The College Admissions Guide for Parents

Webinar Transcription

08-24-2026-The College Admissions Guide for Parents

Lydia: Hello, hello, hello everyone. Welcome to the, “College Admissions Guide for Parents.” My name is Lydia Hollon, and I will be your moderator tonight. I’m a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor, and have been with the company for about four years now. And in addition to working with CollegeAdvisor, I’m also a proud graduate of New York University.

Lydia: To orient everyone with the webinar timing for tonight, we’re going to start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q&A. On the sidebar, you can download our slides and start submitting questions in the Q&A tab. We’ll also be recording this session so that you can review the webinar again later.

Lydia: Now, let’s meet our presenter.

Stacey: Hi everyone, I’m Stacey Tuttle. Um, so I’m a [00:01:00] former admissions officer for the Yale University School of Public Health. Uh, Yale University is also my alma mater, so I went there for my undergraduate degree and I seem to have never left. Um, I’ve, I’ve been here for a very long time.

Stacey: Um, I spent 10 years at the School of Public Health, and now I work in, uh, the central university offices, and I’m really excited to be with you tonight, um, bringing some of my favorite topics to the table and sharing any advice and, and tips and tricks I have for you in the room for supporting your students.

Stacey: And welcome.

Lydia: Fantastic. So before we jump into the presentation, we’re gonna get a quick poll to figure out what grade your student is in. So if you can fill that out. And while I give you all a chance to fill in that poll, Stacey and I, we were just talking about how we’re both parents. I would love to know from you, Stacey, as a parent, what are you already thinking about when preparing your kids for eventual college [00:02:00] applications?

Lydia: Which I know for both of us is pretty far down

Stacey: the line. Oh my gosh. Um, this is such a great question, and I can tell you right now all of the things that I’m thinking about, um, because I work in higher education, my husband works in higher education too. And so I’m constantly thinking about how I want to help support my children understand, you know, what they’re passionate about, what they like to do academically, what do they seem to have a natural inclination for, or love to learn about, and just fostering that from an early age, right?

Stacey: Because even at age five, six, seven, being able to embrace what your child clearly loves or enjoys, or is good at, all of those things will create early building blocks toward, um, later on when they will be making those decisions for themselves really, and they’ll be more informed because they had early exposure to, I don’t know, sports or music or nature and math and science [00:03:00] and…

Stacey: There’s all sorts of things, and every student is different, every person is different, and all of their interests are different with that. So as a parent, I’m, I’m constantly thinking, okay, um, you know, are, are you seeing, uh, you know, uh, an affinity for this area in your child? Okay, let’s, let’s boost that up.

Stacey: Let’s foster that. Let’s encourage that. Um, and so that’s definitely something I’m already thinking about now. Later on in high school, I will be mimicking that same behavior, right? You know, supporting them in the direction that they have set their eyes on. Um, and so I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a bit.

Stacey: Um, I know that’s sort of vague at this time, but really that’s the core of every year, every moment you’re with your student, is figuring out where they, their love, their passions lie, and helping them work in that direction. Mm-hmm.

Lydia: Definitely, definitely. I feel like I’m already trying to think about those things too, paying attention to what she might be interested in or good [00:04:00] at, nurturing it.

Lydia: We… She’s really into animals, so we started going to the animal shelter and making donations and volunteering. So

Stacey: things like that. You know, at th- at this age, they might be telling you they wanna be a princess zoologist doctor, but, you know, it’s still helpful to give you insight into the, those later years.

Lydia: Definitely. So looking at the poll, we’ve got 3% were students in eighth grade, none in ninth, 13% in 10th grade, 30% in 11th grade, 52% in 12th, so lots of parents of seniors, and 2% in other, so younger than All right. I will pass it over to you, Stacey, to jump on in.

Stacey: Awesome. Okay, so first and foremost, giving who’s in the room today, I wanna just say thank you all for being here.

Stacey: It’s a really wonderful and special thing that you are taking this extra time to do research, to understand the application process, but [00:05:00] particularly what you can be doing as a support system for your student during the application process. Um, and so just kudos to you for being here, and thank you for joining me today.

Stacey: It is going to make a difference in the downstream for your student, and I hope I can provide, um, some key tips and tricks for you as you start thinking forward to the year ahead, you know, for you, those of you who have seniors in the room, um, but all of you really who have students at every step of the process.

Stacey: The first takeaway here on, on this first sl- slide, and I, I wanna assuage any panic, um, because of the, you know, where you all are maybe with your seniors at this point, um, or juniors or whoever may be your student. Um, wherever you are in the cycle- This bullet is still true, right? Time is your greatest asset.

Stacey: Starting earlier does spread the work out and reduce the year-end, the process end stress and pressure for your student. That’s true in ninth grade, it’s true in 10th grade, it’s true in 11th grade. [00:06:00] Wherever you are, start there, right? And, and it’s easier, you know, maybe to spread it out or you can spread it out even more if you’re starting early.

Stacey: But do not stress if you know you’re at a stage where you’re like, “You know what? We have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in.” We can talk through strategies on how to organize, um, and get your senior or whoever you have on track for what they need. Um, but time is helpful. Starting early is helpful.

Stacey: Uh, and so we’ll talk a little bit about organization in a little, a little while. I would also say stay flexible, right? So it’s really helpful for the student who has a support system in their background for them to lean back and know that they have a rock, they have somebody who’s steady for them, because things can change, and the admissions process has changed over time.

Stacey: It can change over the course of five years, but it could also change from year to year, from moment to moment. You know, application requirements can change. Um, I will say since I’ve applied, the application [00:07:00] process is very, very different. This was, you know, over a decade ago. I’m aging myself. Um, but the interview process at the time was actually very important in my application process to certain schools.

Stacey: Nowadays, interviews may not be as, uh, you know, make or break as they used to be for many college applications because the process is different. There’s a lot more students. There are a lot- is a higher volume of applications to consider. Also, you know, even with, uh, you know, the recent pandemic changes where tests became optional for a lot of institutions, and now they’re going back to them being required.

Stacey: Staying flexible, you know, there, you can’t count from year to year that anything will stay static. Um, and so you do need to prepare for all of the scenarios. And when it comes to essays in particular, I want to flag that if you think you know what essays were written or will be required of your students in pr- in a prior year cycle, basing it off of that information, tho- all of those essay supplements could change the next year.

Stacey: So just be prepared [00:08:00] and don’t get so invested in, like, these are the essays that we’re going to write, these are the ones, because there could be different supplemental, um, prompts in the years to come. Staying organized. I talked a little bit about this just a moment ago, but if your student’s open to it, there are a couple of really concrete ways you can help them stay organized.

Stacey: First and foremost, helping them create a list of the schools that they’re interested in Researching those schools, understanding those schools, and understanding the deadlines associated with those institutions. There may be a variety of different deadlines for the schools that, for those of you who have seniors in the room, may be applying for this fall.

Stacey: They may have rolling deadlines. They may have early action deadlines, early decision deadlines. These are deadlines that involve earlier preparation, earlier applications, and it’s good to be informed about what those mean, right? Um, so keeping those deadlines organized for the institutions you’re applying to.

Stacey: You cannot apply [00:09:00] early, early action, early decision, so these are, these are early application processes. Um, you can’t apply early decision just everywhere for every school that has it. So you really have to thoughtfully sit down and say, “Okay, these are the schools that have early decision. These are the ones that have early action.

Stacey: Are we applying early to e- every one of these schools? Um, can we apply early to every one of these schools? And if not, what is our target deadline? Are we aiming for regular decision? Are we doing a rolling decision and going to aim for early for that school?” So just helping students know where those deadlines fall, keeping them organized.

Stacey: And then there’s also financial aid and scholarship applications associated with these institutions, so keeping all of those moving parts, um, in mind and keeping their timeline on track as well. So setting those tentative goals for all of the different application components, whether that be just filling out the personal information section of an application, right?

Stacey: Sitting down, it… I know it seems silly, but it takes time to fill out [00:10:00] that personal information section of an application. Say, you know, “This Saturday, we’re going to do that, and then on Sunday, we’re going to make sure your academics are all filled in, and then maybe the following weekend, we’re gonna focus on your extracurricular section.”

Stacey: So really think about where you’re putting your time, and have, um, goals that help your student take bite-sized pieces out of the process so that it’s not so overwhelming, but that you stay on track for the deadlines for those institutions. Also keep in mind, this is not a pure numbers game. So I think there’s a lot of stress on students to get the perfect GPA, the perfect test score, and I will tell you, I’ve had students who’ve gotten a perfect test score and still not gotten into their top institution, you know?

Stacey: And this is because the, the Ivy League, the top 20 schools, they’re getting a very high volume of qualified candidates who all have great GPAs, great test scores. And so their challenge at the end of the day is to [00:11:00] pick and choose from this very qualified applicant pool who will ultimately come to their institution.

Stacey: And ultim- usually that comes down to university priorities and needs, so maybe, you know, they want 10 students in this department, and they can only accept so many chemistry majors. Or maybe they need three students from the West Coast and four students from the, the Southern states. Whatever that looks like demographically, they’re trying to fulfill their goals as an institution to have a diverse and very, um, robust campus community.

Stacey: And the reasons why students get into these institutions is not necessarily, or not, don’t get into these institutions, is not necessarily because of the numbers. You could have a stellar GPA and a stellar test score, and that’s not enough. You need to make sure that your student is actually putting their best foot forward, understanding that the institution that they’re applying to is a good fit for them, doing the research to make sure they understand what the school [00:12:00] has to offer them and why they wanna go there.

Stacey: And as a result of that research, putting together a strong application saying, you know, “Here are these great activities that I’ve done. Here are these recommendations that speak very highly to my, my qualities that are in alignment with the school’s mission. Here are these essays that I’ve written where I can clearly articulate why I wanna go to college, why I wanna go to your institution, and what my academic and career goals are.”

Stacey: These are the things that a student can control in the process, um, and it’s not just about that GPA or that test score. The next piece of advice I have here, verify advice, right? So I’m telling you a lot right now. Um, I would consider myself a trusted source. Um, CollegeAdvisor is also a great resource.

Stacey: We’ll talk about some other resources in a bit. But there’s a lot of, you know, talk in different directions. You might hear peers, parents, friend, friends of, um, the parents of friends, excuse me, of your student talking about, “Oh, [00:13:00] so and so got into this institution, but this person didn’t. It had to do with the test score.

Stacey: It had to do with the essay topic. This is how you have to write the essay to get into the institution.” Don’t rely on those anecdotes as fact. Um, you know, that can often drive a student in the wrong direction. Sometimes it drives students away from applying to a, a really great institution for them at all, and that’s a sad thing.

Stacey: A student should be able to apply to any institution they feel is a good fit for them and that could provide them with the support they need toward their academic and career goals. They shouldn’t be saying, “Oh, so and so got in. I don’t have a great academic profile like them. I shouldn’t be applying.” No.

Stacey: Make that informed decision for yourself. Do your research and try to determine, “Okay, are, am I a good fit for this school? Is this school a good fit for me?” And use factual resources, which we’ll talk about in a bit. And then remember, during this process, this is about the student, right? So you are in the passenger seat.

Stacey: The [00:14:00] student is steering the car. They are moving it in a direction that makes sense for them, and your goal is to help guide them along the way. Um, at the end of the day, I tell my students all the time, “This is not about getting into a top institution.” It is not. It is about getting into a school where you are going to be happy, and multiple schools, I hope, where you will be happy because you’ve done your research and you know that you would be happy getting into any of the schools on your list, and you’ll be able to achieve the goals that you have at the institutions that you’ve applied to.

Stacey: So regardless of which ones you get into, you know you’re going to have good choices at the end of the day, and that doesn’t mean that you get into all of the Ivy institutions. It doesn’t mean that you get into all the top 20 institutions. Those might not be the right fit for you. You might actually not be happy at those schools if you step on their campus and you look at their, um, available programs and you realize maybe, you know, I wanna be a nurse, and this school doesn’t offer a nursing program.

Stacey: That wouldn’t be a good fit for you, right? So [00:15:00] during this process, I would encourage you to help the student steer in the di- direction of their authentic self and their authentic interests, and you are, you are there to support them along the way. So what resources are available? I talked a little bit already about CollegeAdvisor.

Stacey: CollegeAdvisor has a number of free webinars like this one, uh, in addition to some great articles online, um, school profiles and data that you can look through, and then there’s an opportunity here for one-on-one support, which we’ll talk about later in the presentation. There will be a QR code, and I, I think Lydia will talk about that a little bit.

Stacey: Um, but there’s a lot of great resources with CollegeAdvisor. I became involved with CollegeAdvisor originally because when I applied to school, I, um, I didn’t have, you know, parents who’ve gone through the, uh, college application process before. I was first generation. My- I had brothers who really, you know, weren’t academically inclined.

Stacey: Um, they didn’t really wanna go to [00:16:00] college, and so I was sort of by myself navigating this on my own, and I happened to be able to get through that process and get through that successfully, but since that time, I’ve been really passionate about providing support and resources to students who might not understand this process, to parents who may have not gone through this process before.

Stacey: Um, it seems daunting, and it doesn’t have to be, and so CollegeAdvisor is another great resource with a- advisors, um, and it- former admissions officers like myself who can give that insight to your family. Addi- additionally to this, trusted advisors. There are a number of people in your student’s life who have investment in your child’s future, who’ve gone through this before, who are familiar with the college application process.

Stacey: These include gui- guidance counselors, um, experienced admissions advisors at your, at your schools or in your local community, and then their teachers and their coaches. They know them really, really well. They want them to succeed. They’ve seen their skills. [00:17:00] They’ve seen them working day to day at school or on the field or on the court, and they can tell you, you know, “You might be a good fit at this i- uh, one of my students went here, and they were really happy,” or, “This place has really great resources that would be of interest to you.”

Stacey: These are people who know your student but have also seen other people go through the process or have gone through it themselves, and they can be great resources to lean on Um, college admissions officers, um, and just college officer, any college officer in general, financial aid officers, career officers, alumni officers at these institutions can assist your student in giving them real-time data about that school.

Stacey: Um, they can give you admission statistics. They can give you key data or FAQ information that students typically want to know. And another, you know, tangential relation, um, resource, excuse me, to the college admissions office or c- college admissions office is their information sessions and campus tours.

Stacey: And I know it’s not [00:18:00] easy to, um, carve out time to travel to all of these institutions. I would encourage it if you are able to do so because I do think it’s valuable to experience a campus before you commit to that campus or even apply to that campus. But if you cannot, there are virtual options online now for information sessions and campus tours, so your student and you can experience this live and decide, “Is this the right fit for us?”

Stacey: Um, campus social media can also be really useful, particularly if it’s students who are doing, like, campus takeovers and showing their experience on campus. Um, usually students are a little bit more honest about the experience too, and so it gives you that kind of an unadulterated view into the life of the student on campus.

Stacey: Um, official school websites. This is often something that students forget is a great resource for themselves. You can go to a college website and navigate through the resources they have for current students, right? So you can look at their career [00:19:00] services offerings or career services office to see, where are these students going?

Stacey: What kind of resources do they have? Do they have resume support? Do they have interview support? Do they have networking, um, tools that will be useful to me? You can look to see what their alumni, um, resources are. I mean, when you go to this institution, and you’ll be there for two, three, four more years, depending on how long you are there and which degrees you’re pursuing.

Stacey: And as an alumni or an alumnus, you wanna know what, what is that resource network like? Are, do you have a robust network where you can reconnect with alumni should you need to or, or additional career resources and such once you are graduated? Um, and then something that a lot of people forget about i- are the academic resources, the course catalogs.

Stacey: This is where I kind of find my passion. I love looking at course catalogs for institutions. I loved it when I was in high school. I liked looking to see, okay, [00:20:00] what majors do they offer, what programs do they offer? What courses am I taking if I choose that major? Are the courses exciting to me? Go through this exercise, you know, with your student.

Stacey: If you’ve narrowed down the colleges they want to apply to, go to the website. Ask your student which majors are of interest to you, which look interesting. Let’s go look at the coursework for that program. Let’s go look at the websites for that program. Is this exciting for you? Are you, is… Do you want to take Intro to Electrical Engineering?

Stacey: What does that look like? What does that experience look like? Because it could sound good, but to see it in action, what courses am I going to take once I’m on that campus, that’s really valuable. Um, and you might find, you know, your student saying, “Oh, I really wanna do history of art,” and then when they look at the curriculum, they may pivot and say, “You know, that doesn’t really seem like what I wanna do after all.”

Stacey: Or, “I love this major. I didn’t know that they offered this. This is great that we’ve done this research.” It could go in either direction. And then finally, the US News & World [00:21:00] Report rankings are, are another really good tool in your toolkit. I, I will say that, you know, these rankings, um, provide insight into, uh, a number of different metrics that they use to drive those rankings at the end of the day, including things like first-year retention rates, graduation rates, um, indebtedness of, uh, graduated students, student to faculty ratio.

Stacey: A lot of different metrics drive these rankings. And so therefore, you know, you can use these reliably to understand, okay, how is this, this institution adding up next to its peers? All right, timeline. Let’s talk about this. We talked a little bit in the beginning about the value of starting early. So, um, if you have the luxury of starting, you know, before high school even begins, in that seventh to eighth grade year, this is when you would start thinking toward the high school tra- trajectory.

Stacey: What is your student thinking about? What are those things that they’re interested in [00:22:00] right now? How can you help foster that and build that forward? And as they look forward to high school, what… how are they academically performing? Aim for those appropriately challenging courses for their students and a balance of those appropriate ch- challenging courses.

Stacey: So say, you know, your student, it, it could really, you know, take AP or honors level coursework or, um, higher level coursework that is more challenging. Consider enrolling them in those courses from day one, w- with reason. I will say, you know, it’s often hard to undertake these, um, more rigorous courses, especially in ninth grade, and so really think about balancing that as they get their first foot into their high school career.

Stacey: And then if it’s working for them, that those challenging courses are, are, are reasonable for their schedule, continue on that pathway. If not, maybe pivot, think about more on-level courses. Um, so really think, take that time in those early years to think about that upward trajectory of their academic career, [00:23:00] and make sure that they’re taking courses that are appropriately challenging, but not so much that it’s overwhelming.

Stacey: When they start their high school career, ninth grade all the way through that junior year, um, this is when you’re really going to be focusing on not just your coursework, but your activities. Um, you know, how are you building up your student’s brand? How are you articulating through action? What are those things that drive your student?

Stacey: What are those things that spark them, um, spark in their soul, get them moving, get them out of the door at the end of the day? What are those things that really drive them? If you were to describe your student in a few words, what would those words be? And how do those align with maybe some activities or, or extracurriculars that might make sense for them now that they’re starting high school?

Stacey: Ask them, you know, “What do, what do you wanna do?” I often categorize this in four main areas, this brand development. One would be, um, skill building. So what are those things that your student is good at? [00:24:00] Um, and how can you continue to hone that or cultivate it? Are they really, really, uh, good problem solvers?

Stacey: What kinds of clubs might they be able to engage in that would help them with their problem-solving skills and building that up? Maybe there’s a robotics club. Maybe there’s a debate club. Um, so skills is one area. Skills is different than values, right? So what do they value in the activities they’re pursuing?

Stacey: Are they service oriented? Do they really like volunteering? Get them more involved in their community if that’s the case. Um, the third category where, uh, I would emphasize in the brand development area would be, um, their interests. So the most obvious, what are you interested in? What do you love to do?

Stacey: What are you passionate about? Let’s get you moving in the direction of those activities. Do you really love leadership? Do you love sports? Let’s get you moving in, in a sport that you love and, and aim for, you know, a leadership role down the line. Starting early helps because you can build up to those leadership level [00:25:00] positions in activities that they really enjoy.

Stacey: And the fourth category would be those activities that align with your student’s academic and career goals. So what are those activities where you can look at it on paper and, in some way, shape, or form articulate, “This is immediately relevant to my academic and ultimate career goals later on”? This is probably most clear when students are interested in something like medicine, right?

Stacey: Um, you know, they can take on maybe more STEM related activities. Or volunteer in a hospital, or whatever that might look like. Um, but there are a lot of different ways you can engage with, um, key topics that will ultimately lend themselves to your later academic and career goals, and therefore make great topics, um, for essays, and also look really great on your application.

Stacey: Um, all of this to say it’s a balance, right? You can’t do every activity under the world, under … In the world, excuse me, under the world. Um, you, your student, in fact, will only have so many air- spaces on [00:26:00] their application to enter activities. Um, and so you don’t want to overload your student with so many activities.

Stacey: Really think about those things that are most crucial to their brand, their inner sense of self, and have them stick to those things. And this is a great time, of course, to start building out that resume as a result of the brand-building. You might need one for your college applications later, and so building that out early will help you be prepared for that moment, you and your student.

Stacey: 10th to 11th grade, this is school exploration and list-building time, so I would encourage you to pursue some of those resources that we talked about earlier, looking at college websites, going on infor-um, going to information sessions, going on college tours, talking to guidance counselors, and really start big.

Stacey: Think about those things that are important to you and your student in the college application process. Is it financial aid? Is it location? Do you wanna go local versus further away? Is it big schools versus small schools? [00:27:00] What is the right size for your student where they’re gonna feel comfortable? Do you

Stacey: Is climate a factor? You know, there are things that you don’t really think about until you have to, and so finding out what your student and asking those questions, and building out an appropriate list of schools from there i- is crucial during that, you know, sophomore, junior year grade level. And then in junior year, 11th grade, this is when you can really hone in on the application strategy.

Stacey: So h- what type of student? Where, how are you articulating your student’s brand in your application? What are those key factors about your student that you want to ensure are highlighted on that application as they put their applications forward to these institutions? Are they creative? Are they a leader?

Stacey: Are they interested in art? Are they interested in science? What are those pieces, those moving pieces that you wanna make sure, and your student Wants to make sure are emphasized in the [00:28:00] application process. This is also a great time, junior year, to start test planning. So you’ll start taking practice tests.

Stacey: This includes SAT and ACT. I’ve had students who have taken a practice ACT and an SAT, not realizing that they could take practice tests for both, and they weren’t scoring where they wanted to score on the SAT. And after taking the practice ACT realized, “Wow, I might actually do better on the ACT.” And sure enough, they got a perfect score on the ACT after not being able to break their desired score on the SAT.

Stacey: So we definitely encourage your student to take practice tests for both, and then stick with the one they feel most comfortable with and are scoring the best on. After taking those practice tests, that will give your student time to focus on the areas where they might feel weakest and study in those areas.

Stacey: In junior year, you may wanna take an actual test or have them take an [00:29:00] actual test, excuse me, in junior spring. If that s- score is not settling where they want it to be, they have additional opportunities and time to take the test again before their applications are due. I usually suggest taking it two to three times.

Stacey: After about three times, you’re not gonna see a lot of improvement in a score, so planning it through junior year into senior fall is a good strategy so that your student can take it two to three times at most. In the spring and summer before senior year, this is when you’ll wanna finalize the college list.

Stacey: So maybe you have 20 schools on a list. You’re gonna want- going to want to narrow that down to a reasonable number for application. I usually suggest somewhere between 9 and 15. I know that seems like a big range, but every student’s different. I ended up applying for 10. I think 10 is a really nice sweet spot, like, 10 to 12 maybe, but 15 is really the high end.

Stacey: And, [00:30:00] um, using that finalized college list, you can start planning your essays. So based on last year’s supplements, you can start thinking about how would I answer these supplements if they were similar or offered again. And for the Common App, that main application essay, usually the prompts are the same from year to year.

Stacey: And if they’re not, there’s always sort of like a choose your own adventure essay, where if you wrote an essay to a prompt that no longer is available, you’ll sort of be able to fit it into the choose your own adventure supplement. So summer, um, spring and summer before senior year is actually a great time to start drafting that personal statement for the Common App because it’s usually one of the most important essays, and it’s the one where the essay prompt is pretty stagnant from year to year.

Stacey: And then senior year fall, and in general senior year, you’ll finalize that main essay. You’ll finish any supplemental essays because the supplements will become [00:31:00] available when applications open, usually in August, and you’ll submit applications according to those deadlines. So what aspects do students actually have control over in this process?

Stacey: So first and foremost, um, course rigor and academic habits over time. Students can start early. They can know, okay, these are the types of courses I wanna take. This is the type of schedule I can balance well with all of my other competing priorities, and I’m going to focus on succeeding in the coursework on my schedule as a result.

Stacey: Keep that up. Keep that trajectory going, and keep challenging your student, encouraging your student to challenge themselves. Just gonna take a sip of water.

Stacey: So next on the list here is activities and depth. So pursuing those opportunities we talked about earlier that align with their interests, their values, their skills, and their academic [00:32:00] and career goals. They can start early, at any time, and ensure that those activities are aligning with our authentic interests.

Stacey: Don’t, um, put… Be sure to e-encourage your student. If, you know, they’re not happy doing an activity, if th-they feel like they’re overwhelmed and they need to drop something, sit down with them and ask them, “Okay, what, what can we offload? What can we ca- what can we change? You’re not happy. Let’s find those things that make you happy and stick with them.”

Stacey: It’s not worth their mental health, um, for them to have one more activity that they’re acquiring because, again, they might not even be able to list all of the activities they are doing at the end of the day. So I would make sure that they’re focusing on those things that are really meaningful to them and, and in alignment with their authentic interests.

Stacey: Standardized test prep. This is something students can obviously control as well, allowing that time for the practice tests, studying in the areas where they feel weakest, and then taking those two to three [00:33:00] full tests should they need it. Another area that’s within their control is a sense of ownership and initiative that they take over the process.

Stacey: Now, they’re very lucky to have you in the room today, where clearly you are really invested in the process. You wanna support them however you can. Um, and so they have a leg up already because they have somebody in their corner who’s willing to support them, help them stay organized, do that research, but they also have control over that too.

Stacey: They can research, they can explore and engage, and they should. This is their future. This is their next step. They’re gonna have to be the one sitting in the classroom. They’re going to be in the dorms. They’re going to be with the students. They’re going to be engaging with campus life, and they should be invested in this process.

Stacey: So they can take the lead on organizing themselves and organizing their requirements and lean on you for support as they go along. [00:34:00] The college list, this is also an area, of course, where they have a lot of control, and adding and removing schools from that list based on their genuine fit with their interests and their priorities is crucial.

Stacey: You know, it’s not, again, I mentioned at the beginning, this is not ab- about applying to the top 20 schools, or all of the Ivys. It’s apply- about applying for the top schools that are a good fit for your student, and where, determining where they would be the most happy while achieving their academic and career goals, at an institution that’s going to support those things.

Stacey: So the college list is absolutely something that the student has control over in this process. Essay and storytelling is also an area where the students have a lot of control. Um, presenting that clear narrative about themselves, right? This is where I’ve been, this is where I am now, and this is where I hope to go.

Stacey: Think about that [00:35:00] timeline as they write their essays, but also lean back on their brand that they’ve been building, right? What are, what … In an elevator speech, what are those top three things that they wanna make sure they articulate to somebody who does not know them at all? Putting it forth in an application, is it all adding up?

Stacey: And this kind of leans on the last bullet here, application coherence. Think of their application as a puzzle, a massive puzzle. Do all of those pieces fit together after somebody reads an application? Now, admissions officers don’t have a lot of time to read these applications. Maybe they have 10 minutes, if I’m being generous.

Stacey: In that 10 minutes, are they able to gather the stor- put together a story, and then reiterate that story to colleagues who they might be advocating for your student to, you know, get into this institution, or they should come to th- my institution? Are they able to get that clearly? Are the essays easy to read?

Stacey: You don’t want, you know, essays to be [00:36:00] re-read multiple times to get the point across, because admissions officers don’t have time to re-read it over and over. If you’re- they’re choosing a major or a couple of academic interest areas, and then none of their essays talk about those interests or align with those, none of their extracurriculars make sense, none of their references even talk about it, something’s not right there.

Stacey: The puzzle piec- pieces are not fitting together. It’s the, the onus is on the student, really, at the end of the day, to make their application as clear as possible. This is who I am, this is who I’ve been, and this is why you should allow me to join your institution. This is why you’re a good fit for me.

Stacey: And so putting that puzzle piece, to get those puzzle pieces together in a way where the admissions officer says, “Oh, this is super clear. I know where I’m, what this student’s about,” that’s really, really important. What strategies can reduce stress levels? So I would say, this is easier said than done, um, but reframe your thinking and your student’s thinking as a result [00:37:00] around the application process.

Stacey: Make it fun as best as you can, and frame this in a way where you’re expressing to them sort of what I’m expressing to you today. This isn’t about getting into a top school. This is about getting into your top schools, right? And it’s possible to have a list of schools that you’ll… and you’ll get into many of them if you plan your list right, and you organize your application process correctly.

Stacey: Um, y- th- your student’s going to end up exactly where they need to be, and that’s true for everybody. Um, as long as, you know, you have that balanced list, and I’m jumping ahead a little here, but, um, having a balanced list is crucial because it will allow your student increased chances of getting into institutions that they know that they’re gonna like and they’re going to be happy at And so let me talk about that a little bit, and then I’ll bounce back up to these other bullets.

Stacey: Um, building a balanced list means a balanced list of schools amongst three categories. Um, reach or, um, reach schools are [00:38:00] kind of those top 20 institutions, um, Ivy institutions, institutions that have an admissions rate of 25% or lower, um, and for whom your student’s average GPA and average test scores are sorta on the mark or maybe a l- little lower than that institution or maybe a lot lower in some cases.

Stacey: Um, those are considered reach schools. This is also a category for any institution that has an admissions rate of 15% or lower. Those are always reach schools, regardless of if your student has great test scores, perfect GPA, 15% or lower, it’s a reach school Then there’s target schools. So these are l- schools that your student’s very likely to get into because their academic information, that GPA test score data aligns usually with the institution, and their admissions rates are a little less competitive, so they’re somewhere between that 25 to 75% admission rate.

Stacey: Um, and then there’s the safety schools. So these schools are usually [00:39:00] 75% or above in the admissions range, uh, the rate. And then, um, your student’s GPA test scores, the statistics for their average in comparison to their average admitted student, y- your student’s performing a- at or higher at the very least.

Stacey: So it’s a safety in that way because you- your student will very likely get into that school. So having a balanced list, I would usually recommend having kind of equal parts of your list in each category, heavier leaning in that target zone. So maybe you have three safeties, five target, three reach, just as an example of kinda distributing amongst, um, the schools that you’re applying to.

Stacey: But I would try to lean h- more heavily into that target zone. Um, you of course can add on a reach or a safety depending on who, what your student’s interests are or what they’re thinking, but making sure they have schools in each of these categories so that it increases their options and their confidence in the application process as a result.[00:40:00]

Stacey: Again, start str- Um, I’m just gonna boun- bounce back up to bullet two. Start early and distribute work. Small steps do matter over time. Use that verified information we talked about earlier to avoid anxiety. Help create those structures for the student, so timelines that you can map out. I’m a big fan of Excel sheets.

Stacey: You’ll hear me on other s- uh, webinars say this. I, I love getting everything written out into a spreadsheet format. You have your schools and the, the, you know, regular decision deadline, early decision deadlines, financial aid deadlines, um, how many supplements, what are the supplement topics, things like that.

Stacey: Um, and just checklists for the things that they need to complete. Even if you have a calendar, like, these are the dates we’re going to do all of this, and I’m gonna be there to support you. That will be huge and make a huge difference for your student in making the process less overwhelming. And ultimately, focus on those controllable factors that we talked about earlier, the efforts the student’s putting in, how prepared they are when it comes to their, their brand and what they like and what [00:41:00] they hope to do, and their, their authentic self is being honored in that process, right?

Stacey: They’re not looking left and right and saying, “I wanna be just like this person, so I’m gonna do all of these things.” No. Have them looking really inward and ask themselves, “What do you want to do?” And encourage them to move in that direction. And don’t focus on those outcomes you can’t control, those things that a university may be driving, um, them in certain directions for who their m- cla- class looks like and what they need as an institution that year.

Stacey: You can’t control those things. All you can control is that your student’s doing the research, putting their best foot forward, and being their most authentic self. Um, as a parent, continue to be supportive, coach, guide, and keep the students on track and feeling confident. Ask helpful guiding questions, right?

Stacey: So along the way, you know, “Is this school a good fit for you? Why is that school a good fit for you? What are your priorities in this process? What do you wanna see out of the application process? Um, what are the deadlines [00:42:00] for these institutions? Have you written them down yet?” Really ask them and guide them, um, and help support them by asking those, those questions.

Stacey: And then provide that logistical support when they need it. Senior year, any year of high school can be very overwhelming, so helping them schedule those tours, those info sessions, and create, like, a planning system for the application process will be helpful. Um, encourage and assist them with verifying information that they may be hearing through unverified sources.

Stacey: Keep all of your language student-centered, right? So this is about them. This is about what’s going to make them happiest in the future and how they can build their future appropriately with a college’s support. And then m- maintain that perspective and calm. They’re going to be looking in your direction for that foundation, um, that support system.

Stacey: And again, you’re already taking an amazing step by being here. So, um, you know, continuing to infuse that, um, knowledge with we’re– “This is gonna be fun. We’re going to get to the [00:43:00] other side of this. We can’t wait to see, you know, what decisions we get, and you’re gonna be happy at any of these institutions.

Stacey: We have researched and chosen for you.” Um, and so keeping that sense of calm and that, that calm demeanor will be helpful. Final advice, earlier planning, less stress. Stay organized with lists around requirements and deadlines. Stay adaptable and informed because the application process can change from moment to moment.

Stacey: Don’t over-focus on those numbers we talked about earlier. Focus on what’s in the student’s control. Make… Something I didn’t really talk about, making an essay very purposeful. Um, each piece of the application as part of the student’s brand should really emphasize new information, right? Like, make sure your student’s essays are not just regurgitating their resume but rather providing insight into who they are as a person for the admissions officer.

Stacey: And then, of course, prioritize the fit and the authenticity of the student. Building that thoughtful list of [00:44:00] schools around those factors, um, and then the complete coherent story about your student and why they should be going to this institution. All right?

Lydia: Fantastic. So, oh. Fantastic. So now we’re gonna transition to the live Q&A. So I know some of you have already been putting some of the questions in the Q&A tab. Feel free to continue doing that. I’ll be getting through as many as we can in the time that we have remaining and giving Stacey an opportunity to answer those questions.

Lydia: So without further ado, I’ll read the first one. Some schools have EA or ED bins that are acceptance rates that are almost the same as regular decision. In that case, is it still worth it to apply in the early round?

Stacey: Great question. So early action, early decision deadlines are associated with a slightly [00:45:00] increased chance of admission.

Stacey: Um, and this is because students are usually demonstrating to institutions through those applying with those deadlines that they are prioritizing those schools and they’re serious about those institutions, particularly when it comes to early decision. Um, because with early decision, it is one and done.

Stacey: You can only apply to one school early decision, and it is binding. You are basically saying, “I’m applying to you. I’m really interested in you, and if you let me in, I’m coming.” And so, yes, each of those deadlines are associated with an increased chance of admission. Um, if… I will emphasize, though, if your student is not unable to meet these deadlines because of where they are in their application process, it is totally okay to apply regular decision.

Stacey: Um, that is not unusual for students. That is absolutely an option for them. Um, but if they are able to get on track with applying early to their, the institutions that are their top choices, I would encourage them to do so. Um, if they are, if they get that [00:46:00] decision and it’s a defer decision to regular decision, at least they put their best foot forward and they tried in that early round, and they’ll wait for their regular decision thereafter

Lydia: All right.

Lydia: Um, another early admission question is: when students are notified of early admission decisions, do universities also provide the financial aid package at the same time, or does that come later?

Stacey: It, it de- depends on the institution. Um, I will say, uh, sometimes the financial aid packages do come later. Um, each institution’s different in terms of how a financial aid package looks.

Stacey: So some may be need-based, some may have some scholarship components, some may be merit-based, some may have grants. And so depending on where that information is coming from and how those decisions are being made and what information the institution needs from you to make those decisions, that will drive whether or not you’re getting that piece of the financial aid package.

Stacey: So for example, I could have a student apply [00:47:00] early action, find out in December that they got into the institution, and at that moment they may be able to tell the student, “You get an X amount of scholarship that we have available.” But the financial aid associated with their need-based aid may come a little later with the appropriate FAFSA, CSS Profile, things of that nature that an institution needs to assess the need-based aid of their package.

Stacey: So you might not get all of it all at once. Um, and I do encourage students to be prepared for that. Early decision in particular, if you’re saying, “I’m gonna come to your school,” like, “I’m applying, I’m gonna come if you admit me,” you need to be prepared for whatever that financial aid package looks like, because you’ve committed to that institution without ever having seen that financial aid package.

Stacey: Um, so just be prepared to ask those decisions. Um, early action, you do not need to commit to an institution right away, so just because they told you early doesn’t mean that you can’t wait for the financial aid package to make the decision.[00:48:00]

Lydia: Another question we have is about choosing the right school. So do you have any advice about how to determine whether or not a school is a good fit?

Stacey: Yeah, that’s a great question. Something I mentioned earlier, I’m a huge fan of Excel sheets, so I might suggest that you create a list of your top priorities with a student, right?

Stacey: So I mentioned earlier, things like financial aid may come to the top of the list, location. Um, ac- I think the number one priority for your student should be, is this, is this institution offering academic programs that I actually wanna pursue? Because, right, isn’t that the whole point of going to college?

Stacey: Um, I’m going to study something that’s gonna help me move forward in my career, um, my academic goals and my career goals. Uh, and so th- that often to me comes up as a number one priority. Does this institution not only have one, but maybe two or three academic programs that I would be happy studying at as a [00:49:00] student?

Stacey: And I mention not just one, because students often get to an institution their first year and say to themselves, “I don’t want this major anymore. I don’t like this. I don’t like what I’m studying.” And making sure that your student has backup options once they’re at the institution ensures that they will have a trajectory to academic success, such that they’re not putting all their eggs in one academic basket when they start.

Stacey: So I do encourage you to, to consider that as a top priority. Back to the organization piece, though, creating like a list or a spreadsheet where you say, “These are our top priorities.” And then as you’re researching colleges, checking the boxes, like literally, you know. Does this in- institution offer good financial aid?

Stacey: Does, is this institution local? Is this institution large? Are students happy here? Check those boxes, and it’ll help inform your decisions later.

Lydia: Got it. Um, [00:50:00] another question that we have also about early decision, does applying ED decrease the amount of financial aid that you’re likely to get? And I think they’re probably thinking more so about mer- merit aid in particular.

Stacey: You know, I, I don’t think that’s true for any institution. I would have to do more research on the precise financial aid packages associated with, um, ED versus EA. But I, I do believe that, uh, different institutions have different driving forces behind their financial aid packages, and those usually are true across their pop- the populations that are applying, right?

Stacey: So they may have a formula for need-based aid, and they may have, um, a set of scholarships for their early decision students set aside such that there are students getting scholarships equitably with their regular decision pool. Or [00:51:00] maybe for some institutions, they may have, um, funding set aside for their early decision students to ensure that they are getting more of them.

Stacey: Each institution’s going to be different in terms of how they are driving their priorities and their applicant pool, both on the financial aid front and on the admissions front. Um, and so I don’t think there’s necessarily a one-and-done solution, but I wouldn’t worry that maybe you’re getting less at the early, um, decision point.

Stacey: I would, I would more so think that perhaps you would be getting more. But again, e- every institution is different

Lydia: We’re gonna take just a brief pause, um, just to tell you a little bit more about CollegeAdvisor and the things that we do, since everything we talked about tonight is exactly what our team does every day.

Lydia: So CollegeAdvisor.com has guided more than ten thousand families through the college admissions process, and our team is made up of over two hundred admissions experts and former admissions officers. [00:52:00] So the people advising your student know exactly what it’s like to get that acceptance letter. In the class of twenty twenty-six alone, one in three Ivy League applicants were admitted to at least one Ivy League school, and two in three applicants applying to top twenty-five schools were accepted to one or more Um, so the way that it works is actually pretty simple.

Lydia: We match your student with a personalized advising team built around their background, their interests, and their goals, and together they build a real application strategy, and everything lives in one place, from the essays to the deadlines to the school list to the extracurriculars, so that you’re not chasing down information.

Lydia: And families also get access to our milestone teams for everything from essay review to financial aid assistance, and it works. 96% of our clients rate us four or five stars on Trustpilot. We average a 4.7 out of 5 on over 1100 reviews. So if anything tonight [00:53:00] made you think, “I want someone in our corner to help us through this,” that is what we’re here for.

Lydia: Reach out for a free consultation, and we’ll help figure out the right step, next step for your student. Okay. So feel free to scan that QR code if you’re interested in working with CollegeAdvisor. We’re gonna keep going, though. Um, so another question that we have is about test scores. So when you apply to a college, do colleges see all of the scores that your student has received, or do they just get the best ones that you chose to send?

Lydia: And do colleges care about all of the scores or just the ones that you did the best on?

Stacey: Yeah, this is a great question. So, um, typically you… when you submit your scores, I usually advise my s-students to submit them all. Um, of course, you provide your scores when you get them, so if you take scores once and then you don’t provide an updated set of scores later when you take later tests, you know, that’s, that’s up to you and your [00:54:00] student as to whether or not that’s strategically advantageous.

Stacey: Um, but usually you’re submitting them all, and then an institution will let you know, based on their policy, their review policy, are they super scoring, so are they taking the top score, uh, in every section across s- the, the tests, or are they taking your, your to- your highest total single score? Um, so every, uh, institution will be a little different in this regard.

Stacey: Um, usually students are scoring pretty well, um, and consistently across their tests. Um, but for example, if I’m looking at an application, I am going to be considering the highest score across the tests, um, for example, in my experience reviewing applications. Again, every institution’s policy is different, but that, that’s usually where one or one of, um, two strategies fall, is the highest overall score versus super scoring across the tests

Lydia: Um, another question is, can you just quickly explain the difference between early decision and early action? [00:55:00] I’ve seen that question pop up- Yeah … a little bit. And is early always better?

Stacey: Yeah. Um, so a- again, there is a slight increase in admissions chance with early action and early decision. Um, and there is, not to complicate things further, but there’s also restrictive early action.

Stacey: Uh, and so let me talk about early action for a moment. Early action, you can apply… Um, y- you apply early, you apply to a school, but you’re not committing to that school. So in applying early, you are not, um, saying, “I’m going to come,” and so therefore you apply early, you find out early, there’s a slight increase in admissions chance with that, but you do not need to commit to the institution.

Stacey: Restrictive early action takes it a step further and they say, “You can apply to us early, but you can only apply to us early. Um, you don’t have to commit to us, but you can only apply to us early.” Um, so I actually did this when I was applying to college way back in the day. Um, and I only applied to Yale restrictive early action.

Stacey: I did get in early, [00:56:00] but I didn’t have to commit at that point. Um, early decision, meanwhile, is binding. You apply early, you can only apply to one school early, and you’re saying, “I’m gonna come to your institution if you pick me.” And it’s, it’s, it’s a commitment. It’s a committing decision. And again, the risk with that is you don’t know the financial aid package.

Stacey: We talked a little bit earlier about, you know, financial aid, um, goals of an institution being different. Um, and, you know, again, you could see a, a good financial aid package in applying early, but some institutions may decrease financial aid packages, um, for early applicants. So it’s j- really gonna depend on the institution.

Stacey: Um, and with early decision, that is a risk. You know, with early action, you have the luxury of being able to see your other applications and the other decisions coming through. Early decision, you don’t have that luxury. There’s also early decision two now. So if you get… If you don’t get into your early decision school, you can apply early decision two to a different institution, [00:57:00] and those deadlines for early decision two are around the regular decision deadline.

Stacey: Again, slight increased chance of admission with that. Um, and you really, you’re not applying early in the same way, but you’re basically saying to the institution, “I, I’m gonna apply to you. I want to come to your school. I will commit if you admit me.” So those are the key highlights.

Lydia: And those, the benefits of applying early can vary from school to school.

Lydia: I will say that usually early action does not have the same b- bonus effect of increased acceptance rate that early decision does. The way that I normally explain it to students is the bigger commitment that you are making to the school, probably the bigger push and acceptance rate that you will get from applying that route.

Lydia: So early decision usually has, um, a higher acceptance rate compared to regular decision compared to just early action. Um, however… And also early action, while there might be a slight boost, those students [00:58:00] also tend to be a little bit more competitive of a pool because the students that have their applications ready in November compared to end of December or January tend to just be students that are more prepared, maybe have been spending more time getting their materials together.

Lydia: Um, so there are a lot of different things to, to factor. Um, you also wanna make sure with the early decision, particularly because you’re making that commitment to attend the school if you’re admitted, making sure that that is something that you’re financially prepared to do. Um, while schools do say that they meet full demonstrated need, sometimes your understanding of what financial need is might be different than what FAFSA says de- the financial need is or what the school believes the financial need is.

Lydia: So just make sure that that is something that you’re willing to fully commit to because those are, um, binding commitments. In comparison to restrictive early action, you’re not committing to go [00:59:00] to the school if accepted, but you are saying that that is the only school that you’re going to apply-

Stacey: Yeah

Lydia: early to. So just weigh the benefits of, you know, slightly higher acceptance rates, which again, that boost can vary a lot from school to school, and that requirement of even if you get a really great financial aid package from another school, potentially not being able to accept it because you said that you would definitively go to the school that you applied early decision to.

Stacey: I completely agree. I just wanna add one strategic point for the parents in the room. If your student doesn’t get an early decision or action during those first rounds, and you do have an early decisions to school, it is strategic at that point to say, “Well, we’re gonna pick a school, our second choice school, as early decision two at this point, because we didn’t get into our early other schools.”

Stacey: Um, and so waiting to apply for your early decision two schools is a strategic move as well. But again- Thank you … as we, we both talked about, it is a financial [01:00:00] risk to commit in this way.

Lydia: Okay. Well, it’s 9:00 o’clock, so I’m gonna go ahead and wrap us up. I think we, we tried our best to get through as many of the questions or highlight some of the, the themes of questions that I was noticing in the chat, and I was trying to answer some of yours, um, while typing as well.

Lydia: But feel free, if you still have other questions, we’ll go back to the QR code. Feel free to scan this. I know someone was asking when is the best time to reach out to CollegeAdvisor. Now is a great time because we’re in August, so a lot of you are parents of seniors. This is a great time so that they have enough time to get the support, because someone who is an advisor, if Stacey can probably speak to this, the later that students get onboarded, kinda the more rushed the whole process can feel, and we don’t want students to feel that way.

Lydia: So even if you have a p- a student who is in 10th or 11th grade now is even a great time, because this is a perfect opportunity for them to start thinking about [01:01:00] what colleges they might be interested in. We can support them with thinking about what extracurriculars might be the right ones to pursue so that they can be a strong contender for the colleges that they’re interested in.

Lydia: So regardless of what, um, grade your child is in or what time of year it is, it’s a great time to reach out to CollegeAdvisor, because we can always dive right in and make sure that you and your student feel fully supported in understanding the college admissions process, and getting them on track to get all of these different deliverables done and get that acceptance to the school of their dreams.

Lydia: Great. Thank you so much, Stacey, for an awesome presentation tonight, and thank you all for joining us this evening and for the very insightful questions that you asked. I hope that you have a great evening.

Stacey: Have a great evening.

Lydia: Bye