Webinar Transcript: College Essay Series: College Essays 101
Elton Lin
Anthony Su (he/him): Good evening everyone. Glad all of you can make it today.
We are back – and I'm back, actually; Anna has been filling in for me for a little bit while I was visiting family in Taiwan – and for the loyal webinar viewers who will recognize the different background: I'm back in California for a little bit. So that's a little bit about me, and what's been going on here.
But today we're talking about college essays. I’m glad that we're able to highlight something new: something that students are starting… hopefully soon – and giving you an idea of how to get started here.
I'm joined by Katie and Lindsey today, who will be our guides throughout this process. Katie, do you want to introduce yourself, and then Lindsey?
Katie Young (she/her): Yeah, you got it.
So hi guys. My name is Katie; I'm Associate Consulting Director here at ILUMIN. I've been doing college consulting for quite a few years now – and I am leading our wonderful team of “essay specialists”, which Lindsey is a part of.
Lindsey, do you want to introduce yourself?
Lindsey Ricker: Yeah.
I'm really happy to be part of this team; I'm one of our essay specialists. I got my BA at Yale and then went on for another three postgraduate degrees: two in Australia one in Japan. I have applied to so many things personally – and I really wish that I had had this service when I was going through the process!
Anthony Su: Awesome. If you have been through our webinars before, you know there's Q&A; we'll always try to get to as much Q&A at the end as we can.
With that I'll pass it to Katie or Lindsey, whoever's starting.
Agenda
Why do college essays matter?
Frequently asked questions
Essay Types
Essay Timeline
What ILUMIN can do for you!
Katie Young: It's me!
This is “College Essays 101,” so if you are a parent who didn't go through this process yourself, or if you're a student (a junior right now) who's about to start the essays, this is a great place to start. We're going to assume nobody knows anything about essays in this webinar – it's just straight up “Essays 101.”
So:
We're going to talk about: “Why do college essays matter?”
We're going to go through some questions that we often get from our students and families.
We’re going to go through some of the basic essay types.
As well as the timeline for your essays: when do you need to start when you need to finish?
And then connect that to the services that we have available at ILUMIN education to help you out.
With that, I will get started.
Why do college essays matter?
Katie Young: So why do college essays matter?
It's a good question… and we get it a lot. I think that, especially for families who didn't grow up in the U.S (where essays are not really a part of the college application process a lot of the time) there is some confusion around this. So we do want to clarify.
What role do essays play in the college admissions process?
Components of Comprehensive/Holistic Review:
Academic transcript
Test scores (sometimes!)
Extracurricular résumé
Teacher recommendations
Interview (usually with alumni)
ESSAYS
Essays provide valuable space to communicate directly to the admissions officers.
Katie Young: Colleges talk all the time about doing a “holistic application review.” What that means is they want to take lots of components from the student's life and kind of wrap them all together: to evaluate the student as a whole, so that they're giving the student as many chances as possible to show positive aspects of themselves.
A big part of that (obviously) is the academic transcript:
How did you do over the last few years?
What classes did you take?
Did you take advantage of rigor and the opportunities available at your school?
Test scores sometimes are a part of it. Now “test scores” is a whole thing… and we're going to do a webinar on that, I'm sure.
Extracurricular résumé:
What did you do when you had your choices?
How did you kind of prepare yourself for your major?
Teacher recommendations.
The interview (if you have one – and Lindsey is an excellent interview trainer… so come join us and she'll help you out!)
And then – of course – the essay.
Essays are the one spot – if you look at this list – where students really get to communicate themselves on a consistent basis. Interviews happen sometimes: if they do happen, they're like 20 minutes long, 30 minutes long. Essays are very in-depth, and they give the student a chance to really express themselves – and speak directly to the admissions officers.
That's really important. Otherwise they [the admissions officers] are just looking at your profile… and they don't ever get to meet you or hear about your personality.
Who reads college essays?
Depends on the college!
Review readers (big public school systems)
Admissions officers
Scholarship/honors college representatives
Art/music department representatives
Faculty from speciality programs (e.g. BS/MD programs)
It is likely that no one who is an expert in your field will be reviewing your app – keep it in “layman’s terms”.
Katie Young: So who reads these essays that we submit?
It is going to depend on the college.
A lot of the things we say today are going to depend on the college, and depend on the student – and that's the nature of this whole thing: it's subjective. So don't worry if you're not sure; nobody is!
So it depends on the college. We have “review readers” a lot of the time. A review reader is somebody who has the first look at an application – and they're just looking for certain things that they've been told their college is looking for. They're going to flag those things. They're going to take notes. They're going to pass it up to “admissions officers” – which is the next level.
Often in big schools – the UCs are a good example – the admissions officers themselves (the people making the decisions) are not the ones reading the essays. The reader is reading it, summarizing it, passing it up to the admissions officer. If it is a smaller school, it will be the admissions officers themselves – and the admissions officers work in teams or committees to review certain regions or schools. So it really does depend.
Sometimes – if you're applying for a specific program, especially an art or music program – another person is going to be reading your application: and that person is an expert in the subject matter or the talent that you're trying to express. That's the same case in BS/MD (accelerated bachelor's and master’s degrees in medicine): a professor in the medical school or a professor in the pre-medical advising department is going to be the one that makes the decision of whether you're a good fit.
Most of the time, though, it's likely that no one who is an expert in your field will be reviewing your application. And I want to say that specifically to our audience of very talented STEM applicants: there are a lot of you, I know, going into engineering, going into computer science… I'm an English major; trust me, I don't know what you're talking about!
That's one thing that I really want to emphasize with your essays: know who you're talking to. Know your audience. Your audience is not an esteemed professor of computer science. It is someone who probably graduated with a history degree or an art degree or an English degree, and got a job in the admissions office. Don't assume that they're going to understand what you're saying. (And we'll talk about that a little bit more later.)
Do different colleges view essays differently?
Short answer is yes!
Every college makes admissions decisions based on “fit”
Institutional goals, campus community, academic preparedness, excitement for major
The smaller the college, the more the essays matter
Usually the biggest differentiator at the top tier
Katie Young: Do different colleges view essays differently? Absolutely, yes. Every college is going to make decisions based on quite a few factors.
“Institutional goals” is one of them – and we've been hearing a lot about this lately. There are different things that different colleges are lacking. For example:
A school might be 60% female, 40% male. In that case they're looking for more male candidates.
A school might only be 15% Asian American – in which case they're looking to up their population of Asian American students to be more representative of the U.S. population.
Sometimes they need a trombone player.
It really just depends on what their priorities are: what they're looking for. They're looking to find unique people to join their campus community: super talented people who are going to make a good name for them.
(Of course they're looking for academic preparedness, major preparation, stuff like that.)
The smaller a college is, the more an essay is going to matter – and that's because, when you only have a thousand students total on campus, it's really important that they know who they're picking, because they want to make a community that's dynamic and interesting and fun. They don't want everybody to be exactly the same. So they're really looking at that personality aspect: the part where you get to express yourself
At the top tier: at Stanford, Harvard, Yale – beautiful Lindsey went to Yale – they are definitely reading these. They're not skimming these.
They are paying attention – because there are not a lot of factors differentiating people who are applying to these schools! They all have a 4.0. They all have incredible résumés. They all have interesting backgrounds and stories. They've all taken advantage of all the resources in their community, they all have excellent teacher recommendations.
What are you going to do? The only part that you really have control over is your essay – and they know that. So they're going to really pay attention to how you present yourself: what you choose to talk about, when given that opportunity.
What are colleges looking for?
All colleges are looking for essays that demonstrate:
Personality
Perspective
Passion
Katie Young: In general – and, again, nothing is for sure at every single college – but, in general, colleges are looking for essays that demonstrate [what I call] the “three P's”: personality, perspective, and passion.
“Personality”: they want to know about your core characteristics – who you are at heart, adjectives that you might use to describe yourself. You might want to think of some of those, and then see: “Are my essays conveying that part of me?” So:
“Do I want to come off as funny?”
“Do I want to come off as heartfelt?”
“Do I want to come off as gracious?”
“Perspective”: they want to understand how you see the world… and what you value in your life.
And then “passion.” They want to see that you've got goals: you've got ideas, you've got curiosities, you've got energy, and you just couldn't be more excited to go to their school and to take this next step in your life!
Think about what you would be looking for if you were hiring someone, or picking someone to move into your house or come to your school. Those are the things that you really are going to look for – no matter what – if you're looking at another person.
So I think this is pretty logical – but it often gets a little bit lost, because people really want to talk about their “pride points” or their accomplishments. That's important… but those are also in the résumé, and those are also in the letters of recommendation. This is in the essays.
I'll turn it over to Lindsey for our frequently asked questions about college essays.
Frequently asked questions about college essays
Lindsey Ricker: Thank you, Katie.
Frequently asked questions
Do all colleges require essays?
No. Most colleges require at least one essay. Some colleges do not, including Cal State schools.
Can I use the same essay for multiple colleges?
Yes. Many colleges have similar prompts so you can copy and amend your essays to fit multiple applications.
How many drafts should I write?
Depends! Aim for 3-5, get feedback along the way.
Lindsey Ricker: People want to know: do all colleges require essays? The short answer is “no”… but most colleges require at least one essay. Some colleges do not at all – like the Cal State schools – but most colleges require something.
Can I use the same essay for multiple colleges? The great news is “yes” – many colleges have similar prompts. There is the Common App (which we will talk about in more depth) where people are actually using the same essay for multiple different schools: up to 20 schools.
There are also supplements – which we'll get into… but the core of what you're writing often translates, even if the question is different. There's no issue of plagiarism or anything: once you've written something, that is your expression for the purposes of the essays; we encourage you to get it right and say it the way you want to say it, and then have that transfer over into the other prompts.
So, yes, you can copy and amend your essays to fit multiple applications.
People often ask, “How many drafts should I write?” That's very individual. But, in general, aim for three to five – and get feedback along the way.
One of the things that I love about working at ILUMIN is there is so much feedback back and forth. There is so much communication after every draft… and there's also a really good record kept of the previous drafts. So there's a real feeling of authenticity of the student's voice: you can see the very first words they wrote, and the final draft as well; that's kept very clean. I really like working that way.
Frequently asked questions
When are essays due?
November - January
Do I have to write creatively?
No. Write in your authentic voice.
Should this be a 5 paragraph essay?
No. These are narrative pieces about you, not expository/ academic essays about a topic.
Lindsey Ricker: People also want to know (of course), “When are essays due?” November to January. It's very different depending on what schools you choose – but you will be having a very busy fall. (The way to make that a much more enjoyable and fulfilling experience is to have a busy summer as well!)
People want to know: “Do I have to write creatively?” I love creative writing. I teach creative writing. I adore creative writing. But, for the purposes of the essays, no: you do not.
You can have creative elements – if you are a very naturally creative writer with a lot of metaphoric thinking, then that will come out. But one of the most important things in the essays (as Katie was saying with the three P’s) is a passion and a personality and an authenticity that comes across: to have that language of really feeling like you're speaking to the admissions committee; they get a sense of your character and your personality.
Should this be a “five paragraph essay”? No. These are narrative pieces about you. They're not expository or academic essays about a topic. And the way that you want to say something will help dictate its form.
Frequently asked questions
When should I start writing?
Finalize your college list
Select your deadlines
Which essays should you start on first?
Get organized
Which colleges have similar prompts?
Get as much done in the summer as you can!
First drafts are the hardest part
Lindsey Ricker: “When should I start writing?”
It's a good idea to finalize your college list: select your deadlines, give yourself an overview and get a sense of what essays you should start on first: get that big-picture view.
Then get organized and see the overlaps: which colleges have similar prompts, so that you can start generating material that you can use for a number of the colleges.
And this cannot be emphasized enough: get as much done in the summer as you can! First drafts are the hardest part… and one of the things that you don't really know until you just dive into the fog of war is that sometimes writing a “bad” essay is one of the most effective things that you can do: because you will see all of the things that are missing, and it'll help guide you towards the essay that – ultimately – you will want to hand in, and you'll be proud of. You'll sense authenticity by stumbling towards it… so just write, write, and write – with guidance and feedback.
Katie Young: I love that!
Essay types
Katie Young: Okay, we're going to go through some of the common… well, I don't want to say “common,” because of the Common App; we're going to go through [the] Common App, but we're also going to go through some of the popular essay types that you're going to encounter as you go through this process.
Lindsey and I are going to trade off talking about these. I'll go ahead and get started with the UC Personal Insight Questions.
The UC Personal insight Questions (PIQs)
What is the UC application?
Online platform hosting all 9 undergraduate UC campuses
Do I have to do more work if I apply to more campuses?
No. You submit the same application no matter how many UCs you apply to.
How many essays do I have to write?
Four “Personal Insight Questions” (350 words each)
Who reads the PIQs?
Comprehensive review readers for each UC campus (separate processes)
Katie Young: UC is the University of California: that's different from “California State” universities. Examples of UCs are UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine. “Cal State” is San Jose State, San Francisco State, and things like that.
The Cal State schools – as Lindsey mentioned – are schools that do not have essays. The UCs are what we're talking about today.
So what is the UC application? It's an online platform. You're going to fill out one application for all of the campuses that you would like to apply to. You don't have to apply to all of them, but they're all centralized: so you won't be able to write a “Why I want to go to Berkeley” essay if you're also applying to LA – because they're going to read exactly the same essay. You don't have to do any more work. The same essays are going to all the schools.
There are four of them. They're called “personal insight questions” instead of essays: so “picks” (PIQs); however you want to abbreviate that, go for it.
They're 350 words each. So 350 words times four essays is the limit of what you can do. Do you have to hit 350? No. But they're giving you that space. They think that's enough space; they think that's the right amount of space to describe yourself. So we want to get you as close as possible to that 350, whenever we can.
And this is one of those cases where there are application readers who are going to go really, really fast through your application. Just as an example, the training at UC Irvine tells their readers to go through each application within six minutes – and that's not only the essays: that's the academics, the extracurricular activities, as well as four 350-word essays… in six minutes. So they're going to read it really fast – they're going to pass up [to the admissions officers] a summary or a comment or a rating.
Each campus is going to do it separately – which is why, especially this year, you see some weird decisions with the UCs: like a student would get into Berkeley, but not into Riverside… or things like that.
The UC Personal insight Questions (PIQs)
Prompt Options:
Leadership experience
Creative Expression/Problem Solving
Development and Demonstration of a Talent/Skill
Taking advantage of an Educational Opportunity/overcoming a barrier
A challenge that has affected your academic achievement
Academic interest pursued inside and/or outside classroom
Community service
Something that stands out beyond your application
Katie Young: I'm going to go through this later, at the very end of the presentation: we have a whole series of webinars coming up about essays, and one of them is going to focus completely on the UC PIQs. So this might be a brief overview – and if you want more information, please feel free to attend that webinar; I'll give you the date at the end of this presentation.
So here are the prompts, one through eight:
Your leadership experience
Your creative expression or problem solving
The development and demonstration of a talent or skill
How you took advantage of an educational opportunity or overcame an educational barrier
A challenge that has affected you throughout high school
An academic interest that you pursued
Community service that you've done
Or just an open-ended prompt that says, “Something that makes you unique compared to other applicants” – why should they pick you?
You can pick any four of these that you want to. There's no preferred prompt: nothing that they want to see over anything else. (Why would they offer all eight if that were the case?) They want a variety; you can choose whatever you want.
The UC Personal insight Questions (PIQs)
How do I choose my four prompts?
Pick the ones that can showcase your strongest activities, accomplishments, or traits.
Think about how all four of your essays work together to give a full picture of you as an applicant.
These essays are a way for the admissions counselors to get to know you beyond the numbers and lists on your application.
Think about what you wish you could tell someone about yourself that isn’t represented in the application.
Katie Young: And great question: how do you choose them?
Where I like to start is with the activities résumé.
Again – since the UC readers are going pretty quickly – we don't want to delve into big, deep personal stories. You don't want to write them a play, right? You want to give them just information that they need in order to make their decision – and not distract them with a ton of details.
A good way to do that is to showcase your strongest activities, accomplishments, or traits. Each of the four PIQs should focus on something different. A great place to start is to look at your résumé – think about: if you could only tell the college four things that you've done in the last four years, what would those four things be? That's a good way to decide.
Think about how your essays are going to work together. If you're looking at all four and you're reading them all in a row, what is that going to show me about you? Are they going to build on each other? Relate to each other? Think of it as a whole: all four essays.
And know that this is something that goes in addition to your activities résumé. So if you've already described: “I'm part of Boy Scouts of America troop 43, I've done these 15 things,” as part of your activities résumé, you don't need to rehash all of those details in your essay! Instead, you can go more deeply into some stories or some personal things that you did that you valued about Boy Scouts… without feeling too repetitive.
The UC Personal insight Questions (PIQs)
What style or approach should I use?
Don’t be shy about showing off - this is not a time to be modest. Write about things that you’re really proud of!
These essays are also a way to demonstrate character and maturity – ways you’ve persevered or overcome or shown empathy or problem solved.
In these essays you want to be specific and not vague. Tell stories and give examples.
Be straightforward and direct.
Katie Young: I already kind of went into this… but basically you need to humble-brag your way through these: you need to show them that you're impressive. You need to fight for yourself. Give them reasons to pick you. This is not a time to demure and give somebody else the credit. This is time for you.
They can't prove it! (No, I'm just kidding.)
You can exaggerate a little bit about what your contributions were to something… but don't go crazy. I think that if you're being as truthful as possible, but making it sound really cool, is what adults do all the time: that's what a “résumé” is. So don't panic.
These are also – as there are those essays about overcoming a barrier, overcoming a challenge – great ways to show your character: the lessons that you've learned, the person that you've become. If you're looking at your résumé and you're like, “There's nothing really here. I don't really want to talk about these things; this isn't what's important to me!” Cool. You can write the essays about the challenges that you've been through, the problems you've solved.
Tell stories. Give examples. Give numbers. Be straightforward. Be direct.
Help them to read it well. Organization is really important with these essays: you want to move from step one to step two, step three, step four.
Next up is the Common App “personal statement”; I'm going to turn it back to Lindsey.
The Common App Personal Statement
What is the Common Application?
An application platform hosting 900+ colleges
How do I know if my college is on the Common App?
Create an account and search! (Check the website.)
How many essays do I have to write?
One main statement (+ supplements)
Who reads the main personal statement?
All the colleges (up to 20) you select
Lindsey Ricker: Yeah, I get excited about the Common App. It's very different from the UC PIQs – which are highly coachable. [With the PIQs] there's very much a method. Every student has their individuality, their personality… but for the UCs there is a little bit more of a formula.
The Common App is a little bit more free-flowing – and it tends to be longer. So there's some creative flexibility within it… although you do see some patterns come up again and again.
The Common Application is an application platform that over 900 colleges use. If you want to know if the college you're interested in is on the Common App, just create an account and search. You can check out on their website: over 900 colleges are using it.
With the Common App essay, there is one main statement… and then there are supplements that many of the colleges have additionally. You can be applying to a school that takes the Common Application, but then it's also asking you for additional writing.
That one statement that you write on the Common App will automatically go to all the colleges that you select. So that Common App really goes far!
Who reads the main personal statement? All of the colleges that you select have access to that essay.
The Common App Personal Statement
Prompt Options (simplified):
Share a meaningful aspect of your background/identity.
Describe what you learned from a challenge or failure.
What happened when you questioned a belief or idea?
How has gratitude affected or motivated you?
Describe an event that sparked personal growth.
What topic engages or captivates you?
Topic of your choice.
Lindsey Ricker: There are a lot of prompt options that are similar to the UC PIQs, but also a little bit more free-flowing.
Share a meaningful aspect of your background and identity: who are you? The personality aspect, the identity aspect, heritage: how you identify yourself.
Describe what you learned from a challenge or failure. You'll see that the themes come up again and again: how do you react to something? How do you change in a positive way? How do you grow? How are you a resilient human? And what have you experienced in life that will show that? Describing what you learned from a challenge or failure is something that people choose often.
What happened when you questioned a belief or idea? How intellectually curious are you? How do you interact with the world around you? How do you change when new information comes? How will you react to the vibrant, diverse, multi-faced environment that is college?
How has gratitude affected or motivated you? What aspects of your life do you cherish? This is really a show and tell of who you are as a person – in a way that will let admissions officers know how you will best thrive in their campus, with their culture: how you will align, who you are… with what it is that they're offering.
Describe an event that sparked personal growth: another growth and change and resilience question.
What topic engages or captivates you? (What can you thrive in expressing?)
And then the open-ended “topic of your choice” (that is thematically similar to the ones offered).
The Common App Personal Statement
How long is the main personal statement?
250-650 words
No, you do not need to hit 650!
What style or approach should I use?
Authentic, vulnerable, engaging
Focus on reflection vs. facts
No need to discuss resume items (save for supplements)
Creative writing welcome
Lindsey Ricker: A “main personal statement” has a pretty wide range of length: from 250 to 650 words. Don't panic: you do not need to hit 650. And you cannot go over 650. So somewhere in there between 250 and 650.
In terms of what style or approach you should use, we really highly encourage you to be authentic, vulnerable and engaging. And in presenting the best version of yourself, remember really what it is that's most important to you. You’re interacting and communicating, in this situation, to find a match that's really good for you. So you want to authentically express yourself.
If you are a very introverted person, don't pretend to be extremely extroverted. If you are very extroverted, don't pretend that all you do is study – because there are other elements that are, in their own way, as important to your education as that! Whereas if there are things that you do on your own: that you cherish in that time… that's something to let people glimpse.
They want to get a sense of who you are.
The Common App does focus on reflection versus facts. It's very different from the PIQs in that way. It's very much about “Why?” and “How?” It's a little bit more of a scene from a movie – a scene from a literary one: it has a lot of sensory details, and less of the numeric argument, debate-like structure of the UC PIQs.
There's no need to discuss résumé items; save those for supplements. And creative writing is welcome… but what we said earlier about you not having to be a “creative writer” still holds. We're not expecting you to write it in verse, or to do some literary gimmick or something like that.
They really want a clean sense of who you are as a person – and if you are somebody who is very literary and metaphoric and whatever, that's great. We absolutely work with that too. But you should not be intimidated by this! This is a chance to clarify who you are, and how you will thrive in their environment.
Supplemental essays
What are supplemental essays?
Additional essays that are unique to each college
How do I know if my college has supplemental essays?
You will see the essay prompts in the Common App or you can check the school website
How many supplemental essays do colleges usually have?
1-3 (and sometimes short answers/quick takes)
How important are the supplements?
Very important
Lindsey Ricker: “Supplemental” essays are additional essays that are unique to each college.
You'll know if they have supplemental essays because you'll see essay prompts in the Common App… or you can check the school website.
For supplemental essays, the number of essays and what the topics are vary widely: usually between one to three. Sometimes there are short answers/“quick takes” that feel almost like an improv game; some of the questions seem very irrelevant. Some of them are very short. And then some of them are entire second essays, really.
And these supplements are part of the package: they are part of the whole “essay” umbrella, and they are very important!
Why us?
Examples:
Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided please describe your areas of possible academic interest.
How will opportunities at Purdue support your interests, both in and out of the classroom?
Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests?
Lindsey Ricker: I had a funny story I wanted to share quickly about “Why us?” questions – I'll jump us ahead a little bit.
It is really important to colleges that they feel that you're specifically a good match for their school. But I think also, sometimes in doing these essays and working so hard to present themselves well students will forget that they are actually the consumer: they're the ones that are looking for the school that's a good match for them! and they should have that power.
We had a student in the very early stages – I was so glad he was at ILUMIN, and that he had people to talk to… and that this was going to get worked out – who initially, when I asked why he wanted to apply to Cornell, said that he wanted to spend the weekends in New York City (and it is not really close). And then I asked if he had other reasons, and he said well, he liked the temperature in D.C. over the summer, and he wanted to be in a very warm environment. (And of course Ithaca is famous for snow!)
So it is important when you're applying to these schools to remember that that's where you will be spending years of your life – and that will be your alma mater. It's not just a matter of impressing a school. It's a matter of working with your consultant and finding a really good match!
It was just so earnest and so sweet… and I was really glad that he was so honest with us.
Katie Young: And then prepare to get corrected… because Ithaca is four hours from New York City!
Lindsey Ricker: Sunbathing in Ithaca and New York City on the weekends… in Manhattan… yeah.
Katie Young: Really quick, just to go back: so when we were talking about supplemental essays, we're moving forward now to “Why us” – which is a big type of supplemental essay. So just to connect that thread through. A lot of colleges will have this.
Anthony, you unmuted; did you want to say something?
Anthony Su: I just thought the story of sunbathing in Ithaca was funny.
[Laughter]
Katie Young: So some schools will have a “Why us?” Here are just a few examples of what we mean by “Why us?”
Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin?
How will opportunities at Purdue support your interests?
Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the University of Michigan.
They're differently-worded questions, but they're all asking the same thing: so they're asking for students to articulate beyond that personal statement that they've already received; they know about who you are, now they want you to connect yourself into their school. “The person you are: how does that line up with what we offer, and who we are? And are we going to be a good fit for each other?” Like Lindsey said, we're both kind of selling ourselves to each other in this process. (It is a business, right?)
So these are some examples. Lots of schools have these. We're going to talk a little bit more about these right now.
Why us?
Why do colleges ask this?
To make sure you are applying intentionally and that you would be a good fit.
Which colleges ask this?
Many public and private universities
How should I approach this kind of supplement?
Do your research. Be specific. Relate what they have to who you are and who you want to be.
Katie Young: Colleges ask this, again, to make sure you're applying intentionally. I heard this nightmare story on NPR (on “This American Life”) like 10 years ago: where the reviewer from University of Georgia was getting an essay about Georgia Tech. They know then – in that case – that that kid does not care about them… because they didn't take two seconds to proofread their essay!
So it's really important that you write something. You can take your writing from other schools – like we said, we want you to be efficient. We want you to write something really well, and then reuse it. But you gotta double-check all your details – and make sure that you're not including sunbathing in Ithaca!
Many public and private schools will ask this question.
And do your research: be specific, relate what they have to who you are and who you want to be. You don't want to just write why Michigan is so great for 550 words. You want to explain how you're going to fit at the University of Michigan. You need to make sure there's a balance of talking about the school, but also talking about what you've done (your accomplishments), what you're going to bring to their campus, and why you want to go there so badly. So balance it.
Why do you want to study X?
Purdue: Briefly discuss your reasons for pursuing the major you have selected.
UIUC: Explain your interest in the major you selected and describe how you have recently explored or developed this interest inside and/or outside the classroom. You may also explain how this major relates to your future career goals.
UT Austin: Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major?
Katie Young: This is another common type of essay. Instead of asking, “Why do you want to come to our school?”, this one is about your major.
Purdue: briefly discuss your reasons for pursuing the major you selected.
UIUC: explain your interest in the major you selected, and how you've recently explored or developed this interest.
UT Austin: why are you interested in the major you indicated?
They're pretty blunt. It's pretty straightforward – like: “Talk to us. Explain why you put ‘19th century poetry’ as your first-choice major.”
This is how they can easily tell who's just applying strategically, who has no idea what they want to do. And this is why it gets hard when people come in and they ask, “Can I apply undeclared?” My answer to you is of course you can apply undeclared; they have an “undeclared” option. Why would they have it if you couldn't apply undeclared?
But when you hit this essay is when it's going to get hard. How are you going to answer Purdue's question if you have no idea what you want to study and where you're going? You're going to have to understand, “Why am I undeclared?” – and you're going to have to be able to express that to people just as well as you would need to express why you chose your major. We can talk for hours about “undeclared”… but this is a very common type of essay that you'll see pretty often.
And you'll notice Purdue was used in both these examples. Purdue has both: it has a “Why us?” and a “Why major?” – and each one is 100 words (just to make it more challenging)… so you've got like three or four sentences on each one.
Why do you want to study X?
Why do colleges ask this?
To make sure you are prepared and motivated to take on the major of your choice.
Which colleges ask this?
Many public and private universities.
How should I approach this kind of supplement?
Do your research. Be specific. Create a throughline – what have you done and how will you build on that here to create your future?
Katie Young: Again, why do they ask this?
Prepared. Motivated.
Lots of colleges have this question. Even when we went through the UC PIQ topics, one was your “academic interests.” That could be considered a “Why major?” essay as well.
And then I like to call it a “throughline.” I don't know if that term makes sense to everybody… but, essentially, you're drawing connections: your drawing lines, you're connecting the dots between what you've done before, what you want to do in the future, and how this college fits in the middle of that and connects everything together for you. I hope that makes sense.
Essay timeline
Katie Young: Okay, now that we've gone over some of the common types of essays – the things you're going to encounter – we want to briefly just give you a timeline of what to expect. I'm going to give it back to Lindsey.
When are the deadlines?
Double check each college’s website! In general:
November 1-15 - most Early Action and Early Decision deadlines
November 30 - UC deadline
January 1-15 - most regular deadlines
Some colleges are due as early as 10/15, others as late as 2/1
You’ll be busy from September - January!
Lindsey Ricker: Sure. I'll keep this pretty focused.
What are the deadlines? It's important to double-check each college's website. In general, from November 1st to 15th (the first two weeks of November) are most early action and early decision deadlines. November 30th is the UC deadline. From January 1st to the 15th (first two weeks of January) are most regular deadlines. (Some colleges, though, are due as early as October 15th – and some as late as February 1st.)
So you will be busy from September to January. It is a sprint: a relentless and sustained sprint. But it's really good to have the feedback and the interaction… and you will be consistently reminded of these deadlines, and there'll be a good plan of action [if you are with ILUMIN].
Timeline: June/July
Brainstorm for Common App personal statement and UC essays
Begin writing first drafts
Refine and finalize your college list
Decide if you will apply early decision/early action
Revise, revise, revise! 3-5 drafts per essay
Lindsey Ricker: In a timeline, June and July is a great time to brainstorm for Common App personal statement and UC essays:
To get all your topics
To do your deep dive (sort of a personal inventory of everything: all the different stories that you have, and the moments of growth that you can share)
There's also an amazing resource that ILUMIN has, which is called bootcamp – and anyone who signs up for 10 hours or more has unlimited access to so many resources online, including a whole series of animated videos that are actually pretty entertaining – which I really enjoyed. We got a very extensive training, and had to go through and do the writing, and go through the materials… and the bootcamp materials are just superb!
Anyway, June/July is a great time to begin writing first drafts. If you're part of bootcamp, you have access to all those resources.
It's a time to refine and finalize your college list – and decide if you will apply early decision or early action.
And then – after you've written and been writing – revise, revise, revise! There are three to five drafts per essay, as a standard guideline.
Timeline: August-October
Begin brainstorming and drafting supplemental essays for applications due in November
Seek and incorporate feedback on drafts of UC essays and Common App personal statements
Finalize Common App personal statement, UC PIQs, and supplements for colleges on the early action/decision timeline
Lindsey Ricker: August to October: brainstorming and drafting supplemental essays for applications due in November (that early round).
Seek and incorporate feedback on drafts of UC essays and Common App personal statements.
Finalize Common App personal statements, UC PIQs, and supplements for colleges on the early action decision timeline – because those do come up early!
Timeline: November/December
Submit Early Action/Early Decision applications (11/1-11/15)
Nov 30: UC application deadline!
Begin/continue drafting supplemental essays for applications due in January
Remember you can revise essays you submitted on the early timeline!
Lindsey Ricker: And then in November/December:
Submit early action and early decision applications in the first two weeks of November.
November 30th is the UC application deadline: really important to remember that.
Begin and continue drafting supplemental essays for applications due in January.
And remember: you can revise essays you submitted on the early timeline; if you are going to continue with those, then you can still revise and sharpen them up.
Katie Young: I want to go back just really briefly to “seek and incorporate feedback on your drafts.” It's really easy to get kind of lost in your own essay, and not really recognize (maybe) where the flaws are – if you've been with it from the beginning, because you know how much better it is from when you started. If you show it to someone who's never read it before, that's going to be a really different perspective.
That's why, if you use your summer wisely, you'll have a pretty good draft done by the time school starts; you can get friends, you can get family, you can get teachers to take a look. Your high school counselor can take a look. That's why we put that in there: we don't want to be the only people looking at your essay! It's important to get lots of feedback on this.
Lindsey Ricker: And it is a really significant achievement: what the students are doing is really massive, and it's such a soul-searching process. When you have an essay that really works, there's just such a feeling of pride. It is really something that you've made creatively, even though it's part of this whole machinery of stuff that you're putting forward. It is a really special piece that has some soul to it.
So it's nice when you've given yourself time to take it through all the different drafts.
Katie Young: And then one thing to clarify in here as well (about revising essays you submitted): I do want to say, for the main Common App statement, it used to be that once you submitted it, it was locked in – and that was the version that went to every single college.
Thank goodness, they changed that. Now if you submit it to a few schools, and you decide later on that you're not really happy with what you submitted (or, God forbid, you notice a typo you want to change) those are things that you can revise as well.
So don't panic. I think I've said that a lot today, but I feel like I need to; it's already June: it is time.
How can ILUMIN help?
Hourly Essay Consulting with ILUMIN’s Essay Specialists
1:1 coaching via Zoom from your assigned Specialist
5 or 10 Hour Packages – choose what works for you!
Access to our “Essay Bootcamp” online curriculum
UC PIQs and Common Application main Personal Statement
Flexible scheduling including asynchronous edits
Support with brainstorming, outlining, editing and polishing essays of your choice
Katie Young: So how can ILUMIN help you? Great question, audience!
We have hourly essay consulting available with our team of essay specialists. What hourly coaching includes is:
One-on-one work (all on Zoom; we're all remote) with your assigned essay specialist.
You can choose a 5-hour or a 10-hour package.
The 10-hour package includes access to our essay bootcamp – which Lindsey has such great things to say about. And that will cover your UC PIQs as well as your Common App essay. What's great is you can go through the “bootcamp” on your own, get started, and then come to your essay specialist with your work and get feedback. Or you can come to them while you're working through the bootcamp – before you even choose your topics – and work that way.
If you don't think you need that much time (if you're just working on one or two essays) five hours is great – and will allow you to add additional hours as you go if you need them.
We have flexible scheduling and asynchronous edits: so you can use your time in-person (one-on-one on Zoom with your specialist) or you can just send them an essay and be like, “Yo, can you edit this?” That's fine with us. We just want you to use your hours how you want to use them. And if you're not someone who likes to talk a lot, and you just don't want to get work done, we can definitely edit offline for you as well. It's a combination of both – and the hours all count for the same thing. We'll give you support with everything.
This is a question I get a lot: “What do you mean by ‘essay help’?” We will help you come up with the idea. We will help you outline the idea. We'll even Google the prompt for you if you need that! We will edit as you go: as many revisions as you need to feel comfortable. Obviously we'll let you know when we think it's in good shape (when it's submittable) and obviously we'll help you polish it and proofread it – no typos!
So any essay you'd like. It doesn't have to be the UC PIQs. It doesn't have to be the Common App. It can be any essay that you need help with.
And you can start any time. You can start now. You can start in December. (We honestly had somebody start December 20th last year… and finish a couple things before the first!) So we're flexible.
Upcoming webinars
June 15th 6pm: Introduction to WRITE! Workshops
Saturdays on Zoom from July - September
Each workshop includes:
30 minute presentation including sample essays from real students
2-hour supervised work session where you will receive guidance and 1:1 feedback on your outlines or drafts from our expert Specialists
Original worksheets/handouts to use beyond the workshop
Katie Young: So to promote this a little bit more, we want to let you know that we also have something coming up called uh the “WRITE! workshops” – which we're starting this summer. This is a new service, and we're having a webinar coming up on June 15th at 6pm to explain what the WRITE! workshops are.
These are going to include a 30-minute presentation: which is focused on a given topic so (as an example) we'll do one on the UC PIQs. We'll do one on the “Why us?” essay that we talked about today. And we'll include sample essays from real students: which we'll break down with you.
After that we'll do a 2 hour “work session” – where you'll get to interact one-on-one with our essay specialists. We will give you feedback. And then also provide you with worksheets/handouts/things to shape your work as you go even after these workshops.
If you'd like more information about the WRITE! workshops, please attend our upcoming webinar on June 15th at 6pm – and I'm sure Anthony has links to share with you. (Apparently all of you come to all of these, because he seems to know you, and you know his background!)
[Anthony laughs.]
Upcoming webinars
June 27th at 6pm: UC PIQs
July 11th at 6pm: Crafting your Common App Personal Statement
July 18th at 6pm: LIVE Essay Edit!
July 27th at 6pm: Overview of Supplemental Essays
Katie Young: And then, in our essay series this summer:
We are going to cover (in more depth) the UC PIQs on June 27th at 6:00.
On July 11th at 6:00 we're gonna go deep dive into the Common App personal statement.
On July 18th at 6:00 we're going to do a live essay edit: so we're gonna have real students give us their essays, and we're going to edit them right in front of your faces – so you can see the kind of work that we do on our essay specialist team for our students.
And then, July 27th, we'll do an overview of supplemental essays: so we'll go into more detail about what we talked about today, essentially.
Thank you!
www.ilumineducation.com/essay-consulting
Katie Young: I will stop there. Thank you so much.
That's our website, where you can find more information about our hourly essay consulting services. You'll also find, if you go to the “About us” page on our website, the bios for all of our lovely ILUMIN essay specialists. You can find the information about the WRITE! workshops.
And if you have any questions you can email essays@ilumineducation.com.
We'll open it up for questions.
Lindsey Ricker: I want to encourage you folks to think about this as joining a whole support team – and finding an ally in this process. We're also reachable pretty constantly – because things are done at different times. I'll get messages from students at three o'clock in the morning… and then I'll just respond when I see them. So they always have somebody to correspond with, and to be there as part of the process.
Katie Young: That's right: we want to help you; that's why we're here.
Anthony Su: There’s a question: “How soon can you start once enrolled?” Good question. I think with the essay consulting, we can get you guys started within 24 hours – that's our goal.
Katie Young: I woke up this morning and I had an email in the essays inbox… and right away I paired them with their new specialist. So they're already connected: within the first 12 hours.
And you can get started whenever you want. Essentially, we'll pair you, the specialist will reach out to you: you can let them know where you're at, what you need help with, and the two of you will take it from there – to schedule everything.
Parents, you're welcome to meet the specialist – and just get to know who's working with your kid. But most of the meetings (and most of the correspondence) will just be between the essay specialist and the student – so that we can make the student feel welcome and able to share.
Sometimes they don't want to share everything. Parents, I don't know if you know this, but sometimes your kids don't want to share everything – FYI! We can update you on how the student’s doing, what they're working on… but things like sharing the content of the essays – we're not going to do that.
We want you to be able to support your students, and if you want to get them going on a service… now's the time! All of our Specialists are open and available to take students right now.
Anthony Su: Another question also: “What determines who you get paired with, or how do you pair students?”
I think we'll be able to roughly get an idea from the high school and intended major: a good guess of who might be a good fit. But, Katie, do you want to elaborate on that as well?
Katie Young: Yeah, that's right. When you're first signing up, you're giving us basic information about you and your student… including where they go to high school. There's a place for comments and questions in the forum, and that's where you can give us any specifics.
If you're working on [applying to] very rare schools that we don't see a lot, or if you're going to try to apply abroad, that might be something that you want to tell us – so that we can pair you with somebody who has done those applications before. If you're a transfer student trying to transfer between colleges, we have Specialists who have tons of experience with that.
Actually, if you're in this call and you're an 8th grader – what are you doing here? Go to bed! But you can also sign up if you need help applying to private high schools. That's something we can help with. Or scholarship programs, summer programs… Let us know exactly what you need help with.
And if you read a bio on the website, or you're super excited to work with Lindsey because she's so awesome, you can request her specifically in the comments line – and if she's available, I will pair you guys together.
Anthony Su: Perfect.
I've only got one more question, so if anyone's hesitating to ask questions, please, we’ve got plenty of time.
Katie Young: It’s because our presentation was so amazing!
Anthony Su: Plenty of time today.
The question here is related to the PIQs for the UC system: since you have four PIQs. Once you submit them, you can decide which UCs you want to apply for, but the PIQs go to all of them, right? So if you're going to apply for nine schools, all nine of them will get the PIQs. If you decide, “I only want to apply for Irvine,” only Irvine will get it. If you pick Irvine and Davis, only Irvine and Davis will get it, right?
That was the context for this question, because the question was: “Does the UC system know if the student applied to another UC?”
Katie Young: That's a good question. Probably.
They all share the system, so they may know where you applied… but it doesn't affect their decision. They all make their decisions independently of one another.
Every year we have students who get into both L.A. and Berkeley. They're not [actively] competing. They're not trying to share students.
So it doesn't matter… but, like I said, I wouldn't focus on one UC in particular when you write your essays, or say, “I really want to go to UC Berkeley” if the application is also going to Irvine! Just be careful about stuff like that.
But yeah, you'll just check boxes of where you'd like to apply. And if you only want to apply to one, that's fine… but you can apply to nine with one application, so you're really wasting an opportunity to be efficient. I would investigate: maybe apply to at least three or four.
And if you're a student who needs a fee waiver, you can actually get a fee waiver for up to four UC campuses. So that's something you can talk to your high school counselor about.
Lindsey Ricker: There's a question about the bootcamps.
Katie Young: Go ahead: what is the question?
Anthony Su: “Can we get more info on the bootcamp (to be specific, the one that gives you access to animated videos)?”
Katie Young: Yeah.
It's a Google Classroom that we will enroll you in when you sign up for your 10-hour package. And it goes in order. It comes with instructions, and it goes in order to help you develop your ideas. Lindsey, do you want to talk about some components of bootcamp that are valuable?
Lindsey Ricker: I just get emotional!
No, you're much better at an overview. I just really enjoyed, personally, going through it. I thought it was an amazing process – and just having that as a reference. But you give a much better overview.
Katie Young: It'll walk you through. It'll tell you some of the “insider” information that we figured out over the years about what a successful UC essay looks like… and what the admissions officers are looking for.
With the cute little animated videos, there's a guy who looks exactly like our CEO, Elton – if any of you know Elton, it looks just like him. Anyway:
It walks through what they're looking for, and how they're going to review your application.
It gives you a breakdown of each individual prompt and how to answer it.
It gives you real examples from our students who've submitted those essays in the past.
It gives you brainstorming worksheets and outlining worksheets for each of those.
And then it moves on to the Common App – where:
It helps you to brainstorm central memories in your life: things that are really important to you.
And then understand different formats you can use:
Different types of outlines.
Different approaches to the essay
And, again, there are tons of samples in there. You'll have access to everything.
And your essay specialist will be a “teacher” in the classroom – so that they can review all of your work and answer your questions very easily.
If you don't want to go through the whole bootcamp on your own, you don't have to… but you do have that resource. Your specialist can maybe just pull out one or two things that they think that you should focus on, after you have a conversation with them. Maybe you're struggling specifically with the UC essay about an educational opportunity. They can just go into the bootcamp, pull out those resources, email them to you, and you can work on those.
It's a resource that we all use on our team, and all of our students use it as well. We've spent a long time developing it and working on it… and, like Lindsey said, we're really proud of it.
I hope that answered the question
Anthony Su: Let’s see… oh, there was a second part to that UC question: a follow-up: basically, “If you apply Common App for 10 schools, do all 10 schools know which schools you apply to?”
I think that one's a “no.” Those are not…
Katie Young: …centralized in the same way, yeah. It's just a platform that they're all subscribed to, to make it easier for you. But once you submit, you're only submitting to one school at a time – and they can't see the back end of your account: where else you've applied.
Anthony Su: Yeah.
The additional thing is for UCs: apply for the UCs you want to go to. Don't try to be extra sneaky.
Katie Young: What's cool about the UCs is – if you care about this – they're all different rankings and ratings. They spread the gamut of rankings. So if you apply to all nine, you're applying to reaches, targets, and safeties no matter who you are!
It's kind of a one-stop shop to make sure that your college list is covered: you've got enough schools that you're going to get into, that you're going to have options to choose from.
These are good questions, guys.
Anthony Su: A question: “Why does a student need to supply a supplemental essay after submitting the early application?”
I think this assuming you submit an early decision or early action application. Potentially the [ED] school doesn't have, let's say, a “Why us” essay. And then, when you're doing the regular decision [essays], you might have schools that do have that particular prompt. And you would also still need to adjust that prompt.
I hope that answers the question of why you would need to have additional supplements after you turned in your earlies.
Katie Young: Yeah. So with your earlies, you can do lots of schools early if you want. You can just do one. If you just do one school on the early timeline, you still have the option to apply to other schools… but once you hear back – like let's say you apply early decision to Cornell and you get in – then you're done. Then you're not writing any more essays or submitting any other applications.
But you won't know that for a while… If you turn it in November 1st, you're not going to hear back till December 15th. Then you're just sitting there waiting. You're gonna be in big trouble [if you don’t get in]!
I would just keep working on your supplements until you get your decisions back, and then – once you're in some of your early schools – you can cut other ones off your list that were maybe lower priorities for you. Compare them: “Would I go to this school over this school?” If the answer is “No,” then don't waste your time with the application. Just settle.
Anthony Su: And then a question about waivers, basically: a family member was saying that some schools will offer waivers during the [October] college fair for the application. Is it safe to say, “Don't submit the essays until those waivers are secured?”
I would say “yes,” but I would also add the note that – since it specifically mentioned October college fairs – there's no reason to [rush]. If you can submit early, great. But don't rush your application.
I think technically you can submit as early as August – is that right, Katie? I forget the exact date it truly opens.
Yeah, it opens on August 1st… but a lot of schools need letters of recommendation, and your teachers are definitely not going to be ready on August 1st to send those in. I would say probably the earliest you're submitting is maybe September or October.
What you can actually do, I believe, on the Common App is you can click the box that you're applying for a fee waiver. Go ahead and submit – finish the application. And then they'll bill you for the fee if you owe it. Otherwise they'll just let it go.
You can apply at any time, but if you're not sure you're going to get that waiver… yeah, you may want to wait – and that would be a good time to call the admissions office and see what your status is.
Anthony Su: One thing of note: unless the school says “rolling admissions,” there's not an advantage to turning in your application early.
Katie Young: Good point.
Anthony Su: Don't rush it – make sure you have an essay you're happy with, that you've crisscrossed everything: everything looks perfect to you… Then you turn it in. Don't think getting it in day one is going to be necessarily better.
And then a question about scholarships (and how essays play a part there): is that typical? What does that look like?
Katie Young: A scholarship app depends on what you're applying to. There are big national scholarship programs. There are small local scholarships. And then there are scholarships offered by the colleges themselves. They're all going to have an application process of their own – and usually that involves essays. (Sometimes an interview.)
But it's all the same components: they're going to look at your grades, blah blah. Some of them are based on certain characteristics or qualities. Sometimes they're going to give scholarship money for a service-minded individual, or an individual who has really helped out the LGBTQ community at their school, or an individual who has a specific background: maybe they come from Africa, and they have a scholarship specifically meant for students of African descent.
So sometimes it's not based on merit: it's not based on how you did at school; it's based on your other qualities. So, yeah, you'll have to write about that and explain why you qualify.
Sorry Lindsey, I feel like I'm just taking this all.
Lindsey Ricker: No, this is great.
Katie Young: Like: “I got this!”
Lindsey Ricker: No, this is great; I spend so much time with the essay part and the interview… it's always a benefit hearing what consultants have: that huge picture of all the everything that's going on.
Katie Young: Yeah, Lindsey and I work on different sides of this.
Lindsey Ricker: Yeah.
Anthony Su: I'm gonna say last call for questions, because I've got no more! If anyone wants to rush in a question at the last minute… Otherwise we will take off early.
Katie Young: We hope to see you all at our future webinars – especially as you get going. I feel like most people just finished school – so you probably are just dead on your couch right now! But as soon as you're ready to get going is when we're going to start having our information available – and all of these are free, all of these are available online.
Is there another question?
Anthony Su: No. No one decided to take the chance. So we'll say goodbye.
Thanks for joining us today. Again, we will have all these webinars coming up: you'll get notifications, you'll get emails. So, definitely, we'll be in touch in regards to the next topics, and when we’ll be back live again.
Katie Young: Awesome.
Anthony Su: Okay. Thanks Katie, thanks Lindsey.
Katie Young: Bye everybody.
Lindsey Ricker: Thank you.
Anthony Su: Thanks everyone for joining.