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## Intro....What Admissions Officers Are Actually Trained to Do [00:00] What's up everyone? Coach Tony here. In this training, we're going to talk about how admission officers evaluate your college application. If you are joined here, oops, wrong one. If you guys are join joining me live uh right here on Zoom on Facebook, you should see my screen uh right now where it should show you uh the title of the screen. If you guys can help me out, drop a quick yes in the chat if that's what you see so the screen is correct so you're not looking at the wrong screen. Just quick little yes in the chat. That will help me out a little bit as well. Awesome. Looks like we have a few yeses coming through. Someone says make it bigger. We will make it bigger uh as well. So awesome. Today is April 7th. Uh it was our very very first time meeting. My name is Coach Tony. I'm actually a former UC Berkeley admissions reader. Uh so a lot of this information come from actual behind the scenes uh as well. I served as a reader for several years, read over 20,000 applications. Doing so, you start to understand trends, right? Why yes, kids get yeses, why no kids get nos. And then I think one of the big things that we teach our families is that a lot of students out there, a lot of families out there, you're trying to do things to look good for college, right? You're doing things to try to stand out in the admissions process, but does that match up with what readers are trained to look for? And I think that's the big disconnect with this. So, how our kids have been super successful. If you're part of our UC uh Facebook group, if not, join it. We had dozens of our families share the incredible news that they got into all these these amazing schools there. So, if you guys are interested, check those success stories out. But I think why our students do so well, not just at UC's, but also like if you check out our YouTube, we interviewed a bunch of our Ivy students. We interviewed a bunch of our kids who went that's MITs and all these other private schools as well too. The big difference is that we just understand what causes look for on the back end. So all you need to do if you think of it is simple is do what the reers are trained to look for. If you do that you should be fine. I think what the thing is people are guessing and picking. I think that's the big disconnect with this process here. So I'm gonna go ahead and just talk and share with you guys again the how they evaluate the application. you guys understand you're like, "Oh, that's why." So, especially some of you guys, right? You might have friends and families that like were that they just went through this process. They're like, "Wait, they're confused why they didn't get in and breaking this down. You can kind of understand a little bit more of what happened and why the results are the way it is there. Okay, quick little housekeeping. If you are joining me live in the chat, you can help me out. Drop your grade. drop your grade in the chat so I know kind of what grade people are here so I can kind of cater uh the presentation to you all. If we have a lot of juniors, we can talk about uh junior stuff. You have a lot of younger folks, we talk about younger stuff as well, too. If you're on Facebook, feel free to do the same over there, too. Um if you have questions, drop it in the ## How Your High School Impacts Your Application Review [03:00] Q&A box. We'll do some Q&A at the very end. Um and this call is recorded. The notes are available within 40 hours. So, if you guys want to, again, we'll give you guys a little little code right here. Uh, text our team, right? Text our team 949-7750865. They'll go ahead and send you guys the replay and the notes uh when that's ready as well, too. Okay, a quick two more announcements really quick. Uh, our college app intensive, for those who have seen this past weekend, we had our very first. So, again, people wait till senior year to start the essays. We start way ahead. We start in April, right? So this past weekend, we had over 20 students of ours finish all their drafts, all their UC essays, all their personal statement essays as well, too. Done, right? That's right. That's the 350 words each, the 650 words. They were done with their first draft. They sent it in, our team's going to edit it for them, and we're going to go ahead and send it over to them uh edited as well. So, they'll basically have edited first drafts done literally six months before they even submit the very first one. So, we like to start early with our students. That's what our college app intensive is designed to do to help you guys get a head start on this process. So if you guys are interested, go ahead and go to collegeappoint.com. Uh are we have two parts? First part is kickstart. Second part is the accelerator with kickstart. We're all sold out in this in April. We have a few May, we have a few June left. If you guys want to see a start for there for accelerator, I think half the weekends are sold out. A lot of the in-person ones are all gone. Uh we have a few in persons left and a few virtuals left as well too. So you guys got to definitely take advantage of that before it's sold out. We're not going to add anymore. We literally took every weekend. So we can't even add any more weekends if we wanted to uh there. And we also have our newsletter. So in case you guys were interested in uh every week we send out a new newsletter, help you guys out. It's called the mission secrets.co.com.co is the thing here. Okay. And again, for any of our new friends, all of our new friends in our in our ecosystem, you guys get a free coaching session just to kind of make sure you guys are good to go. You can't buy anything on that call. It's not a sales call. We're going to help you and help you guys uh know where you guys are at is the thing. Okay, without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into the training. So, you guys uh are good to go. So, today we're talk about how admission officers evaluate college applications. So, again, a lot of this would be from the mentality of a former reader of the how do we do it? And this is exactly what we teach our students to think about when they're approaching their applications process. Right? So the very first step, right, the first page, oops, this is a big big font, right? The first page that the uh the reader see, right, is not the students info, right? Whoa, it's not the students info. What is on the first page? The first page is the school's profile, right? So this is a big one, right? So again, the reason why we keep asking families like, "Hey, where'd you go to school? Hey, what state are you in? Hey, what give me give you more context about your area is that's what readers are trained first, right? Admissions, right, is regional, right? What that means is that they're going to compare you against your local region. Of course, sure you'll be compared against the entire pool, right? The entire pool, right? But that's such a big number. That's a big group of people, right? So instead, what's smaller than that? They'll compare you, right? compared against your states, right? Because then it's a little more fairer, right? Less people there, but that's still very big for some areas too. Some areas will go down compared to against your region, right? So, think of this as the county. What county are you in? And then it goes even further of compared against your high school, right? As well, too. So, they're they are going to compare you against all ## Academic Evaluation....GPA Rigor and Overlays [06:45] these different groups of people. But if you can see, it's pretty hard to understand pool. It's hard to understand state. It's hard to understand region. But all of us know where our high school is. We we all usually know where our high school stands. So that is why I tell families look into your high school is the most important piece here. Okay. So that's the big one. The readers will do that. Keep in mind admissions is regional. So that means people who read certain areas, they read exclusively that area. They don't jump around to different areas. is they focus on there spoilers the reason why I was we our team is really good at Bay Area I was a former Bay Area reader that's kind of why our Bay Area students do really well in the process right is because of that so that's something to keep in mind right the school the readers have a profile of all the different high schools out there and they know the thing here is that the amount uh we look at the amount of opportunities available to the student that's kind of what I am looking for specifically on this first page Hey, how many APS could you take? How many APs are there at your school? Right? Because this will help me give me a idea of did you maximize what you could have done? Right? Not saying if you didn't do it, you're bad. It just means hey your school offered it. Did why didn't you do it? It's called So it mean for me again thoughts thoughts about this stuff is kind of will pop up in my head if it doesn't match up exactly here. Right? So the first page they'll see is going to be the student's profile. Next page, right? Second page, right? Page two. Page number two, right? This one is going to be student information, right? Student information as well. Actually, let's just let's do sections, right? Section two. Section one, right? Cuz some some of these a little longer than the page, right? Section section one, right? Section two. It's going to be the student information specifically. They got to know what major, what college uh you're applying under. They're gonna do us a uh grade uh no GPA uh a uh a uh rigor, right? That's for everything rigor. They'll figure out um scores if they're scores, right? Scores. That's pretty much it as well too, right? So, this is pretty much on the second big section. So, the first thing is basic student information there. The major in college, right? This is the part people focus on too much as well too. Keep in mind a lot of schools admit by college, not major. There are schools that do admit by major. For example, UC Irvine, if you go to UC Irvine, they do admit by co by major. Santa Barbara, they do admit by major. But all the other UC's, a lot of private schools, they admit by college. College is the school that your major is housed under. Right? So, for example, if you look up a lot a lot of the colleges out there, right? out there anywhere, public, private, anywhere. If you look up the math major, like a bio major, history major, uh sociology major, they're usually all under the same college, which is the college of letters and science. That's that's the broad catchual college, right? So, basically any one of these majors, right? You're going to be viewed with the same exact pool of people there. So, again, the more selective the college, the more selective the process is going to be for us. why uh engineering is typically more competitive because the engineering college is a lot smaller. Same thing with some schools are kind of pulling up like uh uh data science or computer science as old college because it's so competitive. It skews up all the other numbers of the school too. So that's that right. Next piece they do they do talk about GPA you see it but how big is it? Not much right? Not much there, right? This number and that's it, right? It also show the rigor. Hey, how many classes did the student take? How many honors approved courses did you do? I ## Dual Enrollment AP and Course Strategy by Major [10:30] think that's going to be the big takeaway here. And then some schools again, so there are schools now in three buckets, right? The first bucket is test required. You have to have scores. They'll see the scores. Second bucket is going to be test optional. Some students have scores. Some schools don't have scores. And the third one is test blind where they don't care at all. They don't you can't even plug it into your app. Uh as well too. So that's going to be the big here here. So basically highlevel information. Okay. Next one. Section number three is going to be uh uh schools, right? And grades, right? That's like the third big section there. So they're going to ask you what schools did you go to, right? This is uh schools like middle school, right? Uh only for the purpose, right? Purpose of math and language, right? They don't really care what you went to, uh middle school. Ladies want to know did you did you take a math? Did you take a language in middle school? Because if you did, you can share that. Those are the two classes that you can share on your on your apps, right? But if not, did you go to different high schools as well? What high schools did you go to? Did you graduate from here? Did you maybe transfer to different high school? And also colleges, community colleges in general, right? But college, right? Community colleges, four-year colleges as well. This is why, by the way, little spoilers, right? If you've been following us for a while, we advocate a lot for dual enrollment courses. And some of you guys like, "But my counselor says they won't put it on my high school transcript." This is exactly why I tell families, I don't care, right? If they're not going to put on your transcript, that's fine. The colleges will still see it. The colleges will still recognize it as well, too. Okay? I think that's going to be the big thing here. Okay? Okay. So that's that's the big purpose uh in this section right over here. Okay. So that's that and then right and then uh that's pretty here. And then you'll see your grades, right? So when it comes to grades, they'll see your classes, they'll see the honors, and they'll see the grades for each one. So each of these three things are very important, right? So when it comes to the classes, they'll see what classes you take along the way. What am I looking for? There's something called overlays, right? Overlays are certain things that certain majors we're looking for. So for example, let's say you let's say you're interested in engineering, right? If you're interested in engineering, the overlay here is going to be very strong math and strong physical science, right? Physical sciences, right? So for example, we tell our students if you can, this is like the if not now, right? If you can do here, if you can, right? Minimum C 2 which is like BC, right? Can you go to C 3 if you can? Can you do linear algebra if you can? Can you do differential equations if you can? Right? Especially a lot of our Bay Area families. If you're from New Jersey, that's another big pocket of area. They're very competitive region. So again, going above above above usually helps you in this area. And also here's the physics, right? Physics uh C oops physics. This is the AP physics series, right? AP physics as well. Even if the school doesn't offer it, you can actually take it more at the um at like an outside school as well too. this one you can add extra high school right other one is like your high school think of it also like uh online high schools like UC scout is an online high school you can add BYU is an a BYU high school is an online high school you can add as well too right so that's that like this is going one example right another example is let's say uh you're interested in like biology right anyone here anyone here interested in biology drop your little yes in the chat right the overlay ## Why Upward Trends Beat Perfect Grades [14:00] here is going to be strongish math strongish math Right. So, CO 2, right? Some of our students, we've actually said go to CO 3 uh in some areas, some pockets because it's so competitive, right? There. Uh but then you also want biological science, strong biological sciences, right? So, this is the bios, the chems, uh these type of classes is kind of what you want to focus more on. That's the overlay for uh what the readers are looking for is all. Right? And every major has a lot more. So, so you can do that, but those are like high level, right? That's what I look for when I see classes. What about honors? Right? So when it comes to honors, right, honors, I want to see did you challenge yourself? Did you challenge yourself? Right? The reason why this is important, right, is that college is hard, right? I don't know why I we we say it, but it's a silly thing, but it's true. College is hard because college is hard, right? We want to make sure right that uh if you get accepted right they want you to graduate want you to graduate from that school right not everyone does if you look it up like there's between one and 10% usually at every school gets kicked out gets dropped out they don't make it all the way so when it comes to uh this perspective they want you to they want they do want you to finish right they do want you to graduate uh from these schools here so because of that right because of that, right? They want to know if like looking at your profile, right? Do I have confidence that this student will do well at our school? Right? That's the that's the thinking process. If I looked at your profile, do I have confidence that you will do good? How do you build this confidence for the reader? If I see as your grades go up, the rigor goes up, right? meaning more honors approved courses goes up. That's a win for us here, right? Keep in mind what is rigor? Rigor is the honors. This is the AP. This is the IB is the college level courses that you take. However, note, keep in mind, not every honors class at your school counts as honors, right? Counts as honors. Something you can look it up. Uh if you guys Google, right? Google, is that Google thing? Uh UCL articulation. Uh, this is for California only, by the way. If you're in California, you can do this. If you're not in California, you can't do this. But if you're in California, you can look up your classes and it'll show you which honors counts as honors. But you'll find out also half your honors that your school offers does not count as honors. If you, by the way, if you're, this is more for the UC's. If you're out of state applying to the UC's, any honors for sure will not count. It has to be AP, has to be IB. That's why we tell our students we only think in APIB college because for sure it counts if let's say honors does count it's an extra plus it's extra things for us right you can't can't complain for the extra things but again I like to set the bar low right so we can easily beat that as well too so that's that's why the rig is important grades right what about grades right what they what they're looking for in the grades as you're going through a profile is we want to see strong grades right what does strong grades means right strong grades means uh it's I call it the high plateau. High plateau, right? If you guys uh look at like the desert and the hills along the way, right? It's all high, right? High plateau. Your grades over the years, a lot of A's. Let's say you get a few B's, right? That's fine, too. If you look at a lot of our students, they end up with several B's and they still make it to the IVs. So, it's not it's not like the B is going to hurt them either, right? Of course. Of course, if you get the O A, not going to say no either. Go for that. But keep your grades as high as they can. The other strong grade trend is an upward trend, right? So your grades go down to go up. I call the Nike swish, right? If you guys uh oops, if you guys uh know a ## How Activities Are Evaluated....And Why They’re More Important Than You Think [18:00] Nike swish, it goes down and go back up again, right? So say something happened, you go back up. That's another good positive sign for the readers as well. So you want to kind of show that upward trend uh in the grades, right? I think that's the big one. You don't want you don't want your grades to stay low plateau and you don't want your grades to dip over the years either. That's what you don't want to happen. Okay? But again, keep your grades strong. Keep the the trend going up. That's are all good things here. And that's pretty much what the academics from a Rio's point of view were looking for, right? We're looking for this uh sorry, we're looking for I'm going bold this so I can kind of see it a little easier. Um section two is the info. Section three is going to be the schools and grades, right? So, we'll see. Uh, again, are the are the overlays there that I'm looking for for this student? Is the grade strong? Is the rigor there as well? And keep in mind, right, keep in mind FYI FYI here as well too. Colleges will see ninth grade grades, right? The colleges will see 12th grade classes, right? People always talk about like, oh, they don't care about that. Like, no, no, we still care. It still cares. We still see your ninth grade grades. We still see your 12th grade classes. That's why your class schedule is so important. 12th grade, right? You're like, keep that rigger high. Keep that that that trend high. Some schools, by the way, spoilers, right? Tips, right? Is that some colleges may ask for uh 12th grade, first semester uh grades, semester grades as well, too. So, keep that in mind. Keep doing well so you can make sure you're good there. Okay. So, that's pretty much section number three, I believe. Right. So after section number three, the next area is section number four, which is going to be your activities, right? So when it comes to your activities uh section, right, what are we looking for? Right? So I tell students, what I'm looking for is uh I think thinking my head, right? Thinking in my head, right? Everyone is so smart here. Everyone's so smart this year, right? How is this student different right as well too? So think about this way. I'm like, "Hey, everyone can have the same grades, right? Everyone can do really well in school. How can I know you're different?" Or, "How is this student taking advantage of their opportunities?" Right? Because it can it's one of those things that like uh humans don't change much, right? Don't change much as well too. Change much as well, right? Who you are is who you're gonna become, right? People who work really hard are people who work very very hard. People who are lazy are people who are lazy, right? So, too. So, if I looked at your profile, right, I can kind of tell who you are. Again, imagine imagine again you're hiring for a job and you know, you guys know, think of your friends right now. Think of your friend group, who you hang out with, who you talk to, who you hang out on the weekend with. If you owned a company, would you hire your own friends? And then again, you don't have to know them. You just know how they are, right? And knowing how they are, would you hire them? Same thing about admissions. If I'm looking at your profile, would I want you to come to my school? Uh, given what you're doing, that's why the activities are so important. I would argue this is probably the second most important, right? I would say second most second uh most important section that you need to make sure you do. Okay? So, this is the big thing here. So what I look at here, what am I looking for? What I'm looking for? A few things. I want number one, I want to know that you're tasting your major. I'm call A now. A, right? Is tasting your major, right? Again, people say, "I'm a this major. I'm a that major." Realistically, real talk, right? You don't declare your major until your third until your third year in college, right? So you don't actually declare to your third year in college. So until then, right, until then, what you're going to do is you're going to go ahead and just kind of take classes to you take you take your prerequisite. Take your prerequisites pre-erequisites to declare your major, right? That's what you got to do to eventually get there. But to lead up to there, college want to know, is this the right path for you? This is something you're interested in doing. So what I'm looking for is again, yes, there's overlays that you do, but again, people overlays. So for me is how can I tell ## How to Show Passion + Uniqueness Outside Your Major [22:30] you are X major right? X major looking oops looking at your activity section right and I think that that's that's one of the big ones right so if I look at your activity section let's say you tell me I am a computer science major and I look at that I'm like can I tell right oh look you have coding you have this uh project you built you have this hackathon you did you had boom boom boom I'm like oh yeah that I I see it I see that this is also Why people who pick a different major, coach Tony, what if we pick a different major and we switch it when we get? I'm like, then does your app make sense? If I looked at your app and you like, Coach Tony, I am a history major, right? But I took every math class you can think of. I took every coding class at the college. I did every hackathon. I built I built the Flappy Bird. I saw too, right? All these things. But I want to be a history major though. I'm like, wait, that doesn't make sense. I look at your activities. I cannot pull history from this, right? So, I think that's one of the things you want to make sure you do. It has to match up. That's part one, right? Part two though, B. Part B is going to be things that make you unique, right? Things that make you only you. The big part here is that everyone, again, if you're doing computer science, I bet you have coding. I bet you have hackathons. I bet you have uh computer clubs at school. Everyone's doing that. What you're doing is not that special realistically, right? Everything you're doing, hey, I went to summer program. So did 20, 30 other people. I did this research paper. So did a lot of other kids who wrote it. So the things that you do is not that special, right? But what you want to show also is not only am I smart coach Tony, not only do I show you I'm this major, I also do this. Right? And so these are things that you do not related to your major. And this is also something you should also have uh on your app is things that you do that's not related because that's what sets you apart. This is what makes you different in every single person, right? Is the things that makes you unique. Oh, Tony, my child loves to dance. Cool, dance. But they're not a dance major. That's fine. Let them dance. Parents, right? You you're not going to be a film critic. You still watch movies. That's all too, right? Hey, you might not be the uh top chef, but you still cook every day. We don't have to do things for a purpose. We do it cuz we enjoy it. We do it because we like it. We do it because it brings us joy as well, too. Right? So, at the end of the day, that's what makes you a part. And here, here's a good example to drive this home, right? So, to make this make sense, I got to share a few things about myself, right? Number one, uh this is Coach Tony, right? Coach Tony. Um Coach Tony, I have a mohawk. You guys can see it. Boom. Mohawk right here. Right. Uh, number two, I like Pokemon cards. I actually collect all cards, all kind of cards. As you can see here, uh, I've got to like wrestling cards. If you see my screen, I'm collecting wrestling cards now. Uh, as well too, right? Uh, I like pro wrestling. I have another example. The cards pro wrestling. They're all wrestlers. Let's see. I'm going to Wrestlemania for those who who, uh, those who celebrate going to Wrestlemania, right, as well too, there. Um, and um, I like anime, right? You guys can't see it now, but I have like I've been binge watching um uh solo leveling is my my my next thing, right? So, it's that. So, if I told you guys, okay, parents, right? How many college admissions people do you know? And you're like, man, Coach Tony, I clicked on your face and now I'm hit with every ad from every single person, right? I'm like, oh yeah, I will say that is the same as good grades. Yeah. See the analogy here, right? How many other kids have good grades? So many. So many people good grades. Right. All right. Next thing. Uh what's so special about you? I'm from California, right? I'm from California as well, too. All right. Uh so it's smaller. Now it's smaller. So does I'm X major. Ooh, you guys see that? Now that's a smaller group. So if I told you I have college admissions in California, there's still a lot of people who can say that. Same thing with students. I have good grades. I'm I'm I'm this major. A lot of people say that too. But what makes it different now is I tell you guys, I'm a college admissions person from California. I have a mohawk. I like Pokemon cards. I like pro wrestling, WWE. I like anime. Who can you compare me to? And he gets crickets, right? Because that's what your child's going to be. Hey, I have good grades. Hey, I have done these major, but I also play tennis. But I do this, but I do that. ## The 30....70 Rule for Writing Powerful Essays [27:15] But I you add all these things and it's not one thing. It's the combination, right? It's the combination of all of it put together, right? That makes a student unique. It's the combination of all of this together that makes you unique is the key. Okay. So, I think that's the big thing you want to do. That is so that's what we look for. We look for these things in your app. Right. Last section. Section number five. Right. Section number five is the essays. Right? the essay section as well too because at this point right at this point in this journey real quick pause I hit the 30 minute mark. Is this making sense so far? Drop a little yes in the chat. Is this good? You guys enjoying this? Drop a quick yes in the chat. Just got to engage real fast. I have one more one maybe two more sections to go. Yes in the chat if that is uh we have 142 people only three comments so far. It's kind of sad. It's kind of sad folks. kind of sad you guys either don't like me or you left me on mute as you guys cooking dinner maybe as well. All right, so section number five, right? Section number five here is the essays. When it comes to the essays specifically, right? What are they looking for here? I already know you're smart. Again, assuming the first section, right? I know you're smart. I know you are active in doing stuff. Number three is potentially two kids could have the same grades in the same activities. So what makes them different? Right? Two people could do the same exact stuff. What makes them special, right? As well too. It's them, right? What makes you different or special is you is you, right? Is is the thing that that is the that is the the piece here, right? What most people do that's wrong here is the wrong thing to do, right? Don't spend too much time talking about the what. I see this a lot this this past week. Uh again, we run the largest UC Facebook group right now uh on Facebook. That's pretty cool, right? So, we got a lot of people who like, "Oh, no. I don't know why my ch my child didn't get in. They were 4.9 GPA and all this stuff." Again, by the way, do you see me talk about GPA here? No spoilers. Not that important, right? But I'm like, "Show me your essays." Because the essays for us is the most important part. So, show me your essays. One of the big things I see a lot. Boom. This part, right? They spent they spent the whole thing just talking about the story. I did this. I did that. I did that. I did that. I did that. All things I can see, right? Is number one. Mistake number one. Number two, right? The student tried to write an essay. Tried to write. Tired. Tired to write. Tried to write an essay. Right? Our first tip to our students, these are not essays. Do not try to write it like an essay. None of the prompts say write an essay. They always say respond, uh, talk about this, share this. So, it's almost like a narration. You're talking it out loud. You're not writing an essay specifically on this section, right? So the excuse me, the big thing here is you want to focus more like a narrative versus a a narrative is what you want as well too. Narrative is talking out loud. So I tell students like if you picked up your your thing, right? You picked up your your thing that you're you're doing and you looked at me and you read it, you read what you wrote out loud, would I think you're weird? Because some students they say um um the the mountain was 60,000 ft high. The clouds were above my head. I had to walk up the mountain backwards on my forehead and blah blah blah. No, that sounds weird if you you read that. No, no, no. So, what's the answer? You got to tell me exactly. If I looked at you and I talked to you and I asked you the question out loud, how would you answer the question out loud back to me? That's how you want to write it and phrase it in these prompts here. Okay? And last piece. So those are two big wrong ones, right? So what you want to do, I call it the 3070 rule, right? 3070 rule, right? 30% of your prompt should be about the what you did, right? Just enough. Just enough so I know what's going on, right? So this is the stories that you want to bring up. And then the 70% is the why. The why, the how, and the who, right? All right. Why did you do what you did? How has it made you who you are? Who have you become as a result? Those are the three things I think are the most important things you want to make sure you talk about in these parts. And that's what the reader is trying to learn about you. Because again, um, really quick, does anyone hear their kids play sports? Drop a quick number one in the chat. Drop a number one if your kid plays sports. All right, drop a number one in the chat if uh if your kid plays sports. The chat's fing to to raise your hands, right? One lot of people sports. Okay, anyone here kids volunteers? Drop a two. Drop a two in the chat. If your kid has volunteered in any capacity, any capacity at all. They've done they've done a volunteering here or there uh as well too. Awesome. Cool. Uh drop a number three. If your kid is a club, any club at school, club uh online, but clubs, right? So, right away, families, you look at the chat, right? This is going, it's going, right? The reason why is what you do, someone just copied you, right? What you just did, someone has the same story as you. That's why this what part is not that important because everyone's going to have the same story, right? No matter how special we think we are, I've read 16 years of this. No ## The “Why Us” Essay Trap....And How to Avoid It [33:00] story is ever that rare that like, oh my goodness, you're the only one who read it. No, someone else probably does something similar to it. Right? So that's the why. That's why it's not the most important. The most important is the why. Talking about you as the student. That's the big key when it comes to here. Right? The other thing that I'm looking for as I'm reading through these prompts, did you answer the question? Right? So people don't do this. It's silly, but I'm looking for the answer. What's the answer to your question that you're going to answer? And the big one, what am I learning about you? Right? is the key, right? I'm going to throw in a pro tip here as well, too. Pro tip, right? Uh, anyone here applying to a private school or a a a state school, uh, not the UC's. Drop a yes in the chat. If if you're applying to like a private school like an IV, top 25, uh, state school that's not the UC's, uh, as well too. A lot of yeses, right? There we go. A lot of yeses, right? So, you are using the common application, right? you're using you're using using the common application to apply for the common application as one app with a lot of um lot lot of schools I think over thousand schools use them so you have the common app with a supplement for each of the schools the supplement has additional questions that they'll ask you one of the most common supplement questions they have right why do you want to come to our school right that's one of the more frequent questions questions that they're going to ask you on here is why do you want to come or why you why you want to go here, right? This is and by the way, this is something we learned recently at the training we went to uh this past uh week. We're we're part of a bunch of college app college organizations to kind of learn a bunch of stuff, right? This is one of the things that we learned this year is that slowly schools are going straight to this question first because if you can't answer this question, why read the rest of the app, right? It's not going to be good anyways, right? Because most students will say silly things. They will say, "You are the best at X." They know that. They know that they're the best at X. You have the best weather. They know that, too, right? You uh X uh name went there. They know that, right? As well as silly ones. uh like these ones, these things that tell me that you um you have so many awards here, right? Cool. They know that these colleges know they're awesome. You don't need to tell them. The question is not why why does our school the best the question is why do you want to come to our school? And that this is the issue I think a lot of students don't have a good answer to. They can't answer this question of like why do you want to go there? I call it the little tip here. We call the seven clicks deep. Seven clicks deep. What does seven clicks deep mean? It means to find the answer. If you say, "Oh man, I want to go to Berkeley because you guys are number one public university in the world." You just Google Berkeley, that's the first thing they see, right? Boom. That doesn't hard to find, right? But if you have to click, click click click click click click click click click click to figure out something like, wow, that's a good reason, right? It's a very deep nuanced answer to go there. I mean, let me that's that's awesome. you you found a school is a good fit for you because again every school is different. Not every school is the same. That's why there's so many. There's over a thousand colleges. If they're all the same, then there will be only one big one, right? As well too, but there's a lot of them over a thousand, right? So, uh understand why you going to and this one you have to personalize. So whenever we're adding essays for students and then I see the first prompt being like uh your school is so amaz or like X right I want to go to I want to go to X because uh you have the best program for engineering uh your X lab is the best you have the best teachers like uh X Y and Z right so let's plug it in right you see here I want to go to Harvard cuz your uh your H lab is the best like professor A, Professor B, and Professor C as well, too. And this is how I know it's bad is if you all you need to do is change one word. I want to go to Yale. Wait, that makes sense. That still makes sense. Change the lab, change this, change this. I want to go to uh MIT. Wait, that still works, too. So, how you know that the thing is bad is you just gota change pieces of it and it works for this question. This is bad. Don't do that. Here, I'm put it in a red. Oops. Put it in red. Right. Red. Because red means don't do. Boom. Don't do. The reason why is it has to be unique to every single school. If you can't make it unique to every single school, I always ask you why are you applying then? If you don't know why you're applying, you are you applying just for the sake of applying. That's kind of a waste of 80 bucks and a waste of time. You can spend a lot of hours on it as ## How to Make Letters of Recommendation Actually Work for You [38:00] well too, right? So make sure you understand why you're applying to your school. This is why your research is very important. Why is it a good fit? And could you self could you see yourself going there, right? Don't apply to schools that you don't care about going to. That's kind of waste of time, right? So go where you think you want to go is the key here. So that's that's the thing here. One final like sneak tip I'll give you guys before we bump the Q&A. Section number six, right? Letters of wreck. Letters of wreck. You guys want me to go over Lesar or go over questions? What do you guys want want to see first? Lesser or questions in the chat? Lesar questions Q&A or we could end it. If you guys are happy, we can just end it right now. We can end it and we're done. All right. Oh, we got we got a little mix. We got a little mix as well, too. We got a little mix. We got Okay. So, for sure no one wants to end early is all. All right. Let's talk about that wreck. Right. So, Lesar, keep in mind, not every school offers this. Some schools do, right? So, pro tip, you're going to ask you want you you want to you want to wave your right. Wave your rights. The warning is always really weird, but and you basically yes, the answer is yes, you want to wave your rights. Meaning, you do not want to read what the recommener says. It's always a big like hm red flag if like a student wants to read what the person wrote is all. So again, definitely want to wave your right is the big key number one. Right. Next thing when it comes to less of wreck, most letters of wreck suck. The reason why they suck is not cuz it's not bad, right? Again, 99% of the these leer wrecks, right, say very nice things about the student, about the student, right? Keep that in mind, right? They always say nice things. To be fair, I've read one. I I used to be a scholarship uh editor, like a reader for like like the the the really big scholarship. It was a full ride scholarship. So, I read it and I and usually people say nice things. I read one app where the recommener says, "No, I do not recommend this student." I'm like, "Holy moly, that's wild." Right? So, that's that. Going back to here, right? They always say nice things. However, that's not right. what a reader is looking for. We don't care about the nice things, right? What we're looking for, right? Readers are looking for new information. We're looking for new information. By the way, for any of our senior friends who are like, by the way, if you guys are interested, I I I could delaying it, but I I I want to do a training on weight list, on appeals, and how those work as well, too. But the big thing for all these right weight list appeals and resurrect it needs to do new information because what they already know they already know they don't need to do anything new. They don't need to like validate it. We trust you on your app. You sign a form that says everything on this app is is accurate. It's true. So why do I need to look at it anymore? Right? So that's the thing here. So they're looking for new information. So when you're asking your recommenders, you want them to say something different, right? You want them them to share to share something different not already on the application. So the best pro tip is now enter the pro tip stage or is this pro tip already? This pro tip already. No, pro tip. Pro tip, right? Give the recommener your app. Let them know not to repeat anything, right? And tell them what to do, what to write. That's the trick. People are like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. They're supposed to write it." I'm like, "Yeah, they need help. You help them write it as well, too. They They're going to copy you, right? I just tell them, "Hey, Mr. So and so, Mr. So and so, can you I love to love to use a recommener. Can you help me add this part? I didn't get a chance to talk about it in our applications as well, too." Spoilers. You're helping them. They usually, you know, how many that the teachers that that write letters of Rex, the people who write letters of Rex, they write so many. I actually stopped. I used to do it a lot. I had a perfect streak. I think every one of my students all gone to med school. It was like a lot of med school apps, right? I have a perfect streak. I would no longer write one because the streak is going to stay perfect there as well too, right? But the idea is, right, it needs to add new information to the reader. You can't just say the same thing. they're going to rearrange nose that is also tell them what to write. So if you have multiple uh readers or writer letter of Rex, guess what you do? Letter of W one, can you talk about story A? Letter of W two, can you talk about story B? Letter of W three, can you talk about story C? They're all saying different things. Even between them, they're going to say different things. That's the trick of these letters of Rex is you want to tell them exactly what to write. You make their life a lot easier because they don't have to think as hard, right? and they're going to help you make the best one to help you out the best you can as well. Okay, that being said, thank you everyone for we'll dive in some Q&A real fast, but before we do, few little little updates for everyone. Um, number one, again, if you guys are interested in the notes, the replays, text our team 949-7750865. Uh for any of our 2026 families who are interested in joining our weekend workshop, you guys can definitely uh uh just text intensive or workshop to our team. They'll they'll set you up on that as well too. Our newsletter goes out tomorrow morning. If you guys haven't signed up for that, definitely join that. We send scholarships in there for you guys. You guys can get some some information there as well too. And you guys are interested in that coaching session, you guys can do that there. Okay. Uh a few questions I see in the chat uh in the in the Q&A box. First one here um Q&A Q&A right first one is a big dis disadvantage uh to have to not have dual enrollment uh for upper UC's apps blah blah um that no right so the quick answer is no but right we want to demonstrate rigor right takes four APs is four enough is the question I would ask as well too how you want to know the number there's no set number it's relative relative to your school. So, what's the if you're aiming for top UC's, what's the top student taking your school? If they take a lot, you want to take a lot as well too, right? Uh plenty, right? Plenty of extracurriculars. What does that mean? I don't know what plenty is. Uh as well, too. Plenty is a lot. Typically, our students have between 20 and 30 hours of activities, right? So, if you guys you have that, you pretty safeish as well, too. So, the big things will be the essays after that, too. If you guys are interested, again, book a free text the word coach to 7194947740865. And we actually again for every new family, we do a free coaching call for you guys to help you guys get you on track is all and if you're interested in working together, we can talk about that too. But we just want to help point you guys in the right direction at the very least and then we can talk about programs afterwards. Okay, so that's that. Next question here. Uh, I'm assuming this question is about the extracurriculars, right? Uh, oops, wrong question. Uh, should uh should Oops. Nope. Can I not copy? There you go. Should they both be uh from teachers or can it be a coach? This is I think Lesa Rex, right? This is Lesa Rex uh as well. So, when it comes from less of recommendations, the answer is it can be from anyone unless right unless uh alone unless uh they state it on your app. So some schools will be like we want it from a math teacher, we want it from a science teacher, then you got to get it from those teachers. But if they don't give you any like specific people, then it's up to you where what you want to do with that. Um is all okay. Um let's see what else. Copy is not working. All right, there you go. Um question if your kid is thinking of majoring in art animations building portfolio through high school recommended will these schools accept supplements with this application? It depends on the major, right? So, it depends on the major. So, basically, some schools, some majors, you'll see some art majors, animation, art, they may request it. Dance, uh, music, there might be an audition requirement to it as well, too. So, basically how it works is you're applying academically, right? Academic first and you're doing an audition. AA, right? You're applying and you're doing the audition as well to do not acad, right? Audition as well, too. So there's two parts to the your admissions. There's a there's a applying part. You apply normally. Then there's also an audition part as well too where you have to audition to get in. So um if you know you can start now, right? Start looking at the schools, see what type of major these majors fall under. Are they audition requirements? Are they not? Because some of them are not, right? Then you don't have to do it at all. But if you're there, you can start putting together a portfolio to help save you some time later on when you're a senior as well to start collecting them, start sharing them. And then again do what the colleges ask you to do once you guys get there. Okay, perfect. I think that is it. Fantastic. So if that if that's all the things again one more time for those who are interested uh if you guys want the replay of this call, you guys want the notes, go ahead and text our team 949-7750865 the word replay. They'll give you the replay notes. They'll give you my notes for the call as well too. Uh for our incoming seniors, right? Uh either you guys join us at one of workshops or just stick around and get FOMO through our pictures uh as well too. We'll be doing more and more of them. We do, by the way, spoilers, we have an in-person kickstart on May 31st. That's going to be super super. It was our first ever May Kickstart in person. So, we're super super excited for that. I'll be leading that one. So, if you guys are coming to that one, I'll see you guys there. It'll be San Jose, California. And then um if you guys are haven't claimed your free coaching call yet, uh text the word coach to the same number 949775865 there. Okay, that's pretty much it for me. Hope you guys have a great rest. Actually, I lied really quick before we head off today. This week we have some awesome trainings that you guys can join if you guys are interested. So basically we have uh some private trainings to show you guys also. So let me walk through those real fast. So, if you guys are interested, tomorrow, Tuesday, right, Tuesday, uh, April 8th, Coach Art is going to do a training on a walkthrough of the high the UC application. That'll be at 6 PM uh, tomorrow. Before that, right, anyone here interested in research, drop a yes in the chat. Anyone here interested in high school research, drop a yes in the chat. Tomorrow I am doing a collab a collab with how with Lumiere how to conduct uh research in high school. That'll be at five o'clock uh five o'clock tomorrow if you guys want to join that call on Wednesday. On Wednesday, April 9th, uh we have Coach David is doing a training on additional forms with uh financial aid. So those of you who doing financial aid, there's some forms you'll fill out. Coach David's going to do a breakdown of that for you guys. And on Thursday, um Thursday, uh how to demonstrate how to demonstrate leadership uh in your apps, right, as well too. So you guys are interested in that. So Thursday is going to be at Thursday, April 10th. It's going to be at uh 6 PM at 6 PM and this one will be at 5:00 pm. So if you guys need the links to them, text our number as well too. And then again 949 949775865. Uh our team will send you the the special Zoom link. These all private calls though uh so you guys can join those if you guys are interested there. Okay, that being said, that is officially it uh for me on this session. I hope everyone enjoyed it. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments. Slide in my DMs, text our team. If not, I'll see you guys on the next training. Bye everyone.