What Admissions Officers Really Notice in a College Application

Webinar Transcription

10-23-25-What Admissions Officers Really Notice in a College Application

Anna: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. Welcome to our webinar on, “What Admissions Officers Really Notice in a College Application.” My name is Anna Vande Velde. I’ll be your moderator today. I’m a Senior Advisor at CollegeAdvisor. I’ve been with the company for I think over four years now. In addition to working with students one-on-one, I’m a co-captain of our essay review team.

Anna: To orient everyone with a webinar timing, we’re gonna start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live q and a. On the sidebar, you can download our slides and please note you can start submitting questions anytime. You don’t need to wait until the end to put them in there. Um, please note the more.

Anna: broadly applicable your [00:01:00] questions are the more likely we’ll be able to answer ’em in this format. Um, if they’re really specific to your situation, those are gonna be better suited for a one-on-one conversation. We’ll cover, um, opportunities for that, uh, later on in the webinar. Um, and one other housekeeping.

Anna: This is being recorded. The recording will be emailed to you afterwards and available on our website. Um, and I think that’s everything I had to say before I get to the much more interesting part, which is introducing our presenter for tonight. We’re very lucky to have Dr. Aya Waller-Bey with us. Dr. Aya, can I hand it to you to share your background?

Dr. Aya: Absolutely. Hi everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on where you are in the world. I am Dr. Aya Waller-Bey, and tonight I’ll be delivering our webinar on, “What Admissions Officers Really Notice in College Applications.” Just to tell you a little bit about me, I often like to start [00:02:00] off by saying I am a proud first generation college student, and just in case you don’t know what that means, that means I’m the first person in my family to earn a four year degree.

Dr. Aya: Um, born and raised in the wonderful Detroit, Michigan. Um, I attended Georgetown University in Washington DC for undergrad where I studied sociology. After graduating, I became an admissions officer and coordinator of multicultural recruitment on the Hilltop, and it was just. Truly a pleasure to be able to interact with students, families, and read thousands upon thousands of college admissions applications and essays.

Dr. Aya: After my tenure in admissions, I went across the pond to study at the University of Cambridge in England as a recipient of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and recently finished my PhD in sociology at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!), where I actually studied college admissions, namely the college admissions essay.

Dr. Aya: So I have years upon years of experience in both college admissions and higher education and have been working with CollegeAdvisor [00:03:00] for about four or five application cycles. So I’m super excited to answer your questions later in the webinar. And thank you all for joining us tonight.

Anna: Thank you Dr. Aya.

Anna: Like I said, we’re lucky to have you with us. Uh, before I hand over to you for your presentation, I thought it could be helpful for us to get a sense of who’s joining us. So I’m gonna open a poll. Please let us know what grade you are in. If you’re joining as a support person, um, just let us know, hit other, and while we wait for your responses, Dr. Aya

Anna: I’m sorry I’m putting you on the spot, but do you mind sharing what, what’s a day in the life of an admissions officer look like?

Dr. Aya: Wow. I mean, it definitely varies different on where we are in the application cycle, right. I, I would say during the reading period, so generally after November 1st, it, I mean, it could be, you know, um, reading I.

Dr. Aya: Set amount of [00:04:00] applications for, from a particular region. So I worked with, uh, four states in the Midwest, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois. So all the students in my region, uh, I read their application. So it could be like, today I’m reading like this part of the alphabet and the goal to read 50 or a hundred applications.

Dr. Aya: Um, and then that’s literally, it’s a reading day. You’re literally kind of sorting them based on the university’s methodology. And sometimes I was the admissions officer on duty, so that meant I may have given the presentations, um, that you might attend with your families. I might have answered the calls, um, when we had parents or very specific questions about our missions processes.

Dr. Aya: So it varied. But right now most of the admissions officers are, are getting ready to put their head down to start reading your early applications. Uh, so yeah. It varied, but that’s the general overview, I would say.

Anna: Thank you. Helpful. Yeah. I think for most of us, we can only imagine what it’s like, so, um, helpful to have your perspective.[00:05:00]

Anna: Um, and just so you know, Dr. Aya with us, we have a majority of folks in 11th grade. About 40%, about a quarter are in their senior year, another quarter almost said others. So educators, parents, guardians, and then we have some ambitious eighth, ninth, and 10th graders with us. Um, happy to have you here. Um, it looks like the, the software opened a second poll as well, so I might as well share those results.

Anna: Um, about 30% say they’re researching schools, uh, 25% say they’re working on essays, getting their materials together, and then about 35% say they haven’t started. I would say you are here. So you have started exactly in, in a lot of ways you’re thinking about it. That’s, that’s a big part of it. Uh, but wherever you are in the process, we’re really happy you’re here.

Anna: I’m gonna close the polls and [00:06:00] then stop talking so we can get to the heart of why we are all here to hear from Dr. Aya. So all you, Dr. Aya.

Dr. Aya: Thank you so much. Um, fantastic. So let’s dive right in. As Anna mentioned, I’ll kind of present for the first half of the webinar and then I again look forward to answering your questions.

Dr. Aya: So to begin, let’s level set here. What is the role of AOs or admissions officers and how do they read applications? So earlier when Anna posed that initial question, I did say it varies, right? Because there are variations across the board as far as how specific universities and institutions, um, review and kind of make sense of their applications.

Dr. Aya: But generally, um, admissions officers are evaluating applications. They’re evaluating applicants, they’re looking at the application materials and the various components to make admissions decisions, right? And when thinking about those admissions decisions, they’re often working within the institutional priorities, other specific [00:07:00] institution or universities.

Dr. Aya: So universities have different kind of priorities that make sense for their own kind of bottom line or cultural or ethos. And that is often the context in which admissions officers are kind of thinking about applications when they’re making a decision. Generally when thinking about how we read, um, uh, applications, there’s the applicant profile.

Dr. Aya: So we have a lot of various kind of data points that help admissions officers make decisions, largely the high school and demographic. So, uh, a application may require you to sit, submit a, a high school profile, which is usually a one to two pagers. Sometimes, uh, high schools actually include them on their various websites where admissions officers get to understand a little bit more about your high school.

Dr. Aya: Do you have AP classes? Do you offer IB diplomas? Um, what type of, you know, how far does your math kind of context go? Are students taking, you know, multi, you know, linear algebra or does [00:08:00] it stop at calculus? Um, the number of students in your class do you all. Rank your students, which increasingly, uh, schools are choosing not to rank their their seniors.

Dr. Aya: You also might have information about just the racial and ethnic demographics of, of the high school and the context. And also another piece of information in schools, high schools usually include is the percentage of students who graduate and go to certain four year institutions or community college or armed forces, et cetera.

Dr. Aya: So. We are considering the applicant within that larger, broader context of the, of the high school profile, we are also looking at the academic information, right? The crux of the evaluation and reading process is prioritizing your academic background, right? So we’re looking at that high school transcript, which is this record of achievement across multiple years.

Dr. Aya: We’re looking at task force if those are submitted and if they are required for the various admissions processes. We’re looking at rigor. [00:09:00] How, uh, are students challenging themselves within the context of their high school? Right? Remember I said we look at the high school profile, so if your school has, you know, 35 AP classes and the IB diploma, we wanna see students who have taken advantage of.

Dr. Aya: You know, the rigor of their, of their school. And on the flip side of that, we’re looking at students who, even if their school doesn’t have, you know, multiple AP classes that can, they take, we’re looking to see how students challenge themselves and taking the most competitive course load that their school has to offer.

Dr. Aya: We’re looking at academic focus, so we’re looking at how students articulate what their interests are. And this is not to say that you can’t be undecided. Um, actually I recall this post one of my colleagues made a few months ago in one of the various Facebook groups that I’m a part of, and they said, what happened to the undecided student?

Dr. Aya: Right? Because so often students are not coming in saying, I wanna study computer science. I wanna be a computer scientist. And you know, some admissions officers say, Hey, we, we missed. Some of that, you know, open-mindedness, if you will, about what the [00:10:00] future may hold. So looking at what you might express interest in, whether that’s future goals post-grad, or also just like what do you love?

Dr. Aya: Are you, do you, are you really passionate about environmental science? Are you really passionate about the government? Um, and then individual qualities and including your passions. I mean, of course if you’re applying by the common app we had the, the activities list, right? Those 10 activities that really demonstrate your commitments, your interests, what you’re really interested in doing.

Dr. Aya: Um, and that’s a really great, um, way for admissions officers to get a better sense of who you are outside of the classroom or the, how you actually lean into some of those academic interests and your various extracurricular community service leadership, and also some of your familial roles and responsibilities.

Dr. Aya: And then finally, there’s the fit. We’re looking at applicant fit, how does the applicant, um, show alignment with the school’s ethos, culture values, right? If there’s a school that has a strong focus on students being global minded [00:11:00] or, um, public servants, you know, universities and admissions officers are thinking about, like, does that student show an alignment with that value?

Dr. Aya: Um, so fit, right? How, how, how much is the fit? And then again, the, the role of the AO making admissions recommendations and decisions. And we put recommendations because depending on the, the admissions process, at a very, you know, at a specific institution, AOS might actually recommend decisions and then a larger committee, um, may actually make the actual decision.

Dr. Aya: So there again, there’s slight variability here, but generally this is the role of the AO and this is how they’re reading applications.

Dr. Aya: So what are the first things aos look for in an application? So, um, I talked a quite a bit about the various application components, but let’s talk more about the holistic emissions process. So in a holistic emissions process and there we’ll kind of dig a little deeper on what that actually means.

Dr. Aya: There’s all these variables that [00:12:00] contribute to the larger application, right? So AOs are looking at your academic foundation, as I mentioned earlier, GPA, how have you performed in the classes that your school has to offer, the classes that you’ve taken, how have you performed Looking at trends, right? So is there an upward trajectory or does your GPA go down as you take more rigorous classes, right?

Dr. Aya: So then you have of course, course rigor and school context. Looking at that school profile. AOs wanna see how you’ve challenged yourself within what was available. We’re looking at school and community engagement, right? Leadership, consistency, impact. And that could be with extra-curricular activities.

Dr. Aya: That could be what? Jobs, that could be family responsibilities. We just wanna see what, you know, engagement look like. The personal narrative, right? The personal statement. Often that 650 word essay that so many of our students are working on, or addition those additional essays, those supplements, but we really wanna see a clear voice, right?

Dr. Aya: Something [00:13:00] that’s authentic across your essays, that really shows growth purpose and really gives some perspective. We often say that the essay is one of the few places in the application where students get to talk directly to the admissions officers. When you think about all the other letters of recommendation, there’s people writing for and about you and the app, the application essay, that personal statement, that main essay is one of those really great ways for the student to kind of articulate who they are directly.

Dr. Aya: And then of course, letters of recommendation. Insight into your character, your classroom presence, and potential contributions to campus life. And these are letters from high school counselors, teachers, people in your community when universities may ask for additional letters, letters from, you know, future roommate letters, et cetera.

Dr. Aya: So just thinking about, um, again, what type of student you might be on campus. And again, institutional fit cannot say that enough. Uh, whether your goals, interests, and values aligns with the college’s missions and academic offerings, right? So if you say you wanna be, [00:14:00] uh, study journalism, but the school doesn’t have a journalism program, there’s a misalignment, right?

Dr. Aya: That’s not the best fit. So these are some of the first things is plural, right? Because all these things are a part of the broader application. Now, this is a question we get quite often, right? Thinking about what stands out most beyond GPA test scores because. As I’ve said in previous webinars, your high school transcript is the most important component of the application during the review because it is a record of achievement over time.

Dr. Aya: Right. But beyond the actual GPA and those test scores, you know, different institutions prioritize different things, right? However, generally academic rigor, which I’ve said in in some of the previous slides, right? How are you challenging yourselves with the classroom and course selection? That’s really, really important.

Dr. Aya: Okay? Um, schools wanna make sure that, again, you’ve shown that you can take risk, right? And even if you don’t end up with all a’s they want to say, like, this student has articulated that they’re [00:15:00] interested in. A particular, you know, say they wanna study biology, so the school will want to make sure that you’ve taken, you know, the highest level of science that your school has to be offered, even if you didn’t take the highest level of English, right?

Dr. Aya: So just making sure that you’re challenging yourselves. Um, reflections on personal narratives and leadership. Very important, right? How students discuss impact in the ways they contributed to their community and the community. Could be the broader community, the school community, and also your family, right?

Dr. Aya: Really thinking about how students, um, really served in, in various ways, in various capacities. Intellectual curiosity, incredibly important. I’d argue. Even more important today with the use of certain technologies. Um, it’s really important to see that students are genuinely curious about the world, about themselves and about whatever academic interests that they may have.

Dr. Aya: So how are students seeking academic and intellectual opportunities outside of the classroom, right? And that could be now watching like [00:16:00] certain YouTube videos, or maybe you’re an avid reader or you listen to podcasts, or maybe you have your own podcast or your own, you’ve maybe written a book or a novel or poetry or have a website.

Dr. Aya: Just really seeing how are you seeking out academic and intellectual opportunities. Maybe you’re doing research, maybe you’ve done an internship, maybe you’re volunteering. But again, showing that curiosity. And then again, connection to school, ethos and values, which we’ve talked about.

Dr. Aya: So earlier I used the word institutional priorities, and then, so let’s talk a little bit about what that means and, and what institutional priorities are considered. So essentially institutional priorities are essentially what universities have as value, like value adds to their particular universities.

Dr. Aya: So it could be department departmental needs. For an example, uh, if a university has a, is known for language, right? And they really wanna make sure the languages are fulfilled, say, um, you know, Arabic [00:17:00] or you know, Mandarin, right? So they might be saying, we are particularly keen on students who have expressed interest in study Arabic and Mandarin, right?

Dr. Aya: ’cause they need to make sure those departments are full or have a certain level of seats in them, or certain level of seats are full rather. So demographics. Relationships. So, um, some universities say for example, my alma mater, Georgetown a, a Catholic school, but particularly Jesuit. So in thinking about the Jesuit high schools, um, there might be certain relationships that they have where they, they want to make sure that there’s a strong representation of students from Jesuit schools or, um, title one schools, or there might be particular, um, relationships.

Dr. Aya: In addition, they might be a part of, um, QuestBridge or Posse or some of these other kind of nonprofits that work to get perhaps underrepresented students, high achieving, low income students, first generation college students into their various campuses. So they might consider those priorities, geographic representation.[00:18:00]

Dr. Aya: I know folks always joke, like if someone is from, you know, Idaho or North Dakota or South Dakota, they’re like, well, you should, you can get into anywhere. Right? It is because those students are so underrepresented, applicant pool, and for a lot of universities, they do like to be able to say that they have students from all 50 states.

Dr. Aya: Right? So looking at geographic representation and. For public universities in state versus out of state. Right. Making sure they have the majority of the applicants from in-state, right. As a public university. So there’s these geographic representations as well. It might be having a certain number of rural students, right?

Dr. Aya: Certain, uh, number of students from Urban Center. So there’s all these institutional priorities. And then depending on their funding scheme and how the finances or financial aid kind of schemes that schools have, um, they might be dependent on tuition. So they might need to make sure they have enough, you know, enough of full paying students or if they’re need aware, which is they, their [00:19:00] financial aid is taken to, into consideration during the evaluation process.

Dr. Aya: They might need to have a certain, you know, more, uh, full paying students than, you know, um, students who have high levels of financial need. So there are, again, various institutional priorities that universities have, but these are some of the main ones, um, that is being considered as. Institutions and admissions officers are evaluating applications and making admissions decisions.

Dr. Aya: So as I mentioned in previous slides, we fit right, institutional fit, school fit. So what is the significance of student fit and how do AOS determine which students are the best match? Right. Question. So when su when universities are thinking about fit, um, they’re thinking about students who fit into the campus life and culture.

Dr. Aya: And I think that can be pretty tricky because how does one quantify that? But I think a great example is one that I, when I mentioned. You know, if you are, you really, really [00:20:00] want to be a journalist and you, you write all your essays about it and your activities list talks about it, but the school doesn’t have a journalism program.

Dr. Aya: Right. So it’s like, what and where, in what ways do you fit into the campus life, in the school culture? Um, and, and like, does, is that a good fit? Also, a school might say, again, we look for students who are very interested in like community service and perhaps you have not spent your time in high school doing a lot of service because you maybe you just wanted to do sports or there was other areas that were a lot more important to you.

Dr. Aya: So that campus culture might be a bit isolating ’cause everyone is doing service all the time, right? So of course schools are looking for diversity of interest, but just making sure that when you’re evaluating the schools, you are also thinking about does this culture fit with me? Right. If you know you are a city girl and you want to stay in a city and you’ve like watched a lot of movies and you wanna jump on the train in New York City and go to NYU, maybe a rural campus or a school like [00:21:00] Penn State, which is like in a more rural environment, is not a good fit for you, right?

Dr. Aya: So it’s thinking about your own interests as well as the schools. So, you know, uh, institutions are looking for those who will add value to the diverse community. Right. And, and as I just mentioned, it should go in both directions, right? So you are also considering, does your major or department selection match what is available?

Dr. Aya: Can the school meet your research needs? Like are undergraduate students even allowed to, to conduct research? Is that actually happening? Um, do your mentors, teachers speak to qualities in in you that we see in our students? So also, you know, admissions officers are looking at how are the people writing your letters or recommendation talking about you?

Dr. Aya: Um. AOs are kind of thinking about essays. Again, what drives you as a person and will the campus help you fulfill your individual goals as a person? Okay. And again, how we contribute to the student life on campus. There are students who are, you know, they like to prioritize [00:22:00] what’s happening inside the classroom, but remember when universities are making decisions, they’re also building a class.

Dr. Aya: So they’re not just looking at you solely as an individual. They’re thinking about how does it this individual contribute to the greater community, the greater class, their classmates? Will this person be a good roommate? Will this person be a good mentor student, et cetera. Um, so again, it’s a very holistic approach of thinking about how students might contribute and align with the interests of the university.

Dr. Aya: And it’s important that students are also thinking about how the school is a good fit for them. Again, it is. It goes in both directions. Just as schools might be evaluating you, please, please, please make sure you are also evaluating the schools.

Dr. Aya: So thinking about the stages or the various stages of the review process for admissions officers, as I mentioned earlier in explaining like the day in the life, it varies, right? Um, in some schools, especially I’m thinking large public universities that re you know, [00:23:00] in every receive 50,000 plus applications, there are often some, a algorithms or some cutoffs that universities have.

Dr. Aya: Um, so there might be like an initial, uh, evaluation, uh, or first read in some cases where they know based on how competitive or rigorous the institution might be, they might have internal GPA cutoffs or internal test score cutoffs. Um, but again, this is via holistic processes, so it’s not as always black and white.

Dr. Aya: But if someone’s GPA is incredibly low and based on like the standard and rigor of the university, that might be a. A signal that that student might not be a good fit. Right. What universities and admissions officers are looking for, they wanna make sure they’re setting up students to do well. Right? So they’re looking for student success.

Dr. Aya: They, we, when I worked in admissions, we, we were very adamant about, we don’t wanna accept anybody who we feel like will struggle to the point that they cannot continue or have to transition out from the university. So there might [00:24:00] be some academic cutoffs. The second stage, again, admissions officer review.

Dr. Aya: So there might be a rating system and comments and documentation to support ratings. So whatever the rubric is, and that varies by school, and it’s often internal and increasingly, uh, slightly more secretive. But whatever internal rating system that they have, they’re looking at the applications from their region.

Dr. Aya: Or maybe they, they, some schools review region by states, by high schools, by major interests, but they’re kind of looking at creating documents. Who should they admit? Who should they wait list and why? Right? And then ratings often drive whether students are automatic, de denied, automatic omitted, and those again, who might need further discussion.

Dr. Aya: Um, and in some institutions, the automatic emits and deny. Has a second reader. So some schools, one person can’t automatically admit or automatically deny someone. There might need to be another person who also agrees with that decision. So a second read or second reader. Um, and then you have those students who fall right into the [00:25:00] middle and that’s where the community committee review usually comes in.

Dr. Aya: And there’s a discussion of, you know, what that be, may not be clear or, um, admissions officers might be able to join a committee. And that could be a committee of faculties. There might be students, there might be, uh, other admissions officers where. Everyone comes together and essentially advocate for why the students that they’ve like, that have moved on to the committee review should be admitted based on whatever notes or documentation that the admissions officer in that region, um, kind of provides.

Dr. Aya: So that’s the committee review. And also I think the committee review is, and if you watch certain movies and there’s like a dark, you know, cherry wood table and people are around, they’re like raising their hands and they’re fighting. That’s often the image that people have, I think in a lot of movies and popular culture when they think about admissions reviews.

Dr. Aya: But those are often the committee review processes.

Dr. Aya: Again, as I mentioned in the holistic kind of [00:26:00] application, um, conversation earlier, holistic application review process is essentially that decisions are made off applications in their entirety, right? So even if there is some. Kind of academic cut first, um, based on whatever internal benchmark a university might have.

Dr. Aya: When applications are moving through the process, they, they’re taken into consideration context, right? Um, there is, you know, they’re looking at activities, letters of recommendation, essays in addition to test scores and, uh, in some schools, uh, interviews and also GPA, right? So they’re thinking about you in context.

Dr. Aya: They’re asking, is this a first generation college student? Does this school go, does this student attend a school where they may have limited access to resources, right? Where they may not, um, had calculus at their high school, so they had to take it at a community, a nearby community college, right? Um, does this student have to work?

Dr. Aya: 20 hours a week. So that’s why they can’t participate in [00:27:00] four or five different activities or clubs. Right. Um, is this student helping with family responsibilities? Is this student from a rural community where they have to drive so far just to take like SAT prep classes? So there’s all these different factors that are considered in the holistic application review process.

Dr. Aya: It’s not just grades, it’s not just test scores. And I think sometimes it’s really difficult for families to, um, understand that because they want to quantify right the process and make sure it’s so objective. But there’s so much subjectivity in any process, but particularly in the admissions process. So again, the admissions officers are making a decision and reflection of all components.

Dr. Aya: Right. And then students often ask, you know, Dr. Aya, what’s the importance of the essay? And I often say if a university is inviting you to, or asking or requiring you to submit an essay, that means it’s important to them, right? Because they would not give themselves extra work, um, if they didn’t care, right?

Dr. Aya: Some schools have eliminated supplements altogether. [00:28:00] Some schools don’t require a personal statement at all, so that is not, you know, a priority for them. But for the schools who do it is a priority, so you should do your best job, right? Again, the burden is on you, the student, the applicant, to paint a clear picture of who you are and you’re fit with the school.

Dr. Aya: Again, every missions officer is working through your applications, hoping that those puzzles pieces fit. And again, uh, aos are looking for reasons to admit students, not to deny them. So in thinking about the science behind emissions, it, it really, there’s so much happening kind of behind the scenes, right?

Dr. Aya: You get such a small piece, you like just submit your common app and go about your business. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there’s a lot of things happening. So there’s enrollment management, right? Which is a data, data driven process. They’re ensuring that, um, the students, that admissions officers are admitting and helping them meet their goals and their yield, right?

Dr. Aya: And yield is the percentage of students that are admitted who accept the offer and [00:29:00] enroll, right? So every school wants to increase the yield, right? Um, and they’re just making sure that review processes are within, you know, the timeline. And then you have agro algorithms at beginning a review and potentially depending on the institution after end of the review process.

Dr. Aya: So, assessing academic profiles, predictive modeling components. So there might be some. Technologies employed by institutions to kind of make sure that the class that they have built, um, isn’t aligned Right. Um, with the academic profile, uh, that they wanna have for their class. So making sure whether it’s students’ GPAs or test scores or interest fall within how the institutional priorities, right.

Dr. Aya: So just making sure that there’s a clear alignment, that the data is not completely skewed from years prior. Typically, you’ll see very similar patterns year to year from universities. There have been some more recent shifts, larger [00:30:00] shifts because of the. Increasing, you know, return of tests, right? We had a really strong test, optional movement.

Dr. Aya: We’re seeing tests being required again, so you’re seeing some shifts in the data. We’ve also had some Supreme Court decisions that have shifted, um, some of the racial and ethnic makeup of certain selective institutions. So we are seeing a bit more shifts in this current moment, but typically.

Dr. Aya: Universities will see really consistent data points for over year by year. And then the truth, every school is different as I’ve tried to articulate, right? But all are using enrollment management strategies based on the needs of their universities in some way, right? Again, institutional priorities, and again, it’s important to look at the missions data when creating college lists and deciding on application strategy.

Dr. Aya: I know here at College Advisor, we really help our students develop, um, college lists that align with their academic profiles and also the admissions data of the university. That’s how we determine college, uh, college lists and what schools might be more aspirational, what schools might be [00:31:00] clear fits or matches.

Dr. Aya: But that data is, you know, available, the common data set is available. Um, but again, look at these types of things. Look at the admissions data that the university has published to help think about your college list and again, what might be a good fit for you.

Dr. Aya: So in thinking about how you can develop an application that is both authentic to you, but check off the boxes. For admissions officers, again, I think the priority is being honest. Presenting yourself honestly is always incredibly important, right? So don’t embellish, um, like don’t make up things to try to like force, uh, a square peg into a, like a round hole, right?

Dr. Aya: But you also don’t wanna be afraid to talk about yourself. I think one thing I always tell students is admissions officers don’t know what you don’t tell them. Or maybe, I mean, a teacher might tell them, but you can’t, you know, wait for someone else to say it. So if you are, you know, the, the master chess champion in the state of Georgia.

Dr. Aya: They you tell [00:32:00] them, right? Because how else would they know? I mean, they don’t, I know when I worked in admissions, I didn’t have time to Google thousands of applicants to see like what fun fact popped up. Like I was not doing that at all. I had no time. So you really wanna talk about yourself and be honest.

Dr. Aya: I think some students really struggle with writing about themselves, but this is the place to do it. Okay? You wanna focus on following what ignites your passion, right? So you want your application to really reflect who you are. I just read such a beautiful. Essay, um, for, from a student yesterday. Um, and they, they were really interested in journalism and they just kind of talked about how that evolved and how they wanna contribute to some of the journalistic efforts, um, and school newspapers at, you know, at a institution of their choice because of their passion about truth, right?

Dr. Aya: And the media and integrity and journalism integrity. And it was just such a clear alignment with how they thought about their future goals, the personal statement, and also the school that they were applying to. So you really wanna focus on what ignites your passion, because that really [00:33:00] shines, I think, when students are being really authentic and introspective.

Dr. Aya: And I cannot say this enough, and I know we have such a diverse spread of students. We have a lot of juniors, we have some eighth and ninth graders and some others in, in the, in the webinar with us. But research, research, research. Understand what is important to a school and make sure that aligns with what is important to you, more importantly.

Dr. Aya: Okay. So you wanna take tours, and these can be in-person tours or those could be virtual campus tours. You know, I was just talking to a student recently and I, you know, I went on University of Wisconsin Madison’s website and I saw that they had virtual, um, conversations, um, admissions presentations, panels with like, about student life.

Dr. Aya: And I’m like, if you can’t fly all the way to, you know, Wisconsin, this is a great way to get familiar with the university. Right. Speak with current students if you can. Um, and that speaks to alumni. I mean, I think I attended a high school where a lot of students attend the, attended the University of Michigan.

Dr. Aya: [00:34:00] So I was able to talk to those who had graduated or my teachers would put, invite them to come back to speak during holidays and they would just tell us about their experience and a very honest and thoughtful way. Right. Um. Continue to explore the websites, go to the various department pages that you, um, have interest in and see what, what’s the courses like, what types of classes are they taking.

Dr. Aya: Um, and then of course, follow the universities on social media. You know, sometimes they’ll have students take over their social media pages and see what a day in the life is. Um, so just continue to do your research, make sure things are. In alignment with you. And you know, when in doubt, ask for help. Ask for help about your application strategy.

Dr. Aya: Have people, uh, help, uh, review your essays as you kind of navigate the essay writing process. Ask for help in reviews of your activities list. Okay? So, you know, maybe there’s people, some, sometimes there’s people who know it’s a little bit, you know, better than we even know ourselves, or they see something that we don’t often see.

Dr. Aya: So as that teacher, they [00:35:00] mentor that parent and say, Hey, does this essay, or does this application look like a true reflection of who I am? Right? So ask for help, you know, college advisor. We support students in the process, um, you know, from beginning, uh, to the end. So there’s so many resources that are available.

Dr. Aya: Um, and so ask the people who you know and trust for help as well as you think about developing an application that is authentic to you.

Dr. Aya: So in thinking about last insights on what a’s really notice in apps absent before we start to take questions, you know, as an applicant, I often tell students, you know, try not to obsess over the science. And you’ll say, well, you just told us about the science. Well. You have to think about what’s in your control.

Dr. Aya: Okay, so the science that I, I kind of demonstrated, it’s like what is in the AOS control, what is in the university’s control? We need to be focusing on what you can control, right? Again, every school is different and decision making is driven internally by so many different factors. So, and I often saw this too as someone who [00:36:00] sat on the graduate admissions committee and my department, uh, for the PhD, I saw that there was a lot of strong applicants, but sometimes there wasn’t a good fit or there was a timing issue.

Dr. Aya: And the same thing can, you know, happen in the undergraduate level. Please don’t take admissions decisions personally. Don’t think that devalues who you are, your intelligence, your acumen, your future, your goals. You know, the, there was one school I really wanted to go, uh, go to, did not work out. And then I always say Georgetown’s one of the best things that ever happened to me.

Dr. Aya: So sometimes one no can be the best yes you’ve ever had. So also, don’t take those things personally. As I mentioned, focus on what is important to you as a student. So often students are chasing institutions, are are chasing prestige and brand names. Um, but they’re not thinking about does this school align with my values and principles?

Dr. Aya: You know, has the school been in the news lately? Right? Just kind of think about what’s happening on the institutions because you also will be there and you need to make sure it’s a good fit for you. Okay. In terms of your application components, [00:37:00] again, please do not collect extracurriculars and experiences.

Dr. Aya: I see it so often, especially in the junior, in the junior year, fall of senior, your students are like, I started these 12 clubs and it’s like, first of all, you don’t have the capacity at the time. You’re taking five AP classes, you’re applying to 20 schools. That’s a lot. And universities wanna see sustained engagement and impact.

Dr. Aya: And if you just started a club in, in September of your senior year and you’re applying to school in November, your senior year, there’s no time to really show like how you. Kind of contributed. Um, choose, uh, letter writers who are gonna write meaningful, strong letters for you, right? Write essays about your passions, right?

Dr. Aya: Focus on what you, you know, what you love, or the future that you envision for yourself, for your community. Um, and to just be honest, right? And also balance your academics so you can perform well by also pursuing rigorous coursework. Some students might say, I know I thrive in math, but I don’t thrive in English.

Dr. Aya: So if you take the most rigorous math classes, but don’t take all the AP [00:38:00] English and language courses, that’s okay too, right? Just balancing, making sure you’re challenging yourself, but also you want to do well. You want to have a strong performance in the classes that you do take. And then lastly, you know, making sure you have a balance.

Dr. Aya: College list to ensure optimal success in admissions processes. You don’t have to apply to every Ivy League school or every school in the top. You know that whose acceptance rate is less than 25%, right? You wanna give yourself options and you again wanna prioritize fit over just like prestige, right?

Dr. Aya: Sometimes students just wanna like, I just wanna apply to the most selective school to say, I got in and we want to make sure you are using your time wisely because when you are a senior, time is like the most important real estate, especially as you think about homecoming and exams and SATs and et cetera.

Dr. Aya: So making sure you have a balanced college list to make sure you give yourself options. I.

Anna: Thank you so much, Dr. [00:39:00] Aya. That’s the end of the presentation part of our webinar. We hope you found the information helpful. Remember, you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab. Reminder, the recording will be emailed to you, so you’ll also have access to that.

Anna: We’re now gonna move on to the live q and a. I’ve been reading through the questions you’ve. Submitted in the q and a tab, and also some that you submitted when you registered. As I get to each one, I will read it out loud and paste it into the public chat so everyone can both read and hear them. Before Dr.

Anna: Aya responds, as a heads up, if your q and a tab isn’t working, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page. So you might need to close out, go to your email, click that link to rejoin, but reminder, you’re gonna get the recording so you won’t miss anything.

Anna: All right, I think that’s all the housekeeping now. So Dr. I, let’s dive into these questions. The first one is, [00:40:00] how do schools look at weighted versus unweighted GPAs and do some only look at one or the other? And how, how does rigor factor into that?

Dr. Aya: I think that’s a fantastic question and a, a response we’re gonna get quite often is, it depends, um, for more selective schools, they, they really focus on the unweighted GPA.

Dr. Aya: So they look at the letter grades, the letter grades perceived in your, in the particular course. So, um, some schools have their own formulas where they might throw out electives and they might recalculate your GPA anyway. Um, but they’re looking at the letter grades, so whether it’s A or B, or C or D, and then what the class was in.

Dr. Aya: So in my experience, more selective schools look at unweighted, they recalculate the GPA anyway. Some other schools will consider weighted, um, schools that are more kind of accessible. And less selective might look at weighted, and they might even use it to in decision making about scholarships, um, and merit-based aid.

Dr. Aya: But it’s really school [00:41:00] dependent. And I also, I want students to feel students and families to feel empowered to reach out to universities and do their own research. Like visit the school’s website that, of a college that might be on your list and see what they say. And if you still have a question, contact the school.

Dr. Aya: I think people get really scared about that. They think like if they call the school, they’re going to like write their name down and like when they’re reviewing be like, oh no, John called like on September 3rd. Um, and I want students to feel empowered to actually reach out to the school if there’s like a question that’s specific to a university and they want like an expert opinion.

Dr. Aya: So in short, a lot of schools prioritize the letter grade earned in the class and might even recalculate the GPAs, removing electives and courses like that to determine how true, like truly how the student performed in a particular class.

Anna: Helpful. Thank you. Um, sticking with the grade theme for a bit, ’cause we had a few questions about this.

Anna: If a student experiences a dip in their [00:42:00] grades and then brings them back up, do you think they should address that on their application somewhere? And if so,

Dr. Aya: where? I think it depends on the rationale for the dip. I mean, some students dip because things got hard and you had to pivot. Um, and some, you know, we often don’t like to just draw attention to things that might be perhaps negative or less than stellar.

Dr. Aya: However, if the dip was you were hospitalized or a dip was a family emergency, or maybe you moved or maybe you transferred schools, those are things that I, that should be explained because I, we can see how that might contribute to, um. You know, a change in just how you kind of navigate a space. But if the dip is, the class was just a little harder than you thought, you had to study harder, I don’t think it’s worth writing the, you know, additional information on.

Dr. Aya: But if you had surgery or got injured or, you know, ho caught on fire, if there was some extraordinary circumstances, I think it, it’s appropriate [00:43:00] to mention it in the additional information. And that’s when the high school counselor comes in too. And they might add it to their letter as well. Like, you might have noticed, you know, Anna, you know, had, you know, in, in her sophomore year.

Dr. Aya: Went down in English, but that’s because A, B, and C. But then as you notice, she returned once this was resolved, et cetera. So, uh, it kind of, it depends on what the, the cause of the dip was. If it was just like a personal, I need to study a little bit more. You know, a calculus is a little harder than I thought.

Dr. Aya: I wouldn’t like spend precious real estate and application truly addressing it. But if it was because of an extraordinary circumstance, I think it’s worth discussing.

Anna: Yes. I love that you brought up it, that it could go in the rec letters. I encouraged my students, I know I did this when I applied to law school.

Anna: I gave my rec letter writers a one pager with a bulleted list of things that I thought they had of observed in me, [00:44:00] like specific accomplishments. And then if there was something like that, like, oh, my grades freshman year in college dipped. Can you explain why I was working night shift, yada yada. Mm-hmm.

Anna: I think that’s more than appropriate. I think often letter writers appreciate it. Um, they don’t have to dig back through their memory. You can just remind them if there’s something you put on there that they don’t wanna write, they don’t need to write it. Yeah. It’s there to help them. Um, okay. One more question about grades and then we’ll move on to another topic.

Anna: How important do you think is overall GPA versus progression and improving throughout high school?

Dr. Aya: That’s an interesting question. I think there’s overall GPA and then there’s. The grade earned in the class, which I don’t think is the same. Right? Because, and, and this is when I, when I see like wildly high GPA, it’s like 5.2 off a 4.0 [00:45:00] scale, that actually translates nothing to me because I need to see the grades earned in the classes.

Dr. Aya: Because if those are all B pluses in AP classes versus all a’s in another type of class, it looks differently to me and we evaluate those early. In my experience, admissions officers look at them differently. So the GPA often is that raw number that might. Signal how competitive a student is, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Dr. Aya: And as I mentioned, schools particularly those more selective, tend to recalculate anyway. So at the end of the day, focus on the grades earned in the specific class. Focus on what letter grade you earn in this specific class. Um, ’cause that is the base that, that’s considered the raw data that really helps inform how universities make sense of your GPA and your academic performance.

Dr. Aya: So I think that is my personal philosophy. Like when I see 4.9 GPA, it literally means nothing to me until I see the transcript. I just have to see the transcript. I have to see the overall, like the classes they’ve taken, how they done in those classes, how [00:46:00] they improved over time, the progression as the young person asked in the, in the in the chat.

Dr. Aya: So I think I will focus on the grades earned in class, um, recognizing that we talked in terms of GPA, but it’s really in the admission side. We’re looking at the grades earned in the class and the types of classes taken. So

Anna: helpful, holistic, right? You gotta see the full picture even with the grades. Um, how do admissions officers feel about online school students?

Anna: If a student’s getting their high school degree online? Um, anything they should know. Any expectations that might be different for them?

Dr. Aya: That’s interesting and, and it’s a slightly, maybe even potentially more challenging to answer directly from my experience. The question becomes, it’s more why is a student taking, um, enrolled in an online school as opposed to a, a brick and mortar school, um, what is the [00:47:00] accreditation like, um, what does that look like in the full context of the applicant?

Dr. Aya: Right. Does an online school offer as many resources as. A brick and mortar school and thinking about activities and departments and units, um, schools are probably going to have to like, how is it a old, how long has that online school been around? How can they kind of validate the rigor? Uh, I think that’s one of the biggest differences for some bigger, you know, schools tend to build relationships with certain schools, right?

Dr. Aya: So universities, for an example, university of Michigan, Ann Ann Arbor, of course, they know all the schools in Ann Arbor and you know, the missions officer are aware of the schools in metro Detroit because of proximity and location. So if a school, a student pops up with a online kind of, uh, high school diploma and they’re less familiar about the school, they have less context.

Dr. Aya: They don’t know the high school counselors there, it makes it harder for them to make judgements about the [00:48:00] rigor of, of the, of the school because they’re just less familiar. So it’s really. It’s a, I think there’s some vari variables here that make it very difficult to have an explicit response to that.

Dr. Aya: However, this is an example of, say you have like five schools, you know, you want to apply to reach out to the school, you know, send an email or call. Again, i, I call admissions offices all the time for students that I work with. If I feel like I can’t find the answer, I’ll just call and say, I have some questions.

Dr. Aya: And it’ll either be like a student who works there or the admissions officer on duty or a staff member that they designate. And I’ll say, Hey, how, like, how do you all think about, you know, online high schools? Is there a separate process? Do they make different decisions? So I think though that could be a very school specific question and I would encourage you to feel empowered to reach out to the school and kind of ask about your specific context.

Dr. Aya: ’cause I don’t think it’s as black and white.

Anna: Thank you so much Dr. Aya. You’ve been going strong for almost an hour, so I’m gonna give you a little break. [00:49:00] Um, so I can talk just a bit about CollegeAdvisor. For those in the room who are not already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be.

Anna: CollegeAdvisor has a team of over 300 former admissions officers like Dr. Aya and admissions experts who are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process in one-on-one advising sessions. CollegeAdvisor has had 10,000 total lifetime clients. We’re proud to have a 4.8 out of five star rating on Trustpilot with over 650 reviews.

Anna: Um, after analyzing our data, uh, from 2021 and 2024, we found that strong CollegeAdvisor students, when compared to similarly situated students not working with CollegeAdvisor, were 2.4 times more likely to get into Harvard, almost three times more likely to get into Stanford, and almost two times more likely to get into Princeton.

Anna: So, increase your odds and take the next step in your [00:50:00] college admissions journey by signing up for a free 60-minute strategy session with an admission specialist on our team. You can do that by scanning the QR code on the screen. If you’re not able to scan it now, remember you can download the slides, you can take a screenshot of it.

Anna: Um, whatever you do, make sure you give it. Uh. Give it a scan and schedule that free session because 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 in your college applications. At the end, you’ll also learn more about the premium packages we offer that pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, and so much more.

Anna: As Dr. Aya said earlier, we are really here for the whole process. We would love to have you, uh, learn more about joining the CollegeAdvisor family. We still have almost 10 minutes for questions, so we’re gonna jump back into those, but the QR code’s gonna stay on the [00:51:00] screen, so, uh, if you haven’t had a chance to scan it yet, it will stay there.

Anna: Um, alright. Dr. Aya, looking forward, do you think SAT scores are just gonna be required across the board?

Dr. Aya: I hope not. Uh, um, man, that’s an interesting question. I’ll say this. As someone who interviewed admissions officers for my dissertation, and I asked them a future of like the college admissions essay.

Dr. Aya: Um, and this, this idea of likes a T scores came up because we’re starting to see people return, um, to the SAT required policy. I mean, I honestly wish more states were like the UCs and, and just became like California UCs and just became test blind. ’cause I think test optional has created such chaos and so much angst for our students.

Dr. Aya: Should I submit, submit? Should I submit a 1400? Is that too low for this school? Too high for this school? Um, [00:52:00] so for, I personally wish there’s a future where with no SAT, that’s my personal opinion. Um. I still think there’s still a, a great number of universities that don’t require test scores at all. The, the very selective schools dominate the discourse though, and they’re, they’re seeming to go back to requiring tests.

Dr. Aya: So I can see the very selective schools requiring tests again, but I think for some places like UCs that we’re gonna continue to be test blind, so we’re gonna just keep following, again, emissions processes, emissions standards, and things are just shifting so much because of this current moment that we’re in.

Dr. Aya: So I will continue to watch, I will continue to follow because I too am interested if schools are just gonna say we’re gonna require them. Um, but if I had a crystal ball, like if I can like make a wish. SATs would go away personally. So

Anna: yeah. Thanks so much. I know it’s, there’s no way to know for [00:53:00] sure.

Anna: Yeah. Um, your, your insight is really valuable. If a student is applying to a specific school or department, say engineering or psychology, does staff from that specific department, that school review the application, or are they more. Like general AOs that review

Dr. Aya: the applications. This is another school.

Dr. Aya: Just a specific question, because some schools admit students generally, like the first stop is broadly. Um, um, and my experience, there’s just generalists. There’re AOs who are making the decisions. And then the committee, so there might be a committee for students who chose stem. That committee review might have a faculty member from the math department, but not always.

Dr. Aya: And then there’s sometimes there are admissions officers. Um, there’s some schools that come to mind where, um, that I interview. Admissions officers for my, for [00:54:00] my research. And they said, you know, in this particular school I do read all the computer science students. Um, so there are some universities where the admissions officer might read a particular major because it’s such a high impact major where they have a lot of applicants.

Dr. Aya: And there might be admissions officer that’s designated for that. But it really, it really depends. Some schools, when you click engineering, you are admittedly like being read in the engineering school. Some schools, you click engineering, you get admitted to the broader college before you’re filtered to the engineering school.

Dr. Aya: So it is a school, uh, school specific policy. There’s, there’s no hard, fast rule. I’ve seen all, like, I’ve seen all iterations of that, so I can’t say for certain how this, but whatever university you have in mind might have a different policy.

Anna: Um, thank you. It depends, uh, an answer to a lot of questions in this field.

Dr. Aya: I know people hate that answer, but it’s so true. I don’t wanna misrepresent, you know, [00:55:00] anything, so I have to put that caveat. It really depends on the school. Yeah,

Anna: yeah. Fair enough. How could students make a strong application if they are undecided about their major?

Dr. Aya: Yeah, I mean, some schools you’re undecided regardless, like they admit you undecided at that Georgetown, if you, if you check a box in really any of the, in the College of Arts and Sciences, you’re undecided essentially until you’re a sophomore.

Dr. Aya: Um, you know what happens is students still have passions and things that they’re interested in. So maybe you don’t know if you want to study a particular major, but maybe you have a favorite subject. Maybe there’s something that you really enjoy. Maybe you’ve done really well in certain type of academic tracks, right?

Dr. Aya: Maybe you did really well in the English track and maybe you, you know, you don’t want to be, get a PhD in English, but you do well in that. So you have enough information about what questions might excite you, what about the future might excite you? Um, things that you wanna change about the world that you live in.

Dr. Aya: So I would use that as a [00:56:00] motivation to kind of talk about your broader future. So maybe for an example, you’re like, I am. You know, I’m concerned about social justice, right? You don’t know what major that is. You don’t know what that means in like the workplace Exactly. But you’re like, I know I wanna pursue things that allow me to address inequality or.

Dr. Aya: Fight for civil rights or what may have you, you, there might be certain interests that you have that may not translate or map directly onto a major until you have a little bit more exposure. And that’s okay. You don’t need to know, you don’t have to be decided about what you want to do when you’re, you know, 20 in, 25 years from now.

Dr. Aya: Um, to show that your passionate students have a lot of passions about a lot of things. Um, and you can still write a compelling application. You know, maybe you, you’ve done a lot of activities, like what does your activity say about you? And this is one of the slides, the latter slides I had, you know, talk to a mentor or a friend.

Dr. Aya: Sometimes people understand us a little bit better or see us differently than how we see ourselves. So ask a mentor, a teacher, a mom is like. [00:57:00] Look, these are the 10 activities I participated in high school. What would you say do these activities say about me? And if you notice, most of your activities are like dance or performance based.

Dr. Aya: So maybe there’s some interest, like what does it mean to want to perform, to entertain, to be on stage, right? Or maybe your activities tend to be like robotics oriented or engineering or you use your hands. So what does that say about the future of things where you get to use your hands? So really doing some self-reflection and inventory can really help you kind of articulate what might be some of your interests.

Dr. Aya: But again, it is okay to not have a specific, specific major per se. Just like do inventory to say like, these are some of my interests. Um, and these are some of the paths I might wanna take, but I don’t a hundred percent what, where the destination is. And I think that’s okay to say.

Anna: Yeah, absolutely. That if that’s your genuine story, that’s that’s what they wanna hear.

Anna: Um, your, your genuine truth. Um. This is maybe a big question, but hopefully we’ll [00:58:00] have time to get through it. Sure. Are there certain factors that you think take on greater weight for early decision versus early action versus regular decision? And the reason I think this might be a big question is because it might be helpful to define those terms, if you don’t mind doing that quickly, just in case folks are joining us and haven’t heard of them yet.

Dr. Aya: Yeah, so EA, ED, RD. So regular decision is the application that mo like majority of applicants. That’s when you’re applying usually in January 1st or beyond. Those are decisions that you apply in the the winter and you receive a decision in the spring. It’s not binding. You just receive your decision by usually April 1st.

Dr. Aya: You have early action, which is often due in like October or November 1st, which you apply early and you receive a decision earlier, usually by Christmas or ear or late January. In the case of like large public universities, you get your decision early. But it is not a binding decision. Ed, early decision is a binding situation.

Dr. Aya: Also [00:59:00] due usually in October, early December, I’m sorry, early November, November 1st. Typically, that’s a binding decision. You apply and if accepted, you are making a commitment that you will attend. There’s tends to be slightly higher emissions or acceptance rates for ED because there are fewer applicants and students who apply tend to have some of the higher kind of, uh, academic metrics test scores and GPAs because they’re, they’re prepared earlier.

Dr. Aya: Um, so those are some of the differences. Again, ED and EA ED in particular, but EA too, they’re slightly higher admissions rates, but there’s also, ’cause the applicant pools are much smaller. So that’s something to keep in mind. You’re just competing against fewer students in EA and ed rounds as it, you know, rd you’re, you’re kind of competing with everyone, including those students who are deferred in the early rounds.

Anna: Thank you. That was such a helpful answer to a question I asked way too late in the webinar, so I appreciate that. Um, thank you everyone for joining us tonight. [01:00:00] Thank you, Dr. Aya, for your time and your expertise. We are at the end of our time together. We hope this was helpful and wish you all the best of luck on your applications.

Dr. Aya: Bye everyone. Good luck.