S02 EP01: Season 2 Premiere: Common App Tips, Affirmative Action, Essay Strategy, and Early Decision
In this episode, Thomas highlights the upcoming release of the Common App for university applications. And stresses the significance of personalizing applications to align with a school's offerings and culture.
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Season 2 Premiere: This episode highlights the upcoming release of the Common App for university applications. Thomas urges students to pause before writing supplemental essays, as they might change due to the recent affirmative action ruling, and stresses the significance of personalizing applications to align with a school's offerings and culture.
Additionally, this episode provides valuable advice for students, emphasizing the importance of fully engaging in summer activities and making the most of internship, job, or research opportunities. Thomas encourages students to maintain records of their experiences and consider requesting informal letters of recommendation. He also offers guidance on using the recommender feature in the Common App strategically and provides insights on dealing with the dilemma of disliking summer activities.
The episode concludes by briefly addressing the needs of rising eighth graders applying to prep schools and MBA candidates, advising early preparation and thorough research. Want to submit a question for Q&A? DM Admittedly on Instagram @admittedlypodcast
Key Highlights
Advice for summer activities, emphasizing engagement and record-keeping.
Extracting valuable lessons from disliked summer activities.
Leveraging relationships for informal letters of recommendation.
Strategic use of the Common App's recommender feature.
Caution in writing supplemental essays before changes are announced.
Personalizing applications by aligning with a school's offerings and culture.
Early action and early decision strategies for high school seniors.
Deep research and personal reflection for the best application strategy.
Advice for rising eighth graders applying to prep schools.
Preparing for MBA program applications, including exam and portfolio preparation.
About Thomas
Thomas is a parent and alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania. After earning his MBA at the Wharton School in 2003, he moved to Silicon Valley. For three years, he was director of admissions and financial aid at Wharton School. He worked closely with admissions professionals, students, alumni, and professors to create the best possible MBA class.
Thomas has been an entrepreneur his entire life in the fields of finance, agriculture, wellness, and sporting goods. As the founder of Global Education Opportunities, he works with diverse and underserved communities to help them become successful college students. Thomas started the podcast Admittedly because he is passionate about demystifying the application process for parents and applicants.
Related Links
Apply to be a guest: www.thomascaleel.com/apply-for-podcast
Follow Admittedly on Social Media
TikTok: @admittedlypodcast
Instagram: @admittedlypodcast
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Hello, and welcome to the admittedly podcast. My name is Thomas Caleel. I'm the former director of MBA admissions and financial aid for my alma mater, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In this podcast, I don't promise easy answers or quick fixes. But I will use my decades of experience to help you achieve your education goals. Now, let's get started.
I'm very excited to be with you here today, we're kicking off season two of our podcast, and I want to start by saying thank you to all our listeners and guests for helping us crack the top 10% of all podcasts worldwide. We're very humbled, and I'm just blown away by this result. Certainly, from the comments and emails and feedback we've been getting we've hidden we've hit a nerve, we've really started to talk about something that people want parents want, and students are looking for.
And so as we move into season two, we're going to take your feedback, we're looking at having more guests, a wide variety of guests, from other admissions professionals to evaluation specialists, to anxiety experts, to essay coaches, everyone to kind of get you on track and make sure that you are having the best possible shot at achieving your education dreams will also be working with students.
And for those of you out there who might be juniors, or rising seniors at this point, if you would like to be interviewed, or have a discussion on the podcast, please be in touch. We've received really some great applications, and are always open to more. And the other thing that we're going to do too, is we're going to devote an entire episode to Q&A because we've been receiving so many great questions. And many times as we get those questions, I actually just incorporate them into what I'm talking about. But we are going to have an episode dedicated specifically to your questions. But then also we're going to be doing a short segment called Question of the Week, where I select a question, I think that has broader general relevance, and talk about it on the podcast.
So let's get started. Right now it is the middle of summer, it's about mid-July, and students you've had a chance to relax and shake off the stress from the school year, maybe you've gone on a trip with your family, maybe you've already started your summer activities. But what do we what do we do now we're looking at the common app dropping in two weeks, and we're gonna talk about that. But what should you be doing at this point of the summer, I think it's very important, right, you should be very dialed into your summer activity, whatever it is, you should be fully engaged with that. And doing your best whether it's a job an internship or a research opportunity. This is really your time to shine.
Same thing with rising juniors rising, rising sophomores, we really want you engaged, I would also suggest that if possible, you take notes, you can journal your experience, can just write down a few notes at the end of every day, so that you do have a good record of what you're doing.
Because you will be surprised at how quickly these experiences and thoughts blur. And looking back in a year or two, you may not be fully on top of the day-to-day experiences. Now two things. If your internship, research opportunity, job, whatever it is, is going well that's great, really dig in really work hard to improve yourself. Also, be thinking to yourself, is there somebody here who knows me? Well, who sees me on a day-to-day basis that might be able to write a supplemental recommendation on my behalf? I don't want you to be Machiavellian about that. But also, if you have someone who's really encouraging you and supporting you and teaching you and you are going above and beyond for them, I don't think it's inappropriate at the end to say listen, I'm applying to college this year, next year. And I'd really appreciate an informal letter of recommendation. Now they may just offer to write something and send it to you. That's fine. Keep in mind that the common app does have a section where you can assign an invite to recommenders.
So ideally, you invite the recommender through the Common Application, they receive an email, they fill out this template, which will ease their work quite a bit, and then you can assign them because certain schools will give you the opportunity to have a third or fourth recommender. And you can use them if you feel it's appropriate to talk about things that you're discussing strategically in your application, your love of biology, your work ethic, your research abilities, and things like that.
Now, one of the questions that definitely does come up, however, is, what if I don't like my summer activity? What if I thought that I really wanted to go into biology, I'm doing this biology research internship, and I realize I just really don't like it? So this is a very tricky situation, right, but you can definitely make good use of it. The first thing I would say is, unless there's really just a major disaster happening there, and you are in danger, I'm going to assume here that you just don't like what you're doing. You've decided, You know what, I don't really like medicine, or I don't really like this aspect of business, or whatever it is that you've decided to do this summer. Keep in mind that even in things that don't go the way we planned, there are good lessons and very valuable learning opportunities.
So what I would suggest is that you really dig in and stay focused and stay sharp, right? Because you can still extract a positive recommendation out of something that you look back on and decide that was not for me, right? Every experience we have every opportunity we have good or bad informs who we become. So give this your best effort really buckled down, really look and say, Okay, I may not like, for example, this research project that I'm on, but what I can learn, because my research team leader is very gifted and very experienced in this maybe what I can learn from them is research methodologies, or how journals work, or how to structure a paper or how to manage a team, right?
So we want to do is extract whatever valuable experience we can from this summer activity that's going wrong. Then what we want to do, I think, is step back, and be self-reflective and want to think, Okay, why did I do this in the first place? Right? What was it that I was hoping to learn? What did I learn? What did I not learn? What did I enjoy about this? What did I not enjoy about this? And so if you are if this experience has caused you to shift focus shift direction, right? I've always wanted to be a newspaper journalist, I interned at this paper, and I realized, Oh, my goodness, I do not like the newspaper business one bit. Okay. You can, however, right?
Talk about the events that happened, what caused you to change your focus? And now what is your new focus? Right, perhaps now you want to focus your writing on novels, perhaps you want to go into more broadcast journalism, whatever it is, right? There is a learning experience in there. So don't be upset, don't be afraid if it's not what you hoped it would be or wanted it to be. Because you can still make lemonade out of those lemons.
Now, the other thing that's going to happen in about two weeks is that the common app is going to open on August 1. And you have spoken with some students and they say, Well, I've entered all my data into the common app, and I'm writing the essays. And what I would say to you yet, at this point in time is just pause, I would really urge you to pause, you can work on the main common app essay, absolutely, you can work on your strategy, you can work on your activity list because none of those things should change all that much, if at all right. And those are very important things to do. And the activity list and in particular, we've spoken about, but you're a very limited amount of space to adequately describe your activities. So that takes a lot more work than you would initially think.
However, for those of you who are rushing ahead to do the supplement essays, I would urge caution, right, the recent Supreme Court decision may impact the essays that schools put in their supplements. Schools are being very quiet about this right now. They're not releasing a whole lot of information, is it going to change what they ask for? Is it not going to change what they ask for? So what I would do at this point because we're only two weeks out is just just wait, write, do more research, get to know the schools better get a clear thesis on why you want to attend that school, all the things we've spoken about. But there's no rush. And I had a student last year, who was so proud of herself. She came to me and said oh, I wrote all of my essays, all my supplement essays in June as soon as school was done, and even last year when there was no seismic shift and admissions that Um, once the Common Application opened, she realized belatedly that the supplements, many of the schools had changed or tweaked their supplement essays. And she had to go in and redo all the work that she had already done. And that was painful and unnecessary, and demoralizing, to be honest with you.
So really, I would say, just pause a beat, there's no rush, take your time. And once that new common app drops on August 1, I'm going to go in there, I'm going to look at it. And then I will share with you my thoughts on what's changed, what has not changed, and different approaches and strategies that you can, you can do. So what else are you doing now? I think it's very important at this point to be thinking about your early action and early decision strategy, it's a great opportunity for you to kind of narrow down that list, because a lot of times students get very overwhelmed because they're thinking, Oh, my gosh, I'm going to apply to you, let's say 20 schools, and there's so much out there, I'm not sure where to start and, can become paralyzing that amount of things that need to be done.
Whereas if you start to narrow down your list, and you say, Okay, I'm going to do restrictive early decision here, maybe you're thinking about doing an early action, if it doesn't violate the terms of your restrictive early decision, or restrictive early action. And you can start to define and refine that list. And so maybe you've, you've finally settled on your one school. And now it's really your time to dig deeply into that school, reach out to students from your high school, for example, or from whatever other context who may have gone there, try and speak with alumni, do your research online, I know many students right now are taking advantage of the summer to do some college visits. I've talked about that before, I think that's great. If you're able to do that, then, by all means, take advantage of that.
But if you're not, then take advantage of the online resources available to really dig in. And, as I've said before, remember, this is about your journey, your path through the school. So if you are a liberal arts major, it's great that the school may be a good engineering program, but unless you're looking at doing some dual concentration, or getting involved in some way with the engineering school, it doesn't really impact your journey. And so it's much more important for you to pick apart the threads of that education and really dial in your path and how you see yourself benefiting from things that are offered at the school and asking yourself, okay, you know, of the 10s of thousands of students that are looking at this website that are looking at this school, how am I making this experience my own right, it's the same thing when we're talking about as we are discussing our high school experience, because by and large, you're all taking the same set of courses, but just in different order different path, different direction, you have the same set of courses to choose from, most of the extracurricular activities that you have to choose from are similar.
And so it's really about personalizing it, and really understanding what it is about that school and their approach to learning their approach to campus life. Those things are very important, right? Are you looking for a school with an active sports culture? Are you looking for an active Greek culture? Are you looking for an active party culture or a more spiritual experience? You know, more and more religion-focused experience and these things, now's the time, we just need you to step back and be honest with yourself about that. And being honest with yourself about that really gets to the overall strategy and theme of your application, right? How are you presenting yourself to the school what makes you unique and going beyond that initial cliche?
So for example, I had a student who wrote the first draft of their common app essay on a near-death experience they had while learning to surf in the ocean with a leash caught around their neck. And they were fairly scared. It was a terrifying experience for them. But they wrote an essay about that experience and how it shook them and it made them realize that other things were more important. And what happened, unfortunately, was it became really a cliche essay. It didn't talk about anything the student had done prior to that it didn't talk about how it impacted and changed how they approach their life and education and activities after that, right? It was just a long, beautifully written essay on On this one particular experience and a moment in time is great.
But what the admissions committee is looking for from that essay is how it impacts you, right? How those experiences in your life have impacted you and informed who you are today? So that student is back to the drawing board, and really having to think about okay, if this was such a powerful experience, how is it evidenced itself? And how does it evidence itself in terms of the major that I've selected? And how will I bring those learnings to my classmates and teammates, and how we're looking at, you know, how I've experienced my education at this university? Want to briefly address those of you who might be applying to prep schools, this coming January, I know it's very early. But again, you know, the same thing, we want to make sure that you are making the most of your summer, I know most of you right now are rising eighth graders, you're a little bit young. There are some limited opportunities. But again, I don't ever feel like intellectual curiosity has a limit.
One thing I would note is that a lot of our prep school students will list reading as a hobby, and they'll say, Oh, I read all the time, I love to read and that is great. And I would never dissuade anybody from reading. I think it's just fabulous. And I don't think that I think that most of us do not read nearly enough, myself included. And I actively set goals for myself to read. But I feel like it's something that has fallen by the wayside, and benefits you as a writer, as a student as a human. But, we need more than that, we need to see that you're doing something active and proactive.
And apologies to parents, I know that the summer is very difficult, especially if you have different children doing different activities around town and around the city. On the same day, I'm in that boat, I feel like an Uber driver at this point, running around providing drop-offs, pickups, snacks, all those good things. But it is important for you to distinguish yourself and differentiate yourself.
Because again, you know, as you're writing the application, you need to talk about those things that make you unique. And obviously, the admissions officers are going to look at that through the lens of what you can and cannot accomplish as an eighth grader. But take some risks, have some fun, don't just do the expected things, and find a way to demonstrate who you really are. For those of you looking to apply for round one of MBA programs, you know, ideally, by now you have taken or have been prepping for your GMAT or GRE exam, you're feeling pretty confident about that for international students. If you need to take the TOEFL or IELTS, you've dialed that in, you're well-practiced. Summer, I know doesn't fully slow down, but certainly slower than it is going to be in the fall. And so the more you can get done now, the better.
The same thing to school, research for both prep school and MBA or graduate school candidates now is really a good time for you to dig in, to really start thinking about the differences between the schools. And I would argue that prep schools and grad schools actually do differentiate themselves quite a bit, sometimes more than universities. So it really is a good opportunity for you to go in and say, Okay, what does my experience look like in this school? Why am I considering this school? What am I hoping to get out of this? And I think being very thoughtful about crafting your portfolio now, obviously, prep schools have one admissions deadline. And MBA programs will have three rounds of decisions, generally rounds, one round, round one, round two, those are going to be fairly standard. Once you get to the later rounds, there's a lot less space left in the class, and you need a very clear reason for why you're applying in that later round.
So I would save that, especially if you're in a traditional industry, you're going to get very, very little sympathy from the admissions committee. If you apply in let's say, the third or fourth round of an MBA admission cycle. They're going to ask what happened and why and you need a compelling reason for that. So that said, I hope you all are enjoying your summer. I hope you're having fun. I hope that you are making the most of the opportunities you've created for yourself. And I hope that you're excited about the admissions process. I know there's a lot of doom and gloom out there. I know it's very fun to be stressed about it and everybody's trying to out-stress each other.
But really, this is your opportunity to focus on yourself. It's really a great opportunity for you to do an introspective deep dive and have a greater understanding of yourself and be able to communicate that, right? It's very important as we go through this process as we go through life, to be able to articulate who we are, what we want, why we want it, and how we hope to achieve it.
So I wish you all the best. I look forward to speaking with you regularly, we're going to be going once a week, episodes, the second season as we build momentum for season three, which will take us through the actual application cycle and things will be a little bit more intense than for now. Enjoy your sunshine. Stay cool, have fun, and I look forward to speaking with all of you this season.
Thank you for joining us today. Please take a moment to subscribe to the admittedly podcast and download this episode. I welcome you to share your thoughts and questions with me. You can find us on social media at admitted We podcast. I look forward to continuing their journey together.
