good morning everyone I do want to tell you that there is a chat feature on the
YouTube page so if you have any questions you can type them in there
and so you can type in your questions on
the chat if you guys can hear me okay if someone can just type in there yes I can hear you I would appreciate that thank
you and we’re gonna talk for a little bit I’m gonna talk for a little bit I’m
going to give you a PowerPoint presentation and then I’m gonna introduce you to Jennifer and she’s
going to talk a little bit about the essays and after her presentation she
she or I will start making some phone calls and we’ll talk to you about your
specific essay and you give you some guidance with some ideas and all that
stuff okay so please do take some notes today if you do have questions and I
think you Jack if you do have questions
please write them down or put them in the text in the chat for the YouTube
page here alright let’s move on with our
PowerPoint presentation
so we’re going to be talking about the essays and the application so at the end
of these three days we’re going to have our common app filled out we’re gonna
have our essay finished have our personal statement finished or have those 90 to 95 percent done so please
what do we do in this class please pay attention follow the instructions and do
the work so I emailed you yesterday or the day before your student writes if
you pull that out we’re going to go over your rights so before you apply you have
the right to receive full information from colleges and universities about their admission financial aid
scholarship and housing policies if you consider applying under an early decision plan you have right to full
disclosure from the college about its process and policies I don’t recommend
early decision and I will tell you why that is in a moment or so when you are
offered admission you have the right to wait to respond to an offer of admission
and/or financial aid until May 1st please write that date down May 1st
cultures that request commitments to offers of admission financial assistance
and or housing prior to May 1st must clearly offer you the opportunity to request an extension until May 1st
they must grant you this extension and your request may not jeopardize your status for housing or financial aid this
does not apply to candidates who are admitted under the early decision program that’s one of the reasons why I
don’t recommend early decision is because if a student applies under early decision the college has all the
authority and the power the student relinquish most of their rights so
here’s what this statement says and what it means colleges you have the right to
wait until May first to make a decision what some colleges will do is they will send out an acceptance letter and they
will send out so colleges will send out
an acceptance letter and then they will also send out an award letter and those
are sent out at two different times okay the acceptance letter states on their
congratulations you’re admitted sometimes they’ll put on their that they’re giving you a scholarship or a
dollar scholarship or a thousand dollars or whatever doesn’t matter what they put on the acceptance letter the award
letter is like an invoice and the award letter may come out two weeks three
weeks or maybe even several months after the acceptance letter is sent out the
acceptance letter again as I stated may or may not put on there that they’re giving you any scholarship amount again
that doesn’t matter the award letters gonna state how much they’re giving you in scholarships grants loans they may
even stay down there they’re giving you an iPad or a laptop or money to buy
software or something like that we want the award letter before we make any
decisions about which college we’re going to select so some colleges are
going to send out the acceptance letter congratulations you’re admitted and it’s
going to be several months maybe even six or eight months before May first the
University of Arizona is notorious for this that they’ll send out an acceptance
letter maybe September October November somewhere in that timeframe and whoever
wrote the acceptance letter is a wordsmith because it invokes panic it
states on their congratulations you’re admitted and then if day carries on and
then it will state something like we cannot guarantee a dorm spot so if you don’t mail in your
deposit right now you’ve got 30 days to do that if you don’t send in your deposit within the next 30 days we can’t
guarantee your dorm spot the world is going to explode and meteorites are going to crash on the planet or
something like that it just really invokes panic if that is more than 30 days from May 1st
they must by law offer you an extension until May 1st so on or around May 1st is
when you will make a decision this is the college that I’m going to attend and then you’ll send in your deposit at that
point if you get a letter from ecologist
says you’ve got 30 days or whatever and it’s way before May 1st just give me a call and I’ll be happy to walk you
through that if your parents are freaking out about it – just tell them hey mom dad go call JD
and I’ll be happy to walk them off the ledge ok if you are placed on a waitlist
when a waitlist is is is the student is not admitted but they’re not rejected
they’re kind of in between the letter that notifies you of your placement
should provide a history that describes the number of students on the waitlist the number offered admission in the
availability of financial aid in housing colleges may require neither a deposit nor a written commitment as a condition
of the remaining on a waitlist caldas are expected to notify you of the
resolution of your waitlist status by August 1st at the latest so in May May
1st is when you will notify the college yes I’m attending your school and during
the month of May there calculate the college’s calculating out who’s coming and who’s not coming and if the college
does not fill their freshmen rosters from that first list then they will pull
students from the waitlist the purpose of the waitlist is for the benefit of
the college not the student
before you apply you have a responsibility to research and understand the policies and procedures
of each college regarding application fees financial aid scholarship and housing you should also be sure that you
understand the policies of each college regarding deposits that you are required
to make before you enroll so on or around May first after you have received
all of your all of your all of your
award letters then you’ll look you’ll compare your award letters and then
you’ll make the decision yes this is the college I want to go to and at that point you will mail in a deposit to that
one College okay page two on your student writes you
apply you must complete all material that is required for your application and submit your application deadlines
you should be the sole author of your applications whatever the college is asking for we
want to give them that information because we are in an unusual time some
of the colleges are waiving the requirements for submitting test scores
I am going to suggest that you do submit
test scores and if necessary retake the SAT or a CT to bump up your scores so
that you have the best scores possible the reason is because there’s going to
be a lot of students who apply to college this coming fall in the next couple months and they’re going to not submit test
scores and you could beat out those other students if you provide them with
some test scores so if a college is making the decision do we admit student
a or we admit student B and student a submitted the application and that’s it
but student B submitted the application and test scores they may be more
inclined to accept and admit student B
you should be the sole author of your applications so Jennifer and I are going to help you with your applications we’re
going to help you with your essays and all that stuff if you go online and do a search for essays that got me into
Harvard you will find dozens and dozens of those and granted there will be some enterprising student who finds one of
these essays from a couple of years ago and copies and pastes that into their
application and I can guarantee you that Harvard has read those essays previously
so Jennifer and I will help you craft and create your essays bullet point
number two is you should seek the assistance of your high school counselor early and throughout the application
period follow the processes recommended by your high school for filing college
applications for some of you your high school uses Naviance bridges family
connections or infant Infinite Campus I believe was the other one if your high
school uses one of those programs then of course follow the process with that so with Naviance you would log on there
type in the name of the colleges that you are applying to and then you’ll type
in the name of your teacher or click on your teacher and then your teacher will get that information to fill out your
recommendation form whatever the process is that your high school is using you
want to adhere to those guidelines for some high schools they don’t use
Naviance bridges family connections or any of those other things then you would just simply use the common app to submit
whatever it is that they’re asking for now and we’re going to go through the common app in a in a little bit today it
is your responsibility to arrange if appropriate visits and/or
interviews at the college’s of your choice if the college interviews then
yes please attend that interview if they do interview let me know beforehand and we’ll talk about some interview
techniques and I also encourage students to visit colleges you should definitely
visit your top two to three to five colleges I know it’s kind of an unusual time that most of the campuses are
locked down that the students cannot visit once that opens up again then
please plan on visiting colleges good times to visit is going to be fall break
and spring break because your high school fall break in your high school
spring break typically do not coincide with the college’s break so when you
visit the college you want to look around and look at the other students
that are there and ask yourself do I feel comfortable here do I feel as if I
fit in and do I feel as if I can make some friends if the answer is yes then
you want to keep that on your list if the answer is no cross that College off of your list the reason why is because
we want to find a college where you fit or comfortable when you fit you’re going
to thrive at that campus and you’ll have a great college experience and that will
also leapfrog you into a successful career after you receive your admission
decision you must notify each college that accepts you whether you are accepting or rejecting its offer you
should make these notifications as soon as you have made a final decision as to the college you wish to attend but no
later than May 1st it is understood that May 1st will be the postmark date I want
you to cross that whole statement off you must notify each college cross that
all off here’s why and here’s what’s going to happen so on or around May 1st
you’ll notify the college yes I’m going to be attending your school you’ll do
that by fill on a postcard that they sent you or you will go to the college’s website and log
in there and then click on the button yes I’m attending and then it’ll prompt
you to put in your debit or credit card to pay for the deposit for all of the
other colleges typically what students do is they will tell the other colleges
no I’m not going to your school okay and what we are going to do is we are going
to do nothing we’re not going to tell the we’re gonna for the one College yes we’re going to tell them
yes we’re attending and yes we’re gonna send in our deposit but for the other colleges that you were admitted to you
we’re going to do nothing we’re not going to tell them yes I’m coming no I’m not coming we’re not going to do
anything we’re going to leave it open the reason is because we want to see if
any of those colleges reach back out to us after May first so last yeah it was two years ago
arianna applied to both UVA and ASU as well as a handful of other colleges she
was admitted to U of A and ASU and ASU gave her a really nice scholarship
package and U of A gave her an okay scholarship package so she sent in her
deposit to ASU and for U of A she did nothing well after May first colleges are
calculated out who’s coming who’s not coming and who has not responded and someone from the staff at U of A called
Ariana on the phone and said hey we haven’t heard back from you yes or no are you coming or not and she said I’m
going to ASU because they gave me a better scholarship package and and the person at U of A said hold on just a
moment and they did their calculations and said how about we give you this much in scholarships and they actually
increased the amount of scholarship dollars and it was greater than ASU and
at that point she had a decision do I go to ASU or I go to U of a she really wanted to go
to U of A and decide to go there and you have a gave her a better scholarship package so we’re going to do nothing for
the other colleges and see if any of those schools reach back out to us and
give us a better scholarship package after May 1st now yes she did lose her
deposit at ASU but when we ran the numbers and ended the calculations it
was worth it because the scholarship package at U of A was better
continuing on your student rights you may confirm your intention to enroll and
if required to submit a deposit to one College this exception the exception to
this arises if you were put on the waitlist and our later admits that institution so for Ariana she was
admitted to both of those colleges she sent her deposit to ASU U of A came back
and gave her a better scholarship package she decided to go to U of A and at that point she put in a second
deposit at U of A if you’re accepted
under an early decision plan again I do not recommend early decision if you’re
admitted under early decision plan you must promptly withdraw the application submitted to other colleges and make no
additional applications if you’re an early decision candidate and are seeking
financial aid you need not withdraw other applications until you receive notification about financial aid so
that’s the reason the primary reason why I don’t like early decision is if a
student is admitted under the early decision guidelines then that student must withdraw all the applications from
all the other colleges so if if a students admit to one college as in
early decision what else does that college have to do to get that student to go there nothing now if that college
has to compete with three or four five or more colleges then that college
must offer some form of incentive and the incentives that we want our
scholarships so in the case of Ariana she was because she was admitted to
multiple colleges she could use that as leverage and pick one school against another hey ASU gave me this must mining
scholarships what can you do you have a and you have a did come back and offer her a better scholarship package does
that happen yes that happens does it happen all the time no it doesn’t happen all the time but we want to do
everything that we can to win in the college admission scheme need-based
blind this means that a college will make a decision of admission without
knowing the students financial numbers so they don’t so the college is not going to know what how much your parents
make on some college admission forms
they’re not supposed to ask you about your parents financial numbers but on some college financial aid forms they do
ask that and I think it was a school in Colorado I can’t remember which one it
was they asked how much what was your parents adjusted gross income for last
year they’re not supposed to ask you that on the application the loophole on
that is the reason why that college asked that question is we’re asking this for scholarships they’re not supposed to
ask you but they use those little loopholes for that so basically what
need-based blind means is they will admit you based on your the students
credentials your grades your test scores your resume your essay all that stuff so
those are your rights if you have if a
college is trying to push you in any one direction or you have any questions on any of us stuff or if your parents have
any question or your parents are freaking out about any of the stuff and please do give me a call
so we’re going to talk a little bit about the common app coming up is a
fantastic website common app dot o-r-g currently there are almost 900 colleges
that are utilizing this application I’m going to send send you a video that I
created on setting up your common app and you can review that later this
morning so the common app is really great what I encourage students is to
apply to 6 to 12 colleges and when I say that they always freak out think you
know I’ve got to do 10 different essays and fill out ten different applications
and that’s not the case with a common app you can fill out one application and then click click click on which colleges
you want that information to be sent to and it will go to those colleges
currently ASU and U of A are on the common app northern Arizona University
is not on the common app and that’s okay if you’re planning and applying to NAU I
still encourage you to fill out the common app because there’s a section on there where you can click on a button to
create a PDF of the entire application and then you’ll use that as reference
when you’re filling out any other college application that’s not on the common app all you have to do is
transpose that data or copy and paste that data into the other college applications and then click Submit it’ll
literally take you ten or fifteen minutes to fill out any other college
application after we have the common app completely filled out check out the
accuracy of your transcripts please do
this now before you have it sent off to any college sometimes there are mistakes where a student was given a lower grade
when that student should have received a higher great sometimes teachers forget to
update something on the transcript and we want to double-check all that stuff
and make sure that it is accurate and correct last year I had a student who
applied to NAU and he said in his transcript and about a couple weeks
later got a letter from NAU rejecting him and he’s like what what’s going on and he called me up and said JD
I got rejected to NAU and I was kind of surprised because his GPA was good well
what happened was on his transcript it was listed as a d or incomplete for one
of his subjects and it was one of the core subjects and any you saw that and
said oh you haven’t completed this or you got a low grade in this so we are rejecting you what he ended up having to
do is he had to go back to his teacher and say hey this is in Korea incorrect can you please correct it the teacher
corrected it and then they sent the corrected transcript back to NAU and NAU
reversed the decision and admitted the student so before you have all those headaches double-check
your transcripts and if necessary get
them corrected if your teacher is hesitating on that and bringing the big guns bringing your mom and dad to have
them corrected so check for errors and correct so congratulations you made it
your senior great job especially in this unusual time this last semester was
definitely an unusual time but you made it through that semester and you’re getting ready to go into your senior
year and all that’s a great job definitely keep that up and please keep
your grades up keep your grades up until the very end because some colleges are
gonna want to see your mid-year transcripts because of all the crazy turmoil that’s been going on for the
last few months there are going to be a lot of colleges
that are gonna ask for your mid-year transcripts they just want to see are
you keeping your grades up are you maintaining your grades or are your grades increasing colleges would prefer
that your grades increase versus decrease and and there’s gonna be some
students that are surprised that they are going to be rejected because their
grades are on a decline so there’s going to be a lot of colleges this year that
in previous years did not ask for media transcripts that and they are going to ask for mid-year transcripts if the
college asks for mid-year transcripts then you must supply them to that College you’ll get an email notification
or some other electronic notification or maybe even a letter in the mail that says we want your make your transcripts
then you’ll then you will reach out to your teacher or your counselor and have them submit your media transcripts if
you’re using Naviance then you would just log into Naviance or any of those
other programs Naviance family connections or bridges or something and then you’ll click on send meet your
transcripts if the college does not ask for media transcripts then do nothing so
I’m going to tell you a story about Ethan no that’s not his real name I changed his name to protect the guilty
so Ethan was admitted to University of Arizona and got a really nice
scholarship package then in his senior year he got a terminal case of
senioritis he skipped class didn’t turn in his homework miss tests all of those
things and as a result his overall GPA plummeted what ended up happening and
what is going to happen is whatever college you are going to attend they are
going to ask for your final transcripts and your final transcripts are going to
come out sometime in June after you have finished your senior year
so his counselor sent his final transcript and you have a received that
and they noticed that his overall GPA had plummeted and they rescinded all of
his scholarships you want to come here now it’s thirty thousand dollars for one year the worst case is they could have
rescinded his freshman seat no you’re not coming here at all so beware of
senioritis the end is in sight this year will go by very quickly before you know it you’ll
be walking across the stage and you will have your high school diploma during
that timeframe please keep up your grades don’t waste a good scholarship
package on being lazy and don’t waste a good scholarship package on getting arrested the fastest way to be rejected
or lose scholarships is to have a misdemeanor or a felony on your record
play the field don’t fall in love with anyone college at this point in the
college application game don’t fall in love with any college not yet when a student applies to one college and is
admitted I already mentioned this but I’ll repeat it again when a student applies to one college and is admitted
to that one college that college doesn’t have to do anything to get that student
to go there if that college has to compete with other student either if that college has to compete with other
colleges then that college will offer some form of incentive and the
incentives that we want our scholarships
and apply to 6 to 12 colleges 8 to 10 is
kind of a sweet spot right in the middle and then make sure you’re applying to the right types of colleges for you if
you need help with creating your college list please do contact me and I’ll be
happy to I do some research and send you a list of colleges that I think that you should
take a look at colleges where you have a stronger shot at being admitted and a
stronger shot at getting some scholarships when I encourage students
is to apply to eight to ten that’s kind of the sweet spot in the middle of those
ten colleges we’ll call it ten for easy numbers of those ten colleges at least
half of them be 50% admission ratio or higher that gives you a one attitude
chance of being admitted again if you need help with creating your list of colleges I’ll be happy to help you
create that list so yes you can apply to some of the highly selective colleges
but we also want to have a good mix of schools
so you’ve heard of ASAP how about asao as soon as the applications open I want
you to write this date down August 1st August 1st is when the majority of the
college applications are going to open and that’s just going to be in just a couple months here some colleges don’t
open until October but for 90 to 95 percent of the colleges they’re going to
open their applications on August 1st common app they open up their new
application on August 1st and we want to
get our application submitted sometime in August and here’s the reason why
every college has a finite amount of money that they have to give out in
scholarships so we want to be one of the first ones in line to get those
scholarships here’s another scenario what if a college has five scholarships
that they’re going to give out and these are incredible scholarships and in order to get those five one of those five
scholarships you have to be one of the first five that meet these parameters
you have a minimum GPA you have a minimum SAT or a CT score and if you’re
one of the five you’ll get that scholarship if student number six comes in who has
perfect grades and perfect test scores but is later submitting their
application later on in in the window that student will not receive those
scholarships so all the more reason to get your application submitted as early
as possible you want to be one of the first ones in line to earn those
scholarships so have all of your applications submitted before August
15th right that date down before August 15
unless you’re applying to a college that their application is not open for
example the California state schools their application opens October 1st and
some of those colleges are UCLA UC Berkeley UC San Diego Cal State
Fullerton San Jose State those are all California state schools they’re either
the Cal States or the UCS the University of California those college applications
do not open until October 1st if you are
applying to a private college in California such as Stanford Chapman
Loyola Marymount Pepperdine Cal Tech Biola University Azusa Pacific Santa
Clara Santa Clara University those colleges
their applications open August 1st the
only other exception to this is if you’re applying to ASU bear it that’s
really the only odd one to to be admitted and to apply to bear it the
student first applies to ASU then after they’re admitted to ASU then there are
allowed to apply to Barrett so one of the ways you can increase your chances
of being admitted ASU bear it then apply
to ASU right as soon as the window opens and then once that once you get your
acceptance to that then you can submit your application to Barrett several ways
that you can submit your application hardcopy or online I do recommend doing it online because it’s faster and easier
to check up on that there are a variety of terms that you
can apply under early decision early action regular decision rolling admission and we’re going to talk about
all of these things the first one is
early decision early decision is an admission policy and basically what it
means is that when you’re filling out the college application you’ll click on
the button early decision and with that the application needs to be submitted
before a specific timeframe typically before November 1st we are going to get
all of our applications submitted before August 15th so we’re going to beat any
early decision deadline anyway so we want to get our applications in before
August 15th and if a student applies under early decision and they are
admitted then that student must notify all of the other colleges no I’m not
going to your school what that does is that gives all the power to that one
college students are relinquishing all of their power and you’re going to hear this that at Duke University if you
apply under the regular heading you have an 8% chance but if you apply under
early decision you have a 20% chance don’t believe any of those numbers because they are manipulating the data
if that college wants to admit you they will admit you regardless of whatever
heading you apply whether early decision early action etc I have a trick question
for you and that question is on an article Florida student accepted into
all eight Ivy League schools and this was dated April of 2020 so just a couple
months ago so here’s my trick question why was this student admitted to all
eight Ivy schools and the answer is simple he was admitted he was admitted
to all eight because he did not apply early decision had he applied
early decision he would have only been allowed to apply to one college again
that’s why I don’t recommend early decision I want you to have options and this student did have options and if you
continue reading the article it does stayed on there that he had help and this student was from Florida I know
most of the college planners across the United States and I have a good idea of which college planner helped this
student so we are here to help you increase your chances of medium into as
many colleges as possible and to help you increase your chances of scholarships so again I don’t recommend
early decision the next heading is early action so write this one down
non-restrictive early action non-restrictive early action i do
recommend this one so with early decision the students are going to find
out early typically in the first or second week of December whether they are admitted that college under early action
the students are going to find out in the first or second week of December whether they are admitted and with
non-restrictive early action you are allowed to apply to as many colleges
under that heading that you desire with early decision you’re only about like
under that heading with non-restrictive early action you are allowed to apply to
multiple colleges and have options the
next heading is Regular Decision and that’s exactly what it sounds like Regular Decision the deadlines for that
are typically the latest and as an example you could apply to asu next
month in july and get it for the fall of 2020 so you could apply
in July twenty twenty and be admitted and then attend college in August twenty
twenty at ASU theoretically now well you
could wait until the very end to do that please don’t wait by the way please don’t wait while a student could do that
more than likely they’re not going to get any scholarship money because those dollars have been spent so again we
still want to get our applications submitted before August fifteenth we’re going to beat any deadlines the next
heading is rolling admission and what rolling admission means is as soon as
the college receives everything or as as
applications roll in the college will make decisions and roll out so ASU NAU
and U of A are all rolling admission schools as soon as they receive the
applications they will start rolling out admission decisions and rolling admission starts on September 15th okay
so you could hear back as early as September that you’ve been admitted so
one of my students Laura she attended the class and she did the work she paid
attention and she submitted all of her applications before August 15th and in
early September she started hearing back from colleges yes you’re admitted and one of the colleges that admitted her in
September was the University of Alabama and the letter said congratulations
you’re admitted and it also stated on there that they were going to give her
twenty five thousand dollars in scholarships per year a hundred thousand dollars that’s amazing her mom called me
up on the phone and said is this real and I said yes this is real so please
get all of your application submitted for August 15th unless the they are at
the California State schools if you are applying under the early decision
heading please let me know because there are some things that I need to do on on
my aunt to help you out with that again I don’t recommend to early decision if you go to Harvard’s website
it says Harvard does not offer an advantage the students who apply early higher early action acceptance rates
reflect the remarkable strength of early action pool so in Harvard’s case they’re
stating early action but it’s restrictive early action which is the
same thing as early decision for any individual students the final decision
will be the same whether the student applies early action or Regular Decision
so basically what they’re saying is if Harvard wants that student they will admit that’s – regardless so to really
confuse things we’ve got rolling admission we’ve got early action restrictive early action single choice
early action early decision early decision – very good decision Oh JD what
do I do and pull my hair out take a deep breath relax know that one that you need
to remember is non restrictive early action if that is an option select that
one if that is not an option then select either rolling or regular and get all of
your applications submitted before August 15th here’s a photo of some
students that are working in the admissions department and this happens to be Vanderbilt you can see on the
screen here several piles of file folders so if you were a student at this
particular college and you had a work-study job at this college in the
admissions department and I was the manager you would walk in and say hey JD
what do I do today and I would give you your instructions here’s what I would like you to do I would like you to go to
the website and download print all of the new applications that
came in today and I would like you to sort them in three piles and those piles are the yes
file the maybe pile and the no pile and you can see on the left side of the
screen is a much bigger pile that is the no pile the one on the right side of the
screen that’s the yes pile and the one in the middle is the maybe pile if the grades and this is your instructions if
the grades and the test scores match then put them in the yes pile if the
grades and the test scores and everything else that we want is close
and put them in the maybe pile if we don’t have SAT Subject scores or we
don’t have a recommendation letter or we don’t have the grades and the test
scores that are the minimum for our college and put them in the no pile and I’m sorry to tell you this that in the
no pile those essays never get read we want to get past these gatekeepers to
someone who can actually make a decision someone who will read your essay and
we’re going to do that by providing to the college everything that they are
asking for and so let’s talk about what
those things are so here’s that what goes into the application folder we have
the application itself we have your academic record your transcripts your test scores your resume in your essay
and your recommendation letters so let’s break it down so the application is
going to have your personal information there your name address phone number what high school you are attending and
what classes you took and what grades you have throughout high school you
don’t need everything to get your applications submitted so you don’t need
everything to get your application submitted the three things that you need to get submitted
is the application that essay and the application fee
the remaining three things your transcripts your test scores and your
recommendation letters those can be sent out at a later point so we want to get these three things in before August 15th
so the next thing that’s in your application folder is your academic record your transcripts you want to
double-check your transcripts make sure that they are accurate and if not get
those corrected so I have a story to tell you about John John applied to one
of the state colleges he was admitted he sent in his acceptance and his deposit any thought he was done after he
graduated high school his family went on a big trip I believe they went to Greece
he had a great time and when he returned in early July he noticed that he did not
have his class schedule set up it turns out that the high school forgot to send
in his final transcripts and because of that the college said you never
graduated from high school we can’t give you any classes because you haven’t
graduated from high school he had to get that whole thing corrected and it was a big headache and finally got his final
transcripts submitted to the college we want to we want to verify that the
college has received all of this information what really ended up happening was the counselor did submit
his transcripts but sent it to the wrong College you want to double-check all that stuff and stay on top of that and
I’ll send you text messages in email reminders about that stuff the next
thing that’s in your application folder is your essay jennifer is going to talk
to you in a moment or two about your essay and give you some ideas on that with the essay on the common app it says
that it has to be between 250 and 650 words so we cannot submit the essay if
it’s more than 651 words it allow us it actually will delete those extra words and if it’s less than 249
words it it won’t even allow us to submit it the submit button won’t pop up
so whatever those parameters are we want to adhere to those parameters some
colleges don’t have an essay and then some colleges will waive the essay
requirements for certain students which is why it’s important now to reach out
to each of the colleges that you are going to apply to and fill out the
request for information form because one of the hidden benefits might be they
waive the application fee or they waive the essay requirements the next thing
that’s in your application folder is your test scores I already mentioned that it is a good idea to submit test
scores even if the colleges are saying that those are not going to be required
for this semester or for this next school year so when you fill out the
common app you will self report your grades and you will self report your
test scores the college is going to want to see official test scores and they were going they are also going to want
to see official transcripts so with official test scores you would log on to
College Board or you will log on to a CT a CT student or G click on send my
scores and follow those parameters the
next thing that’s in your application folder is your activities and extracurricular involvement this is
called your resume we want to give them detailed information about you all of
your activities and I encourage you to have your resume completed before you
start filling out the activity section on the common app because you can use your resume as reference as you’re
filling out the common app the next thing that’s
the application folder is supplemental information and it could be a supplemental essay or if you are
applying as an art major they may want to see some of your artwork or if you’re
applying as a music major they may want to see some they may want to hear some of your musical talents when Jake
applied to colleges he applied to
Pepperdine and he applied as a business major immediately after he applied he
sent an email to his recruiter contact at Pepperdine that said hey I am super
excited I just applied to your college and my and my resume is attached okay
the reason why we want to attach your resume and send it is two things one is
to demonstrate interest and the second is because on the common app were
limited to 150 characters and we’re also limited to 650 words with your resume we
don’t have those limitations so we can give some detailed information about
your activities and all that stuff so Jake sent that email with his resume and he also mailed a CV a demo CD of his
musical talents and and included a letter in there hey I just want to give you this here’s me playing a couple
different songs and stuff a combination of all of those things and he ended up
getting a yes you can come to Pepperdine the next thing that’s in your
application folder is your recommendation letters those are going to be from your teacher your counselors
so on the common app or on Naviance you’ll type in the teacher’s name and
the teachers email address click on send and then your teacher will get a notification hey JD applied to colleges
click on this link to fill out the recommendation form several years ago
one of my students applied to a prestigious college in Chicago and he got a preliminary acceptance
letter sometime in December congratulations you’re admitted and the letter said we’re missing a couple
things and one of those things is your final transcripts we know that that’s going to be true at every college final
transcripts will be sent out in June and the other thing that’s as stated on this
letter was we have not received your recommendation letters well he went and
he talked to his teacher in high school and asked the question can you write me
a great recommendation letter enough is exactly how it would phrase it can you write me a great recommendation letter
the teacher agreed and then the teacher promptly forgot and the student probably
forgot several months later in March he received a second letter from the
college and I’ll paraphrase it it said too bad so sad you’re not coming here we
never got a recommendation letter that could have been easily corrected have you followed up and sent in his had his
teacher send in his recommendation letter typically it’s your junior year the junior teacher that will write your
recommendation letter so think in the back of your mind which teacher loves me the most that’s who you’re going to ask and if
you have not asked now is a good time to do that you can send them an email hey
I’m going to be applying to colleges in the fall can you write me a great recommendation letter and if they reply
yes then in the fall remind them and move forward with that so two ways to
send recommendations hard copy or electronic again I recommend doing electronically type in the teacher’s
name click on send and they’ll get that information also on the call map is a
spot where it says you waive your rights or do you not waive your rights I’m
going to encourage you to click on I waive my rights reason is because
colleges would prefer that and when you waive your rights basically what you’re
doing is you’re allowing the teacher – right whatever it is that they want
which is why it is important to ask the question can you write me a great
recommendation letter and clicking I
waive my rights looks better in the college’s eyes if you haven’t filled out
the request for information form please do that and use an appropriate email
address what I mean by appropriate email address is one that you control not a
school issued email address the reason is because if you use a high school
issued email account they’re going to turn that account off right after you
graduate and I can promise you that the college is going to send you an important email in June and that email
will be fill out this form so we can match you with a roommate or fill out
this information so we can put you in a dorm or sign up for orientation or something and if that gets sent to an
email that bounces you won’t get it and always check your grammar spelling and
punctuation on all of the emails or any thing that you send to any college your
list of colleges should be appropriate for you and what I mean by appropriate for you is that your grades and your
test scores match or are in the upper third of what are admitted to that
particular College and again if you have some questions on creating your college
list please do talk to me I’ll be happy to help you out with that the common app
at the conclusion of Jennifer’s presentation she’s going to start in just a moment I’m going to email you a
link to the video on how to fill out the common app and how to really maximize this program and you can fill out one
application and then click on whichever colleges you want to apply to and that
will go to those appropriate colleges so I want to conclude my presentation
and interested to Jennifer in just a moment and here’s my last slide and it
is President Ronald Reagan and his statement is trust but verify trust but
verify when Reagan was president in the 80s the United States was in a cold war
with Russia and Reagan got President Gorbachev to sign an agreement and that
agreement was that Russia was going to dismantle all of their nuclear bombs and
we the United States we were going to dismantle all of our nuclear bombs we
signed it they signed it everybody was happy but Reagan said trust but verify
we the United States are going to trust you Russia that you will dismantle you
nuclear bombs but we are going to verify and we’re going to verify by sending
someone over to inspect to make sure that you have dismantled your nuclear bombs and yes Russia you can send
somebody over here to inspect that we the United States have dismantled our nuclear bombs so that is our theme for
applying to colleges trust but verify we are going to trust that the college has
received your application your transcripts your test scores your recommendation letters everything but we
are going to verify and we are going to verify by sending an email or calling
the recruiter hey have you had have you received everything or we’re going to
verify by checking your student portal when you submit your application you
will get a letter or an email to set up
your student portal for each of the colleges that you’ve applied to so if you apply to ten colleges you will send
it set up ten different student portals when you log on to the student portal it
will show on there a to-do list
receive list so on some point on the on that page on the student portal it’ll
say application received SI received c
received transcripts pending recommendation letters received so
whatever it is on there it’ll stayed on there hey we haven’t received these things please send these things in and
then you all send in the appropriate things so I will send out a email and
text message reminder periodically remember to check your student portal and check your student portal at least
once a month okay so our theme is trust
but verify so let’s bring up Jennifer
slide here
and I want to introduce you to Jennifer
so come on over Jennifer happy so this
is Jennifer and a little information about Jennifer is she has taught
kindergarten through high school English one of her favorite things to do is to
read magazines and books with a red pen and circle all the errors I like to kind
of joke about that but that kind of has carried over towards me and I’m
currently reading a book that was originally published in 1908 and has been republished and reprinted multiple
times and I’m reading through the book and like there was a word in there Mike Wow that word is kind of spelled weird
maybe they just spelled it weird back in the early 1900s and in another paragraph
was the exact same word that was spelled correctly like oh man there’s a type of wing here so Jennifer is going to be
very mindful as she’s looking at your essays and all that stuff so again I do
want to introduce you to Jennifer so go ahead and take it away Jennifer okay good morning everyone hope you’re doing
well on this happy Monday morning we’re going to talk about the purpose of a
college essay so what is the purpose of a college essay it’s to give the college
enough information to accept you so the college essay is also you a unique
opportunity to give the admissions officer a window into your personality it’s a story of you which leads the
admin rep wanting to know more about you it will also showcase your writing skills it will also convey your ability
to organize thoughts and write in a coherent manner
ologists are looking for a student who has a desire to learn is passionate and
teachable alright so in essence your
essay is a short story of you right it should reflect and compliment your
application it’s all the additional information about you and your
personality facets of yourself that can’t be found just by reporting
information your college application itself is just the facts your essay is
again your personality and other interesting details about you your life
what you’ve done what you’ve been through that is not reflected on your application so the first thing I’m going
to do is introduce you to the 2021 common app essay prop prompts going to
read through them and then give you some information on each the first one reads
some students have a background identity interest or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be
incomplete without it if this sounds like you then please share your story all right that’s super simple it’s about
all about you number two the lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be
fundamental to later success recount a time when you faced a challenge setback
or failure how did it affect you and what did you learn from the experience
so number two this question is a great question we all have gone through
obstacles the one thing that we need to keep in mind is that the college just
doesn’t want to know about it they want to know how did you handle that challenge how did you take
responsibility and overcome said challenge oops
number three reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or
idea what prompted your thinking what was the outcome again how did you handle
that challenge how did you take responsibility and overcome that time when you
or challenge that belief idea this doesn’t have to be a moment to think it could be as simple of someone telling
you that you’re not good enough and you worked hard to prove them wrong so what you would do in your essay is you would
take that tenacity that you shared to overcome that challenge and show how you
would applied that to the other areas of your life both in and outside of school okay number four describe a problem
you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve it can be an intellectual challenge a research query an ethical
dilemma anything that is a personal importance no matter the scale explain
its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution okay
again this is a great prompt the problem that students have is they want to focus
on something that’s too big and too broad to write about okay so what I want
you to do is dial it down to yourself okay to your community your school your
family so for example if you wanted to talk about world hunger dial it down to
the hunger problem of your community what action or contribution have you personally taken to help others from
going hungry okay so start small great number five
discuss and accomplish a accomplishment event or realization that sparked a
period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others again if you write about this idea right
on the topic of what you learned what knowledge you took away from this event and how you’ve applied it to your life
number six describe a topic idea or concept you find so engaging that it
makes you lose all track of time why does it captivate you or who do you turn to when you want to learn more again
take the topic write how you have applied this already or how you will apply it in college and Beyond and
number seven share an essay on any topic of your choice it can be one you’ve
already written one that responds to a different prompt or one of your own design okay
again colleges want to know if you’ll be able to learn grow contribute to and can
navigate while you’re at school make sure your topic has a positive purpose hey I that is the one thing I want to
emphasize no matter what you write about what has happened make sure that you
find a positive purpose okay let’s see
so your application will consist of your grades test scores and some interests
okay the but we want to provide is
something more than that okay so when you start thinking about your essay
subjects topics that you’re interested in talking about or telling an admissions officer you know maybe you
can start off by thinking my the kind of print do I want to tell them that I’m always on time not disappointing a friend maybe I want
to showcase the fact that you can always count on me in a crisis I always finish my work maybe the one who finds positive
in situation maybe I’m the person who has a million great ideas these are just simple ideas for you to think about
because really most of your essays will convey that this is just another prompt
or another idea for you to think of a story that you would work into your XA
all right um what I’m going to do is actually read a couple of essays for you
I’m going back to the essay prompts this first one these are these are all
working essays this first one is a nice
basic basic essay and as I read it I want you to think about a few things I
want you to listen and listen to the progression that this essay it talks
about okay the progression that this student has made again it’s a working
essay so it won’t be perfect but you’ll get the idea over the past six years that I have been babysitting I
have noticed one major complaint among parents of the children I watch their car seats are hard to install and use
correctly and are a nuisance in their everyday lives with their children many of these parents resort to installing
and using their car seats improperly because car seats are complicated they also do not realize a car seats
tremendous important importance this is one major reason that car accidents are the number one killer of children in the
United States I have been researching child passenger safety since 2006 when I
learned of this frightening statistic child passenger safety is my passion the loss of a child is tragic and something
no family should ever have to experience especially as a result of something preventable like injuries from a car
accident in an effort to try and turn these numbers around I plan to become a child passenger safety technician when I
turn 18 I would be trained to install car seats and in turn teach parents to install their specific car seats and use
them correctly however I would like to take my passion for child passenger safety one step further by becoming an
engineer I hope to one day help advance the field of child passenger safety working with the child seat companies my
main goal would be to create an extremely easy to use par seat that is safe reliable and hard to misuse I hope
that this could reverse the statistic of car accidents being the number one child killer of children in the United States
when I know that I have saved just one child from death as a result of a car accident I will feel my goal has been
accomplished through public education improved child passenger safety laws and
improved child seats I believe a revolution can be made in keeping children safer in the car I would be
thrilled to play a part in that revolution car accidents do not have to be the number one killer of children in
America all right so I really like this essay it’s simple it’s direct it shows
the progression she starts from babysitting notices parents complaining
about car seats and children and things like that and these students wanted to go into end
cheering so she decided to take that idea and work on it and combine her to
basically passions which is children and engineering okay
this prompt is great because it answers prompt number one she has an interest
that is meaningful this prompt also apps there’s lesson of question number two
the lessons we take from obstacles we encounter so the obstacle she encountered was installing passenger
seat child passenger safety seats um number three reflect on a time when you
questioned or challenged a belief right or idea she does okay she doesn’t
believe that kids should die in the car as a result of an accident okay um
number four or actually number three a problem you’ve solved or you’d like to
solve her big problem her big challenge is child passenger safety so what has
she done okay she’s under 18 she’s telling in her essay she says I plan to
become a child passenger safety technician when I turn 18 hey this is what she’s doing number five an
accomplishment or event or a realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or
others again that would be babysitting and child passenger safety number six
describe a topic idea or concept you find so engaging again this essay can
answer that prompt and number seven and essay on any topic of your choice the
same so what I want to tell or show you through this is whatever essay topic
whatever essay you want to write you’ll be able to answer a prompt okay so don’t
let those prompts get you down scare you a little insert adjectives here alright
that’s just one example of an essay and every essay has its own
voice so I’d like you I’d like to read you one more essay actually I have two
more she doesn’t have time of course I have enough time all right this next one reads I’ve never been in a black box
theater before complete with black walls black floors at a stage my school’s drama room looked like an actor’s
paradise when I walked into it on my first day of high school I wasn’t an actor though I was a quiet freshman who
needed a fun fine arts credit so I’d signed up for technical theater the teacher mr.
flowers immediately put us to work we learned how to use power tools work sound boards build set pieces and more
I loved it every day I looked forward to tech class my hour-long xscape from the
traditional classroom setting every day I was on my toes practically begging flowers to give me another thing to do
midway through the year flowers handed me an invitation to the annual thespian conference usually only
drama club members were allowed to attend but flowers insisted that I come along I accepted his offer agreeing to
spend two days surrounded by a bunch of people I’d never met stepping onto the bus to Descon I was greeted by dozens of
enthusiastic high schoolers walking into the convention center I discovered thousands of them everyone was so
friendly open and supportive of each other I grown up in gifted programs filled with awkward introvert introverts
and these drama kids were nothing like my classmates the energy they shared was foreign to me yet it felt so comfortable
when I returned home from the conference I couldn’t stop talking about it I’d taken a step into the unknown and I had
no intention of going back from that point forward drama became an integral part of my life
I kept going back for the people everybody cared for each other in spite of their differences no matter how bad
my day had been I could walk into rehearsal and instantly feel like I matter drama was my safe haven somewhere
where I could be myself and not be judged for it drama became an outlet where I could express myself in ways I’d
never done before it inspired me to speak in places where I’d usually stay quiet and socialize with people I barely
knew I listen to what others had about the world even if I disagreed with their opinions I learned to appreciate
the good parts of their characters getting to know people with a diverse array of identities beliefs and
backgrounds showed me there is much more to the world than what it existed within my own perception so I started stepping outside the bubble
I’d made around myself I tried things I hadn’t before like entering a film contest so to my
surprise at one I was awarded a GoPro Hero for my first proper video camera
when I held the camera in my hands I saw a world open before me a whole new way to express myself I experimented with
this newfound medium gathering clips of my daily life and editing them to upbeat jazzy compilations I adored making these
videos and sharing them with the world though they were missing one crucial thing a story the community I discovered
at thefts can help me find value and others experiences I learned that at the end of the day we’re all just people
main characters – seven and a half billion unique stories some stories have been already told again and again but
there are also so many other stories yet to be shared I want to use film to open people’s eyes the same way drama open
mind I want to tell stories that haven’t been told yet like tales about mental health odd hobbies or deep societal
issues once my audience hears what my films have to say maybe they too can learn to appreciate the good and other
people regardless of their differences ok I’m going to skip ahead we’re going
to pass the bad essay topics the writing application you guys are so lucky and
I’m going to talk about highly selective schools all right some of you are
applying to highly selective schools all right you’ve either talked to JD about that or you’ll let me know when we talk
one-on-one on the phone today all right so when you’re considering your topics
and considering your essay you want to
outline in both your extra Korea extracurricular activities that were your resume and your essay that you are
highly okay and what is highly driven oops highly driven is that you rally others
to a cause greater than your individual effort all right highly driven means
that you have great ideas and act upon them instead of wishing or waiting for the right opportunity highly driven
means that you work to succeed and inside outside of school I want you to
note that colleges are not looking for perfection they’re looking for motivated
students as an example we had a student who wanted to go to medical school to be
a doctor and research cancer ok cancer was very important to her finding a cure
very important to her so she rallied a walk for Saint Jude she noted that she
had some insert internships and cancer facilities research facilities ok and
she talked about that again colleges are not looking for perfection they’re looking for motivated students students
who do something outside of school we also had some students who went to
school that the students were interested in what was it mountain bike racing
loved racing mountain bikes so what they did is they went in they formed a mountain bike racing Club turn and
turned it into a team so that’s another way two different ways that you can showcase that you are highly driven and
rallying others to it cost greater than your individual effort teamwork is
always about that right um I’d like to read one more essay this is essay that
got one of our students into Duke which is a very selective school and this
essay he outlines that he is of course highly driven and does something outside
the mainstream teenage activity right I woke to the buzzing of my alarm it’s
6:00 a.m. on a Monday again this is a working essay I’m 8 years old and
anxious to sneak into the family room I walked tippy-toe slowly opened my bedroom door power on the TV and
immediately hold down the mute button to prevent even a peep from emerging I then turn on the subtitles to have some
semblance of the plot my focus is suddenly broken when my alarm buzzes again I snagged the remote
power off the TV rushed back into my room hop into bed and pull up the covers 5 minutes later the car door opens 5
minutes later the door opens and my bedroom is flooded with light I carry on this evasive routine for another year
always willing to sacrifice a few hours of sleep to watch the adventure of Ash Ketchum in the Kanto Pokemon region I
begged my mom to take me to second-hand stores and rundown strip malls to buy memorabilia from this show specifically
I obsess over the trading card game associated with the brand Pokemon eventually I begin to mature and grow
and grow tired of franchise I move on to activities that are more popular among
10 year olds at age 15 I was begrudgingly spring-cleaning and found my childhood stash of Pokemon cards his
first old memories and I began to scour the internet to research the cards in my collection some of it were worth
unimaginable amounts of money wanting to earn some cash I went out on the limb
created a web page and started my own eBay business buying and selling cards opening a business and developing a
clientele was difficult since I had no proven track record people were hesitant to deposit money into my PayPal account
initially I allowed customers to pay upon receipt of their package eventually I require payment in advance but would
direct message customers with videos of myself dropping their packages into the mailbox to verify shipment in the
beginning my profit margins were razor thin and I quickly learned it was more profitable at less work to sell one rare
card versus 10 common cards I developed a strategy to economically increase my
rare card inventory by using a micro scale two-way card packages in retail stores prior to purchase
since rare cards contain more ink they’re heavier and packages containing rare cards weigh more
I only purchased the heaviest card packs my mom questions whether such behavior
was ethical but I chalked it up to being a resourceful business owner to further increase my profits I have my rare cards
inspected by a third party professional grading card companies that rate and certifies the condition of trading cards
on eBay rare card certified and gentlement conditions sell for huge premiums more than offsetting the extra
effort and expense of obtaining such certification over the past three years I’ve worked hard to grow my business and
have completed more than 400 transactions across 19 countries five continents and I’ve gross over just five
thousand dollars in sales I have also earned a 100 percent positive feedback rating on eBay and now
one of the most trusted members of the Pokemon community despite these impressive sales figures my
eight-year-old self would be more proud that I finally assembled that entire 1999 Pokemon base set of 102 cards a
feat that once seemed impossible due to the cost of these limited edition cards standing sick but 7 inches tall at times
I feel childish buying and selling trading cards intended for grade schoolers however I now realize that I’m
still a kid at heart and I embrace the nostalgia of my childhood guilt-free today when I hold a rare card in my hand
I still experience that same wonderful rush of excitement as when I was a sneaky eight-year-old okay
all right probably where I’d ask if you have any questions but instead I’m going
to let you know about four previous essay topics which include medical
interest computer coding music robotics farming driving synchronized swimming volunteering and cooking okay so many to
choose from right make sure your essay topics are appropriate and slightly
current you can start when you’re younger and progressed to now or you can
start when you’re in high school either one okay um a note before I finish I
just want to let you know that in my opinion the most popular essay topic for
this year will be related to the pandemic Cova 19 current protests school
closures etc if you want to stand out in
a sea of applicants do not write about any of these okay
simply because your life started well before then okay and again most students
are going to write about the most current thing the most current topic at hand so the essay readers will be
flooded with very similar essays keep your essays personal keep them
interesting keep them about you keep them about keep them positive write about something a
short slice of your life something you’ve learned something you want to learn okay an obstacle you’ve overcome
in the past and again have you how have you applied that to your life today
let’s see Oh while we talk if you are or
you plan to apply to a highly selective college let me know so we can discuss some strategies as I listen to your
essay topics the purpose of me calling you is to a few ideas back and forth just get that
going I’ll start as soon as possible so
please be patient if you have to wait a little bit beyond your a lot of timeframe and while you’re waiting for
me to call what I’d like you to do is write out a list of two or three ideas for your essay topics if you want to
start writing a short paragraph that illustrates what you want to see what
you want the essay rate reader to see okay and also to see if this might be a topic that you would write for your
essay I think that’s about it thanks for watching thanks for listening and here’s
JD so thank you very gentle have heard
I’m talking about essays I just want to conclude with a couple comments and then
jennifer is going to start making phone calls she will call each one of you and talk to you back to your ideas and get
you going with that and I’m few moments I’m going to send another email out please check your
email and that email will be a link to a video that I created on how to start
your commonhelp I also want to mention that the essay that Jennifer read about
the pokémon and the eBay business originally what we’ve said was just
right and he wrote and wrote and wrote and ended up submitting an essay that was like eight or nine pages to us and
we’re like awesome we want a lot of information and then from that we were
able to take bits and pieces of it and go okay we really like how you talked
about this let’s let’s expand on that or we really like how you talked about that let’s expand on that and we put those
kind of puzzle pieces together and helped him craft that as I so don’t worry about word count right now just
right and what we ended up doing with Alex’s essay was we ended up being able
to create two different essays out of that I explained that in the video that
I’m going to be sending so again Jennifer’s going to call you in just a
moment and if you do have any questions about any of this stuff please give me a call or send me an email I did see a couple
people post some questions on there I will reach out to you guys shortly thank
you very much we’ll be talking again