Episode 005: Rapid-Fire Q&A in Live Office Hours with Ruchi S. Kothari

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There is a space for you in the college applications to enter your rank compared to your class of students. This is another way for admissions officers to survey your standing within your school community and then compare you to other applicants. The responses for your rank vary quite a bit as many high schools do not provide rank. Choose an approximate response from the options in the drop-down menu, and select N/A if your high school doesn’t rank or if you do not have this information.

The activities section allows you to exhibit your extracurricular involvement both in and outside of school during your high school years, enabling admissions officers to understand your non-academic interests and giving them insight on the activities you may participate in at college. In fact, many colleges ask you to list your top extracurricular activities and indicate whether or not you will pursue them in college. Review this admissions tip: say “yes” to pursuing the activities you can carry over to college as this indicates that you are genuinely interested in an extracurricular and not just involved in it for the sake of getting into college.

For this Mapping Out Your Application exercise, list up to ten extracurricular activities you have participated in, which may include and are not limited to clubs, research, academics, sports, summer programs, internships, jobs, community service, and family responsibilities. Admissions trick: order your activities with the first one depicting your highest level of time commitment, leadership role, and the impact you generated while the last activity being the one with the lowest level of involvement. Please note that you are not required to list ten activities. The quality of your involvement is weighed more than the number of activities you participate in. Hence, depth matters more than breadth.

For the purpose of the exercise, simply write the activity name, select the activity type from the drop-down menu that correlates with the Common App activities, and enter a short description and your time commitment (in this format: grades 9-12, hrs/wk, wks/yr) in the particular activity. Please note, the summer before your senior year is considered grade 12, so work backwards for previous grades. Additionally, remember to follow this admissions secret: Like in a resume, describe your activities with specific action words and numbers to demonstrate impact. Here are some examples:

1) Activity 1:
a) Name: Self-directed research
b) Activity Type: Research
c) Description: Conducted research on cell mutation with college professor.
d) Time Commitment: Grade 12, 20 hrs/wk 8 wks/yr.

2) Activity 2:
a) Name: Varsity Tennis
b) Activity Type: Athletics: JV/Varsity
c) Description: Mentored 15 teammates as the captain of the varsity tennis team.
d) Time Commitment: Grades 10-12, 20 hrs/wk 16 wks/yr.

In the Common App, you will also be asked to notate Position/Leadership description, Organization name, Participation grade levels, Timing of participation, Hours spent per week, Weeks spent per year, and if you intend to participate in a similar activity in college.

Many colleges in their application ask the student to select up to three majors and/or minors they are interested in. Consider this admissions secret: Your application will be evaluated under the primary (first) major you select so be sure to put some thought into your selections, ensuring that your majors align with your academic angle and extracurricular activities. Please note that second and third-choice majors are asked to assess interest and place a prospective student in other majors if the seats for a particular major fill up as well as understand the applicant’s interdisciplinary interests.

Go ahead and enter up to three academic disciplines that you might be interested in majoring and/or minoring in.

Admissions tip: Creating a positioning statement or a one-sentence thesis statement of the applicant profile helps the student bring all their high school experiences– academic passion, extracurricular activities, and personal motivation– together to create an applicant profile that is unique, organized, and helps them stand out from other applicants. The purpose of your positioning statement is for you to create an overlying theme for your application. This thesis would help you connect and organize your application components, give you the direction to inform your high school decisions, and enable admissions officers to determine your fit within their institution. It is usually this theme or a small phrase, like social activist or next neuroscience prodigy, which they notate on your application as your place within their college community. Basically, this statement helps you foreshadow how admissions officers will categorize and view you and, therefore, give you the opportunity to control and curate the narrative.

Please spend some time understanding your academic passion and personal interests to write a one-sentence thesis statement in the first-person and present tense for your applications, summarizing your story, academic and extracurricular focus, and contribution to and role in your future college and the world. All components of academics and extracurriculars should then follow this positioning to ultimately create a cohesive story of who you are in your application. This statement will then become the distinctive theme of your college applications. Here are EXAMPLE positioning statements:

I am a compassionate and thoughtful athlete and musician who loves to use music to connect with my Latin American history and community as well as cognitive science to explore music therapy and music cognition.

Through my passion for historical research in Africana and Gender Studies, assisting young people to engage in social activism through mentorship and education, and painting murals with a message, I hope to help dismantle systems of oppression and gain more tools on how to do so in college.

Many students do not realize that letters of recommendation serve to be an essential part of your college application as they enable admissions officers to assess your personal qualities and characteristics, essentially determining what type of student you will be at their college and the kind of person you will be in their community. From these recommendations, admissions officers foresee whether you will be, for example, taking an active role in the student government, spending endless hours in the chemistry lab, running college-run food drives, or not be actively involved in the college community. For a detailed, crucial lesson on securing your best letters of recommendation, purchase Ivybound Consulting’s online course, Striking GOLD with your Letters of Recommendation!

Other recommendations are a way to reveal a new aspect of your personality and work ethic in your college application. This other recommender may include your coach, teacher, employer, research advisor, college professor, clergy, peer, or family member. Since these additional recommendation requirements vary from college to college, be sure to verify that other recommendations are allowed before asking for these recommendations. I have included two spaces for you to enter the type of other recommender and what achievement and qualities of yourself you are trying to portray through this recommendation. So, go ahead and enter the recommenders you may be considering. Again, to best optimize your letters of recommendation, purchase our online course, Striking GOLD with your Letters of Recommendation!

Most colleges require two teacher recommendations. Consider two teachers from different academic disciplines (STEM and humanities fields) that you have developed a strong relationship with and whose classes you have performed well in. Here’s an admissions trick: take some time to contemplate which teachers to ask who can write about your different accomplishments, qualities, and activities in the classroom and beyond. Go ahead and enter potential teachers you are considering in this survey. I have included an additional teacher recommender spot in case your top two choices are unavailable or you are still deciding.

The counselor in your high school (which may be your guidance counselor, dean, or high school college counselor) will write your counselor recommendation and send it to each college you are applying to with required school reports. In the Mapping Out Your Application exercise, enter your counselor’s name.

Feel free to enter a prompt that I have not included and some potential answers, helping you to map out your application. Some additional supplemental questions may be:

How did you spend your last two summers?
What person, past or present, would you invite to speak?
What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed?

This prompt is optional on the Common App, but let me tell you a big admissions secret: optional questions on college applications are usually not optional. I highly recommend you complete almost all optional questions. If you include information on how Covid has negatively affected you, your family, your school, and your interactions with your friends, end the essay on a positive note with how these obstacles made you grow and how you overcame them. You can talk about related activities, such as community engagement, during the pandemic and how you took advantage of your time during quarantine.

Some colleges may have a prompt asking for this. In that case, list the books, magazines, articles, music, podcasts, documentaries, ted talks, and etc. that correlate to your first, second, and possibly third majors. Also, list some that are non-major related and share insight about the person you are– what do you like to read, listen to, or watch during your free time? Make sure to be authentic and not just list media that you believe that the college will find impressive!

Supplemental questions or essay prompts are college-specific questions that range from several characters to 250 words to 650 words. Some colleges don’t require supplemental essays. Others make it optional while the most competitive colleges require you to answer multiple questions and essays. Here’s an admissions secret: supplemental prompts are just as critical as the personal essay in your application as they are a way for admissions officers to understand your academic and extracurricular achievements and your personality on a micro-level. The number and types of supplemental questions and essays are distinct to each college, making each college application unique.

After analyzing and understanding the expectations of various college applications, I have broken down these questions into the most commonly-asked supplemental prompts by colleges. Brainstorm some potential topics while keeping in mind your goal is to highlight different aspects of your academic passion, extracurricular activities, and personal characteristics. Follow this admissions tip: do not reiterate the same points, activities, or qualities about yourself.

This prompt is designed to be a little less formal than the other ones as you talk more about your personality here than your academic achievements. Be sure to write about the characteristics, qualities, and values you want the admissions committee to know about you. Ensure it is different from the ones you portrayed in your personal essay.

Write about an extracurricular activity that you are passionate about, have a leadership in, and have made great contributions. Connect this activity to one that you will be doing at this specific college.

Write about a community that you are a part of, such as a sports team, class, church, extracurricular, or community engagement organization. This can literally be anything, but keep in mind not to talk about an activity you have not already written about. Be sure to do research on the academic and social communities in the college you would like to join and connect it to a similar community that you are a part of, especially if you are asked about an ideal community you are looking for.

This is an opportunity to describe a research project, questions, or specific field of study that drive your academic passion. Write specifically about an academic experience that depicts your academic aptitude, intellectual vitality, and knowledge of the field you are interested in possibly studying in college.

Make sure to prove your love for these concentrations by describing research, extracurriculars, and courses you have taken that relate to those majors. Also, conduct a detailed review on the department, major, classes and the professors that will be part of the major(s) you selected and reference some specific information to show admissions officers how you will fit into the college’s academic community and make them see a future with you at their university. In this response, you may take an interdisciplinary approach and write about your interest in two majors.

While explaining your reasons to attend the institution, include specific references to the institution’s culture and community, the department or major classes you are interested in, and the extracurriculars you will be participating in at that institution.

This is an optional section on the Common App, but consider this admissions secret: Do not leave this section empty. Enter any information here that you could not fit into the other sections, including maybe a more detailed explanation of your activities, additional awards won, or the name of the college courses you may have taken. I encourage you to get creative in providing additional information that strengthens your academic aptitude and social maturity, like providing links to your award-winning poetry. Please keep in mind that do not complete this section for the sake of finishing it or to provide redundant information that just frustratingly adds more reading to the admissions officers’ full plates.

Use the drop-down menus provided to select your career interest and the highest degree you hope to pursue. Please note, the options provided match those of the Common App. Here’s an admissions tip to consider when selecting your future plans; since colleges are academic institutions, they value career interests and the highest degrees that are academically oriented, like professor and PhD. However, ensure that your future plans also match your choice of major; otherwise, your application will seem manipulated or untruthful.

This is another section that most students are unaware of. The Common App allows you to enter up to three colleges where you have taken or are taking college courses for credit. Please note this must be for college credit not a certification. This can be achieved through dual enrollment, a summer program, or directly taking the course at the college. Follow this admissions secret: if possible, take one or two college courses that complement your chosen major as it demonstrates to the admissions officers that you are not only interested in delving into your academic interests but can handle the rigors of college. Remember, the type of college you take a course at, whether a community college or a well-known university, has no relevance.

For the purpose of the exercise, simply enter the college and course names below. The Common App will also ask you to indicate course details, date of enrollment, and degree earned if any. Admissions tip: Since the Common App does not ask for the course name, make sure to include this information in the Additional Information section when applying.

The Common App provides five spaces for you to enter academic achievements. Did you know that most students are unaware of this section on the Common App and are dumbfounded about what to enter? Admissions tip: If you’re in grades nine through eleven or still have time in twelfth grade, use this exercise as a reminder to strive to win an honor or award; this achievement will definitely boost your college applications.

Go ahead and insert the name of your academic achievements, awards, scholarships, honors, and published work with a short description in the spaces provided below, along with the grade and level(s) of recognition. Below are two examples:

1) Honors 1:
a) Name: Canadian National Math League
b) Description: 2-time 1st Place Individual Winner, 1-time perfect paper.
c) Grade: 12
d) Level(s) of Recognition: National

2) Honors 2:
a) Name: Girl Scouts Gold Award
b) Description: Reached of 50,000+ for 8 activism webinars.
c) Grade: 12
d) Level(s) of Recognition: National, Regional

The personal essay (also known as personal statement) is the most important part of your application, where you demonstrate your voice and writing ability while sharing your story. This is where you portray to the admissions officer who you are, how you think, and what they should look forward to when you become a student at their college. Follow this admissions trick: personal essays that stand out are the ones that show the complexity of your personality and thought while including how your topic connects to your academic or extracurricular passion or characteristics admissions officers value. While the topic or story will be unique to you, what matters a lot to admissions officers is reading about your self-realization or mental or academic growth in whichever topic you choose.

Select one of the seven Common App prompts from the dropdown and brainstorm some ideas in the text box provided with up to three characteristics and qualities about yourself that you are trying to convey in your personal essay. Feel free to input a second potential proposal for your personal essay by selecting another Common App prompt.

Write all your standardized test scores, choosing from the ACT, SAT, SAT Subject, AP, IB, Cambridge, TOEFL iBT, TOEFL Paper, PTE Academic, IELTS, or Duolingo English test and indicate the score you received on the designated exam. If you have taken a test multiple times, make sure to include the one with the highest score or a superscore version (indicate in parentheses if the score is superscored). For your reference, we have included ten spaces to enter ten test scores. Additional test scores can be noted in the additional section of Mapping Out Your Application.

College applications will ask you to enter your grades, so go ahead and enter your GPA as a fraction and select whether it is weighted or unweighted. Here is an example of how it should be formatted: 3.89/4.00 unweighted.

Episode 005:
Rapid-Fire Q&A in Live Office Hours
with Ruchi S. Kothari

Coming soon

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