Starting Early to Stand Out: College Admissions for 8th-10th Grade Families

Webinar Transcription

2024-04-30 – Starting Early to Stand Out/ College Admissions for 8th-10th Grade Families

Sydney: Hello everyone! Welcome to today’s webinar, “Starting Early to Stand Out: College Admissions for 8th to 10th Grade Families.” My name is Sydney Mantell, I use she, me pronouns, and I’m going to be your moderator for the webinar tonight. I am also a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor.com, and as a proud first generation college student, I really love to give back to the next generation of students at CollegeAdvisor.

I have my Master of Environmental Management from Duke University as well, and I currently work in science communications with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, as you may know them as. To just quickly orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start off with the presentation and then answer your questions in a live Q&A.

Thank you. You can actually download the slides on the sidebars handout tab. And you can already start submitting your questions for the Q&A later in the presentation on the Q&A tab on that same sidebar. Now let’s meet our presenter, Brandon Mack.

Brandon: All right. Well, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. Uh, and joining us here at CollegeAdvisor for this amazing webinar. So my name is Brandon Mack. I’m a admission officer here with CollegeAdvisor. I have been in the field of college admissions now for 15 years, most of it at my alma mater, Rice University.

So go Owls. I started as an admission officer and I worked my way up to being an associate director of admission. So I actually got to chair undergraduate admission committees for all of the undergraduate schools at Rice. So I’ve been in those rooms, I’ve made those decisions, and now I use that knowledge and expertise to help students and families with the college admission process here at CollegeAdvisor.

In addition to my experience at Rice, I’ve also worked with the National Association for College Admission Counseling. It’s one of the main organizations dedicated to people who work in the field of college admissions on how to make the admission process more accessible and equitable. So that’s given me insight into other colleges and universities and how they do this amazing thing known as college admissions.

So I’m bringing all of this wealth of knowledge to you and to our families here at CollegeAdvisor to understand the admission process from the admission officer point of view, and using that information to leverage your application process so that you get to where it is that you want to go. So. We want to get a sense of first, who is in the room tonight.

So if you will please fill out the poll to let us know what grade are you in?

Sydney: Great. Thank you, Brandon. And while people, I’m going to try and work to get this poll open. Um,

we might not be able to do the poll tonight, actually. Um, but I feel like we probably have a good mix of students here. Um, in eighth to 10th grade. Uh, I’m going to work on trying to get the poll situations figured out for our Q&A later in the session. Um, but. Um, yeah, we can go ahead and continue on with the presentation, Brandon.

Sorry about that, everyone.

Brandon: Not a problem, not a problem. But regardless of wherever you are currently in your college admission journey, if you are an eighth grader, ninth grader, 10th grader, and we may even have some 11th and 12th graders who have joined us, and of course, families and other supporters, we do appreciate that you’re here and we do hope that you find value in this presentation on what you can do to set yourself up for success in the college admission process and starting to stand out.

And it does look like we had the poll launch for one moment. So if you do want to take some time to fill that out to let us know who is here, that would be great. And we’ll just give it another minute and then we’ll keep going.

Sydney: Yes, as Brandon said, I was able to get the pool working. Sorry about that, everyone. But, um, just while people are filling it out real quick, I just was wondering, Brandon, what were some of your career aspirations when you were in eighth to 10th grade?

Brandon: Wow. When I was in, uh, Early in eighth, ninth and 10th grade, I thought I was going to go to law school.

I really wanted to become a judge. And so that was a very big career aspiration for me. Um, I did not go in that direction. As you can see, I ended up finding out that you can do advocacy in a very different way. And so that worked out for me ultimately because I love education. I love educational opportunities.

And so I got to use that wonderful advocacy experience as an admission officer rather than as a judge. So it all worked out

Sydney: great. And I’m going to go ahead and close that poll. It does look like most of our students here are in the eighth, ninth and 10th grade. So great. You’re in the right place. Um, but we do have some older students here and some not other category as well.

So yeah, we’re happy to have you here tonight.

Brandon: Absolutely. And once again, uh, as I mentioned, my hope is, is that every one of us gets something out of this experience because we can all learn how to stand out in this, in this process, regardless of if we’re starting early or we’re right on time, this will be applicable to you and your aspirations.

So, why should students start early in the college admission process? Planning ahead definitely leads to less stress. I know for a lot of students, the college admission process can seem very, very daunting because it’s the next aspect of your life. But in all honesty, I tell students and families to approach this with a fun spirit because it really is meant to be a fun transitional process.

It gives you the ability to think about your future. It gives you the ability to think about what environment you want to be in. It gives you an ability to think about what are all these amazing opportunities that are ahead that I want to take advantage of. Do I want to do research? Do I want to study abroad?

Do I want to do an amazing internship? And it’s about finding the place that’s going to foster you and your development and where you ultimately want to go. But doing that ahead of time definitely leads to less stress. So, getting a sense of what schools you want to apply to early on lets you know how much work is going to be ahead of you.

Are you someone who wants to only focus on maybe one or two schools because you know that those are the absolute schools that you want to go to and that you’re above the academic credentials? So, while they may be a safety school, you know that that’s the school that you want to go to. That helps you know that that’s what you’re aiming for.

If you’re a student who is wanting to go for 12 to 15 colleges and universities with a range of schools that are going to be considered reach schools, which means that it will be difficult for any student to get admitted to to schools where you are generally on target and have the academic credentials and extracurricular qualifications and experiences that generally the students who get admitted to that school have.

Those means that that could be, uh, meaning that you’ve looked deeply into those schools and that, you know, you want to go there. But at the same time, admission is not assured. And then, of course, you have your anchor and safety schools that you know that you’ll get into knowing that you’ll have 12 to 15 potential essays to have to write and 12 to 15, um, supplements to also have to submit.

Helps you know that you have that work ahead and you’re able to plan ahead with knowing, okay, maybe I need to work on my common application as a earlier. Maybe I need to look into those previous application supplements questions and prepare responses. And that way, when you get to your senior year, you’re not dealing with the hustle and bustle of just now starting that process.

So the more and more that you can plan ahead, The less stress you’re ultimately going to have in this process. Also starting early gives you the ability to develop a more competitive and compelling profile. As you see in the news and with the application numbers that are being reported by all colleges and universities, The college admission landscape is getting more and more competitive with students having impressive academic qualifications with having impressive extracurricular activities and opportunities with bringing their full selves to any college or university.

It’s getting more and more competitive. So. You definitely want to plan early because it gives you the ability to strategize as you go in to a more competitive atmosphere. So for those students who know they want to be a computer scientist or they want to be a future doctor with both of those subject areas and career areas being some of the most competitive admission processes and landscapes currently in the country.

You know that in order to stand out, you’re going to need to demonstrate. That you have really thought about. Why do you want to be a computer scientist? Why do you want to be the next doctor? And have you done the experiences that have demonstrated that you really do understand what it takes to be a part of that field and why you want to go into that field.

And it’s not just because it’s popular. And it’s not just because it’s financially lucrative. So understanding and starting early helps you to strategize in terms of, okay. Do I have the time to be able to engage in activities like HOSA, activities like job shadowing, activities like developing that new app, that project that I really have been wanting to work on.

Planning ahead gives you the ability to be able to put it into your schedule, make that commitment, and thus leading to a more competitive and compelling profile. It’s also important to help establish school fit. Many people forget that college admissions is not only the top 100, it’s not only just a few schools.

There are literally close to 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States of America. And so you have a lot of choices. But one thing that helps you to be competitive in this process is understanding why do you want to go to that particular college or university. Many students think that this is an admission process that’s only based off of numbers, and it isn’t.

It’s also based off of who has really looked into what do these colleges and universities have to offer, and can they articulate why that particular school It’s them. So if you plan ahead, it gives you the ability to be able to look into these schools deeply. Also gives you an opportunity to look at yourself deeply and see what about that school connects to me and what I hope to get out of the academic experience and the college experience.

And that then leads to you writing a more compelling and competitive. Why you want to go to that school essay response because you’ve established why it is a fit for you specifically. It also helps you to understand selectivity. As I already mentioned, it’s getting more and more competitive. So for our parents who are watching, Many of us went through the college admission process years ago, several years ago.

The selectivity that you thought it was back then is definitely not the selectivity that you think it is now. So institutions that were previously easier to get into are no longer that way. I remember for the University of Texas at Austin that you could be in the top 10 percent and be admitted to the University of Texas at Austin.

Regardless of major, and you could declare any major that you wanted. That is no longer the case today. Today, you have to be in the top 6 percent to be granted assured admission. And then even if you’re admitted in with assured admission in the top 6%, you are not guaranteed your major. So once again, it’s a very different.

Landscape and will continue to be a different landscape in terms of selectivity as our students continue to get older. And this process continues to evolve. But once again, planning ahead helps you to understand that landscape even better and understand the selectivity of the institutions that you’re looking into.

So if you know that you’re looking into significant reach schools, you’re That means that you know that you have to have a, once again, competitive profile in order to be successful in the admission process. So therefore, planning ahead and thinking about what are those extracurriculars I need to get involved in?

Do I understand that school? Do I have a plan for my SAT and the ACT? And then also, this helps you to, once again, develop your personal brand. Your personal brand is simply, do you have an understanding of who you are? Do you understand what you specifically are going to bring to that college and university?

Because once again, it isn’t just your numbers. In addition to being a great academic student, a student who, um, has great extracurriculars, you also bring your unique hobbies. Your unique passions, your unique interests, both academically as well as personally. And can you articulate that uniqueness in your application?

So the advanced planning and the lead time that you receive in planning ahead helps you to develop that brand because you’re asking yourself those critical questions about who are you? And what are you specifically bringing to that college university and once again, helps you to display your personal brand.

Now, parents for you, there’s also some benefits when it comes to starting early. So once again, first and foremost, planning ahead leads to less stress. So it’ll be less stress on you worrying about deadlines and having to push your students to finish those deadlines. It’ll lead to less stress and anxiety about making decisions because you’ve planned ahead to submit a successful application rather than a rushed application, which will often lead to better outcomes rather than having to rush to figure out, well, if we don’t have any successful outcomes, what are the next steps for my child to have a place to go?

After they graduate from high school. So once again, planning ahead overall is going to lead to less stress, and it’s going to be beneficial to not only the student, but also to you as a parent and to your family overall. Also, planning ahead makes it easier for financial planning and potential financial savings.

So, if you plan ahead, you’ll be able to use tools such as the Net Price Calculator and other financial aid tools to understand the cost of education that is ahead for you and your family. It’ll help you to make good financial decisions, such as applying for financial aid, applying for those additional scholarships, and seeking out those other opportunities.

To, um, financially plan effectively, which then of course leads you to saving money because when you rush, you end up making rush decisions that lead to generally bigger financial costs and also delaying those processes can lead to you receiving less financial aid. So once again, planning ahead.

Definitely has a financial component that is well worth it. And once again, it also helps you to plan. So if you plan ahead, so let’s say for example, you take the SAT and the ACT in ninth and 10th grade, it gives you the ability to see a baseline of the score and realize, do you need additional test preparation?

Doing that can also be a good financial savings rather than having to do a rush preparation that may cost you even more. Also, planning ahead can help you in terms of understanding. Do I need more opportunities for exploration and for summer programs? Because we understand. When we evaluate you that we evaluate you in context, but we also understand that during the summer, our students have the opportunity and ability to use their time to explore their academic interests and other interests.

And did you take advantage of those opportunities? So planning ahead lets you know, okay, we have these opportunities during these, uh, three months over the summer. Maybe we can use a program to explore that interest in medicine, to explore that interest in, in engineering and use the summer opportunity that is set up to give us that explore, exploration experience.

But doing that late. Or not planning ahead can make it difficult. So, for example, generally applications for summer programs for especially very sought after and competitive programs often they open up in October, November and December or January and February of that particular academic year. And if you plan ahead, you’re ahead of the curve and can plan, produce an effective application for those summer programs, giving you that opportunity for exploration.

But if you are late, and then all of a sudden you realize, in order to have a more competitive profile, you need to demonstrate that exploration, showing up late to the party, such as March, April, or May, and you’re wanting a summer opportunity that starts in June, may not have that opportunity open up for you.

So once again, Being able to plan ahead helps you in terms of finding those opportunities, being able to experience those opportunities, and also experience those opportunities at a savings to you and not at an expense because you didn’t plan ahead.

So we want to give you a sense of the different sections of the Common Application because having a sense of these different sections will once again help you to understand what are you going to be asked to talk about when you get to the application process. So there’s a profile. That’ll be generally your demographic information.

Um, they’ll be the family information. This helps us to understand the context that the student is coming from. Because a student who is a first generation college student, It’s going to have different opportunities and experiences related to this admission process. Then a student who comes from a family background where both parents or one parent has gone through a college or university admission process.

So the family section gives us that context. It also gives us a context of what languages are spoken in the household. Because if English is your primary language. You’re going to perform differently on the SAT and the ACT than a student who comes from a family background where English wasn’t the primary language or the primary language spoken at home.

So that family information gives us additional context as well. The education component gives us a sense of what school you’re coming from, your GPA, your class rank, any summer programs that you’ve been a part of. You’re able to indicate your testing, so we’re able to use that information to evaluate you.

This is also where you get to list your activities. The common application limits your activity section to 10 activities, and you have to describe your involvement in 150 characters. So knowing that ahead of time helps you to prepare to know you’re going to need to truncate those responses to be short.

The writing section is where you’re going to find the common application essay. The prompts generally come out in March and April. So that gives you the ability to forward think. What am I going to write that essay about? And generally you want that essay to be a reflection of who you are as a student.

And that we don’t see it in other parts of the application. And then you also get to add your courses and grades so that we can see the courses that you take in over the course of your high school years, years, and how well have you performed? So having a sense of these different sections. ahead of time helps you to strategize what am I going to be asked before you encounter the application as a senior.

So, what is a holistic admission review process? So, there’s a difference between a holistic process and an assured admission process. An assured admission process means that you have this GPA, this class rank, This, uh, standardized test score and you automatically get admitted to that particular college or university.

So, as I mentioned for the University of Texas system, if you’re in, if you’re trying to get admitted to the University of Texas at Austin, if you’re in the top 6 percent of your graduating class, you are assured admission. But even institutions that have assured admission also have a holistic admission process, which means that they look and consider everything in that application.

So it’s more than just your numbers, because there are things that we are looking for as admission officers that cannot be quantified. So, for example, intellectual curiosity. What are you passionate about? What do you want to study? Why are you interested in studying those particular subjects outside of receiving a great paycheck and outside of the lucrative ability of that particular field, uh, engagement in and contributions to one’s community.

What are you active in? Are you active in your school? Are you active in your church? Are you active in your community? And why are you active in those particular involvements? A broad perspective and differing points of view. This is where diversity really comes in because we want students to bring their full selves.

We want you to bring every single background because each one of you brings a different perspective on that subject. And we’re looking for that in the application irrespective. Of a checkbox and a variety of talents and a desire for growth. This is once again, where fit really does come in because we want to know, are you going to take advantage of the opportunities available at our colleges and universities for your personal growth?

So one way to think about the approach to the holistic admission process is it is the whole file, meaning that we don’t prioritize one section over the other. At the entire application file from your transcript, your letters of recommendation, your application, your essays, all of those things are equally being looked at and considered.

The whole person, so once again, we’re looking at all of you, not just what you bring academically, but also what do you bring personally. Your unique context. As I mentioned, each one of those different sections can provide a uniqueness to your experience and we take that context into consideration. All three of those parts equal a holistic review.

So everything counts and what you want to make sure that you do is that you put time and attention into every single aspect of the application and having that understanding at 8th, grade is extremely helpful because once again, you can approach your high school career In a holistic fashion. So it’s not just looking one way or the other.

It’s looking at how am I going to look entirely? So am I planning effectively to engage in those extracurriculars and I’m engaging in relationships where people are going to be able to write effectively about me and who I am and what I’m going to bring to that college and university. And also, am I looking at my profile and who I am holistically and not just

So with that, we’ll go to a commercial.

Sydney: Thanks, Brandon. Yeah, I just want to jump in quickly and talk about our virtual college and career summit coming up this Saturday, May 4th. It’s really a great opportunity for younger students like those of you in the room today to connect with admissions officers and start your college journey.

You can learn more about some of the schools that are going to be there. be at the event, such as Stanford and Northwestern. And again, the event is this Saturday, May 4th from 9 a. m. to 3 p. m. Eastern time. And you can scan the QR code now to register today. Um, and I do just want to take a minute to remind everyone, you can go ahead and start submitting your questions.

If anything that Brandon’s been saying has brought up some questions for you, go ahead and put them in the Q and a box and we will read them later on. All right, back to you.

Brandon: Thanks so much. And I definitely want to encourage all of you to take advantage of that amazing summit. It’s a great opportunity to get your questions asked and answered.

So there’s some myths about the college admission process that I want to address. And once again, addressing these now in the eighth, ninth and 10th grade will be overall helpful to your process. So first one, getting all A’s is the most important thing. Now, When you’re applying to a college or university, once again, as I mentioned, you have a lot of choices.

There is a school literally out there for all students, but we also remember that you are human. Humans make mistakes. Humans have strengths and weaknesses. So, while we want you to have an impressive academic record, it is not going to be the end all be all. We admit students with B’s. We admit students with C’s.

Now, as more competitive as the process gets, you probably want to minimize those B’s and C’s. But once again, one grade is not going to cancel you out. Multiple grades are not going to cancel you out. What we want in the admission process is a demonstration. That you perform well, and also that you challenge yourself to the best of your ability.

So it’s both. So, the important thing is, once again, are you performing to the best of your ability? And also, are you challenging yourself to the best of your ability? And you can make B’s. You can make C’s. It doesn’t mean that you’re automatically cancelled out. But we do want you to demonstrate that you do have an impressive academic record and an impressive ability to be successful in what it is that you want to study.

So that’s something else you should also consider. Because when we evaluate you, we evaluate you within the context of what you say you want to study. So, if you’re someone who wants to go into engineering, what subjects do you probably have to perform well in? Math and science, right? So if we see that you are performing not as well in math and science, does that give us an indication or confidence that you’re going to perform well in those classes at our colleges or their college and university?

Probably not as much as a student who’s making A’s and B’s in those math and science subjects. So once again, you want to think about that because that can also help play to your strengths in the process by demonstrating that you understand who you are and your strengths. Test scores can make or break your chances of getting in.

Absolutely not. Now, once again, for an assured process, there may be, um, guarantees that you have to have a certain SAT score or an ACT score to get automatically admitted. But even outside of that, in a holistic process, students get admitted. Under that required SAT Or ACT Score. Also, when it comes down to looking at students, we don’t say highest SAT score wins. It is once again a combination of all of your factors. So the higher the score, the more competitive your application is, but it is not going to be a make or break it in the admission process. We’re going to look at every single aspect. The more clubs and activities on your resume, the better.

Once again, this is not necessarily true. We want you to be active and involved, but we want you to be purposefully active and involved. You’re doing it because you want to do it. If you’re doing it for the sake of doing it, it’s going to come across as such because once again, you have to demonstrate and, um, You have to demonstrate and also describe what it is that you’re involved in.

So if you’re involved in, let’s say 10 activities, but at the very surface level, just to say that you did it, is that going to be more impactful than someone who concentrated on three activities, gave all of themselves and led to big impacts, big involvements, big achievements within their school. So once again, it is definitely more about quality than it is quantity.

Every single year I get a student who says, um, how many community service hours should I do? My response is, do you want to do community service? If they say no, don’t do it. You should be doing the community service because you genuinely care and because you would already do it anyway. That’s going to be a good use of your time and not just for the purposes of putting it on your application.

Myth number four, you should ask for a recommendation only from a teacher who gave you an A. Once again, not entirely true. Your recommendations give us a sense of who you are in the classroom. So let’s say you got an A in an English class. But you want to go into, once again, engineering. What type of teacher would you probably want to speak for you, a math or science-based teacher, because they’re gonna speak to who you are and who you could be within an engineering class.

So while you may have gotten an A in that English class, it’s gonna just say that you’re a good student, but they’re probably not gonna necessarily speak to who you could potentially be as a future engineer or a future student in an engineering class. So once again, you wanna think about. Who is going to speak to me in a way that is supporting my advocacy for getting admitted into that particular program or that particular institution?

And sometimes it may not be that teacher who gave you an A. It could be that teacher who can speak to your grit and determination, who can speak to your love and interest in that particular, um, in that particular subject. So think about those things. It’s not just about, oh, You got an A because you want to think about what are they going to say about me and how is that going to be looked on in conjunction with everything else within my application.

It’s a mistake to get creative with your essay. Now, when it comes to this, it’s a gamble. To be honest, you have got to be secure. In your creativity, but also realize that your essay is an opportunity for you to talk about yourself. Now, it needs to be authentic. So I definitely tell students if you are a creative writer, there’s a way of demonstrating that.

But once again, you have got to be secure in that. This is not the time to try your comedy routine. This is also not the time to shorten your writing because it is then looked at as a missed opportunity. So what I mean by that is do not do a poem. Do not do a tweet. This should be an essay. But you can get creative.

You just have got to be secure in your creativity. Because, for example, I’ve had students try to write jokes. They’re not the best jokes. And we end up laughing at you rather than with you. So once again, think about how you want to be portrayed and have it be authentic. And then finally, your essay needs to be very dramatic or exciting.

Once again, not entirely true. This needs to be about you. Now, some people have had dramatic experiences. But they want to share that because that’s who they’re going to bring, but you as a person do not have to think what’s been the most tragic, what’s been the most dramatic thing that has happened to me, because that doesn’t automatically lead to a compelling essay.

A compelling essay is thoughtful, interesting, and personal. So therefore, notice, drama, not necessarily a part of that. I had a student who literally wrote in their essay, I am boring. That’s the way they started out their essay. What the essay became about was the fact that they’ve lived in a very sheltered community where everyone was very much like them.

They wanted to go to a place where there were different people. So in that essay, I got a sense of who they were, but it wasn’t overly dramatic and it wasn’t overly exciting, but it was honest. It was who the student was and what, and it gave me a sense of who they are and what they’re going to bring to that institution.

Also, some facts about the admission process. Once again, college admissions isn’t as competitive as you might think. Once again, many of us think about the very selective institutions, but once again, there are over 500 institutions that actually accept more than 75 percent of their applicants. So, I mention this just to say, college admissions isn’t just one thing for every single institution.

Every single institution out there is catering to different students because we are all different. There is a place for all of us. We have just got to be open to seeking out all those opportunities and even institutions that are very highly ranked. Um, could not be the best fit for some students. And those that are of a, are less, less selective.

They are still great options that offer great opportunities. So I encourage you to be open to all of the possibilities that are out there. But not every single institution is highly selective. Admission officers are human beings. This is a human process. It is not a numbers process. So remember. We’re evaluating you as humans, and this is a human process.

We’re not taking the humanity out of the admission process by making it a numbers process. There are people behind all of those. So remember, there’s also people who are evaluating you. So this isn’t a numerical system. It is a human. Schools evaluate you within the context of the school you are coming from.

So we don’t say one school is better than the other, but we do understand the nuances of your schools. So, if your school has AP as the highest level of curriculum, we want to see you took advantage of that. But if your school doesn’t have an AP or IB program, it isn’t held against you in the process. We look to see what do you have access to and did you take advantage of that.

Same thing when it comes to your extracurriculars. We understand not all extracurriculars are universally offered and also in some school systems, extracurriculars are not even offered or encouraged. So, once again, that doesn’t hurt you in the process because we look at you within that context. So, that’s also very important.

And it does truly depend on the school. You’re going to hear that a lot. It depends. Because, once again, this isn’t a one size fits all process. Every single school is different. So, be open and honest about asking those questions about how it works for that particular school and not going, oh, you know what?

This school does this, therefore all schools must do this. Not necessarily true. You want to ask about those nuanced differences. So some things that you should do regardless of your years. So always challenge yourself to the best of your ability with what is offered within your school. So once again, if honors courses is the highest level, take advantage of that.

If that’s the highest level in that current grade, that’ll be especially true for our eighth graders and our ninth graders. So that opportunity to take that algebra one class in eighth grade. Is a great opportunity to challenge yourself that opportunity to take that A.P. Human geography class in ninth grade.

Great opportunity to take advantage of that that A.P. World history or that I.B. Standard level. Great chance to challenge yourself. So take advantage of those. Explore your academic and personal interest. So if you’re thinking once again, in eighth grade, ninth grade, 10th grade, I want to be an engineer, go ahead and start acting like an engineer and exploring those interests.

So getting involved in those summer programs, getting involved in those extracurriculars related to that area of subject, because you’re truly exploring and informing what you’re doing. For your own self. Why are you interested in that subject, but also your personal interests? Maybe you want to try to learn how to sing just because you want to learn how to sing.

Get involved in choir. Maybe you want to get involved in theater and get up on that stage because you’ve always been interested. So remember, this is an opportunity for exploration. It doesn’t always have to fit, but you’re going to bring these experiences with you. So take advantage of these exploratory years, especially early on, because it can set you up for success later because you’ve already done that investigative work for yourself.

Be honest with yourself. Be honest. This is your process. So you’ve got to be honest about what you’re interested in. Many times I’ve seen a student be interested in a subject because their parents are interested in it. But remember, you’re the one going to college. You’re the one who has to be in the classes for these subjects.

So you’ve got to be honest with yourself and say, Hey, Mom, you may want me to become an engineer, but honestly, I want to become a poet. It’ll save you both time and energy and a lot of resources. So once again, be honest with yourself. Explore all of your options. We want you to have some sense of what you’re interested in, but we don’t need it to be 100 percent fully formed, because even us as adults, we’re still figuring it out.

But you should explore all of your options. And then, of course, take ownership of this process. This is your process. This is not your parents process. This is not anyone else’s process. This is yours. So, we want you to take the fullest advantage and the full ownership of this process. Now, for the parents out there, I want you to listen to your children.

If your children say that they are not interested in something, listen to them. If they are expressing a desire to go to an institution, listen You want this to be a team process and one way that it doesn’t become a team process is if you don’t listen to your child and their voice is drowned out. Once again, they’re applying.

We want to hear their voice in the application. Therefore, we need to hear their voice in the entire process. You are there to offer guidance and support. And once again, you’re there to be honest with your child. So be honest, especially when it comes to financial aid, be honest about those conversations of we may not have the money that way.

So therefore we may need to look at these other institutions. And so being honest ahead of time definitely causes a lot less stress for all of your, for all of your kids, but let your child lead the conversations about their academic interests and personal interests. Because once again, This has got to be their process, not yours.

So some things to remember, this is fun. This is truly a fun process. So eighth, ninth, 10th grade, enjoy the process, have fun, explore all these different things. This is about the next form of your development, and it will set you up for success for this to be a fun college admission process, exploring thousands of amazing universities, different academic interests, but have fun with it.

Enjoy your high school experience and not doing it for the sake of the college admission process. This means going to prom. This means hanging with your friends. This means just trying something just for it and just having fun. And once again, we want to admit you, the real you, not the manufactured version of you.

This is a human process. So while we want that exploration to be there, we don’t expect you to be We don’t expect you to be overly manufactured. We expect you to be you and then you’re just demonstrating who you are and the great human you are to be the great person at any of our colleges and universities.

So with that, we’re going to open up the floor to questions and answers.

Sydney: Yes, that brings us to the end of the presentation. Thank you so much. That was great. I wish I would have had a presentation like this when I was in 8th or 9th grade, but yeah, we’re going to go ahead and move on to the live Q and a session.

So, as a reminder, you can submit them to the Q and a tab, and I will publish them after I read them so that everyone can see the posed question. And if for some reason, if your Q& A tab is not working for you, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link that was sent to you in your email, not from our CollegeAdvisor webinar landing page.

All right, so first up, um, we have a question that goes back to the Common App. Can you please explain the honors section in the Common App and how it’s significant?

Brandon: Awesome. So the honors section is a way for us to see awards that you have received from 9th through 12th grade. So once again, this is a way of showing how have you been distinctive within your, uh, during your high school career.

So it could be an academic distinction, such as being on the honor roll. It could be an athletic distinction, such as being, you know, a state champion in football. football. It could be that you’ve done well in an academic competition. So the honor section is a way of us being able to see what are those academic honors that you or what are those significant honors that you have received that have made you distinctive within your community, but also distinctive even amongst our applicants.

Sydney: Great. Thank you for that. And kind of a follow up question. Do all schools take the common app?

Brandon: So not all schools take the common app. A good number do. So you always want to check with your particular college or university if they accept the common app because they may also accept the coalition application.

They may also accept their own application process or platform as well. So, for example, The University of California schools have their own platform and do, uh, so keep that in mind.

Sydney: Great, thank you for that clarification. All right, we have another question. Is starting a non profit or club in your school of a topic that you’re interested in and that relates to your future field?

Is that helpful to get into a good college?

Brandon: So I definitely encourage students to start up a nonprofit, a club, or any activity, because once again, they genuinely want to do that. The reason for why it’s good is because once again, it’s demonstrating your passion and your interest in that particular subject or area.

And it also is giving others an opportunity to also explore their potential. That particular passion and opportunity. So it is beneficial not just for good colleges, but it’s just beneficial for the world because you’re giving people opportunities and it does demonstrate once again your passion and commitment for that subject, but also the potential ability for you to bring that same passion and energy to our colleges and universities and starting up your own initiative.

So I definitely recommend that if you like doing it, go for it.

Sydney: Definitely. It definitely goes back to your actual interests and not just doing something because you think you should check that box, which I think is a great common theme that you’ve touched on throughout our presentation today. Um, all right.

So what about taking AP classes? Um, should you take AP classes for credit, even if it doesn’t correspond to your profile or your career interests?

Brandon: So I always talk about AP, the test in a different way because there’s the way that the test functions for the purposes of the admission process. And there’s the way that it functions for the purposes of actual credit for the admission process.

The AP test is not required. You’re not required to take AP test at all for the admission process. But if you do, it can be once again, a demonstration of your academic strength. So having a Three, four or five demonstrates that you’re at that level to where you could be a competent and great student in that particular subject and taking that AP and demonstrating that on the application shows you have that particular expertise and skill level.

So that’s for the admission process for credit is going to depend on the school. For some schools, you can get credit for a score of a three for some schools. You can get credit for four or above. And so for some schools, you have to have a five. So you’re going to want to check with your, with the schools that you’re applying to on what their credit policy is.

And generally I would usually recommend. Going for the credit because it can either satisfy a requirement, or it could also set you up to take advanced level courses in that particular area subject because you demonstrated your proficiency at that entry level.

Sydney: Thank you for that. I’m going to switch gears for a 2nd and talk about CollegeAdvisor. Um, CollegeAdvisor. com has a team of over 300 formal former admissions officers and admissions experts like Brandon and myself. Who are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process in one on one advising sessions.

We’ve already helped over 6,000 clients in their college admissions journeys. And after analyzing our data that we’ve collected since 2021, we’ve found that CollegeAdvisor students are more than three times likely to get into Stanford University, more than four times more likely to get into Vanderbilt University, and about two and a half times more likely to get into Harvard University.

Increase your odds and take a step in the next step. Part of your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with one of the CollegeAdvisor Admission specialists on our team and you can go ahead and scan that QR code on the screen to sign up for your session During this meeting.

We’ll review your current extracurricular activities and if you have an application strategy started already and Discuss how they align with your college list and outline some of the tools that you need to stand out in a competitive admissions world so We have a lot of great advisors who are ready to help and that QR code will stay on the screen for the rest of the Q and a.

presentation. Remember that you can keep submitting your questions in that Q and a tab. So, uh, when should students start thinking about standardized tests like the ACT And SAT

Brandon: Great question. Generally, I recommend that students start looking into the PSAT Um, when they are in the, because remember there is a PSAT 9, there’s a PSAT 10, and there’s also a PSAT 11.

So that’s a great opportunity to use those practice tests, um, to go ahead and look into especially the SAT. For the ACT, there is also a pre, um, ACT that you can look at and see when it is offered. Generally, I recommend that students take their first kind of SAT, the ACT. Um, the main SAT Or the main ACT Usually the summer of their sophomore going into their junior year is a great time to take it because once again, um, you have to remember, especially for the math, the math actually goes all the way to pre calculus now. And so being able to have that curriculum. It’s gonna be helpful in taking the SAT.

So generally some students complete pre-calculus by, you know, that, that particular time. So that’s a good time to start taking or, um, thinking about taking the s uh, the SAT and the ACT, um, another great time to start ta to take it would be in. December or January of your junior year and then taking it again over the summer before your senior year because the maximum number of times that you want to take the SAT or the ACT is three times.

Research has definitely shown that taking it more than that doesn’t justify taking the test because your score doesn’t increase by that much.

Sydney: That’s great advice. I did not know that three times. That’s, that’s great. Um, okay. And what about starting your college essays? When should students start preparing for your college essay and your personal statements?

Should that happen on early on? And if so, how, how should students go about doing that?

Brandon: So remember all of the self reflective work that I kept emphasizing throughout this presentation? That’s you preparing for your essay because you’re going to have to talk about yourself. Generally, I recommend students actually working on their actual essays https: otter.

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They are subject to change. And so you don’t want to plan. To ahead, because you may not be able to write a topic that’s related to what is offered by the common application also you as a person are also going to change. And so you don’t want to do it too early. We want a sense of who you are right now.

Right as a potential incoming student. So, generally, I recommend working on the common application during the summer before your senior year.

Sydney: Thank you for that. Um, and what types of summer programs exist for students, um, to help boost their college applications? What are pre college programs and could you kind of go into that a little bit?

Brandon: So there are several programs that are out there. Pre college programs are a great way of getting expertise or experience and exploration in the subjects that you’re interested in.

So there are pre college programs throughout the entire United States and even outside the United States as well. So look at your local colleges and universities and see if they have pre college programs and see what subjects that they have. So some of them have engineering so you can get that engineering experience.

Some have pre law or pre medicine. So you can see what courses are related to that. So those are a great opportunity to work Entry program. I generally recommend those for 10th graders as a great way of getting that kind of entry level understanding and that entry experience because then that sets you up for deeper experiences that you can have as a junior or senior, such as doing an internship or shadowing opportunity and some other deeper programs because you have that baseline knowledge.

Sydney: I participated in some summer programs myself, and they were a great way to learn a lot and meet some really cool friends and see a college campus. So yeah, definitely would recommend taking advantage of those if you’re able to. Um, so this question is kind of about the breadth versus depth concept. And is it better to have few leadership roles or to participate in a variety of clubs?

And what are the benefits to both of those strategies?

Brandon: So in my opinion, it’s gotta be depending on you. Couple things you have to remember. Leadership isn’t only about a position. You can be a leader even without having a title. It’s about your impact. So maybe your impact in that particular extracurricular is being the leader of an initiative because that’s generally where your passion is, right?

Maybe in another activity, you like being involved in that community, but you don’t want to be at that leadership level. Because that’s not exactly where a lot of your passion is. And that gives you the capacity to then be even more active in the other, uh, in the other club. So that’s the way that I try to help students think about this when it comes to their activity levels.

It’s about how deeply committed do you want to give your time? And also what kind of impact do you want to have in that extracurricular? And so if there’s one that you want to get deeply involved in, maybe you need capacity to do that. And so therefore your involvement in an other one will be more at the participant level because you want the experience, you want the engagement, but you want to do the more leadership and initiative work over here in this other club.

Sydney: All right. So speaking of clubs and activities, um, some students schedules can get really busy with all the things on their plate. So. What are some time management strategies that students can take advantage of to manage their coursework and extracurricular activities?

Brandon: So this is about you knowing yourself.

So generally, I tell students there is no benefit in overworking yourself because you’ve got to sleep. We want you to be healthy. So this requires, once again, that self evaluative work that I’ve talked about all tonight. It means that when you’re approaching your coursework, you know you. You know if you’re going to need extra time to get through those problem sets because you hate math with a fire of a thousand suns like myself.

So therefore, maybe because you need to devote some more time to Over here for studying. It doesn’t give you the same ability to then do as many extracurriculars as you would like. Cause of course you gotta be able to demonstrate that you can do the academic work first and foremost. So always make sure that you prioritize.

Doing your schoolwork because you have to be a great academic student. So I always say prioritize that first. Then it’s a matter of, well, what do I want to fill in my time with? And can I do that effectively with the other extracurriculars? So this means maybe timing yourself. Right. Maybe setting boundaries to say, okay, I devote these two hours over here to football practice.

That means then I might have to do that additional two hours of studying that I know over here on another day where I have the capacity to do that. So one thing that I’ve always said is literally block out your time. Right. Do a sheet where you go from, you know, 6 a. m. from when you wake up to, let’s say you go to bed at 10 o’clock at night, literally chart out.

How are you spending your time for from Monday through Sunday? And that way you’ll see where those openings. Right. And those openings are where you include your studying, include that time for eating, include that time that you want to spend with your family or to do other hobbies and the remaining time you can feel as you want, but getting a real sense of how you spend your time and where those opportunities are can help you strategize and prioritize your schedule.

Sydney: Yeah, it kind of reminds me of the screen time analytics on your phone. It’s kind of like doing that for your entire life. All right. This might be our last question of the night, but. What are some strategies that students should take advantage of to kind of start the college research process to begin building out their college list?

Brandon: Absolutely. So first and foremost, I say that you should start asking yourself, what are you interested in? So, cause your primary reason for going to a college or university? To get educated in what you’re interested in. So ask yourself that question, and then start looking into institutions that have those programs.

You want to look at a variety of institutions. So look at, um, their, uh, websites to get kind of a general sense of their information and then start going to some information sessions. Information sessions are offered on campus, but they’re also offered virtually. So that’s a way for you to be able to connect with an admission officer and also learn some more information about that institution.

But as you are collecting this data, open up just a Google document, write down your impressions of the schools. What do you like? What do you not like? And over the course of that, start seeing some patterns of some of the things that you like and some of the things that you don’t like because that’s going to give you a sense of, okay, I know I like big environments.

I want to go to a very, very big school that has a very big sports culture. Therefore, a small school that doesn’t have a big environment. have a big sports culture, but may have the academic program you like may not be the place you want to apply to. So I think it’s just jumping in and starting to see these commonalities that ultimately help you to do effective college research and make an effective college list.

Sydney: That is all great advice. Thank you so much for your answers to questions. And thank you again to our presenter tonight, Brandon Mack. Do you have any final words to say?

Brandon: This is a fun process. Starting early is going to make it less stressful, but once again, have fun with this process and it starts now.

Keep challenging yourself, keep dreaming big, and it’ll be a great process.

Sydney: I love that. I don’t even know I can follow up finally. But yeah, thank you everyone so much for joining our webinar, starting early to stand out college admissions for eighth, 10th grade families. We do have a lot of other great webinars coming up this month, um, in the month of May.

So be sure to check them out on CollegeAdvisor.com and sign up for your free strategy, just fresh free strategy session by scanning the QR code. Uh, when you close out the webinar, thank you so much for joining.

Brandon: Have a good day, everyone.