The Ultimate College Admission Q&A: Admissions Experts Tell All!

The Ultimate College Admission Q&A: Admissions Experts Tell All!

Speaker 1

Welcome, everyone. This is a quad education webinar where we will just have a full hour to ask some of our fantastic admissions counselors all of the questions that we have about the college application process. So feel free to start adding those to our Q&A box. We have some of those when you register the form you filled out. But if you have any more, we'll be answering new ones as well. So just to give you a little bit of background on quad education, we are an admissions consulting company that works with students and families through the entire college admissions process. Some of our packages include working with students in their middle school years to start building their college candidacy profile to help you choose classes and start structuring your extra curriculars. We also work with students in all high school grades through senior year when you're applying to colleges. We help you decide what colleges to apply to, help you study for the SAT and ACT, help with extra curriculars, summer programs, research opportunities, and getting recommendation letters. Really, every single part of the college application process through you receiving acceptance letters and deciding what school to go to.

Speaker 1

So our panelists here today are three of our fantastic admissions consultants, and I'm going to have them introduce themselves. They know a ton and they work with many students all day, every day. So thank you all for being here. Arianna, can you introduce yourself?

Arianna Lee

Hi, everybody. I'm Arianna. I graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor's in Neuroscience. So any premed students out there? And I've helped many students like yourselves, many families with tons of great questions that I already see are piling in. So really looking forward to the webinar today.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Arianna. Dan, can you introduce yourself?

Dan Stratford

Sure. Hi, everyone. Good to be here. So I'm Dan, two time graduate of Stanford University. My career is in EdTech and entrepreneurship. I'm passionate about lots of things. I really enjoy working with all sorts of students and their backgrounds. And yeah, this is great. Excited to see all your questions. And thanks for the ones that you submitted already. This will be a fun hour.

Speaker 1

Awesome. Thanks, Dan. And Daryl, you want to introduce yourself?

Daryl Tiggle

Yes, thanks a lot. Hi, my name is Daryl Tiggle, and I'm a graduate of Union College. A long, long time ago, but I spent most of my career working on really both sides of the admissions desk. I work at my Alma model Union College for many years as an undergraduate admissions officer. And then for a long time after that at Tufts University, right outside of Boston. And then after a long career in admissions, I moved to the other side to college counseling, where I see the profession from a whole different angle, but it's equally rewarding and even more exciting. So I answer a lot of the questions that I've seen in the list already, and looking forward to knocking them down tonight.

Speaker 1

Awesome. Well, thank you all for being here. And to everyone who has joined this webinar, thank you for spending your Tuesday afternoon with us. So we'll just dive right in and start from the top here. So the question, what are the implications of an early application? And I think with that, let's just go over the different early application types, what they mean, and some things to think about while you're choosing those.

Arianna Lee

Awesome. I guess I will start. So we have a few different application types. We have early action, which is non binding. We have restrictive early action, which is again, non binding. That means you're taking action to apply to college early. Those deadlines typically are around November 15th earlier or earlier part of the year. Restrictive early action means that you can apply to that specific school early, but I believe it's also another public university or only public universities that you can apply to in addition with that early admission choice. Then you have early decision, which is binding. You cannot apply to multiple schools early decision because that is a contract saying that if you get into the school, you do have to fulfill that and go to SAD school. Of course, we have regular decision, which is your normal application round in the later part of the year, typically around January first to February 15th. I don't know if many go beyond that. Then we also have rolling admissions, meaning that you can turn in the application and they will review it upon when they receive it and give you a decision based off when they receive it.

Arianna Lee

Did I cover everything? I'm missing.

Daryl Tiggle

I

Speaker 1

Think you covered it all. Thank you. All right, so next question. We have a couple of these that are similar, so I'm going to group a few of them together, but it's about extracurricular activities. So we have a couple of questions asking about how important is volunteer work or how important is volunteer work when compared to having a job, particularly for the summer? Does volunteering or having a job matter more either way? And then with that, what is the number of extra curriculars you should be aiming for? And is it okay to let your grade suffer to add on extra curriculars? Those are quite a few questions. So I can reask some of them if we don't hit them. Dan or Daryl, you want to take this? Sure.

Daryl Tiggle

I think in terms of the category, the variety of extra curricular, I don't think one outweighs the other. I think it's involvement, leadership, impact. Those are the things that are really most important. And it really depends. And we'll talk a lot later on as we answer other questions about context. For some students, they absolutely have to work during the summer. And if they do that, that's something that also might come out during their review of their application. Here's a student for whom work is essential to them helping their family move forward. Another student might be especially committed to service where they've poured their energy into that because that's where their heart is and they're good at that. So we tell students impact, leadership, and variety, I think is important. But if you can go deep as opposed to wide and have a really deep involvement in a couple of things, that can be equally impactful to your application outcomes as having a more robust list of activities.

Dan Stratford

I love that.

Dan Stratford

Daryl's just really hitting on the head. I think you'll hear this in several different permutations throughout tonight, this idea of there isn't necessarily one right answer, but we'll talk to you about principles, we'll talk to you about balance, we'll talk to you about being a whole person and how that balancing all of your strengths across different activities. That's a perfect answer. You can go really deep in one particular activity if you're showing that leadership, if you're showing that impact. I try to encourage students I work with as well to not feel like they have to. Sometimes I have a student who feels like I have to do 10 different things and I have to have a sports and I have to have really deep in a language. There's these boxes you have to check. I'm not saying don't be aware of those things. I think they're important, but don't kill yourself over those. It needs to be really do things that showcase your strengths. If you're really passionate about one, you have a way to show leadership and impact. It's okay to go deeper on that at the expense of some other things.

Speaker 1

Fantastic. I think that's a great answer. And then I think just one thing to hit on that I think was answered in that, but does volunteer work or having a paid actual job matter more? Or do you get dinged if you have a job and don't have the time to do volunteer work or a sport? How does that factor in?

Dan Stratford

This is a question of volunteering versus... You cut out for just a minute.

Speaker 1

Sorry about that. Volunteering versus having a job for a summer activity? Will you get dinged if you have a job that you need to have and are not volunteering or not participating in a sport or language or science extracurricular?

Dan Stratford

Yeah, dinged, I would say no. And as Darrell rightly pointed out, sometimes that's not even an option for some students. And so it's really about how do you show up in the activities that you participate in? Are you the person who is identifying... I love to use the problem action result framework. You can think of par, PAR. Are you identifying problems, whether that's in your internship or whether that's in your community service, identify problems, take an action that gets a result. And those are the stories that make for great application essays that get you great letters of recommendation that are personally rewarding, fulfilling. So you could have something that seems like a really great box check, and it's something that gets on the resume, and that's great. But it's even more impactful if you have really concrete actions you've taken that led to real results. And those results, by the way, you should try to quantify those. So think about like, I recruited five additional people, or I grew the ping pong club by 50 %, or I scored in the top five. Anytime you can bring numbers into it for your results, that just crystallizes a little bit more and stands out in the application.

Daryl Tiggle

I love that. And for anyone who ends up working with me, you're going to You're going to find out that I've absolutely stolen Dan's acronym, that par. Because you're looking for ways that you can understand it. Problems, find one. What action can I take and result? That's brilliant. Thank you.

Dan Stratford

You can do that on your sports team. You can do that in your summer job. You can do that in your classes. You can apply these principles in many places. So it's less about the activity for me anyway than it is about how you're showing up in those activities.

Speaker 1

Awesome. Great. We have another question that just came in about extracurriculars, and then one about early decision. So I'm going to circle back to that one after we finish this extra curricular question. But is research considered a passion project in extra curricular categories or in the academic categories? And I think this opens up a great question about having different buckets that you feel like you may need to fill.

Arianna Lee

You said, does research consist of?

Speaker 1

Is it a passion project?

Arianna Lee

It depends on what you are researching. Again, why are you researching?

Dan Stratford

Are you passionate about it?

Arianna Lee

Are you passionate about it? And that could be in general, even if it was in relation to a class that you're taking that does have a lab, you can still have a passion project from that that keeps stemming from that. I would say it depends. I know.

Speaker 1

You got.

Arianna Lee

To have the answer.

Daryl Tiggle

But I think in a perfect world, your passion should lie where your curiosity lies. And that's where research, that's where research intersects. So I had a student who's interested, they think vaguely in economics or business for their college journey. And they created a financial literacy program for middle school students. And that is like they did research on what are some of the things that contribute to people not managing their finances well. And it's not having been rich or not having learned to manage your money. And she created really a brilliant extra curricular activity that is research based that lies at the intersection of her passion. So they can be both. They can be both. And I think also, as you think about how colleges will evaluate your activity, they'll more often give you credit than demerits. There are very few things that they don't like in terms of students doing productive, even if you get paid.

Speaker 1

If you tell a college that this economic project is a research project or a passion project, one or the other, will they look at it? Or if it's academic or extra curricular, will they look at it differently? Does it matter what bucket you put it in on your application?

Daryl Tiggle

I don't know that I've heard a college in my whole time doing college admissions ever ask that juxtaposition of question. All right. That's what I think. If the person is worried about that, move that off the worry desk. Colleges are worried about that.

Arianna Lee

I don't think.

Arianna Lee

Yeah. And I will say too on that, to legitimize it further, make sure that you are working with, have a mentor, have someone that you're checking in with to hold you accountable. That way it's further legitimizing, if you're worried about that, what you're working on.

Daryl Tiggle

I.

Speaker 1

Think those are the things to consider.

Dan Stratford

That's such a good example of like... I mean, that activity is like, it's leadership, it was initiative, it was research, it was extra. I mean, it was so many different things, and that's like a rich... I mean, you could talk about that in three different essays, right? And that would be okay if those are really substantially different skills that you're showing because that was a big part of that student's, their experience. So I love that example. And I love that as an example of like, you don't have to have a separate thing for like, this is my leadership and this is my service and this is my research. They can be together sometimes. And that's sometimes that's the best way to do it.

Speaker 1

All right. Thank you all. So to circle back on the early decision, what happens if you apply to a school early decision but know that you can't afford the tuition that is on their website? Should you not apply? Should you still apply? And I think this similar questions I'm sure a lot of people have about affording college, and should you apply to colleges that you know you can't afford?

Arianna Lee

Good.

Speaker 1

Question. Yeah.

Arianna Lee

I do know that applying earlier to schools, you have more access to scholarships and financial availability than you would if you apply later or more regular decision. Whether that is the choice of you going to the school, I can't tell you what your finances are, if you can afford it, if you can handle taking out the loans. But I will say, applying early decision, you are making a you're saying, if I get in, I'm going to go to this school. So you really want to think about that if you're going to apply early decision to this school.

Daryl Tiggle

My experience has been, and I think because of the high stakes implications of both enrollment and because of cost, colleges have been so the consumer should be super vigilant about making sure that you're ascertaining that understanding way before you even pick up the ED agreement. And you can do it in a couple of ways. Some students or families might know I'm not going to qualify for need based financial aid. So make sure that you could ascertain that. And if you do, if that school is a need based only school and you're applying for financial and you're applying ED, know before you do that that you're probably not going to be in an aid window. But almost every school, I'm sorry, every school is required to have a net price calculator. And because of this implication, the early decision schools with whom I've had experience, they're super good about making sure their net price calculator is one that in which if you're giving good information on the front end, it's going to give you really good information on the back end because as traumatic it is for a family to find out, Oh, my God. I can't afford to go to the school that I applied early decision school to.

Daryl Tiggle

And you don't have to be as sympathetic, super traumatic for the school to find out a student they admitted early decision who gets one of their spots is now not able to come. So they're going to work with you closely on the front end to make sure that that's a pitfall that you can avoid.

Speaker 1

So is that something you should reach out to use the calculator online, but maybe you reach out to the admissions office of the school to ask questions that pertain to your circumstances before you apply early decision?

Daryl Tiggle

Especially for binding early decision, yes. Reach out to them.

Speaker 1

Fantastic. And then you mentioned need based financial aid. Can you just give us a very brief overview of what that means?

Daryl Tiggle

And again, I want my colleagues to chime in if they have additional. So I tell students and families that financial aid really comes in two ways. And this is oversimplified where it's need based, which means it's married to your need, it's married to your wealth or your lack thereof. So that's where the aid comes from. Or it's merit based and merit based aid is married to your merit and merit has a more complex definition. So when you're looking at schools, because the need based aid is such a gift to the world, colleges within the first 20 words on their financial aid page will literally say, we meet fully, or we're an institution committed to need based financial aid. And I mean, anyone can challenge me on this first 20 words. It'll say that. If it's not in the first 200 words, it's very likely a place for whom need is not a metric they can meet, not because of where their heart is. It's because of financially, probably where they are. But that need based versus merit based aid continuum, just as a family, if you're not super rich, for which money is not a concern, totally understand what need versus merit based aid is tomorrow.

Arianna Lee

Then you also have need blind as well.

Daryl Tiggle

Give it to them.

Arianna Lee

Which is you, they do not look at your fund. You can qualify for their aid if they are offering it. But the main aids is exactly what Daryl talked about. It's either merit or it's need based, typically.

Speaker 1

Fantastic. All right. Some more questions. So we have a lot of questions that originally came in and that I'm seeing now about things that you can do to get into the college that you really want to go to. How can you put yourself one step ahead of your cohorts and position yourself to be a really qualified candidate for your dream school? And I have a feeling that all three of our panelists will say that it depends on a lot of different things, and it's going to be very case specific, but maybe we can go over just a high level couple of things that colleges look at and things that you should be thinking about for particular colleges when you're applying to know how you might stack up.

Dan Stratford

I can jump in first with some thoughts. One is that if you really want to go to this school, how does that play out and how would they know that? That's always one way that it can really stand out. If you've spent time talking to students, if you've been on the campus, if in every single school has an essay that says, Why do you want this school? And if you can say something that's not generic, that's like, No, I went to this class with this professor. I talked to the professor afterwards. They told me about the research that she was doing. And I talked with the students and they were so involved. I was like, This is my home. This is where I want to spend the next four years back. That story, a personal experience with the school, goes a long way to said, They know people are applying to lots of different schools at once. But if you could really say that this is the right one for me, that can really stand out and that can tip you over the edge. One way, lots of ways to differentiate, but that's one way.

Speaker 1

Daryl and Arianna, anything else to add to that?

Daryl Tiggle

When I'm talking about this particular piece, I put it under the general umbrella of demonstrating your interest. And that comes in many different ways. And colleges respond to the way in which you demonstrate interest in different ways. So demonstrating interest is simple. Get on their website, get on their mailing list, go on the campus tour. When they come to your high school, go to that visit. Whatever you can engage them. So demonstrating your interest is voting with your feet and showing up. But also being knowledgeable about the school. And like Dan said, when they ask the why Tiggle University question, make sure it's not the same. They couldn't say the same thing for Caldwell Lee and Stratford University and just lift the name. They want to know that you've done enough research that you can probably talk about their curriculum or talk about their learning style or talk about student life where, again, like they know, they know you're applying to 20 different places, but they'll know that building is only on our campus, that that faculty member only teaches here. So you can demonstrate that that place is one that resonates with you because you really know it in the landscape of a lot of places that might look and feel the same.

Daryl Tiggle

You've identified why it's good for you.

Dan Stratford

And a little tip, too, for all of you who are sophomores or juniors, get out there and look at the essays for this year because sometimes there's clues about what schools think their key differentiator is in the way they ask those questions. I know Wash U this year had a question about their flexible curriculum. I forget the name of it, but that's clearly something they really care about. So know something about that. Be able to talk about how that's going to play into your plans with that school. So love that. Be really knowledgeable on why that school thinks that they're doing something unique.

Arianna Lee

Absolutely. It's a love letter to the specific university. They know that you're applying to many others, but they want to hear how much you love their university. And then also another thing, if you are applying to a school based on the location, just be mindful to not make the entire essay about the location. So for example, you're applying to NYU because it's in New York, there are many other universities and schools in New York, and they're going to want to know why ours? Or otherwise, we can send you to every other school in New York for an acceptance and not ours. So just be mindful in separating that out.

Speaker 1

So it sounds like this is the time to get on a school's website, on their Instagram, see what current students are doing, look at the clubs, look at what makes their curriculum different than other schools. And it's okay to be a little bit stockerish with the school and see what speaks to you.

Daryl Tiggle

And not to scare anyone on this whole stocker continuum. Colleges, they do. Some do look to see, are they reading our stuff? Have they responded? Did they show up for the tour? So make sure you're engaging them. Make sure you're engaging them.

Speaker 1

So this is along that same line, but what does it mean to be a competitive applicant out of school? And what's a good GPA that you should be aiming for when applying to schools?

Daryl Tiggle

Who's up first?

Arianna Lee

Got it. No, I'm just kidding. I would say a target GPA. So if you're looking up the specific top school that you want to go to look up what their average accepted GPA is. Every school is going to vary. And if you're making your college list, or if you're working with your quad counselor to make your college list, you're going to want to put it in categories of safety, match, and reach schools. So your particular school that you're applying to, you really want to be within above that accepted GPA if you really want to have a strong chance of getting accepted. The further you're away from that accepted GPA, we can assume the correlation of the potential to be accepted. Granted, it is an average, and there are students that get in with way higher GPA and way lower GPA. It doesn't necessarily mean that's the end all be all, but you at least have a framework. Hey, this is where I should be if I want to have a strong chance of getting accepted to the university.

Speaker 1

Great answer.

Daryl Tiggle

I'd say in my experience, working on both sides of the desk, there's really just not a universal grading system. Every school does it a little bit differently. But not to be too obvious, those schools everybody knows the names of, you got to have ways to get it. However, your school determines A's, you've got to have mostly those and 99 % of those. But beyond that, colleges are going to look at the context of your academic journey and rarely punish you. Always forgive you for the odd B or C. But if you're looking at those schools that are at the level that everyone in the world knows about them, you've got to have a lot of what your school calls As. And at my school, we call them 90s and 95s. At some schools, they call them 4.0s and 5.0s. At some schools... So it's hard to universalize the GPA. But again, for those schools that you know the names of, the Ivy League, the Top 25, all to mostly A's. Everywhere else, rigor, achievement, growth over time, that could eclipse what your number GPA is. Not at Harvard, though, not at Stanford. Not to pick on those places, but not at those places, no.

Daryl Tiggle

And colleges now, because there's so much data available and testing has come into question, they'll tell you exactly what their testing range is. They're going to tell you whether or not you have to send it or if you do not. And they're going to tell you what the range is and call this the high and this is the low. You need to be in here. If they give you the option of sending it, this is the high, this is the low, and you're over here, not even going to finish that point. I'm not even going to finish that point of view. You'll be absolutely denied because they're a super selective school for which even the students with the GPA and SAT to get in, it's going to be hard for them to get into. So use the data to your advantage and then don't over or underthink it.

Speaker 1

Thank you. You brought up a great point with the SAT, ACT and testing in general. A question that we have and one that we get a lot is, if a school's test optional, should you send in a score? Do you need to take the SAT or ACT? And how important is it? And I think this answer is also it very much depends on the circumstance. But I know the three of you have a general rule that you work by with this.

Dan Stratford

Yeah, I'd be interested to hearing both of your viewpoints on that. The way I would advise someone is take it and see where you land on it. And hopefully, the best case scenario is it's in the upper end of that range, in which case I would say you absolutely want to submit it because what that is is just an extra little checkpoint, a little extra assurance that gets on there. And if it's lower than that range, as Daryl points out, that's also an obvious. It's a little bit of a judgment call if it gets in that lower half. We just want to work with you and see how it fits in the picture of things. But it's more clear on those ends of the spectrum. I don't know. What do you guys think about that?

Daryl Tiggle

Go ahead. I was just so happy to see the test optional era arrived and have it become more ubiquitous. And then I asked that same question of colleges for a long time, and it really is one they've given us a pretty straight and honest answer on. And I think because the pandemic helped colleges realize we totally can do this process without testing, we'd still like to have it because it is another data point that is good. So they've said to me, Darrell, look, and this is in no uncertain terms, this is our middle 50 %. Like Dan said, you're in the middle to upper half of that, send it. If not, please take the gift that we're giving you of the option of not sending it. However, at the schools, at some schools, you'll absolutely be sending your testing. At some schools, you'll be making different decisions because your testing may not be a strong card for you at that school. Where at other schools, it might be.

Speaker 1

All right. That makes a lot of sense. Arianna, do you have anything else there to add?

Arianna Lee

Yes. I apologize. I was trying to plug in my computer, but I would say I agree with both Daryl and Dan. I think that it really depends on the whole picture. Whatever you submit is what's going to be evaluated. But of course, if you feel that your scores are not to the par of what the school is accepting or what the school would typically accept for admitted students, then I would caution in turning in your scores. Otherwise, I would say you never know if you don't try. Why not at least try and take the test? And also be mindful that SAT and ACT, if you do well on one, you may not do as well on the other and vice versa. You might have to find which test is more your speed and maybe take that one and try to study and do better on that particular exam that speaks well to how you take tests. Yeah, that's what I would say.

Speaker 1

That sounds great. So I think to summarize, the general consensus is it does not hurt to take the SAT and ACT, see what scores you get. If you are applying to test to schools that require testing, you have to take it anyway and submit your scores. And if you're applying to test optional schools, if the submitting the score will benefit you because it is at least at what the middle range is or higher than that, it's good to submit it and don't, if not, but it also depends on the rest of your application strength. So you might want to get some other opinions from people that have access to all of your data, such as a quad counselor that you're working with. So we've talked about grades a couple of minutes ago and GPAs. We have a couple of questions about APs versus college credit, taking college classes outside of school, maybe during spring break or summer break. And so let's see. I think one question that we have using someone who's a freshman in high school is looking to go to a prestigious engineering school, and they go to a school where there's only one math AP, and that's only offered senior year.

Speaker 1

It's calculus VC. Should you take summer classes to get ahead? Is it important to have taken an AP class as a junior to be applying to that school? And what matters there? And I think this is also a great time to talk about the levels of availability of AP and college level classes at schools? And do colleges look at that when they're looking at your application?

Daryl Tiggle

Well, that's a lot. So I'll take a chip at a little piece of it. And what I'll say is for schools and what the colleges are looking for, they're always looking for context. So if you're at a school that offers a really, really robust AP or IB program, and you aspire to study difficult academics or apply to a highly selective school, they're going to expect that you had challenged yourself by taking those AP courses. But I'm going to use the example of the student that you gave who aspirations to study STEM, goes to a school where they only offer AP math as a senior course option. If that student is maxing out their curriculum at the school, the colleges are going to understand the context of the curriculum offered to that student. And so they won't punish that student. They will absolutely super reward that student for having the forethought and the proactive academic energy to say, Whoa, I want to go to MIT ish, but we can't take AP until my senior year. I might need to do some summer enrichment because I know early on. That's a super, I think, informed ninth grader because I didn't even know where MIT was as a ninth grader.

Daryl Tiggle

But it's one of those things where the College, they will not and cannot punish the child for not having taken those courses prior in their experience. But if that student does realize, hey, this is going to be a deficiency in my curriculum going forward, powering up as they move forward, absolutely the 100 % recommended thing to do.

Dan Stratford

What you just did was take this with a student and maybe the student asking this question, think of it this way. It's like, shoot, am I at a disadvantage? And Daryl, what you just said is actually you may have a secret advantage if you use it well.

Speaker 1

So then along that same strain, is it better to take a dual enrollment class at a community college or an AP class, or because they're both high level classes, they've viewed equally.

Daryl Tiggle

I think, again, as an admissions with my admissions hat, if your school has a robust AP curriculum, please take that. Or if it has a robust IB curriculum, please take that. If it has the dual curriculum, you can take that as well. But as an admissions guy, it's going to be a little bit more for me to sort that out than it is a good old fashioned AP IB, what have you. However, absolutely are going to reward that student for taking a higher road academically. And again, I don't know how often you'll be given, hey, you can only take this one or that one. But if it was AP at my school or dual enrollment at a college, my vote is AP at your school. And keep in mind, I work at a school that doesn't offer AP. Our kids get in everywhere. And I mean everywhere.

Speaker 1

All right. So another question is how do college admissions departments decide who gets accepted and rejected when they're reading student applications? And I think this is something we have a webinar coming up on in a couple of weeks. Feel free to sign up for it. But I know the three of you have worked within this sphere. Do you have a high level? What's the process for looking at applications and selecting students?

Daryl Tiggle

We've all got one for this one. What are they looking at? How do they offer admissions?

Speaker 1

Yeah. So how do they decide who gets accepted and rejected when they're reading application?

Daryl Tiggle

And I'm going to oversimplify. The first cut is academic. Academic, you need to be in the ballpark. And again, there'll be students who are reaching for students for whom that schools are reaching. Academically, they're a little short. But again, first cut is academic who can do the work. And then very much like the students are doing, what students should be doing is finding out not what school is the best name. Please don't do that. What school is the best match for me? Because regardless what the school's name is, they're only looking to see what school is the best match. They do not care how much you respect their name. News flash. News flash. And some of the schools, and I don't call them safety anymore, some of the schools that you think are safety's are not going to offer you admission. So I say keep that in mind. So first cut is academic. And then what students best match our ethos? We're a research driven school. We're a liberal arts school. We're a theater school. So you have to find out what school is going to be the best match for you. And then the name is a good start, but you've got to make sure that you're able to communicate to that school.

Daryl Tiggle

I understand how you teach, that's how I learn. I understand what people that are there. And oh, my God, those are my people. And I understand who are the faculty that teach there, and I read their books. So it's who's the best match with them because academically, they can dark board it. They'll dark board and say, how many kids do we need? Take the one who's the dark hit and admit those. But they say no. Which kids belong here? And the kids that belong here said it in their recommendations and their essays.

Arianna Lee

This summed up perfectly.

Speaker 1

All said, definitely. All right. I think this is an important question that we don't talk about enough or get asked enough, but will colleges work with students who have autism or some other type of learning difference through the admissions process? And are there any accommodations that admissions departments can offer with that?

Arianna Lee

Yes. So colleges do... I won't say all, but a majority of universities will offer accessibility options for you. And that's the reason why if you do have autism, if you do have a learning disability, you really should check in with the Office of Sustain... The Accessibility Office. You should check in with the admissions to see what do they offer? Do they offer a private tutor? What do they offer to help with my particular challenges, my particular disabilities? Or even if it's even physical disabilities, what does the school offer? Do they offer particular accommodations for me that will make this school my number one choice? I think if that's something that is important for you and critical for you, that should be in the forefront in checking with the particular admissions beforehand to see what they offer as options.

Speaker 1

All right, thank you. Let's see, does it hurt your chances at getting into a college if you do a community college or junior college first?

Daryl Tiggle

I love that question. No, it absolutely does not. And for a lot of students, and especially for students for whom either financially, this is a decision they need to make, or, and listen to me, if you're in this audience, if you're a sophomore or a junior or a rising senior and you're like, you know what? I'm way my academic ability and potential and brilliance is way better than I demonstrated back when I was 13, 14, and 15 years old. A lot of students for whom they didn't max out their high school academic potential might be a roadblock for them getting into the college that they want to get into now. Those who might say, you know what? I'm going to go to community college and then reprove myself. It gives them a great opportunity for getting into college thereafter. And I think for students who might be thinking of this, many colleges do know, and they're giving the benefit of the doubt that high school students that have done well in high school are going to come to college and do well. But they absolutely know that students that have gone to college and have done well will likely come to college and do well.

Daryl Tiggle

So some colleges even have articulation programs built especially for the two to two associates to bachelor's degree program. I worked at one of those highly selective colleges for a long time, and we loved transfer students who were bright and well rounded and organized. I don't think it's a discipline. Friends?

Arianna Lee

No, yeah, absolutely. And in fact, a lot of high schools are offering that more when the student is doing... For them basically to take the additional year of high school so that they get their associates degree. A lot more high schools are offering that. And so I would say take advantage anywhere where you can reduce down on cost, why not? That's my opinion on it, at least.

Dan Stratford

Yeah, it seems smart.

Speaker 1

Sounds like that also could be an option if you are a senior and haven't yet applied to a college, but want to, if you take a year to go to a community college to get yourself ready for applications next year. All right. So if something obvious is left off of an application, does it cause a red flag?

Dan Stratford

What's left off?

Daryl Tiggle

That's the ultimate it depends question. So a lot of times my families will panically go, Mr. Tingle, I missed an extra curricular activity, or I didn't put something in my... No, that doesn't work. But if you say that you're taking AP calc and then your transcript comes in and you're taking not AP calc, those things, yeah. There are things that are higher stakes than others.

Dan Stratford

If it is something that is a key part, like they expect a certain number of years of foreign language or something like that, or I worked with a student who transferred from a foreign country and she was nervous that her grades were low her first year, she made the adjustment, but then she really made progress and knocked it out of the park her junior and senior years. There's a place in your essays or in your application where you can note those things. So I would air on the side if you think it's something that's going to raise a red flag for the admissions committee, I would air on the side of being forthcoming with that, explaining it, saying, Here's how I did the best I could in these circumstances. This is why that might not be there. I just want to clear the air around that.

Arianna Lee

Also, if it's anything behavioral, because I get this question sometimes, if there's anything like you're thinking it's a suspension or something on there that is going to show up on your in your school record, I would check with your guidance counselor and see what is actually going to reflect before being overly forthcoming for things that might not even ever show.

Dan Stratford

Good point.

Speaker 1

Sounds like it's best to be upfront with everything. If there's any issues, point it out and get ahead of it. Yes. All right. So we have about eight minutes left. One question that we got quite a bit from our registration questions is how useful are admissions counselors actually pertaining to the type of service that quad education provides? Especially there are a lot of kids and students that apply to college without the help of a third party service. What's the benefits of working with a company like quad? It doesn't necessarily need to be quad. And I'd love to hear from all three of you about what you think about that.

Arianna Lee

Well, I'll say that me personally, when I was applying to college way back when I did, it is a lot of pressure. It is things that you just don't know. You can try and look up the questions, but experience and be able to talk to someone and ask someone questions that have been through the process many, many times and have come across a wide array of different challenges. Being able to ask those questions to people, it is a huge weight lifted off of the shoulders. When it comes to working with a college counselor, a missions counselor, it's just very valuable to have that knowledge, have someone who's been through a wide array of challenges, who has the experience as working in admissions officers, working with admissions officers, knowing what they're looking for, and being able to actually work with the student and get them to a point to understand, hey, this is where my application should be so that I have the best possible chance of getting admitted.

Dan Stratford

Yeah, I love that. Something to be said for pattern recognition. Also, I would say if you're going with a service like one that quad offers, there's also a network effect as well in terms of sharing resources, sharing ideas that can help you get some of the tips that are tailored to you more quickly. Even if you don't get a formal admissions counselor, don't do your application yourself. Hopefully that's obvious. I mean, you're writing them all yourself, but get a mentor, get somebody to talk through it with you. I think sometimes we can be a little blind to our own brilliance. And so you might be like, Oh, in this particular activity, I didn't really do something special. But if you have somebody who's good at interviewing you and good at pulling those stories out, you might realize that, Oh, actually, I did learn some really powerful lessons and I did have an impact in these areas. And that's something a good counselor can do. It really help you crystallize. Oh, these are my values, these are my strengths. If you do it early enough in the process, like with our candidacy development program or something like that, you can also identify areas of potential growth and strategize for how you can pull out those areas more or do some additional activities or better leverage the activities you're already involved with.

Dan Stratford

I would add one more thing. This year I had a student who was a perfect AB test for this, who applied to a bunch of colleges before and didn't get into the ones that she had hoped and took a gap year. And then this year she's applying again. And already, it's too early on admissions decisions, but she's got interviews at a lot of those schools that just turned her down flat before. And so that's just a nice little A B test of the difference. And obviously, the lion's share of that credit goes to that student and everything that she did. But a counselor helps.

Daryl Tiggle

I think my colleagues answers were spot on brilliant. And as you can tell, I'm a lot older than my colleagues. So I've been doing this a long time and I didn't have any college counselor. I've learned this over time. So the things I always say when I'm asked this question, this is not pretty high stakes, this is high stakes. Where you go to college, it's going to have some effect on your life and it costs a lot. I think in other areas of your life where you get good advice from a professional, this is more than most other things you've purchased prior to this experience. I think it's good to have an agent. I say to my students in my school, they go, Your teachers know you well, they make you smart, they make you... But I help you tell your story to the world. Dan and Arianne said, The world needs to know about you, I'm your agent. I'm the one that helps you do this. And then I'm often asked when I moved from admissions to college counseling and now to private counseling, why did you make that move? Why do you do that?

Daryl Tiggle

And this is how you understand this work. And I tell everyone, I go, look, any company that produces food or drugs, they have someone in their organization, lots of people in their organization that used to work for the Food and Drug Administration because they know what goes on in the area of getting compliance, of getting approved. So you've got people who are experts in doing college admissions, giving yourself and your children advice on how to navigate college admissions. It's like why you have doctors. You go to your doctor for medical advice. You go to folks who know a lot about admissions for admissions advice because it's complex and it's super expensive. Not what we do, the thing you're paying for when they go to college.

Dan Stratford

Well, I appreciate your experience there. I've written down several quotes that I'm definitely going to borrow.

Daryl Tiggle

I stole something from your first comment. Par problem, action, results. Already put my name on it. Yeah.

Arianna Lee

Written down from both of you all.

Daryl Tiggle

Well.

Speaker 1

I hope everyone who joined us tonight also took something away from.

Arianna Lee

Our.

Speaker 1

Fantastic panelists. I wish that we had three more hours to go through all of the questions that we had. I know that there's definitely some that we didn't get to. Feel free to go to our website, quadeducation. Com. We have a webinars page. You can go see all of the webinars that we've had. You can sign up for upcoming webinars. You can watch them all for free. And hopefully that those dive in a little bit deeper to the topics that we touched on here and topics we didn't even get to. You can also schedule a consultation with our team. We can talk to you about how we can help you and hear about what you need, and you can be paired with a counselor like Adriana, Dan, or Daryl, and they can help you with your process. And be on the lookout for an email from us that will have a recording of this webinar as well, so you have all of this information to look back on. And definitely feel free to reach out if you have any questions. We do what we do for a reason. We love to help students and families through this process.

Speaker 1

Adriana, Dan, Daryl, thank you all so much for being here and for all of your wisdom. And I know I learned a lot. Sounds like three of you did. And hopefully our attendees did as well. I hope everyone has a really great Tuesday evening and a great rest of your week.

Arianna Lee

Thank you.

Daryl Tiggle

Thanks for the opportunity.

Speaker 1

Bye, everyone.