Admissions Officer Advice: Crafting the College Essay

Webinar Transcription

2022-07-20- Admissions Officer Advice: Crafting the College Essay

Hi, everyone. Welcome to CollegeAdvisor’s webinar on Admissions Officer Advice: Crafting the College Essay. To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start up with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q&A on the sidebar. You can download our slides and you can start to submit your questions in the Q&A tab.

Now let’s meet our panelist. Good evening everyone. My name is Ferrell Armstrong. I am a former admissions officer, uh, having served at the University of Georgia and most of my time was spent at Vanderbilt University where I was the head of International Admissions and later one of the five admissions committee members. Really excited to be with you this evening and, and look forward to kind of walking through the essay process.

Yes. And real quick, we just wanna have a quick poll. So what grade are you entering this fall? Eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th, or other. And other can be if you’re taking a gap year or if you’re a transfer student, and if you’re a parent on call, you can select the grade that your child is going into. And while we wait for those, um, to roll in, uh Ferrell can you tell us a bit about what sort of essays really stood out to you in the admissions process?

Yeah, I mean, I, I think students that could reveal them true their true self, right. I, I think so many students today are unconsciously they’re, they’re ambiguous in how, what they’re presenting about themselves. And they, I think they need to be a little bit more open and definitely gonna go into greater detail on that here in a minute.

But just the other thing is just making me, making me feel like I got to know you. That makes a huge difference. Definitely. And it’s looking like we have 1% eighth graders, 1% ninth graders starting early of 18%, 10th graders, 14% 11th graders and 61% 12th graders making up the majority and you can control sides.

Cool. Well, you know, I think the number one thing that we’ll start talking about when it comes to doing your essays is start early. Um, before I even jump into this. What I’ll tell you is most students today aren’t starting early enough. Most students don’t wanna start their essays for college until after their 11th grade year is completed and they wanna do it in between 11th and 12th grade.

My problem with that is, is that if you apply to enough schools or I should say the proper amount of schools, which I would say is about 10 to 12, you’re looking at about 40 to 50 essays. By the time you apply to those schools, because the average school today will be making you complete four supplemental.

However, it can be as many as 10 per school. Uh, so with that being the case, it’s important to give yourself the most time. Um, a while back there was a research study done, and this was a couple years ago, but it was, uh, essentially showing that students that started writing their essays by the start of January of their 11th grade year, had an 18% higher acceptance rate to college.

And frankly, in, in my own experience of doing this for nearly 13 years, I can tell you that I, I can understand that because I could always tell the difference in an essay that was started earlier versus later, because they were so much more developed and more robust. Um, they were obviously, you know, polished and they, they really came to a thoughtful conclusions.

Whereas students that were started later, you could sense that they were rushed. There were a lot of in, you know, you know, inconclusive endings to these essays and a lot of information that was put into it that we were left, lacking and wanted to see more of. So the greatest piece of advice when it comes to essay development is give yourself time, uh, do not be swayed by people that tell you that essays change every year.

Frankly, this is gonna be a bold statement, but that is someone that doesn’t really know the process. Not every school will change their essays. Every year. Most schools will reuse their essays up to three years at a time to that end, if a school’s using an essay right now that they’re in the beginning of their cycle with that means if you’re a rising junior, most likely you can reuse that essay for your senior year.

All you have to do is pick up the phone and confirm that with the school and they’ll tell you so never be afraid to do that right. Weaponize yourself by. The gift of time, and you’re gonna allow yourself to take a lot of pressure off of your shoulders in this process. Um, but you know, that being the case, what do we wanna know?

What do we as admissions officers? What do we wanna get outta these essays? Well, for me, I think that no hands or, you know, holds or anything like that. I need to get to know you. And I think the best way for you to allow me to get that information is you need to be sharing what you’re passionate about, right.

Sharing what you’re passionate about starts to gimme an idea of perhaps why you’re wanting to come to my institution. I think at that same time, by being more detailed and, and trying to connect what you’re passionate about, perhaps to what you want outta life really starts to allow me to understand why my particular resources might be the right fit for you.

And then as you start to. You know, take forward steps to make this dream of yours occur. What are you willing to do to make it happen? Right? What, what organizations are you willing to join? What research are you trying to, you know, step into and find for yourself to continue to cut out your pathway, to where you want to go.

And then of course, what are you gonna do with it? Now? A lot of times, when I say, what are you gonna do with it? A lot of people seem to think that that’s the same thing as what you want out of life. There are actually two different things, what you want outta life, and then what you do with. Can be two completely different answers.

So what are you trying to do with your medical interest? What are you trying to do with your anthropology interest? I wanna understand that, right? Um, for the families that may be here this evening and this your son or daughter, uh, may not know what they are, you know, in pursuit of yet. Right. The key here that I should have implemented is what do you think you want out of life?

Right? I’m not saying that. Bad to go undecided with your applications, but it’s certainly not the strongest way. So if you are a more defined student, if you can give these schools a more definitive pathway of what you’re pursuit of and why that leads you through them, that’s gonna give them a greater reason to be admitting you.

And that’s the key thing that we’re looking to get out of this essay, which boils down to essentially addressing your brand. Your brand is essentially these four bullet points that you see on the screen in front of you, right? The brand is so important because the brand is what essentially defines you and gives me a purpose to continue the conversation on your behalf as an admissions committee, and look for a reason to admit you, your brand gives me purpose your essay establishes that for me perfectly now, with that being the case, there’s, you know, a lot of different types of essays that you may be asked to write about.

So let’s kind of go through these for a second and address some of these and I’ll try to be at. Detailed as possible. So one of the more common I think misunderstandings is we, we have a lot of students that come to me and they’ll say, Hey, like my essay just goes to every school. Right? What that individual may be referring to is the personal statement that you’re gonna complete for common app and coalition.

Um, you will also still have a personal statements. If you are a UC applicant to that end, what I will tell you is that when you’re writing these personal statements, you do not want to be unique to one school. Okay. You want to keep everything about your personal statement, more generic to school. You wanna let your supplemental essays be the school specific ones, which you’ll get to, but within your personal statement, this is your only time as an applicant to truly share your voice on a subject of your choosing, right?

Completely your choosing that’s the best and only way for me to really hear your voice. And that’s what is such a, a great opportunity to allow me to get to. Right. The more that you allow me to get to know you the better and more confident I’m gonna feel that perhaps we have the right foundation to support you here at my school.

And that’s what the personal statement is gonna let you do. Then, as you start to move into your supplemental essays, you will have your school specific ones. This is where I find students making probably their biggest mistake in the application process. And that is instead of writing 40 or 50 unique essays, students are.

Students are looking to write six or seven essays. And instead of writing the full 40, why that matters is when you’re only writing six or seven, most students at that point are creating essay templates. And they’re just changing the name of the school, the name of a professor, you know, maybe one or two things that you found on the school’s website after 15 minutes of exploring it and students and families think that that’s enough to suffice.

It’s not okay. Uh, the more selective schools not to sound rude or arrogant, we’re trained. To catch that, uh, I’m, I’m a fire pilot. Uh, but when you read 6,000 essays a year as most college admissions officers will, what you’re gonna find is they have the ability to understand if you’re being unique to them.

Or if you’re not, I want you to tailor that essay to my school by incorporating your knowledge of my school’s culture and community in your response. If you can authenticate who you are within the idea of my community, why wouldn’t we take you? It’s one of the greatest things that you can do for yourself.

So to that end, after we kind of move through the school specific essays, you might be asked, obviously, you know why my school then you’ll have a lot of schools asking why this particular major right schools wanting to figure out why you want to particularly study that program within their institution.

I, I think that in of itself creates a problem. Uh, I, I think students today, Are sells a direct pathway, uh, by answering why that major at that school. If the topic is simply, why do you wanna study econ? You need to incorporate why you wanna study econ at that particular school in your response schools like to have their, they wanna celebrate themselves.

And so you need to get me to believe that that particular place, my institution, that you’re applying to is the best place for you to study your chosen. That’s important then of course, we’re gonna talk about modern events and perhaps opinionated topics. This is where I think people easily get themselves into trouble.

Uh, and this is what I want to encourage you to be very careful about. Um, whenever you’re writing an essay, as much as admissions officers are trained to, or, and told to keep their personal beliefs and values out of reviewing one, you cannot predict the human psyche subconsciously or. So you need to be very careful about what you’re willing to share about yourself and, and what you’re willing to talk about in regards to current events and other things that you might be seeing in the news or elsewhere on the internet.

So it is very important, uh, that when addressing modern events or, you know, current topics of discussion, current opinionated, PI, uh, pieces that you are giving yourself a balance and you’re not being too personal within your response. Cause you certainly don’t want to offend somebody that might be reading it.

That’s for your protection.

Okay. So in terms of standing out with your essay, what is the factor? What are the factors gonna be that make that occur? Well, first and foremost, you need to do what most students won’t. And let’s talk about yourself. Uh, I, I can certainly appreciate students today that are more of a, from a humble, you know, upbringing where students are taught to be respectful, you know, show, you know, consideration to others and, and, and not bring a fair amount of attention to themselves.

That is, you know, certainly something that I appreciate. It, it’s certainly something that I I’m trying to raise my own children, uh, to do, to be, you know, respectful to all others and not draw a great amount of attention to themselves specifically. However, However, unfortunately that can sometimes backfire on students within the college application space because they won’t naturally promote themselves.

I wanna say this as cleaning and clear as I possibly can. This is a competition. Okay. And if you are not willing to promote yourself, We are never gonna find out about you to begin with you are the one that creates my attention on you. You bring my attention to use what I should have said, excuse me. And with that being the case, you need to understand that there is a, a certain level that you need to be going to within your essays.

Most students in, instead of opening up and allowing us to get to know them. They’re gonna shut those doors of, you know, personal revelation and they’re not gonna let us in. You need to become vulnerable. And by becoming vulnerable in these essays and being detail detailed, you really start to humanize yourself and allow me to feel like I’ve gotten to know you when I start to feel that way.

Now I’m starting to understand how we’re gonna, how we’re gonna benefit by your presence, perhaps where you’re gonna be fitting in. And perhaps, you know why we’re gonna. Be looking to you to promote your story in the future, because we think you might have a great relationship with Dr. Underwood specifically, if you can get me thinking like that, right.

Thinking of who you’re gonna know and interact with specifically, you’re creating a level change for yourself that most applicants never will. And that all comes down to you opening up and talking about yourself, right? It’s the only time we hear your voice. And I know I’ve already said that, but I, the reason I wanna emphasize that is very simple.

Until you, let me hear your voice and, and detail who you are. You’re just knocking my door in the middle of the night, asking to be let in. And I don’t know you. And my first question would be after that is if it was 1:00 AM in the morning and you saw me for the first time, not a good look by the way, would you open that door to me?

I’m gonna go with no. Okay. Don’t feel bad. Uh, so totally fine. I’ll judge you later and I’m joking. But my, my point here is the following. My job as an admissions officer is to make the best informed decision of which students we think are gonna contribute to the community, to the culture of our school.

They’re gonna help support it and better it, you know, and allow it to grow into the future. That’s on you to get me to believe that now certainly don’t over promote yourself, be confident in who you are, never take away from the individual that you are and, and the, and the person that you know, you’re here to be on this.

But I certainly don’t want you to add to it ever. Um, I think most students won’t add to it. I think more students are gonna take away. Don’t do that. Okay. Uh, be the individual that you are, because frankly, if, if you’re promoting yourself at a certain level and you’re perhaps under yourself, and then I read something in your letters of recommendation and the teacher that’s written this for you is kind of describing somebody else entire.

It’s gonna cause a debate in the admissions committee. Right? Well, hold on a second here, like the teacher says this, or the kids saying this about themselves, you gotta make sure that these essays are representing your true self so that those letters of recommendations do what they’re intended to do.

And that’s to back you up in what you’re saying about yourself throughout your entire application. So I hope that makes sense, but to me, confidence is key. The essays and the entire application process were always my favorite part to review. Uh, I, I think it was certainly the greatest part for me. I got the great of it.

You found out about all of, um, different things that students experienced from comedic situations. Um, unfortunately to, to tragic situations, but it it’s those experiences and the, and the human behind them when they can share that to. That allows me to feel like that we’re gonna benefit by that presence.

So I wanna encourage you to make sure that you’re promoting yourself fully. And honestly, now let’s, let’s talk about the no-nos right. I should have entitled this slide, the no-nos instead of common mistakes, but, um, the reality here is you can very easily make some. Pretty big mistakes in the college application space.

Um, and the essay is probably the worst part to do it. If you’re asking my personal opinion. Um, when I talk about promoting yourself right. In, in the previous slide, um, I, I think one of the reasons so many students are afraid to do it is because they’re afraid of coming across as rude and arrogant. And, and again, like I said earlier, I certainly appreciate that concern.

As long as you use the correct tone, that’s never gonna be the case, but if you’re using an incorrect tone, which some students do that can really work against you. So I want you to be cognizant of the tone that you’re putting into these essays, make sure that when someone else reads these essays and by the way that should happen, you should never have submitted your essays to college without having, you know, one or two people review them, make sure that other people aren’t being turned off by how you’re.

About yourself, right? Promoting achievements and experiences. Um, you utilized the correct tone to bring just the right amount of attention to you without overdoing it. Okay. Now the, the second point here kind of goes back to the last point of the previous slide, uh, politics. Now I am ironically, I was a political science major and I am an a non-political guy.

I not a fan of politics at all. Uh, but to that, Politics in and of itself, you should leave it out of your essays if you can, unless it is a very specific topic asking for, you know, your response to be political nature, I would avoid sharing your own personal opinions. Um, and that can be difficult to do, especially with current times being what they are.

Um, but again, you do not know who’s on the other side of that application reading and reviewing you. So in order to protect yourself, it’s, it’s easier to go the middle road and avoid going left to right. And talking about politics in your essays. Now I, I fancy myself, uh, a fan of the dad jokes. Okay. I, uh, I try to throw ’em in here and there.

My wife thinks I’m terrible. It’s probably true. I’ve accepted my fate of just being a halfway decent dad joker. Uh, but the point here is, is that don’t be a first time comedian for the love of the world. If you are not funny, or if you are unsure if you’re funny, don’t make your college essays the first attempt.

And I, I mean, I could go on about this for 10 minutes alone. Um, you don’t know how someone’s gonna take that sometimes. And if you’re lobbing out a more, you know, dry joke or some dry humor, um, that starts to then go back to talking about the incorrect tone, right? And now someone can’t tell if you’re being serious or if you’re being, trying to be funny within your essay.

So I, if you’re not naturally funny, uh, If you don’t know that it’s just best to avoid making any kind of joke. Okay. I feel like McKenzie’s about to die here for my, my jokes being weaves in here. I know they’re terrible. So to that end, my favorite thing to talk about, leave your texting language out of it.

Okay. Um, I don’t wanna see emojis and yes, I have seen emojis in college essays before I will deny you. Ooh, I will deny you if I see that, um, I will see L. um, when I was younger and back in my day, we initially used to refer to that as Lowell. Now it’s LOL and I’m only 34, so I’m, I’m getting old quick. Uh, but my point here is, is you need to use the modern English language.

Okay. And for that matter, it’s not even that modern anymore, according to Websters, but the point being. Do not use abbreviations, LOL haha. Um, those types of again, texting abbreviations or text language, um, does not belong in a college assay. It frankly it makes me feel that you are underprepared. It makes me feel that you are not taking this seriously.

Um, and it frankly is gonna make me feel that you’re not gonna be able to handle the level of curricula that we offer at at this particular school. Right. That’s gonna be a pretty common, um, feeling. Now the, the last piece here is gonna be. Forgetting who your audience is, and I’ve kind of hit on this two times prior to this, but it’s, it’s something that should never be forgotten.

Um, you gotta remember that the person on the other side, that’s reviewing this, they’re making a decision on your application and it’s your college application that will affect one of the largest decisions of your life, arguably in the top three to four. Okay. And so to that end, you need to understand that they hold significant power over your future to some.

You want to be cognizant of that to make sure that you’re not saying something that is gonna perhaps sway them to go a different route with your application. Right. Be respectful as I would expect everybody to be humble, but don’t be so humbled where you don’t stand out as I’ve already said, but to that, and don’t who you’re speaking to, these are the people that are gonna be making the final decision on whether you’re admitted or denied to your dream.

And I don’t want that to be a case that was avoided or could have been avoided. I’m sorry. Simply because you went that rabbit hole and didn’t really think about who was reading it. Okay. So this process, you know, it’s, it’s challenging and, and it’s, it can be confusing. It can be overwhelming. And, and the number one thing I want to, you know, encourage you to do is I, I wanna make sure that you are.

Giving yourself the right amount of time by you giving yourself the right amount of time. You’re gonna have a better process because you’re able to rest and reset when you write these essays. If you’re able to write an essay and, and take a break in between, um, I will probably argue that most of the issues we’ve gone over tonight are gonna be more limited because at that point you’re able to proofread your work more frequently.

You’re able to kind of go back and polish it a lot. Then, if you put these essays off to the last second, and then you’re just rushing to get ’em done in time. That’s when the editing and proofreading kind of takes, it takes a hit and doesn’t happen. Um, so a lot of these things that we’ve gone over are completely preventable just by giving yourself the time to practically work through this process.

Um, but there’s a lot of questions that come with it. And if, if you’re starting to experience questions now, uh, and perhaps you’re concerned about if you, if you have enough on your plate in terms of extracurriculars, if you have enough on your plate in terms of the right course selection or. If you’re struggling to put topics that you think NTS you within these college application, um, process, let us know.

We’d be happy to talk with you about that. And so here at CollegeAdvisor, you know, we’re in a position to where we can provide one-on-one advising, um, to walk you through this process. Step by step. If you have some questions, right? If you are just entering this space now as a seventh or eighth grader, we actually start working with seventh graders, but the reason you should start this process, by getting your questions answered first is so you don’t start going down one line of approach and find out late in the game that you’ve been doing it all wrong to begin with.

The benefit of getting assistance is it’s gonna make you more efficient and it’s gonna make a lot more accurate with what you’re submitting to these schools to make you stand out. Our students have been accepted to every single one of the top 50 schools each of the last three years. Um, that means every single one of them.

So our agreeance it’s to help you, not, not frustrate you, we’re gonna be honest with you. And sometimes that can be frustrating, but it’s meant to make you more successful and more efficient in the process. But most importantly, to take that stress away. So if you have any questions whatsoever scan the barcode that you’ve seen right there, feel free to sign up for a meeting.

Don’t feel free, just do it. We’d love to speak with you. And we’ll sit down with you and have a chat about where you stand in the process and perhaps some things that you may need to adapt. If there’s a situation might benefit the sch help. We can talk about that with you then. Uh, but it’s been a pleasure speaking with you and I would be more than happy to answer any questions that might be out.

Yes. So that is the end of the presentation part of the webinar. I hope you found this information helpful. Remember again, that you can download the slide from the link in the handouts tab, as well as you can watch this webinar again on our website at app.CollegeAdvisor.com/webinars. Um, moving on to the live Q&A I’ll read your questions.

You submitted in the Q&A tab and read them aloud before our panelist gives you an answer as a heads up. If your Q&A tab, isn’t letting you submit questions, just make sure that you join the webinar through the custom link sent to your email and not from the webinar landing page. Also known as the website or else you won’t get all the features of big markers.

So just make sure that you join through that custom link now on with Q&A. As okay. So for our first question, a lot of students are worried about, um, COVID and, um, so they’re wondering, um, like if they should write about it. So one parent is asking my daughter feels like she hasn’t had much adversity to overcome and that everyone will write about COVID.

What should I tell her? And then also on the topic of adversity, can you talk to any, uh, to the students that may not have experienced something they’d consider adverse and how they can write about that or other things they can write? Don’t write about it. That’s the answer, um, that right there, and, and I’m not saying trying to be blunt or anything like that.

Um, but that is actually the number one topic that families, I’m sorry, that schools have been complaining about. And common common app has already stated that it will not be used next cycle. It’s gonna be used this cycle, unfortunately, but moving forward, next cycle, they’re removing the adversity question because it’s created a lot of concern.

Um, that students are feeling they had to have gone through something, uh, to be able to stand out in the process, right. Be able to talk about how they grew from such an adverse situation. Um, I would encourage you to avoid that topic and, and pick something else if I’m being complete. Um, because the vast majority students are talking about that.

Um, you don’t have to go through adversity to be admitted to college. Um, what I want you to do is I want you to be more direct, uh, and, and, and talk about what it. About, you know, what you’re passionate about or perhaps, you know, something that’s influenced you to pursue what you’re wanting to apply to school for, or the fact that you may be undecided, right?

If you are undecided, show how you’re trying and talk about how you’re trying to figure it out. Right. Um, and maybe it’s just, maybe it’s just defining who you are, right. Letting us to get to, just to know you and your personality. Um, but you don’t have to have gone through adversity to get into college.

To your point with everybody having gone through COVID there is no special treatment being given for that because everyone’s done it. So schools aren’t really doing much for it other than having delayed the test score requirements, but now many schools are going back. So I would encourage you to think of a different topic altogether, because it’s been a major point of contention with between colleges and the common app.

And you will most, not most likely you will see that topic go away next. Kind of going off of that since it is, um, kind of similar, should a student talk about a tragedy from their life? How can they do this without it being like a pity party, or just seem like they’re trying to like it? How can they write about that?

If that is something important? When is that a good topic to use? If it relates to what you wanna study? It, it makes sense. And, and the it’s ironic that you ask that question, cuz my favorite essay of all time, um, Is a tragic is actually a tragic situation. So, and essentially the student was talking about how he was on vacation and he was at the beach and he noticed all of a sudden that there was a group of people kind of pointing out to the water and someone was struggling.

They were having a hard time. And so he decides to run out and try to go, you know, assist this person. And he gets out there and he, he even describes in the essay. I remember this, he describes that he felt a presence off to his right. As he came up for a breath of air, he saw someone outta the corner of his eye that was also swimming out to try to help this person.

But when they got there, uh, the person had submerged and was, yeah. So they brought the body back in. They did try to resuscitate the person, but it, it did not, unfortunately, uh, go well and the person did succumb to drowning and most people go well that, well, that’s a sob story, but where he turned it was and goes, and it was that event that inspired me to make sure that I go to school every day to start preparing me for my future career as an emergency room, interventional surgeon.

Right. He said, I don’t wanna send a family member home, you know, in, in a position where they’re not, well, he goes, I wanna be doing everything I can to try to prevent. He said, because he didn’t know lifesaving techniques at that point in time, he didn’t know CPR, he didn’t know mouth to mouth. He helped bring the person in and other people tried, but he felt very UN not unqualified, but just unable to assist her in that moment on.

And that, that was kind of that motivating factor. That moment of this is what I want to do. Right. Um, so that was cool. Um, it’s a horrible story. It’s a very sad story. Um, we admitted him to Vanderbilt and, um, I, I thought he was gonna enroll and we, he didn’t, I picked up the phone, I called him. I was like, Hey man, You can enroll, like you’ve got a great scholarship.

He’s like, yeah, I’m going to duke. And I was like, it was defs great. Thanks so much. So but. True, true story. All that is a hundred percent true. Um, but I think that is a, a, a great kind of way to take a tragic situation and utilize it, cuz it can relate to why you’re applying to our school and, and what we have to offer you.

So kind of going off of that, I added this to the chat and I don’t think the chats get safe. So if you wanted any of that information, just copy and paste it. But I wrote a little, um, like formula mostly for like the why school, why program where it’s. That I came up with a few years ago. That goes, why, how and why, what and how so?

Pretty much, why you wanna go there or what you’re, why is your passion, um, what is, what you’re gonna do there and how is how you’re gonna take that and use it in the future, um, or to build or fulfill your goal. So if you wanted that, uh, you can take that, that just sounded like the same order. Uh, going on to the next question, you mentioned, uh, incorrect tone and then like different sort of language that shouldn’t be used.

So students asking what would qualify as incorrect tone. Can you, uh, elaborate. So it, to be honest, it is a little bit difficult to elaborate. Um, it just becomes situational to what you’re talking about. Right? Um, it, if you, if you’re talking about an instance you witnessed, so. Um, maybe you, you witness a car accident, right?

I’m, I’m just giving you something off the top of my head here, but you, you witnessed a car accident and the way that you describe how it affected you seems as if you didn’t really care that that’s a, an incorrect tone at that point. Right? Um, it, it shows that, you know, you don’t value, you know, others, right?

So that that’s a tone issue. Um, another instance would be, you know, not. Strong word here. But, uh, if you’re talking about a, you know, a situation where, you know, maybe there was a tragic situation and, uh, you don’t show reverence for the end, you know, what happened in the end? That that’s another way of, of kind of being taken with the wrong tone.

Um, when it comes down to, you know, the, the more personal focus essays, again, I am encouraging you to talk about yourself and promote. But it’s, it’s understanding how far to take it. And if you take it too far where it’s like, I’m number one, I’m the best da, da da, da, da. It’s not saying that you’re the best.

It’s not number one. You can say, I, you know, you can say what you achieved, you know, once or twice max, three times. But after that, I wouldn’t continue to focus on how well you did, because it’s kind of like a, you know, a comedian, once they say a joke, three times it’s had its impact point. You let it go.

Once you’ve said it about yourself, honestly, two times that’s more than enough. I wouldn’t say it more than. Going off of that. Uh, how can a student talk about their accomplishments and awards without coming off braggy? Should they use other parts of their, uh, application for that? Yeah. So first of all, try to get like your is your awards and.

Any awards, navigated, navigated, I’m sorry. Implemented into your activity section or your honors and award section. Tho those are two different sections for that. So try to, you know, separate those Le try to leave your essays to really, you know, be focused on defining your pathway, what you’re doing while you’re passionate about something specifically, while.

By that school. Um, try to do that. But when you weave in, you know, talking about yourself, just say, you know, during my experience, I ended up becoming the national champion in debate and you don’t continue talking about it. Right? You, you properly place it. So it’s not ironically placed, but you properly place it, but then you keep moving.

You don’t keep simmering on it. Right. And keep talking about the fact that you’re a national champion. A lot of students struggle with that. Um, so it’s, once you say it, move on from it, don’t keep reflecting. Going on to next question. Uh, so the limit on the common app’s personal statement is 650 words, uh, just for context, but, uh, students asking, how long should your SAP, how long is too long?

Do you have to meet the maximum word count? I would, this is a personal opinion. I have to say that one more time. This is a personal opinion, but all the students I’ve worked with, I’ve never let them submit an essay less than 15 words. Right. So if there, I’m sorry, more than 15 words short. So you’ve gotta be, in my opinion, within 15 words of the max, that’s my general recommendation.

And then you need 250, um, words at the bare minimum, uh, to submit your Common App. So that’s your target if you were going for the absolute minimum, but definitely going for more is better just because this is your space to really talk about yourself and you wanna use it in McKenzie. I think I, I think right there you’re to build off of that.

I, if you’re not telling me more than that, right. If you’re, if you’re only coming up with a minimum. We’re gonna read into that. Right? We start, we get in our own heads. We’re like, well, I don’t think they really wanna be here. Right. So it’s, you, you definitely wanna be more than minimum for sure. Going off of that.

Uh, how long does it take to write a good essay and when should students start working on it? Um, it, it takes, it can take a while right there. And I, I don’t mean this to sound disrespectful. There are some students that are naturally gifted and very creative writers and they can nail it. You. Honestly with minimal editing after one attempt, I’ve had students that I’ve worked with where we’ve had, we’ve had eight or nine drafts.

Um, but you you’ve gotta take, you’ve gotta give yourself the time to, to get it there. Right. So, um, it just because you’ve edited it and done three different drafts doesn’t mean it’s done. Right. Um, it’s done when you are accomplishing the, you know, you’re hitting the topic that they’re giving you. And that you’ve, you know, provided a legitimate response to it, um, to, to start.

I mean, I’ve had students start writing the essays as early as fall of 11th grade. Um, it, and, and I like that because for the schools that, you know, they still knew those topics were gonna be the same, the year following that allowed them to, you know, write an essay and, and take serious breaks in between each one.

And then you don’t have that burnout. Uh, you don’t have students. Starting to, you know, see their essays melt together because of writing so many at one time, like you do when you’re doing it. After the conclusion of 11th. And when I was working on mine, I wrote three different topics. I started in summer, um, going into my senior year and the first two topics I wrote over summer, didn’t like them.

I ended up writing my third and final version around Septemberish and I was applying early decisions. So that was October 31st. So that’s about two months, which is a very short time. I spent a good two weeks just writing and rewriting the first paragraph just to make it sound how I wanted it to, I cried a little bit and then I just kept going.

So that is the essay writing process. Well, and, and because I think, I, I think you just said something there that made me thought of something when students are developing their essays. Uh, I, I try to encourage families to take a bulldozer approach, not a bricklayer approach. Right. So a lot of times, like I’ll talk to students and they’ll say, um, they’ll say like, well, I just, I, I, I struggle.

I don’t like the way I sound. Right. Like I just struggle to come up with things and I’m like, wait a second. Do you struggle to come up with things? Or do you actually come up with good ideas, but you don’t like the way they sound initially. And that’s typically the answer, like, yeah. I, someone like the way it sounds like you’re a brick layer.

You’re trying to be perfect from the very beginning. You’ve gotta give yourself something to work with to start. So get something on paper. Once you’ve got enough on paper, then go back and start trying to. Massage it into place. That is something that I work on, um, with my students through CollegeAdvisor.

And there was one student in particular, we were on a call and she was telling me like what her ideas was, were, um, what she was interested in, what she wanted to do and stuff. And she was saying all these great things about what she wanted to do with her life. But then when I asked her for her personal statement or for the why school question, she couldn’t think of anything to say.

So I was just like, repeat exactly what you. Said to me about your interest in goals. And I was like, oh, so you wanna do history? Write that down. Oh, so you’re interested in doing this sort of work, write that down. And so like every time she would just, I would just let her talk and then, um, write down what she was saying.

And then I’d tell her to write it down. So that was just a good activity. Like maybe sometimes you just need to like speak it and let somebody else take some notes or you speak it and record it and just hear what you say. Um, in case you’re just wondering what the. What the words you need are, and that’s another reason to join CollegeAdvisor, just because you can have that support and that other person who can walk you through it, who can help you edit it, who can come up with those words that you may forget sometimes.

So, yeah. Uh, going on to the next question, um, uh, is the essay the most important part of the application? How does it work with the other parts of the admissions process? So that’s a great question. I personally believe it is. Yes. Um, and, and for me, the reason that is, is I, I kind of default back to the fact that it is the only time that we hear your voice in the process.

Right. And I am not, again, I’ll repeat what I said earlier on purpose here. I am not simply admitting you to a school. I’m admitting you to a community, and this is my only opportunity to really get to know you. Right. Um, and, and the more that I feel like I’ve gotten connected with you, that’s when I’m gonna start feeling confident going, oh dude, McKenzie’s gonna love Dr. Underwood. Right. And when you do that, it moves you up the ladder in terms of in disability, cuz I’m already mentally placing you on campus. Right. That’s, that’s a, a step up. Most students don’t get that far. So I do believe it to be the most important part. Um, I was able to use the essays and I’m not saying I, but.

In, in my time, both as admissions officer, and then later on the actual admissions committee, the essays were actually what would get a student come teetering on the edge of, in or out the essays would be what got the student in more so than something else typically. Right. So the essays for me have always been the most important part.

So hopefully that’s a good answer. Kind of going off of that. Um, where did it go? Uh, does the admissions office, uh, office do admissions officers spend more time looking over the essays than any other part of the application? How does that timing go? Cuz they say it like they look over it for like 20 minute or 20 seconds.

Yeah. So it it’s tough. Right? So to kind of answer that question, there’s been a lot of change just in the last two and a half years, uh, prior to the pandemic to give you some context. Prior to the pandemic, the average review time from an admissions officer, not the admissions office just the admissions officer doing the initial review was 12 to 14 minutes reviewing your entire application.

That was transcripts letters of recommendation, essays, short, any short answers, and then your activities report, right? Your activity list. Now it’s between four to four and a half minutes on average. Okay. Yeah. And the admissions committee used to spend about seven to eight minutes. On average, prior to the pandemic.

Now it’s about three to four and all that is thanks to algorithms. Now being implemented into the process, when all the schools went test optional, um, they weren’t able to kind of pre-screen applicants in the same way anymore. Cuz so many kids were no longer were now not submitting their test score. But what that did is it spiked applications so much.

They weren’t prepared for it. So one of the ways that they were able to shorten the review process, the review time that they spend per a. And to handle this problem of having more applications than they do time and admission staff members is they bought algorithms and it cuts down the actual review time they have to spend now.

So instead of me spending a terrible amount of time on like your transcript now, all I, all I touch on is admissions officer is just the just the activity section, just the, uh, literature recommendation and, and most kids today, you know, What they don’t understand is that admissions officers are on average rating between four to 6,000 essays per officer per year.

And so we, we naturally read at a pretty fast rate, um, so they will go through it, but it’s not the same amount of time they used to spend on. So mm-hmm, , uh, going off of that with the fact that transcripts aren’t looked over as much anymore, but can it, well, they are, they are just, just not. Not by me. Yeah.

So yeah. Can a good essay make up for poor grades and or test scores? No. Um, if, if, if I hate to say this, I’m not trying to be mean here. You’re the GPA in the test score. Just determine if we look at you or not. Right. If, if you’re not there. It’s they’re, they’re probably not gonna give you a shot. Right. Um, if, if you’re like a 10th or if you’re a couple tens out.

Sure. Right. But if, if a school’s average GPA is a 3.5, you know, and you’re applying with a 2.4, that school may not need to be on your list. So that I think that becomes a conversation of the having changing your list. So you have the right list based upon your academic performance. Um, but no, the essays cannot make up for a significant situation with your performance.

It it’s just not gonna happen. Now a lot of these algorithms, if it’s, if, if you don’t have a high enough GPA and high enough test score, the pre-screening process, you’re cut right there. And then you don’t even get looked at by a physical human being anymore in some cases. So it’s, it’s kind of a mixture of everything going on to next question, to go back onto topics.

Uh, is there such a thing as a cliche essay? I, you know, I’m sure someone can make the argument. But I, I honestly, I don’t wanna sound like I’m the only one here, but I, I honestly don’t have one that really rings a bell for me. So I’m, I’m sure somebody could make the argument. Sure. But no, I mean, I, I really haven’t experienced one in, in, in my time doing this.

I, I haven’t at least, but I, I’m not trying to joke here. Like I’ve had a history of concussion, so I maybe forgetting it . Uh, but I, I really, I really don’t remember one that sticks out was like, well, that’s cliche. So, no, I, I don’t, I don’t think so. As long as, as long as it’s genuine personal unique, right?

No, I don’t think so at all, uh, going off of that can admissions officers really tell that someone is being inauthentic in their essay? Yeah. Um, if you have an English grade that is terrible, yet you have the vocabulary of Winston Churchill. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, um, it, it, it speaks, you know, if you, if your GPA’s a certain level, if your performance a certain level academically, but then you honestly sound like an, you know, a very famous or tour that’s, that’s a problem.

That’s that’s sign number one. Um, if, if your letters recommendation are saying one thing and then. How your essays are coming across is different. That’s also a sign in we’ll we’ll call and check up on you. So it’s not just your, it’s not what you’re necessarily saying in your essays. It’s also what we’re seeing elsewhere in your application that can make us think that, right.

So if, if we’re in doubt, we will check, right? So we will pick up the phone and, and have a conversation with the school. Um, and, and I know you’re asking this out of, you know, wanting to do it the right way. Um, but sometimes students get tempted to kind of inflate and that’s, that’s never a good. Uh, so another student is asking about the admission, what admissions officers are doing.

So they’re saying, so does each admissions officer look at only one section of your application? Uh, does any one person look at your entire application at once? So that’s typically. Typically an admissions office is gonna have a series of people that work on this. So you’ll have, in many cases, you’ll have what some people call their charters or you’ll, you’ll have them called their, um, oh gosh, I forget the technical tournament.

We called ’em at Vanderbilt, but, um, you, you had your. Anyways, you had people that charted the transcript, right? They’d go through the transcript. They’d recalculate it to, you know, get rid of the non-core curriculum courses and then recalculate the GPA. And they would throw that in the system. Right. So they’re the ones that looked at the transcript.

Then the application would get to me as the admissions officer. Right. So I would note the rigor of your curriculum. I’d quickly note how many AP courses you’ve taken. Okay. You’ve got a 3.75 in a pure AP curriculum. Not great. Not bad. Right. I’m talking at Vanderbilt here. Okay. Um, UGA, hallelujah. So to that end, it’s, it’s different by school.

You gotta keep that in mind. But my, my point here is, is that when we’re going through it, it’s, it’s broken up division wise because I can’t chart your file, recalculate the transcript, and also read it and be done with it on time. So they hire seasonal employees to chart files. From there once it’s charted, the admissions officer will give a quick glance perhaps to the transcript.

Um, and then they will then spend most of their time going through letters of rec essays in the activity section from there, if you were rated highly enough. And that’s another conversation for the day when, when we are actually reviewing and rating you as admissions officers, your ratings, how you got rated, decide if you go further on, in the review process to the admissions committee.

And from that point, the admissions committee will have everything in front of them. and, and they’ll be seeing your transcript, your leisure rec your essays all while your admissions officer is presenting you to me on the admissions committee. So yeah, the answer to your question is yes, it will be looked at all by one person at a certain point.

Um, but it’s typically the last stage, right? It’s typically the last stage. So kind of going off of that, how does that additional information section that some students use play into all of this? Like, especially if it’s like talking about a grade dip or something like that. Yeah. So that, that is something that the admissions officer is, is when I, when I say read that’s a, that’s a reading section.

Right. So if I know it’s like, okay, so I see this now I’ll go double check. I’m like, okay, this explains that I’ll make a note about that in my comments and my recommended admissions action recommended admissions action. Is it, am I suggesting it. Wait list deny, um, there’s other titles in there, but for conversation, we will talk about that tonight.

Um, but I’ll, I’ll put that in my comments. What, what you need to be aware of is that when an admissions officer’s reviewing you, they’re literally typing comments into a system, into a database that saves it right. Saves their ratings. They’re they’re gonna rate you on things like school fit. Are you the.

For the community, academic rating, personal rating, uh, activity, rating, variety of things. And then they actually have to make a recommended action of admit wait list. And I, and then they have to give their comments. The reason they have to do that is because they have to be able to back themselves up on why they’re suggesting.

How they rated you, why they suggest that you be admitted or not? Um, all that’s used to kind of back up themselves, but also that’s how they’re gonna present you to the admissions committee. Uh, so it’s, it’s important to know that. So if there’s something that you want noted that is important, make sure it’s in that additional information section so that they track it and make it a part of the conversation.

Mm-hmm uh, going off of that, a student is asking, could you share some other topics from your favorite essay? This is kind of dark. I’ve read a lot of murder. Um, yeah, there’s, there’s been some random murder essays. Um, and I mean, they’re not my favorite essays, but I’ve read about a lot of murder essays. Um, I, I think my favorite essay outside of the one that I, I shared with you is, um, uh, as a student sharing, how.

It’s kind of sad for the kid, but learned how to do laundry for the first time after he bleached his, um, he bleached his suit pants by mistake. Oh. Uh, when he was, when he was going in for his, uh, he was running for, I think it was. Student council, vice president or something. So he was, he was going to present and, um, he kind of had these offwhite pants that he thought he needed to bleach, and it just ruined his pants the night before, but he didn’t have anything else to wear Um, and it turned into this great. He changed his speech to the last second, how he lived in the moment and how he made it a funny thing, but also it allowed us to get to know his personality and how. Kind of made the best of something and it was, it was pretty funny, but also it was like, you know what, this kid, this kid’s a motivated guy.

Right? Like he, he wants to, you know, pursue something. He set his mind to it and it really allowed us to see internally who he is. And it was, it was pretty well done. going off of that. A lot of students, like when they hear like stories like that, or like something that was funny or interesting, or some kids saw saw cancer in their essay.

Um, but some students just don’t feel like they’re that interesting? How can, um, they write an interesting essay if they don’t feel as creative or like something, uh, they have something that interesting to write about? Well, I think again, this, the first part of my answer is not gonna be liked because. It doesn’t directly answer your question, but the first part of my answer is be confident who you are, right?

Schools, schools want you for the unique person that you are. Right? One of the reasons that why we work one on one with families here at CollegeAdvisor is that if we have 15 or 16 kids that are working in a group together, all being told to do the same thing, there’s nothing unique about that anymore.

So if, if I saw a, if everybody was giving me this super unique creative thing, Then that there’s something weird about that, right? Like that, that, that would not really create the, the best community. It would be like a, it would be weird. Uh, it’d be a bunch of the same people, which I think we all know is not a good thing.

Um, so to that end, first of all, be confident in who you are. Uh, and if, you know, if you’re trying to come up with a topic, remember most of these topics are gonna be set for you. Okay. Most of these topics are set for you. So answer the topic that you’re being given to answer. If it is a situation where you have to create your own topic, Find a topic share.

Talk about something that you’re passionate about, what, you know, it could be a sport that you play it, it could be, you know, volunteer service. Right. But find something that you find interesting and share that with the admissions office, that’s reviewing it, share why you find it interesting. And why it’s, why it’s affected you in a positive way.

Uh, kind of going off of that. Um, As a lot of students aren’t used to talking about themselves. Do you have any strategies or tips, um, for how they can, um, come up with a topic or figure out how to really talk about themselves in their. Kind of going back to what I just said. Yeah. Find, find it’s not necessarily, you find something that you do that you’re passionate about and then, and talk about the emotions perhaps that you get from that why you enjoy it so much.

Right. Um, that will start to naturally allow you to open up and share your feelings. And you may not realize it, but you’re starting to share your feelings that way. Um, so that that’s one good way of doing it. Um, you know, and, and to that end, I, I think, um, you know, I think the thing with that. You need to, well, I wanna say this cuz it’s, it may sound rude, but you need to get used to starting to write about yourself because that’s what this entire process is about.

Right? So it’s about why you wanna do something specifically, right? What makes you wanna come to this school? It’s not gonna, all these essays are not creature on topic and talk. They’re not, they’re, they’re gonna be very direct with what they want you to talk about. And 90% of the essays that you’ll be required to write.

So I don’t want you feeling like you are going in this without any context. You’re gonna be given context of what they want you to cover by the topic. Just answer the topic and, and you’ll be fine. Uh, so a student is asking, uh, would you discourage a cliche essay topic where an object is used to symbolize the student?

And I kind of wanna turn it a bit, but can you talk about what makes an essay bad? Things that aren’t connected things where the essay had had it feel when we get done reading it, we’re left with the, where were they going? What was the purpose? Right. It didn’t get me anywhere. It didn’t reveal anything to me about the student’s kind of mindset or persona.

Um, tho those are bad essays, right? Um, if I didn’t learn, if it’s not giving me anything about you, if I’m not gonna, you know, have anything to operate with, by the time I get done reviewing it, haven’t learned about you, then it’s a bad essay, no matter how well written it. and what I try and tell my students is that you can pretty much write about anything that you want.

And like most, every topic has probably been used before. Because if you look on Instagram, you see those posts about looking out in the car and the rain and pretend you’re amused. You’re in a music video and everybody says I’ve had that experience. Most people have had similar experience will probably wanna write about similar things.

What really makes it unique to you or special is one how it connects to the rest of your application. And two, like your voice and tone, which is kind of vague in a sense. But we do have more webinars on how to write a personal statement, how to talk about your personal brand, if you wanted more specific details, but like, um, bringing in your own personal experiences.

Ideas thoughts language, but not too inappropriate or offensive or confusing. Right. Um, uh, that’s really what makes it stand out most, every topic has been done. Um, and I, I think you just said something too, that I should have said earlier. It’s like, it also depends on the type of the type of essay is right.

Like, is it the personal statement or is it a supplemental cuz that can change direction very, very dramatically. How you need to, you know, kind of take the essay the direction it goes. I should. Uh, going off of that, uh, a student is asking, does the personal statement or supplemental essay play a more important factor or are they both equally important?

It, it depends on the school. I mean, you gotta remember some schools don’t ask you to do supplemental essays at all. So it, it depends on the school and their review process best, um, at Georgia at Vanderbilt, a U Chicago, Rice, at Hopkins, Dartmouth, Cornell, they all place the same value on it. Right. Uh, so that’s, that’s important regardless.

Um, but other schools. Auburn. They’re not. Making you right now. So, um, it doesn’t play a role. They’re putting it all on your personal statement. Mm-hmm and I saw on parts of the application that some schools don’t even look at at the personal statement. So there may be some schools where you don’t have to submit any essays at all and go kind of going off the topic of not submitting or not submitting essays.

A student is asking if there is an essay that asks you to share something that doesn’t really apply to you. Or it is more opinionated, but it’s an optional essay. Would it be smart? Not to answer it. I’m guessing that’ll be like essays where it’s like, how did COVID affect you or like questions where it’s like share something about like optional essays in general.

Yeah, I mean, so that the tricky thing here is that I never treat an optional essay as optional, any optional essay to me as a mandatory. So you, you need to answer it, but I, I, I think you’ve just gotta be careful of where you take it. Right. Uh, of course that, it’s what we’re talking about here is completely dependent upon the topic in and of itself for having you write on.

So it’s a, I, I, I’m saying this respectfully, it’s kind of a difficult question to ask because it’s such a case by case situation. Right. Um, but to that end, I, I will treat every essay as a must answer. I never, I never avoid an optional essay. I have every single student complete that. Going on to the next question.

Uh, students asking, do supplemental essays also need to be in a narrative format similar to the personal statement, or should it be more of a straightforward essay? So it, it can be either way. It, it really can. Um, it, I, I think to me it really just depends upon the topic itself. Like what, what is the vibe of the topic?

Right. I think a lot of schools do a really good job. I love UNC. University of North Carolina does a really good job. Like they want you to be straightforward. Right. And the way that they ask you the topic, you know, you can’t miss it. Like they straight. I think it is variable by school and by topic, but typically a school’s gonna, if they ask you a flat out question, be direct, right.

Um, if they’re not asking it something, if they’re not asking you flat out, they’re a little gonna be a little bit more narrative or creative with it, your response, I should. mm-hmm like U Chicago usually asks for more of those creative flowery sort of essay, um, topics, whereas a school that’s asking, like, why do you wanna do this program?

Why do you wanna do this major? Those will probably need to be on the more straightforward side, just because you have to explain, um, what you wanna, um, do there. And there are some schools that ask, give you only a hundred words, those really short word counts, where it’s asking a direct question. Those you definitely.

To be straightforward because you have such a limited space. Yeah. You, you just, you took the words out of my mouth. I, I was just thinking that too. It’s just like, you all also have to, I think that the, the word count should define how you take it as well. Right. That should determine, you know, how you respond to it as well.

So that’s a great point going on the next question, who is a good person to ask for support on editing the essay? You mentioned that you should have someone read it over, who would be a good ideal person to have read over the. McKenzie. Um, McKenzie’s amazing by the way. So you can, you, you can contact a spirit CollegeAdvisor, maybe McKenzie can

The reality here is, and, and I, I wanna say this with the utmost respect intended, but someone that’s actually worked in college admissions. Right. Just because it’s a well written essay does not necessarily mean it’s gonna be viewed as a good essay in the eyes of the admissions office. So your school, college counselor, you know, hopefully it’s someone with a lot of experience.

Uh, hopefully it’s even a former missions officer that transitioned out to the high school side, um, that that’s, you wanna focus on outside of that? You know, your English teachers, you know, that that’s a good place to go. The problem becomes time, right? They don’t have the time to edit every single student’s essay to review every single student’s essays because of their own responsibilities.

Um, and that’s, I think one of the reasons why families are in, in so much. You know, not in mass, but by so many families are getting third party assistance now, uh, because of that exact situation. So currently 42% of all us applicants to college are hiring third party college guidance. Um, because of the exact reasons that we just described.

mm-hmm . And when I was in my admissions process, the second essay I wrote, well, the first essay I had my college counselor through the summer program, I was in read over it. The second topic I had my English teacher and me and him, uh, he kind of knew me. So it was like, He was a good person to ask because he was able to give his perspective, say that it didn’t really sound like me.

Uh, so definitely ask somebody who knows you well, um, but again, getting an advisor can really help you because sitting in those one-on-one advising sessions, you do, um, get to know your students. I know with me on a kickoff calls, I just like let the student talk and just see what their personality is, and that can really help.

Figuring out topics even, or just figuring out how they sound, what they think, uh, like, and that can really help with making sure their essays really sound like them. Uh, okay. So we are coming up on time. So do you have any last minute, um, recommendations, advice, tips, or stories you’d like to share? You know, I’ll say, make this a family process, um, you know, be open and honest with, with your family.

Uh, don’t, don’t hesitate to kind of voice concerns. If you’re, if you’re a parent reading your student’s essays. Uh, and if you’re a student that’s here this evening, Try and listen, I, I, I remember I’m only 34, so I still kind of remember what my teenage years were like. Uh, but, but try and listen, you, your parents do have your best interest at heart.

Um, if, if you can do this as a family unit, I think you’re gonna find that this process moves a lot faster and a lot more efficiently with the heck of a lot less stress, uh, than, than families where, you know, mom and dad are operating separately from what the students operating on. If you can approach this together and get a game plan ahead of time, you’re really gonna take a lot of that stress away and.

It’s gonna probably be. Something that you learn about, you know, you utilize to learn a lot about yourself, uh, and it can be pretty fun. So it’s been a pleasure speaking with you this evening. Definitely. And it was great speaking with you, Ferrell, you provide a lot of great information. Um, so that is the end of the, um, webinar.

We hope you found this information helpful. And remember again, that you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab, and this webinar is being recorded. If you elect to view it again later, Our website is app.CollegeAdvisor.com/webinars. Here’s the rest of our July series, where we’ll be talking about different parts of the application like we did today with the personal statement and other parts of and other essays, um, we’ll have different college panels where for those researching schools right now, you can find out more about different schools. You may be interested in. Definitely. Uh, we have Harvard and Yale. So if you’re looking for the Ivy league, we have that. Um, and we’ll just be talking about ways to build your application, do check out our other webinars on personal statements, personal branding.

You can just type in those keyword and you’ll be able to find them if you want more information. But again, thank you everyone for coming out tonight and goodnight.