Building Your Personal Brand for College Admissions

Webinar Transcription

2026-09-09-Building Your Personal Brand for College Admissions

Lonnie: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone. My name is Lonnie Burrell, and welcome to CollegeAdvisor’s webinar, “Building Your Personal Brand for College Admissions.” To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we are first gonna begin with our presentation, and then we’ll have the opportunity to answer your questions during our live Q&A.

Lonnie: If you are interested, which I highly recommend, you can follow along our, with our presentation by downloading the handout. So just visit the Handouts tab and it’ll be readily available for you. And then also, at any time if you’re having any technical difficulties, feel free to send me a private message, and I will support you with your concern.

Lonnie: So with that said, let’s now meet our presenter. Samuel, I’ll turn over to you to introduce yourself.

Sam: All right. Hi, everyone. My name’s Sam Day. Uh, I [00:01:00] am one of the former admissions officers here with CollegeAdvisor, and I was a former assistant director of international admissions at Purdue University. Um, spent some time in Australia, uh, went to IU for my undergrad, uh, and have about 8,000 applications under my belt over the course of my time at Purdue.

Sam: So I’m super excited to get to share a little bit about what making a brand as a 17-year-old looks like, uh, because I know that’s something that a lot of students worry about

Lonnie: Absolutely. Yes. I’m, you know, I’m still trying to figure out my brand at my, my old age. But with that said, we’re excited to share with you about building your brand.

Lonnie: But before we do so, we wanna first get a sense of what grade you are in. So please let us know. It just gives us an opportunity to know who is in the webinar that is live with us so we can ensure that we are directly answering everyone’s needs. So I’m gonna let the poll continue to run. I see the responses are [00:02:00] coming in.

Lonnie: Oh, okay. I’m gonna give it just two more seconds. You all are doing really great with answering these poll, the poll question. Okay, Sam. I’m gonna share with you the responses. Thank you to everyone for filling out the poll. For our live audience, we have 36% are in the 11th grade, 33% are in the 12th grade, 15% are in the 10th grade.

Lonnie: We actually have about 15% that is other, and then 5% that is ninth grade. So we have great representation across all the high school grade levels as well as, um, folks, you know, in for the other population too. Yeah. Uh, so with that said, I’m gonna close the poll, and Sam, I am gonna turn it over to you to talk about holistic [00:03:00] review and what that all entails.

Sam: Sounds good. Thank you. All right. So one of the things that I always wanna start when I talk about any college advisor presentation, but es- especially something when we’re talking about, you know, how do we talk about our brand and how do we talk about sort of setting ourselves up for success in a college application, is I always talk about first what is holistic review.

Sam: The thing with colleges is that they love to talk about having holistic review, but they don’t always explain what exactly holistic review entails. They might say something like, “We take everything into consideration,” but everything can be a lot more than I think a lot of students realize. Um, or I think a lot of people on my side of the desk, uh, might realize when you’re talking to a high school student.

Sam: And so I always break it down into three key categories, just to sort of orient ourselves as we dive into some of the rest of the conversation. I always start with the academic, because at the end of the day, we can’t overcome… Great branding cannot [00:04:00] overcome rough grades. This is also where your test scores will come into play as well, uh, if your school expects them.

Sam: We also look at you as a member of your community. So you know, we look at you in the classroom, but you’re also gonna be a community member, and that’s gonna be your activities, your letters of recommendation. Finally, we’re also gonna look at you as an individual, and we’re gonna be looking at your personal statement, your essays, the writing When it comes to what makes an application stand out, we keep those three elements.

Sam: And when you’re looking for a personal brand, what you’re looking for is a way to sort of add some extra pizzazz to your application and make it easier for the admissions officer to remember you Regardless of what brand you’re going for, you’re gonna wanna make sure that you have some strong grades.

Sam: Because, like I said, great branding, great community engagement, great personal statements, which are really what make up the majority of your brand, can’t overcome rough grades. A’s and B’s are gonna be the ideal, but ideally we wanna be seeing more [00:05:00] A’s than B’s, especially at a more competitive school.

Sam: We’re also gonna be looking for to- strong test scores if they’re required. For example, the school that I worked at wouldn’t really accept students if they didn’t have a test score. And talking about branding, your academic portfolio is also gonna be giving us an idea of sort of what you’ve prepared yourself for.

Sam: Say, for example, you’re interested in studying biology, but you’ve never taken a biology class, comes off a little awkward. You wanna be making sure that you’re taking coursework that is going to be in line with what your overall expectations are for your degree as well, or what you’re hoping to do after.

Sam: Those test scores can come into play as well. If you’re planning on studying literature, I’m gonna be expecting a higher portion on the quantit- qualitative section of the SAT than I am going to be of quantitative. Although, it’s great to see high scores in both

Sam: When we’re looking at y- you as a member of your community when it comes to the branding, we’re gonna be looking at the types of activities you’re getting involved in [00:06:00] You know, what exactly are you doing outside of your classroom to sort of develop your application narrative? Another way that we can talk about branding is the narrative that you’re creating.

Sam: And so if you’re going to be focusing in on, uh, DECA, for example, as your main activity, then we’d be expecting you to be probably applying to some business and probably involved in the leadership of that organization as well. The more competitive you’re trying to make your brand, the more involved in leadership you’re going to end up being.

Sam: And when it comes to letters of recommendation, we’re also gonna be looking at how are you connecting with your overall goal. You know, who are you getting involved in your application? I read a lot of engineering applications, and so I typically expect to see, you know, robotics as one of the key activities that we’re getting involved in.

Sam: I also typically expect to see a letter of recommendation from a mass- math teacher and probably a science teacher. All of this is sort of backend stuff that doesn’t really, um, [00:07:00] seem to align with your brand that you’re creating in the sort of moments that you’re doing it, but can be really meaningful as we’re looking at the application package as a whole and getting an idea of how you’ve been approaching high school.

Sam: And then essays kind of speak for themselves. You know, we’re looking for strong e- essays that will expand on elements in the application

Sam: Now, why is a personal brand so important? When we are talking about application review, we are talking about something pretty intense. You know, we receive a large number of applications, particularly if you’re a Common App school, ’cause it’s a lot easier to get applications in on the Common App. You know, you have up to 20 applications, and I can’t tell you how many students I’ve seen fill all 20 spots.

Sam: Top universities as well will also receive a massive number of applications. I can guarantee you, you will not be the only one that’s read that day. The university that I used to work at read about [00:08:00] 80,000 applications in a cycle, and I was expected to read 50 or 60 applications in a single day. Sometimes I would read as many as 100 or 120.

Sam: When you have a strong brand, it helps stand out from the pile because you are part of a pile, and it helps become easier to see what the really good applications are because there’s a common through- thread line that we can sort of trace and understand why an applicant is making the decisions that they are I also find that when we’re talking about branding with students, it can be really helpful to provide as an opportunity to understand how to approach the application that you’re interested in submitting.

Sam: When I have a ninth grader come to me and say, “I’m interested in being an engineer,” it helps me create an idea of how to give them some guidance. You know, for example, you’re going to need calculus. The AP English class may not be as important. Similarly, if I have a student say that, “Listen, my brand is gonna be, you know, a young author and I’m going for an English major,” then that helps tell me that, okay, we’re going for something that is gonna be significantly more English [00:09:00] heavy.

Sam: That doesn’t mean we need to ignore the m- math and science, but it does mean that it’s not gonna be the focus of the brand that we’re trying to create. As high schoolers, you don’t necessarily have an idea of what a strong personal brand may be because you’re still figuring out who you want to be, and that’s totally fine.

Sam: When we say a strong personal brand in the context of a college application, we understand that nothing is gonna be set in stone and you’re still sort of exploring what those options are gonna be. I did give a couple examples of brands of applications that I specifically have read. Um, nothing too identifying.

Sam: We always have to keep in mind that I, you know, can’t give specifics, but I can think of a couple of examples for each of these types of One of the things that I always think of when I think of a political science student is I think of the many students who have created a brand by getting really involved in debate, but also getting involved in local council or getting involved in changing or adapting local laws or ordinances to fit the needs of the student population a little bit better.

Sam: I had [00:10:00] one student who was so impressive that she had a law in her state that was passed, uh, as a result of the advocacy work that she was doing. Now, your brand may not be as large scale as that, but if you’re seeing yourself getting involved in computer science and want to create a brand for yourself as someone who’s engaged, getting involved in something like moot court or mock court, I think is what it’s actually called, uh, debate, um, your history classes, those can be a great way to sort of build the idea that you are someone who’s oriented towards political science and help start creating that sort of perception of you in your admissions officer’s- I cannot tell you how many Lego essays I have read from an engineering student, but when you think about it, it makes sense.

Sam: Engineering students often love to tinker. They’re often involved in their robotics clubs, and they’re often writing about how their love of building might have started with Lego or a similar project when they were a kid. One of the things I’ve found now is that a lot of students start talking about Minecraft, [00:11:00] uh, and something that I don’t understand that is called Redstone Engineering.

Sam: Um, I sit on the other side of the application, I don’t quite know what that means, but I’ve had a lot of students talk about some of the impressive things that they’ve built in their… in real life or in some of the computer games that they get involved. Similarly, I’ve had business students who have several activities that are involved in marketing or fundraising, or they own shoe business.

Sam: I have seen a lot of students get really involved in shoe businesses, but it makes sense. They’re engineer– they’re a business student who’s interested in creating the idea that they are going to be a successful businessman, and they’re starting out pretty young. One of my favorite things to talk about, though, is the brand of a student who isn’t quite decided on what they’re interested in, but knows that they’re interested in university, and excited about the challenges that are gonna be thrown at them.

Sam: One of the best essays that I ever read, uh, was for a student who had a variety of different activities. It seemed to be a bit hodgepodge at first, [00:12:00] but when we looked at the application from a macro level, they had a wide variety of advanced coursework. They had leadership in a variety of different organizations, going from a sports team, to a robotics team, to a musical.

Sam: And they were taking, uh, a lot of time in their essays to talk about how they love exploration. It really created the sense of a student who may not know exactly what college is going to throw at them and what they’re going to be pursuing, but it did give a clear understanding of no matter what the student does, they’re going to do it with their whole heart, and made for a really memorable application at the end of the day

Sam: Now, how do we actually build our personal brand? Like I mentioned, when it comes to the academic section, take coursework that is directly tied to the interest that you have. A, this gives you the opportunity to explore some of the interests that you have and figure out is this actually for you. For example, as I was determining who I was going to be, I ended up [00:13:00] adding an extra foreign language class.

Sam: Unsurprisingly, I ended up going on to study linguistics and foreign language, and I also realized that I’m really bad at math. So as I was picking my coursework, I decided that I was going to focus in more on the courses that interested me and less on the math elective. You should also be challenging yourself where it counts.

Sam: Students often ask me, “How do I make the academic portion of my application stand out?” And it’s the same way that you build a strong brand. You take challenging courses that matter to what you’re interested in doing. Now, for a challenging course, that could be something like an AP class or a dual credit class.

Sam: If your high school doesn’t offer AP or dual credit, you could get involved in CLEP courses. But you should be getting involved in courses that are gonna challenge you and push you to the… Explore the, the depth of what you’re interested in. And you should also not be ignoring your passion. Doing something just because you feel like it’ll make you successful doesn’t always make for a personal brand.

Sam: Because at the end of the day, I’m gonna be wondering, “Who is this student?” And if you’re only doing things for the application [00:14:00] and not because you actually enjoy them, it kinda can come through in your application While we don’t spend a ton of time on each individual application, we do start recognizing some patterns.

Sam: And so students that often have a strong personal brand that helps orient them towards one major or another often are taking the challenging classes that matter, and they’re recognizing when they need to let the sort of less relevant classes fall to the wayside. That’s not to say that they don’t do well in those classes, but it does mean that they get to put them, uh, potentially not take the AP version of that class or potentially, you know, focus on more challenging coursework elsewhere

Sam: When we talk about the community, we wonder what does that mean? Well, the community section of your personal brand is going to be the activities that you’re interested in. I always find that the more memorable parts of an application are gonna be the community and the personal section because they’re a bit more, uh, in-depth, uh, in how students get involved I always say that for a student who’s trying to create a strong personal brand [00:15:00] towards a major that they’re interested in, which is, you know, an easy way for a student who is still figuring out who they want to be to orient themselves, I recommend that they get involved in the activities that give them, that give them a taste of the future that they wanna see.

Sam: Last night, for example, there was an entire presentation on applying pre-med, and one of the advice gi- uh, advices given was, you know, getting involved in shadowing opportunities or taking, uh, clubs and summer programs that are gonna be giving you an experience that would allow you to get a taste of what med sc- medicine career might be like.

Sam: And those are really strong examples of how you can develop that personal brand early When you couple that with your academic coursework being heavy in sciences, lots of biology and chemistry, add in something like, um, being a lifeguard and having worked in sort of like a life-saving capacity or having taken CPR classes and getting involved in the activities that allow you to prepare for pre-med, something like HOSA, that can be a really great [00:16:00] example to showcase that you are orienting yourself in this way and creates a really memorable impression on your AO.

Sam: However, some students don’t always have the same number of opportunities. Some high schools may have 100 clubs, and some high schools may only have five. And so when there are lack of opportunities, I always encourage students to seek out opportunities to create, uh, you know, the chance to share their passion.

Sam: Working with CollegeAdvisor, one of the students that I was working with didn’t quite know what she wanted to do, but she know she wanted- she knew she wanted to be a leader, and she also didn’t love the culture of the high school classes that she was taking. And so I challenged her to find a way to challenge the norm a little bit, see what opportunities she could create for herself that would allow her to find peers that had the same interests as her, even if that was just having a better classroom experience.

Sam: She told me the other day that she has managed to cut down on some of the high-stress, uh, conversations that were happening around her by starting a relaxation group [00:17:00] where they focused on meditation and yoga, and sort of demonstrated the fact that she was interested in leading her classmates to, A, having a better future, and she didn’t quite know what she was going to do when she set out, but she found her way in the end.

Sam: That’s a great example of a student who knows that they’re going to be a changemaker but hasn’t quite found what that exact major is going to be. To me, that told me that was a great student for potentially something like an exploratory major or an undecided student

Sam: We also talk about the essays a little bit. I love talking about the essays. They are my favorite part of the application because I find that they’re the easiest space for you to really confirm what brand you’re creating When I say, uh, ac- community element, the activities, you do not have to have all of your activities be related to just one thing, but your personal statement can be a really great opportunity to expand on one of the activities that you are interested in.

Sam: One of the most interesting [00:18:00] applications I ever read was a student who had started a butterfly appreciation club, and when I was confused as to why, because that seemed like a pretty random idea for a club, her entire essay expanded on how she ended up starting that specific club and how it ultimately ended up being the reason that she would be studying, uh, insect biology as the major that she chose, and was a really interesting opportunity to dive into that story.

Sam: Similarly, when I had a student who was interested in political science, who was involved in every political science club her school could find, and some that she created on her own, she dove into talking about how she got involved in state legislation to, uh, protect m- students, uh, from a variety of issues that were popping up in her local community, and really gave the opportunity to not only expand on an activity, but to expand on the spirit of the application that she wanted to be remembered for It completely changed my opinion of the application because what went from, you know, a standard [00:19:00] high-achieving student to one that was going to be sticking with me for, you know, the rest of the applications that I read that day, that year, and even five years down the line, was the go-getter energy that she brought to not just the application, but also the essay that she told, and really created a strong brand of someone who was going to be a change Another example that I love to mention, and I’ve had this happen enough times that I could mention it without, uh, being an identifying factor, is I’ve had students that are interested in getting involved in engineering.

Sam: And the reason that they got involved in engineering was because they started by building prosthetics for their friends who didn’t have limbs. Uh, for whatever reason, they were in more rural communities that didn’t have access to the greatest healthcare, and so they took it upon themselves to build the prosthetic limbs that their friends would then use on a day-to-day.

Sam: Now, I’m not saying that you have to do something like that, but then when I read those essays that really expanded on why they got involved in this and what that friendship meant to them and how it changed their [00:20:00] lives so that they could then change the lives of others, it created a really strong understanding of this is a student who’s going to get involved in engineering, who has a clear understanding of what engineering is going to mean to them and what they’re going to use engineering to mean to the world.

Sam: It makes the application a lot more fun to read from the admissions officer perspective because it gives me a clearer understanding of what you’re gonna get involved in, but it also makes it easier for me to understand why the brand that you’re interested in making matters to you. At the end of the day, you’re a high school student still defining who you’re going to be.

Sam: Uh, and like Lonnie mentioned, sometimes we ad- you know, on the other side of the desk or, you know, down the line may not know exactly what our brand is going to be, but opportunities like this to see students who are taking advantage of every opportunity given to them can be a really inspiring opportunity.

Sam: Uh, and like I said, makes the application process a lot more fun

Sam: When it comes to the admissions process stand out, I’ve kind of been talking about this all night, but I wanna make sure it’s super [00:21:00] clear for everybody. A well-crafted admission, uh, application can make a tedious process like doing the Common App exciting for an admissions officer. Like I said, I might be reading 50 or 60 applications in one day, and so it’s super easy for me to forget the students that are impressive but not necessarily standing out in the crowd.

Sam: That being said, your admissions officers always want to see you succeed, and they want to remember the individual students that they’re admitting. After all, you are the students that we’re gonna be welcoming to campus, and so we wanna be very excite– You know, we look forward to the excitement of you all arriving at our home, ’cause that’s what campus ultimately is to us.

Sam: We also don’t have a set rubric for success. You know, it may be easy to say that, you know, you wanna have a memorable application, um, but it can be hard to determine what is actually gonna be memorable in your application, particularly if you’re all over the place. But if you can find a way to create that clear brand, it can be really easy for me to [00:22:00] recognize your successes, because I can point to multiple instances where you’ve shone through.

Sam: It can also help you feel confident that you’ve already found the place you’re going to occupy on our campus. Whenever I see students answering a question like, “Why am I interested in this major?” or, “Why am I interested in this university?” with clear examples of things that they’re interested in that tie back to interests that they mentioned previous, uh, previous parts of the application, it becomes a lot clearer to me exactly how an individual student that we’re inviting is going to get involved in the community that we’re going to be creating every year.

Sam: It also makes it, like I said, a whole lot more exciting

Sam: Now, where can you be highlighting your brand on your, uh, on your application? The answer is everywhere. Like we talked about from the grades to the, uh, activities to the essays, every single part of your application can serve as a chance to build, make an impression, and then build on that impression to give an admissions o- officer the ideas that you want to be remembered for[00:23:00]

Sam: Like I mentioned, the personal statement is my favorite portion of the application, and part of that is because I find that it’s the easiest way to really capitalize on whatever branding you’re starting to build in your activity list and your es- uh, grade. Whenever we talk about a good personal statement, I always recommend doing a couple of key things.

Sam: Remember that you’re telling a story. That story can build on the activities that you mentioned or a course experience that you had. That can make it easier for me to make, create a recognizable brand, although if you choose to do something else, that’s totally fine as well. The important thing, though, is that you are building on a back…

Sam: You’re creating a background and telling us a story that is based on your experience. Give us the core themes that you want us to write, to write about, and have that be the thing that you wanna be remembered for. I’ve had students talk about how they want to be remembered as a determined future engineer, or an impassioned public speaker who has been getting involved in things like debate.

Sam: This is the easiest time to [00:24:00] make it super clear how you want your brand to be perceived, because it’s the story that you’re gonna be telling us. I have a lot of students that get really worried about, “Is my hook good enough for the essay that I’m writing?” And I always say, “Don’t worry.” I don’t remember the first line of every book that I’ve read, just like I don’t remember the, most of the sentences I’ve read and most of the applications that I’ve read.

Sam: At the end of the day, it’s more about keeping the attention of your reader and getting them engaged throughout the story, not just at the beginning. Everyone’s had a sandwich with a pretty unimpressive middle, where you’re really excited, it looks great, and then it ends up not really having any substance or tasting great.

Sam: That’s what a pretty bad app… That’s what an application that focuses too much on the hook and not on the actual story kind of feels like. Also remember that we’re trying to get to know you and how you think really well. And so focusing on the growth, the lessons, and the reflections that you’ve had as a result of whatever your background story is, is gonna be very important.

Sam: How did you learn from this experience and what changed within yourself is going [00:25:00] to give me an idea of how you view the world differently, and it’s going to give me an idea of how you want me to remember you. Students that are getting super involved in creating change and shaping the world are typically going to be students who often have the ability to share that in their essays.

Sam: Students who talk about overcoming challenges when they are designing prototypes or getting involved in the mechanical process for their robotics club often are also involved in leadership, and those essays and activities can go hand in hand. Then when I look at their activities, I see that they’re involved in a technical elective or they’re taking a mathematics course that’s particularly advanced, and I start to have a very clear picture of who that engineer is going to be.

Sam: When it comes to ending an essay, it’s important to have the future steps. Um, of what they’re actually planning on taking advantage of with those activities. You know, why was the growth that you had important, and what does it mean to you? How are you going to keep that energy moving forward? And instead of summarizing the past, how are you going to focus [00:26:00] on the present and the future?

Sam: It’s great to tell the story, but the story has to mean something. So, you know, how do you want to be remembered for the application that you’ve created? Those are some really important things to be thinking about as you’re thinking about your personal statement. In short, remember that it’s a short story, and we all love to read something with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Sam: Think of it like a fairy tale. You get to be the hero of the story. Um, but what is the moral of the fairy tale that you wanna be telling?

Sam: I also wanna know, you know, I often get students asking, “How can I make my writing strong and unique?” And it all goes back to the same things that we’ve been talking about with this personal branding. Talk about your identity, build on your growth. Remember that you have similar experiences to other people, but you are the only one who has lived your individual experiences.

Sam: And so framing the essay around your perspective is going to be the most important. Truly give us an idea of how you want to be remembered by how you see yourself, [00:27:00] not just how others see you. The ideas that you are developing in your application are gonna be great tools for us to get a better understanding of who we are going to be inviting to campus.

Sam: And when you have a clear through line, that makes it even easier. If you’re super involved in robotics, not to go back to the same example too many times, but robotics, I can easily imagine you getting involved in some of the tech clubs that we may have on campus. Or if you’re a passionate singer who has been taking choir all four years and getting involved in every musical opportunity that you can, has been doing th- musical theater and other orc- uh, activities outside of class in your activity list, and then can write about the song that changed your life, that makes it super interesting to us, uh, and we can definitely imagine you as the lead singer in our next play on campus.

Sam: Our next musical on campus, I apologize. When it comes to making writing strong and unique, you should also remember that you’re trying to have an impact and get us to feel. When we’re [00:28:00] reading, you know, 500 applications in a week, it can be easy to sort of get lost in the monotony of what some of those applications could be.

Sam: And a truly moving application that talks about how you feel, what you realized, gives insights, grabs your reactions, can be really exciting and break up that monotony in a very meaningful way. That’s part of why some of the most memorable branding applic- uh, things that I’ve read and the applications that I’ve read have really stood out.

Sam: I also have students ask about authenticity or how do they be unique, and the answer is that unless you’re curing cancer, you’re probably not gonna be unique. That’s not a problem though, because you’re the only one who has the experiences that you do, and this is the only time where we actually get to hear your voice directly.

Sam: Part of why I think it’s the most important when it comes to creating your brand. Yes, we will get a look at your transcript. Yes, we will get a look at the activities that you’ve been involved in, but those are the most retroactive parts of your application. The actual essay is the only part where you get to address us [00:29:00] directly in the present as we’re reading your application, and I think is the most important part in using your voice to tell the story that you want to be heard.

Sam: It can definitely have a meaningful impact on how we perceive you and how we change our, uh, opinions moving forward. I definitely think it’s an important part of the application and something that I would definitely encourage students focus on Now, when it comes to the final advice, I am aware that this was a, uh, one of my quicker presentations, um, but I do think that, you know, the advice of branding comes down to the fact that it takes time.

Sam: You’re still learning who you are, and it’s okay for your ideas to change as you reflect on what you want out of college, but it’s important to go in knowing that you want something. Using your application to create an idea for your admissions officer or admissions committee to create the idea of what you want out of college is a really meaningful way to take advantage of your application and to leave a lasting impact on the admissions officers that are reading your application.

Sam: One of the things that [00:30:00] I’ll, I recommend students do now is ask themselves what the most memorable parts of their high school experience have been, to use those memories as inspiration moving forward, and take advantage of the opportunities that arise as a result of those memorable opportunities. You may be able to make new memories that’ll be even more defining moving forward.

Sam: Also remember that you may not know exactly how you want to present yourself the first time that you write your application. When you are a seventeen-year-old or an eighteen-year-old doing the college application for the first time, it took you seventeen or eighteen years to become the person that you are now.

Sam: Now, hopefully, it doesn’t take seventeen or eighteen years to find the words that you need to be able to share that growth coherently. But you should remember that it’s going to take some time for you to find the words to express your n- your needs out of the college admissions process as concisely as you might be hoping My final advice, and this is not written on the slide, but is to not worry about it too seriously.

Sam: Yes, having a brand definitely benefits your application and can [00:31:00] definitely make it clear on what we can expect of you as a student. But if you are someone who is putting in a lot of effort into your application, into the essays that you’re writing, the activities and the community involvement that you’re getting involved in, taking the most advanced classes and challenging yourself to the best of your ability, that’s going to stand out, and the brand that you’re creating is someone who’s ready for the next adventure.

Sam: That’s kind of what college is all about at the end

Lonnie: Great. Thank you so much, Sam, for this amazing advice that you just shared with our audience around building your personal brand. And so now we are gonna move into our live questions and answers. And before we jump into our live question and answers, I just wanna let you know how it’s gonna go. I’m gonna read the questions that you have submitted in the Q&A tab.

Lonnie: I’ll share them in the public chat so that you can see them, and then I’ll read them [00:32:00] out loud, um, so Sam can answer it. If your Q&A tab isn’t allowing you to submit a question, just double-check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page. Try logging out and logging back in through the link in your email.

Lonnie: If that does not work, try logging in through the website launch page. Though you will not be able to ask questions, this webinar is being recorded, so you will be able to view it at a later time. Okay. So let’s go ahead and jump into our first question. If a student’s interests change during high school, how should they explain that in their application?

Sam: I love this question, for one, because it, I love the reminder that high [00:33:00] school students are dynamic, right? No one just has to be one thing. Um, I think it’s important to acknowledge the fact that you’re taking advantage of all the opportunities that are out there. Um, you know, your high school may offer a wide variety of different things, and there is a brand that is, uh, the explorer as well.

Sam: In fact, I think it’s probably the most common brand that we see with applicants of, you know, they start off knowing that they wanna do something impressive, and they don’t quite find what that impressive thing may be up until junior or senior year, uh, and they take a couple different avenues along the way.

Sam: Um, you can als- often use that additional information section to sort of ex- relay in how you have grown and changed. Um, you know, I often recommend when students are interested in, you know, what is that section for, uh, I always say it’s for the highs and lows of life, and those are often some of the most defining features of how you identify with, you know, what you’re going to be doing next.

Sam: Uh, and so that can be a great, great example of how you can take advantage of a section that’s built into the Common App, uh, to explain some of [00:34:00] the, the snaky paths that you might end up taking throughout, throughout high school.

Lonnie: Nice. I love that. Snaky, snaky paths. That’s awesome. Okay, um, so we’re gonna move to our next question.

Lonnie: Um, it’s a little long, um, but I’ll try to read it slowly. Is it okay to take a course that centers around your major, for example, AP Psychology for a student who’s interested in majoring in psychology, in your senior year? Or is it better to take this class in your junior year since colleges aren’t able to fully see your senior year?

Sam: So about two answers to that. About, my answer has two parts.

Lonnie: Yeah.

Sam: Number one, uh, with the Common App, remember that you do have to enter in your senior year classes as well. So while they may be subject to change, we do get an idea of what classes you’re [00:35:00] gonna be taking. We don’t get your grades in those classes, but at the end of the day, the things that you’re interested in studying may not be the classes that you do the best in.

Sam: Hopefully you’re doing well in them, but it doesn’t necessarily matter that we don’t have those grades, and that’s something that I’ve seen a lot with students. Some schools don’t even let you take AP classes until junior and senior year, so you may not even have access to those opportunities until later on anyway.

Sam: Um-

Sam: You also should make sure that, uh, as you’re filling out the Common App you do include the courses and grades section though. That is something that I have seen students skip over, and they hope that their high schools are going to fill it in for them, um, through their transcripts. I have seen students, for example, who’ve applied to early action and not get early action because their high school sent the transcripts in two weeks late.

Sam: Oh no. Uh, so just quick, quick note there of you have to report your senior grades, but you should also be reporting the rest of the cla- or senior classes. You should also be reporting the rest of the classes and grades that you’re taking. As for the [00:36:00] does it matter senior year or not, um, I think that if you know that that’s what you’re interested in majoring, there are sort of a couple different ways to think about it.

Sam: On one hand, it can give you a clear idea if that’s what you’re actually interested in studying, and could potentially make your application a little bit easier if you’ve already completed it. But at the same time, it’s okay to talk about the fact that you’re exploring things through your senior year interests as well.

Sam: You don’t magically finish baking once you’re a senior and know everything that you’re gonna be doing, and graduation is not the end of when you’re exploring those interests. I changed my college major more times than I would like to admit, and about as many times as we have, uh, a- viewers on the, um, webinar right now.

Sam: So when- That’s the other thing to remember is that your interests might change in college as well. Uh, your admissions officers do know that, and in fact, are probably expecting it. It’s pretty rare, I think, nowadays for a student to know exactly what they’re gonna be doing from day one. Um, it happens, uh, but [00:37:00] more often than not, students will add a double major, or change their major, or add a minor, or sort of customize their program in some way based on the experiences that they’re interested in.

Sam: Um, so as long as you’re taking the coursework that’s interested, interesting to you, I wouldn’t worry too much about whether it’s junior or senior year. Pick the things that matter to you.

Lonnie: That is awesome. Pick the areas that matter to you. Okay. So let’s go ahead and move to our next question. So it asks: What advice would you give to a senior who has a wide array of extracurriculars and coursework?

Sam: My first question would… I would have a question for you before I can give advice. That would be why do you have such a wide breadth? Is it because you’re pursuing a wide variety of interests or because you’re doing things that you think are gonna matter for your college application? I’ve seen a lot of students, for example, get involved in i- in, uh, science fairs without having any interest in science purely because they think it’s gonna be impressive My follow-up to that would be, [00:38:00] you know, what activities are you involved in that are your favorite, and why are they your favorite?

Sam: Some students will answer sports, and it’s kinda hard to major in football. Uh, sorry. Um, but some students will be able to get to the underlying, you know, teamwork that they love, and may realize that that might be a really meaningful tool to building connections, either through a communications degree or a business degree, where you have a lot of team-based projects.

Sam: They may end up in engineering because engineering, engineers love to work in teams. I hear all about that with the students that I work with now. So I don’t necessarily have any concerns when I see a student with a lot of different activities, but I do wonder what their favorites are. This is one of the few times where I think the activity list can actually matter in terms of the order that you’re ranking.

Sam: I cannot tell you how many students panic about what they put as their first and second choices. Um, you know, is this more impressive than this? Should this be first? At the end of the day, very similar to not caring about your hook, I’m looking at the activity list as a whole. But if you wanna highlight a [00:39:00] couple of activities that you think are particularly meaningful to you in some way, that’s a really good time to be putting them towards the front of the list because they’ll sort of be the first things and the first impressions that we get when we read your activity list.

Sam: That being said, though, I love it when students have a wide variety of activities. Some of my favorite engineering applications were the ones where they had, you know, one engineering activity and were completely involved in something totally random and unrelated. You know, the basketball student who was a choir singer, who also liked to build things in his free time, is just as meaningful as someone who’s only been doing engineering

Lonnie: All right.

Lonnie: Thank you, Sam. Okay. Um, and thank you audience for asking these really great questions. Our next question is: how can I build my value/a core theme into my application? What would be the steps to take for that?

Sam: A, remember that the essay is a great place to use your voice directly. [00:40:00] Um, when we talk about values and we talk about that core theme, remember that it is something that we see retroactively for a lot of students. One of the things that is sort of weird about the college application process is that the majority of the work was done before you ever opened the application.

Sam: And so what I would recommend to students is get involved in the activities that they’re interest- you know, activities that they’re interested in. That’s where leadership can also be really important if there are clubs that you’re particularly passionate about because they represent your values. Um, you know, say, for example, you’re really interested in supporting your community, so you get involved heavily with organizations that allow you to do, um, volunteering.

Sam: Or there are activities that, uh, really focus on, um, you know, your religious values, for example, so you get really involved in your religious community. That activity list is going to provide a really great foundation for you to build off of, but that’s where your essay can come in and really sort of hone in [00:41:00] exactly what you want us to remember when it comes to those values Um, also remember that we’re looking at the application as a whole, and so if there are parts where that can start to shine through, we’ll start to see it when we look, step back and look at everything all together.

Sam: That’s sort of the beauty of holistic application

Lonnie: Okay. Um, so this next question, um, hi. Hello, Sam. Hi. Uh, I fit the explorer brand in many ways, but I am also, but I am also sure… I’m also sure of what I want to do in the world.

Sam: Okay.

Lonnie: Do you have any advice on how to convey this energy to the reader?

Sam: First off, I wanna know what you’re gonna, wanna, that already, already at such a young age you already know exactly what you wanna do. That’s very impressive. Yeah. That’s very

Lonnie: impressive.

Sam: Um, that is a great [00:42:00] example where you can get involved in different AP. Yes, you have an idea of what you wanna do, but you’re also enjoying exploring the opportunities that are out there.

Sam: That’s where you can get involved in a wide variety of clubs. Um, you know, the student that asked for lots of extracurriculars, that explorer brand, even if you know what you wanna be doing, that can be a great way to sort of take advantage of that. Um, and when you’re asking, you know, why this university, picking universities that allow you to really dive into the intellectual curiosity beyond just what you’re interested in studying can be a great opportunity as well.

Sam: I didn’t mention this, but a lot of universities are often associated with a certain brand. For exam- example, if you’re applying to Purdue, you’re probably gonna be a bit more STEM-focused, but if you’re interested in IU, you might be more interested in business or, you know, international relations.

Sam: Georgetown, everybody thinks about the, the international relations and the future diplomats of the world. And so you can also use the schools that you’re applying to to help sort of capitalize on some of those interests as well. And that, I think, for you specifically, if you [00:43:00] know that you wanna be exploring things on the regular but also know what you wanna do, applying to schools that give you the opportunity to do both.

Sam: To chase your passions, including that passion of exploration and celebrating the world through whatever you’re getting involved in

Lonnie: Great. Thank, thank you. Okay, so our next question: Does dual enrollment college courses carry as much weight as AP courses for an academic brand?[00:44:00]

Sam: Because those dual credit classes are giving you credit at the university level and at the high school level, and that credit follows you. You’re going to need to be able to provide those transcripts when you’re applying to universities, not just from your high school, but also from whatever is providing that dual credit.

Sam: If you tank a class at an AP level, yeah, that’ll have a negative impact on your college application potentially, but that grade ends with you in high school. If you take a class at a dual credit level, that, you know, C or that B- that you get is going to start to define the rest of your cumulative g- cumulative GPA.

Sam: Now, for undergraduate, if you’re not planning on transferring and only staying at one school, that’s not a problem at all. Um, but if you’re planning on… You know, if you end up wanting to transfer, those dual credit classes could come back to haunt you. If you’re interested in a master’s level and they ask what your undergraduate GPA was, those dual credit classes can come back to haunt you.

Sam: And so that is a completely different side tangent, [00:45:00] uh, I’m aware, but I always recommend students interested in dual credit to be incredibly careful and to make sure that they’re classes that they think they can succeed, can succeed in, because that B will haunt you. Not speaking from experience. Uh, that being said, though, I think that it’s important to be taking whatever is the most rigorous classes available to you.

Sam: That’s a really good question for your high school guidance counselor, who may know the teachers that are gonna be involved. Um, you may have a really strong AP chemistry teacher, or you may have a really weak AP physics teacher, and taking it at the dual credit variety might be a way to further challenge yourself.

Lonnie: Yeah.

Sam: That is one where it’s gonna be a little less on you and gonna be more on your school when they provide that school profile or the, um, letter of recommendation that often comes for your, your, your guidance counselor. That’s some really meaningful information for them to include, but from a student perspective, I don’t necessarily, thoroughly see one more rigorous than the other.

Sam: They’re just simply two different ways of approaching college credit. Um, but [00:46:00] remember, one of those college credits comes with a few more strings.

Lonnie: Got you. Got you. Okay. So, um, we’re still gonna continue with our live Q&A. However, I would like to take just a short pause to share about the work that we do here within CollegeAdvisor.

Lonnie: So CollegeAdvisor has guided more than 10,000 families through the college admission process. Our team is made up of 200-plus admission experts and former admission officers, so our team knows exactly what it takes to get that acceptance letter. In the class of, actually for the class of 2026 alone, one in three Ivy League applicants were admitted to at least one Ivy League school, and two out of the three applicants applying to top 25 schools were accepted to [00:47:00] one or more. To learn more about how you can get started with CollegeAdvisor, scan the QR code to sign up for a free 60-minute strategy session with an admission specialist on our team.

Lonnie: During this meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations on what you can do to stand out. At the end, you’ll also learn more about our premium packages, which will pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, continuing to define your personal brand, editing your essays, and much, much more.

Lonnie: We are here for the whole process. Okay, so now we’re gonna go back to the Q&A. However, I’m going to leave the QR [00:48:00] code on the screen in case you didn’t get the chance to scan it and sign up for that free, uh, strategy session. Okay. So now we’re gonna move back into our Q&A. Sam, are you ready for the next question?

Sam: Oh, I’m excited. I, I’ve been taking a look at some of the ones that have come in, and I see some fun ones.

Lonnie: Yeah, yeah. I think this question, um, I’m gonna ask next is very, very common. You know, I was that- Right … student as well. So what if my student doesn’t know what they wanna do, but they know they wanna go to college?

Sam: To keep it in the language of the webinar, that can be a brand as well. The student who wants to take advantage and explore a little bit. Like I said, I changed my major, oh, probably 20 times. Um, the indecisiveness was definitely a defining feature of my time at college. Um, I graduated though, and I graduated, you know, on time, [00:49:00] but I was lucky to be at a school that allowed for that.

Sam: Um, the two things that I would say there, one, make sure you’re at schools that allow for you to have that exploratory or exploration. Um, you know, liberal arts schools or schools that have a strong, uh, undecided pathway can be a really meaningful opportunity for students in this sort of situation. Um, beyond that though, you know, that is where I think an explorer brand can come in really handy.

Sam: Of, you know, I don’t entirely know what I wanna get out of college yet, but I know that I wanna take on that challenge, or I know that I wanna take on the opportunities that are going to be available to me. And that’s where if you have specific things that you’re interested in, even if they don’t really seem to have any relation, that can be totally fine.

Sam: Um, you know, at the end of the day, we don’t expect every student to have that clearly defined brand, but we do love when students have a clearly defined voice. Um, and so you may not know exactly what you want out of college, but you may have a really interesting story to tell. That can be just as solid of a brand as [00:50:00] someone who knows exactly what they want to do

Lonnie: Okay, so moving to the next question. What if my sophomore is just learning what her interests are? What’s the best way for her to seek out possible passions?

Sam: I love that question, um, first off. A fantastic question. Uh, the thing that comes to mind immediately is, uh, talking to teachers and talking to the guidance counselors at your school to get an idea of what the opportunities available for your student are for them to f- further explore, even if that means that the opportunity that they’re exploring is creating their own club dedicated to exploring one of their passions.

Sam: Some clubs, like HOSA or DECA, um, or 4H can be really beneficial if there’s a pathway that you think you might want to explore a little bit more. Um, a great… You know, I can speak from personal experience. I was on the [00:51:00] robotics team and realized I am not made for making robots. I am – … made for standing very far away from robots.

Sam: Which is really ironic, ’cause I now work in the College of Engineering. Uh, but I think that’s a great example of how you can also use that to find out what doesn’t quite fit your needs. Um, the other thing is that, you know, the internet, uh, Coursera can have a lot of really great things for exploring different interests.

Sam: Um, you know, it gives you the opportunity to take lower stakes courses, sometimes for free. Um, preferably for free. I always recommend students seek out the opportunities that don’t cost money. Um, but for now, because you mentioned, I think your stud- I think you said your student was a sophomore, that’s where I think it’s really important to pay attention to the things that your student is just finding fun.

Sam: Um, you know, we talk about careers as these big, you know, “What am I going to be when I grow up?” sounds like such a big question, but, “What do I enjoy doing?” is, I think, a little bit easier of a question sometimes to answer, and it may be something like, uh, I enjoy sports, [00:52:00] or I enjoy, um, you know, in my case it was, uh, connecting with others in a foreign language.

Sam: And so I started looking at opportunities to get involved in translating. I have another student who realized that she loves sports, but doesn’t necessarily see herself being an athlete for the rest of her life, and so she started looking at some of the things around sports. You know, sh- what is the marketing that goes into sports?

Sam: How do we inspire s- young- younger generations to get involved in sports? Then ultimately ended up down a kinesiology path. Nice. Does that necessarily, you know, make sense from a brand in the, um, way that I’m telling the story? Maybe not, but when you look at the activity list that went from getting involved in sports to getting involved in the, uh, school nurse to getting involved in, um, extracurricular activities and volunteering with some of the students that had, like, uh, physical therapy needs.

Sam: Um, still not sure how she managed that as a high school, but high schoolers are [00:53:00] incredibly resourceful, is one thing I’ve learned. Um, all of those are sort of leaned and created into this ultimate pathway that ended up working really well for her

Lonnie: Okay. Um, so thank you, Sam. We’re gonna move into… We have time just for a few more questions. So if there’s a question you were thinking about asking, please go ahead and, um, place that in the Q&A tab. All right, so next question is, if you are interested in computer science or engineering, do the reviewers really pay more attention to your math SAT scores as opposed to your total score?

Lonnie: Do some schools really weed out people initially based on SAT scores?

Sam: So I’m going to answer the second part of that question first. Most probably won’t. That kinda goes against the spirit of holistic review, right? Is we’re taking everything into consideration, and nothing is going to be a [00:54:00] determining factor in taking away a shot or a chance.

Sam: That being said, when you’re applying to something that’s gonna be as math heavy as engineering or computer science, you have to remember that you’re also part of a pool of students. Um, a lot of students have very similar stories. Uh, that’s part of why the essay can be so meaningful in my opinion, is it’s what helps truly make a brand stand out, or an application unique.

Sam: Um, and so you might be up against a lot of students that have that 700 on the math, on the math section, or a 1400 on the total score. Now, that’s not saying that you’re being compared directly to one student, but it is going to be that when we’re looking at you in the context of the overall pool, um, we might be noticing that you’re a little bit weaker than some of the other students.

Sam: Remember, like I said, all admit- all your admissions officers want to see you succeed, and we don’t wanna set you up for failure either, because college is expensive and we don’t want you to pay a lot of money for a [00:55:00] bad time. Keeping in mind that, you know, if you aren’t necessarily having those stronger experiences in high school, there may be other things that you can do to help sort of bridge that gap.

Sam: For example, doing really well in a calculus class is a great way to showcase readiness for engineering, even if you don’t necessarily do the best on the standardized tests. Um, so nothing’s gonna be a determining factor, but are we gonna be looking pretty closely at how you’re doing in your math SAT?

Sam: Yes-ish. We’re also gonna be looking at how you do really well in those math classes, or any other math activities that you might be involved in. Um, you know, that’s why I started with holistic review in the first place, ’cause nothing is gonna be the defining feature, but everything is gonna be taken into consideration in some way.

Sam: Just kinda depends on what category we end up looking at

Lonnie: All right. So our next question is, um, speaking about the Common App and how the essay cannot be-

Sam: Oh, I was hoping you would ask this.

Lonnie: Yes. [00:56:00] Contoured to the school you are applying to. What about well-rounded students who have many facets? More so if there’s a liberal arts/humanities lean, um, reducing them to one brand leaves a ton on the table.

Lonnie: Sam, what tips do you have?

Sam: Yes. So the first thing that I would say is that take advantage of your supplemental essays if your school offers them, um, because that can be a great way to curate your application a little bit more I also think that, you know, and in this presentation I definitely talked about branding more specific to majors because I think it’s the easiest way to approach that conversation.

Sam: Um, and I don’t have the opportunity to sit with all of you and help tailor your applications and the strategies that you’re gonna be involved in. But, you know, speaking as a humanities graduate myself, um, I think that that’s where you can really dive into yourself as an individual. Um, you know, for someone like it sounds like your student who’s incredibly involved in a lot of different things and has a [00:57:00] ton of different, uh, really exciting a- avenues to explore in their application, um, they don’t have to limit themselves.

Sam: And remember that the brand that you’re creating is ultimately just a common thread line, but some of my favorite brands, like I mentioned, were the explorer or the tenacious learner, um, the go-getter. All of these things don’t necessarily tie into one specific major, but do tie into the spirit that a student brings to the classroom and to the campus Don’t worry about trying to fit yourself into one box.

Sam: That’s our job on the other side. Um, and even we don’t wanna try and fit you into only one box, because we know that humans are, you know, multifaceted and adventurous and a little bit messy at times. Um, when I say brand, you know, at the end of the day, this was actually in sort of an ironic way to end with this, uh, I shared that I was gonna be giving this presentation with a lot of my admissions colleagues.

Sam: Uh, and they said that [00:58:00] at the end of the day, your brand is probably going to be pretty similar to a lot of other peoples, but your voice is going to be unique. Remember that you don’t have to fit into a box, and sometimes refusing to fit into a box can be the most memor- m- memorable part of an application in the first place anyway.

Sam: Um, you know, at the end of the day, we just want to, we want your application to be memorable because it means it was more fun for us to read, and that’s where branding can come in a little bit helpful. Uh, but at the end of the day, a great application is gonna be a great application regardless, and it sounds like your student has a lot going for them that’ll probably make it pretty awesome.

Lonnie: Great. Well, I think that’s a really good way to end our webinar for this evening. So thank you so much, Sam, for sharing this really great information with our audience on how to build your personal brand. Um, and thank you everyone for joining us for this webinar. Just wanna, uh, let you know, [00:59:00] once you do log off the webinar, there will be a additional pop-up screen if you did not get the chance to sign up, um, for a free strategy session.

Lonnie: Just let you know there’ll be another opportunity to do so. So with that said, thank you everyone. Thank you, Sam. Have a great night.

Sam: Thank you everyone. Bye. Have a good one. Cheers.