Today we're going to be taking a look at the University of California system, or more specifically, their college essays: the UC Personal Insight Questions. If you're a rising senior, this is going to be top of mind for you as college essays and applications come up for you. If you're a younger student, then this should be a great preview of what awaits you during your upcoming application cycle.

Hey, tonight's topic is building a college list that works for you, and invariably, as I was preparing the content for tonight, the reality is that this is a conversation that probably deserves an 8-hour ultimate guide that we can talk about in 6 parts—and perhaps we can pitch as a 6-episode series, whatever the case may be. There are so many little nuances, and I think once we get into some of what we're gonna talk about, I think, it will invariably lead to more questions.

Join us in congratulating our ILUMIN students and families: our Class of 2026 students secured over $4.93 million in merit-based aid and scholarships this past admissions cycle!

The results are in, and we couldn’t be prouder! Our seniors absolutely crushed this admissions cycle, securing spots at 154 different colleges and universities—including some of the most selective Ivy League and Top 15 schools in the nation, such as Stanford, MIT, and Yale.

Giles, if you don't mind, before we kind of launch into questions, you know… give us an intro,  tell us about maybe how you got started, what brought you here, and what delights you in the work of admissions.

Good evening, everybody. Pleased to speak to you all. My name is Trey Moore, and I currently serve as the Director of Admissions Engagement at the University of Northeastern here in Boston, Massachusetts.

Super excited to have Andrew McMillen from Carnegie Mellon University come on with us! He told me he's super honest—too honest, so we wanna test that theory and see what he might be able to share—but all in all, super excited to have him on.

I'm going to share some things that we're learning as it relates to college admissions, trends, and what's happening in a landscape; and we'll do some deep dives into some different trends, and share a little bit more about how you might respond to some of those trends.

This holiday season, we want to deliver a heartfelt congratulations to all of our ILUMIN students who received early acceptances from their dream schools!

We're thrilled to celebrate our seniors, who earned acceptances to 124 different colleges and universities, including some of the most selective and prestigious schools in the country, like Princeton and Stanford! From Ivy League institutions to top public universities and standout liberal arts colleges, our students’ results reflect their incredible dedication, growth, and resilience throughout the application journey.

We’re proud to share good news about our ILUMIN students and families: our Class of 2025 students have been awarded $3.79 million in merit-based scholarships!

We are incredibly excited to welcome Brian Kang to our team!

The college application process can feel overwhelming, but do you really need a college consultant? Many students and families navigate applications on their own, and with enough time, research, and persistence, you might not need outside help. However, before you make your decision, let’s explore some common reasons why people think they don’t need a consultant—and why they might want to reconsider.

Happy New Year, and a warm congratulations to our ILUMIN students who got into their dream schools through the early application round, including Early Decision and Early Action! We're thrilled to announce that some of our students have been accepted to schools including Caltech, Claremont McKenna, Duke, NYU, Princeton, Reed, and Santa Clara University.

We’ll be discussing five main types of supplemental essay prompts, which you can see listed here. Although the terms like “Why Us?” and et cetera are not necessarily the official terminology, it is really helpful for students so that they can learn how to identify the real questions that they should be answering.

Many of you have probably heard of the Common App—really big platform, supports over a thousand colleges in their college application process—and kind of at the forefront of that is the Common App Personal Statement, or the Common App essay, which gets sent to every college that you apply to through the Common App.

We’re going to take a look at some of the PIQs. For a lot of our seniors—definitely if there are any younger students, you are more than welcome to join to get a bit of preview of what’s in store—but this is mostly going to be geared for a lot of our incoming 12th graders who are going to be doing the college essays and applications coming on.

This is a transcript of a webinar from August 2024, a recording of which you can find on our YouTube channel. Thank you again to Ivy Method Tutors for co-hosting this webinar with us!

This is a transcript of a webinar from August 2024, a recording of which you can find on our YouTube channel. Thank you again to Samantha Castro-Rico, Ivan Chan, and William Kerr for coming to share their personal thoughts and experiences surrounding their own pathways to med school!

This past summer, The University of Chicago announced their binding Summer Student Early Notification (SSEN) application option: high school seniors students who have previously completed one of UChicago’s summer programs can now apply to the university between September and mid-October—earlier than the ED1 timeline. This development adds to UChicago’s wide range of early application options; the institution already offers ED1, EA, and ED2.

Just to intro our time: I’m going to share some content about college majors. There’s a lot of new and important data to share—some of that is going to be rehashed from the trends webinar, if you were there—so there’s going to be some of that, plus a little bit more specific data to share.

I'm excited to share more about what we're learning about the college admissions landscape, including trends that we're seeing from this past cycle. Actually, I think the greater bracket of time is really from 2020 to now, so I think there's a lot of interesting things to share! Excited to do so.

Are the test-optional tides turning? For some top schools, the answer is yes.

For many students, college is simply one step in their academic journey towards medical school and a career in healthcare. This is by no means an easy step, of course. The standard route for a doctor-to-be takes approximately eleven years: four years to get a bachelor’s degree, four years in medical school, and at least three years in residency.

Getting a solid job with a high salary soon after graduating from college is, for many students and families, the goal of their degree. Tie this in with the belief that majoring in STEM will guarantee both a high salary and a low unemployment rate, and it’s no wonder that 131,500 undergraduates obtained bachelor’s degrees in biological and biomedical sciences in 2021 (the fifth most popular college major in the United States), and that 126,000 undergraduates did so in engineering (the sixth most popular).

Early Decision 2, or ED2, is a second round of Early Decision that comes with the same binding agreement as ED1—that is, if a college accepts an ED applicant, that applicant is automatically committed to attend—but the same timing as Regular Decision (RD), with a later application deadline of early January.

We are excited to welcome Anna Lee to the ILUMIN consulting team!

For juniors, aiming for a top university is no small feat, and preparation for such an ambitious goal begins well before senior year. Now is the time for students to strategize and position themselves well. We’ll dive into the essential aspects that 11th graders should be focusing on this monumental academic year to make their college applications stand out!