Q&A with Former Admissions Officers

Webinar Transcription

2024-07-02 – Q&A with Former Admissions Officers

Lonnie: Hello everyone. My name is Lonnie Webb, and our webinar for tonight is focused on a, “Q&A With Former Admissions Officers. To orient everyone with the webinar time. And we are gonna focus solely on a live q and a. So this is the perfect opportunity if you have that burning question that you been wanting to ask.

Now is the time. So how it’s gonna work for you all. You can place your questions in the Q and A tab. I will be able to see them and I will share them with our panelists and then I’ll paste them into the public chat for you to be able to see them. If you cannot see the Q and A tab, Please try logging out and logging back in through your email.

We sent you a custom link and that should allow you to be able to see the platform where you can ask your questions. Um, I’m going to ask kindly if you try to avoid asking private questions and please just send your questions to the public chat. All right. So with that, we are actually going to first start by getting to meet our panelists.

So I’ll start with Amber, if you can introduce yourself.

Amber: Yes. Hello, everyone. My name is Amber Bisnauth. I’m a graduate from Stanford University. I studied international relations and languages, so I’m fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, um, had the opportunity to translate in the 2016 Rio Olympics, so I’ve had a lot of opportunities with language.

I love connecting with people. Um, several years later, I somehow ended up on the other side of the desk at Stanford and was an admissions officer also for a few years before joining CollegeAdvisor. Um, so I’m excited to be here tonight.

Hannah: All right. Hi. So my name is Hannah Deisinger. I am, um, I’m a graduate of Brandeis University, which is out by Boston.

Um, I also loved the languages. So I was actually a Spanish major there. Um, and I also studied education and Spanish. After graduating, I worked at RPI, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, um, which was the first school in the country to award an engineering degree, um, back when civil engineering was the only type of engineering.

Uh, so it’s a school that’s very STEM oriented, so I read many, many, um, comp sci applications, pre med applications, um, worked with, close to the department of, uh, with the architecture department, and, um, So, and then recently after that, I became a high school counselor. So I worked at a public suburban public high school, and now I do more of this sort of thing, working, um, working with CollegeAdvisors, supporting students through their college journeys.

Lonnie: Nice. Yay. School counselor. Love it. Um, thank you both for sharing your really impressive background. Um, our audience is in for a treat. Um, and so again, just welcome you all to begin placing your questions into the Q and a box. But before we get into our questions, we want to get a sense of where you are.

So I actually just launched the poll probably about three seconds ago. Um, so we love to know what grade you are in because it just gives us a good feel for who’s in the audience and how to really directly speak to our live audience. Um, So I see the responses have started to come in. And so far, we actually have 66 percent of our audience are in the 12th grade and then 26 percent 11th grade.

And then we have 8 percent that are other. So definitely representative of the 11th and 12th grade for our live audience. So with that, I’m gonna close the poll. And we are going to move into our questions and answers. And thank you so much to those who have already started to place their questions and we can’t wait to get to them.

So our first question is, are there any schools that will accept a GPA below a 3.0? Hannah, would you like to start us off?

Hannah: Yeah, so when I worked in the public schools, I worked with all sorts of students with all sorts of academic backgrounds. And absolutely, there are absolutely schools. There are tons of schools, um, and it totally depends on where you live.

So there might not, there might be a large amount of schools near where you live that accept students under 3.0. You might, if you live in a different type of area, you might have to go a little further, but there absolutely are both public schools and states. And Private schools. I live in upstate New York and I, there are a number of schools within New York state and the low end kind of Western Massachusetts, uh, both public and private that, uh, would accept students below a 3.

0. And of course, there’s always community college, which is a really great pathway option for students. It saves money a lot of times, um, and can really be a good way to transition into college and build those skills. And then you can transfer to sometimes even, um, Uh, Ivy League schools after doing the two years of community college.

Lonnie: Um, and Hannah, um, also kind of similar on this subject, uh, What should I do to supplement a less than stellar GPA? That’s really subjective. Um, and our overall academic performance? Yeah,

Hannah: so If you don’t, if you have a less than stellar GPA, my first, my first recommendation is to see what you can do to enhance what, where you’re already at, right?

So if you are going into senior year, right, you have a little less wiggle room, but still, what can you do to start off senior year strong? Schools are still going to look at those first, first and at least first and second quarter grade, uh, first and second quarter grades. Uh, and so. And you can actually even apply a little bit later, especially if you’re applying to like rolling admission schools, which actually a lot of those, a lot of schools that accept 3.0 or below students will accept a little bit later on in the cycle too. Um, so definitely start working on that. Try to figure out what, what is the reason why you might have those lower grades? Um, is there something that’s specifically difficult with learning for you? Because that might be something to explore, you know, is there maybe, um, opportunity to get evaluated or to get some tutoring, figure out, um, that’s where your school counselor might be able to help you because you can have a conversation with them.

Um, it’s really important in terms of college admissions to be making sure that you’re appropriately challenging yourself in courses, right? So, um, you should be challenging yourself to the extent that you’re, You’re feeling challenging. You’re feeling degraded, but you can still be successful in the courses, so you should still be able to get like at least a B range scores that shows that you have competency.

If you are taking AP and honors courses and you’re consistently getting C’s or B’s, you need to pull back a little bit so you can show that competency. So I think that’s one of those challenges students sometimes think that they should do more rigor if they’re struggling with their courses, and that’s just going to hurt you and that’s going to hurt your ability to be successful.

Um, Of course, it is a holistic admissions review for schools. So, um, definitely being able to be involved extracurricularly, show leadership, um, and you can, and the more you can improve over your high school career, uh, counselors will take that into consideration, especially at those mid sized to smaller schools.

They’re, they’re looking at your transcript, not necessarily your GPA. So if you struggled really bad in freshman year, And then you improved over the time or you had like one really bad rough patch And i’ve had students who something happens sophomore year And something really and it’s a really bad year for them and they and they recover and they come back That’s the story we want as admissions counselors.

Um, so that’s when you have a conversation with your school counselor How do I best express this in your application? That’s of course obviously if you work with with us, that’s something that we would help you with too um, so don’t count yourself out if um, You have a lower grade Uh, keep working on improving that and, um, build out the rest of your profile.

Lonnie: Awesome. Great, great advice, Hannah. Uh, we’re gonna move to our next question. This is for Amber. Um, does having a lower than a 4.0 grade, uh, GPA unweighted and test optional limit your chances of getting accepted?

Amber: Great question. Uh, definitely a question. We’re familiar with getting, um, at Stanford having such a low acceptance rate.

Yes, it is a selective institution. Yes, they can be a little more selective with who they’re taking. With that said, Absolutely. It’s possible. Um, and absolutely every single year we’ve admitted students who have less than a 4.0 GPA oftentimes, um, kind of to Hannah’s point. And I love the response that she just gave that it showcases the blend of college counselor and admissions officer expertise, which I think is perfect for you all.

Um, but we’re looking, like she said, not just at your GPA, but your transcript. Um, so oftentimes, especially you might want to consider it. Where those lower grades came in, if it was freshman year. Oftentimes schools have a little bit more grace, um, and they understand that you’re transitioning from middle school to high school.

Um, if it’s later on in your career, uh, to Hannah’s earlier point, like, Hey, we like to see a comeback story. So advocate for yourself in your application if there are any dips in your grades. You’ll definitely want to get ahead of those and explaining like, Hey, and give context for the situation. If there are some family situation or anything else going on in your life that could help contextualize the dip in grades, that’ll help for you to be able to paint the narrative and not allow the admissions officers to paint it for you or paint you into a certain light on one way or the other.

So you also asked about the test optional. Um, I would say just, you know, wherever you’re applying. I know this question is specifically for Stanford. Um, just pay attention to what their language is around testing, right? There’s test optional, there’s test blind, um, there’s strongly recommended, and then there’s those who require the test.

Um, if it’s strongly recommended or required, I think that’s, um, obviously you’ll want to submit. If you’re at a test optional school, I think Stanford announced that they’re going to go back to requiring it in 2030. So you guys still have some time, um, or around 1230. Um, you 12 30 or around 20 30. But you can go search that up after this just to verify.

But for this year, it won’t be required because Stanford practices holistic review as well. You’ll just want to be sure that the other academic components of your application are also strong. Because again, another reason why they’re looking at your test, your standardized test. The philosophy is They just want to make sure you can handle the rigorous Stanford, and it is rigorous, um, coming from both a student and an admissions officer perspective, I’ll say it’s a shift.

Um, not only is the material hard and fast, it’s, it’s a quarter system, so instead of an 18 week semester, you have 10 weeks, um, to learn the same amount of material, so you can get more done. But you’ve also got to pick up the pay. It’s just a faster, um, environment. And so they just want to make sure that you’re able to handle that.

So if you don’t show that through your standardized tests, you’ll want to make sure you show that rigor and competency to Hannah’s point in your transcript, um, with the, the courses you’re selecting and your ability to succeed in those courses. And if you’re in AP courses, being sure to take the AP exams because they will see that as kind of a way of you finishing the course.

Um, so definitely opt into those exams.

Hannah: I, I love how you just put that. And I think something that I like to emphasize to students is that colleges are, I think this is a weird thing to hear as a student, but colleges are looking for evidence that they can accept you.

Lonnie: Yeah.

Hannah: They’re looking for evidence that you’re going to be successful at their institution.

So, um, it’s not, I think sometimes it just seems like a giant game, but really they want to make sure that they’re going to bring on students that are going to succeed. Stay, um, that are going to thrive and then are going to give their institution a good name kind of after they graduate, right? So that and that comes in so many different shapes and forms at RPI That was one of the big factors with math and science, right?

So it’s a super stem heavy school Everyone pretty much has to take math and science and a lot of it And so for us, it was really important to really get a good grasp of how students students, math and science skills. So that was evidence we were really looking for in the process, both through the transcript through test scores when we had them.

Um, and anything else we could gather. Sometimes I was looking at through recommendation letters for some evidence of that. So, um, that was one thing we’re looking for evidence for. And that’s the same thing that comes around to, um, extracurricular activities. It’s not really just like a, let me see how many boxes that this student checked off.

It’s more, we know the culture on our campus. We know what type of students thrive here. It’s students that are super creative and like to study. Start new things or it’s students who are just like really quirky and passionate or it’s students that are very collaborative learners and and enjoy collaborative things, so student colleges really want students who are going to engage in their campus community and and Bring something special to their community.

So it’s not so it’s not necessarily checking off a box. They’re looking for Okay, is this student going to meet some of the needs that we have on campus? Um, and are we going to meet their needs?

Amber: Absolutely.

Hannah: Great,

Lonnie: great. Okay, so we’re going to move to our next question, which it reads, What can I do if I’m stressing out about the process?

Because I don’t understand like the whole set up to start.

Amber: Sorry, Amber. Yes, sure thing. Sorry, my computer is spazzing out a little bit. But as long as you guys can see me, I’ll keep going. Um, yes. So can you,

Lonnie: the last part of the question. Yes, I can read the question again. Um, what can I do? What can I do if I’m stressing out about the process? I was in the, you know, the college admission process because I don’t understand the whole setup to start.

Amber: Okay. Um, I, I’m happy to start. Um, if I’m assuming since the majority of students in this, um, webinar, senior rising seniors or rising juniors, you’re either a rising senior or rising junior. So either way, you’re an upperclassman. Um, I would, after taking a deep breath, I mean, you’re in, you’re in a webinar like this, so I’m proud of you for taking the initiative to get answers, right?

Not staying paralyzed by your. by just that feeling of being overwhelmed, um, and taking action to be able to move forward. Um, so I would definitely say just figure out, like, try to ask questions to learn and know what you don’t know. Um, so definitely speak to your college counselor, which I’m sure Hannah would agree with, um, as a college counselor.

They have a wealth of information and they can help you kind of get started with, hey, I know, like, there’s a lot to be done in a relatively short amount of time. Where do I get started? and they can help to kind of give you that momentum if you’re feeling a little bit stuck. Um, I don’t know fully where you are in the process, but that would be my initial piece of advice is just to get help.

Um, right. Like you can get your college counselor if you do want to sign up with us. Obviously, you have a personal one on one advisor who’s going to help you make that timeline and create a plan for you to be able to move forward that you can kind of see where you’re going and lift a little bit of the stress.

Naturally, this can be a stressful process, and it’s not. There’s no. Pill, um, that will make all the stress go away. But getting help can help you to mitigate that stress and to be able to make steps move forward, um, and ultimately make progress and be proud of the end result that you have at the end of it.

But Hannah would love to, to hear your perspective as well, since this is such a Yeah,

Hannah: I agree with all that. I think that your school counselors a great reference. I think some, sometimes it’s hard to reach them in the summer, so. Um, but you can see depending on the school and the counselor and they might be more reachable in the summer But they also probably have a lot of if your school has like a school counseling or guidance website They might already have a lot of resources on there.

Usually the college resources are the resources that they post on there Um, so that’s somewhere you can look Uh, there’s a lot of timelines if you just google like college application timeline There’s a lot of resources online where you can kind of see what steps and what order you should be going in And that can give you a bit of a reference.

Okay, the first step is starting to think about my college list Okay, let me go on CollegeAdvisor.com and look at all the web webinars that I could I could look at and see if I can find some information on there Let me go on youtube see if I can find some information about the college list um, another thing I recommend is use your resources around you so Um pair up with some friends They are probably all getting kind of a little bit of different information.

And so if one of them kind of knows where to start on one thing and you know where to start on the next thing, you can kind of pair up and help each other along on the process.

Lonnie: Great, great. Okay, so let’s move to our next question. Um, how would you recommend writing our PIQs, personal insight questions for the UC’s, um, and the common app questions?

Is there anything in that makes someone stand out?

Amber: That’s a great question. Uh, in anything in particular that makes a person stand out, um, you’ll probably hear this a million times, um, if you watch different webinars, um, from different admissions officers and presenters, but your authenticity is going to be the best seal of approval that you can give, um, in your application.

What I mean by that is, You’re going to be submitting essays. That’s the biggest part that you can control right here right now. Um, you’ll also have letters of recommendations that are coming from your teachers who know you. Um, right. And you’ll also have the letter of recommendation from your guidance counselor.

So, and along with the extracurricular activities that you’re framing and presenting to the admissions officers. All of this is working together to paint a picture of who you are. All right. So if we’re getting a pic, one picture from the essays, and we’re going to get a different perspective from your essays than we are from letters of recommendations, that’s completely understood.

Uh, but if, if your essays are kind of painting you to be one way and your letters of recommendation are kind of bringing whatever you put in the app in your essays to question, i. e. You’re stretching or you’re not being authentic. Like you’re saying you do stuff that you don’t. Um, and I don’t expect anybody in this webinar to do that, but I just I, I bring that point up as kind of a point of comparison and contrast to say, um, the thing that you can do most to stand out with your essay is take time to reflect, um, give yourself the ability to reflect, be honest, be genuine.

I encourage my students to journal, um, just in case they don’t already. It helps you get in the practice of writing, articulating, um, your feelings, being able to, uh, again, remember the admissions officer is not going to meet you. And even if they offer interviews at your school, it’s not the admissions officer who’s interviewing you, they’ll review that interview.

So you want to be able to articulate yourself as best as possible. You’re personifying yourself with your essay and the best thing you can do to represent yourself authentically and in a compelling manner, that’s genuine to who you are, is take the time to reflect. Don’t cram. Don’t rush your essays.

Don’t wait until two weeks before the submission date. Um, you’re gonna put yourself in just kind of a rough position by doing that. But I definitely encourage you to just take time. Give yourself a couple months journal. Um, and just be authentic in your reflection. And same thing with

Hannah: I think the most dangerous thing in an application is when and I catch this a lot with families that I work with is When you’re trying too hard to try to guess what will impress the admissions counselor because honestly those are those are Oftentimes the essays that I least want to read and because then you’re trying to fit into some stereotype and of what I want to read, right?

So when people are applying to RPI, try to sound super technical and try to sound really good at science. I know you’re really good at science. I saw your grades. I’m not good at science, so me trying to read your essay that shows off how good you are at science actually doesn’t work on me. Um, so what, and I 100%, 100 percent agree.

Agree with Amber. Um, and I think one of the ways to make sure it’s authentic to yourself is thinking about who you are outside of like school and college and that, all that context. College, career, school. And sometimes you’ll end up coming back to some of those themes when you write your essay, but try to separate yourself from that and just really think, who am I?

A member of my family, who am I as a member of my community, who am I as just a member of myself and be existing. Um, and that’s sometimes where you get some of the best stories because that’s what, that’s what the admissions counselors aren’t seeing in the rest of your application. This is an opportunity for you to show us pieces of yourself that we’re not going to get from everything else that you put in there.

Um, the second piece of advice though is still to know your schools. So when you’re, especially when it comes to supplemental essays, any essay that’s about the school, you need to know the school that you’re applying to. Um, I’m a big, I’m a big proponent of relatively small college lists. I, you know, anything above 10 starts to make me jittery at 12.

After 12, I get, I start freaking out because I think you really need to know your schools to put forth the best applications. Um, so I’m always a proponent of a, of a shorter college list. Um, not to say that I don’t want, you know, people can do what they want. Um, but anyways, because when I was reading applications, I worked at RPI.

You don’t know how many times I would read essays that, why do you want to go to RPI? I want to go to RIT because Yes. X, Y, and Z.

Lonnie: Um,

Hannah: or they would start describing a different and totally different place than where we were, where I was, or you could tell it was copy and pasted. And then like two words were switched out.

So no, taking that time to be authentic about who you are, but also be authentic about your interest in these schools will end up paying off because that essay did matter in our review process. So

Lonnie: for sharing that personal like insight. Uh, yeah. That happened. So make sure you’re submitting the right essays to the colleges that you’re applying to plus 100 to that.

So many times, like the reason I would like to

Amber: go to UPenn. Okay. Yes,

Lonnie: yes, yes. Okay, so let’s move to our next question. We have many that are coming in. Um, this question says, what is the best way to increase your chances at a top 10 university when it comes to the admission process? I

Amber: think that question, do you want to take it first again? Or would you like me to go first?

Hannah: I mean, you’re out of time. I was not at the top 10, so I’ll let you go for that.

Amber: I would say it’s an interesting way to frame a question. Um, and I don’t want to falsely pose and act like, hey, there’s this secret key, and if you click in here and turn it to the right and jiggle it a little to the left, you’ll get in.

Um, it isn’t that way. And every school within the top 10, while a lot of them practice holistic review, they’re each different in their approach. They’re each different in their, keep this in mind, there are real people reading your application. So there’s literally different individuals and a culture of different individuals at every school.

Um, and you don’t necessarily know who’s ultimately going to read your application. So, To Hannah’s earlier point, do your research on each individual school. Something you can do to increase your chance of acceptance at a school is knowing where you’re applying. Um, getting to understand, like, doing the information sessions.

If they visit your school, go there. If you can visit the school, take the visit. Ask thoughtful questions, questions you can’t necessarily find online. Um, I don’t believe any of the top ten schools necessarily track demonstrated interest. You can actually search that online, whether or not, whether or not they do.

Um, but schools just for those that are outside of the top 10 or just there’s so many that are still top schools, um, that will track demonstrated interest going to information sessions. And when they have them, they’ll track that, right? Like sending thoughtful questions and emails. They’ll keep track of that.

So that’s something that can, I think this was brought up earlier. Perhaps, um, is something that I was, uh, a webinar that I was attending earlier, but, uh, that mentioned that ultimately schools want to know their business. So they want to know just like the first part of the application process, right?

you’re, you’re giving the reasons why you want to attend on the flip end. If, and when you receive that offer, they want to make sure you come. Um, so it is kind of like a two way process. Um, and In your initial application to be sure you’re presenting yourself authentically and also that you’re presenting yourself as someone who would really want to attend their school are two great things you can do, um, to set yourself apart.

Um, and then there’s, there’s so many bullet points I think we can give to this answer to this, um, question. So I definitely want Hannah to chime in here. Um, I think the last thing that I’ll note is your essays, honestly, um, which we, we just spoke about, um, which is going to speak to your knowledge of the school, your knowledge of yourself.

Um, but. Again, I’ll pass this off to Hannah. There might be some other thoughts that come in because, again, a really big question you posed.

Hannah: Yeah, um, all of that. Uh, and I would also say I have a couple of thoughts on this. Um, One just to add on to kind of what, what you should be doing if you want to get into a highly selective institution, um, is really kind of nurturing your passions and your interests.

Yeah. I am wording that as nurturing your passions and your interests, not developing an extracurricular profile because The reality is, is colleges really want to see someone who is excited about what they’re up to. And that, and that is so much more of a natural progression. It’s so much easier to get involved in leadership opportunities.

It’s so much easier to make an impact in your community if you’re doing stuff that you’re excited about. So if you’re excited about the track team, do the track team and figure out how you can continue to impact the track, the track community at your school, how you can take leadership within that community, Um, and if you’re excited about volunteering, you volunteer.

If you’re excited about art club, you do art club. And obviously you can have multiple interests. Um, but really following your different passions and diving in, all, putting your all into it and trying to make an impact. That’s what’s going to influence your admissions. And it really doesn’t have to be super related to what you’re trying to study.

Um, it is good to show if you want to get into a competitive, um, major discipline that you’ve thought about that career, you’ve learned a little bit about that career. So if there is like a, For example, if you want to go into a health sciences program, there’s sometimes host clubs, like health, health science clubs at your school.

So you could join that and get some experience. You could do volunteering at a hospital. So it’s good to show that interest. And especially if you’re applying to something accelerated, then you might want more intensive experience related to your field of study. But for the most part, it’s just about what you’re interested in.

And it can be playing the xylophone and have nothing to do with what you want to do in your So unless I mean some people want to play xylophone for their career, that’s really cool But um my second thought on this and I just with a question of how do I get into a top ten? Um, I’m gonna have a controversial answer here and just encouraging students to make sure that if you’re really stuck on the idea of Ivy or top 10 or top 20 university, take time to reflect on why, because there are thousands of great schools in this country.

And sometimes, um, the school that’s the best fit for you is not a top 10 school. And that’s not even about what schools you can get into, but it’s the school that’s going to where you’re going to thrive. Some students are best in an environment where they’re the top tippity top of the top. They get to be valedictorian, they get to get all the research opportunities, they get thrown scholarship dollars at them.

Um, and, and that’s not necessarily going to happen if you’re at, um, an Ivy League school, you’re going to be against with all the other tippity top tippity top students. Um, so, and, so it’s just, and then some of those schools are also very, very competitive. Cut through competitive cultures, and there’s there’s schools that have a lot more collaborative Cultures that are more nurturing towards each other.

So I’m not saying don’t consider an Ivy Leagues or don’t apply to Ivy Leagues But really think about why school, make sure that th what’s actually true about then I really encourage y you’re creating space and types of schools because lot what we call in the i schools. It is a tiny, ti of students that get in.

accept all of the qualifi Close to all of the qualified students to admit to those schools. So if you’re banking too hard on that, it’s going to, it could very potentially be a disappointment. Whereas if you’re excited about a number of your different options, if you’re excited about that school that you know you’ll get into, that’s amazing.

And then if you get into those Ivy Leagues, you still have that option. You still have that choice.

Amber: I’m so glad Hannah made those two points. I knew she was going to say something that sparked a couple of points. The first point, balance. Um, so Hannah made a point about not wanting more or less not to put all of your eggs in one basket with just a top school reflect on why you want to attend that school.

Even here at CollegeAdvisor, we highly encourage, we highly recommend, if we could require it, we would, that you have a balanced college list, that you have a good base of safety or foundation or anchor schools, whatever you want to call them. Again, those are the schools, they might have a higher acceptance rate, but as Hannah said, We want you to be excited about them.

So we want to cultivate looking through the thousands of schools that are here in the US, schools you might not have heard of, but the more you learn about them, the more excited you get. There are so many of those out there and they might not be the names you’ve heard since you were three years old or that you’ve looked around and everyone’s told you you need to go to this school, but they’re great schools that will set you up with the resources that you need to succeed with the goals that you have.

So balance is 100%. Yes, you can have those three schools on your list. But please do not have a list that is so reach heavy. You haven’t put any investment into your target schools, into your anchor schools. That’s the last thing. We do not recommend that at all. We definitely want you to be balanced. We want you to reach for the stars, but we want you to be grounded and have a good foundation too.

Um, so that’s to speaking to the college list and making sure that you have balance to the extracurricular point that Hannah made. Depth, not breath. Go so much further. And I want to provide a balanced answer here because we have both types of students, right? You do have more students who are more quote unquote well rounded.

You might have a lot of activities. You might not know what you want to study, but I will say that those students who do know what they want to study and pursue it, and can show schools like, hey, I say I’m interested in this. Here’s the evidence that I’m interested in this. That definitely gets schools attention as well.

So if you’re able to substantiate your interest with the activities you do, you might not. You don’t need to have 13 activities. We don’t recommend you have 13 activities. It’s not bad if you do again. You have a student have different profiles. But if you have been a little unsure about the fact, Oh, I don’t know if I have enough activities.

Just focus on quality on the ones you do have on making an impact on whether that’s formal leadership or informal leadership. Take note of the impact that you’re having. And make sure you’re doing as much as you can in the area that you know you want to study if you know that. Um, so yeah, I figured Hannah was going to say some key points and I’m really glad that she did make those notes.

Lonnie: Great. Wow. You all are sharing some great information for our audience. Um, so I’m going to move to the next question, Hannah. I’m going to have you start this one off, just giving your previous experience as a high school counselor. Um, so this question reads, what if a counselor is new, um, and they don’t know me, um, Do I have to have a recommendation from them?

That happens pretty often.

Hannah: Yeah, okay, so if the school requires a school counselor recommendation, you do need a school counselor recommendation. Um, yeah. If you had a good relationship and a strong relationship with your previous school counselor, Um, you may be able to reach out to them That’s always something you can go down to the school counseling office and ask them about ask the school counseling secretary Um, they’ll know if the if the person is open to that or they can Text them, email them.

They’re probably still in contact with your previous school counselor and they can find out if that’s something they’re willing to do to write a letter of recommendation for you. So, for example, I left school counseling this year. If a student wanted me to write a letter of recommendation for them, that’s something that I would probably consider doing if I did have a really strong relationship with them.

Um, however, Your new school counselor is a great person to get to know and They are going to be your lifeboat, especially if you’re a senior to getting through this process Um, even if you did work with a like a CollegeAdvisor counselor They’re still going to be the person that knows the logistics at your school.

They’re going to still be your go to point person and Hot tip for all of you guys They’re the person that hears about those last minute scholarship opportunities that they don’t have time to post and they just have to pick a student. Um, that happened to me frequently. And, um, I had a few students that I had on the top of my mind because they were consistently engaged with me that I would, that I would recommend for those scholarships.

So, getting to know your school counselor. Um, school counselors are very busy people and I get it, sometimes they’re hard to lock down. Um, but you showing that interest is going to go a long way with them, and you can get to know your school counselor well enough for them to write a stellar recommendation within the first few months of school.

Um, you could also volunteer to help tutor underclassmen for them, and they’ll be really happy.

Amber: Yeah, I think Hannah summed that up really nicely. Um, honestly, yes, it is required that you have your current counselor typically write a letter of recommendation. But again, wonderful, nice counselors like Hannah.

Um, if they just left and they’re open to writing a letter, sometimes you can have them write the optional letter of recommendation or an additional letter of recommendation. And that kind of shows that One, you went the extra mile. Two, it kind of speaks to your character as a student, if they are able to speak on your behalf, that they’re willing to.

Um, and that’s totally not necessary, but do just want to say that if your counselor is willing, this does depend on their ability to be willing, um,

Lonnie: that might be something to look into. And next question, can you give a general timeline for starting the college admission process?

Hannah: Sure, yeah. I mean, I think it depends on the student, right? And it depends on where you’re at. So there, there’s no, there’s no bad time to start the college process because you should start the college process if you want to go to college, right? So if you’re in spring of your senior year of high school, then you should start the college process.

Um, you might not be able to go to school that next fall unless you’re going to a local community college, but so. But I will talk about kind of what it would look like if you started at different points in the process. So, um, students do start thinking about college as soon as freshman year. Um, when they’re thinking, when you’re in freshman year, you’re not making your college list.

You’re not writing essays. That’s really just when you should, when you start kind of gathering information, getting an idea of kind of what colleges are looking for, um, Ways that you can be, um, be involved extra curricularly, get an idea of what types of schools you maybe would want to go to so that you can make sure you’re on that path.

You’re taking the right classes to be on track, right? So you’re on the on the right math track. You’re continuing your foreign language, things like that. Um, so that’s if you start in like a 9th grade, 10th grade allows if students, some students start to get to think about it in 10th grade, and it’s really uncommon for students to think about it in 9th and 10th grade, so don’t, if you’re like a junior or senior and you’re just starting to think about it, totally, totally fine.

Um, when students start thinking about it in 10th grade, um, that’s a point in time where they can start to do some college visits, start to get a sense of what colleges are like, um, also where you can do some of that, that exploration. extracurricular and that learning experience. And then in 11th grade is really when I think the like standard consensus is that when it’s a really good time to start the actual college process.

So that’s when you really want to be starting to build your college list. We’re big proponents of like really spending time on your college list. I know I am, um, because that can be The best thing for you in terms of making sure you end up in a good fit school You don’t have to transfer making sure that you end up having good financial options in terms of your schools So the more time you can spend on your list the better um, and so that’s and I and visit as many schools as you possibly can get to that you’re interested in, um, I mean not like 50 but you know starting to get to get to schools and get a sense because the As soon as you start visiting schools, you get a much better sense of what you’re actually interested in.

And I usually recommend students just visit even like local schools that, you know, you don’t want to go to if you can’t make it out to further schools, because you can get a sense of, Oh, I like a small private school or

Hannah: like a big public school. And you at least know those factors for yourself. Um, and then really, um, I think everybody kind of should get this, the, the, um, Get the show on the road this summer So you’re all every single one of you are listening at the perfect time Because even students that are going into senior year This is a great time to start your college process if you haven’t already So this is a time where if you haven’t started your college list, you can start your college list Um and really start getting that going.

This is also if you have your college list ready This is when you start working on your essay Um, usually students start their common app essay first because that’s the one that goes to all the schools and it’s a narrative style, which is oftentimes harder for students. You kind of get that out of the way.

And then, um, and then you start tackling, you decide which schools that you’re interested in, which ones you want to apply to what order, um, based on their deadlines and how bad you want to go there and whether you’re applying early decision or regular decision, early action, all those fancy words. And, um, you start pulling out those supplemental essays.

And the general, um, and the general application. And so the earliest deadlines are usually like November 1st, sometime even October 1st. Um, but the regular decision deadlines aren’t until like January, February usually. So if you are like just starting your process now, don’t feel like you have to hit an October 15th or um, November 15th deadline unless you.

Really want to do early decision and then you really need to research that school. And that early decision is binding. You only want to get into that school. You are totally okay with whatever money they give you. It’s a big, it’s a big decision. So, and then so usually by, you know, December, January, February, you’re kind of done and that’s when you can spend time looking at scholarships, national scholarships, scholarships at your school offers, fill out some of those scholarship applications and wait for your decisions to come in so you can make, you can do that comparison and make your decisions.

Um, so that’s generally the timeline. I don’t know if I was supposed to give the whole timeline, but I did. I love that. No,

Amber: I’m sure our students are really appreciative that you did that. That was so thorough. I literally don’t have anything really to add. If you’re applying to a school that has optional interviews, you can prepare for that usually in the spring.

But other than that, that was, I was very solid

Lonnie: run down. That’s a timeline to explain. Our audience is getting so many, so much great information tonight. So thank you, Hannah, for sharing that timeline. Our next question is, are applications reviewed when they’re submitted? Is it based on a first come first serve basis?

Amber: Great question. So different schools might have different procedures. So both Hannah and I can speak to what was happening in our admissions offices, respectively. Um, while I was, uh, while I was at Stanford, it was, Um, we just, we just had a, uh, you could say as they come, right? But we, we had kind of an internal structure as to how we read them.

Uh, we had an internal, you’ll probably hear the term committee, um, where there are regional admissions officers. So admissions officers are responsible for certain territories, um, in the country, perhaps in the world. Um, personally, my territories were West Virginia, Virginia, a certain section of California, um, and then Canada.

So that might sound very random. Um, but I was responsible for reviewing and representing those students in committee, which is just a group of admissions officers. I’m representing these applications. Um, and so I like to tell students that you can think of your regional admissions officer as your advocate, right?

Like, they’re the one standing before the committee representing, um, So oftentimes I’ll tell my students, give your admissions officer as much ammunition, um, as you can, right? Like that’s why I mentioned earlier, if you have a dip in grades. Contextualize it first, because the committee will very likely ask that question.

They’ll see that, um, information and they’re probably going to ask. So the best thing you can do is give your admissions officer the ammunition they need to properly defend you, to properly represent you, um, so that if and when those questions come up in committee, they actually have an answer. They don’t have to guess.

Um, so yeah, that’s, that’s kind of, we had different periods for restrictive early action. And for regular decision, we had different committees, but, um, that’s how we would review applications.

Hannah: Yeah, we were similar. So we did the initial review kind of as they came in, kind of, but they’d stack up. So eventually you’re not doing them in the order that they’re coming in anyway.

Um, but it’s really not like the initial review is, is, application for its own. So it’s, we’re really not basing it on each other. And, uh, and then we have a committee process and then, and then we would give our decisions on a specific date. So you get all your decisions, like whatever type of decision deadline you have, you get all your decisions on some, on a date, so all of our regular decision deadline, um, applications, all the decisions went out some day in March, like March 13th or something.

So, um, That’s that’s how it is. I don’t think a lot of the selective schools but at a number of especially state schools any school that has typically Most commonly in like schools that have rolling admissions or schools that have like priority deadlines They might they’re more likely to kind of give you your answers as they get through them So there’s a number of schools out by me Um, I think Very strong schools, uh that students will apply and the way they do things They’ll hear back within a few weeks.

So that’s exciting. Um, I had students who knew by October 1st that they got into college And that they were good to go. So, um, it depends on the school So that’s just something to look into but typically if it says rolling that’s when you’re going to hear back as soon as Um, they review your application if it’s a, if it’s standard admissions, if it doesn’t stay rolling, then that’s when you’re most likely going to hear back on a set date.

that they probably won’t list this that day. It’ll just be all of the decisions are end up being released on that day.

Lonnie: Thank you. Okay, moving into our next question. Um, it reads when writing your essays, how would you recommend naturally blending why you want to go to that school specifically without sounding fake are inauthentic?

And Amber, I’ll let you start us off.

Amber: Yeah, and that definitely sounds like a good conversation. That’s going to be a multi, a series of conversations you have with whoever’s assisting you with the college application process, whether it’s us, whether it’s your school counselor, whoever it is, um, but in terms of being able to be authentic one, it does help to get familiar with the school, which I won’t beat that.

I won’t make that point again. Um, but in terms of just being able to sound genuine, look into the school and see what genuinely excites you. Um, don’t just repeat the things that everyone else is saying like, Oh, it’s very interdisciplinary and I can do this. And this, like, if that’s something you’re genuinely excited about, you’ll be able to say more than just that, um, as an example, since that does come up often.

Um, but yeah, the best thing you can do, um, from my perspective is, Knowing what it is that genuinely attracts you to that school and being able to articulate what it is that genuinely attracts you to that school and why don’t just say what excites you. It might be true. Then I’ll say that even students who are genuinely excited about a school being interdisciplinary and being able to major in this and minor in this, articulate, connect the dots for the admissions officer, articulate why you specifically, Brad, Gina, whatever your name is.

Why are you interested and excited about this school? Not not just the general like, oh, this is a positive thing about that school. That’s what I would say

Hannah: Yeah, it should include information about yourself. We should learn about you through that question We should be learning about you the entire time we’re reviewing your application If there’s any point where we’re not learning about you, then that’s a problem

Lonnie: Um,

Hannah: so we should be learning about you Um, and we should be learning about how this school makes you feel so there should be an emotion or emotion words in there so um Um, the fact that you were excited to learn about this program and, um, you were, you, Um, can’t wait to be able to do this thing.

Um, you, you know, you’ve always dreamed of being part of a college swim team, and you’ve watched this team play, whatever. That, clearly, I don’t know how swim works. But,

Lonnie: um,

Hannah: That’s it. So being able to really express how it makes you feel. And that’s why, that’s why I’m a proponent of those shorter lists and really getting to know those schools as best you possibly can.

And if you visited, that’s a really good way to incorporate the visit. Um, when I was on the tour, the admissions counselor said this, and that was the thing that made me really want to go to that school. Or, um, after the tour, I was talking to my parents, and we talked, and they mentioned this, and I was like, yes, that’s exactly what, what, what actually sticks with who I am as a person.

Um. Or my grandma recommended this school and grandma knows me best. And when we talked about it, I realized that this is why my grandma recommended the school, whatever. But that’s, those are the types of stories that really can end up, um, feeling authentic.

Lonnie: Okay. So the next question is, um, more specific to the, um, person.

So A is the highest letter grade in my high school and A and A minus are both a 4.0 unweighted GPA. Would admission officers care, um, If I’m getting, if I’m getting a minus instead of an A, would you all care about that? The minus and the pluses?

Amber: I’m, I’m going to say typically we did not. Um, again, we’re, we’re looking at the, the transcript at large.

Like it’s, it’s, we’re also, I do want to Say, and Hannah could speak to this as well, that we will also receive what’s called a school report or a school profile from your guidance counselor when we’re reviewing your application. So there, we’re receiving applications often from across the world. Um, there are some schools in the United States that an A is only a 93 to a 100.

Um, and so you’re getting a B if you get a 92, which, which sounds crazy, but as admissions officers, we respect the standard that the school sets. Um, so if you’re at a school where, and you’re not, um, but for students who are, if you’re at a school where it does have that higher standard, whatever they say is an A is going to be an A in our eyes.

Whatever they say is a B is going to be a B in our eyes. Similarly to you, um, A and A minus, I’ll just say we didn’t make a distinction between those. Um, we see that you’re highly achieving. If it was a difference between an A and a B, B and a C, We’re going to acknowledge those distinctions. And in case there are any international students and I do think I’ve seen a couple, um, similar thing, right?

Like we’re going to have conversions, whether it’s international baccalaureate or a levels, like we’re going to be able to see what’s comparable. Um, and that’s often why we’ll kind of you’ll, you’ll hear and miss not sort of lean away from like, what GPA do I need? Because that doesn’t convert nicely.

Like we’re looking at your rigor. We’re looking at how you did. So, um, Ultimately, yeah, I just want to make sure that I hit the heart of the question. Um, but yeah, I’ll, I’ll pass it off to Hannah cause I know she has some wonderful nuggets for you as well.

Hannah: Yeah, exactly. So we get that school profile. So we’re trying to.

We try to look at it as like objectively across schools as we possibly can Um, I my territory was new jersey. So shout out any new jersey fans Um, and there are some crazy greeting systems at some of the schools in new jersey. And so um, and so sometimes there there were a couple schools where I really had to I would like Put the profile next to my face, and I would basically read every grade off according to that, and then I would kind of translate that into my review notes in terms of this is actually what the grades were for this student.

Um, based on in, in kind of comparison to the rest of the students from New Jersey, this is kind of more, this would be more representative of where they’re at. Um, so we are definitely taking into context, and I think, and since you brought up the school profile, I’ll kind of speak to that in general too.

So the students will, I, um, I live in a very small town and I’m working with a student right now that lives in my small town. And, um, she’s really limited in terms of what she can take in terms of classes. And so every year she kind of gets like chopped a few classes that she had requested. Um, but the, but the good thing is that the schools are aware of how many courses are offered, how big your school is, how many opportunities

You have her classes and she’s still going to write in her she’s going to still mention an extra information session that And or have her school counselor speak to the fact that she did she kind of kept getting blocked out of classes She wanted same thing goes for AP offerings IB offerings Um, you’re being evaluated within the context of the school that you’re at Um, so if your school offers tons of AP classes and you haven’t taken any that’s gonna that that’s gonna show That’s gonna look different than if you haven’t taken any and your school only offers one Um So that’s just something so you know that, um, is, is being expressed.

Same thing goes for, I think like class rank, class rank is a touchy thing. Um, some schools I went, the school I went to to be in the top 10 percent really didn’t have to have that good of grades and other, other high schools. If you’re in the top 10%, like you had to push to get there. Like that was like, you took all AP’s, you’ve got 4.

0 and all those classes. So it, we are looking at that context.

Lonnie: So we’re gonna take a short pause from our questions for me to share more with you about the work that we do here within CollegeAdvisor. Um, so for those who are in the room aren’t already working with us, we know how overwhelming the submission process can be.

Um, you know, we definitely appreciate it and see it through all the questions that you all are asking, um, in this webinar. So CollegeAdvisors team of over 300 applicants. Former admission officers and admission experts are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admission process and one on one advising sessions.

We’ve already helped over 6, 000 clients and their college journeys. After analyzing our 2021 through 2023 data, we found that CollegeAdvisor students are 3.6 times more likely to get into Stanford. 4.1 more likely to get into Vanderbilt and 2.7 times more likely to get into Harvard University.

Increase your odds and take the next step in your college admission journey by signing up for a free 45 to 60 minutes strategy session with an admission specialist on our team by using the QR code. that you’ll see on the screen right now. During this meeting, you’ll receive a plenary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations.

And at the end, you’ll be able to learn more about our premium packages we offer that will pair you with an expert such as Amber or Hannah, our many more of our former admission officers and advisors to support you with building your college list. And editing your essay and even just, you know, diving into some of these other additional questions that you have about the admission process.

So with that, we’ll continue with our questions and answers. We have time for a few more. Um, maybe for this round, we’ll just have one of our panels answer the question so we can try to get to as many questions as we can. Um, so this question reads, what if I don’t have the money for school? Can financial aid and scholarships help me?

Yeah, Hannah, you want to take that one?

Hannah: Yeah! So absolutely, financial aid and scholarships can help. Um, I think there’s a couple things at play there, right? So, um, does your family not have the money? Um, or is it something where your family has the money and then, um, but they’re expecting you to contribute entirely on your own?

Um, It’s definitely, I think, an easier situation to navigate when it’s a situation where your family has a lower income, um, because there are a lot of schools that will meet, meet full need. So that’s something that you can look for schools that have specific programs to help students that are at different income levels.

So and that’s something you could always keep an eye out for in your college search process. Um, what types of financial aid, uh, options they have. Uh, schools have both need based aid that’s based off of your need and some schools, uh, guarantee they’ll meet all of it. And some schools, um, meet various levels depending on the student.

And then there’s also, and that need is determined by the FAFSA or the, and or the CSS profile, which are forms that you’re, um, that you fill out with your, um, family, and to determine kind of how much the, the, uh, basically the federal government thinks your family can pay. For college. Um, so that might be a little different than what your family feels like they can pay for college.

So that’s, that’s a good, that’s a good thing to be aware of as early on as possible. And schools will have what’s called a net price calculator. So you can go onto pretty much any college you’re interested in to their financial aid website. Fill out a net price calculator and get a sense of what type of aid you would actually potentially get in terms of, especially in terms of need based aid.

Um, if you do that for a school that meets 100 percent of need, you kind of get a sense of what that might look like. Um, of course, the fastest wild ride right now, so then it’s, and everything’s changing, so nothing can be like guaranteed. Um, and then there’s also, um, Merit aid, which is extra money, the free money that the school gives you because they want you to come.

Um, so and there’s certain schools that are known for giving a decent amount of merit aid. Some schools will actually say how much they’ll give if you have certain grades. Um, so and especially if you’re a strong student and a strong applicant for that school, um, they might give you more money as well.

So those are things that you can look at and then there’s also outside scholarships that can help you pay for school You So, um, I do think that college is accessible for, um, many, many, many, many students and, but it’s just about, sometimes it’s a little bit harder depending on your situation to figure out exactly what your options are and what the best pathways are for you, and that’s when I think you should really make sure that you’re working closely with someone, um, Like your school counselor to identify the best pathways for you.

Um, in New York state, we have a program called EOP and HEOP, which is an educational opportunity program, which is for students with a lower income and. Um, and to, and, uh, have struggled in some academic capacity, kind of hard to explain, but to be able to go to, to go to a college that is slightly above their academic profile and get extra support along the way.

And a lot of states have programs like this if you’re within a certain income range. So that’s something to be aware of too. Um, so make sure you’re talking to your school counselor and they know your situation, um, to get help in that, in that process. Great.

Lonnie: Bye. Thank you, Hannah. Um, Amber for this question for you.

Do you consider a student’s learning disability, um, learning differences slash disabilities when looking at grades slash transcript?

Amber: Great question. So you’re, I’m hearing the question is asking if we’re going to take that piece of context that you give to admissions officers and take consideration. Um, absolutely.

Yes, we will take that into consideration. Um, specifically at Stanford and so many institutions, they might, Stanford is called the Office of Accessible Education, I believe, OAE, um, there are several different acronyms at different schools where they specifically have offices set up to assist students with learning differences, so we absolutely do, um, not only admit, but also have support services for students because at the end of the day, um, Um, we want you to thrive at this school.

So we want, we want to see, like, hey, you have the initiative, you have the ambition, um, and you are able to take advantage of the resources at your disposal. We also have resources at our disposal and want to make sure that ultimately you’re able to thrive, um, at higher learning institutions.

Lonnie: Thank you.

And I apologize, um, audience. I never put the QR code on the screen, um, for you to sign up for a free, um, consultation with one of our admission specialists. So the QR code is there for you to scan now. Um, so back to our questions, Hannah, um, can you talk about a memorable app, a memorable application and what made it stand out to you?

Hannah: Yeah, um, hmm. It’s a throwback now, so What I’ll speak to is probably my favorite essay that I ever read Which was someone wrote an essay about being a bad busboy Like he was just really bad at being a busboy and he never really got better at it like he kept trying but never really got better at it and Honestly, I think that’s the type of essay that like students wouldn’t think of writing, but it really showed his sense of humor and, um, and his dedication.

I wrote, I felt like after I read that essay that I kind of knew this kid, I felt like I kind of could, could jive with him. And so that was really impactful for me. Um, and so, yeah, I, I don’t remember the rest of his application, but I do remember that essay.

Lonnie: Love it. Love it. Um, glad we could take you back on that memory lane.

Um, thinking about the memory application. Amber, how much does my SAT score affect my admissions into college?

Amber: Yes. So if you choose to submit it, um, to my earlier point, Stanford does practice holistic admissions and a lot of schools do. Um, so it’s one piece of the pie. If you choose to admit it, if you choose to submit it, it’s one piece of the, of what’s going to be considered academically along with your transcript and AP or IP, IB scores or whatever supplemental testing scores you might have.

Um, so it’s a portion. There’s not necessarily a number grade. It’s not, it’s not, um, formulaic in that way. Okay. Um, but ultimately the question that admissions officers will have in their head when they look at your test score along with your transcript and any supplemental testing is Do we think the student can handle the work?

And that’s the question that we want to be able to answer. Um, it’s not straightforward. It’s not XYZ GPA. It’s not XYZ test score, but we want to be sure that with all of those components taken into consideration, we’re confident that you can handle the work.

Lonnie: Okay, Hannah, we’ll have time for one more question.

Um, is it okay if you don’t have a lot of volunteer experience if you have work experience?

Hannah: Yes. So, I do think that everyone should have some sort of volunteer experience. There are some colleges that absolutely require volunteer experience. So definitely making sure that you have had some volunteer experience is good.

Um, but if work experience is what you put your time into primarily, totally fine. In fact, college admissions officers love to see work experience. It shows responsibility. It shows, um, for, uh, maturity. And so I think it’s great to see, I mean, you don’t have to, I’m not saying you have to have work experience, but that is a great thing that we’d love to see.

So you do not feel like you You have to do volunteer experience over work experience and vice versa. You don’t have to do work experience over volunteer experience to pursue what you want. Um, but do have some volunteer experience in there.

Lonnie: Okay, well with that, uh, thank you everyone for asking your questions.

Thank you, Amber. Thank you, Hannah, for providing these really great responses. All with authentic information set up to support our audience for their admission process. Um, I wanted to share with you all that we do have more webinars that are coming up for the month of July. So this is actually kicking off our first webinar for the month.

Um, and so we look forward to seeing you at one of our future webinars. And again, we definitely encourage you to sign up to be one of our mission specialists, um, by visiting that care code or the screen that’s going to pop up once you exit the webinar. All right, everyone. Thank you. Have a great one. Bye.