Starting Early to Stand Out

Webinar Transcription

2023-09-24 – Starting Early to Stand Out/ Navigating College Admissions

Stacey: Hi everyone. My name is Stacey Tuttle and I am your moderator today. Welcome to “Starting Early to Stand Out: Navigating College Admissions.” To orient everyone with the webinar timing tonight, we’ll start off with a presentation and 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.

So now let’s meet our wonderful panelist.

Chelsea: Good evening, everyone. My name is Chelsea Holley, and I serve as an admissions officer here at CollegeAdvisor. I also write for CollegeAdvisor as well on tips on admissions and all the institutions that you all are interested in. I’ve worked in college admissions a little over 12 years.

At a number of selective institutions that range from publics, privates, liberal arts, women’s colleges, HBCUs. Um, so I’m super excited to be able to give you some tips on starting early, um, and hopefully some things that you can put to use pretty soon.

Stacey: Yeah, I’m really excited to hear more from you tonight, Chelsea.

Uh, on that note, I, we’d like to hear more from you all and get a sense of who’s in the room tonight. Um, so go ahead and fill out that poll. It should have appeared in front of you. We wanted to know what grades you are in. Um, and so Chelsea, what do you, I know you’re probably going to dive into this maybe a little bit already, but, um, when is it ever too early to start planning for your college admissions process?

Chelsea: Yeah, so I would say no, it’s never too early. Um, way that you start planning and the way that you start thinking about it. There definitely is an age appropriate way to do that. Um, but no, I think there’s productive things you could do as early as 6th grade to begin thinking about college admissions.

Stacey: Yeah, I totally agree. Um, so it looks like we actually have a few freshmen, a few, um, juniors, but most people in the room are seniors and sophomores. Interestingly, sophomore sophomores are our biggest group. So with that in mind, um, Chelsea, I’m going to turn this over to you for the main part of the presentation.

Chelsea: Perfect. So let’s get started. Um, today’s session is all about starting early and we have a range of age groups on the webinar right now. And I’m sure we also have some parents. Um, so starting early can mean different things for different people. Um, but in short, there’s A few things that you’re doing when you’re starting early.

Um, one, you’re allowing yourself to be informed. Uh, the college admissions landscape is vast and ever changing. Um, you could spend a very long time researching and there would still be more things to research about this process. So, starting early really allows you to take your time and explore all of your options.

Second, starting early allows you to be prepared. Um, this process is both an art and a science. And so there are some really technical aspects. So identifying a recommender, um, thinking about whether you’re going to use the common application or the coalition app, um, finding out what services your high school uses to send transcripts.

Um, so really finding out the logistics of this process, um, can really set you up for success. The third one is being strategic. Um, and I think at CollegeAdvisor, I hear the most questions about admissions strategy. Where should I apply? Should I apply early action or early decision? Is it a reach school?

Um, is it a school that I have a good chance of getting into? And so starting early allows you to build a strategy and in turn build an application that matches that strategy. And then last, I think this one is one of the most important. Starting early. gives you room to pivot. Um, it would be absolutely wonderful if all of this came easy and you never had to make any changes, but there are so many twists and turns to the college admissions process.

The earlier you start, the more that you can anticipate those twists and turns, and then also have a clear mind and not be as anxious when you have to switch the course. So starting early allows you to be informed, prepared, strategic, and gives you room to pivot if necessary. So not only are students starting early in this process, but so are parents.

Um, and I think parents being prepared and starting early is almost just as important as our students. So the very first thing I think that’s important for parents is to begin a line of communication with their student. And this sounds pretty easy. Okay, talk about college. But there is actually a strategy for parents.

to start talking about college. Um, this could be a very stressful process, um, for both students and parents, and so you want to create a, uh, communication strategy that allows both parties to say how they feel and also isn’t too high pressure. Um, one of my former admissions colleagues always used to talk about, um, Don’t just spring college conversations on your students, right?

So it’s Thanksgiving, it’s Christmas, it’s their birthday, and all of a sudden someone says, oh well tell me where you’re going to apply. That typically doesn’t work so well, especially for our students, um, who have really high expectations for this process. Instead, we talk about scheduling a time of the week.

So we know that Sundays after dinner, we’re going to get together and pull out that college list. We’re going to talk about course selection. So really being strategic about the communication approach. Um, second, understanding the financial aspect of the admissions process. You do not want your first time to have a conversation about finances with your student to be once they get accepted into a college.

There are so many stops along the way where finances should come into the picture. Um, this means that for our parents or our families that know that they’re going to want a school that meets all of their financial need. So that is a group. Um, also parents that know that they’re going to, uh, self pay and, and pay for tuition in full.

Um, they still have a budget as well. So how do you manage your students expectations around how finances will play into the ultimate decision? Super important. And then last, prepare emotionally. We know that college is something that is incredibly important to students, but oftentimes parents can really, um, get involved in this process and they are emotionally invested just as much as the students.

And so. I am not saying that you should not be emotional. This is your student. This is your child. You are absolutely going to be invested, but you want to prepare yourself for again, those twists and turns, the ups and downs of going through this process and starting early allows you to do that.

So let’s talk a little bit about the common application. Um, Depending where you are in this process, you may be more familiar with the Common App. Um, the Common App is essentially a platform that allows students to apply to more than one college at a time. Um, there’s a few platforms that exist out there like the Common App.

Um, the other more popular ones would be the Coalition App. Um, but the Common App has the largest number of colleges and universities that you can apply to at once. And the idea of the common app is that there is a certain A number of questions and pieces of information that all schools want to know from you.

That would be the common sections and then schools have an opportunity to say, hey, I’m at the University of Michigan. It’s really important for me to know why you want to attend Michigan or there may be specific questions having to do with your major. Or the college’s mission, but the common app is the meat and potatoes of the college admissions application.

So, let’s go over some of the things that they ask you on the common app. Um, we’ll talk a little bit about holistic application review on the next slide, but I want you to really think about the depth. in the breadth of this information. The idea is that an admissions committee gets to get a snapshot of you as a person, your background, your family.

Um, and this allows us to really understand a student as they’re going through this process and for us to advocate for the students that really stand out. Um, so basic information is under the profile section on the Common App. You have your address, contact information, demographics, language, geography, nationality, and if you will be using a fee waiver.

Um, most of these items are self explanatory. Um, the fee waiver is based on income. Typically, it is around whether students are receiving free or reduced lunch in, um, high school. You can create a Common App account whenever you want. Um, and you can see the language for the fee waiver to see if it’s something that you apply for.

Um, the second piece is your family. So why would admissions officers want to know about your family? Well, this allows us to understand your educational background from a generational perspective. Are you the first person in your family to go to college, to graduate from college? Are you a part of a long line of students?

Students in your family that maybe studied engineering or studied biology. Um, this gives us context to understand the type of household you were raised in, um, and how that might have affected the way you learned. And, um. your experience in high school. Of course, we want to know all about your education.

So, did you attend more than one high school? If so, we want to know about all of those high schools. Did you take a dual enrollment course, um, either through your high school or even in the summer? So, if you have any college credit, we also want to see that on the Common App. Some schools allow you to list out all of your grades.

Not everyone asked for that. Some just look at the transcripts, but you may have to list out your grades. Most recent year courses. This one is super important for our juniors and seniors on the call. Two pieces with this. If you are a junior and you plan to apply early to any schools, so early is any deadlines before November.

If you applied, uh, if you plan to apply early, the last semester that we will see of your grades is second semester of junior year. What we will see for senior year is what you plan to take, um, but we would not see how you did in those courses just yet. So that junior year is kind of that last moment where you’re able to feed your GPA, um, focus on doing well in those courses, um, so that you can apply early and we can make a decision just with the junior year.

Seniors, if you are going through this process now and you are applying early, you know that you will not have your senior year grades likely sometime between December and January, um, which is after most early, um, review periods have ended. So again, your most recent year courses and the courses that you plan to take.

Um, if you have any honors, So these are more like awards, not necessarily being a part of the honors program, but any type of awards or distinctions that are related to your education. If you are a part of any community based organizations, And what are your future plans? So what do you think you’ll major in?

And what do you think you want to do for your career? Again, all of these things are incredibly important. Um, no matter what college you’re applying to, because it allows us to understand what your aspirations are And to see if you would be a good fit for the institution that you’re applying to. Next is testing.

Testing includes IB exams, AP exams, as well as standardized testing. You will see on the Common App the standardized testing policy for the institution that you’re applying to. Um, as you all know, Many institutions have now gone test optional, but this stuff can change from year to year. So it’s super important for you to see what the current policy is at the colleges that you are planning to apply to.

Next are activities. Um, and this is all of your extracurricular activities. What I like to say for activities is this is everything you did other than being a student. Um, so as soon as you left school, what all did you do? This is not just playing a varsity sport or being president of the FBLA organization.

This is, did you have a part time job? Did you babysit younger siblings? Did you look after an elderly family member during the pandemic? All of those can be listed on your activities section. And then last, we have your writing section. This includes your personal essay, also known as the personal statement.

This includes a community disruption question, which is essentially you telling us if you had any experiences during the pandemic or otherwise that interrupted your. normal educational path. Um, so some students might choose to talk about moving and changing schools. Um, they might talk about, um, their courses going to virtual during the pandemic.

Um, you have opportunity to give us that context. And then last, there is an additional information space. And this is anything else you want to tell the admissions committee. And no information is too much information here, because if there are gaps in your application, the admissions officers tend to assume what happened, right?

So, um, let’s say your school has 20 AP courses available and you didn’t take any. We would just assume that maybe you weren’t interested in challenging yourself, but maybe there is a particular reason why you did not seek out those rigorous courses. The additional information section is somewhere that you can explain that.

So what is a holistic application review process? Um, the first thing to know is most elective institutions use holistic review. Long gone are the days where there is just a minimum GPA and that’s it. Um, we are looking at a number of elements in order to make a decision about you as an applicant. So you are more than just your GPA and more than a test score.

Now, this does not mean that your GPA is not important for selective institutions. It is incredibly important, but the more selective the institution, the more all of the applicants are great. So you have to think about other things that are going to make you stand out as an applicant beyond just getting good grades.

Holistic review really considers all aspects of your personhood and life experiences. So again, we’re thinking about your academic performance, but we’re also thinking about who you are as a person and how you might bring something unique, something beneficial to our campus environment. Holistic application review is guided by institutional priorities, and this is an interesting one.

When we think of college admissions, we often hear the word merit thrown out, right? Um, all of this is about merit. The best student is the student that gets in. Um, that isn’t always true. So, The majority of this process is about you being a great student, but institutional priorities alter the decisions that admissions offices make.

So for example, what is an institutional priority? It could be something like, um, let’s say you are applying to a public school in your state. Many public institutions, um, have quotas for how many in state students they must enroll. Therefore, it is easier to get in as an in state student than it would be as an out of state student.

That is an institutional priority. Um, another example might be the new president of the university has a background in, um, music. They might really want to recruit for the music program. So in those early years, there may be some priority for students that are interested in music and that comes out in the review process.

So those are just two examples of some of the things that are going on behind the scenes that typically you’re not privy to, but could affect who’s admitted that year, how many students are admitted, so on and so forth. And then last institutions are looking for students who are a good fit on their campuses.

So when we say that we’re thinking about you as a person, The priorities for each campus may be different. You may have a campus that really values innovation, and they’re looking for threads of innovation in your application and in your extracurriculars. Um, you may have a university that is super interested in service or leadership.

And so those are things that are going to be very important to them in their process. If you want to know if you’re a good fit in the things that admissions officers are looking for, check out the mission and the values of any institution that you’re interested in. I can just about bet you they are telling you what they believe in.

They are telling you what they want their campus to look like. Um, and a lot of those same values and mission statements guide the holistic review process.

So let’s talk about some myths about the college application process. One, it is impossible to get into a good college these days. Second myth, parents should be the final decision makers in this process. Third myth, students should be the sole decision makers in this process. Fourth, you can understand your chances of admission by comparing yourself to students who applied the previous year.

Five, there is a specific way to stand out. And six, college admissions is all about merit and fairness. These are myths, but these are things that people say all the time. Um, and I understand why Parents, students, even counselors might believe some of these things to be true, but let’s talk about what some of the facts are about this process that really counter the myths that I just shared the 1st 1 is, yes, there are some schools that are very hard to get into.

But it is the smallest percentage of the colleges in this country. The vast majority of colleges in this country, um, are not that hard to get into. Even if you look at some moderately selective schools, there are hundreds of schools that are great at specific subjects, have great campuses, um, that 2 percent admit rate.

Um, so. What I want you all to understand is that there is no objectively best college, right? Your best college is the college that is the best fit for you. Now, rankings can give you a insight into how colleges perform. So you want to know what the graduation rate is. You want to know how many professors on campus have PhDs, how long it takes people to graduate, what income are they making once they graduate, All of that is super important, but you can find schools that are doing well in those spaces beyond just the top 20 schools.

So I encourage you to be open minded and understand that yes, some schools are really hard to get into, but you can build a college list. that is reasonable for you, um, that also has some really great institutions on it. Third, parents are not the sole decision makers. Students are not the sole decision makers.

This is a joint decision making process. Um, in fact, this process has a village of supporters that extend beyond the immediate family. Um, you may seek guidance from, uh, older siblings. or someone that went to that institution from your high school the year before. Of course, your college counselors. If you are engaging independent college counselors, like we have at CollegeAdvisor, all of these people are part of your village.

The next fact, colleges change strategies and admissions priorities from year to year. Using your neighborhood as a sample of who got in and with what GPA almost never works. Because of the holistic admissions process, it’s impossible for you to know every attribute about someone who got in or someone that was denied.

So I typically encourage parents, don’t even go down that road. Um, you don’t want to hedge your chances on getting into a college based on someone who applied three years ago. Colleges change strategies every year and a lot of it has to do with some of those institutional priorities that I talked about earlier.

Number five, there is no formula to stand out. Um, and I know this one is a hard one to hear, especially in a webinar, webinar named starting early to stand out. Um, but standing out looks different for every student. So standing out for one person might be, um, highlighting their leadership experience in engineering clubs from ninth grade to 12th grade.

That might be standing out for that student for another student standing out might show how many different interests they have and how not only did they participate in the engineering club. Um, but they were an artist and they were super involved in their church. So, really, you want to self assess.

Everything that you did, all the things that are unique about you and you want to present those things in a way that is most authentic to you. That is how you stand out. And then last, there are many elements of this process that have absolutely nothing to do with you as an applicant. Again, this may be a hard truth to hear, but when you understand it, it’s actually pretty comforting.

This means that whether you’re admitted or denied, this is not a value judgment on you. As a student, as a person, um, this is a complex process, um, that tries its best to be fair, tries its best to have no bias. Um, but there’s all these other elements that go into the college admissions process.

So there’s some things that are going to be going on whether you are in ninth grade or 12th grade. Um, the earlier you start, the more time you have for some of these things. Um, but all of these responsibilities are. Pretty much the same, no matter when you start. So first, this one is standard. The earlier you start here, the better you want to focus on course selection and strong grades.

That is critical. You can have all the strategy in the world, but if you are not. Really focused on the academic side. It is not going to work for you. Um, course selection means that you are thinking critically about the courses that you are signing up for. If your counselor is recommending something that maybe you don’t agree with, advocate for yourself.

Parents advocate for your student. We know that the courses that students are placed into or the courses that students select is a huge part of where they get in, um, whether those courses start in the eighth grade or the ninth grade, they matter. So you really want to think about, um, are you best setting yourself up for the type of college that you want to go to eventually?

You want to build meaningful relationships with your teachers early. Um, you do not want to be in the 12th grade and have no one to ask for a recommendation letter. You should have a list of teachers, counselors, mentors that you’ve intentionally nourished relationships with throughout your time in high school.

You want to join extracurricular activities and seek leadership opportunities. This is super important. It may be something that you’re doing, um, throughout the academic year, or maybe you’re busy during the academic year. So you’re taking some time in the summer. Um, but you want to make sure that you have a good amount of these activities.

We’re going to talk on your resume as you apply to college. Explore summer opportunities. So even if you have a full academic year of activities, the summer is a amazing time to get an internship, participate in a pre college program. These are all things that can really boost your resume as you’re applying to schools.

You want to research different majors and career paths. This is important. Um, it’s, it’s actually less important that you know exactly what you want to major in, but you should have a sense of what’s out there. And how that aligns with your interest. Um, I tell students find out what you’re interested in, the major, the job, that might come later.

Um, but you may know that you’re interested in problem solving, um, or you’re very interested in science. Um, these are things that can come through your application and show that you have passion and interest in something early on. Number six, build a college list. This typically happens a little later In the four year high school career, but you can always start early.

Just understand that that college list is likely to change. And I would say it should change as you get a little older and do some more of this work to understand where you want to go to school. Of course, you want to write your essays, um, write your essays, revise them, get other people to read them.

That’s super important. Um, and some of those other people that are going to read those essays will be part of your college admissions village.

So parents, while your students are super busy, what should you be doing, um, to set them up for success? You want to facilitate campus visit opportunities. This is one of my favorites. This can happen very early on. You don’t just have to tour your students top two, top five colleges. The important thing is to get them on a college campus period.

Um, have them experience a large campus, a small campus, a rural campus, or urban campus. This allows them to understand where they could see themselves best. You want to build a relationship with a high school guidance counselor, um, especially if you find yourself needing to advocate for your student. Um, you want to make sure that they know that there’s someone in their corner, um, to help make decisions with.

You want to encourage your students to advocate for themselves. That is super important. Um, parents, This is a fine dance between being involved and then also allowing your student to, um, drive the car or one of the very first adult decisions that they’ll make. Um, so empower them to advocate for themselves and to be decision makers.

You want to fill out the FAFSA and explore financial paths to college. Even if you do not think that you will qualify for financial aid, the FAFSA is still an incredibly important tool because that tells the college admissions offices and financial aid offices what you might be eligible for. There are lots of scholarships that are need based and there are many that are completely merit based.

So the FAFSA really just gives them information about your household so that it can best give you a financial aid package. This is a hard one. Parents, de center your ego from their college admissions experience. I promise you it will be far less stressful if you are not so emotionally invested as an individual in college.

Which way they go, where, where do they get into? Um, a lot of times parents are, um, thinking about the school that they wanted to go to or wanting their student to follow in their footsteps. Um, and unfortunately, it just can create a more stressful situation for everybody involved. Um, and so even if your ego is in the college admissions process, do not let them know, um, because you want to be able to celebrate all their wins.

You do not want your student to get a rejection letter and for both of you all to be devastated and upset. You want to say you put your best foot forward. You had an amazing senior year. That essay was wonderful. So shift the focus away from getting in or not getting in and really just enjoy this entire process and support your student through the process.

So before we open for questions, um, a few last things to remember, um, this process works best when a team of supporters are involved. So again, that is your college admissions village. Um, starting early as a strategy in itself, you are being prepared. Um, you have time to again, be informed, do your research, build in visits, all of that.

Allows you to have a strategy and then last, your interest can change and that is okay. When you start early, it is actually more likely that you’ll change your major, change the schools on your list. And that really is a good thing, because it’s allowing you to research and find the best fit for you.

early on so that you can make the best decision when it is time to submit your application.

Stacey: Thank you so much. So that is the end of the presentation part of the webinar. I hope you all found that as informative as I know I did. Um, and remember that you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab. So now we’re going to move on to the live Q and A. I’ll read through your questions you submitted in the Q and A.

If you haven’t submitted yet, Definitely go ahead and do that. Um, I’ll paste them into the public chat so you can see them and then we’ll read them out loud so that Chelsea can give us an answer. And I see we do have a question already to get started. So this is a little bit of a unique question, Chelsea, I’m sure you can see it.

Um, if you’ve taken courses in middle school that earned you high school credit and you’re not sure how that’s reported, who do you ask? Where do you get started?

Chelsea: Yeah, so your counselor is definitely your go to person for anything on your transcript. For middle school courses, more often than not, if they are for high school credit, they will be added to your high school transcript.

So when we see students who have middle school credit, we’ll actually be able to see that they took this high school level course in seventh grade or eighth grade, and it’ll be listed on your transcript. If you have a transcript that does not have your middle school course. I would inquire with the if it indeed counted for that might be a clue that you definitely want to as already be on your high s

Stacey: Um, thanks for asking that question. Um, I’m going to turn over to our pre registration questions. Chelsea, so my first question for you is a little broad. Um, can you give me some insight into, any insight into this process, um, as it relates to being an athlete? How, is it all the same advice? Is there any, are there any other special considerations?

Chelsea: Yeah, great question. Um, so unfortunately, athletics does complicate this process a bit. Essentially, what happens is that you are driving two cars. One is the admissions car, and the other one is the athletics car. And at a certain point, typically in the senior year, Um, what you need to do is still follow all of the advice that you see here from a college admission standpoint.

Um, but if you are an athlete, you may be doing things like putting your footage out on a college recruiting website, reaching out to coaches individually. So, Sending them an email that have tapes of you playing, um, connecting with your high school coaches, um, to see when college coaches might be coming to your games.

Um, so you’re building a relationship on the athletic recruiting side as you are. getting great grades, focusing on your admissions application because athletes still have to go through the same admissions process. Um, the only thing that happens is that eventually the admissions office and the athletics department talk about you and make a decision together.

Stacey: Amazing. Thank you. And I do know it is so much more complicated than maybe we’ve been talking about today, but it’s definitely a hot topic on webinars recently. So thank you for talking about that. We have another question in the chat. Um, I know you talked about a little bit about kind of when to start touring colleges and researching colleges.

What resources do you recommend? When creating your college list are there any that come to mind?

Chelsea: Yeah, so, um CollegeAdvisor has a number of blogs As well as webinar recordings just like this one, but talk about how to go about making a college list um One of the first things that you want to understand, um, are the categories that colleges fall into on your list.

Those are your safety schools, your target schools, and your reach schools. Those are determined based on the student’s, um, academic performance. Um, typically a GPA range can give you a clue of that. Um, also the admit rate at these schools gives you a clue of where it falls on that list. So when we say that you want to put together a balanced college list, you want to put together a list that, um, one, you, it’s reasonable for you as a student, right?

You don’t want a list of 10 schools and you don’t think you can get into any of them. That is not a good list. You want to have a list that has some schools that are safety schools and some schools that might be more challenging. U. S. News and World Reports is a great place to look up the most recent acceptance rates, so you can find those there.

That gives you an idea of where they might fall. I also encourage you to think about the type of institution. So, Is your student interested in a big school, small school, um, rural environment, urban environment that also begins to kind of chip away at the preferences on the college list. If you are already a client with CollegeAdvisor, we help you make a college list as you get a little closer to the application process.

If you’re not, we would love to talk to you more about how we go about that process.

Stacey: Awesome. Thank you for that great overview. I can’t. I think emphasize enough how important it is to have a balanced list. Balance, balance, balance is usually my number 1 piece of advice when forming that college list.

Because, you know, as you said, Chelsea earlier, there’s a lot of factors that go into admissions decisions, some of which are out of our control. Right? So, having that balance is really important. Scholarship questions. So we talked a little bit about, you know, parents starting on the FAFSA journey and, um, how important that is in the college application process.

When do you suggest starting to apply for scholarships outside scholarships? Obviously, with financial aid, you really can’t apply for that until you’re in your senior year and you’re kind of in the thick of the application process. But what about outside scholarships?

Chelsea: Yeah, I would say, um, summer of junior year, you should begin an Excel spreadsheet that list external scholarships.

The benefit of seeking out external scholarships and not just waiting for your award letters is external awards go with you anywhere you attend. So you could receive a full ride scholarship from University X and you could bring in external money that could go towards. study abroad or living off campus earlier than you might have.

Um, it really allows you to cushion the finances, um, of your college experience. So I would definitely say summer of junior year. Um, and you should be applying for those like it is a part time job. There are many out there, but they also can require a lot of you and they’re competitive. So you want to make sure that you’re giving yourself the best shot on all those external awards.

Stacey: Absolutely. Um, and it is good to stay organized because it could get pretty overwhelming at times, right? To keep track of all the ones that you’ve applied to. I like the spreadsheet suggestion. I use a spreadsheet for everything. So thank you for that. Can you talk a little bit about, um, and this is a really hot phrase right now, um, passion projects as it relates to the timeline.

Can When and if you should pursue them. And if so, um, I’m sorry, I should I already asked this, but you know, at what point in your high school career, does that make sense?

Chelsea: Yeah, I do think more and more students are talking about asking about passion projects and it kind of cracks me up a little bit because they should really be things you’re passionate about.

That’s how passion project started. We were seeing all these cool things on applications that students were doing. And we thought, Oh my gosh, they’re so passionate about architecture. Right? Um, when you find yourself over strategizing about how to create a passion project, what should I be passionate about?

Most likely that’s not the direction you want to move in. You want to think about what is of interest to you. Um, maybe some things that you’re already showing interest in or have Um, and how can you extend that interest and exposure on an individual level? So, by doing something that is not. Um, a homework assignment or a project, um, taking the initiative to learn more about a subject or an interest.

Um, so, yes, they are absolutely beneficial when they feel authentic when they do not feel authentic and they feel like something that you just said. added at the last minute to boost your application. It really isn’t that effective. Um, so I would say a time to do a passion project would be anytime before senior year.

Um, anytime before the second semester of your junior year. Um, so yeah, I would say as early as the sophomore year, um, it could actually be really beneficial if it’s something that you can work on over a longer period of time. Um, something that you can add on to each summer. Um, or something that you are adding on to as your skills in that subject are developing.

All of those things can be compelling.

Stacey: Absolutely. Thank you so much. Um, staying on the topic of extracurriculars and things that you’re doing outside of the classroom. How important is it to be a leader in the groups in the clubs that you’re joining? If you don’t hold the leadership position is that looked down upon by admissions officers?

Chelsea: Yeah, great question. Um, I think different colleges value leadership differently. Um, so there are some schools that yes, they want to see you have, um, you know, a formal title, at least one formal title in a club or organization. Um, but I would argue that there are ways to show leadership in your application that have nothing to do with a formal title.

You can show leadership in your, um, social circle or in your family by way of telling a compelling story in your essay, you can really articulate the impact that you’ve made in the organization, even if you do not have a leadership title. Um, so. What I really encourage students to do if you’re trying to show leadership.

Yes, most schools want to see that. Um, think about all the adjectives that go into being a leader. Um, and it is much more than just having some title. Um, look for those adjectives and ways that those adjectives can come out in all areas of your application. Um, so that you don’t even have to depend on a title in an organization.

Your application, your story feels like you’re a leader.

Stacey: Amazing. Um, I would like to take a moment to take a break from the Q and a and talk a little bit about this great resource from CollegeAdvisor. So many of you might have additional questions that you’d like to follow up on with. The CollegeAdvisor team and CollegeAdvisors team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts like myself and Chelsea are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process in 1 on 1 advising sessions.

6, 000 clients in their college journeys, and after analyzing our data since 2021, we have found that CollegeAdvisor students are 3. 6 times more likely to get into Stanford University, 4. 1 times more likely to get into Vanderbilt University, and 2. 6 times more seven times more likely to get into Harvard University, so you can 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, and you can do so using the QR code here on the screen.

During that meeting will review your current extracurricular list and application strategy. Discuss how those align with your college list and outline the tools you need to stand out in a competitive admissions world. And so that QR code is going to stay on this next slide as we continue to dive into our Q and A today.

Um, I’d like to talk a little bit about brand, personal brand. This is, you know, brought up a lot, uh, in the application process, especially around this time of year. Can you talk a little bit about what that means when people talk about personal brand as it relates, relates, excuse me, to the application, um, and how one can kind of bring together a cohesive brand, maybe in a few sentences.

I know that’s a complicated question, but. Um, anything you can share.

Chelsea: Yeah. Um, so I, I think the idea of personal brand, um, has definitely increased as we talk about admission strategy. Um, and essentially a personal brand or brand coming through in the application is. The reader, the reviewer, the admissions officer walking away from reviewing your application, feeling like they might describe you as.

Whatever the sentence is, um, let’s say this particular applicant is socially aware they’re a leader and they have a focus in entrepreneurship. Right? So those are some things that you might say about an applicant to have a personal brand. You have to have evidence in your application. That reinforces whatever that brand is.

You can’t just tell us this is my brand, right? Um, you need to show evidence that that is who you are. Um, and I like to see evidence in multiple places on the application. Um, I also love to see a recommender. Reinforce whatever story you’re trying to tell us about yourself. And so if you are painting a picture that you have amazing leadership skills and you are going to be a global change agent, it would be great if your recommender could tell us a story about you participating in an organization or completing a class project that authentically shows that who you say you are is who you really are.

Um, and so there’s. a lot of ways that you can, um, share a personal brand. But again, I think authenticity is just the most important thing in this space as we’re talking about these things. So don’t think of, Hmm, what should my personal brand be? You want to think of what is my personal brand? And then you dive into that direction.

Stacey: Great. And actually that’s a really nice transition to My next question for you, which is about letters of recommendation, how and when should you start asking for those? Um, and is there anything you can do to help them really stand out? Um, and I know you spoke to this a little bit, but can you talk a little bit more about timeline?

Chelsea: Yeah. So, um, identifying recommenders never too early. I know I want this person to write me a recommendation letter, and I’m going to intentionally, um, Build a relationship with them. That can happen in the ninth grade. Now, when you make a formal ask for a recommendation letter, I like to say the second semester of junior year giving the recommender a heads up.

Hey, these are the schools I’m interested in. I just want to let you know. I would love for you to write a recommendation letter. I’ll follow up again on this. second week when we get back from school in August. Um, that’s a great way that doesn’t feel like it’s too early, um, but they’re going to remember that you had that conversation with them.

And then when it’s time to make the formal ask for a recommendation letter, you want to give them time. You want to give them time to do it because they are likely getting other requests, um, from other students. Um, and you don’t want them to rush your recommendation letter. You surely don’t want it to be late.

Um, so you want to make sure they have enough time. Something that I think is always valuable, no matter how well the recommender knows you, is give them something in writing That’s a summary of who you are and what you did. Even if they know you well, they don’t know everything about you. Um, so it could be a resume.

So if you’re, if you’re a student who already has a resume, that’s perfectly fine. Or it could be what I like to call a brag sheet as simple as bullets. This is what I did. This is what I want to do. Here are the schools that I’m interested in applying to. Um, these are my interest outside of your class or outside of the organization that you know me in.

Um, this allows recommenders to have a more full picture of who you are. Um, and they may even be able to draw some parallels between the information you give them and what they were already going to say. Um, so there is definitely a science to Preparing your recommender as much as possible.

Stacey: Wonderful. Um, totally agree.

I think it’s so important to provide that resume or that background information to your recommender. And I, I usually advise Andrew under junior year to talk to those individuals, but then following up in August, right before the application or right around the application with the resume and the brag sheet saying, Hey, remember.

When you said that you’d write this for me, so it’s really good to have those touch points all along the end of junior early senior year. Um, can we talk a little bit about interviewing as it relates to the college application process? What’s the timeline for that? Like, and how early should you prep for that?

If you should prepare for that at all.

Chelsea: Yeah, so I think, um, interviews are far less popular now than they used to be. Um, interviews before were common at some of the more selective institutions, but the number of applications has grown so much at many of these schools that they’re not able to Fairly give everyone an interview with that being said, there are still places that have an interview process.

It typically happens after you have already submitted an application. So it’s not going to be a part of your initial application. You would get a request for an interview after that. Um, interviews can come from admissions officers, but more often just because of the demand, they come from alum of the institution.

That have volunteered to do interviews or current students. Um, so I would say, I wouldn’t prepare for an interview before submitting an application. You want to find out if you’re going to be interviewed. 1st, if you’re applying for a school that, you know, an interview is a likely part of the process. You can start doing research about, um.

What the interview may have consisted of in previous years. Who are the interviewees? A lot of admission sites now have really well run blogs that might give you some insight into the process. So you want to know what to expect. But as far as the actual preparation of the interview, it should be an informal, Okay.

Summary of what’s on your application. You don’t want to over rehearse your interview because you want to feel like a normal person. You want to feel like you’re having a conversation with whoever the interviewer is. So what I would say the best way to prepare. It’s to prepare your application. Well, know who you are, know why you’re interested in that school, know what your interests are, and be able to articulate that in a way that feels authentic and that anyone can understand.

Stacey: Amazing. Thank you so much for that. Yeah. Interviewing is just not the way it used to be. Um, I feel like I’m very old saying that sentence, but it isn’t. So thank you for that insight. I want to pivot and talk about test scores again for a little bit. Um, I know you talked about this earlier as part of kind of the application process as a whole.

When do you typically suggest taking the exam for the first time? Um, and how do you know if you should submit your test, uh, for test optional schools?

Chelsea: Yeah, so, um, I think the PSAT, um, is a natural Um, introduction and to taking the tests, um, that could happen either ninth grade or 10th grade. Um, so that’s a great way to just see how you test, see how you feel about it.

Um, you may be someone who does really well and you’re like, okay, I know I’m going to keep testing and you may be someone that’s like, oh, I don’t think I like this. I need to study. Maybe I need to consider applying to schools that don’t require me to test. Either way, that’s great information to know and it can inform your college list in a really meaningful way.

Um, If you find that you do want to continue testing, um, you want to do that soon, but you want to be prepared. So a lot of folks go into the PSAT kind of cold, um, and they’re just wanting to see how they do, but after that, you should put time and energy into it. into every test that you take because it is your time.

It is often money if you are paying for any of these tests. Um, and you want to give yourself the best shot at doing well. Um, so I would definitely start that level of testing second semester of the sophomore year. Um, so that you could have your full junior year to maybe take two more exams if you need to.

Um, that gives you time. What you don’t want to happen is for it to be October of your senior year. And you’re asking admissions officers. Okay. I want to test one more time. Um, that’s still possible. But again, it’s not setting you up for success as far as like starting early in this process. Um, I can’t reiterate enough that also testing isn’t what it used to be, right?

Um, the number of schools that require, um, test. Currently, um, is much, much smaller than it used to be. Um, out of more than 3000, uh, four year colleges, um, about 2, 500 are currently test optional. So that is a big, big number. Um, and when schools say that they’re test optional, they do mean it. Um, so you want to review the policy and you want to find confidence in that policy.

But there are some additional questions that you want to ask anytime a school says that they’re test optional. The follow up questions are, do I need a test score to be eligible for your merit scholarships? Do you want a test score to be eligible for your honors program or any other special academic opportunities?

Um, and then three, I would ask out of the students that were admitted, how many had a test score? So a school can be test optional all they want, but if you ask that third question and 70 percent of the students that were admitted have a test score, you might want to think more about your testing plans.

So that’s my short about testing.

Stacey: Great advice. Thank you so much. Um, we have some more time here for a few more questions. So I wanted to pivot over to essays. How early Can you start working on your essays and writing those? What do you recommend?

Chelsea: Yeah, I would say, um, sophomore year might begin when you can have kind of a productive exercise of working on essays.

Um, you could workshop ideas really early on. You could make a list of things that you want to talk about. You could start making outlines of essays that you would potentially want to use. Um, you could also think of the essays that you are assigned in your English class. The common app essay prompt is super broad, you know, like it gives you space to really talk about anything that you want.

Um, if you know that you want to begin thinking about your college essay, I might encourage you to, every time you have an essay for school, um, Think about how those items, those themes can feed into your college essay. That could be a great way to begin, um, generating ideas. So I think never too early, but a more realistic time of when you can actually make progress to it is probably the summer before your junior year.

Stacey: Yeah, absolutely. And keeping in mind that those prompts could change, right? So you’re preparing all you want. Um, but there could be some changes to those. So, um, definitely better to work on the personal statement than supplements, I would say. That’s definitely the most part. Yeah. Um, Can you give some, and I know you talked about taking campus tours.

I love that suggestion. I think it’s so important. Um, can you talk a little bit about how to research universities for the, why this university essay?

Chelsea: Yeah, those are, those are so critical. Um, and Students struggle a lot with the why university essay. Um, if you’re not familiar with this question, it is often a supplemental essay.

Um, and it is worded differently, but the core of the question is, why do you want to attend our school? And it may ask for you to talk about academics. It may ask for you to talk about social life. Um, but they’re asking you to flat out, tell us why. Um, and. I have so many students that struggle on that question and what I realize half of the time is that they don’t know why they want to attend the institution, which to me is a red flag in the application process.

If you cannot answer that question, you should go back to the research. In that school, you should really interrogate why that school is on your list in the 1st place and find out why you want to attend that school. Um, it should be something that is personal to you. Um, it should be more than telling the admissions office how great their school is, and that they have higher rankings.

You should make some connection between something. The school is good at something. The school believes in. and something that you’re good in or you have interest in or something that you believe in. So you want to draw a parallel between the college and who you are as a person. If you are lacking that parallel, you have answered the why school question wrong.

Um, there’s no formula for the why school question. Um, I’ve seen students that talk about a professor’s research, um, and it comes off really compelling and authentic. And I’ve seen other students. talk about professor’s research and it feels like they just googled it and picked something on the internet, right?

Um, so I think the important thing is you want to make the case that you and the school have something in common. And here’s the evidence for what we have in common. This is why I want to be there.

Stacey: Yeah, absolutely. Beautifully put. And I will say, you know, for the students in the room who might be thinking about applying to a top 20 or an Ivy League school, you put yourself in a really precarious situation.

If you don’t do that research, because if you get into the school and you decide to go to the school, because of a name alone, you might end up at the institution and be really unhappy because it doesn’t meet your needs. It doesn’t help you in your career goals, and maybe it won’t even have the majors that you’re interested in.

So it’s really, really important to do that. That research, um, on that final note, that is the end of the presentation tonight. We had a really great time telling you all about standing, uh, starting, excuse me, starting early to stand out, navigating college admissions. And thank you, Chelsea, for your time tonight.

We so appreciate everything and all of your information. And for those who might be interested, we have a few more webinars tomorrow on the 25th, if you’d like to attend, and I hope everyone has a great rest of the day. Thank you. Bye Chelsea.