AIɫɫ

Webinar Transcription

2026-05-15-The Science of AIɫɫ Admissions

Lydia: Hello, everyone. Welcome to, “The Science of AIɫɫ Admissions.” My name is Lydia Hollon. I’m going to be your moderator tonight, and I am a senior advisor here at AIɫɫAdvisor, and have been with the company for about four years now. And as well, I am a graduate of New York University. So to orient everyone with the webinar timing for this evening, we’re gonna start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q&A.

Lydia: And on the sidebar, you can download our slides and start submitting questions in the Q&A tab. We are also recording this session, so you can re- review that again, um, later if you have to get up or leave early or anything like that. Now, let’s [00:01:00] meet our presenter.

Dr. Aya: Thank you so much, Lydia. Hi, everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where you are in the world.

Dr. Aya: I am Dr. Aya Waller-Bey, and tonight I will be your presenter. So to first introduce myself, I often like to begin with that I am a proud first generation college student, which means I was the first person in my family to earn a four-year degree. I studied sociology at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, Hoya Saxa, and upon graduating, I became an admissions officer there and the coordinator of multicultural recruitment.

Dr. Aya: So I had an amazing time there reviewing applications for thousands of students, and shortly after, um, I got an amazing opportunity to go across the pond and earn my master’s in philosophy of education at the University of Cambridge in England. And while in England, I became an alumni interviewer for Georgetown, and then realizing that I wanted to return back to the academy, I came back and earned my [00:02:00] PhD in sociology at the University of Michigan, go Blue, where I actually studied the college admissions process, specifically college admissions essays.

Dr. Aya: So I have over a decade, uh, of experience in college admissions, and I’ve been working with AIɫɫAdvisor, um, for about six application cycles now. So I’m super excited to talk to you more about the science of college admissions and to answer your questions later on in the conversation.

Lydia: Fantastic. So before we jump into the presentation, we’re gonna do a quick poll with you all. I will go ahead and open that up. But as we give you all a chance to answer this question about what grade you all are in, I wanna give Aya a chance to kinda tell her, her perspective. What do you think is the most- On the thing that people are least knowledgeable about when it comes to college admissions or the [00:03:00] thing that you think people commonly misunderstand about the college admissions process.

Dr. Aya: The thing that they misunderstand. Um, I think one of the things increasingly so in this very hyper-competitive admissions process is that parents, families, students alike assume that a student, um, being really involved in their school environment is, like, going to make them stand out and, and push them over the finish line.

Dr. Aya: I think we actually overestimate, um, how the importance of non-academic factors. So universities are looking for students who are incredibly talented in other ways outside of the classroom, but I always like to emphasize that the high school transcript, your experience of, you know, in, your in-classroom time over the four years is what’s really, really critical in the admissions process.

Dr. Aya: And all the other things are great, and they can help you, but we really want students who are performing well in the classes [00:04:00] that they’re taking. And I think folks kinda lose that as we start thinking about passion projects and, you know, extracurricular activities and other things, um, that are non-academic.

Lydia: Yeah. I think that’s a great point. And, uh, something that I have seen a lot that kinda lines up with that is sometimes students overestimating this idea of, like, them needing to have some s- either super interesting, super unique story or a story that is, like, so sad and that they had to have all of this trauma in order to get into top schools.

Lydia: And I think what you just said about there being many factors that actually do just line up with, like, how hard are you working and how well are you doing in your courses, that playing a huge role- Mm-hmm … um, and not just doing a bunch of random things or needing the saddest story in the world in order to get into a college.

Lydia: ‘Cause every year there are plenty of students who are admitted who do not have a sob story, who do not do every extracurricular [00:05:00] under the sun, but it’s about being strategic about the things that you are doing. Mm-hmm. Exactly. So, uh, to look at our responses, we have 2% in eighth grade, 13% in ninth, 15% in 10th grade, 41% in 11th, 2% in 12th grade, and 28% in that parent or other category.

Lydia: So we’ve got a nice mix here, but mainly parents and juniors in the house tonight. Makes sense.

Dr. Aya: All right. I will pass it over to you. All right. So thank you again, Lydia, and welcome again, everyone. So let’s dive into this conversation, the science of college admissions, and I, I find this, this title to be quite interesting, almost ironic as we often think about college admissions as an art, right?

Dr. Aya: But increasingly so, people want to know if there’s some method or methodology that might help them make sense of this increasingly convoluted process. So when we [00:06:00] talk about the science of college admissions, referring to the research, the data, and systems that are shaping how colleges actually evaluate applicants, right?

Dr. Aya: So there is some rhyme and reason. Each university has some type of rubric or system that they are using to help them make sense of and to organize, to sort, um, and to evaluate the thousands, and in some cases, tens of thousands of applica- applications they receive each cycle, right? Admissions decisions are often guided by what we call institutional priorities, right?

Dr. Aya: These are factors that institutions have, um, that it’s, it’s how they kinda make sense of what types of students they need to be admitting, uh, during which year, right? So some years they might need to have more computer science students, or they might need to fulfill another kind of academic program or need representation of students geographically.

Dr. Aya: So each university have their own kinda institutional priorities, their own [00:07:00] enrollment goals, and also their holistic review practices. And of course, that’s for the schools that actually practice holistic review, um, meaning taking into, uh, consideration all the factors of the appl- of the applicant, right?

Dr. Aya: So admissions decisions are guided by a lot of different factors. Again, institutional priorities, enrollment goals, and also their own kind of holistic review practices. AIɫɫs are analyzing these factors, right? Your academics, which I, you know, referred to earlier, which in the grades to test scores where applicable.

Dr. Aya: Your essays, right? Those personal statements, those supplements. Extracurriculars, so your, your leadership, your involvement, your, your community service, your geography. Where are you located? Are you international student? Are you a student in Montana? Are you a student in, you know, the Bronx, New York, right?

Dr. Aya: So geography actually matters. Socioeconomic background. Are you a low-income, um, student? Do you atten- you know, will you be eligible for a Pell Grant? Do you attend a Title I school? Um, and then just fit, right? [00:08:00] Are you a student who thrives in a more cosmopolitan, you know, big city, or do you want something more rural where, where you could do whitewater rafting on the weekends, right?

Dr. Aya: And then admissions offices are also using data to predict enrollment, financial needs, and student success outcomes. And oftentimes, this data, as it relates to predict- predicting enrollment Admissions officers are trying to say, “If we admit, you know, 1,000 students, what percentage of those students are going to attend, and how many students then will we need to waitlist?

Dr. Aya: And, and how much do we think that waitlist will move?” Right? Um, and what percentage of the class we can afford to, you know, provide financial aid for and in financial need, et cetera. So again, there are various aspects that colleges, and particularly admissions offices, are thinking about as they are building and shaping their classes.

Dr. Aya: [00:09:00] So in thinking about building and, and shaping, right, what are colleges trying to a- achieve, right? As I mentioned earlier, their departmental needs, right? There might need to be a certain number of students in the logistics department for it to be financially feasible or sustainable, right? They might need a certain number in the, in the, uh, engineering program.

Dr. Aya: Perhaps a donor, an alumni donor, you know, wants to create a new nursing school and gave a school, you know, $50 million to invest in the nursing program. So now the school needs to admit, you know, 100 times more nurses, right? So there are all types of departmental needs that universities have, and they might need to have a certain number of majors or certain, uh, demographic of majors, et cetera.

Dr. Aya: Then there’s also relationships, and I think this is, thinking about Lydia’s question too, and this is something that was quite eye-opening for me when I began working in admissions, was universities have relationships, oftentimes very long [00:10:00] relationships with different, um, third party programs or nonprofits, community-based organizations.

Dr. Aya: Also, um, say, you know, I attended a Jesuit school, so there might be relationships with local Jesuit universities or, or, um, or national Jesuit universities, and that goes, you know, with other denominations or other types of cultural ties that, um, universities might have. They might have certain programs for students attending public schools in a particular city or state.

Dr. Aya: So there are also, um, relationships that universities have, um, that they, they leverage when they’re trying to achieve, you know, the class that they want to build. As I mentioned earlier as well, we have, you know, universities have geographic representations that they’re trying to think about. For some universities, it’s very important to them that they have at least one student from all 50 sta- States and Puerto Rico and DC.

Dr. Aya: For some schools, that is really important. They’ll market it, they’ll advertise it, they’ll [00:11:00] talk about it during admi- admissions presentations. You also might have schools that want as many countries represented, right? So you’ll sometimes hear during admissions presentations, “We have students represented, you know, in, in over 200 countries,” et cetera, right?

Dr. Aya: And then you have in the case of public universities, you know, Michigan State or, you know, University of Michigan, which are, you know, two s- public universities here in the State of Michigan where I live, where they have to kind of negotiate and navigate the in-state versus out-of-state, right? Public universities, the number one commitment is to serve, you know, the residents in, in that particular state.

Dr. Aya: So you see sometimes that the acceptance rate for in-state students might look differently for students out of state, or the financial aid offerings for in-state students might look differently for out-of-state students. So sometimes universities have to admit or have a certain percentage of in-state or out-of-state, um, students, namely public universities, right?

Dr. Aya: And then finances. Very, very [00:12:00] important. Increasingly so during these very difficult financial times. Um, tuition dependency. So, you know, colleges are also trying to make sure they can, you know, have enough students who can pay, right? So you might hear the language full pay students, right? How many students do, do they need to admit that can pay their way?

Dr. Aya: And that money is important because in some cases it subsidizes the students who may cannot afford to do that, right? So universities might have a need blind policy. That means when you’re applying, the admissions officers are not looking, um, or working in tandem with financial aid or looking at whether or not you can afford to pay.

Dr. Aya: That’s separate from the admissions process. If they choose to admit you, um, then they will then award whatever financial aid you might need to attend, right? Those are need blind. But then in some cases, they’re need aware. Need aware is when it comes down to those, you know, last 25 spots, they might start to [00:13:00] look at who can afford to pay or what percentage of financial aid would this student need.

Dr. Aya: Can we afford this student? Does this student have, you know, more need than we are able or have the capacity to fund, right? So again, colleges are trying to achieve all types of balances and kind of navigate these various kind of areas when, you know, building, building a class. So when thinking about, um, how admissions officers or AOs evaluate applications at a high level, this is just an overview, right?

Dr. Aya: Emphasis at a high level. Again, there are so many nuances when it comes to universities and, and, and admissions practices. It might look differently for public, large publics versus small liberal arts colleges. Um, you know, minority-serving institutions versus, you know, regional college, open access university.

Dr. Aya: So [00:14:00] again, this is a high level in thinking about perhaps schools who are looking at applicants more holistically. So essentially, admissions officers are evaluating applications. They’re evaluating applicants, and they’re considering those institutional priorities that I, I identified earlier or, or we discussed a little bit earlier.

Dr. Aya: While doing that, they’re looking at that applicant profile. So they’re looking at the high school culture and demographics. By culture and demographics I mean, uh, is it a large public? Is it private? How many students graduate and attend four-year universities? Where are these students attending? How many AP classes?

Dr. Aya: How many IB classes? How many AP classes can you take per year? Do you only have honors classes? Um, how, what’s the class size? Do you rank, right? Is there a class rank? So universities are looking at the high school profile that often accompanied, um, applications. Back in the day s- you know, schools would actually submit physical ones.

Dr. Aya: Um, [00:15:00] when I worked in admissions, now a lot of universities and school districts will include high school profiles on websites. So sometimes universities can literally look up the website and s- and get this information. So that’s a part of it. And then you have your academic background. Again, so, so important.

Dr. Aya: I cannot emphasize this enough. The high school transcript is the most important part of the application. It’s the most important data point, if you will, um, when thinking about, um, whether or not a student could perform well if, if accepted, right? The transcripts show how you performed over time, right? It sh- it sh- it shows how you perform as rigor changes, right?

Dr. Aya: That freshman or ninth grade class, by the time you’re a senior, you know, oftentimes things get harder, right? You are taking more APs or you’ve like, you’ve demonstrated that you might have a certain level of strength, right? Maybe math is really your jam. So by the time you’re a senior, you’re taking, you know, AP Calculus BC, right?

Dr. Aya: So [00:16:00] again, that high school transcript, um, and, and the rigor is, is something that- Admissions officers are taking a look at. And then test scores, where appropriate, um, where, you know, if you choose to submit the test scores, right, if your school is test optional, um, then admissions officers are also looking at those numbers, right?

Dr. Aya: They, they wanna see how you performed on the exam. Then there’s the academic focus. What major did you identify as the area of interest? And you might be undecided and undeclared. That’s fine, too. At a lot of universities, students are all… Even if you check a box, you might still come in as undecided or undeclared until you declare that second semester of your sophomore year, which is, you know, tends to be the case in a lot of schools, um, particularly in the liberal arts spaces.

Dr. Aya: So again, they’re looking at are you… Did you check the box to study environmental science, or are you, are, are you interested in, in a high impact major, computer science or nursing, something that is, you know, increasingly popular? Did you say [00:17:00] you’re pre-med or pre-law, right? So they’re looking at your interest, um, in y- your academic major.

Dr. Aya: And then you have those individual qualities, right, those passions, which often seen, um, in the, uh, essays, right? So… Or your activities list. Again, are you incredibly environmentally, um, focused, right? Are you someone who cares about recycling or climate change, and your extracurricular activities or your essays or your letters of recommendation even talk about that fervor and commitment you have to, to the environment and sustainability.

Dr. Aya: So they’re looking at those aspects. And then fit. I gave the example earlier, but it’s a really important one, where some students say, “I love the hustle and bustle of a town or a city. I wanna be able to take public transit to theater, and that’s really important to me as someone who, you know, was in theater at my high school, and I have passions of, you know, being on Broadway.”[00:18:00]

Dr. Aya: I… You know, if that’s something you’re i- you know, identifying, you’re articulating, then maybe going to a school in rural, you know, Minnesota may not be the best fit, right? Is that the best fit with the school, right? Or maybe you hate politics and you say, “You know what? That is, that’s not my jam. I don’t wanna be in an environment where everyone’s talking about politics.

Dr. Aya: I just really wanna study biology and become the best doctor I, I can.” Then, you know, the nation’s capital, right, if you like going to a school in DC, there perhaps may not be the strongest fit, you know? So they’re thinking about fit as well based on what you articulate about your interests, who you are, and also they’re thinking about fit as they’re, again, building out a class.

Dr. Aya: And then ultimately, based on these various data points, admissions officers make admissions recommendations or decisions, right? So that is, these are some of the aspects that are part of the evaluation. And again, this also includes letters of recommendation where required. So that could be a [00:19:00] high school counselor or, um, teachers.

Dr. Aya: Um, some applications ask, you know, a friend to submit a letter. So again, letters of recommendation are also a part of this kind of applicant profile.

Dr. Aya: So again, thinking more about these demographics and aspects, right? So we talked a little bit about some of these things, but we’re just gonna dive a little deeper. You have, first, when thinking about the broadly demographics, we have race and eth- ethnicity. Um, please see the note here that there was a 2023 d- uh, Supreme Court decision on race-conscious admissions, which does affect how race and ethnicity are considered in the application process.

Dr. Aya: Um, the application processes are not race neutral. Um, a lot of aspects of our backgrounds are embedded and racialized in very specific ways. However, um, just know that the ways universities can kind of consider [00:20:00] race looks very different, um, post 2023. However, that is, you know, for some schools, institutional priorities also include diverse students with diverse backgrounds.

Dr. Aya: You also have gender, right? Making sure that there’s a strong gender balance. A lot of universities want to have as close to a 50/50 gender balance, right, as, as possible, recognizing that we also have non-binary students as well. I emphasized earlier that universities are also very much interested in geography, right?

Dr. Aya: Wanting to say that they have students from all 50 states, right? Or you might be a school that has made a commitment to serving, um, students in that city, right? I live in, you know, Detroit, Michigan. We have a university by the name of Wayne State here. It’s in, you know, in the heart of downtown or midtown Detroit.

Dr. Aya: So there is a commitment to make sure they have certain Detroit, uh, percentage of Detroiters, right? So there’s all type of geographic, uh, prior- thinking about institutional priorities that schools might [00:21:00] also have. And then college-going status. Universities are looking at are you the first person in your family to go to college, or are you a legacy student?

Dr. Aya: Maybe grandparents attended the university, or mom or dad or older sibling as well. So college-going status is also a part of the demographics. And then we have the standardized test scores, as I mentioned. Some schools are test optional. We’re seeing ebbs and flows with testing. Some schools are requiring them.

Dr. Aya: Then you have the kind of test blind school in the, the UCs, and then you have, um, some schools that say, “Submit test scores if your grades are below this GPA,” or, “Submit test scores if you’re applying to an engineering program.” So- Standardized test scores, again, they’re, they vary so widely nowadays, but that might also be a part of the applicant profile.

Dr. Aya: And then the academics, as I mentioned, high school type, public, private, suburban, you know, urban center, religiously affiliated. You know, I, when I worked in admissions, some of the [00:22:00] private schools, I mean, they didn’t give out letter grades. They only gave… You know, some schools gave only qualitative feedback, right?

Dr. Aya: There was literally not a letter grade or a number. It was like you just had to read, you know, what the counselor said about the students. So schools vary greatly across this country. Um, but universities have relationships with, you know, with univer- uh, with high schools. So admissions officers start to know the culture of the schools and what does it mean for a student to get, you know, a four on their, you know, uh, on their transcript as opposed to a two.

Dr. Aya: Some schools literally didn’t even use letters. Again, so schools vary. And then rigor of curriculum, right? So AP, IB or dual enrollment. You know, a- AOs are looking at what are you taking? Are you taking the most, uh, competitive classes that your school has to offer that aligns with your strengths, right?

Dr. Aya: Are you taking the… Are you doing the IB diploma, or are you one of those students who are trying to, you know, go to a public university, so you’re trying to take as many dual enro- enrollment courses as [00:23:00] possible to get, you know, some college credit to help sub- you know, subsidize the cost, right? So, uh, AOs are looking at those things.

Dr. Aya: And of course, GPA and rank, okay? And we know that GPAs are reported, in my opinion, increasingly weighted GPAs. But when universities, particularly more selective ones, see a transcript, they’re looking at the letter grade that you got in the class. So even if your GPA is 4.6, if they only see all Bs, that is going to signal something, right?

Dr. Aya: So they, they, they, they’re still gonna take a look at the letter. What was the actual grade you earned in the class? And, and are you ranked? Does your school rank? Are you in the top 5% or the top 10% or the bottom half of your school? So looking at ranking as well. And again, as I emphasized earlier, we’re looking at major and department of interest.

Dr. Aya: If you say you want to study, you know, go major in, like, in one of the business schools or something or a business program, they’re gonna look at did you take micro and [00:24:00] macroeconomics, right? How did you do? Did you take… Are you taking the AP exams in those classes? Are you in calculus? How did you do, right?

Dr. Aya: So there’s also thinking about what you’ve identified as your academic interest and how you perform in classes or in standardized tests that correspond with said interest.

Dr. Aya: So each university has their own ratings or rubric or approach to categorizing students, okay? That varies widely. So it’s not a very black and white process. You have academic, again, GPA, test scores, rank, curriculum. Right? There’s some type of formula that universities use to kind of sort students, right?

Dr. Aya: Remember, schools are getting, especially because of the Common App, s- thousands and tens of thousands of, of applications, especially those large public universities that we know about. Increasingly the SEC schools, the Auburns and such, are getting more applicants. Um, you know, the Florida schools, et cetera, the University of [00:25:00] Michigan, they’re getting, I mean, 20, 30, 40,000 applications.

Dr. Aya: So there’s, there’s a sorting hat of sort, right? And then the activities. Uh, your level of performance, your participation, your leadership, the rarity and length of involvement in, or is this something that you developed? In the Common App, the activities list, which allows you to list up to 10 activities is, is a great place to kind of signal these things, right?

Dr. Aya: Again, did you create a club or organization? Not necessary to be successful in the application process. That’s another thing that I hear parents and families and students think, “Oh, I didn’t create anything, therefore I won’t get accepted into my top choice.” No, you do not have to create or publish, um, you know, a article in a peer review science journal to be competitive in the application, in college application process.

Dr. Aya: Okay? But universities are looking for, um, you know, high levels of participation, consistency, impact. Not just that you were part of a thousand clubs, but what did [00:26:00] you do? What did you achieve, right? That, that’s something that they wanna see. Length of involvement, sustained engagement, sustained commitment.

Dr. Aya: Um, really demonstrating that you were truly a leader, um, not just by showing up, but by really making an impact in your community or your school or your family as well. And also, one of the activities not listed here is a job. Okay? And the job can be both working at, at a local coffee shop or it can be, you know, helping, you know, tutoring your, your younger siblings or helping them with their homework after school or feeding them because your parents might have to work as well.

Dr. Aya: So also like to emphasize that, you know, working, um, jobs, um, because you have to or you wanna save up a little money, or also the familial responsibilities are equally important as we think about activities as well.

Dr. Aya: So in consideration of, you know, those [00:27:00] aspects, we also have that personal, that brand, the narrative, the story. Which again, that, that’s a very distinct, you know, distinctly American, maybe Canadian, uh, a little bit. You know, they do that in some of their applications as well, but very American. This idea of the personal brand, the personal story, the narrative, right?

Dr. Aya: When I went to, uh, to Cambridge, their application process was quite different, okay? Um, so AOs are looking at those personal statements, those 650 word, um, essays where you are talking about- You know, responding to one of the six or seven prompts, right? They wanna hear how you, uh, make sense of your experiences.

Dr. Aya: What, you know, what’s important to you? What did you learn? Um, why are you telling this story? They wanna see those activities, as I mentioned. I gave the example about the very environmentally friendly or environmentally conscious person, um, really showing that that’s something that’s incredibly important to [00:28:00] them because their core activities are centered around sustainability, right?

Dr. Aya: Um, or the essays they decided to write about, talked about recycling or, you know, s- solar panels, et cetera. And then you have, again, the letters of recommendation where, uh, what are those, you know, the parts of the application where you have someone else speaking about you, right? So your counselor or your teacher are talking about their experiences with you, or in the case of your teachers, perhaps their experiences with you inside of the classroom.

Dr. Aya: Were you the student that always helped their classmates? Were, were you the student who got finished early and put their head down because they were exhausted? Um, were you the student who showed up early? Were you the student who always asked, “How can I help?” Were you the incredibly curious student who would get so excited about some of the lessons, you would go home and l- find NPR articles or podcasts about them, right?

Dr. Aya: So again, that’s a part of that personal narrative, that brand. And again, the school and fit are also ways that students… [00:29:00] Or these activities and the branding is also the way students kinda sh- show if they’re a good fit with the school, right? And I’ve given several examples of that. And then generally, the admissions officers are bringing all of that stuff together, right?

Dr. Aya: Um, again, I, that’s why I f- I find that the science of college admissions to be a bit ironic, right? Because it’s a bit of a art, right? ‘Cause there’s so much subjectivity that’s happening here, and I know parents and teachers and students get so frustrated because they want us to lay it all out, black and white.

Dr. Aya: If I do this plus that, I get this result. And sadly, that’s not how it happens, right? Now, the universities have to, again, based on their internal ratings and rankings and rubrics, they’ll bring all this data together, and they’ll assign you some type of score or rating, some type of thing that will locate you within their process, right?

Dr. Aya: And that will inform how they make a decision.[00:30:00]

Dr. Aya: So as we think about just the current state of higher ed and college admissions, we often have students and families grappling about the importance of various aspects of the college application process. As I said earlier, grades are still really important. I know there’s a lot of conversations about grade inflation, both in the high school level and also in the undergraduate level.

Dr. Aya: But grades are still- Really, really important, okay? Your grades and the difficulty, the rigor, the challenge, right, of the classes that you’re taking are still some of the most important parts of the application. AIɫɫs want to see that you challenge yourself with the courses available at your high school.

Dr. Aya: Emphasizing that because we often have students say, “My school only has three AP classes. The school, uh, uh, in, you know, 15 minutes away has 30. You know, will that put me at a disadvantage?” Or, “Will the sch- will the AOs look at my application [00:31:00] and compare me to that school over there and say my school isn’t as, as good as the other one?”

Dr. Aya: And again, admissions officers are reading applications in context. They’re looking at the school, they’re looking at the school district. There’s all these kind of factors that they’re thinking about. So again, admissions officers and universities want to see you challenge yourself in your own context, okay?

Dr. Aya: Maybe you only have two AP classes at your school, so you decide to take some dual enrollment classes. Um, or t- try to see is there ways you could take some classes at a local community college. So they want to see you challenge yourselves, but recognizing not all schools are created equally, right? And again, test scores matter for schools that require them.

Dr. Aya: Okay, so test scores, the, the way test scores matter varies, right, based on the testing policies. And also for those who, for those schools who encourage students to submit them for specific programs. As I mentioned earlier, it might say if you’re a major in computer science, you have to submit your test [00:32:00] scores, or if you’re a nursing major you have to submit test scores, or if your GPA f- is below a 3.2, you have to submit test scores.

Dr. Aya: There’s just a lot of variation with that, um, but they matter for those schools who say we want to see them. And when you submit something, a part of your application, so if you have to submit a, a supplement essay, if you have to submit test scores, then it does matter, okay? And then you can of- always go to the Common Data Set and type in the school name, you know, University of Chicago, comma, Common Data Set, and they’ll kind of break down how important the various aspects of the application are for their specific admissions process.

Dr. Aya: And that’s one of the ways you can kind of begin to discern what really matters for a particular university. Is it truly the test scores, or is it more, more so the grades, or is it, you know, college-going status, et cetera.

Dr. Aya: So in keeping in mind, again, schools are really [00:33:00] interested in a strong academic record that shows colleges that you’re prepared as much as you can be to succeed in college level work. Again, we often say that we’re looking for reasons to say yes- We want you to be successful. I wanted all the students I admitted to be successful.

Dr. Aya: Like, I, I was personally invested in the success of the students. I wanted them to win so much, you know. I wanted to be able to grant their, you know, their wildest dream and say, “Congratulations, you got into, you know, to Georgetown,” right? And again, admissions officers are reviewing your aca- your academics in your particular context.

Dr. Aya: And that means your school, your opportunities, and your personal circumstances, okay? So holistic. A lot of contextualization happens in the admissions review process.

Dr. Aya: Speaking of context, and I’ve used this language earlier, but I did not go into detail intentionally. Um, but I talked about holistic application review. [00:34:00] So it’s like, what is that? So essentially means that admissions officers are taking into consideration kind of all aspects of the application, right? The decision is made in reflection of the application as a whole.

Dr. Aya: However, there’s a caveat. Add the asterisk here. Academics are still supreme here, okay? So this is something I, I’ve gotten before. You know, students say, “Will my essay, will, would a banging, outstanding, superb essay be the reason, you know, I get in if my grades…” Some students actually think that, you know. I, I interviewed students for my, for my dissertation and there was a bit of, “I think my essay was the thing that put me over the edge.”

Dr. Aya: It may have put you over the edge, but it’s because you had the grades, too, right? So the, the, the, the grades and the test scores, the academic still reign supreme. In addition, however, for holistic review, they’re looking at [00:35:00] those activities. They are looking at how you contribute to your community, how you show up outside of the classroom, how you show up inside the classroom, right?

Dr. Aya: How do you show up in your family or at, at work, et cetera, or during an internship or a study abroad program. They’re also looking at those letters of recommendation. We read those. I read what the counselor had to say or that extra note they said. Y- you know, “John may not mention this in his application, but John also works 15 hours a week to help his little…

Dr. Aya: you know, to help his family.” Or, “John won’t tell you this, but John got injured, you know, you know, um, playing tennis. Um, and instead, you know, had to really, you know, take time off of school, but John still really did well un- you know, in one of the most deman- demanding courses, uh, that this school has to offer.”

Dr. Aya: Right? So those letters of recommendation can add some really thoughtful context for the admissions officers. And then the essays. Again, my personal favorite of the college application. It’s always [00:36:00] the personal statement. As someone who- Spent eight years writing about the college essay. Um, but that’s a part of it, like all these factors, um, your background, your academic, um, these letters of recommendation, those are ways, uh, universities are looking at your profile holistically, right?

Dr. Aya: So w- with that in mind, though, the burden then becomes yours to paint a clear picture of who you are and where you might fit into the school. Every admissions officer is working through the application hoping that these puzzle pice- uh, pieces fit, right? They’re trying to kinda make sense of you. What type of student might you be on campus?

Dr. Aya: And, you know, this is, doesn’t mean that they pigeonhole you to a particular space. Um, I w- I recognize people go to college and, you know, begin to diversify their interest. I always tell my friends, I, you know, I joke about this all the time, I said, “I went to college and I was just participating in all types of stuff.”

Dr. Aya: Like, I grew up in Detroit and I [00:37:00] was in, at Georgetown dancing with a Filipino hip hop dance team. I never met anyone from the Philippines, and next thing you know, I’m in a Filipino hip hop dance team, dancing all around campus. So recognizing that our interests, uh, uh, are diversified oftentimes when we go to college, or that exposure, um, might change, right?

Dr. Aya: You might go in saying, “I’m pre-med, I’m pre-med, I’m pre-med,” and then you take a few sociology classes or psychology classes, and you’re like, “Wait a minute. I didn’t even know what sociology was. I like this conversation,” et cetera. So again, AO’s recognize people grow and change, but your high school record, right, is, it really informs, um, how they, again, make sense of you, and also informs the holistic application review process.

Dr. Aya: So thinking about these very stages of review, again, these are kind of high level. It looks differently for different types of institutions, but generally [00:38:00] you have that first stage, the academic cutoffs, the algorithm- al- algorithms, um, particularly for large public universities where they get, I don’t know, 80,000 applications, right?

Dr. Aya: So there might be a internal number that they have, right? If a GPA, or if a applicant’s GPA is under 2.5, if it’s a, you know, competitive school, they might automatically kind of cut you, uh, internally, right? Uh, and in some cases, that might put you in a separate pile, right? And then you have the admissions officer review.

Dr. Aya: Those are… You know, admissions officers might have regions. They might have zip codes. They might have states. They might have cities. So whoever falls into their realm, the admissions officers are now reviewing after that next cutoff. So they’re providing ratings or comments or documentation to support, “I gave this person a C rating,” right?

Dr. Aya: And then again, they’ll have their own internal rubric- So C might mean continue, okay? Or something along those lines. I just also just made that up [00:39:00] just in case you might think I’m referring to a sp- specific university. So ratings will drive whether you’re automatically denied or automatically admitted, or if you might need further discussion, okay?

Dr. Aya: And then automatic admits or denials, oftentimes there’s a second reader. Oftentimes universities don’t necessarily allow one person to say yes or no. Sometimes if you say, “I think these are the yeses, these are the nos,” someone else, someone on your team, another re- admissions officer might have to do a second read.

Dr. Aya: And then third, you might have a committee review. Those are those maybe students or those students you say, “I like them, but I’ve used up all my, my computer science spots,” or something, right? So let me try to see if, if, you know, the committee might think they, they still deserve a shot. So those might mean long discussions, right, where you are trying to make a case for the students on saying why you think they might be a good fit.

Dr. Aya: Someone else might say, “I don’t think they’re a good fit.” So [00:40:00] there’s a lot of kind of discussion there, right? And then there might be, based on those discussions, a clear denial, clear admit, um, or a wait list decision as well, right? So these are some of the broader, um, stages of review. So in thinking about some of the science, again, of the admissions process, there is a large part of this that’s just enrollment management.

Dr. Aya: It’s a data-driven process where universities have goals to meet so they can stay in operation, right? So of course some of the larger, more selective universities, the older universities that have billions and billions and billions of dollars, they may not be thinking about their kind of enrollment processes in these specific ways, but they too have bottom lines, right?

Dr. Aya: And again, in this particular climate, universities are trying to figure out how can they stay afloat. So they have to make sure they’re meeting certain goals. They… That means admitting a certain percentage of students who can afford to pay, you know, making sure [00:41:00] the graduation rates are strong, making sure the yield, meaning if they admit 100 students, they want at least, you know, 50% of those students to, to admit, right?

Dr. Aya: They, to say they’re coming. They want a strong yield. They want a high yield number. They also want a high retention number. They want students who come back after that first year as well. So there’s all types of priorities that admissions officers and universities are thinking about, right? And then there’s timelines, right?

Dr. Aya: You have the early action, the early decision, or early decision two, rolling admissions. All of that is a part of larger enrollment management kind of strategies where universities have internal processes that’s informing how they’re making decisions on when they should have deadlines, how many students they should accept, and by when.

Dr. Aya: And again, increasingly so, we have algorithms at the beginning of review and the end of the review process, right? So assessing academic profiles, right? Seeing how students fall, right? Seeing how they ca- they might categorize students. [00:42:00] And then you also have the predictive modeling piece. How many students are actually gonna come here?

Dr. Aya: Or based on the data, do we think these students are going to be successful? Right? So we… I often hear parents say, especially for more selective universities, “Man, it’s just random,” right? Everybody has all As, everyone has perfect SAT scores or ACT scores. But there, there is a method, to a certain extent, to their madness.

Dr. Aya: It’s just as the applicant or the family who’s external to the university or the admissions office, you just don’t truly know, right, um, some of the science that, uh, a- admissions officers use. So this is why we’re having this conversation. So the truth or the fact of the matter is every school is different, right?

Dr. Aya: But all are using some enrollment management strategies based on the needs of the university, right, in some shape, way, or form. And that’s been the emphasis and the point of our conversation tonight. And again, it’s [00:43:00] important to look at the admissions data when creating college lists and deciding on your application strategy.

Dr. Aya: Look at the common data set. Look on the school’s website and see what percentage of students they admitted, right? What percentage are first gen, or do they admit s- you know, more students early action or early, early decision, or is it better for you to apply during regular decision, okay? You really wanna make sure you give yourself as many opportunities as possible to be successful in the application process.

Dr. Aya: So you don’t only wanna apply to schools that admit less than 25% of the applicants, right? You don’t wanna just apply to all reach or aspirational schools. You want to diversify the types of schools you apply to because you want to give yourself as many options as possible. So as we kind of round out this conversation, ’cause definitely wanna leave time for your questions, you might be wondering, “So how can I develop a application that is authentic to me but will also check off all these boxes,” right?

Dr. Aya: There are a lot of boxes that I just talked about. [00:44:00] So you just wanna focus on presenting yourself honestly always. Be yourself. Don’t embellish. Um, but also don’t be afraid to hype yourself up. Talk about yourself, right? Admissions officers don’t know what you don’t tell. So if you omit things about your personality, your accomplishments, your achievements, how else would they know, right?

Dr. Aya: You also wanna focus on what’s igniting your passion, okay? Stop. Don’t try to contort yourself to say, “Oh, this school has a representation, you know, reputation of being, liking these kind of students, so let me try to be that.” No. We want… They wanna admit you, and if they don’t, maybe that wasn’t a good fit for you anyway.

Dr. Aya: You want to do your research, okay? Understand what is important to a school and make sure that aligns with what’s important to you. Which is what I, you know, just emphasize. And take tours, visit, speak with current students where possible. Speak with alumni. Speak with admissions officers. Go to the school’s website, see if you can [00:45:00] request information.

Dr. Aya: Some schools have online webinars, virtual tours. Um, you know, some, I, what is it? University of Wisconsin-Madison had, like, chats you could do with current students. So universities have all these resources. They have TikTok pages and Instagram pages and Threads and et cetera, where you can see what’s happening on campus and, and keeping yourself abreast.

Dr. Aya: Or if you go to a school that sends a lot of students to a particular school that you’re interested in, see if you can, you know, connect with those students to talk to them, maybe even visit them, you know, on, on campus. And also take advantage of, you know, your holidays and spring breaks and summers to, to take some tours of college campuses, again, whether it’s virtual or in person.

Dr. Aya: And when in doubt, ask for help, right? You know, reach out. You know, we have college advisor here. You have advisors like myself and admissions officers like myself. Um, get support from teachers and counselors, or there might be community-based organizations and [00:46:00] nonprofits also in your community that can support your application strategy and your essay writing, your activities list review, et cetera.

Dr. Aya: So finally, as we think about some last kind of tidbits here. You know, again, as an applicant, try not to obsess over the science, right? Try not to ga- try to figure out how to game the system. Again, every school is different, and decision-making is driven internally, right, by many factors. Often factors that you might not be privy to ever, actually.

Dr. Aya: But focus on what’s important to you as a student. Does the school align with your values and principles? So, so important, right? Google them. Look at them in the news. What’s, what’s being said? How are they navigating the shifts and the tides and the changes of this current climate, right? In terms of application components, don’t just try to collect extracurriculars and experiences.

Dr. Aya: We see it all the time. Junior year there’s two clubs, senior year it’s 20. It’s like, wait a minute, when’d you do [00:47:00] all this stuff? Choose letters, uh, letter writers, um, that are gonna write meaningful, strong letters. You could ask a teacher, “Do you think you can write a, a strong letter for me,” right? “Here’s my re- resume.

Dr. Aya: Here’s my brag sheet. If you need… If you have any questions, I, I would love to find some time to talk to you about it.” Write essays about your passions. Write essays about topics and experiences that you’ve actually had and that you can speak thoughtfully about. And try to balance your academics so you can perform well- While also pursuing rigorous courseworks.

Dr. Aya: Again, we don’t want you to take five AP classes and get Cs and Ds in all of them. That’s not the goal. We want you to perform well. So if that means science is not your jam, so you gotta focus on, you know, English courses and taking those m- the more competitive classes, do that. We want, again, strong performance and rigor.

Dr. Aya: We don’t, we… There’s a combination that needs to happen there. And then lastly, make sure you have a balanced college list, as I mentioned earlier. We wanna ensure optimal success [00:48:00] in the admissions process.

Lydia: All right. Thank you- Thank you … for that awes- that awesome presentation, Aya. Um, I think that illuminated so many important things about how decisions are made in the admissions offices, and what things we need to be thinking about when applying to college. So now we’re gonna transition into the Q&A where you all are gonna have an opportunity to ask even more questions of Aya about this topic, um, and get some more clarity about the science of college admissions.

Lydia: And just as an FYI, if the Q&A tab isn’t letting you submit questions, you can just double-check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page. All right. So let’s go ahead and dive into these questions. So the first question that we have here is, how do college admissions officers contextualize GPA relative [00:49:00] to school or class difficulty?

Lydia: I know you talked a bit about that in the sense of class rank and things like that, but I know I’ve heard students ask questions about, you know, “I had a really hard AP English teacher, and I don’t know how that’s reflected or communicated to admissions officers because, you know, if I’d had a different teacher, I maybe would’ve gotten an A, but in that teacher’s class I got a B.”

Lydia: Is there a way that admissions officers can know those kinds of things, or do you sometimes have to bite the bullet?

Dr. Aya: Well, for that example, there’s no way that admissions officer knows that, you know, Professor Waller Bay is easier than professor like Lydia. Um, they, they, they just don’t know, right? So… And you also don’t wanna make excuses because who’s, who’s to say that you might have gotten a A if you took, you know, Professor Waller Bay’s class anyway.

Dr. Aya: So, um, there is no… In short, there’s no way for admissions officers to have that context. [00:50:00] Um, so and you’d also don’t wanna seem like you’re, like, making excuses. You just wanna do the best you can with the teacher that you have. Now, if there was truly a case where the teacher, where you felt discriminated against or there was some type of violations of ethics or you were actually being harmed academically by the teacher, there might be a place for the counselor to add an additional note There might be, um, that additional information section, there might be, um, a place to add that.

Dr. Aya: And if, honestly, if there was like everything was strong but there was like this one strange like oddity with your academic profile or one inconsistency, that is something that could be flagged, right? Again, by a high school counselor or in the additional information session. Because one kind of inconsistency, especially if you have a overall thoughtful, strong profile, um, will not like kinda make a…

Dr. Aya: It would not harm you if you can… If there’s some explanation that could actually [00:51:00] contextualize the circumstances.

Lydia: I think that- that’s, that’s helpful to know. And I know it’s hard for students to hear, ’cause I’ve heard that, that situation happen so many times of, “Oh, I just had this really hard teacher. I wish I would’ve gotten the easier one,” and worrying that that will be the thing that keeps them from getting into their dream school.

Lydia: But like what you just said, I think it’s really uplifting to hear that, you know, one inconsistency, one B in a sea of As, um, is not usually gonna be the thing that keeps you from getting into the school that you wanna get into. Um, another question we have is, how do admissions officers view the use of services like private admissions consultants or college advisors, like what AIɫɫ Advisor offers?

Dr. Aya: From my experience working in admissions, um, they, they don’t know. Like, you know, there isn’t… At least I don’t s- I, I… [00:52:00] If I can recall, Lydia, I don’t think there’s like a box you check to say like, “I used a private admissions officer.” Um, for- Not at most

Lydia: schools. I’ve seen it once at one school. I don’t remember which one.

Lydia: Yeah. And that was for a graduate school application, not an undergrad application.

Dr. Aya: Undergrad. Y- yeah. So from my experience, and I… Again, I’ve been on both sides. I’ve helped so many students. I know Lydia has as well. Um, I, I don’t think there is a, uh, hard and fast kind of… You know, it’s legal, it’s ethical.

Dr. Aya: People, you know, use kind of support for a number of reasons. I know some universities, for particularly s- community based organizations and non-profits that help like low income students and first generation college students, sometimes universities actually like to have that information so they can know what types of organizations are out there, or they can know if, you know, a student benefited from that type of program, or that might be institutional priority.

Dr. Aya: So typically they’re, they’re… From my experience, again, on both sides of the desk, I… There aren’t really a way for them to, to [00:53:00] know. Um, and yeah, it’s just kind of like a part of the process, you know. Just like some school- students go to schools that have a lot more resources, some students also might, you know, use external support to help them navigate the admissions process

Lydia: I, I think that’s a great flag.

Lydia: Uh, and just so you know, colleges are not expecting any student to be going through this process entirely independently. Alone. Yeah. Whether you have a private admissions consultant, whether you’re working with AIɫɫAdvisor, or whether you’re going to your school counselor or asking your mom to read your personal statement, there is an expectation that this is something that you’re doing with some level of support- Absolutely.

Lydia: Yep … and guidance. So there’s no shame in seeking out additional support and insight. That’s only gonna help you to be more competitive. The only downside that could happen is when students are overly reliant on it to the point that they are expecting [00:54:00] someone else to be essentially putting their application together or writing entirely certain pieces of their application or their essays, and it just no longer reflects their true voice or their true perspective.

Lydia: Exactly. And I think that’s a great segue, um, into some information about AIɫɫAdvisor. So we’re gonna pause from the Q&A now just for a minute to highlight some of our students’ success stories. The first one is DJ, who grew up wanting to be a physician, who was active in relevant extracurriculars and sought out challenging curs- coursework.

Lydia: And as a scientist, writing narratively was challenging, so the college essay style didn’t come naturally to him, which is why he signed up to work with AIɫɫAdvisor and was eventually accepted by five colleges, including Johns Hopkins, where he received an institutional scholarship of around $61,000 a year.

Lydia: And also, we have another student, Abby, who reached out because she was aspiring a first-generation college student, and her immigrant parents had no [00:55:00] experience applying to US colleges, so she wasn’t receiving much support from her teachers or school counselors, which made her feel alone in the process.

Lydia: She was thinking ahead and connected with AIɫɫAdvisor as a sophomore, and ended up applying early decision to Cornell, where she was accepted and received full financial aid. So those are just two stories out of the 10,000 clients that AIɫɫAdvisor has guided through the application process. Our team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts is ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process in one-on-one advising sessions and essay editing.

Lydia: To learn more about how you can get started with AIɫɫAdvisor, just scan the QR code to sign up for a free 60-minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team. And during this meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations on what you can do to stand out.

Lydia: At the end, you’ll also learn more about the premium packages we offer that pair you with an [00:56:00] expert who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, and much more. We’re here for the whole process. So you will have that QR code up for the remainder of the session, and after this webinar ends, it’ll take you straight to a booking page where you can schedule the session now.

Lydia: Um, but we will go ahead and dive back into the Q- the Q&A. So, um, another question that we have is asking about, um, a student who has done a lot of different things. They’ve done a lot of, um, extracurriculars, they’ve done, um, advanced classes, um, but it was in eighth grade, which is outside the range of high school.

Lydia: And they were wondering if anything that you’ve done in middle school that was impressive can be included or mentioned or reflected in the college admissions process, or does it all have to [00:57:00] start in ninth grade?

Dr. Aya: You should definitely prioritize experiences from, uh, high school, um, first and foremost.

Dr. Aya: Second, there are some cases, for an example, I’ve worked with some students who might have danced. Like I, I worked with a student, she’s been doing ballet since she was, like five years old, and she was still doing ballet by the time she was a senior. So of course, that activity expanded, you know, spanned from, you know, since she…

Dr. Aya: From five to 18 years old, right? Um, so of course she talked about it. Um, but if you did something in eighth grade, I, I, I, I don’t… I would need to know specifically what it was, but I, I can’t really think of too many circumstances where you would need to mention it. You definitely wanna prioritize more recent activities, and you wanna prioritize things you’ve done, accomplished, classes you’ve taken in high school.

Dr. Aya: That is the priority, and that’s what colleges and, and admissions officers will be looking at.

Lydia: Mm-hmm. And for our final question before we [00:58:00] wrap up, um- Something that we have here is when an admissions officer is looking for student fit for a college, do you have examples of kind of what those most common puzzle pieces are that lead to a student who is admitted versus a committee discussion?

Dr. Aya: Admitted versus a committee’s discussion? Well-

Lydia: That’s the way… Yeah, I guess like a student who maybe needs more deliberation. That’s how it was written, but

Dr. Aya: yeah. Right. But the deliberation often comes largely for primarily academic reasons and less about cultural fit reasons. Um, so it might be a student who’s just, like, right on the, the edge, and a, a admissions officer might think they have the fit.

Dr. Aya: They might think they have, you know, might fit into the school and might do really well, but maybe they, they, they have a certain, like, grade or their GPA was just, like, a little lower than typical. Um, but they feel like they, they can advocate for that student. So that will be primarily why a student will go to committee as opposed to not, not because cultural fit.

Dr. Aya: [00:59:00] Um, but again, fit often comes to place, like s- I’ve given several examples for, like, students who say they want big city, they want culture, they want public transportation. A pl- Attending a school like Penn State may not be the best fit. It’s more rural, it’s in the middle of a state, et cetera. So that’s often how we think about, uh, fit.

Dr. Aya: Or if a school has a particular cultural, you know, inclination, um, you know, if you want a school that’s really diverse, y- you know, then that will signal whether or not a school is a fit for you. You know, a university in Idaho will feel and look very different, you know, than a, a school in Detroit. So that’s often kind of when we think about fit, what universities and admissions officers are thinking about.

Lydia: All right. Great. Thank you so much. Um, thank you to everyone who asked questions. Um, and just so you know, if we didn’t get a chance to get to your question, that’s why we have these free 60-minute sessions that you can do with a strategist. I know some of you had some specific questions about [01:00:00] GP- their, your individual GPA, your individual extracurriculars.

Lydia: Um, unfortunately, for the sake of the utility of everyone attending, we try to ask general questions. But again, that 60-minute strategy session is a great chance for you to get some additional specific guidance and specific questions answered about your unique situation. So definitely encourage you to scan that QR code or just stay on the line a little bit longer at this link that will pop up after the webinar ends so that you can set that up.

Lydia: All right. Thank you so much, Dr. Aya, for giving us so much insight about the college admissions process, personal statements, and all the other things that go into college admissions. Always learn so much from you every time you present. Thank you for sharing your time with us.

Dr. Aya: Thank you so much, Lydia, and thank you all.

Dr. Aya: Wishing you all the best. Good luck.

Lydia: Great. Thank you everyone for joining, and have a great night. [01:01:00] Bye.