probably majoring in math in college, but that’s kind of what led me to an architect major is it definitely involves some math and you kind of have to be good at it or at least be competent.

And, um, so it’s still complimented that major. So think about it that way too in the, in the regular classes you’re taking, um, join clubs, volunteer, whatever you need to do to kind of figure out what you like, what you don’t like, um, and what you might want to do as a future job and career. Another kind of important thing or really important thing, I guess, right now is to engage with your teachers.

Um, you can really learn a lot from them and their experiences. You know, a lot of them. Do like conferences or speak on the side, or maybe they even got there, did something else before they became a teacher. Um, so there’s a lot to learn from them. They’re a wealth of knowledge for you, and they really enjoy when students kind of connect with them too.

Um, so it’s more than just. You know, meeting them for office hours and getting help when you need help with your homework. That’s one part of it. Um, but just kind of learning from them. You can, you can take in a lot from your teachers and it will also help you in the future when you need letters of recommendation for college.

I have seen, Kind of as an admissions officer, I’ve seen kind of the standard letters recommendation where you could tell the teacher kind of copied and pasted, um, the standard letter for every student that they didn’t know very well. So if you really engage with your teachers and get to know them, they’re going to know you on a more personal level.

They’re going to know how you, how successful you are as a student, um, how successful you’ll be in college. They can write a much better letter of recommendation for you if they know you and you’ve been engaging with them. And raising your hand in class and that sort of thing too. So just keep that in mind, that can start as early as freshman year.

Um, but even those of you that are sophomores and juniors, definitely start doing that if you haven’t yet. And then junior year is your most important year for your academic profile. So what we mean by that is, when you go to apply for colleges, it’s during your senior year. Typically, it’s between, like, October and January.

Well, they may have, like, your mid semester, mid year report is what they call it. But, um, kind of how after your first quarter, kind of how the senior year is going. They might have an update on your grades then. But, really, the full grades that they have are through your junior year, if you think about it.

as well as your extracurriculars, what you’ve been doing, um, any leadership positions you’ve taken on. It’s kind of through your junior year. So that’s the most up to date information admissions officers have when reviewing your application. So you should be taking advanced coursework, if possible, AP courses, honors courses, um, that sort of thing as well.

Start these early sophomore year, if you can. And if it’s, you know, if it’s part of, if it’s Capacity wise, if you can handle that, um, but it doesn’t mean like you can’t, you shouldn’t do well in your freshman year with grades and whatnot, but admissions officers kind of understand when you make the switch to high school.

There might be a little bit of struggle that freshman year, just as you get used to, like, time management skills, study skills. Um, And then it makes sense if, you know, you’ve got some B’s or maybe lower in that freshman year, but then you’ve done better as you’ve gotten to be a sophomore and junior. They want to see progression in your coursework, and that includes more rigor, more advanced classes as you get to be a junior.

Um, it’s more concerning to them if you have lower grades than in the junior year. Say you started out strong freshman year, straight A’s, and it kind of dwindled down. Um, because this is kind of like. currently who you are as a student, how you’re performing. And so if you’re getting ready to apply for their college and enter their college, they want to make sure you’re going to be successful.

So they’re really paying a lot of attention to that most up to date information they have, which is your junior year. So keep that in mind. And then senior year, of course, that’s when you go and you actually apply for the colleges. So we typically recommend a CollegeAdvisor, Um, applying to about 8 to 12 schools, you may do less.

You may do more. Um, that’s just kind of an average. Okay,

let’s see. So these are key components of the college application. Obviously, when you start an account somewhere, you’ll go in, you’ll put in your personal information, your demographic information. There’s that part of the, uh, the application, but these components here are the actual areas that college admissions will be looking at when they’re reviewing and evaluating your application.

Um. It the GPA and your coursework that you’re taking and your test scores are the most important. So I don’t want you to roll those out completely, but there are other components to that are very important. Um, and those are listed here. So, um.

What you’re kind of doing with, I guess, being strong in these other areas, when you, when an admissions officer, what they’re learning from your essays and letter recommendations, um, is oftentimes things that they wouldn’t know just from the rest of your application. So when you think about it, your transcript shows a lot of letters, you know, it shows your scores.

I can’t tell much about you from just that. I can tell how well you’re performing. I can tell what coursework you’re taking, but I don’t know much about you personally. So that’s an opportunity then in your essays, in your letter, letters of recommendation to kind of showcase who you are. That’s why we say starting this, these things early is very important then.

It’s hard to produce a wonderful essay. If you’re sitting down the day before an application is due and trying to come up with something. Participating in activities and extracurriculars also just shows your committed interest in areas. So if you’re applying for maybe like a computer science major, but you haven’t participated in any activities related to that.

An admissions officer may not consider your application too much just because you’re not showing that you pursued that interest. That is a very competitive major. So even if you’ve scored well, you know, if you’re not showcasing that you’ve shown some interest, that you’ve, you know, been participating in that particular major, they might, you know, put your application aside and consider others that Lots of other applications where people are showcasing that they’ve been interested in that field.

So it can be hard if you’re not sure what you want to major in, or maybe you don’t decide until like your junior year. But that is why it’s good to participate in a variety of activities up until that point to show that you were just exploring. You were trying to figure it out, right? Um, And you were engaged with activities with your school, with your community, that sort of thing.

So that looks a lot better, you know, to have lots of activities. If you’re unsure of your major, then not to have anything because we can see that you. we’re trying to figure it out, you’re trying to narrow it down to that particular interest. Plus, when it comes to essays, we, I enjoy reading, um, essays from someone that’s a well rounded student.

Um, so I guess I would, I would say that you don’t want to do all the things computer science, write all the essays only about computer science either. So keep that in mind. It’s good to see when students, yeah, definitely have that interest. They’ve been participating in things for that major. But they also have been playing volleyball for four years and volleyball is a big part of their life.

Um, or, you know, maybe they’re into art or something along those lines. So think about it that way too, that it doesn’t mean you can’t explore other interests that you might have if they don’t necessarily fall in line with that college major. Um, it just makes you a more interesting student. It makes you a little bit more well rounded and it gives you more opportunities to write essays about those other topics too.

And that way an admissions officer kind of gets to know who you are as a person, um, when you talk about all those different things you’ve been doing and all those interests you have.

So let’s start with just your freshman year spring semester. So once again, this, this webinar is specifically about the spring semester. So the current semester we’re kind of in right now. Um, and we will talk a little bit about summer too. Um, but basically, once again, exploring those interests, determining a four year course progression.

So what this typically means is, you know, you will meet with your high school guidance counselor every spring. You’ll register for your next year classes. They’ll kind of give you some input as to what you should be taking, what’s next on your schedule. Um, some schools do go ahead in your freshman year and kind of plan a four year course.

You know, what you might be taking what that looks like, um, and have you help, you know, plug in what courses to other schools might not do that. So take initiative. Go ahead and do this yourself. Um, if you haven’t had this yet and look ahead to your course catalog, your course descriptions, um, and you can kind of just go ahead and plan it out.

The reason I say to do this is it’s just good to not be surprised. Oh, shoot. I have to take calculus. I didn’t know I would have to take calculus or something along those lines. That doesn’t have to come up. You kind of know what your years are going to look like. You can kind of plan your extracurriculars around that courses too.

Um, and that way you’re kind of well prepared in advance and you have opportunity to see where you might have some elective choices and that sort of thing as well. I kind of already mentioned taking like a career interest inventory. So even if you’re kind of sure what you want to major in, these are nice to take.

Obviously, these surveys that you do online, these inventories are not always 100 percent accurate. So don’t take it to heart if it says, you know, you should be. X, Y, and Z. And you’re like, no, I hate that. Um, but you know, it’s definitely something to give you an idea, um, of where you might explore a little bit more.

Identifying summer opportunities is, is a great time. Summer, you know, you get a few months off. It’s a great time to explore more. And I will say those that have had some solid college applications did something every summer. So I hope that’s not too much of a bummer. You know, you definitely still have time over the summer to chill by the pool or travel or do what you might want to do.

But, um, it’s important to try to utilize maybe One or two weeks of a few one or two week timeframes throughout the summer and explore those interests. So that can include again, you know, volunteering in your community or doing community service that can involve interviewing some people in a current current field of interest.

job shadowing, internships, um, picking up a job of some sort. So lots of possibilities, but it’s good to see that you’re utilizing that time off from school, um, to kind of further those interests. And then it might sound weird, but creating your first resume to track your activities and accomplishments, you likely had not, have not, started a resume by this point in your life.

But if you’re able to do that now and jot down things, it’ll help you so much in the future. Um, I think about, you know, when I was in high school, I did participate in some things freshman year, but by the time I got to be a senior, I might forget what I even did freshman year. If I didn’t keep track of that at all, especially dates, dates are hard to kind of remember if you’ve, if it’s been several years since you’ve done something.

So starting to write that down, it doesn’t have to be like, Some formal like beautiful resume yet by all means it could just be bullet points of I did this Activity it was these dates. I maybe had this title And here’s a couple of you know, bullet points of things. I actually did in the club or the activity That’ll be really helpful for later on for you and then sophomore year spring semester Continuing to explore those interests.

I can’t say that enough. Um, and then establishing goals for leadership or achievement to peak in the 11th grade. So what that typically means is, you know, maybe you’ve been in a club for a year or 2 now. Okay. How are you progressing and how are you growing in that club? Um, it looks a lot different to just put down that you were in a club for four years as a member versus saying like, yeah, I was a member for two years and then that third year I was secretary, or I was vice president, or something along those lines.

Um, it shows that you took ownership, you took on more responsibility. Especially if you’ve done an activity for a while, it makes sense that you should only grow and be taking on more. So think about, um, if you have been participating in an activity, what are some goals for how you could take on more in your junior year, um, or over the summer if you have the time that allows.

Um, it doesn’t always need to include like a higher title either. You might think about, okay, There’s this big project I could take on for this club and make it better. Um, or I have all these ideas that I want to bring to leadership and help them figure out. So don’t think that you have to be the president of the club for it to make a difference.

You can definitely show some leadership qualities and other things, but think about, yeah, how, how are you growing in that club? How are you contributing more? Um, and start to plan ahead for that junior year, that latest, you know, information that the admissions officer is going to see in your application, how you’re showing leadership and achievement, identifying summer opportunities again, carefully planning your 11th grade curriculum.

So, once again, you know, you’ll plan out your semester or your coursework in advance in the spring semester for next year. Think about how you can show that you’re taking on. more with AP classes or advanced classes as well. Plan out accordingly, yeah, those AP classes. And then completing the PSAT. So this is a practice SAT.

A lot of students don’t really study for it. So even if you’re not a strong test taker, I would definitely recommend doing it. It’s just good to see kind of where you’re at, um, and how you might score on the big SAT. So typically you would do this, yeah, your sophomore year, spring semester, and then learning more about careers of interest and shadowing adults if you can.

So maybe your parent is somebody that you can shadow. I have a student right now that’s a business major, wants to major in business, um, and his dad works in finance. So he’s been shadowing him and learning a lot and that is. It’s such valuable information. So whether it’s your parent, whether your parents know somebody, um, whether it’s somebody at your school, like a teacher that could connect you or network with somebody, um, look for ways that, yeah, you can kind of explore that field just by following somebody around at their job every day.

Okay. And then summer between sophomore and junior years, um, this would be a time to register for the ACT or SAT. And hopefully you will then take that in the fall semester of your junior year for the first time. Um, sometimes it can be a little bit later, but it’s really nice to kind of get that out of the way as soon as possible.

That 1st test to then see. Okay. Do I need to retake this? And then preparing and studying. I know over your summer, you’re probably like, I do not want to study for a test. That sounds awful, but those that do and utilize all the test prep out there really perform so much better on those tests. Um, it just kind of gets you in the groove.

It gets you kind of just in that mindset. So you’re not walking into test day, like totally unprepared. Um, so what that really entails is even allowing, allocating like several hours a week to sitting down and working through that test prep, um, if possible. Continue activities of interest, seek leadership, participate in these summer courses you might do, internships, that sort of thing.

And now’s the time to update that resume that you created your freshman year. Um, Check in, add any activities, rules, and accomplishments, um, that you may have, have done since then.

Anna: All right, Anna, do you want to Sorry, my Yeah, can you hear me?

Lindsay: Can you hear me, Lindsay? I can now, yes.

Anna: Okay, sorry, I don’t know what was going on in my camera. Um, this has all been so helpful so far, I think. Thank you for everything you’ve been sharing. Um, gonna give you a break while we get another poll in here so we can, um, Just find out, like, where are folks in the application process?

So, if you haven’t started, you’re researching schools, working on essays, getting your materials together, almost done, just let us know where you’re at. And while you’re answering that, Lindsay, I was wondering, knowing everything you know now, being the expert you are on college admissions, if you had to redo your application process?

Is there anything you’d do differently? And if so, what?

Lindsay: I think I would have definitely explored those interests earlier than I did because like I mentioned, you know, I, I went into college kind of having an idea thinking I want to do architecture interior design lasted a semester and then changed my major. So I don’t think I really knew that, you know, you could, you could just ask somebody, Hey, can I follow you around for a day at your job or.

Um, could I job shadow you? Um, I did, I do remember doing an internship, but I, I, you know, it’s a first short summertime that you’re doing that. So I really wish I would have, um, just explored that more. I was very active otherwise with various clubs and whatnot, but just exploring that work more in the real world, I guess you could say, following somebody that already had a job in that particular field would have been very helpful.

Anna: Yeah, absolutely. I can say for myself, I would follow the timeline you’re suggesting instead of doing what I did, which is wait a little bit till the last minute. Um, it was really stressful.

Lindsay: Yeah, you just don’t know how much goes into it, honestly, um, until it kind of sneaks up on you and you’re like, wow, I’m applying for colleges already.

You kind of think like you go through all of your high school before you have to do that. Right. But no, it really, it really comes right after that junior year, um, that you’re filling, sitting down and putting out those applications. So

Anna: it really does. Um, well, just so you know, about a third of the folks here have not started yet.

44 percent are researching schools and then 20 percent are getting their application materials together. So. sort of across the board. Okay. Okay.

Lindsay: And don’t, you know, don’t worry if you’re like, okay, like, I know there were no freshmen in the group, or at least none of you mentioned that you were. So don’t think, oh my gosh, I didn’t do any of the things she listed as you should be doing as a freshman or even a sophomore, or maybe even as a junior.

It’s okay. Like you’re, Attending these sort of things like webinars to learn how you can be preparing. So that’s, that’s great that you’re already thinking about it and you’re already preparing in that way. Um, just know that it’s never too late to start. So maybe, you know, as early as tomorrow you go to school and you start.

engaging with your teachers more, raising your hand more, that sort of thing. Um, it’s just, you know, the sooner the better, but don’t, don’t worry if you haven’t done a lot of these things already. It’s, you know, it’s something you can definitely dive into now. Um, and yeah, so. Absolutely. Okay, well, now we’re getting into junior year.

So the big year, um, spring semester will start there. This is an opportunity if you did take that SAT or ACT in the fall to take it again. Maybe your scores weren’t as great as you had hoped for, or maybe you took the SAT, but you heard it. People say, well, the ACT is easier and you want to try your hand at that, you know, that could be a way to take both and kind of see how you score and if you do better on one or the other.

Um, so ideally, yeah, you would have already taken one of them and now’s your chance. You can take it again. Some people do take it for the first time now. Um, but then you just kind of have less, less opportunities or less time frame to retake it. Um, creating your college list by this point in time, you probably already thought of like colleges that you’re interested in, whether they’re local to you, um, whether they’re not, whether they’re, you know, some of the top schools you always heard about, um, putting together an actual list of colleges is great at this point in time.

And then you can do the research of Does it meet, you know, everything I want in a college? Is it the right size? Is it in the right location? Do they have the major I want? Um, that sort of thing. So you may have, like, 40 colleges on your list to begin with. That’s okay. You will narrow it down, but it’s great to kind of start somewhere and have, you know, a list of some sort to go by.

And then actually visiting those colleges if able to. So all those local ones, definitely trying to get there if you can. The ones that may be across the nation, you know, maybe you can budget for. One or two to actually visit in person. Um, otherwise, a lot of them have virtual visit options on their websites and their admissions websites.

So definitely try to explore in any way you can, whether it’s just virtual or online. Or not, um, and showing interest. So what this means is, you know, colleges actually have like email list and, um, different like small events like virtual type events. You can attend if you’re interested in admissions and getting into their school and that sort of thing.

So the more your name kind of comes through as signing up for that kind of stuff, the more they kind of get to know you like, Oh, there’s Lindsay again. You know, she attended this last thing. She’s really interested in our school. Believe it or not, that looks good for when you’re applying for the college in the fall.

Um, you’ve shown that you’re already interested and that you’re trying to learn as much as possible. So keep that in mind. And personal statements. So the common application is a big application that A lot of schools have adapted so, um, or adopted. So you can just fill out all the information on what application, select all the schools you want to send it to, and boom, you’re done.

You don’t have to go in and fill out a separate application for every single school you’re applying to. UC application has its own application system too for all the UC schools. So for the common application, at least, they have what’s called, kind of referred to as the personal statement. Um, They let us know the end of February this past year, or this year, that the prompts from last year are not changing at all.

So, kids, or students could really be starting to brainstorm and write for that personal statement now. Um, I highly recommend, um, writing that sooner than later because for all your different colleges and all the different majors you’re going to have supplemental essays that you’ll have to write too. A lot of times they don’t release their topics until later on so because you know the topic already for the personal statement now is the time to at least write it.

Start brainstorming ideas for what you will write for it. Engaging in activities and leadership roles. We already touched base on this, but now that you’re a junior, you know, are you showing leadership in those activities that you’re in? Whether it’s through having a higher title or whether it’s just taking on more responsibility, projects, um, ideas, that sort of thing.

And then now’s the time to request recommendation letters. Um, some colleges require one or two from teachers as well as one from your high school guidance counselor. If you wait until the fall, a lot of times these, these people are getting inundated with requests from other students where they might not have time to write that for you.

So we typically recommend requesting it before, before May and before, you know, you’re kind of wrapping up with, um, this semester as well. And giving your teachers an opportunity to go ahead and write that for you, so it’s thoughtful, and you get it in plenty of time, and you’re not rushing to get that before your applications do.

And then your junior year summer, this is kind of your last chance, um, to do some things, to put on your application, if you think about it. Um, So finalizing that college list, getting it down to a shorter number if you can, and deciding when to apply to each school. So schools have different deadlines of early action, early decision, regular decision.

So if you have a school that is your number one, you say, um, I would definitely go there no matter what. I would, you know, forego everything else. To get into the school. I want to go to the school. Maybe you apply early decision then, um, if there’s a few schools that you really like and would love to get into, maybe you apply early action.

Otherwise, all the other schools on your list can really be regular decision. Um, applications. It’s kind of nice to spread it out because there’s different dates involved, um, and that way you’re kind of, um, submitting some applications earlier and working on some a little bit each month and not all rushing to get all of them submitted right before the, like a January 1st deadline when you’ve got the holidays in there and it might be harder to sit down and write essays and that sort of thing.

College visits, doing more during the summer if possible. Drafting and finalizing that personal statement where you started brainstorming in the spring, now you’re ready to actually start writing, having several drafts, having somebody review it for you, and finalizing that, um, and then preparing to write those supplemental essays I mentioned that each college will have, and a lot of times different specific majors have their own topics too.

Creating activity lists. So this is where that resume that you started is helpful. Um, so The common application, the UC application, they all have opportunities to put together what’s called an activity list to report what you’ve been doing, as well as awards. So if you already had started that resume with dates and kind of some bullet points of what you were doing.

It’s easy to just kind of even copy and paste that into the activity list. Then you don’t have to really think and go back and wonder, okay, like, what did I even do, you know? Um, so that’s very helpful to have at this point in time. And so you’re not rushing to do that in the fall either. Okay, this is my last slide.

I promise. So this is kind of a typical timeline for 4 year universities. August 1st is when the common application, all these application systems open. Um, so this is when you should be able to see the prompts for the different essays and all of that as well. I will say, you know, the like the common application.

It doesn’t mean you can’t go in and create an account today if you want. Um, it saves your information. So maybe you want to go in and just get a feel for like, what all the questions are that it asks for. Maybe you want to start plugging in some of that demographic information. So they don’t have to waste your time later on it.

Um. year, feel free to go ahead and do that. Of course, you want to review all that information, make sure it’s still accurate when you do apply for colleges, but that’s something you can start now and create an account for, and it saves all that information. October 1st is typically when the FAFSA and the CSS profile opens.

FAFSA did open in December last year, but hopefully back in October this year, November 1st or 15th. Typically early action, early decision deadlines, and then November through February, if colleges are inviting you for an interview. Not all colleges do, um, but if they are, this is the typical timeline you might hear from them.

So kind of in the earlier timeline is when you’ll hear if you applied early action or early decision. You’ll hear November, December, if they’re inviting you for that. January, February, if you applied for regular decision. January 1st through 5th is kind of when I see most of the regular decision deadlines.

Um, but I, we had a couple in February too, um, but just know kind of January 1st, you know, holiday, um, is when you’re going to see a lot of those deadlines due. So. You don’t get the full holiday break that you’d probably hope for unless you applied early and you got all those applications in before the holidays hit.

December through April is when you’ll hear back what your decision is. Um, earlier end is, of course, for those early action or early decision applications. The later end is for the regular decision. May 1st, um, National College Decision Day is what it’s commonly referred to. Some schools have May 15th, but that’s when you kind of have to.

Say whether you’re committing to coming to their college or not, pay your deposit, let them know, and then if one of your, um, decisions came back as a waitlist for a school, May through July is when you usually hear back if you’ve been accepted off the waitlist or not. Um, after they’ve heard from all their May 1st deadline people, they kind of have an idea.

Do they have more room or not? Um, and so that’s why, you know, there’s a little bit of time gap in between there.

And that’s it.

Anna: Thank you so much, Lindsay. There’s. So many helpful tips in there. Uh, this is the end of a formal part of our presentation and we hope you found it really helpful. Remember you can download Lindsay’s slides from the link in the handouts tab on your screen. Also in that tab you will see a Q& A section.

We’re moving on to that now. I’ve been reading through the questions you submitted there and also some of the ones you submitted when you registered. We’re going to get to as many as we can. I will read them out loud, then I’ll paste them in the chat so you can read them and then give Lindsay a chance to answer.

As a heads up, if your Q& A tab isn’t letting you submit questions, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page. So, all that said, Lindsay, some folks are wondering, I’m going to combine two questions here, because I think that makes sense.

How, how can they check out a bunch of different colleges? Um, maybe travels are restriction. And then, how do they know, What college is the right fit for them?

Lindsay: Sure. So I’ll answer the second part first, but when you think about if a college is the right fit for you, you want to think about a lot of things, demographics and kind of where it’s located.

Um, thinking about your preferences, I guess, is one of the biggest things. So say I’m, so I’m originally from the Midwest, but I’ve never enjoyed the cold weather. I did not want to look for any schools that were north then. That’s a preference. That’s something to consider when putting together your college list.

Um, the size of the school is a big thing too. You know, you have some that are in a very rural area. It might take 45 minutes to an hour to get to a bigger city to do any shopping of any sorts. Um, maybe you like that. Maybe you like being away from, you know, population. Or maybe you want to be In the middle of a big city, some universities are right smack dab in the big of a big metropolitan area.

So what do you what do you prefer there? Um, some, some schools definitely have a lot more social life going on. Um, a lot more, um, just kind of like. I don’t know. They have a lot more like Greek life and sports and just kind of that, um, culture to them than other schools might not have as many of those opportunities.

Maybe that’s not really important to you, or maybe it is. So thinking about all those kind of things that you would prefer in a college, because when you think about it, you’re going to be there for years. You’re likely going to live on campus. Um, so, I mean, you’re going to be there. A lot, you know, before you’re going home or visiting home.

So you really need to enjoy it. It’s not just about what you’re majoring in, in your academics, while that is very important, um, it’s also about just like your atmosphere around you, how involved you can be, um, what you can get involved in. So think about all those different things. Um. And then what was the first part of the question?

Anna: Sure. How, yeah, how can they learn more about different colleges? Obviously, in person is an option, but if travel is a restriction?

Lindsay: Yeah, so like I mentioned, there’s a lot of virtual visit options on college websites. So, take advantage of that. Start with what’s local. Like, if you do kind of figure out what your preferences are, like, say you want to stay local.

So, I’m in Texas now, so maybe I only want to look at Texas schools. Just start with, like, a simple Google search. What schools are in Texas? Um, you can make your list starting with that. And then really narrow it down with your preferences, um, visit their admissions pages, and you’ll get a lot of information just about, um, applying for the college, of course, but you’ll also be able to navigate to what majors they have to offer, what clubs, what activities, um, and then, yeah, look for that virtual visit, so they can kind of walk you through campus and walk you through their major choices more, um, ask others.

Maybe you have some friends that have already graduated. And you know that they’re going to Georgia Tech or they’re going, you know, somewhere else. Ask them about their experience. Do they like it? Um, and maybe then you consider colleges based on what you’re hearing from others. So there’s kind of a lot of different ways to do it, but asking around, exploring websites, thinking about those preferences is probably most important because obviously you’re not going to look at every single college out there.

Available to you because there would be no possible way. Um, so you will kind of have to narrow down your search. Um, so think about those preferences first and foremost to get your search narrowed down a little bit before you start exploring websites. Excuse me.

Anna: No worries. Thank you, Lindsay, and thank you for Pushing through when you’re, your voice is recovering. We’re very grateful. Um, on this topic, someone said they’ve, they’ve seen it. Some schools on their website are saying that they aren’t looking at demonstrated interest anymore. How, how much credibility would you give to that?

Like, can they trust colleges when they say that? And

Lindsay: I mean, it’s hard to know. And then nowhere on the application, you know, does it say like, Well, they’re not looking for if you attended an event, like, there’s nothing that they’re saying is ruling you out. If you haven’t shown continued interest. I personally kind of felt like it was a subconscious thing of when I’m reviewing an application.

If I, I remembered a name. It just kind of helps me think a little bit higher of their application of, yeah, I remember the student. We had a great conversation because they came to that exploration day. And they would be great for this major. It kind of gives you them an opportunity to already get to know you a little bit more personally as well, besides your essays and that sort of thing.

It’s kind of an informal interview in a way if you were able to chat with, um, an admissions officer on site or participating in one of those events. So, no, it is not something required whatsoever. And, you know. They’re, they’re likely, you know, admissions officers are saying that they don’t consider that necessarily, but I, I do kind of feel like it’s a subconscious thing that, um, it does still look good.

So, plus it keeps you up to date with what’s going on with the college, just signing up for the email blast or that sort of thing. So you may get some email from them and it’s talking about some sort of event that they put on and you might be like. Wow. They do that? I don’t like that. And it might help you rule out even applying for there.

So you can learn a lot just about the colleges from signing up for those sort of things.

Anna: Yeah. I was going to say, even if they’re saying they’re not going to consider it, it can’t hurt.

Lindsay: Yeah. Like, Oh yeah. Right.

Anna: And it might help. In that there may be name recognition when they see your application and also you’re getting all this information from them.

So I totally agree. I’m going to give you a little break, Lindsay, so I can chat a bit about CollegeAdvisor. So for those in the room who are not already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process is. And our team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts is ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process in one on one advising sessions.

We have already helped 6, 000 clients in their college journeys and I’m Really excited about this. We recently analyzed our data and from 2021 to 2023, we found that CollegeAdvisor students are 3. 6 times more likely to get into Stanford, 4. 1 times more likely to get into Vanderbilt and 2. 7 times more likely to get into Harvard.

So increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey. By signing up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with an admission specialist on our team. You can do that by scanning the QR code that’s on your screen right now. And remember these slides are available for download so you can have that QR code with you, uh, even after we log out tonight.

During that free strategy session, you’ll get a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, and some initial recommendations. At 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, really the whole process from start to finish.

We are are here for you. We would love to have you come work with us. Uh, so do give that QR code a scan, sign up for that free strategy session, um, and see what makes sense for you and your family going forward. We’re going to use the rest of our time to get to a few more of your questions, but that QR code is going to remain on the screen.

So please feel free to scan it any time. All right. Lindsay, someone asked in a registration question, does the, so They know there are deadlines, and they also know they can submit ahead of the deadline. Does applying ahead of the deadline impact scholarship funding?

Lindsay: There are, there are scholarship deadlines for colleges.

Um, oftentimes I see these in December, so you will want to check that. Um, you’ll also complete the CSS profile, um, and then of course the FAFSA as well. And those typically come out October 1st. So just keep those in mind because those kind of help with. scholarships and that sort of thing. Um, but yes, most, most colleges, I believe it’s around December timeframe that they have scholarship deadlines.

So if you’ve applied early action, early decision, you know, those would be before that deadline. But if you’re applying for a rolling or I’m sorry, regular decision, that could be like a January deadline. You might want to check and make sure that you’re applying a little bit earlier. to meet those scholarship deadlines if you’re interested in scholarships.

Anna: Speaking of scholarships, someone said, and I agree, there are so many websites talking about scholarships that it’s overwhelming. So do you have any places you recommend students can search for scholarships they’re eligible for?

Lindsay: Yes, there are so many out there. Um, when I was applying for college, FastWeb was pretty popular and they are still around.

Um, I’ve heard a lot of students like Niche, um, but there are so many out there and it’s kind of up to preference too, because some of them, when you go to their website, they have a lot of advertisements, um, or it’s hard to kind of find. Filter things to like specifically your region or that sort of thing.

Um, so I don’t know. I mean, there’s so many out there. Um, maybe ask like with your high school guidance counselor or call if you have a college counselor on, on your high school, like ask if they have kind of a preferred method or, um, prefer a website that they would recommend. Um, For school specific scholarships, those should be on the website for the university.

If you specifically kind of go through the majors that you’re interested in, they typically kind of have them on those department websites or on the admissions page if it’s a school wide website or scholarship. So that’s kind of where you can check for those, but any of those like external scholarships, those websites, there’s so many out there.

But, Something else to consider is, um, asking, like, if you have a parent that works for a certain company, ask if they offer scholarships at all. You’d be surprised how many companies or even maybe a local church that you’re a part of, or, um, some sort of other organization you might be a part of in your community.

There’s a lot of scholarships out there that won’t necessarily be found on one of those big websites. It’s just kind of found by acting around and seeing, you know, um, if there’s already ones with, with places you’re already involved in. So ask around with that as well. Um, fun fact, I worked at Culver’s, which if you’re not from the Midwest, you might not know what that is, but, um, it’s essentially a fast food chain.

Um. For like seven years and I got the Culver scholarship all four years of college and it wasn’t much, but it was something, you know, it helped with college. And so that was something because I worked there. I was eligible to apply. Um, of course there were other things you had to meet, like a certain GPA and that sort of thing, but you know, there’s, there’s money out there and it’s, sometimes it just takes looking a little bit harder, um, but don’t just narrow your focus down to those kind of those big websites that have the external scholarships, ask around too, and then explore the school websites to find those too.

Anna: I agree. And I would just quickly add. Those, those small scholarships really do add up. So, if anyone in your family belongs to a credit union, they often have scholarships for members children. I know my dad was a member of the, Elks. My grandpa was a Mason. I got small scholarships from them every year.

And it’s very helpful that it doesn’t cover the full tuition, but it really does add up. Um, to totally agree. I think we might have time for one more quick question, Lindsay, if that’s okay. Sure. How has the role of social media evolved in the admissions process? Anything students should be mindful of in their online activities?

Lindsay: That is a good question. And I would say even in the workforce, um, after college, you need to be thinking about this. Um, it can make or break an application, honestly, um, because what you’re posting on social media, it really kind of showcases who you are, what you believe in. If an admissions officer is looking for more information for, on you, it, who’s to say they won’t go searching a little bit and Googling a little bit to see if they can find some of that social media accounts.

So before you go and apply for colleges, it is important to kind of go and take a look like you were an outsider, um, looking at your own social media. And make sure that, you know, it’s, it’s kind of cleaned up. Um, if possible, you have a good profile picture. Um, so you would be surprised that that can make a difference.

Um, and as well as when you go to apply for jobs that really can make a difference too, because they’re kind of seeing, they may see a different side of you that they didn’t know. And, um, they want to make sure that when you come to their college, you’re going to be. one successful, but you’re going to be a contributing member.

You’re going to be, um, a positive force. You’re going to be, you know, friendly with other students and get along well and that sort of thing. So if they’re seeing other things on your social media, you might want to go and just kind of clean that up a little bit before you apply.

Anna: Absolutely. Never bad advice to Google yourself just so you know what is out there for the public to see.

Thank you so much, Lindsay. We have been so lucky to have you with us tonight. Thank you for all of your wisdom and sharing with us. Everyone, before you log out, we want to point out that we do have another webinar tomorrow. If you are motivated by Lindsay’s timeline, it is called Starting Early to Stand Out College Admissions for 8th to 10th grade families.

I know we had some 10th graders with us. And then in May, we have a whole bunch more webinars coming up. So stay tuned. Keep track of it on our website. Register for as many as are useful to you. We love to have you. Um, that’s the end of our time tonight. Thank you again, Lindsay, and thanks everyone for joining us.

Lindsay: Yes, thank you all.