Starting Early to Stand Out: College Admissions for Sophomores and Juniors

Webinar Transcription

2023-11-27 – Starting Early to Stand Out: College Admissions for Sophomores and Juniors

Stacey: Okay. Hi, everyone. My name is Stacey Tuttle, and I am your moderator today. Welcome to, “Starting Early to Stand Out: College Admissions for Sophomores and Juniors.” To orient everyone with the webinar timing, 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.

Now, let’s meet our wonderful panelists. Chelsea.

Chelsea: Thanks, Stacey. Hi, everyone. My name is Chelsea Holley, and I serve as an admissions officer here at CollegeAdvisor. I’ve worked in college admissions for a little over 12 years now at a number of selective institutions, um, focusing on holistic admissions review.

Um, so I’m super excited to talk a little bit more about what holistic review means and how you can prepare for this process as early as your freshman year.

Stacey: Amazing. Thank you for being with us tonight. I’m so excited to learn from you as I know everyone in the room probably is very anxious to hear the presentation, but to get started, do you want to get to know who’s in the room with us today?

You’re going to see a poll pop up in front of you. What grade are you in? Um, I’m imagining we might have a lot of sophomores and juniors, but you never know. I’d love to see some freshmen in the room, maybe getting ahead of the game. Um, I even see some seniors who are trying to figure out, okay, where did I lay the right roadblocks, right?

And you know, where am I, I be missing some steps. Um, Chelsea, do you remember if you started thinking about college as early as sophomore year or was that really a junior year? Experience for you. Can you think back to that time?

Chelsea: Right? It’s a while back. Um,

Stacey: yeah, I know. I can’t. I can’t think that far back.

Personally,

Chelsea: I believe I can remember. Um, and I think junior year was probably the time where you’re kind of hearing about college from all angles. So family, your high school counselor, but to be honest, if you’re starting early ninth grade, you’re Even thinking as early as eighth grade, sometimes you can begin kind of carving out a more strategic pathway.

Um, so I think I was probably a little late to the game, um, but you know, far more resources now and webinars like these and different tools to, to really make sure, um, that you’re starting early.

Stacey: Yeah, that’s really good insight too. I can’t imagine looking at 10th grade me and saying you have a strategy.

I don’t think that was my mindset at all. I didn’t even know that was a thing. So you all are in a really great place to get some great advice from us tonight. Um, and it does look like we have. Surprise, surprise, mostly sophomores and juniors. We do have a couple of freshmen and eighth grader. Excellent.

Good for you. And we have a couple of seniors. So welcome to you all. I’m going to go ahead and close that poll and turn it over to Chelsea for the main part of the presentation tonight.

Chelsea: Very good. So let’s. First, talk about the benefits of starting early. Um, I think the number one benefit is that you are a more informed applicant.

The earlier you start, um, you have time to do your research. You have time to really sift through the different options, um, and make the best decision. In addition to being informed, an earlier start allows you to get prepared. Um, so that means being really intentional about who your recommenders are, um, being intentional about your essays.

It might be going through multiple drafts, changing prompts. You have the time to really be prepared, um, as it, relates to putting that application together. Um, we talked about strategy already being strategic. Um, I think this is a new worry that folks have, um, is what is my admission strategy? Um, how am I going to best present myself to get into the colleges that I’m most interested in?

Um, and then the last one I think is incredibly important. Um, this process is filled with different twists and turns. And so starting early gives you room to pivot. So pivoting might look like not getting into your dream school and having to look at another institution. It might look at, um, different expectations around, say, policies and how that might change your course.

Um, so the earlier you start, the more flexible you are and frankly the better positions you are for success in this process.

So students are not the only people starting early. Parents are also starting early. Um, and it’s incredibly advantageous. for parents as well to begin thinking about college earlier and earlier. Um, so the first piece is establishing a communication approach. Um, and this one seems like, of course, I’m going to talk to my student about college, but I can’t tell you how many families really struggle, um, with, How to talk about college when to talk about college, um, students may not feel it’s the right time.

Parents might have a sense of urgency that’s misplaced. Um, so really establishing when. Are the best times and how should you be communicating with your student and high school counselors is key. The 2nd, 1 is huge understanding the financial aspect of the admissions process. So, that could be something as small as application fees.

Um, application fees can range from 40 to 100, but if your student is applying for 10 schools, 15 schools, this might be something that you want to make a plan for. Um, if you are a family that is looking for, um, institutions that meet full financial need, if you are a family that Is planning to pay a certain amount out of pocket, but you have a firm number of what that amount is.

These are things that you need to communicate with your student early on so that it can help shape their college search. And the last one is preparing emotionally. This is a huge step, not only for students, but Also for parents and starting early, beginning the conversation early can get you more comfortable emotionally, um, with eventually sending your student off.

So, one of the pieces that I think is critical for students and parents to understand as they’re entering the college admission space is that. Institutions are taking a holistic approach to understanding you as a student. And holistic means that they are looking at you as a whole person. Um, so all the details about who you are, your life, your experiences, your accomplishments are all a part of what colleges are seeking out.

The Common App is a central application platform that many colleges, over a thousand colleges, Um, use for their admissions applications and the common app is a benefit to families because it allows you to apply one place to a number of different colleges on the common app. They’re going to ask you for a variety of information, and some of the information students will provide some of the information though.

Parents will also provide. You do not fill out a Common App until you are a senior and getting ready to apply, but preparing for the admissions application may include beginning to kind of draft this information, um, thinking about your activities, thinking about your writing, um, in a way that makes you prepared when you finally do, um, begin your Common Application.

So, the 1st thing that the application is asking you is some demographic and profile information. Um, so, where do you live? What is your contact information? Um, your language, your nationality, um, where you may have attended different institutions. If you’ll be using a fee waiver, fee waivers are typically related to your household income.

Um, so all of these, all of this information allows the admissions committee to understand who you are as a person, your family, and personal background. Um, next we’re asking very specific questions about the family. Um, are your parents living in the same household? What is their education? If you have a legal guardian, that’s something that you would disclose here.

Um, the common app also ask about sibling information. Um, so how old are your siblings? Did they go to college? This information, again, is helpful with really understanding your background. We’ll talk more about holistic admissions on the next slide, but part of understanding an applicant in a holistic way is understanding them as a person and understanding the context in which they grew up, the context in which they were educated, so on and so forth.

So, Next we talk about education. These are the high schools that you’ve attended. Um, if you’ve taken dual enrollment classes, you are asked to list colleges that you’ve attended. Um, some institutions will ask you to pull out your transcript and list each of your grades. Um, you’ll have your most recent year courses listed on the Common App as well.

Um, remember if you are a Senior student applying early action or early decision. All we will see at the time that you apply are your in progress courses. And so that junior year is incredibly critical, um, because you will only be able to put your recent, most recent year courses on your college application.

We won’t actually see how you’re doing in them. Um, you’ll list any honors that you’ve received through your high school. So this could be like honor roll, um, any community based organizations. And then of course, your future plans, the common app actually ask you, what do you see yourself doing? Um, when you graduate college, um, next we talk about testing.

So, uh, they ask all of the tests that you’ve taken. Whether that is the ACT or the SAT, this also includes AP exams, as well as IB exams. If you are an international student, this can include exams such as your A levels and your O levels. Next activities. Um, when we think about extracurricular activities for college, I encourage you all to think very broad.

So this is not only being the captain of your soccer team or president of the robotics club. This is also taking care of a younger sibling or looking after your grandmother during the pandemic. This could also be a part time job. And so think of activities and extracurriculars as everything that you did outside of the classroom.

And then last, your writing. Um, all students that fill out the Common App typically write a personal essay. Um, you also have an opportunity to fill out, um, additional writing supplements that are specific to the school. There is also a community disruption essay. Currently, this was a prompt added through the pandemic.

This is more of a give additional context, less of an essay. This allows students to articulate how the pandemic may have affected them. And then last additional information. Very similar. If there’s. Anything that you feel like you need to tell the admissions committee, you can use the additional information to tell us there.

So it could be something like, um, you moved three times during high school, or you, um, didn’t have the opportunity to take AP courses because of this reason. So, um, we’re really wanting to know all that we can about you in the college admissions application. So that we can make a fair decision about your admission.

So again, let’s go over some quick highlights of the holistic application review process. So the first one is most selective institutions use holistic review. The only exceptions to this would be institutions that might tell you that they have a GPA minimum And anyone over that GPA is guaranteed admissions.

Um, typically that will not be an institution that uses holistic application review. Um, but the majority of four year institutions that, um, our clients here at CollegeAdvisor are interested in applying in are going to take a holistic review process, um, which means they are looking at everything about you.

You are more than a GPA or a test score. Um, so this information is helpful because it gives colleges confidence that you’ll do well on their campus. Um, but there’s so many other things that can make you a good fit for a college. Holistic review takes that into. All aspects of your personhood and life experiences are considered.

Those are some of those elements that we talked about on the last slide. And holistic application review is guided by institutional priorities. So this is a really kind of important one that I think couches holistic review. Um, institutional priorities could be something as small as, um, the college just hired an amazing new art history professor and they want to make sure that they’re building the heart art history program at their school.

That could be an institutional priority that affects application or review. There may be a new swim facility being built on campus. And so there, there may be an institutional priority to recruit swimmers. That’s something that can affect the application review process. Another more common example, if you are interested in any public state flagships like a UGA, a Florida State, State or University of Florida, any of the public Texas institutions, oftentimes those schools have a commitment to in state students.

And that means they have an institutional priority to enroll a certain number of in state students that could impact the review. For out of state students. And so, yes, this is all about who you are as a person, but holistic review saves room for the institution to prioritize things that may or may not have anything to do with how great of an applicant you are.

Institutions are looking for students who are a good fit on their campuses. Um, and so. Institutions are also trying to build and shape a class, so it is less about wanting to admit all of the students that have a perfect score or over a 4.0 GPA. It’s more about wanting to create a mixture of students on campus that are a good fit and bring different elements to the campus.

So these are five pillars of holistic application review for you to understand, um, not only the application that you put forth, but also how the committee is ultimately going to make a decision about you. So let’s run through some myths about the college application process, and I’m going to share some corresponding truths.

So this one is huge. We hear it all the time. It is impossible to get into a good college these days. You hear admit rates as low as 3%, 4 percent for some of the top colleges. No one can get into school these days. The second one, parents should be the final decision makers. Third, students should be the sole decision makers.

Another myth, you can understand your chances of admission by comparing yourself to students. There is a specific way for you to stand out in the admissions application process, and then last college admissions is all about merit and fairness. So, again, these are all myths. I hear students and families speak these to true as truth all the time.

These are myths. Let’s talk about what are facts in this process. It is impossible to say that it isn’t true. is um, it’s impossible to get into a good college because there are thousands of great colleges. One of the things that we do at CollegeAdvisor is really allow students to build a college list.

We challenge their current college lists and try to find schools that are a best fit for them. And this may not always be the schools that you’ve heard In your neighborhood or at your high school or in your family circles. Um, and so introducing schools that may not be unknown, but unknown to you, um, is an amazing way to kind of broaden the schools in your college list.

And I assure you there are many schools that do not have single digit acceptance rates that are amazing institutions. There is no objectively best college. Um, so we know that there are, um, college rankings that are great tools for you to understand the options that are out there. Um, but those rankings are made up of a number of different measures about graduation rates and faculty and class sizes.

Um, all of those measures. Um, and so the best college is the best fit for you. Um, some people might think that small class sizes are an optimal feature for every student. There are other students who thrive in large classroom settings. And so really focusing on what are the things that you need early on so that you can build those into your college list.

Parents are not the sole decision makers in this process. Students are not the sole decision makers. Uh, this process takes a village of supporters and decision makers. It starts with the family at home, but it extends to your high school guidance counselor, as well as any college advising help that you have outside of the high school.

1 of the myths that we talked about was that you can understand your chances of admission by comparing yourself to others. So, um, this is an interesting exercise that sometimes can be insightful, but more often than not, you are unaware of the risks. Of internal strategies of that particular college, and oftentimes students are unaware of the institutional priorities that will shape that year’s admissions decisions.

And so colleges change strategies. Every year. Um, in 2020, there may be a focus on students from New York in 2021. They may be looking for additional architecture students. Um, in 2023, there may be some other demographic factors that they’re interested in. Um, and so it’s really important to, um, know who you are as an applicant.

Um, build a balanced college list. And not get too caught up in whether you’re going to get in and who got in last year and what your chances are if you’re building a balanced college list and really understanding what schools are looking for, um, then you should be in a good position. To send off your applications and receive some admissions office offers that are a good fit for you.

Um, next, there is no formula to stand out. Um, and I know this one, um, is always hard. I think one of the, the biggest questions is how do I stand out? Well, the first answer to that is Standing out looks different for every college. One of the best ways to stand out is to really understand the college that you are applying to.

What are they good at? What do they believe in? What’s their mission? What’s their values? And how can you connect your application, your story to those elements? And If you can’t connect it, then it may not be the best fit college for you. Um, and so there is no formula for you to stand out. There are, however, some really amazing things that you can do to be a strong applicant, um, and to put your best foot forward for this process.

And then last, um, one of the myths was everything in college admissions about is about merit and fairness. There are many elements of this process that have nothing to do with you as an applicant. We talked about those in the institutional priority point. Um, because of that, It is not always fair. Um, I think this is, um, a hard truth to internalize.

Um, but this also helps you to better understand your decisions when they come. Um, all you can do is put your best foot forward, be prepared, be informed early on. Um, and again, back to that balance college lists, create a list that gives you the best opportunity of success. in this process.

So let’s talk about what the student responsibilities are. Um, again, this spans all academic years, but as early as freshman year, focus on course selection and strong grades. This is incredibly important. Um, if you are looking at applying to a selective college, you want to look at maximizing rigor at your high school.

What does maximizing rigor look like? This means With the courses available to you at your high school, did you best challenge yourself? A lot of students get caught up on, is it better to take an AP course or an honors course or dual enrollment? In most cases, all of those courses are considered more challenging than the on level class.

This is typically what colleges are looking for when they say rigor. Very rarely will they articulate, we need you to take five AP courses, or we need you to take a set of dual enrollment courses. Focus on taking challenging courses, um, based on what’s available to you at your high school. This is something that you can seek out as early as freshman year, um, and throughout your high school career.

Build meaningful relationships with teachers. This is super important. Again, something you can do really early on. These are the people that will be writing your recommendation letters. Most colleges will require one to three recommendation letters. It is preferred that these are from teachers that know you in an academic context.

You do not want to get to your junior or Or senior year and think, oh my gosh, I don’t have anyone to write me a recommendation letter. What that means to colleges is that you did not build meaningful relationships throughout your time in high school. So you want to start on that early. Again, be strategic.

Um, if you all are on this webinar, this already means that you are committed, um, and really wanting to get a head start on this project. process. Do that by building those relationships with future recommenders, join extracurricular activities and seek leadership opportunities. You want to do this early on in high school.

Um, one of the things that sticks out like a sore thumb is students who did not participate in anything freshman year nor sophomore year. And all of a sudden, second semester of their junior year, they’ve joined three organizations. We want to see a thread of involvement throughout your four years, um, and preferably some leadership, um, some progressive involvement.

So if you were a member in an organization freshman and sophomore year, maybe junior year, you run for office. This is really important as you are trying to set yourself apart from the greater applicant pool. Explore summer opportunities. So, summer opportunities are, um, not necessarily required to be a competitive applicant, um, but This is some additional time that you can really maximize, um, your applicant profile.

So whether it is getting a part time job or participating in an internship or doing a pre college program, taking dual enrollment courses, the summer is a great time to kind of beef up your application. This can start as early as the summer between your freshman year and your sophomore year. Research different majors and career paths.

Um, this is incredibly helpful, um, particularly if you are applying to a college or university that takes your academic major into account when they’re making an admissions decision. This is important because if you know early on that you want to major in, let’s call it computer science. Then you are able to take a math sequence that is going to make you a competitive applicant.

You are going to be able to join clubs and organizations that might be in line with that major. Um, All of these different things allow you to kind of strategize early on to show your interest in a major. The other reason this is important is you may find out your sophomore year that you absolutely hate computer science.

You now don’t have enough time to change course. And explore other things, get involved in different organizations, um, and really be committed or interested in something else by time your senior year comes. Number six, building a college list. It’s not too early to do this. Um, obviously the Older or the further you get in your high school career, the more this list becomes formal and finalize the building a college list early is a great way to kind of see what you’re interested in, what types of schools you’re interested in so that you can begin getting on campuses and really experiencing those colleges.

Write your essays. Um, so it is not expected that your freshman year you would be writing your college admissions essay, nor your sophomore year, but understanding what goes into these essays is important, um, beginning to, uh, really craft your writing skills, understanding how to answer a prompt, how to format an argument, um, these are all things that you can start on really early.

And then last assemble your college admissions village, who is going to help you navigate this process? Um, this is not something you do in a vacuum. Um, so, really understanding who are the people. in your household, in your community, at your high school, that are going to help you get over the finish line.

A couple things that parents should be doing, um, all four years. The first one is facilitating campus visit opportunities. This is a big one. Um, get your student on a college campus. I would almost say any college campus. Um, their dream school may be 500 miles away and you’re really busy and it may be hard to get them there, get them on a similar college campus in your state that might be 30 miles away.

What this allows them to do is to try on college types. So you try on a, um, a rural college town, um, institution, you try on an urban campus like an NYU, um, you try on a small liberal arts institution, um, and it begins to matter less what the college is and more so kind of the features that are going to best suit your student.

Build a relationship with those high school guidance counselors early. They can be the keys to the kingdom in this process, so you want to make sure that you’re having conversations with them early and often. That leads me to the next point, advocate for your student as needed. You do not want the first time that you’re engaging with the high school counselor to be the senior year when they have forgotten to submit a letter of recommendation.

You want to build a relationship with them as well. Encourage your students to advocate for themselves. Um, students do have a lot of ownership in this process. Um, and so you want to empower them to do that. Fill out the FAFSA, which is the Federal Application for Student Aid. And explore financial paths to college.

Again, this looks different for every family. Um, but the fact remains, you have to talk about finances early in this process. De center your ego from their college admissions experience. Um, I promise it will be a much more enjoyable experience for both you and your student. Um, if you realize and understand that this is not about you, this is about finding the best match for your student.

And then lastly, celebrating the wins. Um, an admissions offer from the number one school on your students list should not be the only win. Um, polishing a final draft of the essay is a win. Um, getting, uh, an officer position in an organization junior year is a win. Pressing submit on that college application after you’ve been stressed out about it for months.

is a win. Um, so make sure that you are cheering your student on along the way, um, and really leading by example, um, and keeping a positive attitude about this process. Some final things to remember before we go to Q and A. This process works best when a team of supporters are involved. Starting early is a strategy in itself and your interest can change and that is okay.

Stacey: Chelsea, what an amazing presentation. I always enjoy listening to your advice. For those of you in the room, you had a really great treat tonight. Lots of wisdom and what Chelsea has said. Um, that is the end of the presentation part of the webinar. I hope you found it helpful like I did. And remember, 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 the questions you submit in the Q and a tab. Don’t be shy. Go ahead and put those in there. Um, I’ll then paste them into the public chat so you can see them and then read them out loud before Chelsea can give you an answer. As a heads up, if your Q& A tab isn’t letting you submit questions, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not From the webinar landing page.

Uh, it looks like we have our first question in the chat. So I’ll go ahead and read that. Um, will there be another session soon? There are many sessions. And in fact, if you download the handouts, um, the slides in the handout section, you’ll see that we have our December calendar available. Um, they might not be precisely on this topic, but there are many.

And if you are looking for more on this topic, you’ll be emailed with the recording after the webinar tonight. Thanks. I would also encourage checking out the plethora of CollegeAdvisor articles out there. There are so many really good ones, really useful reads for you and your student at any stage in the college admissions process.

The next question is about scholarships, and actually, there were a lot of scholarship and financially questions. In the registration, the pre registration information, Chelsea, can you talk a little bit about when you should start thinking about financial aid and scholarships? Is it relevant in sophomore and junior year?

What are your thoughts?

Chelsea: I think, um, you certainly can begin thinking about scholarships as early as the sophomore year. It’s really part of the how will finances impact this process conversation. Um, and so if, when you have that conversation, it arises that you’re looking for funding, you’re looking for scholarships, it is beneficial to begin identifying where those scholarships live.

So, um, if you have a college list already, what type of financial aid packages are each of those institutions offering, um, their Are there any prestigious scholarships that you might Begin preparing for, um, very early on. Um, you also should note if you are looking for scholarships, you don’t want to necessarily wait on the college that you’re interested in to admit you give you a financial aid award letter that has the scholarship.

There are external awards out there that you can bring to any college you’re interested in. Um, so you definitely want to begin researching external scholarships. The great thing about those is they follow you wherever you go. Um, ideally you would be looking at scholarship offers from institutions you apply to and from organizations, um, such as Coca-Cola, Google, Walmart, the list kind of goes on and on you.

Of all of these organizations and companies that have scholarship programs for students.

Stacey: Great. Yeah, I think scholarships and financial aid are a point of tremendous anxiety for a lot of families. So it’s really helpful to understand that you can start that process a little bit earlier. You can start creating those spreadsheets of information and deadlines and relevant pieces for your own internal knowledge.

Um, Chelsea, how does that change? How does the whole application discussion actually change, in your opinion, if you’re interested in sports? Sure. There’s a lot of pre registration questions about this as well.

Chelsea: Yeah, I mean, frankly, sports can complicate this process even more. Um, it’s even more critical to begin early and really kind of have your ducts in a row if you are an athlete.

Um, typically what happens is that you have the admissions process running parallel to the athletic recruiting process. And so athletes are still filling out the same admissions application. They’re still best positioning themselves as scholars. But at the same time, they are making connections with coaches, um, assembling and developing highlight reels, posting those on different platforms online that can get them seen, going to visits and summer, um, summer programs that allow, um, athletes to, to actually be seen.

So there is an entire lane. of athletic recruiting that we have not covered today that focuses just on your sport, but you are still simultaneously, uh, uh, you’re simultaneously being a part of the admissions process as well. Um, so it’s almost, you have more things to do, um, not things to do in place of the admissions process.

Stacey: Yeah, it does. It does extremely so complicated and make it a very different experience. Um, but it’s really helpful to have that insight. I want to move away from financial aid and scholarships for a moment, um, and talk about letters of recommendation. Can you talk, I know you, you touched on maintaining relationships with counselors, um, fostering relationships with people who are important to you throughout your high school career.

When is a good time to ask for those recommendations?

Chelsea: Yeah, so, um, I like to give teachers a heads up junior year, right? So, um, letting them know that, hey, I really enjoyed your class, or I really enjoyed this subject, and I feel like I’ve grown a lot since I’ve taken your class. I would love for you to write me a recommendation letter when the time presents.

So, planting the seed early, Good thing to do then, as soon as your senior senior year hits August, September, you want to put in a formal request with a deadline for your recommendation letter. Keep in mind, this is this is something that you have to depend on someone else to do by a deadline. So it’s critical that you let them know early enough.

Um, another great practice is giving your recommender a resume or a brad sheet that gives them kind of some information on you, allows them to more quickly put together a recommendation letter for you, or a more compelling recommendation letter. They may only know you in the context. of their class or that club or sport, um, giving them a brag sheet or resumes as this is all of the other things that I think you should know about me to help contextualize this recommendation letter.

Stacey: Great advice. Yeah. It’s never. I don’t think it’s ever too early to really get give them a heads up, but, um, you know, you do want to continue those touch points as you get closer to when you actually need those recommendations. Right? So, another question that I really, I want to touch on in the chat is creating that college list.

Can you touch on. The app, the balance component to the list that matches the reaches and the safeties that you might consider.

Chelsea: Yeah. So when we say a balanced college list, this means that you are compiling a list of schools that are equally ambitious. Um, but you’re also adding some schools on there, um, that you are a pretty good candidate for admission.

Um, and this is important because if you fill your list with schools that all have a 2 percent or 3 percent acceptance rate, you may not be a happy camper. On release day, no matter how good of a student you are, we call those schools reach schools. Um, and they’re called a reach because they are literally a reach for everyone based on the odds alone.

So, if you take an institution that’s receiving. 30,000 applications, 40,000 applications, and they admit just 3%. They are turning down the vast majority of their applicants. And oftentimes, the vast majority of those applicants have amazing grades, amazing scores. And so it is a reach for everyone, because of those things.

We also have what we call your. target schools. Your target schools are schools that you are well positioned to get admitted to based on your SAT scores if they take them, GPA. Um, and then we have your safety schools. Your safety schools are schools that either have higher acceptance rates, Um, or that you are at and or above the profile of the student that they typically admit.

And so to make a balanced list, if we’re looking at 10 institutions, um, we want you to have just a few reach schools. We want the majority of your list to be target and then also have a couple of safety schools. And this allows you to kind of cover all of your bases when those admissions offers come in.

Stacey: Great. Yeah, that’s really helpful context. I, I had no idea about mattress safeties and reaches. When I was forming my college list, I stumbled upon it by accident. I think being a practical applicant, but not every applicant may approach that process in a practical way. And so it definitely is. Very helpful in terms of ensuring your admissions outcomes that ultimately, you know, you do want to get into college.

Having that balance between the safeties, the matches and the reaches is is great. Um, can we talk a little bit about the early decision early action scenarios? What does that look like? What is the difference?

Chelsea: Um, so both early decision and early action, um, have a couple of things in common. Um, the biggest thing that they have in common is that the deadline to apply is early, typically sometime in the fall.

Um, they’re as early as October 15th. Typically, um, They can go into early January, but most of them are going to be sometime in that fall semester, both early action and early decision, um, a benefit of these. You also find out earlier. Um, so you get to know whether you got in, um, a bit earlier on in your senior year.

There’s 1 very big difference between those 2 application plans. 1 is binding and 1 is not binding. A binding application plan says that if you are admitted to this institution, you guarantee that you will be enrolling and you will withdraw your applications from all other institutions on your list. It is a very drastic measure to take.

This means this is your number one school. You’re not interested in anyone else. Um, in fact, you end up withdrawing, uh, applications before you even hear back from school sometimes. So you can’t have any interest in playing the field. Um, early action, on the other hand, has all the benefits of knowing early, um, applying early, but it is not binding.

You still, you still have until May 1st, the National College Decision Day, to make a choice. You’re still able to apply to other institutions. You can compare financial aid offer letters. It leaves you more flexible. So early decision binding, this is your number one choice. Early action, you can stay flexible.

Stacey: Excellent. Um, really great overview. I’d like to pivot to test scores. There’s a lot of questions from pre registration and in the chat now about Um, when is it too early or too late to prepare for the SAT and ACT? Um, Can you touch a little bit on that timeline?

Chelsea: Yeah, so, um, many students are first introduced to the SAT or the ACT through the PSAT at their high school.

So that is often kind of your first go. If you do not have the PSAT at your high school, students will typically take the either exam as early as The sophomore year. One thing to note, there are no preferences by school of whether you take the PSAT or the ACT or I’m sorry, the SAT or the ACT. More often than not, it’s kind of a regional preference.

Um, certain students in certain states are more likely to take the ACT versus the SAT, so on and so forth. So the strategy, if you know that you want to take the exam, take both, whichever one you like the best. Take that one again. Um, they do have different, um, formats and so it is highly likely that you are better at testing at, on one exam than the other.

Um, but I think more importantly in this, um, context is understanding. If testing is going to be a part of your application plan in general, um, the pandemic really opened the floodgates to a number of test optional policies. Um, at this point, the vast majority of 4 year institutions, even selected for Institute for your institutions are test optional.

We’re talking about out of. There are 2,500 four year accredited institutions in the United States. 2,100 of them do not require test scores. So, you want to kind of understand that landscape. One of the things that you should do is consistently inquire about school’s test optional policies. Um, and a follow up question is, how many of your admitted students, what percentage of your admitted students submitted test scores?

that can give you some additional insight to know if test scores are right for you. Um, so doing the research on the policies, starting, um, to take the test as early as the sophomore year, and for the most part, those last few, um, testing dates in the fall of your senior year, October, Probably the one that begins to kind of push it.

Um, that’s about when you can kind of guarantee those, those scores will be sent for your early your early application.

Stacey: Thank you. That was a great overview, especially touching on the test optional component. I do want to pause now to talk about an opportunity to a CollegeAdvisor. CollegeAdvisors team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts like Chelsea and myself 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 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 2.7 times more likely to get into Harvard University.

So increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team. Using the QR code here on the screen. And during that meeting, we’ll review your current extracurricular list and application strategy, discuss how those align with your college list and outline the tools you’ll need to stand out in a competitive admissions world.

I also want to highlight that we do have a Simon Monday sale 25 percent off the packages. So, if you have questions about that. definitely confer with the, um, the individual on the free consultation using that QR code. And that QR code is going to remain on the screen for the remainder of our Q& A. Um, if your question in the chat is highly specific to your background and your circumstances, rather than a general question, QR code.

So please be sure to take advantage. Chelsea, I wanted to talk a little bit about essays now. So, how would you advise students starting on the essay prep process? Um, are there ways to efficiently decide on topics when responding to essays? And I think a secondary question to that is, are there topics you would suggest avoiding?

So how would you get started? Anything would you, that you would avoid?

Chelsea: Yeah, I think, um, particularly if you are a sophomore or junior and you’re, um, really just trying to understand the essay landscape, um, understanding what essay prompts. Are, um, what types of questions are colleges asking you? Um, and the internet is absolutely your oyster.

A quick Google search of Common app essay prompts, um, uc, school essay prompts, coalition essay prompts will show you exactly the types of essay questions that are being asked. The great thing about college admissions essays, um, particularly like your common at personal essay is that they can be very, very broad.

In fact, one of the essay prompts is literally write about anything that you want to write about. Um, and so it gives you a lot of space. to be who you are and talk about what you want to talk about. With that being said, there are things to stay away from. Um, so as you’re thinking about putting together a strong essay, think about you as the focal point.

Many institutions do not have interviews, you may not get an opportunity to talk to someone about your admissions application during the review process. And so essays are often the way that you kind of show your interests. Your values, your background. Essays are all about you. Um, and because they’re all about you, you do not want to distract from that narrative by bringing up other things.

Um, so what are some examples of other things? Typically, profanity. I’ve seen it done well a couple times, like a out of thousands of essays that I’ve read. Um, It’s not that colleges think that if you use profanity, you’re a bad person, but let’s remember there are real people reading your essays. There are certain people that are offended by profanity, right?

And so you don’t know the biases of the people that are reading your essays. So you want to stay, again, centering yourself, pretty, Straight and narrow. Um, we do have some students and applicants that will talk about, um, political beliefs. Um, again, if it might offend someone, it might be best to stay away from it.

You don’t want something that you’re saying in your essay to rub the person reading it the wrong way to where they can’t even give you an objective review after that. Um, so just think about, um, An essay that shows who you are, um, shows your background. Um, but, but that isn’t going to be offensive, um, to anyone that’s picking it up.

Stacey: Great. I didn’t even think about profanity. That’s a new example. So thank you for that insight. I have not seen that done in an essay before. It’s really interesting to think about the approach, um, pivoting to interviews. What is the interview process look like nowadays as part of the college application process?

Chelsea: I would say the minority of institutions are conducting interviews at this stage. One of the reasons is they end up just being this cumbersome thing to manage. The colleges that are participating in interviews typically make the interviews optional. So it’s not a required part of your application. And the interviews can often be conducted either by alum of the institution, or current students.

And so more often than not, it is someone adjacent to the admissions office that is going to kind of fill out a form and give you more information, give them more information to make the decision. I’ve seen interviews be helpful for students. But interviews can also not be helpful for students. And so if you choose to accept an interview invitation, um, again, really important to know your audience.

Spend some time on that mission and values page of the institution that you’re looking at. Spend some time, um, really investigating why you’re interested in the institution, um, and lead with those things.

Stacey: Great. Yeah, the interview component was a much different landscape when I was applying to school.

Very different nowadays. Let’s talk a little bit about extracurriculars, excuse me, and the time we have left. One of the initial questions was, what if you live in a remote area? There’s not a lot of opportunity. Is it okay to engage in online activities? What, what do you think that looks like to admissions officers?

Chelsea: Yeah, I mean, I think, um, the pandemic, um, certainly brought in the way we think about participation to include, um, remote and virtual participation. Um, I think that’s, that’s important. Absolutely an option. I also might encourage you to think about activities, um, that may not be attached to your high school, um, or to a community organization, but things that you can participate in as an individual, um, in the past few years, we’ve heard passion project thrown around a lot as it relates to admission strategy, um, and passion projects came out of oftentimes, um, about.

I wasn’t able to g my high school in this are teach myself the piano. I chose to, um, write short stories. Um, so there’s a number of things that you can do in your own space that can also be considered as an activity. Um, I encourage you to think about your interest, um, in ways that you can kind of delve into that also on an individual level.

Stacey: Great. Um, some more specific questions on the extracurricular front.

How important is volunteer work? Are, I had a student the other day who was actually stressed that they didn’t have enough volunteer work. Does it matter if you volunteer in your spare time?

Chelsea: Depends on the college, which is, I know the worst answer ever that college admissions people give you is it depends.

Um, but it really does. If you are interested in a college and again, mission and values. If you go and they’re talking about. Service. Um, and, uh, volunteering. That may be something that’s really important in their process. Um, if you listen to the way they talk about the institution and talk about the admissions process, um, and those things are not mentioned, it may be less important.

Um, you can. Always ask an admissions officer at a college fair or send them an email. What are the areas that you all are looking for on an application? Um, what are you looking for in an applicant? I can just about bet if service is important, if volunteering is important, they will tell you. If they do not mention it, it is fair to come to the conclusion that it may not be that important.

Stacey: Great, great point. Um, And it’s, you know, like you said, not important to every academic narrative, right? Any or extracurricular narrative that you’re trying to create about yourself. My best advice for you all is to focus on the things that you love to do and that you’re truly passionate about. And again, like Chelsea was saying, maybe the most frustrating answer we can give It is precisely that, but, um, you will thank yourself in the end for choosing those more focused activities, the things that you really enjoy doing, because that will ultimately drive an academic and, um, career and a professional career that will make you happy.

Um, let’s see, do we have time for 1 more question? Um, let’s see, will colleges unweighted GPA? I believe Common App requires that you report the weighted GPA if your school has weighted. Is that right, Chelsea? Yeah, that’s

Chelsea: correct. But depends on the college. Um, if you do see an average GPA for admitted students, you always want to ask them if it’s weighted or unweighted, um, that will give you some insight.

Stacey: Excellent. Um, I think this is a nice question to wrap up on. Are there any positive things that you remember from essays that you wanted to share? Maybe 1 or 2 that come to mind.

Chelsea: So I won’t share a specific essay topic or essay structure, um, but this is a format that I’ve seen done and when I, when I see it, I think it’s really brilliant.

Um, I think college applicants are tempted to make their essays the story about everything in my life. So the college admissions essay begins reading like a biography, and it’s spanning 5 and 10 years, um, and, and most of the time that doesn’t really answer the question or doesn’t give us that much insight.

Um, the essays that I’ve loved the most focus on really small moments, small items. And through that, they tell a larger story. Um, so for example, it may be a student, their entire essay is painting the picture of cooking a meal in the kitchen with their mother, um, and through this like really short story.

Simple everyday narrative. Um, we understand what’s important to them. We understand their family values. We understand the types of questions that they ask and the things they find interesting. Um, and so I think my advice would be start narrow. In your topic, um, for your college essay and see how you can expand a small moment into something insightful.

Um, those topics really seem to kind of point out

Stacey: great. Well, that is all we have time for tonight. Really appreciate all of your insight. Chelsea. It’s been a treat. I hope that you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Like I said, that’s the end of our webinar. We had a really great time telling you about starting early to stand out college admissions for sophomores and juniors.

And here is our December webinar series. Should you want to join us for future webinars? We have a lot of great options coming up. Lots of you had questions about the ACT and SAT. Decoding the ACT and SAT is one of the upcoming ones on the 12th. In addition to some more specific masterclasses, um, an MIT writing workshop is coming up this week.

It’s not listed here, but it is a November webinar. And we look forward to seeing you at more webinar sessions with us. Thank you, Chelsea. Thanks, Stacey. Bye, everyone.