Webinar: College Admissions Everything You Need to Know

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Beth Barteletti: Welcome.

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Happy to see you happy summer, happy, almost school year starting crazy. We were just talking, Amy and I about how fast the years go by when you’re raising a son or daughter.

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So my name is Beth Barteletti. I am the Senior Director of College Advising with International College Counselors. I’m happy to have you with me here tonight and to go over some very basic or not. So basic information about the college admission process. But to give you a general overview as to

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what this looks like, sort of from soup to nuts, and how we at International College Counselors can help you with this process. So just a little bit about me.

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I’ve been in the in the business or in the profession for 27 years, which, again, I can’t believe. I tell the kids I’ve been

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doing this longer than you’ve been alive and way longer. Before I worked with International College Counselors — and I’ve been with them for 8 years — I worked at a high school in Portland, Oregon. I’m from Miami, but

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for adventure’s sake. When I was young I moved out to Oregon, and I worked for a high school out there, and then I worked for Reed College, which is one of the premier Liberal Arts colleges in the country. If you don’t know it, you should look it up. It’s one of the top producers by percentage of future PhDs in the country. It’s quite the intellectual environment. So I worked with them for 14 years on the admission side. So I have the

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the perspectives of being a college admission counselor, a high school counselor, and now an independent counselor. I know this process from all the sides of the equation.

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A little bit about International College Counselors and what we do. We help students and their parents navigate this whole process. Whether or not you are from this country, another country, or

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are a parent and grew up in this country and attended college 30 years ago and are now going through with one of your kids. It’s very, very different than it was when

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those of us of a certain age were going to college. I applied to two colleges using a typewriter. Even subsequent years, really up to the computer age, everything was done on paper. And now it’s very easy.

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relatively speaking, to apply to numerous colleges.

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The time consuming piece is the essays. But the process has changed, and one thing that’s constant in college admission is change. I was just talking with a family about this the other day, and saying, for instance, the University of Michigan has now decided to have an early decision option.

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Another change: the ACT has recently dropped the science section as a requirement, and we have to pay attention to which colleges are allowing students to take the ACT without the science. Or do you have to take it with the science, etc, etc? So there are lots of

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balls to keep in the air and random pieces to keep track of, and that’s one of the things that we, the college advisors, at International College Counselors do to help you. We help you with planning your high school classes. We help with extracurricular and summer activities in terms of helping you figure out, — not what’s going to quote unquote look best on a resume — but giving you ideas for how to pursue the interests that you already have.

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Obviously, we help with essay editing and brainstorming. All of that starts really

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in depth in January of the student’s junior year. So we’re starting. They apply in the October, November of senior year.

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but in the same calendar year as they are juniors. So basically, we’re starting like 8 months ahead of time, 8, 9, 10 months ahead of time to get those applications ready to the extent that we can before the Common App opens for that class. If the student has interviews as part of their application process, we help with those as well. You can see on the slide all the things we help with.

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And we have college advisors all over the country. We have offices all over the country, but today we conduct most of our business virtually so that’s very helpful. I worked with a student in Australia last year, so that was very interesting. I learned a lot about Australia, and he’s actually coming to the U.S. for college now which was his goal.

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So, as I just said, college admissions is changing. It’s more stressful, confusing, and complicated than ever before. So these are the ways we can decrease your stress partially by helping you understand the process and create an individualized plan. So we will create a customized plan for your student and guide them from point A to point B. Point B being the college of their choice.

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Helping them apply early can alleviate some of that stress. Also then breaking the process into smaller, more manageable tasks.

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So let’s get right into it.

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All right. So what are colleges looking for?

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You know they’re looking for good grades, good test scores, etc. But first and foremost, they’re really looking for diversity, and I know, you know, that’s sort of a hot word nowadays, but I don’t.

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I’m not saying it in the in terms of how it’s being used.

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except to say that they are looking for a well-rounded class.

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I’ve had more than one family ask, Does my student need to do athletics? They think the student has to be involved in music and athletics and

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you know academic things and charitable things like volunteer work. That’s nice, if that is your student. But they are also looking to fill the class with kids who are interested in philosophy and biology. So there’s diversity in the in the subject areas that they need to fill in on that campus.

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They always want to be able to say, we have a student coming from every State in the Union, and we have X number of students coming from 32 other countries. So that’s geographical diversity. Obviously, the schools with athletic teams want winning teams. So they’re looking for talented athletes.

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AS importantly, they want people with special interests or talents. Whatever that may be.

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Examples are people who have who are artists, musicians, Thespians, people who are underrepresented groups or first generation

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They also want students with special situations and good stories. There’s a book out there called from Homeless to Harvard.

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It’s about a girl who grew up essentially homeless, and after many trials and tribulations she landed Harvard, and not even as an 18 year old. I think she was in her twenties when she landed there. But that would be the example of a special situation, good story that she was able to pull herself up through her own power and make something of her life despite her beginnings.

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And then institutional fit. So that basically means, does the student and what he or she is looking for match what we as an institution offer?

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It may be that. For instance, when I was working at Reed… Reed has no

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athletic teams. So I remember reading a an application where the students said, I want to continue playing baseball in college, and I was going. Okay.

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we’re not a fit for you. So that’s a very obvious thing to say.

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What they want to know is: do you understand what we offer and does what we offer match what you’re looking for?

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About half the colleges ask a question, a supplemental question in their section of the application that says, Why do you want to go to the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, Duke?

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USC, etc. All sorts of colleges ask this question, so they’re looking for somebody who fits what they offer. So they’re kind of like jigsaw pieces, jigsaw puzzle pieces that go together.

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The most important pieces of the college application

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are your grades and also the rigor of your coursework.

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So the most important thing is not that you have a 4.0. I mean, that’s awesome if you do have all A’s.

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But it’s better to have all As when you’re challenging yourself in the curriculum. So you don’t want to be at a place that offers 15 APs and never take any, because you’re protecting your 4.0.

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Conversely, if you’re at a place that doesn’t offer APs.

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But does maybe offer advanced topics, or they offer AICE classes, or they offer

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something like I worked with a student who was at a school. They had what’s what they called Chai classes, and it was it was the name of the school, and then advanced, intensive or something so CH. AI, and that was their basically the equivalent of their AP curriculum. So if they were in a Chai class, it meant they were doing the highest level class in that subject area.

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Basically, you want to be taking the hardest classes you are capable of taking. And the analogy I use is, you want to be putting your foot on the accelerator, but not so much that you crash the car into the brick wall. So you want to take the hardest classes that you can manage.

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in which you can make good grades. Of course, the more A’s the better

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The more B’s you have, the lower your chances of getting into the top tier schools, or even a UF or an FSU. That’s why it’s so important not to overload yourself with too many high level classes if that’s not the student that you are. If you can handle a less rigorous curriculum, then then do yourself a favor, and do that less rigorous curriculum.

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What is the second most important part of the application?

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Unfortunately, it’s still standardized tests.

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Now, a lot of schools, as I’m no doubt you’ve heard are test optional. But a lot of schools are returning to testing, now that the pandemic is several years behind us. It is still required by all Florida schools.

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It’s been reinstated for Georgia, Tennessee, Ivies. Georgetown. Purdue reinstated it, I believe it was this year.

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So you do need to take a standardized test. I tell students, let’s take the test, and either test, SAT or ACT is acceptable, and you don’t have to take both. It’s Pepsi or Coke. The colleges don’t care.

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So what I recommend is, if you’re working with a tutor, that you take a diagnostic test

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to see which one is your better test. If you’re doing comparable or earning comparable scores on the two then pick the one that you feel most comfortable with.

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Now I say, take the test as many times as needed.

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So that they can super scores, meaning they can take the highest math and the highest verbal from the SAT or the highest section score off the ACT.

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But Georgetown and a couple of the Ivies require that you submit all of your test scores.

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So when a student says, Should I take this test for a fourth or fifth time? Hopefully.

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you don’t have to go there, but some of them are really working hard, and they really want to continue to work on that.

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I’ll look and say, are we applying to Georgetown? Are we applying to the Ivies? Or you know the Ivies that require this, because now we have to figure out the tightrope of am I going to turn in five test scores because they’re requiring all of them.

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In most cases you can do the super score. So let’s say you do take it four times, and your best scores come out on two of the tests. Then you only have to report those two tests.

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These are the things we can help you navigate as part of this process. We help you figure out to whom or to which colleges are you actually submitting. So if it’s test optional, and I have a 32 on my ACT, which is kind of in the middle of a good score for some schools and not so good for other schools. Where do I submit?

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Those are the things that we can help you with. And note that there are free practice tests available and just

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skill building at these websites.

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And just as a reminder, we will be sending the recording out after tonight, so that you can revisit these slides.

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As I said, I said earlier, you know some of the Ivies have returned to test. required

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Test blind is where the school is not even looking at test scores, so there’s no point in submitting them there. They’re not looking at them. You can submit them to the University of California system, but they will only be used for placement purposes in freshman classes, not for evaluation of one’s application.

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We are still seeing a slight advantage with those who submit scores. So I had a parent ask earlier about this. I was telling him that, yes, the student should retake the test.

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They had a good score, but not a tippy top score, which is always an advantage to have.

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I mean, this seems sort of self-explanatory, but always an advantage to have a good score or a strong score

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over no score if they’re test optional.

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The advice I give is to look at the schools Middle 50%.

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Test score range for the SAT or the ACT and see if you fall within that range. If you do, you should submit the test. However, let’s say you’ve got a 1,400 that might look good for one university. But it’s not going to help you at another university.

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Essentially what they’re doing with the test score and the grades and the rigor is assessing whether you can handle the coursework at their institution

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Once they’ve sort of cleared you past that hurdle. They’ve said, Okay, this student, they’re making A’s, maybe a couple of B’s in good coursework, etc.

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Can they handle our coursework. Okay? But we still have oodles of kids who are good.

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solid, or even, you know, very bright students. How do we

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still narrow down because if we’re the University of Michigan

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I think, like 2 years ago, they had 80,000 applications.

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whereas 10 years prior to that had been 40,000. So let’s say, we take out 40,000 applications because those 40,000 are not good students. We look at their app and we go. It’s not going to happen. We still have to narrow that down. If we’re looking at a Harvard or Duke with a 5% or 6% or 3% acceptance rate

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so how do we then pick the class from the kids who remain? At this stage we’re looking at What is the impact that these students make in their community and in high school?

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What are they doing to improve

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their community? And I don’t mean necessarily their wider community like Miami Beach.

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although it could be. Yes, but it can also be

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literally the street they live on or the school they attend. It could be one nonprofit in their community, etc. So

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you don’t have to be, as I mentioned earlier, involved in 12 things. There’s actually 10 things on the Common Application. And it’s good to be able to fill all those things. But really, what they’re looking for is not a couple of times a year you do a beach cleanup, but that you are concentrating on a few activities and excelling in those. They want to see that commitment. They want to see the passion. They want to see the skill.

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Now, when I say commitment, it’s important to know that as students go into freshman year, it’s fine if they start some activities and then don’t follow through with them as they move into sophomore year, because freshman year is a great year for sort of looking around and figuring out what fits. Who am I? What am I interested in? Etc?

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Oh, the Music club wasn’t what I thought it would be, so let me go join the, I don’t know, the marching band, or let me go into theater, or something, Figuring out what it is that I want to spend my time doing.

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And it’s very important to keep a list of activities beginning with the summer before 9th grade, because you would be surprised at how little

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you or your child remembers about 9th grade. Once they’re in 12th grade, they’re going what they did. I have my students put together a resume. And we don’t wait till senior year. We do it. That’s part of our intake, actually. And they’ll be putting their stuff on the Common App. And I’m like, what about the Aviation Club? And they say Oh, I forgot, I did that.

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Sometimes people will say, should I do X, or should I do Y. Should I be on the tennis team? Or should I be in Girl Scouts, and I say to the students, What do you want to do? What you know? Where are your interests? What would give you more satisfaction? There’s no right activity. There’s no activity that’s better than another. There’s no hierarchy. It’s not like. If you’re a Girl Scout you get

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more points than if you’re on the newspaper, or what have you. That’s important to know.

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They’re looking for meaningful participation. Are you a leader? How engaged are you? Are you a self-starter.

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Did you look around and see something that was missing from your school or from your community?

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I had a student who.

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started a project during the pandemic. He just put a note on his neighbor’s doors, saying he was collecting toiletries, and he would once a month make a run down to Camilla’s House, which is a shelter

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here in Miami. He’d bring what he had collected just from a couple of streets around his own house. He saw a need. He knew that they needed toothbrushes and socks and things like that.

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And so he would ask. Last Friday of the month I’ll be around to collect the things. So, looking around and seeing something that’s not there that you could do is important.

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Creativity counts, depth counts, motivation. How can you show that motivation? How can you show that you’re a self-starter, that you’re engaged, etc.

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The student who was donating to Camilla’s house. They love it when you take action for your community in the world, so you might say, I’m a feminist, or I’m a conservationist, or I’m an animal lover. What evidence!

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What actions are you able to show them?

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I think to myself, every time I walk my dogs I should bring a pair of gloves and a garbage bag, and pick up the trash that is just along the dog route, because it would just brighten up my little corner of the world. Even doing something like that could be something that you put on your common application if you were to do it consistently.

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Grab a couple of friends, and you each do it, and you make a commitment to do it once a week in your own neighborhood. You get friends to come in with you, whether you’re starting a new club or doing something individually, that you can also do collectively.

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The colleges are also looking at if you’re learning outside the classroom. Now this is not an absolute must.

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But if you are, for instance, wanting to go into a more advanced math class, or you’ve always wanted to learn how to do science research.

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Or you want an internship with a newspaper or a very local magazine.

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These sorts of things can be acquired during the summer by volunteering, shadowing, etc.

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A student can look good on an application if they get a job related to what they want to do. If you want to go into business, work for a real retail shop, Or if you want to go into marketing, see if you can work for a marketing or a PR Company. Even

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if you don’t know what you want to do. And this was the mother’s question: what should my son do?

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And I said, work in general is useful. And again, it’s not a must. But if your student is working, it shows responsibility. It shows the ability to be punctual, to be part of a team to

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recognize the value of a dollar, etc, It shows I take direction, communicate with others, etc. So those are all good things. Jobs can include babysitting, pet sitting, lawn mowing. It doesn’t have to be something where you’re getting a W-2.

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It could be. I had a student a couple of years ago who

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wanted to build his own computer. He had some birthday money and money from grandma, but he still was short, and he said, so I got a towel and some soap, and walked around the neighborhood, asking his neighbors if they wanted their cars washed. He was able to work this in, sort of a funny way, into his essay about how he got involved with computers.

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It wasn’t just that he borrowed Mom’s credit card and bought things.

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He showed initiative. He said I’m going to earn some of my own money because I’m short. And I’m gonna figure out how to do this. And I think this was during the pandemic as well. So he had to do something that was outside that didn’t require personal contact.

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Another important component in the applications are the essays.

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There’s one main essay which is called, they used to call it the personal statement. Now they’re calling it the personal essay Common pp essay. It’s the main essay that goes to all the colleges on your list, so it should not be specific to any one college. This is your chance to tell your story.

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It is not the place to necessarily talk about all your accomplishments. Really, what they’re looking for is your humanity here? Who is the person behind the achievements or the accomplishments. In this application I’m reading, Who is the person behind these grades? These test scores?

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Who are you in a in a third dimension. Basically, I’m looking at you on a screen.

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I have no sense of the person behind these objective numbers.

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So it’s really your opportunity, if you’re the student, to share your voice with the committee to help them understand who you are, what’s important to you. What do you spend your time thinking about.

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What are your feelings about things. They’re looking for authenticity. So you are not trying to sound like you’re perfect, and that you have everything figured out.

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Your essays don’t have to tie up nice and neat, and everybody lived happily ever after. It can be, I’m still figuring things out.

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I’m having to remind parents and the kids that that your essay does not need to be sounding like it’s written by Hemingway. You definitely don’t want it to sound like it was written by your parents. And almost anybody who spent any time reading applications can tell

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when Mom or Dad has taken over the essay because it comes out sounding nothing like what a teenager sounds like.

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: And I’m not talking about like

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slang, or things that the kids say that we don’t say it. Just the approach is different. The perspective is different. The language is different.

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The same thing goes for AI. AI wasn’t a thing even two years ago, I mean, not in terms of writing college essays.

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But I know, and so do all my colleagues

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when I’m looking at something that was written by AI. It’s a little too

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smooth. It’s a little too polished. It’s a little too sophisticated.

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And so if your writing is coming along, or coming across

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as smooth and polished and sophisticated the rest of your

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Application better be smooth and polished and sophisticated in terms of your grades, your test scores, etc, because you don’t want the essay

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to stand out as something that’s different from what the rest of your application represents.

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So use if you’re using AI. Georgia Tech says it’s fine to use AI to help you outline your ideas, etc. If you’re using it, please use it cautiously. Do not use it to write your essay. That that will be identified immediately.

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Really, they’re looking for authenticity, like I said, so

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AI is naturally, by virtue of what it is not authentic.

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Okay, so letters of recommendation.

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I asked my students in the spring of Junior year

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to ask two of their teachers from junior year — ideally from Junior year—

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to write them their letters of recommendation

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You want to select two core subject teachers from junior year, but sometimes

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there might be someone who taught you like in 9th grade, and they’re going to teach you again in 12th grade, let’s say, or they taught you in 10th and they’re going to teach you again in 11th, in 12th

00:31:41.200 –> 00:31:50.750
This could work if there aren’t if there aren’t two core teachers in junior year.

00:31:51.248 –> 00:31:58.470
So somebody who taught you a 9th or 10th and is teaching you again in 12th already knows you. You’ve got a history with them.

00:31:58.650 –> 00:32:12.220
The reason not to ask a 12th grade teacher who’s never had you before is these are due November first, so that gives them about a month to get to know you before you’re asking them to write a letter of recommendation, which isn’t a good idea.

00:32:13.270 –> 00:32:22.679
When I say core subject teachers, I mean sort of the five main. English math, science, social science, or world language.

00:32:23.162 –> 00:32:49.970
If it’s an AP psych teacher, that’s fine, because that’s still a core class. It’s a social science class, or an AP research or seminar but a band teacher is not a core teacher. Now, some schools will allow you to submit what they call a supplementary recommendation which could come from a coach,

00:32:50.220 –> 00:33:02.569
a band teacher, an art teacher, an advisor for a club. But ideally, they’re looking for two core teachers from junior year to write those letters.

00:33:03.360 –> 00:33:13.269
I think it’s really important to help your recommender by providing them with a list of accomplishments or things that you took away from their class.

00:33:14.100 –> 00:33:21.309
A lot of teachers want a resume, and it’s okay to give one to them.

00:33:21.540 –> 00:33:37.109
But the colleges already have your resume, so they don’t need the teacher recommendation to be rehashing your accomplishments. That’s already been mentioned elsewhere in your application. What the colleges want to know is what kind of citizen you are in the classroom. So if you’re a junior,

00:33:37.520 –> 00:33:54.639
or really, whatever grade you’re in, you should be on your best behavior with the teachers. You should be prepared for class. You should be polite in class, you should be participate when you can, etc. So do the things that would make a teacher want to recommend you.

00:33:55.280 –> 00:34:01.130
And, of course, thank them when they’ve written the letter. Now, I’m not telling

00:34:01.580 –> 00:34:25.610
you to have them write the letter in the spring. I’m saying you request it in the spring, which gives them the summer to write it, if they are so inclined. If they’re not so inclined, then that’s their problem, because you’re not hitting them in October with a letter request. You’re just reminding them that you asked them back in May, and so, if they haven’t done it, that’s their problem, not yours.

00:34:26.449 –> 00:34:54.880
How else can I plan now for college? So think about your initial school list, and this may be a little too early for freshmen, but you can start thinking about the things you like about your high school. Is it large and you like that. Is it small and you like that. You get to know your teachers. You attend football games or basketball games. Do you like them? Do you like the fact that you have amazing science labs?

00:34:56.350 –> 00:34:59.279
What are the things that you’re enjoying about high school?

00:34:59.820 –> 00:35:16.430
You want to think about top five things that your college must have. For example, it must be no more than three hours driving distance away, or it must be a direct flight. Think about the distance. Think about the size.

00:35:16.620 –> 00:35:23.089
Think about what you want to major in. You will want to make sure the colleges you add to your list offer your major.

00:35:23.310 –> 00:35:35.259
I was looking at Emory University with a student the other day, and she’s thinking about communications. Emory has nothing in the way of communications so that shifted the list a little bit.

00:35:38.940 –> 00:35:54.209
So these are all good things to be thinking about in terms of putting together that initial college list. Then, after your five must haves, think about what you would like to have. So the things that aren’t a deal breaker but would be nice to have and put those together even if you’re a freshman.

00:35:58.230 –> 00:36:25.550
It’s not a bad idea to start visiting colleges when you go to see grandma, or when you go to Disney World. Go to the University of Central Florida and check it out while you’re up there. If you’re anywhere that has a college, just go look at it, even if it’s not ever going to be on your list, because if you familiarize yourself with different campuses.

00:36:25.550 –> 00:36:33.409
you begin to get a sense of what you like and what you don’t like. So oh, I didn’t realize I would actually

00:36:33.850 –> 00:36:58.130
enjoy a university that’s in the city like NYU, or oh, I visited NYU or Boston University, and I said, No, I don’t want a college in the city, or I visited Bowdoin when my family was camping in Maine and decided, I really like being out in rural America.

00:36:58.870 –> 00:37:04.730
Those are good things to think about in terms of putting together your list.

00:37:07.510 –> 00:37:19.279
Most high schools have some sort of college planning software whether it’s Scoir, Naviance, Xello or Maia.

00:37:20.280 –> 00:37:24.459
I think I mentioned them all. Some sort of

00:37:25.370 –> 00:37:45.269
software may help you see whether you’re even in the conversation in terms of grades and test scores. So this Scattergram is from a couple of years ago. No, actually, it’s from one year ago.

00:37:45.400 –> 00:37:48.859
On this axis we have the test score.

00:37:49.090 –> 00:37:54.111
And on this one

00:37:55.076 –> 00:38:06.739
is GPA. So if we’re looking at students that got into the University of Pennsylvania from the years 2019 to 2024, and these are ICC clients

00:38:07.650 –> 00:38:36.899
who are coming from all different high schools. But when you are looking at this in your own high school, you can get a sense of, am I even in the ballpark for a school like this? So you can see that these two students, one had a 5.0 at whatever their high school was, and one had a 4.5, and they were as far to the right. So this is probably a 35 and a 36 on the act.

00:38:39.530 –> 00:38:48.570
You can begin to get a sense of, Does it even make sense for me to be looking at the top tier universities? Or do I need to

00:38:49.295 –> 00:38:55.510
think about schools that have a lower that are less selective, but still just as good.

00:38:58.080 –> 00:39:16.699
When you’re getting to know the colleges, as you begin to narrow down that list. You want to look at their admission page, but also the academics page. So if you are wanting to major in communications. What does a communications major look like at Syracuse versus Florida State versus UF versus Duke

00:39:18.710 –> 00:39:32.830
You want to go into sport management. It’s in the School of Education at the University of Texas. It’s in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan.

00:39:33.190 –> 00:39:40.709
It’s in the Business School at other places. So you want to get a sense, as you narrow down your list. Major. What will each of this these involve at the schools on your list.

00:39:46.030 –> 00:39:52.759
Also attend online information sessions.

00:39:52.990 –> 00:40:03.579
I don’t know that there’s a college out there now that doesn’t have an online information session. So you don’t even have to visit. You can start with the online information session.

00:40:03.970 –> 00:40:07.529
Then decide if you want to go visit.

00:40:08.670 –> 00:40:12.620
Talk to recent grads and alumni. Ask parents and teachers.

00:40:12.730 –> 00:40:19.230
Your school should have college reps coming to visit, and typically juniors and seniors are invited to those.

00:40:19.590 –> 00:40:29.180
There are virtual college fairs online, and also in-person college fairs organized by NACAC, which is the National Association for College Admission Counseling

00:40:29.784 –> 00:40:41.610
You can tour colleges, visit campuses, or visit from your couch at YouVisit.com, campustours.com or TheCollegeTour.com. Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok are great places to just find out more about schools.

00:40:41.790 –> 00:40:48.150
Hey, what’s good about NYU? What do you not like about NYU? You can find

00:40:48.530 –> 00:41:03.880
undoctored and censored information from students at those schools on because they’re not looked overseen by the admission office.

00:41:05.120 –> 00:41:23.490
Here are some of the other search engines I mentioned. Use those. If they’re available at your school. Every school has one. I shouldn’t say every school has one, but if your school has one, that’s the one they use, they don’t have multiple. So Scoir, Naviance, Xello, Maia, Big Future, UNIGO.

00:41:24.832 –> 00:41:34.130
Show your interest. Visit all schools on your list virtually at the very least. There’s no reason not to

00:41:34.540 –> 00:41:40.940
visit a school virtually. If you haven’t been to it personally or in person.

00:41:41.100 –> 00:41:44.689
I would hate to think that a student is going to apply to, let’s say

00:41:45.570 –> 00:42:12.659
the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago will know that you’ve never been on campus. You never opened their emails — and schools do track this. You never did a virtual tour information session. So it’s basically going to look to them like you aren’t that interested. So what we want to do is show your interest. This is called demonstrated interest, and this is important for the mostly the private schools, including the smaller private schools.

00:42:12.790 –> 00:42:20.700
The Ivies don’t care. They have, you know, more applicants than they know what to do with.

00:42:21.638 –> 00:42:23.851
Stanford doesn’t care.

00:42:25.830 –> 00:42:40.200
University of Florida, FSU. The public large publics don’t care about demonstrated interest, but certainly you should demonstrate, just for your own sake. Familiarize yourself with what they offer.

00:42:42.181 –> 00:42:55.879
Attend rep visits. If they come to your school, talk to the reps at college fairs, etc. Follow the school on social media. Your list should have at least nine schools.

00:42:58.310 –> 00:43:07.799
However, I don’t want to say definitely nine. You definitely want your list of schools to be all places that you would be happy attending.

00:43:08.000 –> 00:43:33.550
You don’t want your, and I hate this word, Likely, because everybody’s like I don’t want to go to my likely school. That’s just my likely school. What you want to do is find 6 or 7 or 8 schools that you would be happy at, but they should have a range of selectivity. You don’t want to apply to all schools that that take 5% of their admit pool. That’s just asking for an unhappy ending in most cases.

00:43:36.020 –> 00:43:54.380
Think about applying early. I’ve put together a we have a blog on our website about the different types of admission plans.
:
00:43:57.140 –> 00:44:01.609
You’ve probably heard of Early Decision (ED), which is where you apply with the idea that if I’m admitted, I will enroll. It’s kind of like a marriage proposal. I propose to you. If you say yes, we’re getting married. I’m going to that school.

00:44:13.610 –> 00:44:19.499
so there’s a commitment to attend. Should you be admitted. Early action

00:44:20.710 –> 00:44:30.209
you are applying early and being notified early of your decision. But there is not that binding commitment to attend.

00:44:31.390 –> 00:44:43.630
Then there are some schools that complicate matters. Some schools, like the University of Chicago, have Early Decision, which is binding Early Action (EA), which is not binding, and then regular decision (RD).

00:44:43.790 –> 00:45:05.240
So they have different what we call admission plans. Again, these are the things that we can help you navigate, because some of the Ivies also have what they call Single Choice Early Action or Restricted Early Action (REA). And there’s rules around those. If you’re applying Restricted Early Action, can you apply EA at other places, and it just becomes a very convoluted poker game in some ways.

00:45:16.720 –> 00:45:20.250
But applying early, whether it’s Early Action, Early Decision, REA single choice,

00:45:21.500 –> 00:45:42.069
can be a good idea, because, as you’re probably seeing that the overall acceptance rate now, these are just the Ivies, for instance, Brown overall is 6%. Though this is the class of 2019. So this is a couple of years back.

00:45:42.360 –> 00:46:03.489
But some of them have since, like Princeton, stopped giving out information, they stopped publishing their information. So this is just an idea but it’s still pretty accurate, even though it’s a few years old. The numbers may not be accurate, but the ratios are. Let’s say that Brown in this year.

00:46:03.980 –> 00:46:14.229
admitted 6.6% overall. But 18% were admitted through Early Decision.

00:46:14.480 –> 00:46:24.080
So and then regular decision garnered a much smaller percent of acceptances. So, obviously, you get a nice bump in likelihood of acceptance if you are applying early

00:46:38.666 –> 00:46:44.889
Now, Harvard has Restricted Early Action as opposed to Early Decision

00:46:45.600 –> 00:46:50.990
But even that. Look at this 2.7% regular decision admit rate

00:46:51.870 –> 00:46:55.559
but 8.7% if you’re applying REA, Restricted Early Action, which basically, like, I said, there’s rules around it. But these are all things that we can help you navigate.

00:47:04.810 –> 00:47:18.019
And then financial aid,/ merit-based scholarships. You want to research merit based aid which is not tied to financial need.

00:47:18.230 –> 00:47:21.210
So when people ask about scholarships.

00:47:21.860 –> 00:47:29.979
Most scholarship money comes from the college itself, and scholarships in general means Is tied to merit. So tied to how strong you are as a student. That said, there are some merit scholarships that also require that the student have significant need.

00:47:45.830 –> 00:47:53.650
In other words, there’s scholarships where you could be

00:47:53.840 –> 00:48:00.790
Bill Gates’s kid, and still get a scholarship because you’re such an amazing student. It doesn’t matter how much money your family has.

00:48:01.670 –> 00:48:09.419
or there’s scholarships that you need to be an amazing student, or at least one of the best ones applying to that college

00:48:09.700 –> 00:48:16.849
and demonstrate financial need, because that’s a stipulation of that scholarship.

00:48:17.670 –> 00:48:27.340
But if you’re looking for private scholarships and a lot of these are sort of mini scholarships, they might be a thousand dollars, 1,500 2,500 or in the hundreds. But every little bit helps

00:48:29.530 –> 00:48:39.820
Those resources can be found at these websites. We actually send out a list of private scholarships once a month to our clients.

00:48:41.200 –> 00:48:43.889
So that’s another benefit of working with us.

00:48:44.060 –> 00:48:54.610
Also. think about whether your State has scholarships like Florida’s Bright Futures or Georgia’s Hope scholarship that can be very useful.

00:48:55.390 –> 00:49:12.659
One thing I did want to say that is that the Ivy League does not give out scholarship money. They give out financial aid which is need based. But they don’t give scholarships. So if you ever hear someone say, You know, my kid got into Princeton on a full ride.

00:49:13.140 –> 00:49:18.520
Either they’re not quite telling the truth, or their family doesn’t have any money, and so they qualified for full financial aid.

00:49:28.980 –> 00:49:48.750
Which you know. Maybe they legit don’t have that. Maybe they legit have full need, or maybe they legit hid some of their money. I don’t know. But when people say you hear that a lot oh, I got a full ride, or whatever. And it’s like, yeah, okay, whatever. I’m taking that with a grain of salt.

00:49:55.060 –> 00:50:06.049
So there’s merit scholarships and then need based financial aid, and usually they say, financial aid instead of scholarships. But lots of times they lump need-based aid into financial aid.

00:50:12.970 –> 00:50:20.409
But generally, if they’re saying scholarships and financial aid. That’s the difference. Financial aid is need based. Scholarships are merit based.

00:50:20.560 –> 00:50:28.139
With the need-based aid. This is where the FAFSA comes in. It’s the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

00:50:28.280 –> 00:50:34.839
And this slide says everyone should fill it out. But you can go

00:50:35.470 –> 00:50:52.080
on every college’s website and go to that search bar and say, net price calculator, and you can do some number crunching and figure out if your family would qualify for financial aid at that school.

00:50:53.050 –> 00:51:01.000
So you can kind of do a financial aid check before you even apply, and some schools will do what they call a financial aid pre-read before you apply just to save.

00:51:07.160 –> 00:51:13.659
you the hassle of going through the application process only to find out it’s not going to be affordable.

00:51:14.500 –> 00:51:16.600
So the FAFSA is generally

00:51:16.710 –> 00:51:25.349
Available starting October first. Last year, it was December first but it’s generally open October first and in terms of submitting it, you should do so at the same time that you’re applying for aid.

00:51:31.920 –> 00:51:37.630
I find that a lot of students, will or families.

00:51:37.630 –> 00:52:03.010
They’ll apply for admission. Then they get in. Then they start looking for financial aid, and it’s like, Oh, no, you need to apply for your financial aid at the same time you apply for admission. Then the CSS Profile is required by many private colleges, usually, in addition to the FAFSA, because they extract different information from the family. And here’s that net price calculator that I mentioned on all the colleges websites.

00:52:04.740 –> 00:52:19.809
Final thoughts. So we want to take challenging classes, we want to prepare for our tests. Get involved. Keep a list of your involvement.

00:52:20.050 –> 00:52:48.840
Explore. It’s not too early to explore your majors. Your career goals. Think about what you like to do. Those sorts of things. Do some shadowing, for something that you think might be interesting. Research scholarships ahead of time. Stay organized, get help, whether it’s a tutor for your classes, a tutor for your test prep. Or an independent advisor like me or my colleagues

00:52:48.920 –> 00:52:55.320
Be confident, There is a college for everybody. There’s more than one college for everybody. It seems that in our

00:52:55.550 –> 00:53:08.089
society we all talk about the same 25 colleges. But there are thousands of colleges out there in the United States. I have a friend whose son is going to the Webb Institute.

00:53:08.680 –> 00:53:19.759
Probably nobody on this webinar has heard of Webb. It is a maritime school. He’s learning how to do naval engineering, and

00:53:19.820 –> 00:53:42.770
the entire program is free. So for him, that was the best option, because what he wanted to do. And who doesn’t like free college. So we can help. You find colleges that meet your needs and we can help you figure out how to get from where you are today to where you want to be in college.

00:53:43.320 –> 00:54:11.510
So the last slide is if you would like to schedule a free consultation with me or with one of my colleagues. We’d be happy to do so. The contact information is there. Thank you for spending time with us. I’ll stay on for a couple of minutes if you need to hop. We’ll send out the recording later this week, as I mentioned earlier.

00:54:11.730 –> 00:54:13.709
Have a great evening. Thank you.

00:56:45.160 –> 00:57:12.100
If anybody has questions my email address is there. It’s simple. [email protected]. Feel free to send me your questions later. I’d be happy to help, or, as I said, to set up a free consultation and I can help you with any questions you like, or let you know how we work with students getting ready to go to college.

00:57:12.760 –> 00:57:16.609
Thank you for spending part of your evening with us.

00:57:17.050 –> 00:57:21.211
I hope that all of you have a great weekend and a great high school experience, and hopefully, this won’t be the last webinar of ICCs that you attend. All right, everybody take care. Bye-bye.