November 14, 2024 • 42 mins
In today’s episode, we preview a live coaching session with a student fresh off submitting early college apps! Together, we tackle time management, tailoring essays, and balancing a college list—plus, we strategize for regular deadlines right around the corner. Listen in for essential tips and insights on managing the college app process with confidence!
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Access free resources and learn more about Sheila and her team at Signet Education at signeteducation.com or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheilaakbar/.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Roger (00:00):
First Wave is done, but also, like, excited and nervous,
(00:03):
because I just realized, like,Oh, I got one month till you see
deadlines, and then only onemore month after that till
regular decision, and I havelike, eight more schools for
regular decision.
Sheila Akbar (00:27):
Hey, folks, welcome back to the podcast. As
I mentioned at the end of ourlast episode last week, we are
going to be transitioning to alive coaching model in 2025 and
as a way for us to get ready forthat and preview that format. To
you all, today's episode will bea live coaching episode, and
(00:49):
then this one is going to be alittle different than our future
live coaching episodes, in whichit'll be a one time session, the
first time I'm meeting a studentand coaching them through a
particular challenge. What Ihave done for this week is taken
the topic that I wanted to talkto you all about and gotten one
of my existing students to joinme in the studio to talk about
(01:13):
how we are going to use thematerials he has been working on
and created for some earlyapplications, and how he's going
to use those to pivot into theupcoming deadlines for the
University of California. You'llhear in the episode he decides
he wants to apply to theUniversity of Washington, and
then also for his regulardecision applications. So the
(01:35):
context is here we know eachother, and I have seen the other
essays that he's written, and Iknow the content that he has and
how he can deploy it. I'm alsoreally familiar with what his
goals are, or where they areright now in terms of what he
wants to study and what kind ofwork he may want to do after
college, and in future episodes,we probably won't have that kind
(01:57):
of in depth knowledge or eventhe rapport to be able to move
through, you know, these sort ofchallenging issues, you know. So
I'll let you take a listen. I'mgoing to give this student a
name, and we will call himRoger. He is based in Southern
California, not too far from me,and take a listen as we talk
through what do we do next? Nowthat early applications are
(02:20):
done. How are you feeling afterwe submitted all of these early
applications? Like, truthfully,how does it feel?
Roger (02:29):
Well, it's very relieving, for sure. Like, first
wave is done, but also, like,excited and nervous, because I
just realized, like, Oh, I gotone month till you see
deadlines, and then only onemore month after that till
regular decision. And I havelike eight more schools for
regular decision. And it tookme, like almost a month to get
(02:51):
two three schools done for Elike ED EA. So it's a little
little nervous, nervy for sure.
Yeah, you also mentioned beforewe started recording that soccer
season is about to start foryou. Yep, in two weeks we got
gonna do your time. Oh,definitely. It's gonna make my
time so much like I've got somuch less time to do homework
(03:12):
and ASB stuff, and college asksfor sure, like two week, two
games a week, and probably goingto be mostly away, so the bus
rides are pretty long.
Sheila Akbar (03:24):
The thing that I want you to think about with
that is, not only is your quoteunquote free time, I know you
don't have a lot of free time,but your quote unquote free time
is going to be eaten up bysoccer practice and games and
commuting back and forth and allof this stuff, which is just
going to make it harder for youto find the time to do this
work, which is on top of yournormal school work and other
(03:46):
extracurriculars, but you arealso going to be physically
exhausted, yeah, right? Yourlevel of physical activity is
about to amp up. You know, acertain amount of physical
activity is actually reallygreat for creativity,
Roger (03:58):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (03:58):
But too much. You know, we might go in the other
direction. You're just gonna beso bedraggled.
Roger (04:03):
Like during summer?
Sheila Akbar (04:05):
Yeah, like summer you were, you were teaching
sailing for like nine hours aday in the hot sun, and you just
didn't have the brain power,right? So that's something I
want you to think about. I thinkwe have to be really, really
careful with our timemanagement, because we also have
holidays in the course of this,and they're like, days off of
school and, like, probably otherthings going on too, family
(04:26):
stuff. So when your time iscrunched like this, it's even
more important that you planahead. Okay, right? I know
you're like, Oh God, what have Igotten myself in to? Don't
worry, like, we're gonna getthrough it. And the good news
is, now that you have submittedtwo applications in the early
(04:49):
round, there's a whole bunch ofstuff that we don't have to do
again, right? Your Common Appessay is done. Yeah, we might
look at it and make somerevisions, but you don't have to
start that from scratch. Whichwe were doing right? Your
activity list is done. Andagain, we might make some
revisions, but you're notstarting from scratch. You know,
all of the little details thatyou have to fill out on the
(05:11):
application form are done forthe common app. But maybe the
bad news is, the UC system usesa totally separate application.
You will have to fill out thatinformation in another format
over there, and the activitylist there is different. So
that's one thing that you shoulddefinitely get a start on. And I
have a template that I put intoyour admission spreadsheet for
(05:31):
that. It's called UC activities.
And like, hey listeners, I'mgonna drop that link in the in
the show notes too, so you canget to this template so you can
organize your UC activities, soyou will have to do that. But
the other piece of good news isthat for your early schools, you
wrote like four pretty distinctsupplemental essays, and then a
(05:53):
bunch of those, like littleshort answers between those and
your personal statement, I ampretty sure we have almost all
the material you're gonna needfor the UCs and your other
applications.
Roger (06:09):
All right.
Sheila Akbar (06:10):
Of course, we have to tweak it, but like you, are
you and you showed up in thoseessays, that's not gonna change,
right? When they ask you aboutyour academic interests? Well,
we have some core content thatwe can lean on and add to or
change around to fit someoneelse's academic interest
question. When they ask youabout your favorite
extracurricular activity, youhave an essay about that. When
(06:31):
you need to talk about achallenge that you overcame, you
have something about that,right? So we're not starting
from scratch. So you're in areally good position, and I know
that you're feeling sobedraggled, and we just had the
election yesterday, I'm surethat's also on your mind, but,
you know, I think keeping up themomentum, you will be surprised
(06:52):
at how easy it is going to be tofinish this. I don't want to
pretend it's going to be like awalk in the park. It's going to
be work, and I know you'regetting tired and busy, but
we're starting from a verydifferent place.
Roger (07:04):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (07:04):
Right.
Roger (07:04):
Let's do it
Sheila Akbar (07:05):
Right. Okay, so the first thing I want us to
reflect on, besides how you'refeeling and how we're going to
manage this, is, what do youthink went really well with your
early action applications?
Roger (07:18):
Well, I guess starting in, like, especially summer, I
tried to start on, I actuallystarted aiming for UCS first,
like I was brainstorming answersto the UC questions. And that,
like me starting so early, Ithink was really work. Early was
so good because it got my brainto start thinking about
questions and start reflectingon like, my own traits and like
(07:40):
things about myself, and I gotmy mindset and like, got my
mindset into like, reflectingabout myself and what was unique
about myself. And even though Iwrote like, six drafts for UCS,
and I'm probably not gonna useany of them, that led to me
being able to think of otherideas when I was switching over
(08:01):
to ED's and EA's, where I waslike, Oh, this is so much. This
is me. This is like, something Ireally want to share about
myself. And I think that wassomething that I was very I
think I.
Sheila Akbar (08:13):
You're proud of?
Roger (08:15):
Yeah, yeah, that I was proud of. But I think just like,
when, whenever you come up withyour the ideas, and you're like,
oh, that's like, such a corepart of me. You're like, wow.
Like, I didn't realize thatmyself. But then if I could
change something, I thinkdefinitely staying off social
media would have been actually abig one, like, as in not taking
(08:35):
social media advice and thingswith a grain of salt, because
everyone has their like,advantages and stuff, and people
have heard so many stories, andthe stories are so radically
different that, like, I thinkthat it's bad if you already
have a mindset that you can'treally get into certain schools
(08:57):
because of your GPA or like testscores.
Sheila Akbar (09:00):
So I think you're sharing two really important
insights. One is, you did startwriting over the summer, and you
had a bunch of ideas that didn'tgo very far, but the fact that
you were trying out a lot ofideas, I think, kind of cleared
out the cobwebs and helped youthink about like, we don't know,
what do I really want to say,not, I'm trying to write
(09:22):
something that sounds like acollege essay, whatever that is,
right? So you gave it a coupleof goes and like, we might use
some of that content, we'll see.
But even if we don't, it wasreally, really beneficial for
you to do that, because I evenremember when your mom, you
know, first reached out to me.
She was like, he's locked up,you know, he doesn't share his
(09:43):
emotions. And you know you, youwere pretty vulnerable in your
essays. And I think that block,I don't know, permanently, but
that block has been removed, atleast when it comes to these
essays, and you seem much morecomfortable writing about
yourself, which I really love tosee. And then the second thing
you said about like tuning outthe social media advice and the,
(10:03):
you know, everybody else'sstories, I think, is so so key.
And I really hope that you havesuccess in doing that, because
it's really hard. I mean, you'regonna be on social media, you're
talking about college stuff, youknow, the algorithm hears that,
and they're just gonna feed youthis video and that video, but
if you can stay focused on whatyou know matters to you, who you
(10:25):
are, what your story is, and youknow, the data, the facts, it'll
be a little easier to not getswept up in that. But I think
that's really great advice.
Okay, anything else that likedidn't go well, that you want to
avoid from this last round?
Roger (10:42):
I guess, like the time, because I started writing ED's
with, like, I'd say, like amonth, like the supplementals
with like, a month or a monthand a half to go.
Sheila Akbar (10:50):
Yeah.
Roger (10:51):
And I guess it was, it would have been nice having
extra time, but it also thetime, the limited time, also,
like, pushed me, like, Oh, youGotta go. It's time to pick it
up.
Sheila Akbar (11:02):
Yeah, you are also, I think, the kind of
person who likes an intensechallenge.
Roger (11:07):
A little bit, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Sheila Akbar (11:09):
Right, super competitive. You're intense in
that way.
Roger (11:12):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (11:13):
So I feel like that time pressure might have
helped you a little bit, but,you know, we're not starting
from scratch now. So it's not,you know, from Point Zero to
done in a month, it's maybe 50%of the way to done in a month
away.
Roger (11:27):
It was kind of odd too, because usually I'm not a
procrastinator, especially withmy homework, but college apps
were just so hard for me to getstarted.
Sheila Akbar (11:35):
Yeah.
Roger (11:36):
And then, especially like during the summer, that was like
me with all the cobweb like,trying to clear the cobbler
cobweb was like that. I had areally long block, like,
writing, writer's block, like, Icouldn't think I would sit in my
chair and just try to think ofideas and nothing would come up.
And then that's when I started,like, free writing and then
(11:56):
journaling, like you told me,and then, like, slowly it got
better.
Sheila Akbar (11:59):
It came out, yeah, great. Okay, let's get into some
of the work. Then I, you know, Itold you, if we're looking at
UC's we've got a deadlineNovember 30th, and then we're
going to be looking at a coupleof regular decision schools, you
know, January 1st, January 5thdeadline is the timeline on
that, and knowing that you'vegot a busy next couple of
(12:19):
months, and we've got theholidays that I really want you
to be able to take a break fromschool and from college apps on.
I would love to see your UC'sdone before Thanksgiving, and
like, 75% of your regulardecision stuff done before
Thanksgiving.
Roger (12:37):
Ooh. All right, let's do it.
Sheila Akbar (12:40):
I'm going to show you how it's possible today,
hopefully in the next, like,half an hour here. So let's
first confirm, like, whereyou're going to apply, because I
I know that this happens to alot of people. Like, when you
start off and you build this,like, really idealistic college
list, then you do the work forone or two of them, and it makes
you have second thoughts, or doI want to apply to school that
(13:05):
has eight supplemental essays,like I barely five three. So
let's talk about that. So forthe UCs are you targeting
specific campuses?
Roger (13:14):
Yes, so definitely UCLA, Berkeley, and then UCSD and
UCSB.
Sheila Akbar (13:21):
Okay. And UCSB?
Roger (13:23):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (13:24):
Yep, okay. And one thing that we need to be double
checking and making sure you'vegot a plan for is with the
University of Californiaapplications, you do have to say
what major you are intending toapply to. And every one of those
campuses will ask you for analternative major. Some of them
will even ask for a secondalternative. Major. So have you
(13:45):
done that work to figure outwhat's the exact major at each
of these schools?
Roger (13:48):
Yes, I did this. Actually did this during summer, so we'll
see.
Sheila Akbar (13:53):
Fantastic.
Roger (13:53):
Yeah, we'll see how relevant it is. Now, I'll put it
on the spreadsheet.
Sheila Akbar (13:58):
Great. And then I don't think this applies to you
would be looking at statisticsor applied math, right?
Roger (14:04):
Yes.
Sheila Akbar (14:06):
Some of the UC majors are what they call
selective, some, some of thecampuses call them capped or
high demand majors, yeah, andthese are typically things like
computer science engineering,statistics might fall into that
category at some of thosecampuses. So we're going to want
to double check that. It doesn'tmean you're going to have to
(14:26):
take any additional steps. It'sjust, you know, for you to
manage your expectations thatthese are high demand majors.
They can't accept everybody whowants to do that major. So they
will be looking for particularsigns of interest, advanced
study in that area, you know,extracurriculars, internship
like, whatever it is that'srelated to that area that really
(14:47):
demonstrates, you know, this iswhat you want to do, and that
you have some, you know,training and preparation for
that major, you have a betterchance of being selected for
those selective majors. Yes, so,okay, we'll want to double check
that that might impact how youapproach the questions.
Roger (15:06):
Oh, okay, what way?
Sheila Akbar (15:08):
Because if, if it is a capped major, then you'll
probably want to use, you know,the UC has these eight personal
insight questions. One of themis to talk about a an
educational opportunity thatyou've taken advantage of,
right? And we'd want to answerthat question with information
about this particular topic, andlike, where the interest came
(15:30):
from, and what you've doneoutside of school related to
that interest, and how you wantto apply it as a way to sort of
bolster your application forthat selective major.
Roger (15:39):
Got it. Got it.
Sheila Akbar (15:40):
Okay, so double check that, and then as I'm
looking at the list of collegesthat you kind of prepared
earlier in the summer, I'mwondering how many of them still
feel relevant to you. So youapplied to brown, you applied to
USC, we're going to do the UCs.
I see Michigan, Northeastern UWand Washington. I see Stanford,
(16:02):
Northwestern, Duke, Dartmouth,NYU. How are you thinking about
this?
Roger (16:08):
Yeah, like a lot of the schools I researched, I really
liked, visited Stanford, whichwas great, even though I know,
like, Stanford is a far reach,but I'm willing to do the work
for that one.
Sheila Akbar (16:20):
Okay.
Roger (16:21):
But yeah, I also agree.
Like, I definitely think Ineeded more safeties, or like,
more like, in my range,definitely, so.
Sheila Akbar (16:27):
Yeah, what you actually need are more targets.
Roger (16:30):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (16:30):
Right? Like, I want one or two safeties. Some
people call them likely schools.
You've got your reach schools.
The reach schools are always theeasiest to figure out, right?
Like, they're like, oh my gosh,it would be so amazing to go
here. It's like, the bestcollege in the world, right? But
it's the in between schoolswhere you actually have a very
good chance that most peopleoverlook. So you know, given
(16:53):
your grades, your SAT scores,like, You're a pretty
competitive student, right? Andthat makes it even harder to
find the target school becauseyou're like, oh, wait, I'm not
gonna settle
Roger (17:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (17:05):
Right, if I'm gonna go, especially as a
California resident, if I'mgonna go out of state, it's
gotta be really great, right? Idon't know if you've had that
conversation with with yourfamily.
Roger (17:17):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (17:17):
About, like, when does out of state tuition become
worth it.
Roger (17:21):
Yeah, like, my, I talked to my mom, and she was
definitely saying how it's notworth it to go out of state if,
like, I get into like, a reallygood UC school, because the UC
schools are already so great,and it's not worth it paying out
of state tuition for a schoolthat's worse than, or, like,
academically, worse than or
Sheila Akbar (17:40):
Or even equivalent to,
Roger (17:42):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (17:42):
Right.
Roger (17:43):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (17:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Roger (17:43):
Which has made like, searching for safety schools,
or, like, sorry, targets so muchharder.
Sheila Akbar (17:49):
Yeah, for sure. I mean, in some cases. And this,
this applies, I work with a lotof international students who
are like, I can go to the bestcollege in my home country, like
I'm already in because ofwhatever my grades are, but if I
can go to a quote, unquotebetter college in the United
States, I'll go there. So thenthey're only applying to, you
(18:10):
know, Harvard, Yale, Columbia,and if they don't get in,
they've got a great option athome, right? You might think
about it the same way, like,when would you go to a college
out of state, over UC San Diegoor UC Santa, Barbara or UCLA
even.
Roger (18:27):
Yeah
Sheila Akbar (18:28):
Right, and that's where your research is going to
be really helpful, right?
Because, you know, we're usingwords like better and worse, but
like those are, those aremeaningless terms, right?
Roger (18:38):
Yeah, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (18:39):
We got to get really specific to what you want
out of your college experience,what your education is actually
going to be, what the outcomescould be like. What
relationships do these collegeshave with employers that you're
really interested in, orindustries that you're, you
know, intending to work in?
Roger (18:55):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (18:55):
And how can that help you? Set you up, set
yourself up for success. I thinkthat should be your measure of
of what's worth it.
Roger (19:02):
Yeah, I agree.
Sheila Akbar (19:04):
Okay, but we know for sure we're gonna do
Stanford. You said.
Roger (19:08):
Yes. And then also, like, recently added UW, like, because
I thought, like, oh, that'slike, a good like, it's like,
kind of close, but not really.
Sheila Akbar (19:17):
So I don't have the numbers off the top of my
head, but UW's overall admissionrate is, like, close to 60%.
Their computer scienceadmissions rate. Can you guess
what it is?
Roger (19:27):
Like, five or something.
Sheila Akbar (19:28):
Yeah.
Roger (19:29):
Oh, boy.
Sheila Akbar (19:30):
Okay? So it's like, you might as well be
applying to Stanford.
Roger (19:34):
Yeah.
Unknown (19:35):
The other thing is, University of Washington's
deadline is November 15.
Roger (19:39):
Yeah, yo, I was looking at it too, though, like my my
brown like matches up prettyperfectly with.
Sheila Akbar (19:45):
Okay, yeah, you feel like you can do it?
Roger (19:47):
Yes.
Sheila Akbar (19:48):
Now, since you mentioned that your brown essays
overlap really nicely withUniversity of Washington, this
is probably a good, good pointto like pivot to, how do we make
something that you've alreadywritten fit a new school, right?
So there are a kind of couple ofsteps to this that I see. First
is like, just take stock of whatyou've already written, right?
(20:10):
And if we think about Brown, wehad a question about academic
interest. We had a questionabout something that brings you
joy, and we had a question abouthow your upbringing has shaped
you as a person. And then thereare a couple other short things,
like, why Brown and you know,what's your most meaningful
extracurricular? But those werepretty short, right? And when we
(20:33):
look at the University ofWashington supplemental essays,
we have tell a story from yourlife, describing an experience
that either demonstrates yourcharacter or helps shape it. Now
this is a longer one, andusually people use their common
app essay for this. Then theyalso say our families and
(20:53):
communities define us and ourindividual worlds. Community
might refer to your culturalgroup, extended family,
religious group, neighborhood orschool, sports, team or club,
coworkers, etc, describe theworld you come from and how you
as a product of it, might add tothe diversity of University of
Washington. So it is verysimilar to that question that
brown asks, which is, like, youknow, College Hill reminds
(21:14):
people of home, like, tell usabout your home and what you're
gonna bring.
Roger (21:17):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (21:18):
But this one has, like, the specific lens of
diversity on it.
Roger (21:23):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (21:24):
So really, just one essay. So we've, we've taken
stock what you've got, you'vegot that, what's called the Home
essay from Brown you want toadapt to this, this one here.
What of that essay? If we pullit up, let's see, what of that
essay do you feel like couldapply directly?
Roger (21:42):
I think the like, the direct, it's like we talked
about how I kind of redefinemasculinity, or just how I, how
I yeah, so then I think that'skind of like the diversity part,
like it's a new point of view.
Sheila Akbar (21:57):
Yeah.
Roger (21:58):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (21:59):
And, you know, the question says, describe the
world you come from, and thebrown question said, share an
aspect of your growing up,right, which for you you talked
about feeling not like thestereotypical male leader.
Roger (22:15):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (22:16):
Right, and like how you've you've come to
embrace just who you are, useyour natural strengths and
talents and like, you know,challenge the status quo kind of
assumptions about
Roger (22:30):
Who you're supposed to be.
Sheila Akbar (22:32):
Yeah. And so, how can we adapt that, that idea of
like, Oh, I'm not thestereotypical dude to the way
University of Washington askedthis question, which is,
describe the world you comefrom?
Roger (22:52):
I think my struggles with like, my insecurity with height,
definitely is like my world,like the world that I came from,
and then, like, as a product ofit.
Sheila Akbar (23:02):
Like, you're gonna say you came from like, a world
of tall people, or something?
Roger (23:05):
No, oh, like, physically.
Sheila Akbar (23:07):
How are you gonna do that?
Roger (23:08):
Or, like, I'll describe how. Oh, like, do you mean like,
like a physical world, or like,the community, or
Sheila Akbar (23:17):
Well, any way you want to describe it. But, you
know, I think, I actually thinkit might be more helpful to talk
about where your idea or thatoriginal idea that you ended up
challenging seems to come from.
Roger (23:30):
Oh, like their origin and like the stereotypes and.
Sheila Akbar (23:34):
Yeah, like, where did you pick that up? Is it
like, you know, men you saw onTV that you looked up to, or
maybe your dad looked up to, or,you know, other guy friends kind
of looked up to. Where did thatcome from, right? And then,
because of, because that waslike, not so clearly, not you.
Roger (23:54):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (23:56):
The world of your, you know, I think your mom, your
sisters, had a lot to do withthis.
Roger (24:00):
Yeah, my parents.
Sheila Akbar (24:01):
Yeah, right. Like that world is really what shaped
you.
Roger (24:06):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (24:06):
Right, in contrast to this other image that was
coming at you from other places.
And then I think you can keepthe material you have about, you
know, using your size advantageon the soccer field and holding
space for people's opinions andfeelings in your leadership. You
know that that next paragraphthat you have, and then I think
(24:28):
we have to address that they'reasking about diversity, and you
are defining diversity in a veryspecific way, right? Maybe not
the first way people woulddefine diversity.
Roger (24:40):
Oh, really.
Sheila Akbar (24:41):
Well, maybe I should clarify. And sounds like
we might be on different pagesabout this, but I think usually
when people see the worddiversity, they think, racial
diversity.
Roger (24:51):
Okay, yeah, I guess.
Sheila Akbar (24:53):
You're talking about something slightly
different. I agree. It is anaspect of diversity. I think it
absolutely brings some, youknow, variation in the way
people could think aboutthemselves. And I think it's
really what you have to say.
Here is a really important,like, umbrella kind of concept
for why diversity is a goodthing, right? Like, we should
(25:14):
all be able to be ourselves.
Roger (25:17):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (25:18):
But I think we need, you need to kind of
explicitly state that.
Roger (25:21):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (25:22):
The kind of diversity that you're really
focused on is, like, thediversity of, you know, nuance
and allowing people to be howthey want to be, and like,
redefining masculinity, orredefining what it is to be a
leader. The other thing we canthink about here is, like, while
it would be really easy to justkind of copy paste this essay
(25:42):
and then maybe change, you know,two, three sentences throughout
UW does not get to hear all ofthese other wonderful stories
that you have told some of theother colleges already.
Roger (25:53):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (25:53):
About your experiences sailing, about your
academic interests, about, youknow the kind of work that you
do in your school culture.
Roger (26:04):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (26:04):
Right. So there may be aspects of those essays
that you want to pull in to thisone too, to sort of make your
best case.
Roger (26:11):
I see what you're saying, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (26:13):
Yeah. So what does that make you think about?
Roger (26:16):
Okay, so, like, I don't have to say how well I can,
like, other than me saying how Itry to understand others and
like, share feelings withteammates and other people. I
can say how it helps me teachkids how to sail, or, like, how
to help them get over theirfears and.
Sheila Akbar (26:33):
Yeah.
Roger (26:34):
Okay, yeah, that sounds
Sheila Akbar (26:35):
Exactly, exactly, yeah. I think that could be a
really great way to approachthis. And you know, you have a
little more space. This essay is300 words.
Roger (26:42):
Yes.
Sheila Akbar (26:43):
Versus the 250 that you had for brown. So I
think, I think that's, that's agood plan. So, you know, you
don't have to, well, I guessUW's application is due November
15. You do have to write thisright now. But when we're doing
this for other schools, whatwe'll want to think about is,
what do we have?
Roger (27:00):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (27:00):
What can we use?
And then just detail out whatneeds to change.
Roger (27:04):
Got it Okay.
Sheila Akbar (27:06):
Right? Like, okay.
I need to address my definitionof diversity. I need to add in
this other bit of content aboutsailing. I need to, you know,
look up a specific mentorshipprogram on the University of
Washington campus that I wouldbe really interested in doing
whatever the tasks are, and justlist them out, and that way, it
will be easier for you to justtackle each task one at a time,
(27:26):
instead of thinking about I havethis amorphous essay that I have
to put together, and it alsomeans that there's some of those
things that you know will takeyou a little bit more time, and
some things that will be veryeasy. Depending on your mood, on
a particular day, you could dothe hard thing or you could do
the easy thing.
Roger (27:47):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (27:48):
Right. You don't have to do it all at once. You
don't have to do it in order. Sothat's what I recommend for
that.
Roger (27:54):
Got it. Yeah, that sounds really good.
Sheila Akbar (27:57):
Good. Okay, wonderful. Let's also talk
about, let's do this with likeanother school.
Roger (28:03):
Okay. UC's?
Sheila Akbar (28:05):
Yeah, let's look at the UCs, yeah, absolutely.
Okay. So I know you did a littlepre work on this, and you
started thinking about four ofthe questions that you thought
you could answer. You wrote abunch of stuff. Describe them to
me, kind of crystallized thecontent of each of those essays
that you've written so far.
Roger (28:24):
Alright, so we started with the the second prompt of
the PI cues, which is likeeveryone has a creative side,
and express, describe how youexpress your creative side. And
I started writing about how Ivideo edit for a doctor, which
allows which those patients, Imean, those videos have actually
been really impactful inallowing patients to take charge
of their own health, and alsohelps a lot of people who don't
(28:45):
have access to like specialtieslike, let's say, a
dermatologist. And then mysecond one shoot. I don't
remember what topic I waswriting this one for. Oh, wait,
it says three greatest talent.
But so I was trying to writeabout how my greatest talent
was, how I have a really openmindset, and I'm really
spontaneous, and I like want totry a bunch of stuff. And I
tried to describe that, how likethrough that, or my or like me
(29:08):
coming into high school, and howat first I was really not very
spirited about high school. Ididn't really want to try a lot
of new things. But then once Istarted, it started domino
effecting. So then, yeah, butthen I couldn't really make a
really clear connection, and Iwas still kind of exploring that
one myself too. So kind of threwout that one, we got one where I
(29:31):
tried to just, I, well, I told astory about how it was a moment
with my. Oh, it was a momentwith my dad where, like, in a
violin practice, where I wasreally stubborn to his advice,
and how, like, over time, Irealized I was actually he was
trying to teach me how to, like,have a growth mindset and like,
(29:52):
learn from my mistakes. And thenI said, how that like connected
to sailing, and how. Now I liketry to do that with them for
sailing. And then another one Ihave is, let's see, there's a
sailing one, which I try to talkabout my sailing community, and
how, at first, when I startedsailing, I was really scared. I
(30:12):
was kind of not I was not doingso great. But then, like, it was
really encouraging community,and I felt like I, like, was
able to learn and be myselfwithout needing to, like,
succeed all the time. And then Italked about how that I applied
that to like, how I teach otherkids now. And then the last one,
(30:33):
oh, this one was, this one wasjust me writing like, stuff
about why I like math and why,how I think it's like, it's a
whole nother language, and howit's like, been like,
intertwined in all of my life,and how I think and like sports
and everything.
Sheila Akbar (30:52):
Okay. So we have a bunch of options, and I'll point
out to you that none of thesereally overlap with the essays
that you wrote for the CommonApp schools. Right? Your your
main essay is about having apositive like a positive mindset
and like being kind to yourself.
You have, as we alreadydiscussed, an academic interest
essay, a joy, essay, a aspect ofyou growing up essay, right? And
(31:16):
so none of those are beingreused here.
Roger (31:21):
Oh, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (31:22):
The other thing I'll comment on is you mentioned
two essay drafts here that bothtouch on sailing.
Roger (31:28):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (31:28):
Right, like a different aspect of sailing in
both of them. But I worry alittle bit that you're, you
know, kind of wasting anopportunity to show them
something different about you.
Roger (31:38):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I definitely wouldn't, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (31:41):
So if we start with what you already have,
simply because those are greatessays and they're fully edited,
right? My priority, or mypreference would be, let's see
where we could reuse thosefirst, and then, if we still
need some more content, maybe wecome back to one of these things
that you started with, right? Solooking at the personal insight
(32:05):
questions, so let's first scanfor academic interest.
Roger (32:11):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (32:12):
Which could be a greatest talent or skill? Maybe.
Number four is describe howyou've taken advantage of a
significant educationalopportunity. Which would you say
you've done anything specificwith math, above and beyond the
curriculum? I mean, you aretaking very advanced classes.
Roger (32:33):
Yeah. I'm, yeah, I guess the community college course I'm
taking right now. And then thesurvey study was also pretty
related.
Sheila Akbar (32:42):
Yeah, the research that you did.
Roger (32:45):
Yes.
Sheila Akbar (32:45):
That, I think that would be a really good one to
highlight here, especially ifstatistics is a selective major
at one of the UC's.
Roger (32:53):
Okay, got it, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (32:55):
But you, you haven't written anything about
that research study or thoseclasses?
Roger (33:01):
Yeah, I think it's in a blurb in the like, it's a little
bit of a free right, in the inthat, like, academic interest
one, but it's definitely notlike a fully formed idea.
Sheila Akbar (33:13):
Right. Okay, all right. Well, that's one to think
about. Then looking at numbersix as well, which is an
academic subject that inspiresyou. And I wonder, then I know,
for brown you wrote an essayabout wanting to learn more
about, like, applications ofApplied Math, particularly in
like social sciences.
Roger (33:35):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (33:36):
And then you could probably use, like, maybe half
of that brown essay, along withmore information about the
research that you did.
Roger (33:45):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (33:46):
For number six.
Roger (33:47):
So like intertwine, like how I want to like apply math,
and also like how I like, havefound that you can apply math.
Sheila Akbar (33:55):
Yeah.
Roger (33:56):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (33:56):
So that's the brown open curriculum, plus new
writing on research. Okay, I'mmaking this list for you the
second brown essay, which isabout something that you do for
joy. You ended up writing aboutteaching sailing and helping
kids get over their fears,right? I really love that story.
(34:21):
That could be an example of yourleadership.
Roger (34:24):
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too.
Sheila Akbar (34:26):
Yeah. It could also be, you know, one of your
greatest talents.
Roger (34:29):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (34:30):
Right? Because you do talk about yourself as a big
brother to a lot of people,right on, like, different teams
in your own family, and then, ofcourse, as a sailing instructor.
So you could spin it that way.
Roger (34:42):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (34:43):
one here?
Roger (34:44):
I was thinking challenge, because if I like, describe
like, my like height being achallenge. But then again, it's
not really the most significant.
Sheila Akbar (35:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Roger (35:03):
It's a little bit dramatic like,
Sheila Akbar (35:06):
To say that's your most significant.
Roger (35:07):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (35:08):
Yeah, okay.
Roger (35:09):
Yeah. It could be my, like, greatest skill or talent
is a little bit of, like, I'dhave to, like, rework it a
little bit.
Sheila Akbar (35:16):
Yeah, well, maybe it doesn't have a great fit.
Roger (35:20):
Or it could be just like, make a community, or make your
community a better place. That'slike, kind of the end of like,
what I kind of described.
Sheila Akbar (35:28):
Yeah, that could, that could be it, my mind is
skipping ahead a little bit,though, to using your personal
statement in which you wroteabout, kind of keeping a
positive attitude.
Roger (35:41):
Yeah
Sheila Akbar (35:42):
And how that really defines your style of
leadership. That feels like aclear fit for number one.
Describe an example of yourleadership, right?
Roger (35:52):
Oh, okay.
Sheila Akbar (35:53):
I'll say one is your common app essay, and then
the it would be number three,your greatest talent or skill
would be like mentoring, right?
Roger (36:02):
Got it, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (36:04):
And then we need one more. We need one more.
Roger (36:10):
Oh, yeah. I mean, if we use the, the. What are your
thoughts if we use the Brown,the like me being, the what is
it I want to thank the where youcome from, brown one for just
like, question number eight forthe UC's?
Sheila Akbar (36:28):
What makes you a strong candidate?
Roger (36:29):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (36:31):
You know, it could be number seven too.
Roger (36:33):
Yeah, that's what I was thinking like the end.
Sheila Akbar (36:35):
Because you do kind of talk about school spirit
in that one, not beingembarrassed to, like, scream
your head off at games andstuff.
Roger (36:42):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (36:44):
Okay, so let's do that. Seven is, let's just call
it the short essay.
Roger (36:49):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (36:51):
Yeah. Okay, that feels like a really good plan
for UC. And you know, there maybe phrases that we pull from,
like these original writingsthat you did. But again, like,
see them as just like, your warmup exercises, I got you to this
place where you got these otherreally great essays out. Good,
okay, well, I know that this isa lot. I think my recommendation
(37:11):
to you is to, like, just get theeasy stuff done as soon as
possible, copy, paste theessays, create the Google Docs,
start the application form. Andfor UC's, of course, it's a
little bit nuanced, like you'vegot to categorize your classes
in the A through Gcategorization. Anything that
doesn't fall into there goesonto your activity list. Your
(37:32):
awards that have a separatesection on the common app go
into your activity list, andthen your actual
extracurriculars also go intoyour activity list. And then the
descriptions there are longer.
It's 350 characters.
Roger (37:43):
Oh. Should I use all of it?
Sheila Akbar (37:45):
So. You should use most of it if there are things
that you feel like you really,you know on the common app,
there's never enough room toshare everything.
Roger (37:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (37:53):
350 may feel like too much. You don't have to use
every single character, but youshould probably say more than
we're already saying.
Roger (38:00):
Okay, okay, got it. Like, okay, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (38:03):
So just like, yeah, I encourage that to be
your first step, the easy copy,paste stuff, right? Even just
copy, paste your activity listsfrom the common app into into
the UC template.
Roger (38:13):
Got it.
Sheila Akbar (38:14):
And then, you know, discharge some of that,
like overwhelm and be like.
Roger (38:19):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (38:20):
Main things are done. The next thing you do is
go through and make your listof, like, what do I need to do
with this? What do I need to dowith that?
Roger (38:26):
Got it, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (38:27):
And then take it kind of step by step. Priority
should be UW first, and thenUC's, and then, you know, we'll
talk again soon about where elseyou might want to apply regular
decision.
Okay, cool. Sounds good.
Okay, great. All right, goodwork.
Roger (38:41):
All right.
Sheila Akbar (38:42):
All right. Talk to you soon.
Roger (38:43):
Thank you.
Sheila Akbar (38:44):
Talk to you soon.
Bye,Well, we had to leave it there,
but I know that I'm going tolook over some essays, you know,
pretty soon, from him, and helphim submit a number of
additional applications andfinalize his regular decision
list. But I do hope that thisexample is helpful for any of
you listening, especially forthose of you who may have
(39:08):
students who did some earlyapplications and are thinking,
I'll worry about my regulardecisions in December when I
hear back from my earlies. Wellnumber one, not every early
application will give you anotification by early December.
A lot of early actionapplications don't have
notification dates until the endof January or even sometime in
February nowadays, so you maynot know. Secondly, if you do
(39:32):
hear back, you could be hearinggreat news, which is awesome.
You're done. You don't even haveto lift a finger on any other
application. You could bedeferred, in which case you do
want to apply to other schools,and you're kind of stuck in this
little bit of a limbo. It can bevery hard to motivate yourself,
because it feels like arejection, but at the same time,
(39:53):
oh, they didn't really rejectme, but they didn't let me in.
So, and you're gonna have tosubmit probably some additional
materials to that school, soyou've got more work than just
applying to your regulars. Andthen finally, you could get
denied, and that is not gonnafeel good, no matter how you
prepare for it. It is not theend of the world, but it does
(40:16):
sting, and it will be hard foryou to be creative, to think
about other schools, to kind ofpick yourself back up and go
into some intense writing andapplication creation, to finish
regular decision schools. So Ireally, really urge you to start
thinking about this before youhear back from any early
(40:38):
applications, to make a plan forhow to get those things done, to
really vet your school list andmake sure you are applying to
the right programs that it'sworth your time to apply to and
do your best with the writtenmaterials that you'll need to
put together, and hopefullyyou'll be able to reuse, just
like we did in this episode,reuse some of the material
(40:58):
you've already created. It's noteasy. We put these kids through
a lot, folks, but capitalize onthe momentum and stretch it out
so that it doesn't have to besuper intense, especially at a
time when they're feeling reallydown if they get bad news. Okay,
as I mentioned, I will link myUC activity template in the show
notes, and if you are a student,or know, a student, who would
(41:22):
like to be coached throughsomething even something more
specific than what we did here,we can go through a specific
essay, or, you know, smallerquestions than you know, all of
the stuff that Roger needed togo through with me, please fill
out the form. I'm really excitedto talk to more students. And of
course, you know my my team ofadmissions officers will also be
getting involved. So it mightnot be me, might be somebody
(41:45):
else who's who's even more wellversed in in the particular
challenge that the student isfacing. If you're a parent who
is worried about this process orsome aspect of high school and
higher education, there's a formfor you too. So please spread
the word. I want to help as manypeople as possible and make the
time that you spend here asimpactful as possible, and
(42:07):
hopefully you can see yourselfor your student in the
situations that we're talkingthrough here. All right. Well,
happy mid November, folks, andwe'll see you next time. Thanks.
First Wave is done, but also, like, excited and nervous,
(00:03):
because I just realized, like,Oh, I got one month till you see
deadlines, and then only onemore month after that till
regular decision, and I havelike, eight more schools for
regular decision.
Sheila Akbar (00:27):
Hey, folks, welcome back to the podcast. As
I mentioned at the end of ourlast episode last week, we are
going to be transitioning to alive coaching model in 2025 and
as a way for us to get ready forthat and preview that format. To
you all, today's episode will bea live coaching episode, and
(00:49):
then this one is going to be alittle different than our future
live coaching episodes, in whichit'll be a one time session, the
first time I'm meeting a studentand coaching them through a
particular challenge. What Ihave done for this week is taken
the topic that I wanted to talkto you all about and gotten one
of my existing students to joinme in the studio to talk about
(01:13):
how we are going to use thematerials he has been working on
and created for some earlyapplications, and how he's going
to use those to pivot into theupcoming deadlines for the
University of California. You'llhear in the episode he decides
he wants to apply to theUniversity of Washington, and
then also for his regulardecision applications. So the
(01:35):
context is here we know eachother, and I have seen the other
essays that he's written, and Iknow the content that he has and
how he can deploy it. I'm alsoreally familiar with what his
goals are, or where they areright now in terms of what he
wants to study and what kind ofwork he may want to do after
college, and in future episodes,we probably won't have that kind
(01:57):
of in depth knowledge or eventhe rapport to be able to move
through, you know, these sort ofchallenging issues, you know. So
I'll let you take a listen. I'mgoing to give this student a
name, and we will call himRoger. He is based in Southern
California, not too far from me,and take a listen as we talk
through what do we do next? Nowthat early applications are
(02:20):
done. How are you feeling afterwe submitted all of these early
applications? Like, truthfully,how does it feel?
Roger (02:29):
Well, it's very relieving, for sure. Like, first
wave is done, but also, like,excited and nervous, because I
just realized, like, Oh, I gotone month till you see
deadlines, and then only onemore month after that till
regular decision. And I havelike eight more schools for
regular decision. And it tookme, like almost a month to get
(02:51):
two three schools done for Elike ED EA. So it's a little
little nervous, nervy for sure.
Yeah, you also mentioned beforewe started recording that soccer
season is about to start foryou. Yep, in two weeks we got
gonna do your time. Oh,definitely. It's gonna make my
time so much like I've got somuch less time to do homework
(03:12):
and ASB stuff, and college asksfor sure, like two week, two
games a week, and probably goingto be mostly away, so the bus
rides are pretty long.
Sheila Akbar (03:24):
The thing that I want you to think about with
that is, not only is your quoteunquote free time, I know you
don't have a lot of free time,but your quote unquote free time
is going to be eaten up bysoccer practice and games and
commuting back and forth and allof this stuff, which is just
going to make it harder for youto find the time to do this
work, which is on top of yournormal school work and other
(03:46):
extracurriculars, but you arealso going to be physically
exhausted, yeah, right? Yourlevel of physical activity is
about to amp up. You know, acertain amount of physical
activity is actually reallygreat for creativity,
Roger (03:58):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (03:58):
But too much. You know, we might go in the other
direction. You're just gonna beso bedraggled.
Roger (04:03):
Like during summer?
Sheila Akbar (04:05):
Yeah, like summer you were, you were teaching
sailing for like nine hours aday in the hot sun, and you just
didn't have the brain power,right? So that's something I
want you to think about. I thinkwe have to be really, really
careful with our timemanagement, because we also have
holidays in the course of this,and they're like, days off of
school and, like, probably otherthings going on too, family
(04:26):
stuff. So when your time iscrunched like this, it's even
more important that you planahead. Okay, right? I know
you're like, Oh God, what have Igotten myself in to? Don't
worry, like, we're gonna getthrough it. And the good news
is, now that you have submittedtwo applications in the early
(04:49):
round, there's a whole bunch ofstuff that we don't have to do
again, right? Your Common Appessay is done. Yeah, we might
look at it and make somerevisions, but you don't have to
start that from scratch. Whichwe were doing right? Your
activity list is done. Andagain, we might make some
revisions, but you're notstarting from scratch. You know,
all of the little details thatyou have to fill out on the
(05:11):
application form are done forthe common app. But maybe the
bad news is, the UC system usesa totally separate application.
You will have to fill out thatinformation in another format
over there, and the activitylist there is different. So
that's one thing that you shoulddefinitely get a start on. And I
have a template that I put intoyour admission spreadsheet for
(05:31):
that. It's called UC activities.
And like, hey listeners, I'mgonna drop that link in the in
the show notes too, so you canget to this template so you can
organize your UC activities, soyou will have to do that. But
the other piece of good news isthat for your early schools, you
wrote like four pretty distinctsupplemental essays, and then a
(05:53):
bunch of those, like littleshort answers between those and
your personal statement, I ampretty sure we have almost all
the material you're gonna needfor the UCs and your other
applications.
Roger (06:09):
All right.
Sheila Akbar (06:10):
Of course, we have to tweak it, but like you, are
you and you showed up in thoseessays, that's not gonna change,
right? When they ask you aboutyour academic interests? Well,
we have some core content thatwe can lean on and add to or
change around to fit someoneelse's academic interest
question. When they ask youabout your favorite
extracurricular activity, youhave an essay about that. When
(06:31):
you need to talk about achallenge that you overcame, you
have something about that,right? So we're not starting
from scratch. So you're in areally good position, and I know
that you're feeling sobedraggled, and we just had the
election yesterday, I'm surethat's also on your mind, but,
you know, I think keeping up themomentum, you will be surprised
(06:52):
at how easy it is going to be tofinish this. I don't want to
pretend it's going to be like awalk in the park. It's going to
be work, and I know you'regetting tired and busy, but
we're starting from a verydifferent place.
Roger (07:04):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (07:04):
Right.
Roger (07:04):
Let's do it
Sheila Akbar (07:05):
Right. Okay, so the first thing I want us to
reflect on, besides how you'refeeling and how we're going to
manage this, is, what do youthink went really well with your
early action applications?
Roger (07:18):
Well, I guess starting in, like, especially summer, I
tried to start on, I actuallystarted aiming for UCS first,
like I was brainstorming answersto the UC questions. And that,
like me starting so early, Ithink was really work. Early was
so good because it got my brainto start thinking about
questions and start reflectingon like, my own traits and like
(07:40):
things about myself, and I gotmy mindset and like, got my
mindset into like, reflectingabout myself and what was unique
about myself. And even though Iwrote like, six drafts for UCS,
and I'm probably not gonna useany of them, that led to me
being able to think of otherideas when I was switching over
(08:01):
to ED's and EA's, where I waslike, Oh, this is so much. This
is me. This is like, something Ireally want to share about
myself. And I think that wassomething that I was very I
think I.
Sheila Akbar (08:13):
You're proud of?
Roger (08:15):
Yeah, yeah, that I was proud of. But I think just like,
when, whenever you come up withyour the ideas, and you're like,
oh, that's like, such a corepart of me. You're like, wow.
Like, I didn't realize thatmyself. But then if I could
change something, I thinkdefinitely staying off social
media would have been actually abig one, like, as in not taking
(08:35):
social media advice and thingswith a grain of salt, because
everyone has their like,advantages and stuff, and people
have heard so many stories, andthe stories are so radically
different that, like, I thinkthat it's bad if you already
have a mindset that you can'treally get into certain schools
(08:57):
because of your GPA or like testscores.
Sheila Akbar (09:00):
So I think you're sharing two really important
insights. One is, you did startwriting over the summer, and you
had a bunch of ideas that didn'tgo very far, but the fact that
you were trying out a lot ofideas, I think, kind of cleared
out the cobwebs and helped youthink about like, we don't know,
what do I really want to say,not, I'm trying to write
(09:22):
something that sounds like acollege essay, whatever that is,
right? So you gave it a coupleof goes and like, we might use
some of that content, we'll see.
But even if we don't, it wasreally, really beneficial for
you to do that, because I evenremember when your mom, you
know, first reached out to me.
She was like, he's locked up,you know, he doesn't share his
(09:43):
emotions. And you know you, youwere pretty vulnerable in your
essays. And I think that block,I don't know, permanently, but
that block has been removed, atleast when it comes to these
essays, and you seem much morecomfortable writing about
yourself, which I really love tosee. And then the second thing
you said about like tuning outthe social media advice and the,
(10:03):
you know, everybody else'sstories, I think, is so so key.
And I really hope that you havesuccess in doing that, because
it's really hard. I mean, you'regonna be on social media, you're
talking about college stuff, youknow, the algorithm hears that,
and they're just gonna feed youthis video and that video, but
if you can stay focused on whatyou know matters to you, who you
(10:25):
are, what your story is, and youknow, the data, the facts, it'll
be a little easier to not getswept up in that. But I think
that's really great advice.
Okay, anything else that likedidn't go well, that you want to
avoid from this last round?
Roger (10:42):
I guess, like the time, because I started writing ED's
with, like, I'd say, like amonth, like the supplementals
with like, a month or a monthand a half to go.
Sheila Akbar (10:50):
Yeah.
Roger (10:51):
And I guess it was, it would have been nice having
extra time, but it also thetime, the limited time, also,
like, pushed me, like, Oh, youGotta go. It's time to pick it
up.
Sheila Akbar (11:02):
Yeah, you are also, I think, the kind of
person who likes an intensechallenge.
Roger (11:07):
A little bit, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Sheila Akbar (11:09):
Right, super competitive. You're intense in
that way.
Roger (11:12):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (11:13):
So I feel like that time pressure might have
helped you a little bit, but,you know, we're not starting
from scratch now. So it's not,you know, from Point Zero to
done in a month, it's maybe 50%of the way to done in a month
away.
Roger (11:27):
It was kind of odd too, because usually I'm not a
procrastinator, especially withmy homework, but college apps
were just so hard for me to getstarted.
Sheila Akbar (11:35):
Yeah.
Roger (11:36):
And then, especially like during the summer, that was like
me with all the cobweb like,trying to clear the cobbler
cobweb was like that. I had areally long block, like,
writing, writer's block, like, Icouldn't think I would sit in my
chair and just try to think ofideas and nothing would come up.
And then that's when I started,like, free writing and then
(11:56):
journaling, like you told me,and then, like, slowly it got
better.
Sheila Akbar (11:59):
It came out, yeah, great. Okay, let's get into some
of the work. Then I, you know, Itold you, if we're looking at
UC's we've got a deadlineNovember 30th, and then we're
going to be looking at a coupleof regular decision schools, you
know, January 1st, January 5thdeadline is the timeline on
that, and knowing that you'vegot a busy next couple of
(12:19):
months, and we've got theholidays that I really want you
to be able to take a break fromschool and from college apps on.
I would love to see your UC'sdone before Thanksgiving, and
like, 75% of your regulardecision stuff done before
Thanksgiving.
Roger (12:37):
Ooh. All right, let's do it.
Sheila Akbar (12:40):
I'm going to show you how it's possible today,
hopefully in the next, like,half an hour here. So let's
first confirm, like, whereyou're going to apply, because I
I know that this happens to alot of people. Like, when you
start off and you build this,like, really idealistic college
list, then you do the work forone or two of them, and it makes
you have second thoughts, or doI want to apply to school that
(13:05):
has eight supplemental essays,like I barely five three. So
let's talk about that. So forthe UCs are you targeting
specific campuses?
Roger (13:14):
Yes, so definitely UCLA, Berkeley, and then UCSD and
UCSB.
Sheila Akbar (13:21):
Okay. And UCSB?
Roger (13:23):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (13:24):
Yep, okay. And one thing that we need to be double
checking and making sure you'vegot a plan for is with the
University of Californiaapplications, you do have to say
what major you are intending toapply to. And every one of those
campuses will ask you for analternative major. Some of them
will even ask for a secondalternative. Major. So have you
(13:45):
done that work to figure outwhat's the exact major at each
of these schools?
Roger (13:48):
Yes, I did this. Actually did this during summer, so we'll
see.
Sheila Akbar (13:53):
Fantastic.
Roger (13:53):
Yeah, we'll see how relevant it is. Now, I'll put it
on the spreadsheet.
Sheila Akbar (13:58):
Great. And then I don't think this applies to you
would be looking at statisticsor applied math, right?
Roger (14:04):
Yes.
Sheila Akbar (14:06):
Some of the UC majors are what they call
selective, some, some of thecampuses call them capped or
high demand majors, yeah, andthese are typically things like
computer science engineering,statistics might fall into that
category at some of thosecampuses. So we're going to want
to double check that. It doesn'tmean you're going to have to
(14:26):
take any additional steps. It'sjust, you know, for you to
manage your expectations thatthese are high demand majors.
They can't accept everybody whowants to do that major. So they
will be looking for particularsigns of interest, advanced
study in that area, you know,extracurriculars, internship
like, whatever it is that'srelated to that area that really
(14:47):
demonstrates, you know, this iswhat you want to do, and that
you have some, you know,training and preparation for
that major, you have a betterchance of being selected for
those selective majors. Yes, so,okay, we'll want to double check
that that might impact how youapproach the questions.
Roger (15:06):
Oh, okay, what way?
Sheila Akbar (15:08):
Because if, if it is a capped major, then you'll
probably want to use, you know,the UC has these eight personal
insight questions. One of themis to talk about a an
educational opportunity thatyou've taken advantage of,
right? And we'd want to answerthat question with information
about this particular topic, andlike, where the interest came
(15:30):
from, and what you've doneoutside of school related to
that interest, and how you wantto apply it as a way to sort of
bolster your application forthat selective major.
Roger (15:39):
Got it. Got it.
Sheila Akbar (15:40):
Okay, so double check that, and then as I'm
looking at the list of collegesthat you kind of prepared
earlier in the summer, I'mwondering how many of them still
feel relevant to you. So youapplied to brown, you applied to
USC, we're going to do the UCs.
I see Michigan, Northeastern UWand Washington. I see Stanford,
(16:02):
Northwestern, Duke, Dartmouth,NYU. How are you thinking about
this?
Roger (16:08):
Yeah, like a lot of the schools I researched, I really
liked, visited Stanford, whichwas great, even though I know,
like, Stanford is a far reach,but I'm willing to do the work
for that one.
Sheila Akbar (16:20):
Okay.
Roger (16:21):
But yeah, I also agree.
Like, I definitely think Ineeded more safeties, or like,
more like, in my range,definitely, so.
Sheila Akbar (16:27):
Yeah, what you actually need are more targets.
Roger (16:30):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (16:30):
Right? Like, I want one or two safeties. Some
people call them likely schools.
You've got your reach schools.
The reach schools are always theeasiest to figure out, right?
Like, they're like, oh my gosh,it would be so amazing to go
here. It's like, the bestcollege in the world, right? But
it's the in between schoolswhere you actually have a very
good chance that most peopleoverlook. So you know, given
(16:53):
your grades, your SAT scores,like, You're a pretty
competitive student, right? Andthat makes it even harder to
find the target school becauseyou're like, oh, wait, I'm not
gonna settle
Roger (17:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (17:05):
Right, if I'm gonna go, especially as a
California resident, if I'mgonna go out of state, it's
gotta be really great, right? Idon't know if you've had that
conversation with with yourfamily.
Roger (17:17):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (17:17):
About, like, when does out of state tuition become
worth it.
Roger (17:21):
Yeah, like, my, I talked to my mom, and she was
definitely saying how it's notworth it to go out of state if,
like, I get into like, a reallygood UC school, because the UC
schools are already so great,and it's not worth it paying out
of state tuition for a schoolthat's worse than, or, like,
academically, worse than or
Sheila Akbar (17:40):
Or even equivalent to,
Roger (17:42):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (17:42):
Right.
Roger (17:43):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (17:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Roger (17:43):
Which has made like, searching for safety schools,
or, like, sorry, targets so muchharder.
Sheila Akbar (17:49):
Yeah, for sure. I mean, in some cases. And this,
this applies, I work with a lotof international students who
are like, I can go to the bestcollege in my home country, like
I'm already in because ofwhatever my grades are, but if I
can go to a quote, unquotebetter college in the United
States, I'll go there. So thenthey're only applying to, you
(18:10):
know, Harvard, Yale, Columbia,and if they don't get in,
they've got a great option athome, right? You might think
about it the same way, like,when would you go to a college
out of state, over UC San Diegoor UC Santa, Barbara or UCLA
even.
Roger (18:27):
Yeah
Sheila Akbar (18:28):
Right, and that's where your research is going to
be really helpful, right?
Because, you know, we're usingwords like better and worse, but
like those are, those aremeaningless terms, right?
Roger (18:38):
Yeah, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (18:39):
We got to get really specific to what you want
out of your college experience,what your education is actually
going to be, what the outcomescould be like. What
relationships do these collegeshave with employers that you're
really interested in, orindustries that you're, you
know, intending to work in?
Roger (18:55):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (18:55):
And how can that help you? Set you up, set
yourself up for success. I thinkthat should be your measure of
of what's worth it.
Roger (19:02):
Yeah, I agree.
Sheila Akbar (19:04):
Okay, but we know for sure we're gonna do
Stanford. You said.
Roger (19:08):
Yes. And then also, like, recently added UW, like, because
I thought, like, oh, that'slike, a good like, it's like,
kind of close, but not really.
Sheila Akbar (19:17):
So I don't have the numbers off the top of my
head, but UW's overall admissionrate is, like, close to 60%.
Their computer scienceadmissions rate. Can you guess
what it is?
Roger (19:27):
Like, five or something.
Sheila Akbar (19:28):
Yeah.
Roger (19:29):
Oh, boy.
Sheila Akbar (19:30):
Okay? So it's like, you might as well be
applying to Stanford.
Roger (19:34):
Yeah.
Unknown (19:35):
The other thing is, University of Washington's
deadline is November 15.
Roger (19:39):
Yeah, yo, I was looking at it too, though, like my my
brown like matches up prettyperfectly with.
Sheila Akbar (19:45):
Okay, yeah, you feel like you can do it?
Roger (19:47):
Yes.
Sheila Akbar (19:48):
Now, since you mentioned that your brown essays
overlap really nicely withUniversity of Washington, this
is probably a good, good pointto like pivot to, how do we make
something that you've alreadywritten fit a new school, right?
So there are a kind of couple ofsteps to this that I see. First
is like, just take stock of whatyou've already written, right?
(20:10):
And if we think about Brown, wehad a question about academic
interest. We had a questionabout something that brings you
joy, and we had a question abouthow your upbringing has shaped
you as a person. And then thereare a couple other short things,
like, why Brown and you know,what's your most meaningful
extracurricular? But those werepretty short, right? And when we
(20:33):
look at the University ofWashington supplemental essays,
we have tell a story from yourlife, describing an experience
that either demonstrates yourcharacter or helps shape it. Now
this is a longer one, andusually people use their common
app essay for this. Then theyalso say our families and
(20:53):
communities define us and ourindividual worlds. Community
might refer to your culturalgroup, extended family,
religious group, neighborhood orschool, sports, team or club,
coworkers, etc, describe theworld you come from and how you
as a product of it, might add tothe diversity of University of
Washington. So it is verysimilar to that question that
brown asks, which is, like, youknow, College Hill reminds
(21:14):
people of home, like, tell usabout your home and what you're
gonna bring.
Roger (21:17):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (21:18):
But this one has, like, the specific lens of
diversity on it.
Roger (21:23):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (21:24):
So really, just one essay. So we've, we've taken
stock what you've got, you'vegot that, what's called the Home
essay from Brown you want toadapt to this, this one here.
What of that essay? If we pullit up, let's see, what of that
essay do you feel like couldapply directly?
Roger (21:42):
I think the like, the direct, it's like we talked
about how I kind of redefinemasculinity, or just how I, how
I yeah, so then I think that'skind of like the diversity part,
like it's a new point of view.
Sheila Akbar (21:57):
Yeah.
Roger (21:58):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (21:59):
And, you know, the question says, describe the
world you come from, and thebrown question said, share an
aspect of your growing up,right, which for you you talked
about feeling not like thestereotypical male leader.
Roger (22:15):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (22:16):
Right, and like how you've you've come to
embrace just who you are, useyour natural strengths and
talents and like, you know,challenge the status quo kind of
assumptions about
Roger (22:30):
Who you're supposed to be.
Sheila Akbar (22:32):
Yeah. And so, how can we adapt that, that idea of
like, Oh, I'm not thestereotypical dude to the way
University of Washington askedthis question, which is,
describe the world you comefrom?
Roger (22:52):
I think my struggles with like, my insecurity with height,
definitely is like my world,like the world that I came from,
and then, like, as a product ofit.
Sheila Akbar (23:02):
Like, you're gonna say you came from like, a world
of tall people, or something?
Roger (23:05):
No, oh, like, physically.
Sheila Akbar (23:07):
How are you gonna do that?
Roger (23:08):
Or, like, I'll describe how. Oh, like, do you mean like,
like a physical world, or like,the community, or
Sheila Akbar (23:17):
Well, any way you want to describe it. But, you
know, I think, I actually thinkit might be more helpful to talk
about where your idea or thatoriginal idea that you ended up
challenging seems to come from.
Roger (23:30):
Oh, like their origin and like the stereotypes and.
Sheila Akbar (23:34):
Yeah, like, where did you pick that up? Is it
like, you know, men you saw onTV that you looked up to, or
maybe your dad looked up to, or,you know, other guy friends kind
of looked up to. Where did thatcome from, right? And then,
because of, because that waslike, not so clearly, not you.
Roger (23:54):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (23:56):
The world of your, you know, I think your mom, your
sisters, had a lot to do withthis.
Roger (24:00):
Yeah, my parents.
Sheila Akbar (24:01):
Yeah, right. Like that world is really what shaped
you.
Roger (24:06):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (24:06):
Right, in contrast to this other image that was
coming at you from other places.
And then I think you can keepthe material you have about, you
know, using your size advantageon the soccer field and holding
space for people's opinions andfeelings in your leadership. You
know that that next paragraphthat you have, and then I think
(24:28):
we have to address that they'reasking about diversity, and you
are defining diversity in a veryspecific way, right? Maybe not
the first way people woulddefine diversity.
Roger (24:40):
Oh, really.
Sheila Akbar (24:41):
Well, maybe I should clarify. And sounds like
we might be on different pagesabout this, but I think usually
when people see the worddiversity, they think, racial
diversity.
Roger (24:51):
Okay, yeah, I guess.
Sheila Akbar (24:53):
You're talking about something slightly
different. I agree. It is anaspect of diversity. I think it
absolutely brings some, youknow, variation in the way
people could think aboutthemselves. And I think it's
really what you have to say.
Here is a really important,like, umbrella kind of concept
for why diversity is a goodthing, right? Like, we should
(25:14):
all be able to be ourselves.
Roger (25:17):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (25:18):
But I think we need, you need to kind of
explicitly state that.
Roger (25:21):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (25:22):
The kind of diversity that you're really
focused on is, like, thediversity of, you know, nuance
and allowing people to be howthey want to be, and like,
redefining masculinity, orredefining what it is to be a
leader. The other thing we canthink about here is, like, while
it would be really easy to justkind of copy paste this essay
(25:42):
and then maybe change, you know,two, three sentences throughout
UW does not get to hear all ofthese other wonderful stories
that you have told some of theother colleges already.
Roger (25:53):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (25:53):
About your experiences sailing, about your
academic interests, about, youknow the kind of work that you
do in your school culture.
Roger (26:04):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (26:04):
Right. So there may be aspects of those essays
that you want to pull in to thisone too, to sort of make your
best case.
Roger (26:11):
I see what you're saying, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (26:13):
Yeah. So what does that make you think about?
Roger (26:16):
Okay, so, like, I don't have to say how well I can,
like, other than me saying how Itry to understand others and
like, share feelings withteammates and other people. I
can say how it helps me teachkids how to sail, or, like, how
to help them get over theirfears and.
Sheila Akbar (26:33):
Yeah.
Roger (26:34):
Okay, yeah, that sounds
Sheila Akbar (26:35):
Exactly, exactly, yeah. I think that could be a
really great way to approachthis. And you know, you have a
little more space. This essay is300 words.
Roger (26:42):
Yes.
Sheila Akbar (26:43):
Versus the 250 that you had for brown. So I
think, I think that's, that's agood plan. So, you know, you
don't have to, well, I guessUW's application is due November
15. You do have to write thisright now. But when we're doing
this for other schools, whatwe'll want to think about is,
what do we have?
Roger (27:00):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (27:00):
What can we use?
And then just detail out whatneeds to change.
Roger (27:04):
Got it Okay.
Sheila Akbar (27:06):
Right? Like, okay.
I need to address my definitionof diversity. I need to add in
this other bit of content aboutsailing. I need to, you know,
look up a specific mentorshipprogram on the University of
Washington campus that I wouldbe really interested in doing
whatever the tasks are, and justlist them out, and that way, it
will be easier for you to justtackle each task one at a time,
(27:26):
instead of thinking about I havethis amorphous essay that I have
to put together, and it alsomeans that there's some of those
things that you know will takeyou a little bit more time, and
some things that will be veryeasy. Depending on your mood, on
a particular day, you could dothe hard thing or you could do
the easy thing.
Roger (27:47):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (27:48):
Right. You don't have to do it all at once. You
don't have to do it in order. Sothat's what I recommend for
that.
Roger (27:54):
Got it. Yeah, that sounds really good.
Sheila Akbar (27:57):
Good. Okay, wonderful. Let's also talk
about, let's do this with likeanother school.
Roger (28:03):
Okay. UC's?
Sheila Akbar (28:05):
Yeah, let's look at the UCs, yeah, absolutely.
Okay. So I know you did a littlepre work on this, and you
started thinking about four ofthe questions that you thought
you could answer. You wrote abunch of stuff. Describe them to
me, kind of crystallized thecontent of each of those essays
that you've written so far.
Roger (28:24):
Alright, so we started with the the second prompt of
the PI cues, which is likeeveryone has a creative side,
and express, describe how youexpress your creative side. And
I started writing about how Ivideo edit for a doctor, which
allows which those patients, Imean, those videos have actually
been really impactful inallowing patients to take charge
of their own health, and alsohelps a lot of people who don't
(28:45):
have access to like specialtieslike, let's say, a
dermatologist. And then mysecond one shoot. I don't
remember what topic I waswriting this one for. Oh, wait,
it says three greatest talent.
But so I was trying to writeabout how my greatest talent
was, how I have a really openmindset, and I'm really
spontaneous, and I like want totry a bunch of stuff. And I
tried to describe that, how likethrough that, or my or like me
(29:08):
coming into high school, and howat first I was really not very
spirited about high school. Ididn't really want to try a lot
of new things. But then once Istarted, it started domino
effecting. So then, yeah, butthen I couldn't really make a
really clear connection, and Iwas still kind of exploring that
one myself too. So kind of threwout that one, we got one where I
(29:31):
tried to just, I, well, I told astory about how it was a moment
with my. Oh, it was a momentwith my dad where, like, in a
violin practice, where I wasreally stubborn to his advice,
and how, like, over time, Irealized I was actually he was
trying to teach me how to, like,have a growth mindset and like,
(29:52):
learn from my mistakes. And thenI said, how that like connected
to sailing, and how. Now I liketry to do that with them for
sailing. And then another one Ihave is, let's see, there's a
sailing one, which I try to talkabout my sailing community, and
how, at first, when I startedsailing, I was really scared. I
(30:12):
was kind of not I was not doingso great. But then, like, it was
really encouraging community,and I felt like I, like, was
able to learn and be myselfwithout needing to, like,
succeed all the time. And then Italked about how that I applied
that to like, how I teach otherkids now. And then the last one,
(30:33):
oh, this one was, this one wasjust me writing like, stuff
about why I like math and why,how I think it's like, it's a
whole nother language, and howit's like, been like,
intertwined in all of my life,and how I think and like sports
and everything.
Sheila Akbar (30:52):
Okay. So we have a bunch of options, and I'll point
out to you that none of thesereally overlap with the essays
that you wrote for the CommonApp schools. Right? Your your
main essay is about having apositive like a positive mindset
and like being kind to yourself.
You have, as we alreadydiscussed, an academic interest
essay, a joy, essay, a aspect ofyou growing up essay, right? And
(31:16):
so none of those are beingreused here.
Roger (31:21):
Oh, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (31:22):
The other thing I'll comment on is you mentioned
two essay drafts here that bothtouch on sailing.
Roger (31:28):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (31:28):
Right, like a different aspect of sailing in
both of them. But I worry alittle bit that you're, you
know, kind of wasting anopportunity to show them
something different about you.
Roger (31:38):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I definitely wouldn't, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (31:41):
So if we start with what you already have,
simply because those are greatessays and they're fully edited,
right? My priority, or mypreference would be, let's see
where we could reuse thosefirst, and then, if we still
need some more content, maybe wecome back to one of these things
that you started with, right? Solooking at the personal insight
(32:05):
questions, so let's first scanfor academic interest.
Roger (32:11):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (32:12):
Which could be a greatest talent or skill? Maybe.
Number four is describe howyou've taken advantage of a
significant educationalopportunity. Which would you say
you've done anything specificwith math, above and beyond the
curriculum? I mean, you aretaking very advanced classes.
Roger (32:33):
Yeah. I'm, yeah, I guess the community college course I'm
taking right now. And then thesurvey study was also pretty
related.
Sheila Akbar (32:42):
Yeah, the research that you did.
Roger (32:45):
Yes.
Sheila Akbar (32:45):
That, I think that would be a really good one to
highlight here, especially ifstatistics is a selective major
at one of the UC's.
Roger (32:53):
Okay, got it, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (32:55):
But you, you haven't written anything about
that research study or thoseclasses?
Roger (33:01):
Yeah, I think it's in a blurb in the like, it's a little
bit of a free right, in the inthat, like, academic interest
one, but it's definitely notlike a fully formed idea.
Sheila Akbar (33:13):
Right. Okay, all right. Well, that's one to think
about. Then looking at numbersix as well, which is an
academic subject that inspiresyou. And I wonder, then I know,
for brown you wrote an essayabout wanting to learn more
about, like, applications ofApplied Math, particularly in
like social sciences.
Roger (33:35):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (33:36):
And then you could probably use, like, maybe half
of that brown essay, along withmore information about the
research that you did.
Roger (33:45):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (33:46):
For number six.
Roger (33:47):
So like intertwine, like how I want to like apply math,
and also like how I like, havefound that you can apply math.
Sheila Akbar (33:55):
Yeah.
Roger (33:56):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (33:56):
So that's the brown open curriculum, plus new
writing on research. Okay, I'mmaking this list for you the
second brown essay, which isabout something that you do for
joy. You ended up writing aboutteaching sailing and helping
kids get over their fears,right? I really love that story.
(34:21):
That could be an example of yourleadership.
Roger (34:24):
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too.
Sheila Akbar (34:26):
Yeah. It could also be, you know, one of your
greatest talents.
Roger (34:29):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (34:30):
Right? Because you do talk about yourself as a big
brother to a lot of people,right on, like, different teams
in your own family, and then, ofcourse, as a sailing instructor.
So you could spin it that way.
Roger (34:42):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (34:43):
one here?
Roger (34:44):
I was thinking challenge, because if I like, describe
like, my like height being achallenge. But then again, it's
not really the most significant.
Sheila Akbar (35:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Roger (35:03):
It's a little bit dramatic like,
Sheila Akbar (35:06):
To say that's your most significant.
Roger (35:07):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (35:08):
Yeah, okay.
Roger (35:09):
Yeah. It could be my, like, greatest skill or talent
is a little bit of, like, I'dhave to, like, rework it a
little bit.
Sheila Akbar (35:16):
Yeah, well, maybe it doesn't have a great fit.
Roger (35:20):
Or it could be just like, make a community, or make your
community a better place. That'slike, kind of the end of like,
what I kind of described.
Sheila Akbar (35:28):
Yeah, that could, that could be it, my mind is
skipping ahead a little bit,though, to using your personal
statement in which you wroteabout, kind of keeping a
positive attitude.
Roger (35:41):
Yeah
Sheila Akbar (35:42):
And how that really defines your style of
leadership. That feels like aclear fit for number one.
Describe an example of yourleadership, right?
Roger (35:52):
Oh, okay.
Sheila Akbar (35:53):
I'll say one is your common app essay, and then
the it would be number three,your greatest talent or skill
would be like mentoring, right?
Roger (36:02):
Got it, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (36:04):
And then we need one more. We need one more.
Roger (36:10):
Oh, yeah. I mean, if we use the, the. What are your
thoughts if we use the Brown,the like me being, the what is
it I want to thank the where youcome from, brown one for just
like, question number eight forthe UC's?
Sheila Akbar (36:28):
What makes you a strong candidate?
Roger (36:29):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (36:31):
You know, it could be number seven too.
Roger (36:33):
Yeah, that's what I was thinking like the end.
Sheila Akbar (36:35):
Because you do kind of talk about school spirit
in that one, not beingembarrassed to, like, scream
your head off at games andstuff.
Roger (36:42):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (36:44):
Okay, so let's do that. Seven is, let's just call
it the short essay.
Roger (36:49):
Okay.
Sheila Akbar (36:51):
Yeah. Okay, that feels like a really good plan
for UC. And you know, there maybe phrases that we pull from,
like these original writingsthat you did. But again, like,
see them as just like, your warmup exercises, I got you to this
place where you got these otherreally great essays out. Good,
okay, well, I know that this isa lot. I think my recommendation
(37:11):
to you is to, like, just get theeasy stuff done as soon as
possible, copy, paste theessays, create the Google Docs,
start the application form. Andfor UC's, of course, it's a
little bit nuanced, like you'vegot to categorize your classes
in the A through Gcategorization. Anything that
doesn't fall into there goesonto your activity list. Your
(37:32):
awards that have a separatesection on the common app go
into your activity list, andthen your actual
extracurriculars also go intoyour activity list. And then the
descriptions there are longer.
It's 350 characters.
Roger (37:43):
Oh. Should I use all of it?
Sheila Akbar (37:45):
So. You should use most of it if there are things
that you feel like you really,you know on the common app,
there's never enough room toshare everything.
Roger (37:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (37:53):
350 may feel like too much. You don't have to use
every single character, but youshould probably say more than
we're already saying.
Roger (38:00):
Okay, okay, got it. Like, okay, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (38:03):
So just like, yeah, I encourage that to be
your first step, the easy copy,paste stuff, right? Even just
copy, paste your activity listsfrom the common app into into
the UC template.
Roger (38:13):
Got it.
Sheila Akbar (38:14):
And then, you know, discharge some of that,
like overwhelm and be like.
Roger (38:19):
Yeah.
Sheila Akbar (38:20):
Main things are done. The next thing you do is
go through and make your listof, like, what do I need to do
with this? What do I need to dowith that?
Roger (38:26):
Got it, yeah.
Sheila Akbar (38:27):
And then take it kind of step by step. Priority
should be UW first, and thenUC's, and then, you know, we'll
talk again soon about where elseyou might want to apply regular
decision.
Okay, cool. Sounds good.
Okay, great. All right, goodwork.
Roger (38:41):
All right.
Sheila Akbar (38:42):
All right. Talk to you soon.
Roger (38:43):
Thank you.
Sheila Akbar (38:44):
Talk to you soon.
Bye,Well, we had to leave it there,
but I know that I'm going tolook over some essays, you know,
pretty soon, from him, and helphim submit a number of
additional applications andfinalize his regular decision
list. But I do hope that thisexample is helpful for any of
you listening, especially forthose of you who may have
(39:08):
students who did some earlyapplications and are thinking,
I'll worry about my regulardecisions in December when I
hear back from my earlies. Wellnumber one, not every early
application will give you anotification by early December.
A lot of early actionapplications don't have
notification dates until the endof January or even sometime in
February nowadays, so you maynot know. Secondly, if you do
(39:32):
hear back, you could be hearinggreat news, which is awesome.
You're done. You don't even haveto lift a finger on any other
application. You could bedeferred, in which case you do
want to apply to other schools,and you're kind of stuck in this
little bit of a limbo. It can bevery hard to motivate yourself,
because it feels like arejection, but at the same time,
(39:53):
oh, they didn't really rejectme, but they didn't let me in.
So, and you're gonna have tosubmit probably some additional
materials to that school, soyou've got more work than just
applying to your regulars. Andthen finally, you could get
denied, and that is not gonnafeel good, no matter how you
prepare for it. It is not theend of the world, but it does
(40:16):
sting, and it will be hard foryou to be creative, to think
about other schools, to kind ofpick yourself back up and go
into some intense writing andapplication creation, to finish
regular decision schools. So Ireally, really urge you to start
thinking about this before youhear back from any early
(40:38):
applications, to make a plan forhow to get those things done, to
really vet your school list andmake sure you are applying to
the right programs that it'sworth your time to apply to and
do your best with the writtenmaterials that you'll need to
put together, and hopefullyyou'll be able to reuse, just
like we did in this episode,reuse some of the material
(40:58):
you've already created. It's noteasy. We put these kids through
a lot, folks, but capitalize onthe momentum and stretch it out
so that it doesn't have to besuper intense, especially at a
time when they're feeling reallydown if they get bad news. Okay,
as I mentioned, I will link myUC activity template in the show
notes, and if you are a student,or know, a student, who would
(41:22):
like to be coached throughsomething even something more
specific than what we did here,we can go through a specific
essay, or, you know, smallerquestions than you know, all of
the stuff that Roger needed togo through with me, please fill
out the form. I'm really excitedto talk to more students. And of
course, you know my my team ofadmissions officers will also be
getting involved. So it mightnot be me, might be somebody
(41:45):
else who's who's even more wellversed in in the particular
challenge that the student isfacing. If you're a parent who
is worried about this process orsome aspect of high school and
higher education, there's a formfor you too. So please spread
the word. I want to help as manypeople as possible and make the
time that you spend here asimpactful as possible, and
(42:07):
hopefully you can see yourselfor your student in the
situations that we're talkingthrough here. All right. Well,
happy mid November, folks, andwe'll see you next time. Thanks.
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