Applying with Apply Texas

Webinar Transcription

2020-07-21 Applying with ApplyTexas Webinar-1

[00:00:00]  everyone. Welcome to the Bullseye admissions webinar on the apply Texas application. So this webinar is another one of our sessions on the application portals, and it’s part of our, a series on college applications. So to help everyone. Like go over it on an overview about the webinar timing and the different chats.

I’m going to start off with a presentation and then it’ll be approximately 30 minutes and then we’ll get into a live Q and a. So on the sidebar, you’ll be able to see the PDF, I’m sorry, the link for the slides in the handouts tab. So you can download the slides there if you’d like, and then you can also start submitting questions in the Q and A’s have, however, they won’t be answered until the second year.

So about 30 minutes from now, and that’s when we can get into all of the questions and answers. [00:01:00] So just a real quick, just to introduce myself, my name is and I’m currently a senior studying sociology at Texas a and M international university. I’m also a pre-med student and I’ll be going to the UTM V school of medicine next year.

Am actually part of a combined BA MD program. So for those of you that don’t know. It’s essentially just a combined medical program that students apply for during their senior year. So if anyone is interested in medicine and they’re a rising sophomore, junior, senior, and they’re interested in medicine, I really suggest looking into it.

Bullseye also has advisors such as myself and others that do help students get into these programs. It’s a great program. So take advantage of them. I guess some other stuff of remind myself like a fun fact, I really love to travel. I’ve been to about over a dozen countries. And my favorite country has been Switzerland.

Lily is also here and she will serve as tech support. So feel free to message her if you have any tech [00:02:00] issues or any questions in general that I might not be able to get to that maybe unrelated to him that are more related to any tech issues you might have throughout the presentation. All right.

So let’s get into ApplyTexas and an overview of it. So the application portal. This is a specific application portal specifically for us colleges that are located within the state of Texas. The opening date for it is July 1st and the closing date is early December. So the reason it’s I say early December is because a lot of these.

Schools actually, don’t close all on the exact same date in terms of their application. So some schools might close mid December, some might close a little bit earlier. So my clothes a little bit later really good generic date I could give you is that most of them closed by December 1st.

However, if you want a specific date, I really suggest going on to the university’s website and then just looking up, what is their deadline? For the [00:03:00] application. So approximately 53 schools use this portal. I say, approximately because the number might change here and there, you might have a new school next year.

That sort of thing. And also because not every school in Texas actually does use a PI, Texas. So most of them do, however, there are exceptions such as rice university, so that school will use. A different portal, they used the common app or the coalition app. So the common app is the one that is essentially apply Texas, but for all of America.

And then there’s also coalition app. And then there is also a specific portal for the university of California schools. So there’s all these different portals. And we do have webinars on all of them in case you’re interested in planning, California schools or Texas schools, or just like race or, any other out-of-state school you will be using.

A variety of these portals. So let’s talk about all the information that you’re gonna need. You’ll obviously, so what I recommend is actually having most of these things with [00:04:00] you before you even get started reason being is because you don’t want to have to find all these pieces of information.

Throughout while you’re filling out the application, right? So it’s really easy to have most of these things ready with you and then get started because then you will fly through the application and it will be that much quicker. So one thing is your sat act score. You also want to have a list of your extracurricular activities.

So especially for my underclassmen, rising sophomores rising juniors. I know that it can be really difficult to remember every single thing you’ve done in high school. A lot of us do a lot of things in high school, a lot of clubs, a lot of extracurriculars. So throughout high school, especially if you’re an underclassmen, I really recommend just noting down all the activities that you have done or are planning on doing as well as a generic outline of just how many hours you’re planning on spending.

On each of the activities or how many hours you’ve already spent on each of the activities and that sort of timeframe from when you started to, when you’ve ended a certain activity or [00:05:00] club reason being is because it’s super helpful when you go back and then you can actually see, okay here’s all this lists.

I don’t have to go back and actively try to recall every single thing I’ve done in high school, because sometimes you forget. So this just makes it that much easier. Have a copy of your high school transcript already also contact information for your legal guardian or guardians, as well as the contact info for your guidance counselor.

I believe this includes an email address as well as a phone number, or we’ll just one of the pieces of information, also employment data about your parent or parents or guardians, as well as your personal statement, which, these are all things that we will get into in a little bit more depth later on as well as there is a recommended.

Obviously not all of these things you can have before you even start the application. So letters of rec that’s probably something you won’t have until later on. However, these are just all the pieces of information you’ll eventually need to successfully apply to any schools that use applied tech.

Let’s talk a little bit about essays and short [00:06:00] answers. So are you believe this is probably one of the most important pieces of the application process in general, because your GPA, you can change your sat act. You can change, but your essays are tentative, they’re very changeable throughout the entire course.

And they can really change. How well, or would your chances are of getting into any given school? So apply Texas has three different prompts. They range from about 500 to 700 words each, and they’re approximately two to three paragraphs. So for this upcoming application cycle, there’s three essays.

And I’d like to go over each of them a little bit in depth. So SAA says, tell us your story, what unique opportunities or challenges. Have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today? So this is a really great chance for this specific essay to talk about any difficulties that you’ve had, if there’s any sort of blemishes on your application, or if there is just any hardships you’ve gone through, this is now your chance to explain that.

So be honest [00:07:00] be vulnerable in this essay. It’s best to come across as transparent as possible because that gives across the sense of authentic authenticity. Sorry, I messed that up. It’s a realness within your essay. So that’s a really great thing to have for SAB. It says most students have an identity and interest rates, talent that defines them in an essential way.

Tell us about yourself. This is where you talk a lot about yourself in terms of this one particular. Interest or hobby or extracurricular you do that says a lot about you. So if you’re really into photography, you’re in the photography club at school, you do it. Maybe even as a side business, this is something you want to do at your future college.

This is a great opportunity to talk about it and just talk about. What you’re into and what you can actually bring to any given college campus that you might be interested in. I say three is, you’ve got a ticket in your hand. Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there? So this is a really great example of the university, trying to test your [00:08:00] creativity.

They want to see, this is not essentially a normal college prompt, right? This is a very vague prompt. You can really write about anything you want to, it doesn’t even have to be anything related to academics. So they just want to see, what kind of person are you? What’s your personality like?

Okay. Where do you enjoy going? What do you enjoy doing? So all of these things can be answered here. I really have no advice for this particular essay other than the fact that just be honest in your answer. I know it’s a very cliche answer just to say, oh, be honest. But the thing is your honesty does come across a lot more in all your essay.

So if you write about something right, Isn’t necessarily truthful. It doesn’t come across as well as when you really write about something that you’re actually passionate about or something that you actually do want to do slash enjoy doing so. So these are the three specific points. For this year, they don’t really change too much from year to year, however they could change next year, but they were similar from last year as well.

You don’t necessarily have to actually write all [00:09:00] three of these prompts. So I’ll give you an example. So if you want to apply to the university of Texas in Austin, they only require you to write essay eight. So if you’re only applying to that school, then you actually don’t even have to write SAP or SAC.

So where do you see which specific one answer? It says it on the application. However, you can also just Google it. So you can just Google UTA, Austin application or required essays, and they will tell you that, okay, you just need SAA. And then you also need to do short answers, which is our next bullet point.

So the short answers, like I said, are specific to the school. So UT Austin and going with our example has three specific school specific, short answers as well that you have to fill. And this is also info. You can find out as soon as you just Google. Hey, what do I need to do to apply to UT. So they tell you about the essay.

They tell you about three specific, short answers that you have to do. You don’t necessarily have to do all three of these essays. What essays you do is highly dependent on what schools you’re applying to. [00:10:00] So if you only applying to UT you only have to do those specific, short answers and SAA how’re flying.

If you’re applying to different schools, then you might have to do SAP SAC and then each school might or might not. Their own school, specific, short answers that you also have to fill out. So just a really quick a note about it in terms of the formatting. So a lot of people will type this on a Google doc or they’ll type it on Microsoft word, and then they copy and paste it onto the application portal.

Sometimes you can get an error in terms of your formatting. So if you indent somewhere or if a word is. I tell us how, or if your paragraph has broken up in some way, if your story’s broken up in certain paragraphs, that might not necessarily translate over to what you’ve pasted on the application portal.

So my suggestion is just give it a really quick read, make sure your formatting is correct. And if there’s any errors, you can just simply correct it on the application a box right then. Okay. Okay. [00:11:00] Also just to really quick go back. If you did want a little bit more information, bulls-eye does have a lot of essay guides.

I recently wrote an essay guide specifically for UT that goes in more depth. Both SAA as well as the three short answers that are required. So feel free to go into that. It’s on the bulls-eye website. And we also have essay guides written for a lot of other schools, not just Texas. Once we have some written for a lot of Ivy league schools, a lot of great outer state schools as well.

So feel free to check those out. So let’s go now into a little bit of a poll I’d like to ask you guys what essay prompts you’re planning to answer. So feel free to answer the little pop-up window should come up.

and this is really a question about which one you’d like to specifically answer or which one is the best for you. So remember that [00:12:00] S a S a was talking about Where exactly what you want to do an essay C was talking about that creative question, right? Like a ticket of okay where would you go?

What would you do

perfectly? Okay. If you’re still deciding, so obviously this is something where you might not be sure sometimes they do give you an option. In, some of the school specific, short answers. So you have to choose, to do one of the short answers between let’s just say three or four different prompts, even on the common app, some of you guys might be applying through that portal and you’ll see that, they’ll give you a lot of prompts and you have to choose one. So my suggestion for that is just brainstorming, really getting into what it is I want to write about what makes the best story and how I can convey that in the best way possible.

Alright. I think we have most responses. So most of you said SPIA, so I’m assuming most of you guys are applying to UT. All right. Let’s get into the next section. Okay. The sections of the application. [00:13:00] So these are the different sections. One is your educational background. What school do you go to?

What’s your class rank? What’s your GPA. If applicable, if it’s there a biographical information, a name address, that sort of thing. Test scores, sat, act residency information specifically, because this is a. Texas application specific for Texas schools. They do look at the fact of whether or not you are an in-state resident.

So they do ask you, Hey, are you a Texas resident? Have you lived in Texas, approximately 36 months? Since this application or, since high school. So they ask you a couple of questions regarding residency because your chances of getting into school also drastically do change if you’re an out of state.

Versus an in-state applicant because for the majority of Texas schools, they’re legally required to accept 90% students that are in state, Texas residents. And the remaining 10% can be out of state students. Next, they ask you about extracurriculars and volunteering information. This is [00:14:00] anything and everything you’ve done in terms of any clubs, any volunteer.

Then they ask you about employment. This includes any jobs, any internships, any summer activities, then there’s also school specific essays. And these are just really dependent on which school you’re applying to. They might ask you anything else,

a little bit into activities, volunteering and honors. So you have 10 slots for extracurriculars. So these actually don’t include any of the volunteer jobs specifically, just any club. Any organizations that you’re a part of then you can talk and then you also are given 70 characters per entry to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about in this activity.

So for example, if you look at the very last bullet point, let’s just say I did HOSA. And for those of you that might not know, Cosa is okay. Competition based medical organization. So if I say one of my extracurriculars is wholesome, what am I going to write about it? So one of the things I could write to fill up those 70 characters would be competed and [00:15:00] won at the state level finals in the nutrition category.

So it’s a very short, concise, because it’s only 70 characters, right? You really don’t have that many. Words to even be able to describe it that much. It’s very short. So you have to make sure you’re very efficient with it. I would say make it like a bullet point on a resume where the first word is a past tense verb, because it’s something you’ve done.

So just start straight from there. So in my case it would be competed. And then you talk about what it is that you’ve accomplished. So you could say I’m vice president of the club, or I did this competition, or I won this award or we volunteered for this many hours. It really depends on whatever the activity.

So at the same thing, a 70 character thing applies to the aid slots you have for community service activities, essentially anything you do re relating to volunteering. Then you have eight slots for any awards, honors or talents. So this could be, and a lot of people have questions about what are these awards honors as Holmes?

What do I put here? So something like NHS national honor society, [00:16:00] or any variation of it such as Spanish national honor society. Science national honor society. Then there’s also graduating Magna cum laude, a comb loud, a Summa cum laude, a top 10% of class honor roll. If your school does any of those sorts of things, any talents you might have, that’s up to you to decide.

Then there’s also eight slots for employment internships. Or summer activities. So if you did any research, if you did any, if you just held a job at any like Walmart or something, that’s where this information would be. Okay. So let’s do another poll now.

And so this one’s asking if you’re going to use ApplyTexas for your college applications. Or if you’re also going to use another application portal or if you’re so deciding or if you’re just not sure. And it’s maybe not for you.[00:17:00]

Cool. One of the answers I’m getting is B, which is yes, I’m using ApplyTexas and another application portal. So I’m assuming a lot of you guys are probably in state, Texas residents, or even out of state students and you guys were using ApplyTexas, but you’re also going to be using maybe I’m guessing common app is probably the most common, portal to use other, besides ApplyTexas for in-state residents, because a lot of students will either want to apply to schools like rice or any out-of-state schools.

So then you would be. Common up or a different application. All right. So I’m going to close that poll and let’s get back into it with letters of recommendation. So these are not sent through the apply Texas application portal. They are sent directly to the school. So you would have to on the school’s website to learn about what their process is for these.

Letters of recommendation and how that [00:18:00] works. So the second point is who should I ask? A lot of people will be try to be smart about who they ask, which is a really good idea. However, they do it in the wrong way. So let’s just say you are a pre-med student or your soon to be a pre-med student in college.

And you want to ask your biology teacher or your chemistry teacher. Hey, you’re going to be a pre-med student, right? So you should ask a science teacher. In theory, it makes sense. I think that in preference, you should ask the person that knows you the best actually likes you because some people might know you or not like you.

Someone that knows you, someone that likes you. So then they can write you a non-generic letter of recommendation, because let’s just say you asked that bio teacher, you don’t really know him or her that you had one class, like sophomore year and, Maybe you didn’t have a good relationship with them, or maybe you just didn’t talk too much in the class to them and you guys really never bonded.

So asking them, let’s just say they do say yes, right? They’re probably going to write you. What’s known as a generic letter of recommendation. They will say this student was great. [00:19:00] They got a to look up your score and say, oh, they got an a in the class. That’s really good. They showed up for all the classes.

They did all the home. Good student, right? That is an easy way to get a bad letter of recommendation because schools see that, okay, this is so generic. This person sounds like every other person applying. So there’s nothing that the recommender is saying that makes the students stand out over the competition.

So ask the people that actually know you because they will write you a letter of rec that only they can write you, meaning that they know you personally to know your personalities, to know your quirks, to know your positives, even your negatives, and then they will. About you in a way that highlights you, rather than just talking about you in a very generic way.

So how should you ask? You should ask it directly in person. Have that personal touch, unless of course, nowadays with everything online, I understand that it’s difficult to, you might have to email them, however, in any other regular circumstance where you’re allowed to be face-to-face I [00:20:00] definitely go in person and ask us.

So this is specifically for my underclassmen go in person, ask them. I need a letter of recommendation. And remember, they’re doing you a favor, right? Because you’re the one asking for the rec, they’re the ones giving you the wreck. So they’re the ones doing something for you with nothing, in return.

And they’ll do it for free, right? Because they’re a teacher. However, remember that since they’re doing you a favor, make sure to make their job as easy as possible. So provide them the link or the form, or however they can get an access that letter of recommendation upload portal. And then provide them a hard copy or a digital copy, or even both of your resume as well as just so they can see.

What other stuff you have, they can see your your rank or your GPA, your stats, that sort of thing, as well as any extracurriculars you’re doing. And they can maybe incorporate those extracurriculars into your letter of rec if it’s deemed appropriate. By doing this, you make their job a lot easier.

And so that answers the question as to what to provide letter writer. [00:21:00] So all the info and then And ask early. So remember that you’re not the only student they have, they will be getting other students. To ask you quite early, I’m sorry to ask them for letters of rec. So give them, I would say at minimum one month, I know this sounds like a lot, they have a whole job.

They have so many students and a lot of them will be asking at the same time to ask or to write them a letter of rec and it takes time. So give them at least a month. If you have to really get it done early, for whatever reason, maybe the deadlines coming up, maybe you procrastinated till procrastinate.

Then at least two weeks at the very bare minimum you can give them a shorter amount of time. However, this might reflect badly on your letter of rec. Maybe they won’t be as nice to you because you’ve given them money. A day to write a whole letter of rec. So give them that time, because first of all, they need it.

They have other stuff going on too. And secondly, if you give them that time, they’ll understand that you respect their time and that will reflect positively on your letter of rec. [00:22:00] All right. Let’s also talk a little bit about fee waivers for the Texas. Application. So check with colleges to see the one.

So you’re applying to, to verify that, first of all, you even qualify for an, a application fee waiver. Some people do not. So first check that check the college website. So just simply search UT Dallas, a fee waiver, and then see what pops up and then go from there. It’s as simple as that.

Also ask her high school counselor, however, I’m sure just doing a quick search would give you all the info that you need to see if you qualify, if you do, they will ask you for some documentation. Likely what they’ll ask you for is probably your family’s adjusted gross income, your tax return, or your family’s tax return, that sort of thing.

As well as maybe they might ask you questions such as, do you qualify for fee or free or reduced lunch? And maybe a couple of questions like that relating to yourself or your family’s finances. And then after you get the fee waiver, you can actually choose request for a fee [00:23:00] exemption on the applications payment page when you apply and then it should apply right then and there, and then you actually won’t have to pay anything at all.

And I’m sure a lot of you guys will probably know if you qualify already to begin with especially if you get free or reduced lunch or if you know your family’s income and if it’s of on the lower end, then you would qualify, or if you’ve gotten any fee waivers for any of the other applications in the past, for whatever it might be, then you’ll probably get this one as well.

If you think you will apply for or qualify for the apply Texas fee waiver, then you will likely also qualify for the bulls-eye scholars program. So this is a pro bono program that we have that gives us. Free advising to 50 scholars. So 50 students, it is a need based program. So if you’re a first-generation college student or have a lower income, I recommend applying.

So then you can get help on your college applications for free, and I will be sending an offer for that interest [00:24:00] in it.

So you should be getting an offer soon. And if you’d you can definitely click on that, save it for later. And I’ll give you guys a minute to do that.

Okay. And I do recommend using this if possible are, if you qualify. I think it’s really great. I wish I had something like this early on free advising is obviously a really great thing to have if you cannot. If you can’t afford the fees that come with private advising, I understand that, it’s definitely out of budget for some people.

So if you do qualify, definitely take advantage of them. I think it’s a great way to [00:25:00] step up your applications and making sure that you can get into that. And the application is currently open. The application closes on August 1st and scholars will be notified on August 15th for, so it is something where the deadline is fast approaching.

Bulls-eye has always been really committed to giving back to the community and ensuring equity when it comes to access to any sort of education, which is why this need-based program exists for students such as yourselves. So if you’d please click on that link to it.

All right. So let’s talk a little bit, since we’re getting into finances, like financial aid, let’s also talk about scholarships, right? Because who doesn’t want scholarships? So apply Texas is really a pretty cool application system because of the fact that you can actually apply for scholarships for some schools right there.

And they’re right there on the apply Texas portal. So any university specific scholarships can be found directly on applied tech. Not all of them, just a few of [00:26:00] them and I’ve listed them. So there’s Texas a and M there’s UT Austin. There’s UT San Antonio, UT Tyler, as well as Texas tech. And this is a tentative list because it might change a little bit here and there.

You might have a different school in there next year, or are you. Have a school being removed, so it really might change a little bit. So feel free to check if your school isn’t on there. It’s really easy. Just search up a different school, whichever school you’re applying to that’s on here, like UT Dallas and type in scholarships.

And then you can find all the information. So any specific questions to address on the application. So one is, are you a first gen college student? This basically just means that are you the first person in your generation, in your family to attend college? So if your parents didn’t go to college, you would be considered a first gen college student.

Also, are you a Texas resident? I think we talked about the importance of this and how being a Texas resident. Important information that they need from you, because they need to know whether you fit that criteria [00:27:00] or a status of an in-state applicant, rather than an out-of-state applicant in terms of how you report your classes.

And your grades is really simple. You would just send them a transcript and that’ll be done via the portal. And then they would have access to all the classes you’ve taken as well as any grades. And if your school does something like ranking. Specifically I know it’s different for different high schools, but the rank should usually be on the transcript.

However, just check with your guidance counselor about that also in terms of sending sat or act scores for the sat scores, as well as any AP exams scores, you can send them through college board and then ATT has their own system for sending scores. If you took that test. Okay. All right. I think we’ll wrap it up there and then we’ll get into some questions.

okay. So what I’m going to be doing is taking [00:28:00] questions and I will actually be publishing them in the chat. So everyone is able to see them and then we’ll answer them there. Okay. Can I only ask teachers for letters of recommendation or other people I’m involved with. That is an awesome question. And the answer is no, you can actually ask anybody that, and and make it really be a bit strategic about who you do ask. So for example, let’s just say you are a student that maybe wants to go into medicine, and let’s just say you’ve shadowed a physician or. You volunteered at a hospital and there’s a volunteer coordinator, someone like that. And they know you personally, they know you you have a good working relationship with them. Feel free to ask them like, Hey, can you write me a letter of rec, especially if you’re applying for med programs, such as the one I’m in.

I know that when I applied, I definitely asked a physician that I shadowed a to write me a letter of rec. So that’s a really great question. Feel free to ask anybody that you have a good working relationship with that strategically would help you. [00:29:00] Better your application as a whole. However, there are exceptions.

Don’t ask friends and family, obviously. I think that speaks for itself.

Lily, can everyone see the Q and a answers or is that something I do have to send in the chat. Okay. You’ll have to sit in the chat, just so everything. We’re the only ones who can see all the QA that. Okay. All right. No worries. All right. So the second question is, does one of my regulators need to be from my counselor, does it not matter?

That really depends on if you have a good working relationship with your counselor probably is a counselor for a lot of students. I’m assuming hundreds of students, unless your school has a very small student population. So if they know you well enough to write you a letter, Go for it.

Some colleges do require that the counselor do write a letter of rec. I cannot name the specific schools off the top of my head. However, if you come across a school that requires it, that, [00:30:00] Hey, we need one letter of rec specifically from your counselor. Then, you don’t really have an option there.

You have to ask. However, if it’s optional I would just really dependent on, how good is my relationship with my counselor and if it’s good and they won’t write me something generic, then I would definitely.

Okay.

All right. Which portal is used to apply to rice. Okay. So the common app is used as well as the coalition app. So those are the two different portals that you can use to apply to rice. Yes.

To brainstorming for the applied Texas essays. Okay. So this is definitely one where it’s a issue, right? Because there’s so much to write about so many thoughts that a student might have and you really sometimes will just not be sure. Which [00:31:00] topic should I choose? I would say, and I’ve said this before.

I’ll probably just say it again, even though I know it’s probably getting repetitive. However, I really think you guys should try to emphasize on the activities or the experiences that contributed significantly to making you yourself. Don’t be strategic with the essays. I feel, I know a lot of people are.

However, if you write about something that you don’t really care about, it won’t come across as well. And I’ll try to speak a little bit from personal experience. So when I applied, and for these men programs and for pre-med for a lot of these really great colleges a lot of my friends did as well, and they wrote their essays about any medical extracurriculars that they did.

And I’ve had a lot of great medical extracurriculars. However, I had even better extracurriculars for this one business club called DECA. I’m sure some of you have heard about it. It’s like a version of DECA or FPLA or BPA. So it’s a competition based business club. So I wrote my essay or an essay that was about one of my [00:32:00] most Significant extracurriculars.

And I wrote it about that because I was really involved in that way more than I was involved in any medical extracurricular. And, I did well in that and I went to nationals for it and I spent a lot of time doing it. And I spent, I think from sophomore to senior year on it. So because I spent so much time and energy and I really enjoyed the organization that passion, that creativity organically formed within my essay.

And I didn’t have that. Try it in that essay, meaning that I didn’t have to try to show that I was passionate. It came across naturally because I wasn’t faking it. It was very authentic. And I think that everyone should, if you’d like to follow that advice, because I think it makes writing an essay down much easier.

So my main point is to not force a topic, let it come naturally. The best essays are the ones that are written very naturally. They’re very hard to write. Don’t get me wrong. However, the words do come due fairly easily. Editing and brainstorming that stuff is still not easy. Like I said, however, it will make for a more [00:33:00] enjoyable writing experience and it also just makes the essay come across a lot more authentic.

The problem for my common app essay and the prompt I choose for apply, Texas essays are both similar. Would it be okay to use the same essay for both portals? Yes, definitely feel free. Who wants to write a thousand essays? So please go ahead and reuse and recycle your essays. That’s a really great thing about applying to colleges and like scholarships.

You have to write essays for everything. However, the more you get into your applications. The more, you just have this like bunch of essays collected, and then you’ll find that some prompts are actually pretty similar to then you’re reusing and recycling different parts of each essay and forming a new essays.

What they’re based on what the prompt is. So yeah. Feel free to do that because it’s just honestly easier you save time and there’s nothing wrong with it because these are all your words. So you’re reusing your own words. So it’s perfectly okay to do all right. [00:34:00] So question says, if a university says they required as a, but you can submit more than one essay. Would you recommend submitting more than one? I say. Okay. So a lot of programs, a lot of universities will have optional essays right now, and then they’ll have optional. No, it’s primarily just essays.

However, when they say optional, if you’re a serious student and you really want to go to this program or this college, anything that they say is recommended is required in my eyes. So that means that you really should do it because you’re showing them that you’re serious. You’re putting in extra effort to do it because how would it come across?

If you’re very serious about going to one school and they have an optional essay and you don’t even do it right. At the end of the day, Sure. It might be a couple of extra hours you’re spending on this application cover. I think it’s worth it because you’re immediately looked upon better than those students that didn’t even do the optional essay.

So I recommend yes. Doing it if they do allow you to. Yes.[00:35:00]

Can we send sat scores after submitting your applications? So yes, I believe you can. However, with the whole COVID thing going on, I believe that they’re going to be even more lenient on this with this upcoming application cycle, however, we will have to see, but as of now, yes,

To reconnect our PI sexist essays back to the major we plan to pursue. Yeah. So this really depends on what the prompt is. A lot of the school specific topics. So for example, like UT one of their short answers was why do you want to pursue this major? So that’s where you would talk about that.

However, if it’s just asking about. Like topics. See, I don’t know if you guys remember it was, where would you take a trip? Where would you go if you’re then throwing in oh, I want to major in biology. That’s probably not the best place to put it because that’s not really answering the prompt.

So you will have those essays where they specifically ask, why are you doing this major? And that’s where you would probably put the reason why you would put it. However, if they [00:36:00] maybe ask you what you want to do as a career, then you can supplement your answer by saying, okay, I want to go into business.

And that’s why I want. Major in finance major in business administration, something like that. Okay.

The application opens on July 1st. Wiser, no option feels like a fall 2021 option. So it’s actually the fall 2020 option. I believe it’s the date that they give you is just the date that it opens. So it should just say fall of 2020. How so if it doesn’t say fall 20, 21, don’t worry about it. It’s more about the date that it opens, which is fall 2020.

So that’s what it says there, then you’re good. That’s applicable for the fall 2021 cycle.

Okay. You mentioned that the SMB program what’s Texas schools offer the program. So my school offers it. So I go to Texas and I’m international university and it’s affiliated with UTM BU school of [00:37:00] medicine they used to offer. They actually closed the program about two years ago. Other schools that offer it are Texas a and M and college station and their affiliation.

Medical school, also Baylor university and Baylor college of medicine. They have an affiliation, rice university, Baylor college of medicine have an affiliation. What else? I believe there’s others too. There’s just like a list of them. If you want the full list for specifically for Texas or for all the ones in the U S you can just Google it and take advantage of that.

Because when I applied there wasn’t even a list online, Less people knew about it. It was less popular then. So there was no online resources to help. And this was just in 20 16, 20 17 when I applied. So now there’s so much more information. So take advantage, and then just Google the list because I don’t really have all the programs just off the top of my head.

Do apply Texas schools put a lot of importance for volunteering as their [00:38:00] aid slots, specifically for community service as compared to the common app. Okay. This is actually a really great question because, and this is something I forgot to address. In terms of the amount of slots you have, so I know I said that there’s 10 for extracurriculars.

There’s eight for volunteering. There’s eight for employment. My response to that is always just quality over quantity. So make sure to put the best quality stuff that you can put rather than putting 10. So there’s 10 slots, or if there’s eight slots or however many, you don’t necessarily have to fill up all of them because if you’re.

Earth club. And you didn’t, you were not an officer, you did not compete in anything. You did not volunteer for anything. You hardly went to any of the meetings and maybe you only want it because they had free cookies. Then that’s probably not an extracurricular you want to really have on there.

Because what are you going to write? I went for the free cookies and look, you can have a lot of extracurriculars, but you really want to showcase the important ones. And you can have a lot that are important to you and you can put all of them on. [00:39:00] However, remember that it’s really more about quality over quantity.

So talk about ones where you were either an officer you really were passionate about the club you competed or in some way, shape or form you pursued something more than just being a member of the club. And even if you were just a member and you want to talk about it, that’s perfectly okay to just remember to just let it come across that, this was one of your interests and this is something you really wanted to do.

So that, yeah, so to answer your question, so it doesn’t necessarily mean that they emphasize more volunteering. They just put it there for the sake of students being able to put as many volunteering activities as they can fit there. It doesn’t necessarily mean that volunteering is more important specifically to apply sexist.

All right. I’m unable to receive my transcripts from school. Is it possible to send them in after I’ve submitted my application? That’s a good question. I believe you [00:40:00] can. Yes, because the transcripts are independent of the applications, so yes, you should be able to

Should you list all extracurriculars or only put the most relevant one to important ones. Okay. Yeah. So I would say put them on relevant slash important ones. However, if you have maybe two relevant ones, then maybe add a couple more to sorta fill up a couple of spaces. I don’t want to necessarily tell you guys to put six or put eight or put five put as many as you feel comfortable that you could defend in terms of that.

No, I put this here for this reason, right? If you. Let’s go back to earth club. For example, if you put further club and then people ask you, Hey, what did you do on earth club that has actually contributed to the club or to yourself as a person. And you can’t answer that question then you probably shouldn’t put it there.

If you can’t answer it, then by all means, please do put it there.[00:41:00]

Okay, so someone is asking, do I apply for a BSMD program through a client, Texas? No. So you would apply for the undergrad through apply Texas, if it is if the undergrad is affiliated with the ApplyTexas portal, such as how mine was. So I did use ApplyTexas when I applied for the BSMD program, I’m currently in, however, if it’s an out-of-state one, then obviously not.

And if it’s And in terms of the application for the BSMD program. So for example, like the Baylor squared program, which is Baylor university, and then a Baylor college of medicine, that’s like a link you can find specifically on their website. So I would just search up the website and then they would have their own application right then and there.

And then also another question I’m feel like I might get is there a code. The application portal for all of these medical programs, there’s not, you have to individually apply for all of them.[00:42:00]

All right. Is there any order I should list my extracurriculars and example, most important to relatively as important? I don’t think that the order you listen in necessarily determines the importance. However, if you’d like to, you can, that doesn’t hurt. I don’t think that would benefit you either.

Not that it’s a bad thing to do. However, I don’t know. Apply Texas looks at them in terms of relevance, unless they specifically say it on some application and other that please rank all your extracurriculars in order of most relevant, to least relevant or most important to least important then in that case, yes.

However, if they were to do that, they would have to specify. So if they don’t specify it, they won’t look at them. So just because you. Earth club first doesn’t mean they think that earth club is the most important thing to you. They base relevance off of if you wrote about it what you did in it, that sort of thing.

Your little 70 characters about it will obviously come across as, okay. How important [00:43:00] was this to you because of your input in the club and how it affected you as well. If you do write about it in essays.

Okay. I think we. Yeah, go ahead. I was about to remind you about, letting students know about how to work with you, right? Okay. Yeah, let’s do that. All right. So let’s talk a little bit about the subscriptions that we do have. So we have two different ones and these are essentially one-on-ones advising subscriptions that we have for bullseye.

If you want so these are the two programs that we have. So there is a starter program and there’s also a scholar program. Their starter program includes a one hour advising per month. Scholar program is two hours. They’re both monthly subscriptions where you’re matched with an advisor of your choice and you get, like I said, either one or two hours of one-on-one advising each month, you get to choose your advisor so you can choose anyone.

You’d like, we choose me. You can choose the person that went to Harvard. You can [00:44:00] choose the person that I want. Yeah. Yale, whoever we have a great team of advisors as an advisor myself and others help, not only with school is, but also college essays, scholarship applications, pretty much anything that you might need help with no matter where you are in your college process.

So if you want to go ahead and work with me or another advisor on your college apps, I will be sending out a link right now where you can do.

so this is a little link should come out to you and you can use that link to get started with any one-on-one advising. And we do this advising, like, how are we doing this right here, which is through a video chat. So that’s what we’ll use for advising. So it’s not just over the phone. It is face-to-face video chat.

so just to go back. So that link goes [00:45:00] to a page where you can schedule a call with Brian Mitchell, who was in charge of was like he is a CEO, and he’ll actually get you set up to choose an advisor and also see where you are in the college process. So our. Ad bullseye have actually had a lot of success working with an advisor.

And this past admissions season we had bulls-eye clients get into every single Ivy league school and top 25 schools in the country. Our clients rate us at a 9.8 out of 10, and that’s because as advisors, we put a lot of care into working with you guys. One-on-one through every step of your application process.

And in case any of you guys aren’t able to click the link or it’s just not working for whatever reason, please do. Just let us know in the chat and we will send you a link to it instead.

Okay. If there’s any other Q and A’s feel free to put that as well.

[00:46:00] So I had a really great time telling you guys about the ApplyTexas and also being able to answer your questions, if you want to discuss one-on-one about your applications. Let me just resend the link one more time in case anybody missed it. Oh I’m not saying many life CUNYs. I think he went through all of them, actually.

If you want to answer some of the questions that the students submitted, when you guys registered we also have those. Okay. All right.

So a couple of questions that I’ve got is, so let me just put that into the chat.

so one of the questions is what is better about using a pipe Texas than just applying to the colleges? It’s one of those things where if you want to apply to Texas schools, you essentially do need it. However, one of the really cool benefits I do see, I mentioned this in the presentation is that you can apply for certain university specific scholarships within the.

Actual application portal, which is pretty cool because other portals don’t necessarily do that. And the [00:47:00] fact that applied Texas has an embedded. And so their application portal is something that is different and, makes it unique and think different question that I got that I will paste right now is how has the climate of a school in Texas general political affiliation, actual weather, location, safety, et cetera.

Climate it’s hard, unfortunately it’s really hot. But it gets, it’s not too hard. In the fall and in the spring, however, in the summer it does tend to get a little bit on the warmer end general political affiliation. Oh, that’s a difficult one that depends on what city you’re in cities do.

Differentiate in terms of where they send politically. Whether overall it’s not bad though, it’s not like in the north where it gets really cold all the time. So it’s, you can wear shorts a lot too. That’s pretty cool. Then location and really depends on the school.

We have schools in all different cities. So if you’re in, if you go to UT and you’re in Austin, that’s a really great city. I know that a lot of students have really liked going to that school specifically because of the location [00:48:00] and because of the vibrant culture that Austin has to offer.

But there’s also schools in Houston San Antonio, Dallas, all the major cities, but if you’re not really a city sort of person, there’s also so many schools in college towns like Texas and. There’s also schools in rural areas, if that’s what you’re into. So there’s really a fit for every single person.

okay. I’ll just go through a couple of questions. Is there anything specific that makes about Texas that really makes it different, unique and comparison? To other states and schools not that really depends on who you are and where you’re coming from. If you’re already in Texas or if you’re not, Texas is a really great state.

That’s really cool. I use opinion. So I don’t really know if I could answer that. Does it automatically apply to all or do you select which to apply to? So you do select which specific college you want to apply to. So out of the approximately 53 colleges listed, you get to decide, [00:49:00] I want to go to, I’m going to apply to this school and this school, and it doesn’t just automatically apply to all of the schools.

However, the great thing about it, like with all the other application portals, is that you don’t have to send all of that information and fill it out for every single school you apply to. So in just, an afternoon or a couple of hours of doing the application, you can apply to dozens of schools, which is really great because that’s something you don’t necessarily have to repeat over it.

Is the program more efficient compared to the regular admissions process as I’m not sure what program is being talked about here? I think that maybe you’re talking about the, like the medical program that I’m in. So is that more efficient? Yeah, I would say maybe not more efficient, but it does definitely guarantee you a certain amount.

Safety because getting into med school is difficult. It’s getting even more difficult. Every coming year, the average admissions test scores, which is called the M cat and average GPA does get more and more every year. It can definitely get more difficult. [00:50:00] So by being in a combined program, as long as you meet the certain requirements that they established for you in college, then you are guaranteed a seat at the affiliated, right?

Does the, does Texas a and M look at freshmen grades that much. So yeah, they w they would look at freshman grades. Yes. And how do you analyze how much time you spend for each activity? So this goes back to having that tracker and just noting down sort of an approximation of how much time you’ve spent on each activity.

So if you did earth club for two years, Maybe an hour every week or however long, the meetings were two hours every month. That sort of thing by tracking it, you know how many hours you’ve put into it as well. And if you don’t know the exact number perfectly okay. To guess, and approximate, they’re not going to get on you for having the, not the exact rate number.

So it’s perfectly okay to do.

All right. A [00:51:00] couple more questions.

How can I maximize my options when applying for colleges in terms of maximizing your options, I think just really do the best that you can keep an open mind in terms of what majors you want to do. And that really just depends on you and how you. Tend to look at and maximizing your options the best way to apply to college.

I don’t think there is a best way actually. I think that everyone’s personal way is their best way, because if it works for you, then that’s the best way for you. What’s the best way for you might not necessarily be the best way for me or for Lily or for, person X or Y or Z. So it’s really just about what is the best for you?

I have a gap year. How could I cover it? I don’t think you can just cover it up, you have to do to help colleges if they do ask about it. However, if you’re going to talk about a gap year, you want to maybe talk about how you were productive in that gap year, what you learned, how you became a better person or any experiences that you had during that gap year that contribute or any [00:52:00] qualities you might’ve gained through that a gap year that you can actually bring with you to the college that you will be okay.

What is the most outstanding skill that Texas equip students with? Probably dealing with the heat. It’s really hot here. No, I’m just joking. I’m not sure if there’s one specific thing. I think that every school has their own thing. So if you go to UT they have a really great business school.

If you were to Baylor university, they have a really. Pre-med department. So it’s more dependent on the specific schools and there’s these sorts of schools in all different states. So it’s not just specific to Texas. So I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s Texas schools. It’s more about what specific school you go to is chemical engineering among the courses administered at Texas.

Yeah. So that’s one of the most schools will have a chemical engineering as well. Sure.

Yeah, I saw the, on that question, just so that, and then [00:53:00] we can probably wrap things up with Noel said near the other questions. Okay. So the question was. What are some things you like and dislike about annum? So I don’t go to a and M I go to a sister school venom, it’s Texas, and an international university.

So it’s a smaller school than annum it’s located in Laredo, Texas. And so that’s probably one of the things I don’t like about it is that it is a smaller school to school. Is about as big as my high school was in terms of the student population is about four to 5,000 people. Which was really big for a high school, but it’s not that big for a college.

And it’s also not in the ideal city, I would say that I’m more of a city person and it’s more in a rural area or in a very small city. But some of the things I like about it are the people I’ve met a lot of great friends and experiences there. I think it’s prepped me well for medical school in terms of the education.

And I think it’s like more affordable. So that’s a really big thing too. So I know finances are a big thing for [00:54:00] myself and for a lot of you guys, right? Because college gets expensive. So because it is an in-state public, Texas school. And because my medical school is an in-state public medical school, I get in-state tuition for both of those, which is great because if you want to become a doctor, then it’s very expensive because it takes eight years of education.

And if you would have private school to private med school, I, it adds up a lot. But if you go to a public school, then the tuition is significantly less. All right. Any other questions? All right. One more question.

All right. In general, do the rec letters need to be from teachers from 11th grade or does it not matter? It doesn’t really matter which grade is on this. They have a good relationship. Also can direct letters come from people outside of school. Yes they can. So if you have a coach, if a mentor, if it’s your boss at work, it can come from anywhere.

all right. If there’s no more questions, I believe that’s it. [00:55:00] Thank you guys so much for coming and asking your questions. I had a great time. I hope that you guys were able to learn something and I hope that it helps you and good luck applying a good day, guys.