Inside the Admissions Office: How Admissions Officers Rank Candidate Profiles

Webinar Transcription

2025-12-8-How Admissions Officers Rank Candidate Profiles

Anesha: [00:00:00] Hi everyone. Welcome to tonight’s webinar. My name is Anesha Grant. I’m a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor and I’ll be your moderator for today. Today’s webinar is, “Inside the Admissions Office: How Admissions Officers Rank Candidate Profiles.” Before we get started, just to orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start with a presentation and then we’ll open up to answer your questions in a live q and a.

Anesha: Um, you can start submitting your questions whenever you get ready under the q and a tab. Now let’s meet our presenter, Dr. Aya Waller-Bey. Hi, Dr. Aya. How are you doing?

Dr. Aya: Hello. Good morning. Good afternoon, and good evening. I am Dr. Aya Waller-Bey, and today I will be delivering our webinar about how admissions officers kind of rank and make sense of diverse candidates.

Dr. Aya: So a little bit about me. I always like to start with that. I am a. Proud first generation college student. That means I’m the first person in my family to graduate from, uh, from college with a [00:01:00] four year degree. I attended Georgetown University in Washington DC where I then became an admissions officer and coordinator of multicultural recruitment.

Dr. Aya: Upon a grad graduation, of course, I then went on to get my master’s in philosophy of EDU education at the University of Cambridge in England as a recipient of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. And while there, I became an alumni interviewer for Georgetown. I have since recently completed my PhD in sociology at the University of Michigan Go Blue, where I studied the college admissions essay.

Dr. Aya: And I have been with CollegeAdvisor for about six application cycles now. So I have a lot of experience helping students navigate the college admissions process, and I’m very much looking forward to answering your questions later on in the conversation.

Anesha: Thank you so much for that intro, Dr. Aya. We, um, I’m gonna do a quick little poll just so we know who all is in the room.

Anesha: So please let us know if you are, what grade level you’re in. If you’re a parent or a teacher, we welcome. You can go ahead and select [00:02:00] other, um, all.

Anesha: And then I guess while we’re waiting, what question I know folks typically have is like, when is the right age or grade to start thinking about the college process. Um, and so I guess as we’re waiting to see what grade level everyone is in, what would be your initial piece of advice there? Great

Dr. Aya: question.

Dr. Aya: I think students should start thinking about college and higher education in middle school, but I think they should specifically start thinking about the process. Um, in ninth grade actually, when you start thinking about. What potential majors or academic interests might be. Sometimes the courses you select as early as ninth grade could put you on a certain path to reach the highest math level or science level or English level you might need to be successful in a competitive application process.

Dr. Aya: Um, so I don’t think it’s ever too early students really start to think about in the ninth grade, but [00:03:00] we probably see a lot of our students really like interacting with higher education and institutions around 10th grade typically. I think.

Anesha: So strategy starts a lot earlier, but Absolutely. All right. Cool.

Anesha: Thanks for that. Uh, we’ll go ahead and close our poll and just for your context, uh, we have a bit of a mix, but uh, we have one eighth grader welcome. Um, to that point, uh, we have 6% of ninth graders, 13%, 10th grade, 23%, uh, juniors, which is our biggest group. Um, 16%. Um, 12th graders. Oh, sorry. Our largest group is actually parents and teachers.

Anesha: We have 41% of those folks. Oh, fantastic. Um, so yeah. All right. I’ll stop talking. Hand it over to you and be back later for the q and a.

Dr. Aya: Fantastic. Alright folks, so let’s talk again about how admissions officers are ranking and thinking about various candidate profiles. So to start, what is the role of AOLs and how they read applications?

Dr. Aya: So admissions officers or AOs, we evaluate applications and we make [00:04:00] admissions decisions oftentimes based on our own institutional priorities. While we are evaluating applicants, we are looking at the applicant profile. That means the high school and demographics of the school. We’re looking at the students’ academic background, their transcripts, their test scores, their rigor, meaning what types of courses or classes that they’ve taken at their respective high schools.

Dr. Aya: We’re looking at their academic interests. What has a student identified that they want to pursue in college? Even if it’s undecided, what does their extracurricular activities or other interests and passions based on their application might signal what they ultimately might decide to major in? We’re also looking in fit alignment.

Dr. Aya: If you want to go to a school that has a strong journalism program, um, if you apply to school that does not have one and you’re articulating that I’m interested in being a journalist, then there might be a misalignment with fit there. So universities and admissions officers are [00:05:00] looking particularly at fit and again, ultimately admissions officers are making admissions recommendations, uh, or decisions, right, based on what their respective roles are.

Dr. Aya: So again, aos are reading applications based on the institutional priorities and oftentimes, particularly in holistic applicant processes, taken into consideration some of these, uh, kind of factors that I’ve identified here.

Dr. Aya: All right. So what, if any, ranking systems do AOS use? Now this is a really interesting question, and you’ll see there is a caveat here, if any, right? ’cause not all aos or universities have, you know, particularly stated or articulated, um, ranking systems. Each university has their own kind of process. And as you see here, admissions officers don’t have a universal, um, official ranking system, like one you’ll see in US news or something along those [00:06:00] lines.

Dr. Aya: Um, my colleagues at other selective universities have very different processes, and when I interviewed admissions officers for my dissertation, they all had different rubrics and internal evaluations of systems that they use to make decisions based on their own, again, institutional priorities, but again.

Dr. Aya: Each college builds its own internal evaluation, again, aligned with this mission, its priorities and its institutional needs. Most selective colleges and selective is a word we use to, um, kind of identify schools that emit probably, you know, less than 40%, 30% of their applicant pool. Um, a lot of those selective colleges use a holistic review framework, right?

Dr. Aya: So it’s not necessarily you get two points, you get five points, you get one point. There’s a lot of different factors, oftentimes very qualitative, where readers are evaluating, again, academic performance, rigor, extracurricular activities, impact essays, [00:07:00] leaderships, letters of recommendation and context rather than a separate.

Dr. Aya: Score or quantitative kind of factor, right? So there’s a lot of pieces to the puzzle there. So there isn’t, you know, again, a universal, you get one, you get five points. Some institutions use internal reader, reader rate ratings or scoring bands. So there might be some type of one to five or high to low internal system to help guide or to help inform committee decisions.

Dr. Aya: But there again, are not rankings of students against one another. And I think that’s really, really, really important. I think currently as students are receiving decisions right now for those early applications, the eds or the EAs, we sometimes are, I sometimes hear from parents who are frustrated that, you know, a student applied early to a school, but they really didn’t wanna go there.

Dr. Aya: But they know another student really wanted to go there and they’re taking their. Right, and it’s not a one-to-one comparison like that. So that’s just really, really important for you all to know. [00:08:00] Again, there are rubrics in evaluations because there needs to be some way to structure reviews and maintain some consistencies, um, as AOS are making decisions or admissions recomme.

Dr. Aya: Now you’ve heard this kind of terminology, institutional priorities a few times, but again, each university or institution have factors that inform how they make sense of the class that they’re trying to build. Okay? So institutional priorities often shape review far more than rankings. Um, these priorities could be making sure that there are a certain, uh, number of students for particular types of majors.

Dr. Aya: So if there’s a department, um, that they need to fill, uh, they need to make sure they have a, a x number of students in the environmental science program, or a x number of students in animal science program, right? Geographic diversity. For some schools, it’s a priority that they have a student represented from every state in the United States, right?

Dr. Aya: So you often hear people joke [00:09:00] about, well, if you’re that one student from Idaho or North Dakota, your chances might be higher because universities are looking for geographic diversity, right? They’re also looking, um, particularly now, increasingly making sure that there’s representation of first generation college students.

Dr. Aya: Those are students who, like myself, who were first in their family to attend college. So really wanting to show commitments to, to socioeconomic diversity. Um, they’re also looking for special talent. Sometimes they need to make sure they have students to fill that sailing team or, um, making sure they have certain types of students from other different backgrounds.

Dr. Aya: Right? So again, there’s various institutional priorities that are often shaping review processes. And these priorities might shift year to year. They might get a large donation for their undergraduate, undergraduate business school. So now universities are thinking about, now we have to make sure we have x amount of undergraduate business majors.

Dr. Aya: Okay? So these priorities might shift year to year based on kind of donations or certain, you know, [00:10:00] climates, et cetera. And again, and from rent, many universities final decisions are actually made in c. Where admissions officers discuss applicants collectively rather than relying on a single ranking or formula.

Dr. Aya: And when we say committee, the committee could be other admissions officers. The committee might have, uh, a faculty from a, a, a, you know, particular discipline. Um, for an example, if there’s an undergraduate engineering school, there might be admissions officers that review engineering students, uh, specifically, and there might be a professor or faculty from the engineers engineering school.

Dr. Aya: There might be a staff member from the engineering school. Um, so committees look differently depending on the institutions, but oftentimes decisions are made in committee where various institutional actors or social actors get to kind of make their decisions or make, uh, the case or recommendations on why certain students should be admitted or move forward in the, uh, evaluation or review process.

Dr. Aya: So what are the first things aos [00:11:00] look for in an applic? Again, in holistic admissions processes. There are a lot of things that they’re looking for. But the first thing, and this is something we really, really like to emphasize, is a strong academic foundation, your high school transcript, that is the most valuable, um, kind of piece of information that universities have when making admissions decisions.

Dr. Aya: And you might say, well, there’s grade inflation. At my son’s school, everyone gets a, at my daughter’s schools, et cetera. However, um, what what is so important about a high school transcript, which you, this data you don’t necessarily get from other pieces of the application. Say for an example, standardized test scores that GPA trends really show how a student does over time, right?

Dr. Aya: So say if a student had all a’s their first year in ninth grade when they were taking kind of less rigorous classes, right? We know in, in our school system, our academic kind of, uh, rigor is stacked, right? Things get [00:12:00] more challenging as you progress, right? Um, so you might see how students. You know, maybe they start to take those AP math classes and we begin to see, you know, how well that they do as things get progressively challenging.

Dr. Aya: Some students, you know, you might notice that they’re starting to get BS and and and reading or English classes, but they’re sky, they’re like, you know, stars and you know, the AP calcs or linear algebra and et cetera. So that trend, seeing how a student performs over time, gives admissions officers a lot of data.

Dr. Aya: In addition to course rigor, what types of classes are you taking? Are you taking the most competitive classes that your school has to offer and, and are you doing well in those courses? Right. Again, AOs are always looking at school context. They wanna see how you challenged yourself within what was available.

Dr. Aya: We often hear, um, parents or students or families broadly say, my school, my child’s school only has three AP classes. Right? And one of those classes was in an area that’s. My student wasn’t interested in [00:13:00] will I be penalized for it? And the short answer is no. Universities have context. When, when I worked as an admissions officer, we had the high school profile.

Dr. Aya: Right. Or you know, and also counselors would articulate in their letters of recommendations. Or in, you know, what they provide to us. You know, our school only has math up until this level, however this student progressed and take, took a class at a local community college, or something along those lines.

Dr. Aya: So we also have contexts that helps us make decisions. Again, we’re not, you know, comparing a child or a young person who has, you know, 30 AP classes, IB programs, versus a child or young person who might be attending a school where that is not feasible for them. Uh, in processes, in holistic admission processes.

Dr. Aya: We’re also looking at community engagement. We’re looking at how you’re performing inside and outside of the classroom. That’s leadership, that’s consistency, that’s sustained engagement. So again, engagement over time. We’re looking at [00:14:00] jobs. And family responsibilities. We often wanna make sure students know that if you cannot commit to a thousand clubs at your high school because you need to work at as a barista at your local coffee shop, that is equally valuable.

Dr. Aya: Okay? So don’t shy away from talking about that summer job, that summer camp, that job you’ve had to have all four years, maybe bus tables, whatever it might be, right? That is actually very important and it shows, uh, you know, not only discipline and, and responsibility and maturity. So make sure you also talk about those jobs that you might have had that may not be as glamorous.

Dr. Aya: We, we wanna see those in admissions process. And my personal favorite, the personal narrative, the college admissions essay or essays, depending on the, the admissions process. Again, a very clear, authentic emphasis on authenticity. And there’s a lot of conversation now about authenticity given the use of various chat, you know, boxes, but.

Dr. Aya: We can talk about that a little later. Um, but, you know, admissions officers wanna [00:15:00] see how students are thinking about themselves, making sense of the world, answering questions, um, being thoughtful, being engaging, um, being vulnerable where appropriate. Right. And also just their perspective about life, about their own future, about their own aspirations, right.

Dr. Aya: We also have letters of recommendation for the schools that actually require them. You know, that gives insight into character and classroom presence and contributions, right? So, uh, teachers and counselors or coaches often give insight, a little bit more insight with specific examples, ideally about what a student did or, you know, were they quiet until it was time to give a group presentation and then they shined, right?

Dr. Aya: Or were they the stu the helpmate? Were they, were they the student who finished early and, and will help their classmates? That’s the kind of context. Um, letters and recommendations often provide. Or they sometimes give more information, say for a student didn’t disclose, you know, maybe they had a definite family that negatively impacted their academic performance or mental health, right?

Dr. Aya: There might be [00:16:00] some level of disclosure that a, a counselor, a high school counselor or college counselor might provide to give contacts around the academic profile, right? And then again, institutional fit, whether goals, interests, and values align with the college mission, academic offerings, and location.

Dr. Aya: I put that in there because if you say, if you’re applying to NYU or Columbia and you say, I don’t, I hate the city. I don’t wanna be in a city. Those schools are in a city, right? So also thinking about just fit, um, as far as institutional fit, but location as well. So in thinking about what then stands out right beyond GPA and test scores, I just kind of went on my rant about how, uh, GPA or particularly grades, I think there’s a difference between GPA and grades also.

Dr. Aya: I tell students, particularly when you’re seeing the increasingly reporting of weighted GPAs, I often tell folks, particularly at selective universities, wait, we don’t, the, the g weighted means something as far as the classes you’ve taken, you’ve taken those AP classes, [00:17:00] those dual enrollment, you’ve gotten high marks.

Dr. Aya: But when we strip down the GPA, we wanna see how you performed in a class. So if you have all BS and all AP classes, so it looks like you have a 4.3. If we look at the base GPA and it’s technically a 3.7 or 3.6, there is a difference there, right? So, um, GPA and grades are not the same thing. Just wanted to put that out there.

Dr. Aya: But when thinking about what stands out beyond GPA test scores, different schools prioritize different things, right? Generally though academic rigor, as I’ve said and articulated previously, right? How students are challenging themselves inside the classroom with the courses that they’ve selected. We also have reflections on stories and personal narratives in leadership.

Dr. Aya: So how you’re discussing impact in the ways you’ve contributed to your community, right? Some schools are known for strong leadership or you know, community service or advocacy. You know, some schools just had representations or represent, uh, reputations rather of, you know. Community oriented students or global minded [00:18:00] students, right?

Dr. Aya: Um, at my alma mater, Georgetown, we were men and women for others, right? So the service was very, very much a part of the fabric of the university. So the types of students who applied and also were accepted tended to have a service orientation. Um, also looking for intellectual curiosity, right? Whereas particularly I always think about those liberal arts schools where they really want to make sure students want to contribute to a very academic.

Dr. Aya: Academically enriched and stimulated conversations discourse community, right? So how students are seeking academic intellectual opportunities outside of the classroom often indicates how intellectually curious students are, right? Whether you participated in a formalized activity or you created your own, right.

Dr. Aya: Maybe you went down a rabbit hole, maybe you started to create content on YouTube, or something along those lines. Just how are, how are you intellectually curious? And again, connections to ethos and values. As I mentioned, you know, I went to an institution where service was very much a part of the foundation of [00:19:00] the school’s kind of creation and how students, um, kind of thought about their place in the world.

Dr. Aya: So if you are also showing a strong connection to the school’s ethos and values, that is also something universities prioritize and look for generally, um, beyond GPA and test scores.

Dr. Aya: Uh, so as I’ve uh mentioned earlier, I kept mentioning the words again, institutional priorities. What, what are those and how, you know, how are we making sense of those? Again, these are various kind of, um, needs that the university has, um, based on, uh, funding, uh, kind of diversity, um, interests, even their future planning as far as what they want their institution to look like in the future.

Dr. Aya: So that can be departmental needs. Again, you need certain number of art history majors because you have a big donor who is very invested in the art history program, right? It can be relationships with schools and third party programs. For an example, I attended a Jesuit [00:20:00] school, so they may have had, you know.

Dr. Aya: Relationships with other Jesuit high schools, right? And Jesuit school networks, right? So making sure those relationships are nur nurtured and that their students, you know, uh, for, you know, if a school is Catholic, right, a Notre Dame, they will make sure that the, the Catholic schools in their region have, there’s some type of relationship there, right?

Dr. Aya: That is a institutional priority. Geographic representation, as I mentioned, particularly for public universities too, thinking about in-state versus outstate, right? Making sure, um, as some of the more selective publics, like the University of Michigan, there’s almost like a 50 50 in-state outstate from other, uh, states.

Dr. Aya: It’s, it’s a larger skew of instate, right? So thinking about instate versus outstate and, and then also finances, as I mentioned, tuition dependency. So for some schools, they need to have full paying students. You know, it is a financial priority to make sure they have some full paying students. They might be need blind, which is, you know, a lot of the selective schools are [00:21:00] need blind, meaning if you are, they don’t look at your financial aid or ability to pay when making admissions decisions.

Dr. Aya: Um, and then you have need aware for some schools where once they get down to a certain number, they are looking at the applicants and who abil like, you know, financial situations can determine, um, whether or not you’re admissible based on your ability to pay or not. So there’s need to aware, there’s need blind, um, and there’s schools that meet various kind of needs.

Dr. Aya: So again, these are some of the institutional priorities that some universities are considering when, uh, evaluating applications and making admissions recommendations and decisions.

Dr. Aya: Now, this is a really important question. What is the significance of student fit? And how are AOs determining which students are the best match? Well, well, well, there’s a lot of things that go into consideration, right? Um, when admissions officers are evaluating applications, they are, you know, to a [00:22:00] certain extent they, these are not students they’ve ever encountered or met before, right?

Dr. Aya: And what I mean by that is they don’t, admission officers don’t know every student who’s applying. There might be a few because of various touchpoint, but very rare that AOs know applicants. You know, so the application is really where they’re kind of getting a, that first. Picture of who you are and the types of students you’ll be on campus.

Dr. Aya: So, uh, AOs are looking for students who will fit into campus life and culture. Again, if you’re like, I hate the city. I don’t wanna be in a city, I hate theater, and you’re applying to NYU, there might be a misalignment, right? They, they want you to be happy, they don’t wanna bring you there and you’re like, get me outta this city.

Dr. Aya: Right? Also, looking for students who will add value to a diverse community. So there’s one thing for a student to, um, be academic, uh, lead, you know, curious or intellectually curious, but there’s another thing about a student that will contribute to the student government that might contribute to the theater group, that might contribute to Model UN that might contribute [00:23:00] to the growing Black Student Alliance, et cetera.

Dr. Aya: And, and why, why that’s important is as much as college is about the academic rigor and the research and how you perform in the classroom. Most people, myself included, can tell you some of the best. And even, um, the opportunities where you learn the most are actually happening outside of the classroom.

Dr. Aya: It’s in various clubs and activities. It’s in your dorm room, it’s in your resident hall, it’s in the dining hall. It’s, it’s when you go to that dance or when you go to that event or that panel, or you know, someone comes to campus. A lot of that learning is happening outside of that traditional classroom environment.

Dr. Aya: So they need students to keep the activities alive. They need someone who’s going to plan the next, you know, the next speakers who come to campus, right? They need students who are gonna run the student government. So they are also looking for students who will add to the vi diverse campus community. The radio show that they have, the dance troupe, the a capella troupe, all those things are, you know, those processes are student [00:24:00] led, right?

Dr. Aya: So they need students who are gonna contribute to the diverse community and again, fit. Goes in both directions, right? Um, it’s as much as you are, you know, you, you’re thinking about the university evaluating you and whether or not you’ll be a good fit. The same thing goes for the institutions, right? You have to ask yourself, does is this relationship gonna work?

Dr. Aya: Are we a good fit? Okay. Factors can to consider academic goals, right? Does your major department selection match what we have available? Can we meet your research needs? This is so important. I’m actually kind of going through this process right now with some students. I’m working with. Students are, you have to think about, is your major there?

Dr. Aya: Now, majors do change, right? So that’s, I wanna highlight that. Students change majors all the time. Um, when you’re in the social sciences, sometimes it’s slightly easier to move in between. Uh, if you’re in a, a department where, or high impact major, it becomes less, you know, not as. It’s a bit more challenging to move in between.[00:25:00]

Dr. Aya: Um, but if, you know, if you know what you wanna study and the school does not have that major, I don’t know if that’s a good relationship match. Right. Um, if you know that, if, if you’re kind of looking at reviews or students are talking about it on their tiktoks and you’re looking at the, the department’s website and you’re seeing that undergrads don’t really get opportunities to research and that is really, really important to you, that might not be a good fit.

Dr. Aya: Right. Um, also considering letters of recommendation, do your mentors and teachers speak to qualities in you that we see in our students? So when AOLs are thinking about fit, um, they’re also looking at letters of recommendation to see how are others who are evaluating externally? How are they describing the type of student you are?

Dr. Aya: Also reviewing your essays. Essays are important. What drives you as a person and, and will, you know, will you be a good fit? Right? Uh, will the campus help you fulfill your individual goals as a person? Okay? Uh, if you know you really wanna [00:26:00] be a vet, and we are, our campus is not, doesn’t have a kind of pre-vet program or even around a pre-vet kind of community, and you were talking about how important that is to you.

Dr. Aya: Is the, is this campus the best fit for you based on your goals, right? And then activities, how will you contribute to student life once on campus? And I talked to at length about that, right? So these are some of the factors that aos are kind of, are questions rather that they’re asking themselves, that we’re asking ourselves as we’re determining which students are the best match.

Dr. Aya: So what are the stages of the review process for AOs? So there’s, again, people hate to hear this, but it really depends on the institution, right? So it varies. Um, typically there is a first stage, right, where there is some internal metric, and this is often unpublished, um, where universities say, well, this is a competitive school.

Dr. Aya: [00:27:00] So typically if a student has less than a 3.0. Um, they may automatically kind of be marked or labeled in a way that might signal that they won’t move past the first stage. Right. It may not be like just a, it is not like you don’t meet it and you immediately get an email that says deny. But you might, there might be internal flagging that happens that says this, these candidates, their GPA isn’t above this threshold, therefore we slide them into this pile of limited consideration.

Dr. Aya: Right. And then there’s, and then if you kind of make it through that first, um, level, that’s usually when that holistic process kicks in. So you met some internal benchmark or milestone, so then you slide into the review process. Right. And that’s when admissions officers are reading. All parts of the application, making comments, documenting through whatever CRM system that they use.

Dr. Aya: And then the ratings are kind of driving if there’s denials or potential admits or those [00:28:00] that might need to be reviewed. Um, and committee, right? Again, each school has a different, you know, exact process, but typically, um, in that second kinda wave, uh, or stage a review, um, that’s when admissions officers are really able to kind of make recommendations for decisions.

Dr. Aya: Right? And in some cases there is automatic denies or amidst may only happen if there’s a second reader to support that, right? Again, each school is different. Maybe if you were already in the cutoff stage, you don’t get that second read. It really depends. But typically there’s usually some checks and balances that say someone else has to sign on that this student should be admitted, or this student should absolutely be denied.

Dr. Aya: And then lastly, and typically. You have that community re committee review at the later stage, right? The third stage typically where just, um, there might be things that are just, were not cut and dry students who fall in the middle. And I think students don’t realize how many students fall into that category.

Dr. Aya: [00:29:00] Right? So there is a lot of conversations that’s happening. Um, admissions officers are advocating. I’ve seen it firsthand. I mean, you say that, that one young lady that I read from St. Louis and I was just so impressed, and maybe she had that B in AP calculus, but she was so impressive. And then you have another, uh, admissions officer saying like, I agree.

Dr. Aya: And then there’s like this back and forth, right? So sometimes there’s a whole, you know, advocacy process happening. Um, but again, that third stage, that committee review is when there’s a conversation typically, um, before clear, uh, decisions are made.

Dr. Aya: And again, in referencing the holistic application review process, which I’ve talked about, uh, a bit earlier, again, the decision is made in reflection of the entire application, right? There might be some academic cuts first, as I just talked about in the previous slide, but then that total of consideration is often triggered, and the next.

Dr. Aya: Stage that second stage [00:30:00] where activities, letters of recommendations, personal statements, supplement essays, um, and other additional information. There might even be an interview in the case of my alma mater, Georgetown. There’s an interview. Those become a part of the evaluation process, and all of those pieces are taken into consideration when making, uh, decisions or, uh, recommendations for dis uh, uh, admittance or not.

Dr. Aya: And again, the admissions officers are really looking at all the comp, uh, components. And the burden is on students to paint a clear picture of who they are in the FIT school. As we talked about in previous slides, every admissions officer is working through your application hoping that the puzzles pieces fit.

Dr. Aya: And I often tell students, I know this is really hard to believe, but admissions officers and universities are often looking for reasons to admit to you, right? They’re looking for reasons to admit you and not the opposite. And I know that’s very, very hard to believe, especially when you look at numbers and it says.

Dr. Aya: So, and whatever universities received a record number of [00:31:00] applications, they received 20,000 applications for 500 spots or something, you know, ridiculous. So it does, it does sound like they just wanna deny us. But no, when you really kind of get to that holistic process, you’re like, oh, that you are, like, making notes of things that like, oh, that, that, that’s a, that’s a strong student or that student will be great for our business school or et cetera.

Dr. Aya: So, um, just keep in mind that the application should tell a complete, as much as possible, a complete story and making sure that it’s claim, painting a clear picture of who you are.

Dr. Aya: So in thinking about, um, about the science behind emissions and, you know, I feel like, I don’t know, emissions is actually a science, it’s more of an art. Um, but in thinking about it, there’s enrollment management, right? So those, it is a very data-driven process where. Schools need to ensure that they’re meeting their, their yield and yield is, if you know the percentage of students who accept.[00:32:00]

Dr. Aya: The offer and enroll, right? They need to keep the lights on. Right? So their, their goal is to try to get students that they admit to accept the offer and actually enroll, pay the enrollment deposit. Right. Um, so there’s an, there’s a whole enrollment management process, um, that is driven by data, right? Um, each school has like a Roman officer or, you know, there’s often a unit that is responsible for that, which is slightly different than the admissions office.

Dr. Aya: Um, and it’s time dependent, right? This is. Why there’s certain waves. You have early action, you have early decision, you have regular decision, you have rolling admissions, you have transfer, you have wait lists. I mean, there’s all, you know, schools, students who are deferred. So there’s different stages of the process, but the goal is to, we want that yield.

Dr. Aya: We want students to, to come to make the decision to enroll. And then again, there’s algorithms at beginning of review and, uh, at the end of the review, right? So there’s, there’s a lot of assessments happening. Um, and also some predictive modeling too, based on, uh, patterns [00:33:00] of the past based on what you’re seeing at peer institutions, um, based on what we might be seeing like in the national kind of conversation and discourse, right?

Dr. Aya: Um, based, based on birth, um, rates based on, um, just kind of demographic data. You know, is your state, um, in a higher birth state, you know, we’re seeing, you know, between Texas and like the southeast part of the United States, um, we’re seeing a lot of students apply to schools in the SE SEC. So there are some demographic shifts that universities are thinking about when thinking about where they should recruit students, right?

Dr. Aya: If, if we’re seeing increased populations in California or Texas, admissions officers and universities are gonna put some more money to send more admissions officer reps to those areas because that’s where the, you know, majority of or high school students are coming from. So there is data that is informing the process, um, as universities are thinking about, again, enrollment and yield and just kind of entirely like how are they shaping out and building [00:34:00] a class.

Dr. Aya: And again, the truth is every school is different. Every school is different, but every school, and I can say that confidently, they’re using some enrollment management strategies based on their needs of the university in some way, in some shape or form, right? So it’s whether it’s they’re going to certain number of college fairs, whether they’re placing ads on television, um, whether how they engage their alumni, um, whether it, you know, how many students they take, where they recruit.

Dr. Aya: Uh, there’s just so many factors that they are kind of, so many things that they’re doing behind the scenes, um, to attract talent, um, and to fulfill whatever enrollment goals that they have. So it is important to look at the admissions data, and we’re creating college lists and decided on application strategy as well.

Dr. Aya: So in thinking about authenticity, right? This is such an important kind of piece of this component as we kind of round out our, our conversation tonight. You know, how can you develop an application that is authentic to you? But we’ll also check [00:35:00] off the boxes for AOs, right? At the end of the day, you wanna focus on presenting yourself honestly.

Dr. Aya: And I, I think students increasingly, you know, I, I encounter young people who feel like their stories or backgrounds are not interesting enough. Um, so they might feel like they need to embellish or. You know, misrepresent who they are. And I just really want to encourage and urge young people to think about who they are as significant and as worthy and enough.

Dr. Aya: Okay? Um, so you do have to talk about yourself. Like if a, if a essay, if there’s an essay question, it’s inviting you to talk about yourself. And I think sometimes it’s hard to do that for some people, adults, young people, students, et cetera. But you do have to talk about who you are, right? In some way or in your application, even if it’s not an essay, your extracurricular activities.

Dr. Aya: Tell the admissions officers a little bit about who you are, right? But you want to be honest, okay? No need to misrepresent or embellish your background. You also wanna focus on [00:36:00] what ignites your passion, right? So think about even if you think your love for butterflies is like weird, or you know, it’s too eccentric.

Dr. Aya: No. Talk about what ignites your passion, you know, and that could be related to your academic interests or future goals, or it may not be at all. There’s still an opportunity to really talk about maybe you love making people smile. That sounds very mundane, and it’s like, okay, but that, that could be a really beautiful story, a really beautiful essay, a really beautiful thing to talk about in an interview, right?

Dr. Aya: So your application will be stronger if you truly lean into what you are passionate about. You also really, really, really, I cannot emphasize this enough, do your research. That also does not mean putting a question into ChatGPT, and just. Whatever they spit out, assuming that we know AI can hallucinate, but that’s going to the actual websites, right?

Dr. Aya: Going to university websites, um, going to the university social media pages where appropriate, calling admissions offices and, and, and [00:37:00] asking them whatever questions you might have, you know, understand what is important to school and make sure there’s a, that it aligns what you know with what is important to you.

Dr. Aya: Right, if you are big on sustainability, and that’s really important, you know, maybe the school has made a pledge for sustainability, right? That sounds small, but that could be really important to how you make sense of where you wanna, you know, go to college. So again, making sure there’s alignment. Take tours where possible.

Dr. Aya: Speak with current students. Alumni, admissions officers, if you cannot afford to fly to a place, do go a virtual tour. They have virtual panels. Virtual tours nowadays, follow them on social media. They sometimes have students kind of take over Instagram or TikTok pages so you can follow along, you can call.

Dr. Aya: I always tell students I call admissions offices across the country. If I have questions and I can’t find it out on my website, um, call them. It’s fine. Know what it’s okay. Call them and ask your specific questions. And again, when in doubt, ask for help. Ask for help with your application strategy, your essay writing, your activities [00:38:00] list, have folks review it, people you trust, people in your network, your teachers, your high school counselors, your parents, and also us folks here at CollegeAdvisor.

Dr. Aya: That’s what we do as well. We support our students in the various application processes. So again, these are some of the ways that you know, you are developing an authentic application that prioritizes itself while also making sure you’re aware who your audience is, which would be the various universities and admissions officers.

Dr. Aya: So finally, any last insights on what a’s really notice in applications? As I said before, as an applicant, try not to obsess over the try to gain the system. Again, every school is different and decision making is DR. Making is driven internally by so many different factors. As I mentioned, institutional priorities, which will look different.

Dr. Aya: There are various holistic priorities and holistic emissions practices that they may have where are located. So many factors, right? So try not to obsess over it. Focus on what is important to you as a student and making sure the [00:39:00] school aligns with your values and principles, okay? That’s what’s really important.

Dr. Aya: And in terms of your application components, do not, do not collect extracurricular, extracurricular experiences. I see it all the time. I’m currently dealing with it now, where students have loaded up on activities, you know, end of junior year, senior year, they’re in 35 clubs, and they’ve been in all the clubs for, you know, three months a piece, right?

Dr. Aya: You really wanna make sure that you are, you have sustained engagement and that you’re doing things that you’re passionate about. You wanna choose letter A, re, uh, letter recommendation writers, that will write you meaningful strong letters, write thoughtful letters. If you ask a teacher if they can write a letter and they say, I don’t think I, I’m the best person for it.

Dr. Aya: I don’t think I can give you a strong letter. You know, take that as them being honest and ask someone else. Um, write essays about your passions, right? Don’t try to write a essay that you think they wanna hear. We see that a lot. I think they will want me to write about this thing. No, write about what you’re passionate about.

Dr. Aya: Caveat. [00:40:00] We do read a lot of essays about sports and, you know, and tearing your leg, uh, you know, ACL and the game winning shot, those things. So that we do see a lot of sports essays, so keep that in mind. Um, you also wanna just balance academics so you can perform well while also pursuing rigorous coursework, right?

Dr. Aya: You also want to challenge yourself and show that you’ve able to challenge yourself. If you’re applying to a business major or business program, making sure you have calculus, right? That’s almost necessary for almost any, you know, undergraduate business school, making sure you have calculus, right? So just really be mindful of like, you know, your academic performance, how well you’re doing, but also challenging yourself in the classroom.

Dr. Aya: And then finally, you know, making sure you have a balanced college list to ensure optimal success in the admissions process. You know, don’t only apply to schools that admit that emit, you know, fewer than 20% of students. You’re, that is really signing yourself up for some disappointment, okay? So you wanna make sure you are having a large range of schools and with various acceptance rates, so you can give [00:41:00] yourself options.

Dr. Aya: You wanna have options, uh, when it comes down to making, uh, an a decision on where you land for the fall.

Anesha: Okay. Thank you so much Dr. Aya, for a great presentation. We are gonna move over into the q and a section of our webinar tonight. Um, so the way that the q and a will work, I will read through the questions that you’ve submitted through the q and a tab, share them in the public chat so that others can see them and read them aloud to give Aya an opportunity to answer.

Anesha: If your q and a tab is not letting you submit questions, just double check that you’ve logged in through, through the, uh, link that you received in your email and not through the CollegeAdvisor webinar landing page. You might have to log out, log back in, in order to submit your questions, but remember that the webinar is being recorded and will be available via the CollegeAdvisor website tomorrow.

Anesha: All right, so my first question for you, uh, Dr. Aya, is, um. Someone asked, are the stages of the review [00:42:00] process the same for early as well as regular decision rounds? Are, are, are they going through those multiple stages in early and regular?

Dr. Aya: That’s a great question. Typically, from my experience, it’s the same in both.

Dr. Aya: It’s just the early, the early processes get fewer applications, so it’s a truncated process. So if you think early is November 1st, and they often make decisions depending on the school by mid-December, end of December. Some large public universities like University of Michigan, they do end of January, so they have like two months to typically make those decisions, or a month and a half usually.

Dr. Aya: So it’s the same process, it’s just fewer applications. So they’re able to do it slightly faster. And then comes RD round. If students were deferred, like students who were deferred acceptance, meaning they were not denied, they were not accepted, but they said we’re gonna review them in the regular decision around those applications roll over on top of all the RD applications, which is why it takes much longer, you know, [00:43:00] three months, an extra month usually for the rd.

Dr. Aya: But from my experience, it’s the same process happening twice, but at a different, uh, different periods of time.

Anesha: Thank you. Uh, next question. Someone asked if you could speak a little bit more or repeat, um, the summary you were sharing about the difference between grades and GPA.

Dr. Aya: Yeah, great question. Um, and thank you for flipping that.

Dr. Aya: So, uh, A GPA is an average, a number assigned by your district or school, um, based on their calculations, um, based on how they make sense of what the marks of, of, in your transcript mean. So what I mean by that is typically a a, if you have a 4.0 system, an A is four points. A B is three points. A C is two points.

Dr. Aya: A D is one point, and a F is zero points. Right? So in a traditional scale you have all A is 4.0. Right? So all a’s those are your [00:44:00] grades. The 4.0 is the GPA. Now for schools who have weighted GPAs, meaning if, if you’ve taken AP classes, so instead of an A being a four and an AP class, it might be five. You now the scale has changed.

Dr. Aya: So say you have all As. But your GPA, if they assign weight to, um, your AP classes, now your GPA is a, a a 4.5 or a 5.0 out of a 4.0 scale. So your grades are still A’s, but your GPA is now 5.0. So the difference here, so I make that distinction because say for an example, you have all Bs, but they’re all AP classes.

Dr. Aya: So your, your GPA might be 4.0. I’m just throwing out a number there. But you have all Bs in grades. That’s the difference. The grades are Bs, but the GPA is still 4.0. So as elective universities, we often kind of create, we have our own kind of formula, like we stick to the, the basic [00:45:00] 4, 3, 2, 1. And that’s how we’re making sense of it.

Dr. Aya: We wanna know what your grades are. The GPA is one number, but that can have weights on them. And that varies per school. Some schools don’t wait, some schools do. So we wanna know what earn in the class. That’s the distinction I, I wanted to make, and it’s something I, I want people to think about, especially thinking about unweighted versus weight weighted GPA, what is that Unweighted, GPA.

Dr. Aya: And what did you perform in the classes that you took?

Anesha: Okay, thank you. Um, thank you for giving, uh, broader context and examples there. Um, the next question is somewhat still related to numbers, but um, wanted to ask it, how much do your SAT scores matter in context? I feel like you, you. Did not talk too much about SAT scores, and so we got a few questions about it.

Anesha: Just curious.

Dr. Aya: Yeah. How much do SAT scores matter?

Anesha: Yes,

Dr. Aya: they matter if they matter to the university and that, that sounds like a ridiculous response, but if you look at, you know, a common data [00:46:00] set, a school will tell you whether or not SAT scores represent 25% of the evaluation or not. For schools that are, um, test blind, let’s look, think about the ucs.

Dr. Aya: Test scores don’t matter at all. They don’t look at them. So they don’t matter for a school that’s test optional. They matter when you submit them. If you submit them, they ma they matter because they’re gonna use it as a part of the holistic review process, as I’ve talked about earlier. Um, if a school requires them, they matter because that is a piece of the application process that is a critical component and, and the, and the broader holistic process.

Dr. Aya: So they, they matter in various levels for different reasons, for different institutions and for different disciplines. I tell students this, if you’re applying to a discipline in stem. And you are submitting task force, they matter, right? Because they often use, you know, your, the math level or the ACT/SAT or maybe some of your, um, [00:47:00] performance on some AP exams to signal proficiency and calculus or, um, chemistry or physics.

Dr. Aya: And this is particular for students who are gonna be in, in the hard sciences because they wanna make sure that you have some proficiency so you can do well. That’s often how more selective universities are thinking about it. So they matter at various levels and they matter depending on your discipline.

Dr. Aya: And I think the scores matter more, uh, for certain disciplines over others. So it’s not an easy black and white decision, but you can look at the comma data set at, at the university you’re interested in, and they’ll tell you, um, how uh, test scores inform. Um, their application review process.

Anesha: No, I, I really appreciate that response as far as like, take the school at, at face value of what they are saying about SAT scores.

Anesha: If, if they’re prioritizing it, it’s a priority. If they’re not, it’s not, or it’s less of a priority. Um, one more question I guess, about an application component. Someone asks for universities that conduct interviews, uh, [00:48:00] particularly those conducted by alumni, what is the importance of obtaining an interview and how does it factor into the decision process?

Dr. Aya: So the obtaining interview part is an interesting one. So typically, um, so Georgetown for example, requires an alumni interview. And the goal is if they, if they have an alum in your region or area, they’ll almost guarantee you’ll get an interview. They have a very robust alumni interview network, unless you’re in like a rural, rural place.

Dr. Aya: And then if you don’t get an interview because they cannot match it with someone, of course it does not, it’s not a disadvantage. And a lot of schools. Um, because of COVID went to doing virtual interviews, which made it a lot more accessible. Um, as far as offering or not, from my experience, particularly the more selective universities being offered an interview or not being offered does not put, like, mean that you get both, put you at an advantage or disadvantage.

Dr. Aya: Sometimes it’s all about availability. If you, if you are able to get an interview for a school that invites students for interviews, take [00:49:00] advantage of it, be prepared. And then universities often again, see it as additional information they can use to make a decision. But you are often, and usually it’s very explicit on websites.

Dr. Aya: You know, getting an interview does not put you at advantage. Getting an interview, not receiving an interview does not put you at a disadvantage. So similar to my, my response about the SATs, please take institutions at their word if they say on their website that interviews, you know, help them make decisions, but they’re, they’re, they’re not determining factors on whether or not you get in, take them at their word.

Dr. Aya: Oftentimes it’s just additional information and a way for universities to engage your alumni. It also is the universities trying to make sure alum can stay engaged, because if you’re engaged, you are more likely to, you know, donate money. So it’s also the ways universities want to make sure their alumni can feel engaged in the kind of application process post-graduation.

Anesha: Okay, we’re gonna take a moment and do a quick pause to talk a little bit more [00:50:00] about CollegeAdvisor. Uh, but we will definitely get back to your questions. So for those in the room who aren’t already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be. CollegeAdvisor has a team of over 300 former, former admissions officers and admissions experts who are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process of one-on-one advising sessions and essay editing

Anesha: through our digital platform. CollegeAdvisor has had 10,000 total lifetime clients with a 4.8 out of five rating on Trustpilot with over 750 reviews. After analyzing our 2023 through 2025 data, we found that our clients, um, especially those working with CollegeAdvisor with a strong academic and testing record, are 2.6 times more likely to get into an Ivy League school around three times more likely to get into a top 20 college and around five times more likely to get into Johns Hopkins, UCLA and NYU when compared to national acceptance rates.

Anesha: You can increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 60-minute strategy session with an admissions [00:51:00] specialist on our team by using the QR code on the screen. During that meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile and initial recommendations on how you can work to stand out.

Anesha: By the end, you’ll also learn about the premium packages we offer and be paired with an expert who can support true in building your college list, editing your essays, and much more. CollegeAdvisor is here for the whole process. Alright, we will leave the QR code up, uh, on the screen and get back to our questions.

Anesha: Um, you, I think you touched on this or mentioned this briefly, but I’ll ask it. Someone asked, how has AI influenced the admissions process and do admissions offices use AI to screen applications? Initially?

Dr. Aya: Probably, uh, there might be some algorithmic based. Model that they have that might use screening, but also realize folks, AI has been around for a very long time.

Dr. Aya: So there, there have always been various kind of algorithms and types of resources universities have used to [00:52:00] kind of make sense of large amounts of data, so that, that’s not particularly new, uh, particularly folks who’ve been evaluating applicants digitally for decades now. So AI isn’t new in admissions process.

Dr. Aya: Um, the first part of the question generally was just how, how has AI informed the admissions process? What was the, how has

Anesha: AI influenced the admissions process?

Dr. Aya: Well, I mean, I, I think where we are seeing more conversations is largely an admissions essay from my experience, where students, um, and families might rely on ChatGPT or other types of kind of AI bots to.

Dr. Aya: Help them write, or in some cases write entirely college admissions essays, which I do not recommend at all. Um, because I just think. Write your 650 word personal statement yourself. You’re gonna be doing a lot of writing in college. It’s a great skill to have. Mm-hmm. Um, but yeah, I mean, I think folks are kind of using, [00:53:00] um, AI to help them navigate.

Dr. Aya: I’ve seen some students actually use like ChatGPT almost like Google. Again, do not recommend join that. ’cause ai, I mean ChatGPT is not a search engine. Um, and it hallucinate. But yeah, I, I think students are just kind of using it a bit more, um, for, to build college lists. I mean, there’s a lot of ways it could be actually quite an effective tool to help organize a lot of information, if you will.

Dr. Aya: Um, but it does not create new information. So that’s something to keep in mind. And again, I think universities have been using AI for long periods of time, so sure there are various technologies that they’re employing to a help with that initial stage one that we talked about in, uh, earlier in the conversation.

Dr. Aya: Um, but I think also institutions, particularly academic institutions, are really trying to figure out how it can be a tool for good and not for bad. So I think we’re gonna see a lot of developments, particularly in the next three years or so, when ways universities are trying to figure out how to critically [00:54:00] adopt ai, um, and do it responsibly, right?

Dr. Aya: So, you know, to be determined.

Anesha: Um, thank you for that. I, yeah, I think it’s a complicated, um, question and, and still evolving. Um, I wanted to clarify one thing when we were talking, I think I specifically asked the question about, about the SAT, but we were talking about, I think, standardized testing generally that like, it’s not a difference between the SAT versus the ACT as far as the strategy you were talking about.

Anesha: Those are critical, interchangeable, right? Yeah. Okay. Right. Um, so yes, we don’t have a different, I guess, answer regarding the ACT in that context. No. Right. Um, okay. My next question for you is, is there an optimal number of schools that a student should apply to, and what would be the ideal split between safety match and reach schools?

Dr. Aya: Yeah, the optimal schools, I mean. Typically it’s like 12. Um, I mean, that was the number back in my day, a long time ago. We were told, um, students, um, that I work [00:55:00] with, um, traditionally there’s about 12 to 15 schools. Um, we often say the reaches or the aspirational schools, the schools that are really selective, keeping those to a minimum, you know, three or so.

Dr. Aya: And then have the majority of the schools being like those target schools, those schools where your, your academic profile fits, you know, within the, kind of the range of typical accepted students. And then some of those, you know, likely schools, I don’t use the word safety school. Um, those likely or favorable schools where, which are schools where based on your academic profile you off, you exceed the academic profile or the students that you’re admitted.

Dr. Aya: Those, the targets and those kind of likely schools should be the majority of the, the schools. So if you apply to 12 schools, you know, um. Some students might do like 4, 4 4, like four reaches four targets, four likely schools. We typically see that that split. Um, but I understand some students financial aid is [00:56:00] so important, having marriage aid or chasing merit.

Dr. Aya: For some students that’s such a priority. So they might apply to 20 schools. Right. And they’re doing that because they need to make sure they have a, a lot of options when that financial aid. You know, packages are awarded so they can really compare and contrast what makes the most sense financially for their families.

Dr. Aya: So I have seen students apply to 20 reasonable schools. I think that’s reasonable. Um, but um, but uh, I think 12 is a good number, especially we’re gonna apply in schools that have a lot of supplement essays, those competitors that have five additional essays. You wanna make sure you have time to, to be competitive and you wanna make sure your list is the schools that you actually wanna attend, if except, um, so I think 12 is often a sweet spot, 20 max in my opinion.

Anesha: Um, no, I think that I would agree with that. Um, so a few questions about how students from different backgrounds are, I guess, evaluated. So we had. One [00:57:00] question, which is how do colleges evaluate the academic rigor of international students? Some folks also asked about the specific types of exams IC um, A levels, et cetera.

Dr. Aya: Yeah, that’s a bit harder to a, uh, answer in a very, um, matter of fact kind of way, not knowing the country and et cetera. And each school has different policies for that. Um, I saw, I think I may have saw something in there about A levels, you know, I, I did go to school in England, so I have a little bit of kind of understanding what of those types of exams and how they make decisions in the UK process.

Dr. Aya: However, I do think when you are trying to, um. Kind of understand how you are evaluated specifically, I think you should talk, you should visit the particular school’s website and or call the admissions office. Um, because they often have different policies like, did you attend an English speaking university versus a non-English speaking university?

Dr. Aya: Or did you attend, attend American High School in a non-English speaking country? There’s a lot of different factors that might contribute to [00:58:00] that, but each university has some type of translation system that they have, like what this score means in the US sense is often school dependent. So I would strongly encourage you to visit the specific school’s websites to kind of, to make sense of your specific situation.

Dr. Aya: It’s really hard to kind of give one answer, um, based on the diversity of programs across the globe. And I, I know that might not be satisfactory, but I would in doubt go to the source. And the source source is always the university themselves.

Anesha: And, and I guess one thing I wanted to add was that there are also people within the admissions team that are experts within your region.

Dr. Aya: Yes.

Anesha: Or, or country. Like there are people who know how the, the British School system works and how that contrasts to the American system, the Chinese system, et cetera. So I just wanted to also point that out, that there are experts within the admissions team that know about how you, how things work for your country,

Dr. Aya: right across the globe.

Dr. Aya: Like we have folks who went to, you know, Singapore every year. So like, there are, people literally know how, [00:59:00] how it works in Ghana, in England, Singapore, Brazil. So there are often admissions officers. Thank you for highlighting that as well. So please know that your situation will, they most likely would’ve experienced before.

Dr. Aya: So when, but when in doubt, please contact the admissions office.

Anesha: And I would say, um, and maybe this is, uh, I wanna try to end this in, in a, a high note, but, um, would you say it would, it would be similar for students? ’cause we had the question asked in different ways for homeschool students, for students coming from rural environments.

Anesha: Is it, are there still, I guess, experts within each population, within the admissions team? I guess

Dr. Aya: so. It’s interesting from my experience, I, I never met a homeschool, um, admissions officer design, like someone who was designated for that. Um, I personally, they, they may exist or someone who’s more likely to get it.

Dr. Aya: For rural students, increasingly there are targeted programs to support the representation of rural students. Rural students are, uh, increasingly institutional priorities. [01:00:00] Mm-hmm. So I, I would. I am almost certain that quite a few schools would have admissions officers with, um, the understanding about rural students, um, similar to like first generation college students, low income students and their admissions officer offices, that will have a great understanding of how those students might fare in the admissions and application process.

Anesha: Homeschool folks might need to do a little bit more work though.

Dr. Aya: Yeah, typically they do. ’cause it’s hard to standardize their academic performance, um, because they are typically one of one. So it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s more challenging, particularly for selective universities.

Anesha: Okay. We will have to end it there.

Anesha: Thank you everyone for coming out tonight. Thank you Dr. Aya, of course, for patiently getting through all of our questions. We hope you gained some insights into have admissions officers, uh, review candidate profiles and we hope you’re join us for our future webinars. But until next time, take care and have a great evening everybody.

Dr. Aya: Take care everyone. Good [01:01:00] luck.