Beyond Essays – How To Tell a Story Across Your Entire College Application

Webinar Transcription

2025-08-18-Beyond Essays – How To Tell a Story Across Your Entire College Application

Anesha: [00:00:00] Hi everybody and welcome to tonight’s webinar. My name is Anesha Grant. I am a, a Senior Advisor at CollegeAdvisor, and I will be your moderator today. Today’s webinar is, “Beyond Essays: How to Tell a Story Across Your Entire College Application.” Before we get started, just to orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start with an overview of effective storytelling strategies and for and ways to integrate storytelling into your college application.

Anesha: First, hearing from CollegeAdvisor’s, Dr. Aya Waller-Bey, and then hearing from Julia Dixon from ESAI, after they speak, we’ll open up the floor to respond to your questions in a live q and a. On the sidebar, you can start submitting your questions under the q and a tab, but let’s get started and meet our presenters.

Anesha: Aya, can you get us kicked off please?

Aya: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Anesha. Good morning, afternoon and evening everyone. I am Dr. Aya Waller-Bey, and I will have the opportunity to speak with you all today about, or tonight about the, uh, college admissions [00:01:00] essay, something that is near and dear to my heart.

Aya: Just to tell you a little bit about me and my background, I first always like to start with, I’m a proud first generation college student, which means I was the first person in my family to earn a four-year degree. Um, I went to Georgetown University in Washington DC where after graduation I became an admissions officer, so I got to read applications from thousands of students all over the country, but specific.

Aya: In the Midwest and shortly after my tenure, I moved across the pond to England where I got my master’s in education. Um, I recently finished my PhD in sociology at the University of Michigan where I actually studied the college admissions essay and college admissions process. So I have a lot of experience with the essay.

Aya: Super excited to be joining Julia in tonight’s conversation, um, and looking forward to answering your questions at the end of the webinar.

Anesha: Thanks – Julia?

Julia: Awesome. Um, thanks Aya. Excited to be presenting with you again and excited to be with [00:02:00] you all today or this evening. So I’m Julia Dixon and I’m the founder of ESAI and ESAI is an

Julia: ethical AI platform that helps students through the admissions process. Um, our philosophy is we wanna help every student get personalized guidance through the admissions process. Um, but a affordable cost. Um, we have a free version of the platform and a version of the platform that is, um, a fraction of the cost of a human advisor.

Julia: So I myself used to be a college admissions advisor. I spent the last eight years helping students. Um, get personalized guidance through the college admissions process. So this whole process is, um, near and dear to my heart as well. And, um, ESAI has helped over half a million students through the college admissions process, um, in the last two years.

Julia: And, um, most recently. You might have seen us on Shark Tank where we, um, made our national debut, uh, [00:03:00] where, uh, we got to kind of show the world how we were using AI to make college admissions more accessible. So excited to tell you all a little bit more about, um, how storytelling is core to our approach and college process, um, and how storytelling can show up across the entire application process.

Julia: Excited to be here today.

Anesha: Thanks so much, Julia. Thanks for giving. Um, some initial background on ESAI, I appreciate it. Um, okay. We’re gonna just do a quick poll just so we know who’s in the room with us. So please let us know what grade you are in. If you’re a parent or a teacher, uh, we welcome you. You can go ahead and select other.

Anesha: Um, and as we’re waiting, I’m just wondering if y’all have, um, a favorite essay prompt that you’d like seeing or reading on the college application?

Aya: I actually don’t have a favorite prompt. Um, I, I, yeah. The prompts to me actually [00:04:00] matter less. Um, I, I, I care more about the story and the narrative and how students are responding, so see all the prompts equally. I mean, I myself chose the choose your own adventure prompt. Like I had a essay, a personal statement that I didn’t feel like answered any of the six that the common app had.

Aya: Or, yeah, so I chose the one where you can just like write an essay about anything. So that’s, that’s what I did. I don’t know about you, Julia.

Julia: Yeah, I, when I work with my students, I usually tell them to kind of ignore the, the options because they’re so broad anyway, that you can almost pick what you wanna talk about and, and work backwards from there.

Julia: So I, I’d probably agree with you. Um. Because even if you really can’t find one, there’s, there is that choose your own adventure option. So, um, I’d agree. I mean there’s, there’s always, um, so many interesting things to write about that I don’t know if I have a favorite essay prompt out of the, the common app personal statement prompts either.

Julia: [00:05:00] But, um, definitely have some favorite essays, um, and memorable themes that we can talk about today. For sure.

Anesha: Yeah, I’m in, I’m in, I guess, supplemental essay land and so that I was thinking supplemental essay questions. But yes, the common app I think is very, I agree with that assessment right now. I’m, I’m really enjoying the question, joy.

Anesha: I’m, I’m, I’m enjoying what students are presenting when they answer the question. Um, what brings you joy, at least this year? So. That’s one of my favorite prompts, at least hanging out with the supplemental, but that may not be the, the focus for today. Um, I’ll go ahead and close the poll. Um, just so you know, uh, the majority of folks with us are, um, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders.

Anesha: So we have 64% in the 12th grade, uh, 12th percent in the 11th grade. And welcome to the two sophomores who are with us. And thanks to the six parents and teachers who are in the audience today, I’ll stop talking, hand it over to Aya and be back a little bit later, uh, for questions. Thanks y’all.

Aya: Fantastic.

Aya: All right folks, so super excited to again, um, be joining you in tonight’s [00:06:00] conversation. Um, in, in thinking about our topic, which is how to tell the story across your entire college application. We really want you all to kind of think about the ways the, the various components of the application work together to paint a cohesive narrative or tell a cohesive story about.

Aya: Who you are, the, your strengths, the things you enjoy doing, and what you might bring to a college campus. So. To start, why does storytelling matter on, on college applications? Well, first and foremost, they show who you are, be beyond those quantitative aspects of the application, beyond the grades and the test scores, right?

Aya: So admissions officers can get a sense of your personality, and again, your values and these kind of unique perspectives you might bring based on your background, your lived experiences, where you grew up, where you lived, et cetera. They also help you stand out to a certain extent, right? So storytelling allows you to.

Aya: Share things that are memorable about your background [00:07:00] and and your interest. Again, where. Especially increasingly where it appears that students may have similar academic profiles, telling your story, especially across the various parts of the application, can really help you stand out. Also, storytelling matters in college applications because again, it’s an opportunity to demonstrate growth and resilience.

Aya: Right. It really can give you a platform to talk about some of those critical turning points, some of those moments you found to be transformational, right? Highlight. Highlight how you’ve learned or grown and adapted over a period of time. Storytelling also matters because it gets to connect your experiences to your goals.

Aya: I often think about when students are reflecting, you know, why they may have interest in a particular career or interest in a particular major. You know, the, the application. Gives you an opportunity to talk about those things through various components so you can really tell and show specifically why you’re interested in a particular school.

Aya: Right? The [00:08:00] essays and also aspects of the college application gives you a platform to do just that. And the last but not least, is this idea of a building, an authentic voice, right? So storytelling really comes in where you’re, you’re highlighting and showing how confident you are and how self-aware you are and how introspective you are.

Aya: Again, these are qualities that colleges. Often value in future students. So with that, I mean, what does it mean to tell a story across your entire application? Well, again, each part of your application should reinforce skills and passions of personal growth rather than feeling like very unrelated, disjointed pieces.

Aya: Now, you, if you are like a student like me, where. I was in Model un. I was like on an African dance team. I was class president. I was also like a yearbook editor. I had a lot of diverse experiences, right. But there was a central core about like leadership and being of service to others in my community, right?

Aya: So just making sure there is a. Through line that really highlights [00:09:00] who you are across the application. So this also means utilizing the various components to help paint this holistic picture of your background. And we’ll talk in, in, in next, in some of the next slides about what these different components look like.

Aya: But here, there are four major areas. Your, your activities, your extracurriculars, right? Again, this gives you an opportunity to showcase passions and interests and leadership and community involvement without writing about it in a particular essay. And also courses. We sometimes say we undermine like the value of courses, um, but our courses can really show diversity.

Aya: And pro proficiency in your academic interests as well. Like if you really love science and it shows that you’ve taken AP bio, environmental science, AP Physics, chemistry, maybe you maxed out the science at your high school, that signals to an admissions officer say, Hey, this person really likes, you know, science and maybe you were part of science extracurricular activities.

Aya: Right? Wow. This student really seems to have a passion for this [00:10:00] particular field or discipline. So the courses too can signal to admissions officers. As well, you know, what some of your interests are and help to tell that story. You also have the personal statement, which again, we’ll talk at length about, but of course there’s I, uh, opportunity for you to talk about your story there.

Aya: And letters of recommendation, which come from the, uh. Counselors or teachers at your school. So again, diving back into this, what are the key parts of the college application? I tell the story as I mentioned just in the previous slide, personal statement, essays, right? This is the main opportunity to share experiences, values, challenges, and growth in your own voice.

Aya: We all heard of the common app. Or let me not assume there is a common app, which is like this very large application portal where, uh, thousands of colleges, universities across the country allow you to submit your application in this like central, uh, portal right there, we often hear about the common app personal statement.

Aya: It’s a 650 word max essay where there’s six or seven [00:11:00] questions that invites you to kind of respond to them. You submit that essay and it goes to all the schools on your list that, you know, require college personal statements. So that is like the, the, the central essay you often hear people talk about when they talk about the college admissions essay, and students really lean into that part to really show, let me tell you my story in my own words again, extracurricular activities and achievements.

Aya: They really highlight what you’re passionate about and your leadership and your commitments outside of the class. Room, right? So where your coursework and grades might show your commitments and achievements inside the classroom. Those activities really get to, you know, give you an opportunity to say, Hey, I also like to.

Aya: You know, play air hockey and I also like to, you know, travel and I also like to bake. You know, there is, it gives you an opportunities to highlight those things. Again, the letters of recommendation are also very important, right? They can show how others perceive your character and, and your contributions to a classroom.

Aya: And they also kinda reinforce areas of your application. You know, again, if you. [00:12:00] Had a teacher maybe twice in high school and they write a really strong, um, letter of, uh, recommendation. It really can highlight and kinda reinforce these strengths that you have from someone that admissions officers and universities might see as a trusted per.

Aya: And again, as I mentioned, coursework in grades, they reflect your academic interests, your efforts, and areas of strength. And again, they are part of the foundation of your story. You’ll often see and encounter supplemental essays that ask about why are you interested in a particular major, right? And part of that, being able to explain perhaps why or your rationale can stem from your coursework and grades.

Aya: You can talk about how you fell in love with biology or chemistry. Or math or history based, you know, you took a few classes and something lit off, like something sparked right? And so you can talk about that and kinda use your coursework in grades to show strength, rigor, but also a really important academic interest.

Aya: [00:13:00] Now in thinking about, you know, how students identify their core message or personal theme, you know, this really comes up quite a bit as we are supporting students who I mentioned earlier might have a lot of diverse interests, right? So first and foremost, we want students to reflect on their experiences, right?

Aya: So think about moments that shaped you. That can be a challenge, a turning point, as I mentioned earlier, something your successes, you know, your opportunities for growth. Something that just really ma mattered to you. What you could consider, you know, transformative. Perhaps also look for, uh, patterns.

Aya: Notice re incurring interest. Sometimes we don’t kind of sit down and do like a landscape analysis and like, okay. You know, let me write a master resume as I call it, and that is like a document where you highlight all the things you did throughout high school, all the community service, all of the awards, all the classes you took, all the leadership, community service, et cetera.

Aya: And you might start to see patterns here. Maybe you really did a lot of stuff that addresses like the climate and the environment, and you’re like, wow, I actually [00:14:00] really like doing things that promote. You know, um, clean water or, or environmental justice, et cetera. So look at those patterns. Ask yourself why it matters.

Aya: So for each thing that you, you know, contribute to, or a part of considering what it taught you or how it shaped your goals, like, you know, why did you join that coding camp? Right? Was it because you really just wanted to learn how to code or. Maybe, you know, you, you saw the lack of representation of people in your community in the coding camp, and you wanted to like, join that to be a part of the diversity, and you really wanted a skill that can translate into, you know, a job in the future and et cetera.

Aya: So really sit down and kind of ask yourself why, right? Why does it matter? Why did it matter to you? What have you learned? How has it shaped. Your goals. Also think about your, your unique perspective or your distinct perspective, right? What, what makes your story different from others? And I do get a lot of students who may have grown up in environments they consider homogenous, who say, Aya, [00:15:00]

Aya: I don’t know what makes me different than those. Everyone grew up in the same community. We all went to the same schools. You know, we all kind of look the same. We dress the same, but I have to remind folks, no, no two people are the same. You know, you might have a a quirky morning regimen that you have. Or you and your family might have a special, you know, family traditions or maybe your background is slightly different, you know, uh, maybe a parent immigrated to this country, et cetera.

Aya: But there’s all, there’s always something that makes us stand out or make us different from others. Um, so. I think sometimes it takes a little reflection, but no two people are the same, even if they grew up in the same household. No two people are the same. And then also, what can only you bring to a college community?

Aya: Again, sometimes we say, oh, I’m just one of many who do this similar thing. No. Again, you might have something that you’re really passionate about and you have done a deep dive, like you literally make content about it. That is. Something distinct that you bring to a college campus. And then again, you wanna be able to summarize in one sentence, [00:16:00] try writing a short statement that captures who you are and what drives you that can become this guiding theme.

Aya: And then, you know, as I mentioned earlier, as we kind of think through extracurricular activities, um, they also are helping you kind of like they give you some leverage to help tell you the story and to help shape the story, right? So again, connecting activities to your interests and values. Show how your extracurriculars reflect what you care about and who you are as I just, again, I can’t, you know, reiterate this enough, right?

Aya: These pieces are connected. You know, if you’re interested in foreign affairs, so you, you know, join model, model, un, model United Nations, you went to the conference. That’s showing a clear link as far as interest. Also, I do wanna highlight that not every club and activity that you do has to be tied to like.

Aya: Your dream job or career or even academic major? It’s okay to say I joined this dance team because I love to dance, I love music and, and also it helped me stay active and et cetera. That is [00:17:00] okay too. That’s more than, okay, so I don’t want to suggest that you have to only join activities or be a part of clubs that serve some type of like.

Aya: Collegiate purpose. I mean, being a part of a group, A team that is so valuable re you know, regardless of where you go to school. So every club and activity you can do. It could be the baking red club and you literally bake. But baking is a very important skill. It’s a science, right? So think I just want to kind of highlight that as well.

Aya: So again, um, your extracurriculars also help to highlight growth and impact, right? So help you focus on leadership roles, projects, achievements, and demonstrates. Skills and development. Right? It also helps, you know, show how you committed over time. Very, very important. When universities are looking at activities lists, they’re looking for sustained engagement and impact over time.

Aya: So beware of joining five clubs, you know, junior year or senior year, just to kind of beef up that resume and activities list. We can kind of. Spot that a mile away, we are [00:18:00] looking for sustained engagement and impact. Um, so universities are looking at consistent involvement in clubs and sports and community, because that also tells us in AOs, what, what matters to you.

Aya: Right? And then there will be opportunities, especially for schools who have supplemental essays, to tie activities to your essays. So you can use stories from your extracurriculars as examples to support the themes in your personal statement. Uh, as I, as I mentioned. Sometimes there’s only 10. There’s 10, say there’s 10 spots for the activities list.

Aya: There are only 10 spots. Um, say that you might have been a part of 15 activities, so you might use the essays to talk about one of those five you didn’t really get to talk about in the application. So that’s an opportunity for you to also talk about, you know, highlight some impact in leadership that you honestly just didn’t have space because of the limitations of the the platform.

Aya: And then finally you wanna, again, demonstrate. Unique contributions, again, in emphasize ways you added value or made a difference. I often tell students, especially when thinking about [00:19:00] activities and extracurriculars, if they can to quantify impact. I know that’s really hard for a lot of folks because you’re not thinking like when you’re giving out meals to a shelter, you’re not saying, I gave out.

Aya: I, I gave out 10 meals today, but when you quantify, it helps to really kind of show that impact. There’s one thing to be a member of 20 clubs, and there’s a difference to say, you know, as a member of, you know, meals on Wheels. You know, I, I helped to pass out, uh, 50 meals to a local she shelter each quarter.

Aya: Right. Even if you’re just a member, it’s showing the impact. It’s showing your contributions, it’s showing how you made. A difference. Okay, so when in doubt, just kind of think about how you can quantify. That doesn’t mean you have to be the president, the leader, or the founder. You can be a member and still make a a, a incredible impact.

Aya: All right, so in thinking about academic choices, again, we’re kind of going through each of those buckets I mentioned earlier about how these [00:20:00] various parts of your application, um, really help with this narrative and the storytelling, right? So aligning courses with interests, again, you might already know.

Aya: From middle school, like I love to write. So English history, you know, those types of, uh, areas are something that really resonate with me. So taking classes related to your passions or intended majors can strengthen that. We know we have core requirements in our various states, um, in cities for graduation requirements.

Aya: So of course you gotta take classes sometimes that you may not love. To cover the basis to be eligible for graduation, but when there’s an opportunity leaning into those areas that, you know, align with your passions, right? Show challenge and growth, right? Taking advance or honors courses really shows, you know, highlight your willingness to challenge yourself, right?

Aya: And learn something new. So that’s important, right? If there’s honors, AP, IB, dual-enrollment. Thinking about ways to show you, you can challenge yourself highlighting consistency, right? So patterns in your coursework reflect long interest, curiosity, or dedication. I [00:21:00] mean, say you had a rocky ninth grade year, but that sophomore year, that junior year upper trajectory, you’re like, I really kind of found my stride, right?

Aya: That also helps with that, that narrative, like look at you being able to take advantage of resources and persevere, et cetera. And then, you know, academic choices really help to demonstrate readiness for college. I mean, that’s often what universities are looking for, right? They wanna see strong academic choices that signal that you are prepared for the rigor of higher education, right?

Aya: So those, those choices also signal, you know, college, you know, readiness to a certain extent as well.

Anesha: All right. We’re gonna do one more poll just to kind of transition. Thanks so much, Aya, for getting us started off with such a detailed conversation. Alright. As we are doing our next poll, we are just interested in where you are in the college application process. I know we have a lot of juniors and seniors up, so I hope folks have [00:22:00] started.

Anesha: Uh, but let us know if you have not,

Anesha: Julia, I know we’re about to hear from you, but as we’re waiting, I’m just curious if you could tell us a little bit more about your college advising background.

Julia: Sure. So I actually started my college advising, um, experience when I was still an undergrad myself. It started as a way to make. A little extra money, uh, to get myself through college.

Julia: And over the years I realized it was such a need. So many students and their families were looking for help navigating what I think we all know is such a complex, um, and personal process. Everyone has, uh, different needs and a different starting place. That they’re going through. And, um, what I thought was gonna be a short term experience for me, I, I kept having more and more people coming to me for help.

Julia: And I realized, wow, this is [00:23:00] something, um, that I could do for a really long time. And, um, I, I went to the University of Michigan for undergrad and I was doing it for about three years there. And when I moved to New York about seven years ago, I really formalized my business. And, um, it wasn’t until two years ago that I realized we could, uh, make this.

Julia: Uh, a much bigger scale, uh, thing that could help students and families around the world, um, by making it into more of a platform. So yeah, it’s, it’s turned into something that I never thought it would, but, um, I love seeing people bring their stories to life and kind of helping them learn about themselves.

Anesha: Awesome. All right. Um, I’m even more excited to hear from you. We’ll go ahead and close our poll so you can go ahead and get started. Just for context, um, for the folks with us, about 36% of them are working on their essays. So obviously at important time for today’s conversation. Um, no worries to the six folks who haven’t started.

Anesha: You still have time to get started. Um, and yeah. All right. Shout out to the three people. We’re almost done. I’ll [00:24:00] stop talking and hand it back over to you, Julia.

Julia: Awesome. Okay, so Aya gave us a super great start on some of the different, um, entry points into storytelling that come up across the college application beyond just the essays.

Julia: We’re gonna go into more of them, but I also know that it can be really helpful to have super tangible examples of a really strong college application story. And what I often tell students is try to summarize. Your theme, your college application narrative into a one-liner, and I’m pretty sure I brought that up as well.

Julia: What’s the one line of your narrative that you can keep coming back to? So when admissions officers are trying to. Summarize you in your, in their heads or describe each of their colleagues, like, this is what makes this student really awesome. They could summarize that in one line. And when you’re thinking about that story and how that shows up in your different parts of the application, how do you keep coming back to that one line?[00:25:00]

Julia: A few examples that I’ve seen from real students. Um, one that I saw recently was a student who taught himself how to play the drums. This was core to his college essay and a big part of who he was. That theme of teaching himself things and being curious enough to be an independent learner came up across his activities and things all over his app.

Julia: So I am a independence. Curious, self-taught learner, that’s a one-liner. Another student who was half Colombian, half Jewish, had really two core parts of their identity. That theme of navigating dual identity, wrote an essay about that. Also showed up in different parts of their activities, their narrative, their essays.

Julia: Navigating a dual identity is like another great theme that could show up in different parts of your app. Another one a bit broader is a student who’s an activist. They have different activities related to being involved in their community, and activism could show up in essays and supplementals. Um, a bit broader.

Julia: You could niche it down a bit more, but being a student activist, [00:26:00] I identify as an activist could be another great one. So. As we’re going through, um, some of the other storytelling elements you have at your disposal in your application, and I’ll also show you on how you can come, how you can come up with some of these one-liners.

Julia: Um, these might be some helpful things to keep in mind as you’re thinking about what your one-liner and your application narrative could be. Um, so I think when most people think about storytelling, and this webinar is called Beyond Essays, but you’re probably, if you think of the college application and telling a story, the first thing that comes up is probably your personal statement.

Julia: And of course it is when it comes to word count, sort of the most obvious. Um, tool you have at your disposal for your storytelling. So you have a lot of words that you can use to tell the story of the why behind the activities you did. You can humanize yourself, um, and the experiences you’ve had. You can add context to all the other things in your application.

Julia: You can really tie everything together in a bow. Um, [00:27:00] so I think. We don’t need to spend too much time on this one. It’s very obvious that you have an opportunity to tell a story with your essays and especially the personal statement because it’s the, um, sort of longest essay that you get to write. Um, but I think some of the other elements that we’ve talked about and that I went through in detail are maybe the less obvious places that you get to tie everything else together.

Julia: Supplemental essays are maybe a little bit less obvious, and the place that you really get to tell the story with supplemental essays is how the story becomes more school specific. So supplemental essays are school specific, meaning that each school has their own prompts if the school has supplemental essays.

Julia: And you really wanna talk about how your one-liner higher narrative theme applies to the story of this school. So if your theme, for example, is that you’re a self-directed learner and you’re really curious, what does this school offer that would allow you to take advantage of their resources If they have, you know, a really cool, um, center for a certain type of learning that you really love, that you could take [00:28:00] advantage of?

Julia: What are their resources that you can’t wait to dive into? What are there clubs that you’re gonna immediately get involved in? Show them how. Your story intersects with their story. Um, and you just wanna get really specific with your storytelling based on the prompts that they have. Um, and the more that you can show you did your research, um, that’s the whole goal of the supplemental essay is being really specific about how their school and their resources are exactly what you’re looking for.

Julia: So it’s a really good place to reinforce your theme and your story and making sure everything works together. It’s kinda like the second biggest word count you have, um, next to your activities maybe. Recommendation letters is another great one, and I think often one that people don’t pay enough attention to.

Julia: You really wanna choose recommenders who not only know you well, which is probably the most important thing, but also who know you in the context of the theme that you’re trying to lean into. So. If you are someone who is trying to show that you’re an activist, for example, and you’ve been involved in [00:29:00] certain community initiatives, you might wanna pick recommenders who can speak to those initiatives you’ve been involved with, and when you’re asking them if they’re willing to write those commend recommendations for you, maybe outline, give them a few bullet points of things you really hope that they can mention.

Julia: Mentioned that your application, you’re really trying to paint yourself in this way, you’re applying to schools that emphasize these specific student profiles. Um, it’s more than acceptable to. Outline to your, uh, person. You’re asking for a letter of recommendation, a few things that you’re hoping they can touch on, um, I’m sure they would actually really appreciate if you can give them a few, a few things that you’re hoping they can mention.

Julia: It, it makes their life easier, um, as long as they’re writing it in their own authentic voice. Um, they’ll definitely appreciate if you can give them a few things to start with. So ask them to echo the theme that you’re going for. Um, give examples that go back to your core message and it’s just another great place to add to the story and help all these different pieces work really strongly together.[00:30:00]

Julia: Um, so that kind of go concludes the different. Elements of the application. We’ve gone through the different parts of your academic, um, schedule, your extracurriculars, your letters of recommendation, your supplemental essays, your personal statement. We can talk a little bit about common mistakes that people make when it comes to trying to tell their story.

Julia: I think one of them is trying to force too many ideas into one theme. Doesn’t mean you can’t be well-rounded by any means, but. If you’re trying to come up with a one-liner that’s connecting like, you know, nine different things, it might be a little bit too complicated. You can still have, you know, activities that don’t all relate to each other, that’s fine.

Julia: Um, but maybe just try to have the majority of your application go back to a broader theme and, um, it’ll still kind of be memorable in that way. Um, when students try to do too much at once or make it too complicated, it might be a bit [00:31:00] confusing. Um. You just don’t have to have it all figured out. That theme doesn’t have to be related to a future career.

Julia: It doesn’t have to be related to what your major is. It can be more related to. Identity or something you’ve done in the past or a possible goal and like you’re allowed to change your mind. Um, these themes don’t mean that you have to have everything figured out. That’s one route you can go. But I’ve seen students create themes around, um, broader categories.

Julia: Um, things that they’re interested in more broadly, but not necessarily exactly the path they’re gonna go down in the future. So don’t feel like it has to be related to a career path or a major that is set in stone by any means. Um, probably the big one, uh, is that people think storytelling is, is stuck only in the essays.

Julia: And that’s probably the, the core theme of, of this webinar. Uh, they think that. Their story is for their personal statement, maybe their supplemental essays and everything else is just a, a place to list your resume and get recommenders to check off the box that, that [00:32:00] you’re a good person and it’s just a missed opportunity.

Julia: There’s so many ways for these different elements of the application to work together and kind of reinforce a bigger picture of who you are and make you memorable as a certain kind of person. And, um. That’s really what can set you apart as a, um, as a strong candidate for a specific school or a specific program, and you can really create a strong story when these things all work together.

Julia: So kind of wanna quickly show you some ways that you can come up with this one-liner and how you can make sure that all these different elements go back to it, because I know it can seem like a lot, um, when you’re trying to figure out what is my one-liner and how am I making sure these things all come back together.

Julia: So, as I mentioned, storytelling is really core to what SAI is all about and this kind of human element of what is my story and how am I making sure that shows up in everything I do is. Um, how I used to work with my students and very much ingrained in how we built the platform. So just gonna quickly show you a little bit of [00:33:00] what our experience, um, is like.

Julia: So when you create an account on ESAI, we have a whole suite of tools that help with every piece of the college admissions process. And the very first tool, which is completely free, it’s called Story Strategy. And the entire point of the tool is to help you come up with that narrative theme, that one-liner about you.

Julia: So the whole point is you go through and you try to answer a few questions that get at your core values and big themes in your life. So when do you feel most like yourself or what’s a hardship or challenge you’ve gone through? At the very end, you’ll get something that looks like this. And it’ll help you come up with a few options for this one-liner.

Julia: Like how values of family and resilience relate, or how tradition and the team spirit have been core to your life. And you can even, you know, go in and edit until you find something that you really like. And then what’s really cool is once you do land on the one-liner that you love, you can favorite it.

Julia: And then every piece of the admissions puzzle. After that, we’ll go back and [00:34:00] relate to that same one-liner. So for example, if you’re trying to come up with a personal statement topic and you wanna write about a hobby, like maybe you love gaming and you wanna connect it to a career goal like engineering, then you can actually go back and make sure that you are connecting this, um, college essay topic back to one of these core themes, like your value of family and resilience.

Julia: And we can do this for every single piece of the college application process to make sure that every part of our application’s going back to our core theme, and we’re coming up with college essay topics, um, in that context. So everything that ESAI does is always related back to your core theme, and then you can sort through, um, the different elements of your application and your history page.

Julia: Um, and in your favorites folder accordingly. So yeah, we really try to organize it based on your story and your theme and, um, make it a really cohesive narrative in that way. So yeah, I think [00:35:00] that. Is about the end of this section, but we do have other tools, um, that help you quantify your activity section, help you come up with school specific aspects of your story that go back to this theme, help you ask your recommenders.

Julia: Um, for things that go back to this theme, they all go back to the core theme. So very happy for you all to check ’em out. And we have some codes going right now if you’re interested as well.

Anesha: Awesome. Thank you so much, Julia. Thank you for the demonstration. I really enjoyed seeing, seeing the website again. Um. All right, we are gonna transition and open up for questions the way that it will work. You can go ahead and submit your questions under the q and a tab. I will read them aloud and post ’em in the public chat so that, um, folks can see them and that our presenters can have a chance to respond to them.

Anesha: Um, if you are not able to submit questions to q and a, just know that you have, might have to log out and log back in, um, and make sure you’re logging in through the [00:36:00] email that you’ve received and not the webinars page. Alright, so the q and A is started, let me see. Um,

Anesha: waiting for some questions to come in, but, um, finding some questions from the registration, I guess. Um, uh, ia, I’ll give this one to you, although I know you mostly ’cause I know you have an answer. Um, how do you know if your essay topic is good? How do you make it stand out?

Aya: Thank you for that question. How do you know if your essay topic is good?

Aya: Yeah.

Anesha: Mm-hmm.

Aya: Okay, so the topic of your essay should respond to the essay prompt. So there are prompts, and oftentimes, uh, even if you choose the choose your own [00:37:00] adventure as in the common person, like in the personal statement, in the common app, your essay should still be responding to a specific idea or theme or question.

Aya: So you know your essay topic. Is good if there is a true kind of call and response to what you’re responding to. Also with thinking about kind of what is good, what is bad. I mean, oftentimes, and you’ll hear this from a lot of folks, I know Julia probably has response, response to this as well, where there are some common themes that we see.

Aya: Those of us in the advising space, admissions officers and et cetera. So we might see essays about sports or sports injuries or getting cut from a team and recovering from that. That’s a quite a common, uh, essay like response. Um, we might see, um, things about divorce or ill grandparents, so there are some common themes.

Aya: That doesn’t mean your essay is inherently bad, but I do think it’s. It’s important to know that admissions officers are more likely to see [00:38:00] topics on those types of, uh, stories or narratives. So, and then also in thinking about standing out. I often, I know we talked a little bit about that earlier, but sometimes, you know, standing out is not inherently the goal.

Aya: It’s being authentic and true to yourself. So if you do have something that really highlights who you are, speaks to your character, the lessons learned as we’ve talked throughout our conversation, that should be the priority, right? So again, you wanna make sure you’re answering the question. So whatever prompt or question, make sure you’re answering that, that is a, a really important quality of a strong essay.

Aya: You want it to be authentic and honest and genuine, right? You wanna make sure you’re not misrepresenting who you are. Um, and, and, and lastly, you just wanna make sure as well written, so you, you, it’s. Proofread, uh, maybe you had a counselor or someone you trusted, or SAI, you know, maybe you used a resource to just really strengthen it and make sure that is well written.

Aya: But that would be my, my response to that.

Anesha: Thank you. Thanks for that. Um, I’ll direct the next couple questions to you, Julia ’cause I think they’re specifically about ESAI, [00:39:00] um, someone asked, um, how reliable is the college selection tool?

Julia: Um, it’s one of the most in-depth college selection tools out there in that it’s not just.

Julia: Based on. Things like your stats. Um, it’s not another chance me tool, like what are my odds of getting into this school based on my GPA or my test scores. I mean, that’s one of the things that we used to filter out what might be a good match for you, but we also try to take a much more holistic approach and give people recommendations based on things like their personality and culture fit.

Julia: And that’s everything from. Are you interested in bigger, smaller class sizes or what’s interesting to you when it comes to things like, uh, social environment? Do you like schools with, uh, big sports communities or certain types of clubs? Um, are you looking for Greek life or specific kinds of communities that you wanna make sure they have?

Julia: Are you looking for accessible [00:40:00] campuses? Are you looking for, um. Schools that have, you know, really specific types of resources. Like we have because of our, uh, specific AI matching system, really in-depth ways to find you a list of schools that goes a lot deeper than just a, you know, another simple matching quiz based on, you know, states or test scores.

Julia: Um, so I highly encourage kids to, to check it out. Um, it’s, it’s a really good place to find programs you might have never heard of. And also maybe start with the major mentor tool because in so many cases people start with schools, which can be fine, but you might end up looking at schools only to find out that they don’t actually have the program that.

Julia: You realize you wanted. So if you start with a field of study or a major and work backwards from there, um, it might actually help you find a school that has a program that you’re really interested in. So you don’t have to have everything figured out when you’re looking for schools, but if you do start [00:41:00] thinking about that early, you might end up finding a program in a school you really love.

Julia: So I always try to encourage students to think about that first if they can.

Anesha: Thank you Julia. Um, I, uh, I’ll direct my next question to you. Um, a student asked, uh, was seeking advice on how to add depth to their essay. They feel like they wrote it and it falls, it’s falling a little flat.

Aya: Yeah, I appreciate that question.

Aya: And I also, uh, love this idea of flatness and death, uh, as a sociologist, but nevertheless, um, I, I think it’s a really great question. Um, I think one way to really at death is to actually, so one thing that we often talk about and, and Julia respond to this as well, is we, we encourage young people to think about the census, right?

Aya: So, um. You know, what you see, what you smell, what you taste, where, where applicable, what you feel, right, uh, what you hear. [00:42:00] Um, so when you’re descriptive and you are really kind of talking about how these vary, how the various senses are activated, uh, I think that could be a great way, um. Some might encourage, uh, vulnerability as a, as a response to adding depth.

Aya: I don’t think that’s necessarily, uh, the way you have to go, but I also think the depth comes in and being able to respond to the question. So what. Why should we care? What do you want the admissions officers to walk away knowing about you from this essay? What do you want them to learn? What is it you are hoping to communicate about who you are?

Aya: I think when you kind of take that, that level of like intro, introspection and literally go through each paragraph, and I do this with my. What is this? What’s the purpose of this particular whatcha communicating? What do you want me to walk away knowing about you? Um, and if you kind of take that exercise, I think it allows you to dig deeper.

Aya: The so what? Why should we care? Why do you care? Why does it matter? I think some of [00:43:00] those questions can really. Prompt, um, a stronger understanding of like adding depth and complexity to something that you might consider a bit like mundane or flat to use your words. So, uh, that would be my recommendation, but I actually would love to hear how Julia might respond to that as well.

Julia: I, I totally agree with the, so what question? Like often I’ll read a essay and it’s. Maybe a really sweet story or like an interesting take on something, and I’m kind of like, it was an interesting essay, but I’m not sure if it sold me on why this. It tells me why you belong on this campus, or, or why it, it told me something interesting about you because at the end of the day, you’re, you’re kind of selling yourself.

Julia: This is a, an essay that’s supposed to convince an admissions officer. Why you. Are the, the best person to be on this campus. And so often it just needs a little bit more, it needs that. So what that shows like what you learned or, or what you’re doing next or, or what [00:44:00] the takeaway was from this experience and just that like little so what, uh, to i’s point I think is often the missing piece that, that just, uh, takes you to that, to that next step.

Julia: Um, and shows, you know, either. Uh, what that led you to wanna learn more about or maybe study in the future, or it doesn’t have to be quite that, uh, black and white, but, uh, how you grew as a person. Just some sort of self-growth or, or future discovery that you’re gonna pursue can often help an admissions officer say, okay, I, I see, uh, the trajectory this person went on, uh, how they, how they grew or how they’re gonna continue to grow.

Julia: And that’s, that’s the kind of person that. That, um, you know, we like to, to see on our campus or I, I like as a person and, and that can really make you, uh, more memorable.

Aya: Hi, [00:45:00] Anesha. We can’t hear you.

Anesha: Thank you. Sorry. Um, um, I was gonna say, Julia, I’m directing this next question to you. Um, someone asked, should we use ChatGPT to refine our essays? For example, it can go over and review it.

Julia: It is a good question. I mean, you definitely wanna be careful with using any sort of ChatGPT or any AI, and I say that as someone with an AI platform.

Julia: I mean, the Golden rule for any AI tool is you don’t wanna ever use AI to generate content that you’re submitting as a final product. Um, just like you wouldn’t ask any sort of tutor to generate any writing that you’re submitting as a final product, but if you’re using it to brainstorm, you know, as a thought exercise to, to think through ideas for yourself or to give you feedback on your writing, um, it’s not a terrible idea.

Julia: I mean, I’d recommend a more specialized platform that. Has training from real admissions officers. Um, shameless plug, I guess, [00:46:00] but, um, if you, if you wanna try another one, um, I just caution you to make sure that you know, you’re, you’re using something that has been trained by the most UpToDate information from schools and admissions officers, and just make sure you’re never using, um, any AI to generate content that you’re submitting, because that’s where you might get into some trouble.

Julia: But, um, it’s not a bad place to, to brainstorm ideas and just get your thoughts out.

Anesha: All right, we’re gonna just take a quick little PSA to share a little bit more about CollegeAdvisor. Um, so for those in the room who aren’t already working with us, we know how overwhelming the college admissions process can be.

Anesha: We have a team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts who are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process through 1-on-1 advising sessions. When we looked at our 2021 through 2024 data, we found that CollegeAdvisor students were over two times more likely to get into colleges like Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton.

Anesha: You can increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a 60 minute strategy session [00:47:00] with an admission specialist by using the QR code that is on the screen. During that meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations on what you can do to stand out, and by the end of that conversation you’ll learn about CollegeAdvisor’s premium one-on-one packages that pair you with an expert

Anesha: who can support your college building, um, who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, and much more. All right, we’ll go back to the q and a. Um, my next question, I believe was for Aya. I think this was directed at you Aya. Um, this person said, you mentioned that your story wasn’t connected to your career.

Anesha: What if someone’s story is related to their career? Does, would, would that still work?

Aya: Yes. Thank you for that question. Yeah, I saw that in the the Q and A tab, and I definitely wanted to clarify. So yes, I mentioned that early in the conversation that in some cases, not all essays tie directly into someone’s future goals or interest, or even like academic aspirations.

Aya: Sometimes they’re just telling a story that might [00:48:00] respond to. The prompt or might be a moment of, uh, transformation or a, a critical turning point. Um, it is perfectly fine to write an essay, a personal statement, or a supplement essay that responds directly to your goals and aspirations. For some folks that.

Aya: You know, that thing that piques their curiosity the most, that thing they cannot stop thinking about that thing that really inspires the types of activities and clubs and organizations and community service that they do is directly tied to their goals of being a physician or engineer or, um, an academic or economist, you know?

Aya: So it is perfectly okay for, um, you to write an essay that. A ask or a, uh, answers the question rather, but also closely aligns with your professional goals, your academic goals. That is more than okay, and also something that admissions officers are used to seeing, but also can really articulate clearly as we mentioned someone else.

Aya: And so other parts of the application, it can really tie in that [00:49:00] cohesive narrative that y you know, why are you interested in college? Why are you interested in studying, you know, X? Why are you interested in that particular school? So that is perfectly appropriate and welcomed actually.

Anesha: Um, okay. Someone had a specific question about ESAI, uh, Julia, someone said, how do you sign up for it and is there any cost associated?

Anesha: You are muted or we can’t hear you. I can’t hear you.

I don’t know.

Anesha: Okay. Well. We’ll let Julia figure out her sound for a second. Um, we’ll come back. Um, not sure what happened. Someone asked Aya about deadlines. So someone said, when should I try to finish my essays if the first deadlines are mid-October, so that I have ample enough time to edit?

Aya: Yeah, that’s a great question.

Aya: Um, I’m, I’m [00:50:00] curious what universities have mid-October deadlines, but yeah, I mean, a lot of students are planning to apply early, right, early action or early decision. Those tend to be November 1st or mid-November deadlines. And then for students who are applying to schools that are rolling where you can apply anytime, including now tomorrow and et cetera, students are, you know, hastily working on those applications as well.

Aya: Um, I mean, I think you wanna, if you are applying to mid-October, I. I say a lot of personal statements. In my experience, they take about at least four drafts, at least the students I work with. So, um, you want to have at least, uh, a first or second draft. You know, now, honestly, you wanna be working on it right now.

Aya: I think a good place is if, say the deadline is October 15th. By October one, having those applications, at least the essays completed in a comfortable space so you can like, prioritize other parts of the application. Could be a really good strategy. I mean, ultimately because you submit ’em before the deadline, right?

Aya: Right. That’s the goal. Submitting it [00:51:00] before the deadline. But if you have October, mid October deadlines, trying to make sure you have completed, uh, essays that you are comfortable with. Proud of, I would say two weeks. That’s the ideal world. So October 1st will be a really great deadline for you in particular.

Anesha: Julia, did your sound come back?

Julia: It says it’s unmuted. Can you hear me? Yeah, we can

Anesha: hear you. We can hear you. Okay.

Julia: Uh, it’s free to sign up for ESAI at ESAI.ai. Uh, limited version for no cost at all. Uh, pro tier as low as $15. Um, you can get it for an entire year for 250. Uh, so less than the cost of, of most advisors hourly.

Julia: So we try to keep it super low cost, but completely free to start if you want. And some tools are always free.

Anesha: Thank you. Thank you. I’m glad we got we got you back to answer that question, um, I, I feel like I have. What is probably your favorite question. [00:52:00] Um, are there any essay topics to be avoided, um, as they may harm your college application or, um, more than they could help?

Aya: Yeah, I mean, I think I wouldn’t avoid. Essays A, a bigotry and, um, harm to others in or self. Um, I think those should be off limits. Um, essays that are braggadocious about things that are unethical. Um, you know. Cheating or things that are, again, that might show you lacks of integrity. So I think those are very, like blatant ones I would avoid in some cases.

Aya: Um, I think there are students who are, you know, might apply. I went to Georgetown, so a lot of students wanted to be in government and politics, so it was common to see students write about politics in certain cases if they were interested in government majors. So I think there’s places where, you know, politics can be appropriate, um, but you just wanna be mindful about, [00:53:00] um.

Aya: Who you are, like how you were kind of talking about others you don’t know who’s reading your essays. Um, they’re often humans and people with their own, you know, identities and backgrounds. So, of course, um, I I, I have, I used to say like try to avoid write about, again, I mentioned sports, um, and some other things earlier.

Aya: I, I don’t think it’s, absolutely, don’t ever write about it. But again, I think it’s important to keep in mind that. Those are, it’s a essay topic that admissions officers are familiar with and we’ll see hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands of those types of essays. Um, again, divorce our parents, the passing of a grandparent.

Aya: Again, all these things that are really important and significant, but they are relatively common nowadays. Um. Yeah, I was just, when thinking about absolutely no. Again, things about harm, violence to yourself, to others, bigotry, those types of, um, responses. For sure. And then I’ll say with the asterisk, as someone who studied trauma in college, admissions essays, [00:54:00] just be being mindful of just disclosures and what you say about yourself.

Aya: Even if you think, you know, you might wanna disclose. Just remind, reminding yourself that essays, personal statements for the college application or not. You know, diary entries, right? There are essays that you’re sharing with people, um, that you don’t know and who don’t know you, and it’s gonna help them make a decision about whether or not they want to admit you.

Aya: So just be, just be mindful of how much you choose to share about your, your, your backgrounds. Um, because I just. You know, want people to just have agency over that process, so that would respond to that, that question.

Anesha: Did you have anything you wanted to add, Julia?

Julia: Yeah, I, I would definitely agree with that.

Julia: I think there’s sometimes a misconception that a college essay has to be super sad or traumatic, and I would definitely push back on that. It can be about hardship, um, or, or something that a student has overcome, um, that, that can involve trauma. But I, I [00:55:00] just would encourage students to remember that it absolutely does not have to.

Julia: Um. I think there’s also sometimes an emphasis for students to focus on like early childhood stories or stories about like a, a family member or a hero and like those can both be really sweet stories, but they both kind of take away from the focus on who you are currently as a high school student. And, and admissions officers need to know like who you are and who you’re gonna be on their campus.

Julia: And if you’re writing about how much you admire, like a grandparent or your dad or your mom, or if you’re writing a story about who you were when you were five, like both those stories don’t really highlight your strengths and goals, um, as, as yourself now. So anything that kind of takes the focus away from who you are, um, is in a recent state.

Julia: Um. I would just take it back to, to your high school experience and a more recent story you can open with like a quick childhood hook or, [00:56:00] you know, tell a story from childhood briefly, but you wanna kind of keep the focus on something more recent and, um, um, make sure you’re painting a story that, that reflects who you are.

Julia: Um. Uh, as a, as you currently are. So that, that would be another thing I would add.

Anesha: That’s fair. Um, I just, I, I’ve been thinking about this question and so I, I would add that I think this is a question where it highlights the importance of talking to other people about your essays, um, or getting feedback.

Anesha: I had a student who was writing about a very charged part of topic, and when we talked through it, it was sort of like. You don’t actually need to talk about this, like your essays about something else. And it’s actually not about this topic, and it needs to be more about you. So I just wanna encourage students to like, I don’t know, seek out the folks, whether it’s at CollegeAdvisor or using a tool like SAI, to kind of get feedback and have conversation about what you’re thinking through, um, about what you’re really trying to say through some of the essays that you’re, you’re working on.

Anesha: Um, what might be, uh, our last question we’ll see. Um. Uh, I’m going to, I give it to you Julia, ’cause [00:57:00] I have a feeling that ESAI might be a, a good tool for this, but you let me know. Um, how do you know what to write about when you have multiple ideas that can contribute to who you are, is the question?

Julia: Yeah.

Julia: Um, definitely, definitely something we can help with. Um, I think if you have multiple ideas, test them both out. See which one. Feels right as you’re giving it a little free write, see which one maybe fits the formula the best of which one makes you stand out and feels unique and also has the best So what?

Julia: And makes an admissions officer go, dang, we, we need this kid on our campus. And, and they have a, a story to tell and are gonna. Do great things here. Um, if they both reflect who you are and your strengths and goals, then, then there’s no wrong answer. Um, whatever one feels most comfortable to you and has a great, so what, um, I would just try ’em both out in a, [00:58:00] in a quick exercise and, um, maybe try both out on ESAI in our personal statement, uh, topic finder or in our outline tool and just kind of see which one feels most authentic to you.

Julia: But if they both reflect who you are, then. Sounds like there’s, there’s no wrong answer.

Anything to add that Aya?

Aya: No, I, I think, um, Julia really kind of captured, um, can you all hear me?

Anesha: Yeah, we can hear you. We can hear you.

Aya: Yep. No, I, I think, uh, Julie really kind of captured, um, my, my sentiment. Excuse me one second.

Anesha: No worries. No worries. You’re good. I just wanted to see if you wanted to chime in. Not a problem.

Yeah.

Anesha: Um, um, but, okay.

Anesha: All right. Well, those were all of our questions. I’ll, I’ll wait a breath. To see if anyone wants to submit one more question, uh, before we roll out. But thanks so much for everyone for attending. Thank you to Aya and Julia, um, for coming out. Uh, we hope that you gain some helpful strategies and tips, uh, [00:59:00] for integrating storytelling across your college application.

Anesha: Uh, and we hope you join us for our future webinars. But until then, take care and have a great evening. Thanks y’all.

Julia: Thanks. Bye. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thanks everyone.