Webinar Transcript: College Essays 101: Timeline and First Steps

Anthony Su (he/him): A lot of our rising seniors are getting started… We want to make sure we can cover this topic of how to tackle the different essays, and where students can get started brainstorming things like that.

Today I am joined by Sagrika and Alyssa: two of our essay specialists on our team. Sagrika, do you want to introduce yourself first, then Alyssa?

Sagrika Jawadi (she/they): Hi, I'm Sagrika. I use she/they pronouns. I am an essay specialist at ILUMIN; I've been working with ILUMIN since last fall and I've really enjoyed it. And I'm looking forward to talking to you all – about just some general information about college essays.

Alyssa Guzman (she/her): Hi, my name is Alyssa. I use she/her pronouns. I'm a recent employee of ILUMIN – but I'm really enjoying it so far! I am an English teacher too – so I feel like I have a lot to say about college essays and things like that. Hopefully we can have some good conversations about where yours is headed.

Anthony Su: Awesome. With that I'll pass it to you guys to take it away! See you guys later.

Sagrika Jawadi: Welcome to the first webinar of our five-part college essay series this summer. Today we're going to be going over some basic and general information about college essays and the application process in general.

Agenda

• Why do college essays matter?

• FAQ

• Essay types

• Essay timeline

• Conclusion

Sagrika Jawadi: For today our agenda is going to include: “Why do college essays matter?” and some FAQ – frequently asked questions, the different essay types, the essay timeline, and we'll have a short conclusion.

Why do college essays matter?

Sagrika Jawadi: First, why do college essays matter?

What role do college essays play in the admissions process?

Sagrika Jawadi: College essays are a very important part of the whole college and admissions process – and your application.

The different components that college admissions are reviewing include your academic transcript: your grades and your test scores; your extracurriculars; your letters of recommendation; sometimes an interview; and those essays. So those essays are really a valuable place for you to communicate directly to the admissions officers.

Not all colleges require all of these things, and different colleges are going to place different weights on different components. As some of you may know, standardized tests are now becoming more and more optional – so that might lead to essays playing an even more important role. Especially if you're on the fence with the school, stats-wise, an essay can really be at that thing that puts you beyond the edge into the “accepted” category!

Who reads college essays?

Sagrika Jawadi: Who reads these essays? It really depends on the college. There are review readers, who are mostly used by big public schools; admissions officers; scholarship and honors college representatives; specific department representatives; and faculty from specialty programs. You want to keep your essay understandable for basically anyone – because the person that's reading it is not necessarily going to be an expert in what you are talking about!

Do different colleges view essays differently?

Sagrika Jawadi: Different colleges do view essays differently. With smaller colleges, they tend to be more focused on the essay – because their fit really depends on your personality. And these essays can really make a big difference for those colleges. Top tier, elite colleges really take those essays seriously.

What are colleges looking for?

Sagrika Jawadi: In your essays, colleges are looking for what we call the “three P’s”: personality, perspective, and passion. Moving on…

College essay FAQ

Alyssa Guzman: Moving on to the college essay frequently asked questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do all colleges require essays?

Alyssa Guzman: The first thing that we want to clarify is that not all colleges require essays. Most colleges will require at least one, but some colleges will not – including Cal State schools. The most relevant to you all might be Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona. They both do not require essays.

Can I use the same essay for multiple colleges?

Alyssa Guzman: You can use the same essay for multiple colleges. You'll find that many colleges have similar prompts – so you can easily amend your essays to fit multiple applications.

How many drafts should I write?

Alyssa Guzman: You should definitely have – at the very least – three drafts for your college essays. This is going to be a recursive process, in which you will return to your ideas and you'll polish them. At the end of the day, what we want is for you to submit a polished version of your essay.

After each draft you should be aiming to get feedback. You shouldn't just be writing them and then tweaking them on your own. This is your story – and it's a story that you are familiar with, because it is about you. You want to make sure that your message is not necessarily lost in translation… and that's done by getting other people's perspectives on your writing

When are essays due?

Alyssa Guzman: Essays are due typically from November to January. We'll get a bit more in detail about those specific deadlines later on in this webinar

Do I have to write creatively?

Alyssa Guzman: You do not necessarily have to write creatively. You should be writing in your authentic voice: really showcasing the authenticity of your own personality!

Should this be a “5-paragraph essay”?

Alyssa Guzman: This should not be a five-paragraph essay! These are narrative pieces about you… and they're not necessarily structured essays about a certain topic.

The UC essay is going to be more straightforward than the Common App essay. The UC essay is… we like to say it's more business-like. You want to be very straightforward about your accomplishments and your goals. Whereas the Common App essays are a little bit on the creative side.

When should I start writing?

Alyssa Guzman: You finalize your college list, as we mentioned previously. Lots of colleges will have the same prompt – or very similar prompts. If you finalize your college list, you can easily gather which colleges are very similar in their prompts.

Then you can select your deadline – so you can prioritize which essays to start writing first, and then which ones you can save, according to when they're due.

You should also get organized to see which colleges have similar prompts – so you're not taking on unnecessary work.

And get as much done in the summer as you can!

First drafts are the hardest part. Oftentimes ideas that we have within the first draft could evolve to a completely different idea by the third or fourth draft. So just be flexible, and be patient with yourself throughout this process – so that you can provide the best possible essay and showcase your personality traits in an effective way.

Essay types

Sagrika Jawadi: Now moving on to the different essay types:

The UC Personal Insight Questions (PIQs)

Sagrika Jawadi: Let's start with the UC PIQs. The PIQs, or “Personal Insight Questions,” are what the UC schools call their essays.

What is the UC application?

Sagrika Jawadi: You're gonna write one set of essays for all the UCs.

Do I have more work if I apply to more campuses?

Sagrika Jawadi: You don't have to do more work if you apply to more campuses.

How many essays do I write?

Sagrika Jawadi: It's going to be four 350-word essays.

Who reads the PIQs?

Sagrika Jawadi: And each UC has its own review board that is going to read them.

Since they're only 350 words, that's part of why – as Alyssa mentioned – they're more straightforward.

Prompt options:

Sagrika Jawadi: These are the different prompt options you have: leadership experience; creative expression [or problem solving]; development and demonstration of a talent or skill; an educational opportunity; a challenge that is affected, specifically, your academic achievement; your academic interest; community service; and something that stands out.

How do I choose my four prompts?

Sagrika Jawadi: Out of these eight options, you're gonna choose four. So how do you choose which four that you want? You want to pick the ones that showcase your strongest activities or accomplishments or traits. And you want to think about how all four of the essays work together – so that you're not being repetitive, and you're showcasing different aspects of yourself throughout all four of them.

These essays are how admissions counselors are going to get to know you beyond your stats – so you really want to think about what you want to convey about yourself that those numbers, or the classes you took, don't really say about you.

What style or approach should I use?

Sagrika Jawadi: And what style should you use? You want to be straightforward, and you want to be direct. You want to write about the things you're really proud of – and not talk around them. These essays are also how you demonstrate character and maturity – so you want to talk about ways you've grown or shown empathy or problem-solved.

And you want to be specific here, because they're short. You want to tell [short] stories – and give examples. If you keep it vague, there's not going to be as much material for them to work with when trying to advocate for you to get you into these schools!

The Common App personal statement

Alyssa Guzman: Moving on to the Common App personal statement…

What is the Common Application?

Alyssa Guzman: The Common Application is an application platform that hosts over 900 colleges.

How do I know if my college is on the Common App?

Alyssa Guzman: You know that your college is on the Common App simply by creating an account and searching. You can check the Common App website.

How many essays do I have to write?

Alyssa Guzman: For the Common App, you will have to write one main statement. But you will very likely also have to write supplements for some other colleges.

Who reads the main personal statement?

Alyssa Guzman: All of the colleges you select will be reading your main personal statement – and you are allowed to select up to 20.

Prompt options (simplified):

Alyssa Guzman: Here are some of the Common App personal statements. As I stated previously, these are more creative – so more of an opportunity for you to showcase all the dynamic aspects of your personality!

The first one is to share a meaningful aspect of your background or identity. The second is to describe what you learned from a challenge or failure. Three, what happened when you questioned a belief or idea? Four, how has gratitude affected or motivated you? Five, describe an event that sparked personal growth. Six: what topic engages or captivates you? And then the last one is a topic of your choice.

There is a little bit more freedom of expression for these ones.

How long is the personal statement?

Alyssa Guzman: The Common App personal statement ranges from 250 to 650 words. You do not need to hit 650 words – but we do encourage you to get as close to it as you can. You want to utilize all of the space that you have in order to showcase your personality in the best way that you can.

What style or approach should I use?

Alyssa Guzman: Your style or approach for the Common App personal statement should be authentic, vulnerable, and engaging. You really want to hook your reader at the very beginning. And you should focus on reflection versus facts.

As Sagrika mentioned earlier, you want to showcase those facts and those accomplishments and be straightforward in the UC PIQs. But for the Common App personal statement, you're more reflecting on your character and how you have grown throughout your 18 or 17 or 19 years of life.

You do not need to discuss resume items; you can save that for supplements.

And then creative writing is welcome.

Supplemental essays

What are supplemental essays?

Alyssa Guzman: Supplemental essays are essays that are unique to each college. These are going to range, in terms of whichever college you're looking at.

How do I know if my college has supplemental essays?

Alyssa Guzman: You know if your college has supplemental essays, once again, just by checking on the Common App website. Or you can check the school's website.

How many supplemental essays do colleges usually have?

Alyssa Guzman: Usually colleges will have one to three of the supplemental essays.

How important are the supplements?

Alyssa Guzman: Although these are not the main essay, they are still very important! You should be putting just as much effort into these supplemental essays as you are into the main essay. They're there so that your application reader can get to know more about you – so you should take them as seriously as you do the main essay.

Why us?

Alyssa Guzman: An example of a supplemental essay is the “Why us?” prompt.

Examples:

[UW Madison]

Alyssa Guzman: For example, “Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the majors you have selected. If you selected ‘undecided,’ please describe your areas of possible academic interest.”

For a prompt such as this one, you want to make it clear that you have researched the major that you intend to study. And then you want to make it clear that you know a lot about the University of Wisconsin–Madison's campus.

[Purdue]

Alyssa Guzman: Similarly, we have this one: “How will opportunities at Purdue support your interests, both in and out of the classroom?”

For a supplemental prompt such as this one, you want to research the extracurriculars and the clubs and everything that Purdue has to offer outside of the classroom. Really show that you've done your due diligence to show that this school is the right fit for you.

[University of Michigan]

Alyssa Guzman: The last one is, “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?”

For a prompt like this one, you want to go and look at what classes are being offered. You want to research some of the professors you would love to study under. Research specific programs.

The more specific you can be for these, the better off you will be – because it'll show that you are really dedicated to your research for the specific school.

Why do colleges ask this?

Alyssa Guzman: Colleges ask this to make sure that you are applying intentionally – and that you would be a good fit. They want your application to be well thought-out.

Which colleges ask this?

Alyssa Guzman: Many public and private universities will ask you this particular prompt.

How should I approach this kind of prompt?

Alyssa Guzman: You should approach this kind of supplement with specifics. You need to do your research. You need to relate to what they have to who you are and who you want to be.

Talking about your goals for yourself in the future – and how this college will help you achieve them – is also a good idea.

Why do you want to study X?

Alyssa Guzman: The next one is: “Why do you want to study X?”

For Purdue, “Briefly discuss your reasons for pursuing the major you have selected.” This can be an opportunity to talk about some of your accomplishments within high school. Why do you want to study biochemistry? What was your biology class like for you in high school?

For the University of Illinois, you want to: “Explain your interest in the major you selected, and describe how you have recently explored or developed this interest inside or outside of the classroom. You may also explain how this major relates to your future career goals.”

And then, for the University of Texas at Austin, “Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first choice major?” This is your chance to showcase what you have done to further your pursuits in that major, and why you're interested in it.

Why do colleges ask this?

Alyssa Guzman: Colleges ask this to make sure that you are prepared and motivated to take on the major of your choice.

Which colleges ask this?

Alyssa Guzman: Many public and private universities will ask you this question.

How should I approach this kind of prompt?

Alyssa Guzman: You should approach this kind of supplement with a thorough timeline: what have you already done, and what will you continue to build on when you are at that university, to pursue your interests even further? Once again, you should be doing your research and being specific!

Essay timeline

Sagrika Jawadi: Okay, now we're going to talk about the timeline for these essays. 

When are the deadlines?

Sagrika Jawadi: First of all, when are the deadlines?

As Alyssa mentioned earlier, it's November through January, in general. If you're applying early action or early decision, that's going to be early to mid-November.

The UC deadline is generally November 30th, and for most regular admissions it's January 1st through the 15th.

So you're going to be busy submitting and working on these essays from October through January.

Timeline: June

Sagrika Jawadi: Starting in June – this month – you want to be refining and finalizing your college list. Decide if you're going to apply to any school's early decision or early action. And start brainstorming for both the Common App and your UC essays.

Towards the end of the month you want to start writing your first drafts.

Timeline: July

Sagrika Jawadi: In July, you want to start writing those intermediary drafts: second, third, fourth, fifth drafts of Common App and UC essays.

You don't have to have your list completely, perfectly finalized to have these drafts going. In July, it's totally fine to be tweaking the list as you go. You can still start writing.

Timeline: August

Sagrika Jawadi: In August, you want to have finalized drafts of your Common App and UC essays. Start brainstorming and drafting the supplementals for those schools to which you're going to be applying early action or early decision.

Timeline: September

Sagrika Jawadi: By September you want to be writing those second, third, and fourth drafts for the supplemental essays for applications due in November. And you want to get feedback on your UC essays and Common App personal statement.

Timeline: October

Sagrika Jawadi: In October you're going to get feedback for your supplementals that are due in November.

Timeline: November

Sagrika Jawadi: By November you want to begin drafting supplementals for the apps due in January, and you're going to submit your early action early decision applications. And then, on November 30th, or somewhere in that last week of November, you're gonna submit your UC app.

Timeline: December

Sagrika Jawadi: In December you're just continuing to work on the supplementals for the applications due in January.

[Timeline: January]

And then, obviously, in January you submit everything.

How can ILUMIN help?

Sagrika Jawadi: That really concludes our slideshow. We're going to bring Anthony back on to just talk about ILUMIN a little bit.

Anthony Su: We are going to be helping students through our essay boot camp curriculum soon. You can definitely find out more on our website. I'm sure you've heard me talk about it or discuss essay boot camps; Alyssa and Sagrikaand I have been instructing and helping students in that as well. Maybe we can discuss that a little bit more, if there are some questions around that as well.

But let me open up to Q&A first.

The first question says, “What's an example of being vague on apps?” But I guess it's also, when you're talking about starting with a particular idea for an essay, how would you help a student get more specific or more detailed? Can you walk me through that?

Sagrika Jawadi: Sure. I can say some stuff, and then Alyssa can add on, if Alyssa has any additional thoughts.

I think being vague is either when you tell without showing, or when you're using language that is not very specific. Saying, “I'm hard-working,” versus talking about this time that you had a huge – for example – robotics project that you spent hours working on, and you had to do multiple versions of it… or something like that. That shows you’re hard-working, instead of just saying it.

And then, also, “hard-working” in itself is big, versus this [example] shows you have resilience and perseverance, and you're willing to spend time on things.

That's how you be more specific.

With regards to how you get started on that, there are two ways. You could think about something you know you want to talk about: that experience you had with robotics. Or you could think about a trait that you want to talk about: I know I'm really hard-working.

If you know the thing you want to talk about, you say, “Okay, what am I trying to say about myself through this experience?” And if you have the trait, then you want to say, “Okay, what experiences do I have that show this trait?”

I think starting from there is a good place to go when thinking about how to outline – and begin to think about answering these essay questions.

Alyssa Guzman: Yeah, and adding on to Sagrika, specifics in terms of stats are very important within these essays. If you went to a biology research camp, and then you won an award, you should tell us what award you won. How many people were competing? Which place did you get?

Similarly, I read an essay not too long ago about someone who was really proud of a graphic design that they did for Chinese club at their school. But they didn't tell us the process to get into [doing] that, or [the process] to create that graphic design, and there weren’t really any specifics on how they felt or how many hours of research they did. They didn't even really tell us what the design was!

With something like that, I would want to know how many hours of research went into it, what they specifically did to dedicate themselves to their craft, and what the design looked like. Maybe how you felt about it afterwards. Any details that you can provide will help you.

We also have brainstorming sheets and stuff like that to help you with those ideas. Just really typing out as much as you possibly can when you're brainstorming will really help you with those details. You might not end up using all of the details, but just getting them all out onto the page will be helpful.

Anthony Su: One of the things I always ask students to never do in this first step of brainstorming is never hit backspace, or never hit delete. Just get it all out… and then we'll see what works, and what doesn't work. We can figure that out afterwards, when you're discussing with a teacher, a mentor, an essay specialist, your parents, or anything like that: thinking, “What examples might be better to use, and which ones to stay away from?”

Speaking of staying away from, are there any “red flags” that you would warn students about?

Alyssa Guzman: The first thing that comes to mind for me, especially for the Common App essays, is that sometimes you might choose the prompt where it's like, “Describe a time where you overcame something really difficult/a personal hardship.”

Those are essays to showcase your grit, or your perseverance. They're not supposed to be essays that are – for lack of a better phrase – a pity party upon yourself. You want to make sure that you are empowering yourself within those essays if you choose that prompt, rather than being self-deprecating in any way.

Sagrika Jawadi: To add on… this is not necessarily a “red flag,” as in you should never do it, but you want to be careful when choosing really open-ended prompts. There's the Common App prompt that's just an essay of your choice, and then there's the you see one that's like “something that just stands out.”

Those are tempting, because it looks like, “I can just write about whatever I want!” But you really want to be careful when choosing those. It can lead to being vague – because you don't have a specific question to answer.

That's just one thing that I would recommend while thinking about which prompt to choose.

Alyssa Guzman: In addition to that, lots of people have similar experiences, right? All of us went through COVID. All of you guys went through online school. Many of us have been team captains. Many of us have won first place at something.

And that's all fine. Those are accomplishments that you should be proud of. But you should figure out how to individualize them within your essay, and make them unique to your story, rather than just a general, “I was captain of the soccer team.”

Anthony Su: There's also a question regarding the UC prompts. The question was, “Could certain questions be overlapped?” Certain questions overlap with extracurricular descriptions. Would it be easier to avoid writing about those extracurriculars? One particular example may fit in multiple categories here for the PIQs; how would you go about identifying what might be a better story, or a better approach to discussing a particular story?

Sagrika Jawadi: Like I said, you want to make sure that all four essays are different: so they're showing different aspects of who you are. Let's say you have experience with biology and you have experience with robotics. Both of those could be academic interests, and both of those could be talents or skills.

It comes down to, “If I do academic interest for biology, then I get to talk more about that class I also took, versus if I do it with robotics, I don't get to talk about that.” You just have to be strategic – to show as many aspects of yourself as you can.

With regards to it overlapping with the activity stuff, those activity descriptions are really short: I think they're 100 characters. So it's pretty much gonna be the number of hours, what it was called, what awards you got, and that's it.

Here [in the PIQs] is where you're gonna talk a little bit about what this says about you, and talk a little bit more about your personal experience with it. So it's okay to have an activity in your activity list of the application, and then also expand on it in the essay.

Just never copy and paste. It should be different.

Anthony Su: This is something where, again, even within… let's just take robotics as an example. If you're a team captain, it could be a one [leadership]. It could be a problem-solving question. If you're talking about competitions, it could be a three [development and demonstration of a talent/skill], talking about your talent and skill within coding or mechanical engineering. Even a six [academic interest], or maybe potentially a four [taking advantage of an educational opportunity/overcoming a barrier].

There are a lot of different approaches into just one particular subject. That's part of why we recommend just putting all those examples down on paper first – seeing if you can find any patterns that you would really want to emphasize. Maybe your topmost stories about robotics are actually around leadership, so try that as the first approach. And, potentially, you may come back and try the other ones as well.

Let's go ahead and do this for the other the Common App prompts also – if we can just discuss that in a little more detail.

Again, there are seven prompts. You only have to pick one here. Any suggestions on how you would help a student approach this? Potentially picking a prompt first, or should they work on the story first, or what's most meaningful to them?

Alyssa Guzman: My advice would be, what story could you tell about yourself most effectively? What's most important to your identity? And then once you find that story, see which one it will fit into. Would it fit into your background or identity? Would it fit into your beliefs? Would it fit into gratitude?

But it should be a story that is compelling to you to tell. You shouldn't force yourself to tell a boring story about yourself. It should be something that really excites you – because if you're excited about it, it will come through in your writing, and in turn it will excite the person who is reading your work.

Anthony Su: One other thing to consider here, again, because there's going to be potentially a supplement asking you about your major, or about why you want to study at this particular college… it's not that you cannot write about your major for your personal statement, but I think it's one of those things where we want to be wary.

Do you have another place to talk about your major? if you're going to talk about, again, robotics club, and you're going to be applying as a robotics major – mechanical engineering or something like that – [make sure] that you still have some examples too that you're going to use for those.

Okay… for this Common App question, “Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has the gratitude affected or motivated you?” What does it mean: “in a surprising way”?

This is actually a new prompt for this year in the Common App. The “gratitude prompt” is what we're nicknaming it.

The question was asking, “What does it mean by ‘in a surprising way’?” If we were to debrief that particular prompt a bit more, do you have any ways that you would break that down for a student?

Sagrika Jawadi: Yeah. And like Anthony said, it's a new prompt, so we're doing a little bit of trying to predict, right? But I would guess that they don't want you to talk about how your parents fed and housed you… because everyone’s – well, not everyone’s, but most people's – parents do that. So that's not surprising.

They want you to talk about something that is moving to you – and really was special to you, because it was something that felt unique. A lot of things that aren't surprising can mean a lot to you – so I think they use that to make it clear that they don't want to hear about something, quote unquote, “mundane.”

I'm trying to think of what could be a good example. Maybe you were really interested in a sport, but you had never played it before, and you were really nervous… but when you asked to join the JV team, the JV team captain was just super kind: gave you a lot of individual attention and made you feel really like you belonged, and helped you improve a lot – that by the time you were a senior, you were on varsity. That is something that I would consider “surprising” – and something that is really meaningful, that is not necessarily something everyone experiences, or something most people experience.

That's how I would go about that: I would read that prompt and, if something comes to mind right away, as “Oh, this person did this thing for me, and it meant a lot!” then go with that.

Anthony Su: Yeah, practicing gratitude… I think it's especially tough for younger students. I know sometimes, if students have been keeping a journal of gratitude and things like that, it's helpful to reference that. Otherwise, because it's a new prompt, we're also still trying to think about how to effectively tackle that.

Let's see… Any essay topics that are overdone? Anything that you would recommend students try to stay away from?

Alyssa Guzman: What I learned in the boot camp, working with Katie and Heather, I personally would stay away from going through online school during COVID – unless you have a very specific story to go along with it. Like maybe you had to do online school, and you don't have wi-fi at home, or something like that. That would be a challenge that you had to overcome.

But overcoming online school in general is a challenge that everyone had to overcome. I would recommend staying away from that as a topic.

Sagrika Jawadi: I'm gonna go back to the UC essays for a second.

I recommend staying away from the “stands out” one – unless you have something that is unique to you on a state or national level, where there are only a handful of people – literally five or fewer people – who can write about this in your state, or in the country. You really want it to be something that stands out. If you don't have something like that – which most people don't, and that's totally fine – then don't write about that prompt. There are plenty of other ones.

And similarly with the challenge one: avoid it unless like it really, significantly impacted your academic achievement. You don't wanna write about – like Alyssa mentioned – how online school made it really hard for you to focus on classes… but then you still have the same grades. [Jane’s note: except that maybe this indicates that you overcame the challenge, and you can write about how you had to develop new study habits to cope and succeed but you pulled it off… or whatever.] Then it's like it hasn't really affected your academic achievement – and it's not going to really, meaningfully answer the prompt. That prompt is really there as an opportunity for you to explain a decrease in your grades. [Jane’s note: Really?]

I would say number five [challenge] and number eight [something that stands out beyond your application] are ones that you want to really think about before going for them. And that still leaves uh six other prompts to choose from – so there are plenty of options. But those are the ones I would say to avoid.

Anthony Su: Yeah, [those ones] tend to be trickier. It's like activities that students are particularly proud of – it's worth debriefing them and walking through, “Why were you proud of this?” or, “What was the difficulty that you overcame?” or, “What was so interesting about that experience?” And then trying to look at it on a more empirical lens.

Also, just because things are meaningful to you, they are not necessarily going to be things that you're going to directly write about. Or there might be a different spin on that topic that is going to be more interesting to discuss – rather than talking about the big game that you won for football or something.

We had some questions about narrowing down a college list: how many schools are reasonable?

I'll launch. We will do a lot of free consultations this summer. If you're interested in discussing that some more, definitely, we can set you up to do a free consultation with one of our consultants.

Since today we're mostly talking about essays, we're probably not going to jump into that topic as much. If you're very well-researched, you could probably get down to 8-10. And then we've seen students apply to 20+. We probably don't want to go more than 20 – but that's roughly what our students are looking at now.

And, of course, if you're looking at early decision… With early action, you just know the information faster. With early decision, since it is binding, you do want to do a little bit more research – and understand what you're looking for.

The larger admissions package can really help there [ILUMIN offers 5 and 10 hour packages] – helping students debrief and understand: what majors are they looking for, or what interests are they looking for, even beyond a major? Or, “How can we define what types of schools we're looking for?” That can be a longer conversation, ideally: it's one-on-one with your student, so they can get the most out of it as well.

Any other questions? Let's see… Oh, this is a good one: “Is it a good idea to try to convert a UC essay into a Common App essay?”

Sagrika Jawadi: Yeah, it can be – as in, you can talk about the same topic for both, definitely. Just, I would not copy and paste your UC app, and then try to expand on things. Do the process again – because none of the prompts are identical. You want to be very clear about answering the prompt.

But you're definitely allowed to use the same idea, same topic, or same takeaway for a UC essay and the Common App.

Anthony Su: I think it was just one thing, Sagrika, you mentioned: don't copy and paste. If you're gonna move from UC to Common App, start from scratch – because the approaches are so different. With UCs, again, you're very succinct: to the point, trying to get the evidence across to the reader. And you can be a little bit more creative with the Common App.

Question about applying for schools in the UK. In that free consultation, we can discuss that a little bit more. Let me put the link here as well.

There's a question here that asks, “Do the essay specialists, or the people at ILUMIN, have experience as admission officers or readers? If not, how do they know what they're looking for in terms of an essay?

Given that ILUMIN’s been around since 2014, we do see the type of essays that work and don't work, and what we've been able to do in terms of approaches for essays, and how to work with a student through multiple iterations on an essay. With that volume of work, you get very familiar with seeing what works and what doesn't work. Or what is the overdone sports essay, versus what is a little bit different, or has a different spin on it?

I'll pause for a few more questions. Oh, here we go: “Do you review college or major lists during essay brainstorming?” I guess the question is also asking, “How important is major before thinking about the essay process?”

Sagrika Jawadi: I think Anthony can speak more on this, but I believe there's a consultant and an essay specialist. The admissions consultant will help a lot more with the specifics of where you should be applying and all of those things. But as an essay specialist,  I can definitely provide the insight about how to use your academic interests, and the major that you want to go into, and convert that into an effective essay.

And I can definitely look at that college list and help organize: “So this college is gonna need a Common App essay and it's gonna need two supplementals. This one is gonna need just the UC essays.” In that way we will help with the list – and can provide an insight into that. But there are two different people that you can work with.

Anthony Su: The way to think about this is, again, if we take a theoretical robotics student, and they're debating whether to apply as computer science or mechanical engineering.

First thing is, of course, definitely, definitely do a free consultation with us – and we can kind of discuss what those majors look like, and what your admissions chances might be comparing those two different majors. I think CS is, generally, a lot more competitive than mechanical engineering these days. And then, from that, we can get an idea of, “What career paths are you looking for? What types of universities are you interested in? Is there a particular field of research, or a lab, that you want to be able to access – or a particular subfield between mechanical engineering and computer science that you're looking at?”

From there we can go a little bit deeper, saying, “Based on these different things, what do you want to communicate in your essay?” Or, “What are the stories that you want to be able to effectively use to talk about your skills in mechanical engineering, versus your skills in computer science?” And things like that.

It is a longer process if students are still not too sure about a major, but we can do a free consultation to help with that. First step: “Does applying undecided hurt you?” Do a free consultation with us and we can discuss that in a little bit more detail. “With undecided, you just have to be a lot more specific in what types of schools you're gonna look into.”

And then some thoughts about if you're going to apply as undecided. We can help you look for schools that are going to not require a major. Maybe they require you to declare a major per se, on paper, but you don't have to make it official until the end of your sophomore year. A lot of liberal arts colleges do that – where a lot of students are going to take a relatively similar core curriculum. And some of the other universities as well will also have a similar curriculum for students who are thinking about switching around.

Here’s a tangent of that question: “Is it easy to apply as a less competitive major, and then switch majors after being accepted?” Again that is a case-by-case basis for universities. Like I went to Carnegie Mellon, [where it’s] impossible to switch into the computer science program. If you want to add an additional CS minor, or an additional CS major, that's possible – but just very hard. It's a tough curriculum. Balancing that with something else may not be a good fit for every student. It might not be the right path.

Any other questions? Yeah, we can definitely use the free consultation for essay advice. We'll do another webinar – probably one of the last webinars in our five-part series for essays – where we'll ask students to submit their essays, and we can basically do a live reading or live feedback. We'll try to take away anything that could be identifying… but this way we can give you an idea of, “Here's how you go from draft 1 to draft 2 to draft 4 or draft 5 – to really clean things up.

Any other questions? We can also go back to any slides if there was anything that we went through too fast. If anyone has a specific slide they want us to go back to, we can do that too.

Oh, what are the three P's? Yeah, that's a good way to think through what the goal of each of the essays is. Do you want to debrief the thoughts behind this?

Sagrika Jawadi: They're looking for personality, perspective, and passion. These are three things that you can't really demonstrate through an activity description or a test score or your GPA. That's why they're looking for these things.

They want to know your personality: who you are, what you like to do, what you find interesting, and what matters to you. They want to hear what your perspective is, where you're coming from, how your background influences that, how your life experiences have influenced that, and they want to see what you're passionate about.

And I think that passion is super important. I think it's impossible to replicate. An essay just sounds really different – and way better – when you're talking about something you're passionate about. So that is really important when writing these essays.

Those are the three P's that colleges are generally looking for.

Anthony Su: Asking about the October slide – if we can go back there.

Sagrika Jawadi: In October you're seeking feedback and finalizing your supplemental essays for apps due in November – which could be early action, early decision, or the UCs. But UCs don't have supplementals, as far as I know. It's just those four [PIQ essays].

Anthony Su: I do want to point out: some schools are even doing even earlier early action deadlines. October 15th is also a deadline for some schools now. One of the universities I can remember is UNC Chapel Hill: I think they're doing October 15th. I don't remember any of the other ones off the top of my head – but, again, it's helpful to also just double-check and make sure that those deadlines are what you're expecting.

Sagrika Jawadi: Yeah, and that's why it's important to start thinking about that college list now – so that you can look up every individual college to see what their dates are.

Anthony Su: We had two people ask the same question within the same minute! Basically, “How do you help students start if they have no exceptional hardship or no major challenge? What should they write about?”

If it seems like, “I don't have a lot of things to write about,” or, “I don't have a lot of activities to discuss,” Alyssa, Sagrika, any thoughts on helping that type of student?

Alyssa Guzman: I can speak to that. I'm just looking at some of these prompts for the Common App personal statement – and if you feel that you haven't had any major challenges or anything that really stands out, there are plenty of other prompts you can choose. Everyone has a background. Everyone has an identity.

Maybe one of the biggest parts of your identity or background is your culture, or being the eldest sibling of seven. Things like that, that just give insight into how you grew up and who you are as a person. Those don't necessarily mean that you have to discuss any specific hardships or achievements – but just who you are as a person.

Also moments of personal growth. Just being at the age that you guys are, I'm sure that you've gone through a lot of self-reflection and trying to figure out who you are – whether that be through a sport or through a club or through an extracurricular activity. You can use all of those to inform your reader more on your personality.

I also just want to say that some things that you might think are mundane might not be to your reader. You might think that they're mundane because you're you and you've gone through it in your own life. And it might not be something that's super captivating. Don't underestimate how unique your story can be.

Maybe talk to some other people in your life – ask them some questions about you. Ask them, “What is my most important quality, and how do you see me representing that quality at all times?” And then some people can give you insight, or give you stories into your life, that could help you craft your essay.

Anthony Su: A clarification about boot camp. There’s a boot camp curriculum – that is provided if you're doing the 10 hours with essay consultants on our website. It's all videos, and we're discussing each of the different prompts, and ways to tackle the different essays. And then you're working one-on-one with your essay specialist.

We also do a live version of the boot camp. That's for the full admissions package.

Definitely, if you request a free consultation, we can discuss the differences – and what might be a better fit. But, in general, the essay package is meant to just tackle the essay process, and not necessarily work on college list or major selection and things like that.

We'll leave it on this last question: “How should I avoid writing something that becomes a sob story, when I'm trying to do the ‘educational challenge’ prompt, or ‘personal struggle’?”

Alyssa Guzman: I think that this question is a case-by-case basis.

One thing that I'm initially thinking of is that, if you are choosing that prompt, maybe you start off right away with your accomplishment – and then go backwards: “What did I have to overcome in order to achieve this?” That way, you're starting off on a high note right away. I would also go with those struggles as… not necessarily “factual,” but more so straightforward – just very straightforwardly telling your reader what you went through. And then really focusing on how you overcame it, and what that did for you as a person.

It's okay to go through struggles; everyone goes through them. But you want the main focus of your essay to be your persistence, and what you went through to overcome them.

Anthony Su: And – I was just thinking about this – this might be an interesting way for you to write a gratitude essay as well: “This was a very humbling experience, and here's what I was able to learn from it,” or, “Here's why I'm grateful for something I took for granted before.” Instead of just making it a Common App number two [describe what you learned from a challenge or failure], where you're discussing a challenge and trying to spin it into a positive. Potentially starting with that prompt four [how has gratitude affected or motivated you], you're able to be a little bit more introspective in that essay.

Awesome. Perfect. Any other last minute questions? Otherwise I think we'll wrap it up for today.

…

Perfect. We'll wrap up then. I appreciate everyone joining today.

I believe the next webinar [of this series] will be in July: we'll be breaking down each of the UC prompts. We're going to have webinars in between as well: we have some more admission readers that will be joining us soon. Pomona college, I believe, is coming – I don't remember the exact day I want to say early July. But that information will be out soon, and we'll send it via email. We'll be able to have another conversation with Tina Brooks – she's the associate admissions officer – and get some thoughts about their process as well.

Alyssa, Sagrika, thanks for giving us your thoughts, and an idea of how to get this process started – since I know a lot of students might be worried about, you know, “How do I tackle this?” and, “How do I approach this?” But we'll have this recording: we'll send it out. Of course, students can feel free to come back and try to see how we break down the different ideas, and where to start.

All right, thanks everyone. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!