Don't Force It: How to Get into College without Losing Yourself in the Process

Let’s Get Tactical: Supplemental Essays

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In today’s Let's Get Tactical episode, I cover how to write standout supplemental essays. With back-to-school season here, I’ll share tips on aligning essay responses with each college’s unique offerings, showcasing experiences, and making the most of optional essays. Tune in for practical advice on navigating the college application process with confidence!

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Sheila Akbar:

And of course, you don't want to just be laundry listing these things back to the college like, look how great you are. It's really about tying them to something specific in the student's life. That really indicates, Oh, I did this in high school. I want to continue doing this sort of thing. And x school has all of these wonderful opportunities for me to continue doing it and actually even expand what I'm doing in ways that I hadn't thought of before. Hi folks, welcome back to the podcast. I'm sure you're all feeling it, but there is something in the air. Yes, Mercury has been in retrograde, and all sorts of weird things are happening with my technology, with my brain. But the other thing that's really looming right now is back to school season. Now, if you like the students I have in Ohio, school is starting tomorrow. But in other places around the country, maybe you've got a week, maybe you've got two weeks, maybe you've got three maybe we wait till after Labor Day. But you know, students are moving back into college campuses, maybe moving there for the very first time. And you see, you know, school supplies on sale at the grocery store, and it's just everywhere, even if you don't have a student. So I want to just take a minute to address that. Yeah, I think everybody's feeling a little bit stressed, a little bit sad about the end of summer. But of course, with a new year brings new possibilities, and if your student needs a little help getting back into the groove of things, building a more resilient homework system, learning some skills so we don't have the same problems as last year. Please get them help earlier than later. It is far easier to line up that help and then realize you don't really need it than it is to find yourself under a mountain of work that is late, missing foundational concepts, and a class has already sped past you and then trying to find some help and dig yourself out of that hole. So err on the side of caution here, and let's get our students the support they need. So today's episode is not about how to go back to school with confidence, though that's coming. We got a couple of those coming up today, I wanted to talk to yet another group of students that is probably really stressed out, not necessarily about back to school, but rather about approaching college deadlines. So I want to talk to families and students about the supplemental essay today, for those of you who may be less familiar with the application process in the United States, a supplemental essay is an extra school specific essay that may or may not be required in an application. So many schools use a platform like the common application or the coalition to manage the general application. It includes information about the family, the students, education and their school and their extracurricular activities. And then often there's a personal essay that goes with it, and that would go to all of the schools that you apply to through that platform. And then some of those schools are also going to say, hey, in addition to this we want you to answer these other questions. And sometimes those questions are are simple. It might be just what term Do you want to start? Are you going to apply early action or regular decision? Have any of your family members gone to this school? Do you sign off on our honor code? Simple questions, but many of them do ask these short essay questions, some of them are extremely short. I've seen, you know, 25 word responses, and in some cases, they'll ask a series of very short questions that have, you know, a 25 word response, and then you have questions that are more like essays, that are 100 words, 200 words, 300 words, and some schools will allow you to put in up to 550 or, you know, like University of Chicago, they don't really tell you a limit. And these school specific essays are meant to give students a chance to show another side of themselves and to really articulate who they'll be on that particular campus, what they're going to contribute, why they like the school, what are the aspects of that unique fit they have with whatever school it is that they're applying to? These schools, ask these questions in many different ways, using different wording, maybe referencing a poem or a mission statement or a famous quote or who knows what the the answers they're looking for fall into a couple of different buckets. Of course, with with some exceptions here, there are some schools that truly do ask unique questions and are looking for unique responses. But many schools will ask a version of, why do you want to go to this school? What is your most. Meaningful extracurricular activity. How has difference played a role in shaping who you are? We see a lot around what are your academic interests and where do they come from, or how do you want to pursue them at our college? And so these are the kinds of questions that students really should be prepared to answer. And students, of course, struggle. This is a place where I think looking at some samples can go either way. Sometimes students look at a sample essay that has been written for a particular school, and then they feel even more locked up, like, oh gosh. I can't say that specific of a thing about this school. I don't I don't see it a chance I can't write this essay, or it's like, oh, okay, I see the kind of thing that this person in the sample is, is drawing out. I can understand that I'm supposed to find the analogous things that work for me, right? That kid was a chemistry major. Maybe I want to study literature. So I'm not going to talk about professors in the chemistry department. I'm going to talk about professors in the English department, that kind of thing, right? So parents, you know your child, if, if you think a sample is going to intimidate them, don't show them samples. But if you do think it's going to help them, have a little bit of a road map to understand what they need to accomplish here, then, by all means, share some samples with them. But of course, we don't want them copying anything. Samples should not tempt a student towards plagiarism. And not only is plagiarism wrong, but also, if they are using someone else's answer, it's not going to come off as authentic. It's not going to fit with the rest of their application profile. It's not going to serve them in this process. So really, there's no no benefit to trying to copy what worked for somebody else here. I just want to say that, okay, but how do you start brainstorming? I hope that when you were building your college list, you and your student were writing down all of the things that they found exciting about whatever school it is that ended up on their list. You know, what they thought of the campus if they went on a tour, what really stood out to them? What did they think of the tour guide or other students that they met, what inspired them on that campus? What are the academic opportunities that they want to take advantage of there? Right? If they have an idea that they want to study, I use the example of chemistry before. Let's stick with it if they really want to study chemistry, what's special about the way you can study chemistry at that school? Are there particular professors that have, like, wild specialties that your kid has always been curious about. Are there research facilities? Are there special programs? Do they do something a little differently than other schools? Do it? Chemistry, sort of bad example here. I think, in the hard sciences, you tend to find you know same kind of progression of classes, but usually you can see a little bit of difference, maybe when we get to the advanced classes or the other kinds of requirements, like if there's a project required, or a research skills class or something like that. And certainly, when we get to things that are more in the social sciences or humanities, you might see real differences in the way they've set up the curriculum, or they've determined the requirements for that major. So look at that. Of course, you could also mention aspects of the culture of the school, and you might glean that from something like a tour, or maybe, you know someone who went there, and they can tell you a little bit about it. But also, hopefully, you are spending some time on the college's website and looking at their mission statement, looking at their values, if they've listed those out, looking at profiles of other students who they've highlighted in, you know, their news publications, and what's so special about these people and what's a common thread. And importantly, do I have stories that I can tell from my life that show that that is also a common characteristic in me, or that is a culture that I thrive in. And those sorts of very specific stories can really highlight how a student is going to just fit right in in a college culture is going to add to that culture in meaningful ways and is going to thrive. Of course, students should also do research on the student body and opportunities for extracurricular engagement. What are the students interested in? Where do they spend their time outside of class? Where are the places to kind of hang out or have fun? What are the clubs that are organized. Might your student want to start one because something seems to be missing, and what's the relationship between students on campus and the wider town or city that this university is in? Are there opportunities to partner with organizations or companies in that location? Are there. Tier opportunities that get students out into the community, that sort of thing. And of course, you don't want to just be laundry listing these things back to the college, like, look how great you are. It's really about tying them to something specific in the student's life. That really indicates, Oh, I did this in high school. I want to continue doing this sort of thing. And x school has all of these wonderful opportunities for me to continue doing it and actually even expand what I'm doing in ways that I hadn't thought of before. And I'm just so excited about it, and it tells me something about your culture, and I really respect that, and I think I'm gonna grow into the person that I always wanted to be by going to your school. Maybe that last part is a little bit over the top, but that's the idea here, even with questions that ask about, you know, what's your favorite extracurricular? Obviously, students should answer that question and talk about what their most meaningful extracurricular is, but it's also helpful to tie that to something specific at the university, right? If your student really loves their robotics team, I would expect that essay about their favorite extracurricular to talk about opportunities for them to continue that kind of work and that kind of collaboration on that particular campus, right? We're always making an argument about something specific in the student's life and tying it to something specific on that campus, I did an episode around this time last year on how to write the diversity essay, which is, you know, the one about, how does difference play a role in your life? And, of course, colleges phrase this differently. For every single college phrases this differently, it's how has an aspect of your growing up led to some kind of strength tell us where you're from and how that shaped you into who you are. There, there are ones that even ask more about. You know, what's a time that someone defined you by a single story, and how did that make you feel, and would you learn from it? Or what's a time that you disagreed with somebody, and how did you navigate that? And that's not exactly a diversity essay. It's much more like, can you be different? Can you handle being different, and can you handle other people being different, right? Can we engage in respectful dialog and be welcoming and inclusive, even if people believe different things look different from us, come from different places, have different values, can you still interact with them, right? Are you going to be a team player? Are you going to be a good citizen here? So I put, I put those all in that same category. If you're interested in kind of, how do we approach that essay? I won't repeat the material in that episode. You can go back and look at it. The title is, how do we write a diversity essay, something like that. And keep in mind that last year, we were all sort of reeling from the at that time, recent Supreme Court decision. This year, thankfully, no big changes in the admissions process or the kinds of essays that students are going to write of course, colleges have changed their essays just a little bit as of August 1, but nothing drastic, nothing I think is worth really remarking on here. And two things I'll end with here, many schools will give students the option to write an extra essay. They'll say these questions are optional, or they'll say, choose up to two out of these five topics, and you can do zero if you want to. I always recommend that students at least write one of those. This is a really wonderful opportunity to show a different side of you to the admissions officers, if they've given you the space to do so, I would take advantage of it. Of course, students are probably starting to feel a little bit burnt out on this and just don't want to do any more work. So, you know, maybe you give them a break, or let them maybe they take a break from this or or maybe it's a sign that maybe they shouldn't be applying to the school early, and maybe they should wait till regular decision for it, because the enthusiasm is just not there to demonstrate all of this other stuff to a college. The other thing I will say is that you want to make sure that whatever you're telling a school in the supplements does not significantly overlap with what you've told them in the personal statement. We really want to keep these pieces of content separate and again, these are opportunities to share something that the admissions office doesn't know, and you don't want to waste that opportunity by telling them something they already know. So this doesn't mean you can't write your, you know, meaningful extracurricular essay about something that is on your activity list. Hopefully, if it is your most meaningful activity, it is leading your activity list, but what you say about it will be different. You'll talk about it in a different way, and the stories you tell, of course, will be things that they haven't heard before. Oftentimes, I like to map out the content of the supplements with students before we really dig in on the person. Personal Statement. You know, a lot of students will come in thinking, Oh, I'm gonna write my personal statement about why I want to be a doctor, and I have to tell them, well, actually, many of your schools are going to ask you about your academic interests. So why don't we save that for that academic interest, essay and find something else to write about for your common app essay. And one of my colleagues on the team has a really great kind of guideline for this, like, let's write the main essay about something that is not achievement oriented, that is not leading up to and then I won an award, or I founded this club. Let's write it about a personal quality that you had to learn because of some experience, or some aspect of your your background, or something like that, and that's led her and her students to a lot of success here. And that's not to say this is easy. Of course, we're dealing with, you know, 17 year olds, and it is hard for anyone to be introspective, but I think teenagers in particular have some challenges with this, not only because they don't have a lot of practice with it, not only because they haven't had instruction in it the way adults, you know, when they're writing cover letters and preparing for job interviews. Have to practice that and have instruction in that. But also they're at this really tender age where they really care about fitting in doing what's expected of them. Some of them are a little bit paralyzed by that idea of it's got to be perfect. I got to tell them what they want to hear, and that can be hard to overcome, but we got to start somewhere. You got to put some thoughts down on paper and then lean on the stories. The stories will do most of the work for you of demonstrating this or that quality or the thing that you really want to emphasize is the fit. The story will do that for you. I say, don't try to be too clever, but do make sure that these essays are a little bit fun to write and fun to read. And I think that that is a good rubric to follow. All right, if your student is having trouble getting started on essays, revising the essays, finding their topics, finishing the essay, please call for help. There are lots of places that can help you. There are places that do essay review online. You don't even ever have to go into a meeting. There are places like what my team does, where we'll sit with you, we'll talk with you, we'll hold your hand through the revision process and help you become a better writer in the process. And then there are lots of places in between, and lots of people have written very helpful blogs about this. There are essay websites that give students questions that will help them brainstorm how to how to write, you know, this or that question. Let's get this project behind us in a way that we can feel proud of what they learned about themselves and what they learned to articulate about themselves. This is a great opportunity for them to dive into some deep questions just as they step into their own adulthood, heading off to college, and in the best of circumstances, these essays can help them understand in a very clear way who they're aiming to be in the next few years. And so hold on to that possibility. I know that this gets really stressful. I know parents sometimes you just want the essay done. But you know, writing is a creative activity, and we can't force it. Oh, I bet you guessed that I was going to say that we can't force it. All right, everybody. I hope this was helpful. Please reach out to me if you have questions, and I hope to see you next time. Thanks.