The Ultimate Guide to College Admissions with Georgetown Admissions Officer

Webinar Transcription

1-14-26-The Ultimate Guide to College Admissions with Georgetown Admissions Officer

Anna: Hello everyone! Welcome to our webinar on, “The Ultimate Guide to College Admissions with a Georgetown Admissions Officer.” My name is Anna Vande Velde. I’ll be your moderator today. I’m a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor, have been with a company for about four and a half years, and in addition to working with students one-on-one, I am a co-captain of our essay review team.

Anna: I’m also joined today, uh, by Senior Advisor Lonnie Webb. She is off camera, but she will be helping respond to some of your questions in the chat. So thank you, Lonnie, for being here as well. To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’re gonna start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q&A. On the sidebar,

Anna: you can download our slides in the handouts [00:01:00] tab and you can start submitting questions in the Q&A tab any time. Please note given today’s format, really specific questions such as, these are my grades, these are the classes I wanna take…This is not the best venue for those because those tend to require a back and forth and a dialogue.

Anna: Um, later on in the webinar, we’ll discuss an opportunity to meet with us one-on-one for a, a free session. Um, but as best you can in the Q&A, try and ask questions that you think other students might find helpful as well. And we’ll get to as many of them as we can after the presentation. I am very excited to introduce our presenter tonight, Dr.

Anna: Aya Waller, Dr. Aya Waller-Bey. Um, Dr. Aya, can I ask you to introduce yourself? 

Dr. Aya: Absolutely. Hello everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on where you are in the world. [00:02:00] I am Dr. Aya Waller-Bey, and I will be doing your presentation tonight. So I’m super excited to answer your questions and talk to you all, talk to you about everything that is college admissions and navigating the admissions process.

Dr. Aya: A little bit about me. I always like to begin that I am a first generation college student, so I was the first person in my family to earn a four year degree. I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, the most amazing city, the the city that put the world on wheels, as we like to say here. And I went on to Georgetown where I studied sociology.

Dr. Aya: And then when I graduated I became an admission admissions officer there and coordinator of multicultural recruitment. So during my tenure in admissions, I read applications, uh, thousands of applications that help young people navigate the admissions process. After leaving Georgetown, I went across the pond to England where I earned my Master’s in philosophy of education at the University of Cambridge.

Dr. Aya: And then I returned to, to the States and recently [00:03:00] completed my PhD in sociology at the University of Michigan, go Blue. So I have tons of experience, uh, in both higher education and also in the college admissions process, including the college admissions essay where I, which is what I studied, um, at University of Michigan.

Dr. Aya: And I am looking forward to, again, answering your questions about how to navigate, um, the college admissions process. 

Anna: Thank you, Dr. Aya. I can’t imagine anyone more qualified, uh, to, to be giving this presentation. So we’re really lucky you’re here. Before I hand over the reins, there’s two things. Uh, there’s a question in the chat.

Anna: I should have mentioned this at the top. Yes, this is being recorded. The recording will be emailed to everyone who registered. Um, so no worries if you have to leave early or like that question said their student has another activity tonight. No problem. Um, the second thing I wanted to do is launch a poll just so we can get a sense of who’s [00:04:00] joining us.

Anna: Please go ahead and let us know what grade you are in and while we wait for those results to come in. Dr. Aya, we had some registration questions about Georgetown. So I was wondering if you could briefly describe the culture on campus and share any advice you have for students applying there. 

Dr. Aya: Uh, Georgetown, my, my alma mater.

Dr. Aya: I love Georgetown so much, um, largely as an alum of the institution, but also working there as an admissions officer. So Georgetown is a Jesuit institution. Um, it was actually the first, um, Jesuit in Catholic University, um, in the United States. And, and what’s really special about Georgetown, which I do think is a part of the Jesuit tradition, is the element of service.

Dr. Aya: Service is critical to Georgetown’s mission, to its value. Um, the model being men and women for others is something that Georgetown as an institution, but also students take. Very, very seriously. Um, it’s also truly a global community where, uh, you know, [00:05:00] about half of the students study abroad. Um, so it’s a really globally minded campus again, where service is really kind of undergirds.

Dr. Aya: It underpins how students, and that’s whether you’re studying finance or sociology, like Iowa’s, there’s a commitment to serving and being of service to others, um, which I think is really, really valuable and beautiful. So it’s a very, um. It’s kind of tight knit community. Um, I, I loved it. Some of the, you know, my closest friends are folks I met on my first day on campus or on the Hilltop, as we like to call it.

Dr. Aya: Um, so yeah, it’s a, again, service oriented. If you are someone who is a leader in your current community, wanna continue your leadership, your community service while in college, Georgetown is a great place for that. If you’re globally minded, if you want to be in the heart of Washington, DC of our nation’s, camp Capital, it’s a great institution for that.

Dr. Aya: And also for those who are interested in the foreign service, right? Our School of Foreign Service, I was one of the best in the world. So, uh, Georgetown is a [00:06:00] phenomenal, um, institution and I, I really owe so much of my success, um, to being a Hoya. So 

Anna: thank you so much, Dr. Aya. Really helpful. Um, just so you know, we have joining us about 40% in the 11th grade.

Anna: That makes sense to me. This is the time of year I think, where a lot of students really start to think about their college applications. About a quarter are in 10th grade, about 10% are in eighth and ninth, and then about 20% said other. Um, so parents, guardians, support folks. And then we do have some seniors joining us as well.

Anna: So I’m gonna close the poll. Thank you everyone for letting us know what grade you’re in. And Dr. Aya, I’m handing it over to you. 

Dr. Aya: Fantastic. All right folks, so let’s get started. And again, I am looking forward to answering your questions later on in the conversation. So to begin, we must kind of situate the [00:07:00] conversation.

Dr. Aya: First and foremost, what is the role of admissions officers, right? And how do they read applications? Well, AOs, they evaluate your applications, right? So once you. Write your application, whether it’s via the common app or the coalition app or whatever application, profile or platform you choose to use. Um, it it comes to the university, right?

Dr. Aya: And AOs evaluate them. And the evaluations, which I’ll talk more about, uh, often stems from the universities kind of institutional priorities or their standards, um, based on how they make sense of their applicant pool, right? So when you submit an application, you have of course that high school and demographics, right?

Dr. Aya: That biographical data, your name, where you live, what your parents do for work, et cetera, right? And then you, your academic background, the crux of the application, the transcript, right? And you’ll hear this from a lot of folks in, in the admissions space that that high school transcript, your record of academic achievement.

Dr. Aya: Is one of the most important parts of [00:08:00] the application. It shows how you’ve, um, kind of performed over time. It’s, it shows what classes you’ve taken or will take. In some cases it shows how you, you know, um, performed as classes got more rigorous or more competitive. Right? Did you continue to challenge yourself?

Dr. Aya: Right? Did you take those AP courses or those IB courses and in certain cases, dual enrollment courses, right? So the academic background, the transcript is really, really important. And that is something that AOs take into consideration when, of course, reading your applications. Then for those schools that consider test scores, or for those students who decide to submit them, we also have those standardized test scores, right?

Dr. Aya: That SAT or that a CT, and like I said, rigor, right? How have you been challenging yourself? Are you taking the most rigorous course loads that your school has to offer? Which is often what. You know, more selective universities like Georgetown or some of the Ivies or schools who typically emit under, you know, 30% of their, um, of the [00:09:00] applicant pool are really looking for rigor, right?

Dr. Aya: How are you challenge your, challenging yourself with the resources, the courses that your school has to offer? That’s really important. And then again, academic focus. So what did you select? What box did you check as far as your major or department of interest? Right? Did you say you went to study environmental science?

Dr. Aya: Right? Did you say you wanna study biology? Did you say you, you, you’re interested in majoring in journalism? So. When reval reviewing and evaluating applications, we’re looking also at your major, right? And then individual qualities. How are you thinking about and writing about your passions? You know, what you hope to achieve, what motivates you?

Dr. Aya: What gets you excited? Whether it’s inside the classroom or outside of the classroom, right? So think about those extracurricular activities, those summer programs, those internships, those volunteering hours. Anything that was service oriented. A job, right? What are you passionate about? Are you passionate about animals?

Dr. Aya: Are you volunteering at your local animal [00:10:00] shelter? Are you fostering dogs and parrot, right? You know, really thinking about what you know, the passion and fit. You’ll hear a lot. As you kind of go through your application process or the admissions process about being a good fit, right, and the fit, uh, responds to the particular school, as I mentioned earlier about my alma mater, Georgetown, where, you know, being a man and woman for others or being of service to others, being reflective is very much a part of the value system of the institution, right?

Dr. Aya: So how does your personal interests, your passions, your academic focus, even kind of fit or align with, with the ethos of the institution? That is what AOs are thinking about, um, when reading your applications, and again, AOs after making those kind of, kind of an analyzing, kinda reviewing and evaluating your respective applications.

Dr. Aya: AOs then make decisions or recommendations, right? That could be [00:11:00] your application profile goes to a committee. A committee makes a decision via the A’S recommendation. Or in some cases, AOs are independently making decisions based on whatever metric rubric or standards that each university has. So that’s a kind of general and broad overview of the role of the ao, right?

Dr. Aya: Making admissions decisions, evaluating applications, in some cases, visiting high schools, um, having relationships with counselors, meeting students, giving information sessions, et cetera. And, and again, this is just the broader over overview about how AOs actually reach or application. So in thinking about the stages of the review process, and I said a little bit in the previous slide, um, first and foremost, institutions often have internal academic algorithms or cutoffs, right?

Dr. Aya: So oftentimes schools don’t publish hard and fast cutoffs, and that’s because a lot of schools, particularly selective universities, right? Those schools that are admitting less than, you know, [00:12:00] 30, less than 40% of their applicant pool, often practice holistic admissions, which means they’re taken into everything from institutional priorities to your academic background, from your college, going status or major interests, et cetera, your grades, your test scores, all of those things.

Dr. Aya: And in some cases, interviews, if those are required, like they are at Georgetown, they’re taking those things into consideration. So therefore, it’s hard to say if you don’t have a 3.0, you’re automatically out of the applicant pool. However, schools do have their own internal processes and systems. They’re rubrics the way they label applicants.

Dr. Aya: So that first round you submit that application, schools are making decisions based on your grades and task force, um, numbers, uh, to see, okay, is this actually a legitimate academic profile? Did they complete that application? You would be surprised. Students start applications. They don’t finish them. They submit them, and they’re not complete.

Dr. Aya: There’s a. You’ll be surprised what we see on the backend and admissions, but they’ll make that first round of cutoff. Right? [00:13:00] If it is a competitive, very selective school, you know, if a student, if the average GPA at the school is 3.9 4.0, and a student submits a 2.8, you know, uh, has a, a a a transcript that has a 2.8 overall GPA, then there they might be cut from that first kind of academic review, right?

Dr. Aya: The algorithm might just automatically sort them out. And then the second stage in some cases are the admissions officers review, right? So in some universities, uh, admissions officers have regions, you know, you have the Midwest, they might have the West coast, the southeast, new England, um, or international.

Dr. Aya: Some places do zip codes and some places there. There’s all types of ways that various universities kind of split up. Applicant pools, but whatever that might be, if you are, say I’m from Detroit, Michigan and say, Michigan was my state, I will get all of those Michigan High School senior applicants, um, on my desk or in my docket, and [00:14:00] then I will review them.

Dr. Aya: Right? So through the review, again, admissions officers are taken into consideration those grades, those test scores, college going status. And when I use that language, that means whether or not a student is a first generation college student or not. Right? Um, they’re also looking into what are your academic interests?

Dr. Aya: Again, did you select environmental science? Did you take AP calculus? If you say you’re interested in, you know, studying. Um, you know, math at the university. So there’s all these kind of determinations that admissions officers are kind of denoting, right? They’re providing ratings and comments, right?

Dr. Aya: They’re saying, I noticed this, this drop junior year. I, I’m curious to know what that’s about. They’re documenting, um, and giving, um, background information or support, right? They’re saying, I gave this student, you know, a five out of five because. Despite having, you know, two Bs, they have demonstrated excellence in all these other ways.

Dr. Aya: Or maybe they were, they, they were housing, uh, insecure and yet [00:15:00] they were able to create this, et cetera. So admissions officers are providing explanations and notes to support their ratings, right? And this is particularly in cases where a, a file, a applicant’s application might go to a committee review, right?

Dr. Aya: So you need to have a writeup that discusses why you kind of move them forward or why you say this student should be accepted. And then ratings, again, often drive automatic denials or automatic admits. And, and again, those students who might need a little more kind of further discussion, right? And then in some cases, um, there’s a, if there is an automatic deny or rejection, it usually has a second read and that means.

Dr. Aya: There might be another person, another AO, that has to kind of review those applications that you say deny or admit before those to be greenlit to move forward in the process. Right? So those often are called second readers or second reads. Okay. And again, the third stage is committee review. Now, every school, you’ll, you’ll notice that I’m, I’m referencing different [00:16:00] styles of reviews because each university is different.

Dr. Aya: But generally this is the, the process that a lot of universities use. Right? So the third stage is committee review. And again, those are, uh, applicants that a, a regional admissions officer or, or a, a l set. I have questions or I really like this applicant, but I, I can’t, based on like whatever my kind of profile is, I can’t say absolutely admit them.

Dr. Aya: So I need the committee to make that decision based on how they make sense of the applicant. So those are discussions. You know, there might be places where people advocate for you or people say, yes, I really want this student, we read her file, we agree, she, she or he, or they should move forward, right? So in those committee reviews, students are often admitted waitlisted or unfortunately denied.

Dr. Aya: So I used this language earlier and I think sometimes, uh, families get a bit frustrated when we talk about holistic application review because they want the admissions process to be [00:17:00] objective. Um, oftentimes families want it to be black and white. I got this GPA, I have this test score. I’m am, will I get in or I took these classes, will I get in?

Dr. Aya: Or I’m the president of this thing, or I won this award or I published this paper, will I get in? And we often cannot say absolutely or absolutely not because. Holistic review. So holistic application review essentially means that decisions are made, um, in consideration of the entire academic profile, right?

Dr. Aya: Um, it looks at academics first and foremost, that transcript, as I mentioned, right? That record of achievement. Record of performance over time, right? Then there is conversations and reflections about activities. How have you contributed to your local community? And that could be your school, that could be your family, that could be in employment, that could be extracurriculars.

Dr. Aya: Again, inside, outside summer programs, et cetera. How are you contributing, um, letters of [00:18:00] recommendation? What is your teachers and your counselors? Or in some schools you have. A friend can write a letter. Um, what are those letters saying about you and the type of not only academic, uh, student you’ll be, but what type of roommate will you be?

Dr. Aya: Right? What type of, um, how will you contribute to a campus community? Um, will you volunteer? Will you serve? Will you join the, the school band? Will you join the theater club? You know, again, admissions officers are building classes, right? And I think sometimes that is a bit difficult to make sense of, but holistic application reviews.

Dr. Aya: And it also helps admissions officers build classes so they can say, we have representation in this way. Uh, we have students who are gonna contribute to. You know, whether it’s an athletic team or cultural activity, et cetera, they need to make sure that the university continues to run right? And then the essays, which is personally my favorite part of application.

Dr. Aya: That’s someone who spent eight years studying essays for her [00:19:00] dissertation. But I love the essays, right? So the essays are, I often say one of the few opportunities that students have to communicate directly with AOs, right? So unlike those letters of recommendation that are written by other people about you, the essay that allows you an an honor opportunity to speak authentically to admissions officers or committees or admissions.

Dr. Aya: Personnel. Right? So that is a really important component in the application for schools that require the essays. Um, it allows you to kind of talk more about who you are, your why, your motivation, what you’ve endured, what you’ve overcome, et cetera, what brings you joy, why do you wanna be, you know, a veterinarian, why do you want to be a professor, et cetera.

Dr. Aya: You can use the essay to really talk about that. Right? So again, all of those components are a part of the holistic application review process, right? Um, the burden is on the student to paint a clear picture of who they are, right. And their fit. So throughout this application, whether it’s in the essays, the, the supplemental [00:20:00] essays, or if a school requires an interview, um, throughout your application, you were kind of.

Dr. Aya: Signaling and showing how you are a good fit with the school. Right? And the AOs are really working through your application, hoping that those puzzles fit. We often say we are, we’re looking for reasons to admit students usually not to deny them. So that is the holistic application review process. It’s not black and white, it’s just, it’s not just quantitative numbers.

Dr. Aya: It’s not, I have a perfect SAT, therefore I will get into the school. That is not how it works, uh, particularly in selecting universities that use, um, the holistic application review, uh, process. So when AOs first look at application, um, particularly in holistic admissions processes, they are looking at academic foundation, right?

Dr. Aya: Universities and admissions officers want you to be successful. They don’t wanna admit students that they think will struggle, right? They don’t want to admit students who they think will kind of fail. And I use that loosely like [00:21:00] academically, like not perform well in the classroom. So they are looking for a strong academic foundation with a GPS, solid GPA course rigor, school context.

Dr. Aya: Right. And students often, again, and we see this with students of families, um, who try to compare. Their situation to other students in other schools, in other states. And again, AOs want to see how you challenged yourself within what was available. We often have students that say, my school only had five AP classes, but that school in the suburbs had 20.

Dr. Aya: How is it fair? And in, and one thing we like to highlight is the AOs. They know that, right? They look at your school profile and they are looking at how you operate it within your own school. So they’re not comparing to that suburban school across town. They’re looking at your application in the context of how you challenge yourself.

Dr. Aya: So if the five AP classes that were available to you were aligned with your academic interests, right, and you took those classes, you are demonstrating that you can challenge yourself, right? That’s what [00:22:00] they’re looking at. In addition to looking at, you know, academic foundation, of course we have that school and community engagement.

Dr. Aya: So leadership, consistency and impact, right? Impact is very important and we often want to kind of, uh, highlight that is not simply, uh, extracurricular leadership or being the captain of a particular sport team. Family responsibilities are very important as well. We have students, um, who they can’t participate in 20 clubs after school because they have to pick up their younger siblings from school.

Dr. Aya: Take their younger siblings home, help the younger siblings with their homework, put some food on the stove and wait for mom or dad or grandma to come home, right? So there are a lot of young people who have familial responsibilities. They are translators for their family, so they’re going to additional doctor’s appointments.

Dr. Aya: They are again, helping to care, take, uh, elderly, uh, loved ones, right? There’s some students who are basically [00:23:00] mentors and second parents to their younger siblings. So family responsibilities and jobs are equally important when we think about school and community engagement as well. So we often tell students, don’t shy away from talking about that.

Dr. Aya: Sometimes students think, oh my God, that’s not a fancy role. I’m not the president when, you know, they do so much to, uh, positively impact people in their, in their lives. Personal narrative. Again, the essay. How are you talking about yourself? Um, is it authentic? Do you show passion? Do you show purpose? Do you show growth?

Dr. Aya: Do you show that you’re excited about learning or excited about kind of whatever you, you, you choose to articulate in your essays? Um, that’s important, right? Again, I, I said earlier that essay is one of those few opportunities. You get to talk directly to the admissions officers. And then letters of recommendation.

Dr. Aya: Again, what are your teachers and counselors saying about you? Your, they give insight into your character, right? How you perform in the classroom. Are you that [00:24:00] student when you get done early, you help, you know, the teacher grade papers, or do you, are you help, are students looking to you for support or, or are you shy?

Dr. Aya: Right? However, but when you present, you, you explode. Like your personality jumps off the, you know, kind of jumps out. So teachers often providing that additional context, um, as well. And again, potential contributions to campus life. And then again, lastly, institutional fit. Whether your goals, your interests and values are aligning with the college’s mission and academic offerings.

Dr. Aya: I often find that some students are, you know, try to put, you know, what is it, uh, a square peg into a round hole, right? So trying to force things. When you are looking at schools and building college lists, you should first and foremost look at whether or not the school has the major that you’re interested in.

Dr. Aya: Very important, right? If you have a, if you say, you know, you want to study nursing, you should be applying to a school that has a nursing program, right? If you know you [00:25:00] want to be, you know, a mechanical engineer, you should be applying to schools that have mechanical engineering, right? That, that is making sure it makes sense, right?

Dr. Aya: Because if you write an entire essay and put an application and say you wanna study journalism and you send it to a school that literally does not have a journalism program, it’s, it’s a misalignment there. So universities and AOs are looking also at institutional.

Dr. Aya: So I, as I’ve talked about, you know, grades and test scores are one thing. They are in important. So I don’t want to misrepresent or say that they are not important because they are. However, there, there’s a lot more to an applicant. To a student, um, beyond GPA and test scores. And that’s something I like to emphasize and not, and with my students that I support with college advisor, but also just the young people I encounter, um, locally.

Dr. Aya: And also when I kind of provide advice, you know, you are more than a test score. You are more than a GPA, so your value should [00:26:00] not be tied to those quantitative kind of markers. So in addition to the GPA test force, different institutions again, are prioritizing different things. Schools are generally looking for, as I mentioned, academic RI rigor, right?

Dr. Aya: How you’re challenging yourself with the classes you have, uh, reflections in your personal narratives and leadership. So how you’ve discussed your impact and the ways you’ve contributed to your respective communities. Again, in school, Iowa School, summer program, family, you name it, right? Intellectual curiosity, right?

Dr. Aya: So how students seek academic and intellectual opportunities outside the classroom. And this doesn’t have to be formal. Some students say like, I. Reached out to a professor and they said they’ll let me do some research in their labs. Sure. Like if you could do that. Sure, that’s fine. Um, but some students, you know, they, they start their own podcast, right?

Dr. Aya: Talking about this very niche thing that they love. Right? Or if they started writing their own anime, you know, comic books or creating their own anime comic books, because that’s something they’re really interested in [00:27:00] and they, they got really interested in, in, you know, Japanese culture and et cetera. So again, academic and intellectual opportunities Could be internships, it can be summer programs, it could be leadership programs, but also it could be how you are consuming learning.

Dr. Aya: Maybe you are, you’re, you’re rereading a series and that’s inspiring how you’re thinking about your, you know, the next. Project you’re gonna do in school, et cetera. So how are you challenge yourself seeking information, staying engaged, uh, and being intellectually curious, right? Important. And then again, connection to school.

Dr. Aya: Ethos and values, right? If a school is like I be, we believe in like introspection and, and, and, um, reflection. And you’re like, I don’t, that’s not my jam. I don’t wanna do that. Or if a school is in a rural community and you’re like, here, we’d like for our students to stay on campus and like really com, you know, contribute to the rural community and you’re like, I am a city person.

Dr. Aya: I need to be in a city, then that [00:28:00] may not be the best fit. So again, these are some of the things that stands out beyond your GPA task force, right? That rigor, your reflections, that intellectual curiosity and connections to school, ethos and values. So earlier I mentioned the words institutional priorities.

Dr. Aya: So institutional priorities, um, often kind of reflect what a, a university, uh, is thinking about as far as, you know, what’s important to them and also how they’re, how they’re building a class, right? So their departmental needs, for an example, um, there might be universities that have some niche programs, say an environmental nursing program.

Dr. Aya: I just made that up. But say there’s an environmental nursing program and it’s not, it’s only 20 spots in that program. So they are making, but it, it’s important, like it’s financially imperative that they feel though that environmental nursing program. So when students are applying. And they have, you know, [00:29:00] 23 applicants who apply to the environmental nursing program and they have 20 spots for that.

Dr. Aya: They, they can think about like, okay, how do we make sure we have this environmental nursing program filled, right? So they’re thinking about departmental needs. How can the this department sustain itself financially? So that is a factor for sure. Relationships. Schools and third party programs. So again, I went to a Jesuit school, um, universities who are Catholic or have other different types of affiliations, they might have relationships with high Jesuit high schools, Catholic high schools, and I’m just using Catholicism as an example, but that is inclusive of other types of schools.

Dr. Aya: Um, there might be, say you applied to a women’s college, right? So they might have relationships with all girls schools, right? So there’s all types of relationships that universities have that they have to maintain or is a priority for them to maintain. And that is an institutional priority, right? There might be nonprofits that they have partnerships and affiliations with, where the nonprofit and the school has a, a particular [00:30:00] program where that the, the university has to take five students from that, that nonprofit and the nonprofit of course.

Dr. Aya: Serving, you know, high achieving students and they create these pipeline programs like that. So that’s another way that universities have institutional priorities. And then you have the geographic representation. You, you all may have heard, you know, if you’re applying to a university and you’re from Idaho, your likelihood of getting accepted is, is high, right?

Dr. Aya: Because universities like to say. We have students from all 50 states, right? And, and, and Puerto Rico and DC right? They, they like to be able to say they have as much, uh, geographic representation as possible. And you also see that at our public universities, right? That in-state versus outta state, right?

Dr. Aya: You’ll see sometimes the, the acceptance rates for in-state versus outta state are different. The way the financial aid is dispersed in-state versus outta state can be different. Um, because public universities, you know, main responsibility is serving, it’s supposed to be, you know, serving the residents, right?

Dr. Aya: In their respective of states. So there might be a [00:31:00] priority of in-state students, right? Uh, as opposed to outta state or students who are gonna pay more versus not pay more, et cetera. So there’s all types of geographic and enrollment caps that universities are thinking about. And then as I just, uh, alluded to, finances very, very important, particularly in this current, uh, climate, right?

Dr. Aya: So tuition dependency. Some schools are looking for students who are going to pay full, you know, full pay students as we call them, students who if accepted, have their, the financial resources to pay, right? And then you have schools who are need blind or need aware. So need aware schools are institutions that there is some, uh, discussion of your ability to pay when making admissions decisions, right?

Dr. Aya: Um, and then you have the need blinds goals, which is, I went to one Georgetown. Um, Georgetown did not look at your financial situation when making decisions, right? And also met 100% of demonstrated needs. So, um, was not, you know, again, your ability to pay was not a decision when making, [00:32:00] um, or was not a factor when making an admissions decision per se.

Dr. Aya: So again, there, these are some of the institutional priorities that universities consider. And again, it is. Institutional dependent. Okay, so there’s no one size fits all. Some schools are regional, they’re smaller, so their priorities might look a lot different than a more selective university with a lot of wealth.

Dr. Aya: Um, a a, a school located in a rural community versus a major city, their priorities might look differently. So just kind of keep that in mind. This also helps students and families to somewhat make the, like, make sense of decisions that they may not like, like if they don’t get accepted or deferred. When you think about it, it is like it’s not a personal attack on you or your ability, right?

Dr. Aya: Schools have their own processes and, and priorities that they’re also trying to fulfill. So in thinking about fit, what is the significance of a student fit? And how are a AOs determining, um, that it’s, I think it’s a, a really great question. So looking for students who will [00:33:00] fit into a campus life and culture is important, right?

Dr. Aya: Uh, again, some schools have really robust social communities and et cetera. And think about if schools omitted only students with, you know, perfect a CT scores, perfect. GPAs and every student say, I just wanna study this one thing and I don’t wanna do anything else. The robust campus life we see online or students’ experience, or the experience I had at Georgetown, it would not be the same, right?

Dr. Aya: It would be like tumbleweed rolling across the campus because everyone’s just in a library and there’s like no one planning the fall festival, right? So universities and AOs are looking for students who will fit into campus life and, and culture, right? Again, if you say, I hate cities, I don’t like how loud they are, I want to see rolling hills.

Dr. Aya: I want to do cow tipping. I just really want to like live in a rural green environment. Um. NYU probably is not the best fit, right? So that’s, that’s how we kind of make sense of it. You’re talking about fit for you as well as fit for the, the [00:34:00] institution. So also looking for those who will add value to a diverse community.

Dr. Aya: As I mentioned, say you are already, um, in, in the, like the K-pop dance team at your school, and you’re in the school that you’re applying to or really wanna go to, also has a K-pop team and or they don’t have one and you wanna start one, right? They’re like, okay, that’s fun. That will add value to the diversity, right?

Dr. Aya: And again, this is in consideration of grades and test scores. I want to make sure I, I, I’m iterating, reiterating that it’s not, these are factors that will get you in. This is a part of a broader, holistic kind of decision, right? So I just wanna emphasize that. But again, fit and thinking about schools and decisions, it’s like dating, right?

Dr. Aya: The fit needs to go in both directions. It needs to be a good fit for you just as, as much as a good fit for them. So again, factors to consider. Academic goals again, does your major department selection match what the institution has available? So that’s how AOs are determining which students are the best match.

Dr. Aya: Can we meet your research needs? Right. Are there faculty study or [00:35:00] doing research on this particular thing that you express interest in? Right? Maybe you’re interested in like veterinary science. Um, so the land grant universities might be a better fit than like a small private school and a, a urban center, right?

Dr. Aya: Letters of recommendation. Do your mentors, teachers, et cetera, speak to qualities in you that we see? We being the university, seeing our students, right? So thinking about what are others saying about you that know you, right? How they’re writing and thinking about you. Essays, right? What drives you as a person and, and will the campus help you fulfill your individual goals as a person?

Dr. Aya: So really thinking about that as they are making decisions about a good match. And then lastly, how you contribute to student life. One on campus. And I talked about that, right? So that’s why you hear about, you know, leadership and activities being important. Again, particularly for the selective schools that are looking holistically.

Dr. Aya: Some schools, they don’t even, they don’t care about that. They like, okay, can you read, can you write, you are accepted. You know, some schools, they really look at the [00:36:00] bare bones. But for the more selective schools, they are really looking for that full picture because they want students who are gonna co contribute in a meaningful way to student life because they be, those students become really engaged alum, right?

Dr. Aya: That’s why it’s important, right? That pipeline to alumni that then contribute financially to university. So it’s all interconnected. And then thinking about the science, about, uh, behind the admissions decisions. You know, one thing that it’s important to remember that universities are businesses, right? So, um, and there are various operations and departments and units that are keeping the university running.

Dr. Aya: So, and one of those is enrollment management, right? So the enrollment management process is a very data-driven process, right? And enrollment management is often overseeing the admissions process on the back end because they want to make sure that universities are meeting their goals, right? Their yield yield is how, what percentage of students that you offer a, [00:37:00] uh, an acceptance accept.

Dr. Aya: Right. So you’ll see, I mean, if for schools who have ed, the yields tend to be higher, right? If it’s early decision. Because once those students are admitted, they’re supposed to accept that offer, right? They sign that contract to say that it’s a binding decision. So those yields tend to be a little higher, right?

Dr. Aya: Um, but they wanna make sure that students are coming and then time dependent review, right? In some cases, review process are very kind of, there’s a strict timeline, whether it’s the ea, the ed, the regular decision, the wait list. It’s a very time oriented. Process, as I said earlier in, in, in some of the earlier slides, there’s an algorithm in, in some places, and I think increasingly so there might be some predictive modeling and use of ai, especially at very large public universities that are receiving thousands, tens of thousands in application, right?

Dr. Aya: How can it get through 50,000 applications, right? So algorithms at beginning, end, end of review process, right? So there might be a beginning assessment, um, of, of the academic [00:38:00] profile, and there also might be some predictive modeling, you know, that that’s happening behind the scenes. You know, based on this academic profile, will this student be successful?

Dr. Aya: And again, the truth, every school is different. But all universities have some type of enrollment strategies in some way that connects and aligns with the university needs. Again, we need X amount of engineering students for this program to be viable, right? So then that’s an institutional priority.

Dr. Aya: There’s an enrollment management process, trying to make sure they enroll as many of those engineering students they can to make sure that program is viable for years to come, to make sure they can get the, you know, the donations or the, uh, philanthropic do dollars, et cetera. So there’s a lot of things happening behind the scenes, and again, it’s important to look at the admissions data.

Dr. Aya: We often encourage students, you know, just to look at the comma data set. You can Google, type your, you know, Georgetown comma data set or other schools and just to see, uh, what pops up there. Um, and again, that can help you when developing a, a college list and deciding on an application strategy as well.

Dr. Aya: So [00:39:00] just some of the science behind admissions to keep in mind. So as we kind of near the end of my portion of the conversation, you know, we wanna just talk about how can you develop an application that is authentic to you, but also check off the boxes. This is a really. Really, uh, important question that we get quite a bit here.

Dr. Aya: Um, students are often concerned about showing up in a way that is legible to universities and AOs, where the priorities should be focusing on yourself and presenting yourself as authentically and honestly. Um, some students feel like they have to embellish or add a little sauce to who they are, but we really want to see who like the authentic you to talk about yourself.

Dr. Aya: Sometimes folks are scared to talk about themselves. We also get students who say, Hey. Dr. Aya, I grew up in a very homogenous environment. Everybody went to the same middle and high school. All our parents are professionals. They do this thing. My life is pretty boring. I’m not special. And I just reject that because every student is special.

Dr. Aya: You know the your day in the life, your culture, your background, your [00:40:00] routines, your habits that, your quirks, that is very distinct to you and who you are. So you wanna focus on following what ignites your passion, right? Lean into that. And it could be the silliest, the nerdiest, the outlandish, but that, that’s fun.

Dr. Aya: That’s you, right? If you talk, if you wanted to learn how to juggle, so you joined a circus one summer, write about it. I know if it feels unserious, but that is something so distinct and creative, right? You also wanna do your research. You wanna understand what is important to a school and make sure it aligns with what is important to you.

Dr. Aya: Again, both things. Dating and you wanna take tours, you wanna speak with current students, alumni, admissions officers, right? Some schools have virtual tours, some people do in-person tours. Um, sometimes they’ll send a, they have alumni that might host college fairs in your city. You might know some alums, some folks maybe from your high school went to particular school on your list.

Dr. Aya: Follow them on social media. The universities follow their social media pages, you know, call. And I mean, I call a, uh, admissions offices across the country all the time. ’cause sometimes I [00:41:00] have a question and I can’t find it online, so I call them. So, you know, you wanna call as well. So again, these are some of the ways to make sure your application’s authentic to you.

Dr. Aya: And when in doubt, ask for help. Ask for help from trusted advisors. Ask from teachers, from counselors. Some students are part of nonprofit programs or community-based organizations that provide that support. I, I was when I was applying. Uh, and then you also have resources here, like CollegeAdvisor, which help students with strategy, essay writing activities, list review, et cetera.

Dr. Aya: So finally, any last insights on what AOs, uh, really notice in application? So again, it’s so important that you all not, I know we just talked about the science, but don’t obsess about it. You know, folks try to game the system. If I do this, carry the one I’ll automatically get in. And again, I hope, one thing you did learn through this presentation is not a black and white process, right?

Dr. Aya: It’s not completely objective. It’s a subjective process, frankly, especially for the [00:42:00] schools that have holistic admissions. So try not to obsess over it. Every school is different and there’s so many factors, particularly internally that is informing how they make external decisions, right? So just because you were deferred from a school doesn’t mean you were denied from the school.

Dr. Aya: If you were denied from the school, doesn’t mean your life is over. Okay? You wanna focus also on what is important to you as a student. So does the school align with your values and principles? Very, very, very, very important. Particularly in this current climate. In terms of application components, you don’t wanna collect extracurricular activities.

Dr. Aya: I see that all the time. Junior year people have new to eight new activities and I’m like, what in the world? Like, when did you wanna golf? You know, some students like to collect them. It’s, it comes off. Um, very clearly in an application that you are a extracurricular bone collector, right? Um, ’cause universities like to see sustained engagement in leadership over time.

Dr. Aya: You wanna choose letter writers that will write meaningful, strong letters, right? So when you ask a teacher to write a letter of recommendation, make sure you’re saying, [00:43:00] asking them, are they confident they can write a strong and positive letter of recommendation? That’s a, that’s an appropriate question to pose to them.

Dr. Aya: You wanna write essays about your passions, not about someone else’s, and you want to balance academics so you can perform well by also pursuing rigorous coursework. So if you know you wanna major in science, you know you wanna take that AP chem, you wanna take that AP bio, you wanna take the AP physics where appropriate, right?

Dr. Aya: You really wanna show your demo. That you’re challenging yourself, uh, and there’s alignment with some of your future interests. And lastly, you wanna make sure you have a balanced college list, right? So you’re trying to ensure optimal success in admissions process. You wanna have, you have some aspirational schools, those very selective schools that emit under 15%.

Dr. Aya: Add them on there. But you also wanna make sure you have schools where your academic profile is clearly aligned. We call those largely targets. And then those schools that your academic profile might be a little higher, right? Some people call ’em safeties. I like the word likely. So you wanna make sure you have a balanced college list to ensure that [00:44:00] you have some yeses when it comes to receiving your admissions decisions.

Dr. Aya: All right, so I’ve been talking a great deal, so I’m gonna turn it over to you all. 

Anna: Thank you so much, Dr. Aya. This is the end of the presentation, part of the webinar. We hope you found the information helpful. Remember, you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab and that this recording will be emailed to everyone who registered.

Anna: We’re now gonna move on to the live Q&A. We’ve been reading through the questions you submitted, and also the ones you submitted when you registered. We’ll get to as many as we can for each one. I will read it out loud and then paste it into the public chat so everyone can both hear and see the question before Dr.

Anna: Aya responds. If your Q&A tab is not letting you submit questions, just double check that you join the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page. All right. We are getting a bunch of questions. [00:45:00] Dr. Aya, I’m gonna jump right in. Can you discuss the difference between a weighted and an unweighted GPA and how admissions officers look at both?

Dr. Aya: Great question. So a unweighted, GPA is your raw GPA score. So if you are on a 4.0 scale, typically A A is four points. A B is three points. A C is two points. A D is one point, and F is zero. So if you have, you know, four a’s you know, so that’s four points, right? 16 divided by four, 4.0. Right. That’s like the, the standard calculation.

Dr. Aya: Raw scores Now for weighted gpa, A, some schools will give a student students additional points for A’s and B’s and AP classes, right? So you can have a student who has a 3.8 GPA, so all A’s, and one B maybe. Unweighted GPA, but they could have a 4.0 or 4.1 GPA because of the weights assigned to the AP classes that they took, right?

Dr. Aya: [00:46:00] So that’s the difference between an unweighted and, and weighted GPA. Some students, um, transcripts have both weighted and unweighted. Some schools only report unweighted. Some schools only report weighted. However, when universities receive your transcript, particularly selective schools like the one, you know, ones I’ve attended, um, they are going to look at that raw GPA anyway.

Dr. Aya: They’re gonna say, what did you earn in those classes? Was it a A or was it a B? Right? Because again, you can get all B’S and if they’re all AP classes, in some schools, you can still get that weight. So the GPA can still say 4.2, um weighted, but truly it’s actually a 3.6 unweighted. You know, I’m just kinda giving examples here.

Dr. Aya: But yeah, so the difference is the raw score, the letter grades. What did you earn at the base level in the classes you took? You took. Unweighted weighted is those additional points or two points, or 1.5 or 0.5 that schools sometimes associate, uh, or give students who earn an A or sometimes even a B in [00:47:00] a AP or IB class.

Anna: Okay. Thank you so much. We’re getting a few questions about ED and ED so early decision, early action. Yeah. Um, could you please define those terms a bit and then walk through the pros and cons of each? 

Dr. Aya: For sure. So we have first EA that’s early action. So, early action is an admissions policy, essentially, where you can apply to a school early, usually November 1st, um, and get a earlier decision typically in December or January.

Dr. Aya: Those decisions, decisions are non-binding. The benefit for applying early is getting your applications in earlier and getting a decision earlier, which allows for, for a lot of students to get financial aid information earlier, make a decision earlier and just kind of brief for the remainder of their senior year in high school.

Dr. Aya: The con the, the cons for applying [00:48:00] earlier is. If you are a student who really will benefit from an extra semester, meaning maybe your grades and and your junior year were okay, but not the strongest. So you want that first semester of senior year, um, to go into your, your GPA you apply early may not benefit you because you want to wait to you get that, you know, those as to help boost up that GPA.

Dr. Aya: So that’s a con. A con is also, you might, sorry, there’s a, a fire, uh, ambulance outside. But for those students who are, um, also maybe they have a really busy summer, so they, they can’t really work on their applications in September and October. So with early action, you don’t get as much time. So that’s another con, but the benefit, again, apply early, get decision early, get financial aid early, non-binding decision.

Dr. Aya: Early decision, however, is a binding decision. That means when you are accepted to a ed school, you are saying, I’m going to attend to that. [00:49:00] I’m going to attend. Um, you sign a contract, there’s a pledge, like there’s a true commitment similar to early action. You apply early, you’ll get your decision earlier.

Dr. Aya: However, if you are accepted, you are saying, I’m going to that school. The cons of that is once you are accepted and you make that decision to go, you are withdrawing those applications. So maybe there were other schools you were still interested in, but you, you know, you made that decision. You got in. So that’s most likely where you’re headed.

Dr. Aya: Financial aid sometimes can be a bit tricky. Say you apply early binding decision, that financial aid package comes and it’s not a good alignment with your parents or your own savings and financial budget, and now you have to make a really. Kind of challenging decision. Now, caveat, asterisk, could you back out of a ED commitment?

Dr. Aya: Yes. Is this something you should do? No. Can it happen? Yes. Oftentimes, if it’s financially prohibitive, if you cannot afford it, you can kind of walk that back. But that is frowned upon, um, and is [00:50:00] something you should not take ED, uh, lightly. And then lastly, the regular decision. That’s typically when students are making, applying to schools in December or early, usually in January.

Dr. Aya: Um, those are just, you know, you apply and usually in the winter you get that decision By April one, you have to make the decision by May 1st. That’s like the traditional application cycle. The benefit of that is you get that first semester. Of that, those grades of your senior year, that could really boost your GPA.

Dr. Aya: That is the downside is you have to wait quite a bit. I mean, April is usually when you’re getting March and April are when you getting that decision. And that can be quite nerve wracking for a lot of students who are already juggling other responsibilities. So those are the, the primary, the three primary emissions kind of decision application cycles, et cetera.

Anna: Thank you so much. That was really thorough and answered a bunch of questions we had in the chat all at once, so that was great. Um, I’m gonna give you a little break, Dr. Aya, ’cause you’ve been going strong for almost an [00:51:00] hour, so I can talk for a bit about CollegeAdvisor. For those in the room who are not already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be.

Anna: CollegeAdvisor has a team of over 300 former admissions officers like Dr. Aya and admissions experts who are ready to help you and your family navigate the admissions process in one-on-one advising sessions and essay editing through our digital platform. CollegeAdvisor has had 10,000 total lifetime clients.

Anna: We’re proud to have a 4.8 out of five star rating on Trustpilot with over 750 reviews, and we’re excited to share that after analyzing our data from 2023 to 2025, we found that clients working with CollegeAdvisor who have a strong academic and testing record are 2.6 times more likely to get into an Ivy League school around three times more likely to get into a top 20 college and around five times more likely to get into Johns Hopkins, UCLA,

Anna: and [00:52:00] NYU compared to national acceptance rates. So increase your odds. Take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 60-minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team. You can do that by scanning the QR code on the screen. If for whatever reason you’re unable to scan it now, reminder, the slides are available for download, and this recording is going to be emailed to everyone who registered.

Anna: Uh, but whenever you do it, please scan that QR code, sign up for that free one-hour session. During that meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations on what you can do to stand out. At the end, you’ll also learn more about the premium packages we offer that pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, and so much more.

Anna: We are here for the whole process from start to finish. Uh, we’re gonna return to your questions now, but that QR code’s gonna stay on the screen. [00:53:00] And thank you for all of the questions that are coming in. Dr. Aya, we have a few about this topic. What if a student has tried, um, to, to get a leadership position but hasn’t gotten one?

Anna: Or what if a student is really shy and so trying out for a leadership position is, is very intimidating. Um, how can they show leadership on their applications? 

Dr. Aya: That’s a interesting question and and a really good one. And I think it’s also something to keep in mind. So there is leadership and there’s being a leader, right?

Dr. Aya: So what I often hear students think about leadership is a title that we often associate president. Founder, vice president, et cetera. Right? So those are titles that we ascribe to often as like leadership. But if you’re a shy student and prote or, and perhaps you just don’t aspire to lead the club in, in a formal titled way, but you [00:54:00] show, you make important contributions like you are contributing thoughtfully.

Dr. Aya: That also is leadership that is more importantly impact, right? So as I said in our previous, our conversation, that impact is incredibly important so students can make a great impact in community, in clubs without having the president or vice president title. Um, so I would worry less about the title and think more about like, how are you contributing meaningfully and how you’re documenting your contributions.

Dr. Aya: That’s leadership. You don’t have to have a title to showcase that you are a leader in school or, or in a club or in your community. So that’s how I, that’s a reorientation about how we even thinking about leadership, and I want students to kind of think about that. How are you making impact? How are you making, how are you contributing to your community?

Dr. Aya: That’s actually more important than what the title line says. 

Anna: Absolutely. What should students who have an IEP, so an indivi individualized education plan, for those who aren’t familiar, what should [00:55:00] students with IEPs know about the admissions process? 

Dr. Aya: What should they know? I, I don’t know if there’s anything they should know differently, but I think one thing to think about when you are vetting schools, and again, it’s a dating process, right?

Dr. Aya: Two way, you want to make sure that the universities that you are interested in and maybe attend are, uh, respectful and, and do make the appropriate accommodations, right? So legally there, there’s accommodations that institutions have to make, but you want to kind of vet those resources and make sure those are robust, right?

Dr. Aya: If you need additional time or do they have a writing center or what type do they have a disability office, et cetera, right? Making sure the university has the resources and like the apparatus to support you so you’re successful when enrolled. So those are probably. I think additional questions in addition to all the other things we identify, right?

Dr. Aya: ’cause students with IEP are, you know, they, they thrive, they participate, they play [00:56:00] back just like everyone else, right? But additionally, you wanna make sure that they have, you know, again, disability offices, writing centers, or whatever other resources that they have, you wanna make sure that they’re robust, they’re funded, and that you’ll be supported, uh, and accommodated while on campus.

Anna: Thank you. Uh, what about students who are transfer students? 

Dr. Aya: What, what’s the, what’s the question? 

Anna: The question I think is, does all of the advice you gave tonight apply to them? Or should they do anything differently? 

Dr. Aya: Transfer is a different process. Um, students are usually applying a little later, right?

Dr. Aya: They’re not rushing to that November 1st deadline or January 1st. Sometimes transfer application deadlines are a bit later March, if you will. So for transfer students, the grades that they’re really looking at are the grades you achieved while in community college, or if you are transforming from another four year to another four year, they’re looking at those, um, those grades.

Dr. Aya: So those [00:57:00] grades should be really important. Also, the why for transferring. So there’s usually additional essay like, why are you transferring from this school to, you know, et cetera. So being able to articulate that thoughtfully, showing that you’ve done your homework, that you can make the case. I think that is.

Dr. Aya: That’s typically the, like, the biggest difference, the timeline, the grades that they’re actually looking at. They’re, I mean, they might look at the high school grades, but the grades that you currently have at whatever institution, the community college or the other four year is the most important. Um, so those are things to really think about.

Dr. Aya: You also want to, particularly for my, the, the folks who might be at community college, you want to talk to your community college, um, kind of. Advisor counselor to see if there’s any transfer agreements with four year institutions in your city or in your state. Right? You also want to make sure that your credits are going to transfer.

Dr. Aya: So having that conversation early, talking to those folks to make sure that these, the credits you’ve earned in that community college or that two [00:58:00] year or the, the other four year is actually gonna transfer. So if you are thinking about transferring, please start having that conversation earlier with your respective institution about do we have any community agreements with four year institutions or do we have any partnerships?

Dr. Aya: Will my credits transfer? Um, having those conversations at your current institution, it’s really, really, really important. 

Anna: Thank you. I think we have time for one more question. Um, students asking how important are standardized tests? And then while we’re on that topic, someone else asked, do schools favor one over the other when it comes to SAT or a CT?

Dr. Aya: So no, students do not favor SAT or a CT, so that’s the answer to that. Um, how important are standardized tests are important to schools that find them important? So, uh, if you’re applying to, uh, California public universities, they’re not thinking about standard, you know, their, their test blind. So they don’t look at those scores.

Dr. Aya: But for schools that have that, looking at their common dataset says [00:59:00] that they consider standardized tests in their, uh, evaluation, that they are important. Uh, for schools that are test optional, they are important if you submit them. So there are various levels of importance based on how this. The university articulates their importance.

Dr. Aya: Again, the comma data set is usually a good place to see how they are used in admissions evaluations. But I do tell students if you’re applying for a stem uh, program, particularly at a very selective schools, those numbers, those quantifi quantifiable data points do become increasingly important.

Dr. Aya: Thinking about the Carnegie Mellons, the MITs, those types of places. So just keep that in mind. 

Anna: Thank you so much, Dr. Aya. Thank you to everyone for joining us. Thank you to Lonnie for helping answer so many questions in the chat. If we didn’t get to your question, we apologize. Reminder, there’s that QR code you can scan to get connected with us in that first free session.

Anna: We hope you do. We wish you all the best of luck with your applications and again, thank you all for being here. 

Dr. Aya: Thanks everyone. Best of luck. [01:00:00] Bye.