COLLEGE ADMISSIONS MASTERCLASS Week 4 Video 1- Recommendations/Witness Statements

All right, week four. You're getting there. This is the first video of week number four, and we're talking about recommendations. These are like the witness statements. Right. So I'm a lawyer, and one of the things we do is we try to pull together witnesses who can corroborate our client's view of the case. And the same thing is true for you as a student. You're looking for teachers, coaches, school counselors, and for some schools, peers who can corroborate your opening statement or how you view yourself, that your college application says you're a particular person and you want people to come back behind you in the form of recommendation letters that support your view of yourself. Right. That what you say about yourself might be interesting, but what other people say about you carries more weight. And this is especially true from school teachers. So what we try to do is start once again with the opening statement, and we'll talk about how that really drives everything here in a second. But I wanted to first tell you my own personal story. And remember, I tell you these stories. Some of them are embarrassing, but I tell them because my hope is that you can see maybe some inspiration from my stories and that you could see that I could do it so you can do it. Right. That there's nothing special about me at all, that it's just a matter of me working a plan and a strategy for myself and that I've helped other students do it and that you can do it, too, and that if you do it correctly, you're ultimately going to see success. And the way that I approached this first got me into a boarding school out of rural Kentucky. And the second time it came into play was when I was expelled from Penn, and I talked about that on a previous video. Well, what happened then? Right. My story didn't end there. I ultimately found my way to Georgetown Law, and I was accepted to a number of other top law schools. So how did that happen, from expulsion from a school to a top law school? Well, it happened because I put in place a lot of things we're talking about today. So what happened was at the end of my freshman year, that summer, after I was expelled, I went to the Dean of Academic Advising, and I pretty much chained myself to the waiting room chair until she would meet with me. And the message I got was, you are no longer a student here. She doesn't need to see you. And then finally, she got tired of seeing me sitting in the waiting room. So she gave me five minutes. I'll give you five minutes. And as I talked to her. The first thing she said was, jeb, this school does not need you. And that was the opening line that she gave me. And as I talked to her about how I viewed myself going forward and how this really was an awakening for me and that I was no longer viewing myself as a pre med student where I had no passion, right? And that I viewed myself going in another direction where I had strengths and passions and wishes and dreams and aspirations, and that this was my new mountain I wanted to climb and these are the reasons why I will succeed. She allowed me to step back into the school after a three day expulsion. And what I did then was I worked my tail off and I allowed my grades to work their way back up to the point where I was able to apply to schools back, but how did I get in? Grades alone are not going to do it for you. You need to have people corroborate you. And the person who wrote my recommendation for law schools was Dean Burnham. The person who said, jeb, this school doesn't need you and was not willing to meet with me was the person who was willing to take the witness stand on my behalf and say, this is a particular kind of student. This is the kind of student law schools that you need to have at your school. So you need to find your witness. You need to find your Dean Burnham, right? You need to find the person who's going to make your story come alive that is going to make it beyond those numbers. And a recommendation from someone who's going to tell those details in a way that's going to make your story come alive is going to increase your chances of getting into any school in this country. So what do you look for? The first thing you're going to do is, is you're going to want to try to see how this person expresses themselves. And sometimes this is hard, right? You want to see, is this somebody who is a good writer, is this somebody who does a good job persuading others telling a story, or are they a teacher that you've had who you, while extremely smart and bright and nice, has a hard time expressing themselves, then they're going to have a hard time expressing themselves. And recommendation letters. So whatever you need to do to try to understand at some level how this person writes, thinks and presents themselves through writing is helpful in trying to eliminate some people from your potential recommendation list. So the first thing that you want to try to do at some level, the other thing you want to try to do is identify a witness, teacher recommendation of somebody who has witnessed a key event. Okay, okay. So this is why Dean Burnham was so critical for me. She had witnessed a key event of me turning my career or my academics around. Somebody who can say that you have done X, Y and Z and can put details behind it. And this is the key point. You don't want to have somebody who's just going to give a templated answer about who you are as a student. And the story I tell about this one, after undergraduate, I worked at J.P. morgan, one of the largest banks in the world, and I had hiring responsibilities. And a soon to be graduate of a college was interviewing with me and she handed me her reference letters. And the very first one said that I highly recommend insert name here for the job of insert job here. And what I soon realized, this was a templated reference letter. And not only had the person provided this templated letter, but then the person applying for the job had simply passed it along to me. The person ultimately did not get the job. But what you want to look for is somebody who's going to give you a personalized recommendation letter who can talk about the details, show, don't tell, showing, explaining, talking about why you are such a terrific student and explaining with examples and stories that backs that up for you. The other thing you want to do is identify a recent witness. Okay? So somebody who can express themselves well, who, who's witnessed a key event and who can talk about what's happened recently. Because the college isn't looking for somebody who's a freshman in high school. They're looking for a senior. They want to know who you are today, not who you were three, four years ago. So what we typically ask is that our students look at their junior year because their junior year are teachers who have most experience with them, the most recent experience with them, and they also have a full year experience with them. So we get questions about what? About my teachers who are teaching me now. Well, the problem with senior year teachers is that they've only been with you for a few weeks, sometimes a few days. Right. But your junior year teachers spent a whole year with you. So we really try to encourage people to approach their teachers that they had their junior year and in what are called core subjects. Core subjects, like reading, I'm sorry, like sciences and math. And your English courses are viewed with more weight by colleges than, for example, a reference or recommendation letter from a gym teacher. It's just the reality. Colleges look for core subject teachers to write the recommendations, and they prefer to have it from the junior year. The caveat to this recency element are the Dean Burnhams, those who have seen you do a turnaround, those who can talk about your growth make terrific teacher recommendation letters. And these are the people who are the best ones that I have seen are the teachers who taught you at a younger age, so your freshman or sophomore year, and then taught you your junior or senior year. And who could talk about the terrific growth you've made over that time and about how you have evolved as a student and how you are now this person who would be a great asset to a university. So that is the one caveat we put on teacher recommendations, that this is a one area where you want to put a caveat. The other one that we put if you have any deficiencies, and this is an area where you want to talk to your school counselor, you might have some deficiencies. We call them hole fillers. Right? You have a hole in your resume or your application that needs to be explained away or explained in some way. A teacher recommendation from someone who could do that for you is a great help for you right here. One of the things that you don't want to do is get into this idea where you're feeling like you're having to explain everything away. Focus on where your strengths are, and we'll talk about this later, that it's a spotlight and spin tactic. You spotlight what you want to spotlight on. You focus their attention on your strengths. You don't worry about your weaknesses unless they're so glaring that you need to explain them. Everybody has them. It's a matter of now focusing people where you want them to focus on and putting them. The spotlight on your deficiencies oftentimes will backfire. It's only in those instances where there's a major problem, Dean Burnham, where you're going to need somebody to do that for you. The best thing you can do at the end of the day is start with that opening statement, read it again, think about it. What is the story you want to get across about yourself? What is the story you want to tell colleges about who you are? And then think about what teachers you've had recently who can corroborate that through examples and details, that these are the witnesses you want who want to take the stand for you. So give that a lot of thought. Start with your opening statement again. This is the starting point to all these different exercises. And from that point, that becomes the filter by which you've picked your teachers. And then from that list, you then go through this and try to ultimately come down with somebody who can express themselves, can provide details. Who knows you recently and who can ultimately corroborate the argument that you're making in your opening statement. Okay, so give it some thought. Put pen to paper if you want. Pause before you go on to the next video. But teacher recommendations are very important. So the last point I want to make on teacher recommendations, start early junior year. At the end of your junior year, if you have somebody who you know you want to have write your teacher recommendation for you, approach them at that time. Approach them and say, do you feel like you know me well enough to write a positive recommendation about who I am? Did you hear how I ordered that? That's how we talk about it in the legacy class. That you approach them with this question that gives them a way out. Do you feel like you know me well enough? If the answer is anything different than yes, you may want to approach someone else. But if the answer is yes, please, I would love to, then this is someone you want to then come back to at the early part of your senior year and say, we touched base at the end of junior year. Do you still feel comfortable writing a teacher recommendation for me? At that time you mentioned that you'd be willing to do that. Are you willing to still do that for me? The teacher is going to say yes, and they're going to thank you for approaching them early in the semester. So you should be approaching them early in your fall semester of your senior year, reminding them of the conversation you had at the end of your junior year and then supplying them with the materials and making it easy for them so. So they know exactly what you're looking for. And what I do a lot of times is I encourage students to provide a one pager explaining who they are, what they've done. Some people call it a brag sheet, but at the top of it, I encourage people to put the opening statement right there, that it talks about who they are and the teacher sees the student, how they view themselves and the students. I encourage the students to say, you know, this is how I view myself. This is how I want to present myself to the school. Would you feel comfortable corroborating how I present myself through some kind of details or stories that I really would appreciate it. One last point on teachers. Don't go to the teacher that gave you the best grade just because they gave you the best grade. Don't go to the AP teacher just because they are your AP teacher. A lot of times students will go to a teacher because they got the best grade there and they Feel like that's going to be the best person for them. The teacher who saw you work and push through and persist and become an active part of that class and contribute and help other students. That teacher is going to write a better recommendation for you than the one that just simply gave you a good grade because you earned a good grade, right? It's all about stories. And that's what you're going to hear throughout this course. And it's what we talk about in the legacy class time and time again. It's all about stories. People connect with stories, and the people behind the admissions committee connect with stories. They're in that position because they love stories. So let your story come out. Don't hide behind your numbers. Don't hide behind teachers who gave you good grades simply because they gave you good grades. Approach people who are going to make your story come alive. So the last person who's going to give you a recommendation, there's some other people, but the last one that's the most important is your school counselor. So you want to get to know your school counselor. In addition to being a resource for you, they also have to submit the secondary school report, which talks about what your school is about, how many students go there. But they also have to answer some questions about you, including, did you take the most rigorous course load available to you? It's one of the questions that you're going to have to answer the school counselor, what courses do I need to take in order to get that little checkbox? But you also want to know that school counselor generally, because they do have to fill out the secondary school report for you. So it's important that they at least know who you are. And I recognize for a lot of our students that I work with, they go to very large public schools. Hundreds of students, sometimes 100 students, are assigned to one counselor, right? So that Counselor is helping 100 people go through the college admissions process. And they have to keep track of that student and try to help out that student. And they may not be able to really personalize the recommendation letter for you. So you just need to do your best to try to make yourself known to that person. Make sure you go interact with them, but recognize that what resources they provide you might be limited. The last things we get are, what about other people? So you get recommendations from your teachers, from your counselors. What about other people? What about coaches, peers, the senators? At the end of the day, all these extra recommendations depends on the schools. Some schools cap it at 2. Some of them say specifically, you must get recommendations from teachers and students, certain subjects. Others say they welcome recommendations from other people outside of the schools. Some schools ask for peer recommendations. It just matters about the school. Some of them are different. But what you don't want to do is get into a writing letter campaign where you're bombarding the school with 38 different recommendations. @ the end of the day, you become the source of jokes at the admissions committee. You want to only supply the recommendations, the number of recommendations the schools ask for in the instance where they allow for more. Make sure the recommendations that are consistent with your opening statement. Simply because you get a letter recommendation from a senator doesn't move the needle for you unless that letter talks about the details behind why you're such a great student and a great asset for that school. So again, focus in on those recommendations, those recommendators who are going to provide details that ultimately amplify who you are for the school. In the next video. We're going to talk about essays, the dreaded topic next time, so get your pen and paper ready. Essays are coming in the next video.