Masterclass: What Your Teen Should be Doing This Year to Stand Out to Colleges

We are recording. Okay, so today's presentation is going to be about strategic planning, um, building a unique profile, maximizing opportunities, showcasing leadership and impact, and crafting compelling essays. It is going to be chock full of greatness, and so I'm so excited you're here. For those of you who are listening after the fact, I know it is a morning or afternoon, and so we just wanted to give those busy working parents an opportunity to not clog up their evening with another webinar. So hopefully you can enjoy having this in the morning or afternoon or evening, really depending on where you're located. We help students all over the world, and so it's important that we try to meet all of your needs. So in the chat, if you could put what is most important to you, what part would you like me to spend the most time on? Strategic planning, building a unique profile, for your student, maximizing opportunities, showcasing their leadership and impact, and crafting compelling essays. If you can put those in the chat, I could be working on answering those for you. All right, we've got essays so far. I— that's always a hot topic. Um, thank you for putting that in there. For those of you who are joining us, we are getting started. I will start in one more minute. I know we had a very full audience planned, and so it's always very important that we get started on time. So here are the things that we're going to be talking about this evening, and I'm going to go ahead and get started. Let's go back to the beginning and— all right. Here we go. So how to send your student to college without losing your mind or your money is really the umbrella over all of these topics, because when I wrote this 7 years ago, it really was overwhelming. It was expensive, and it's gotten more overwhelming and more expensive based on what clients have been saying as they come on to meetings with Carrie and I. So I did want to talk about— this is the umbrella, but we're really going to talk about what's under the umbrella today. So before I do, I always think it's important for you to know who you're listening to. My name is Shellee Howard. I'm the founder and CEO of College Ready. Today I'm accompanied by, um, Carrie Anderson, and she is my associate. She'll be helping answer questions So if you have any questions, please put them in the Q&A, the chat. We will get to them, I promise. We are so proud of our students. In the last 2 years, they've earned over $22.3 million in scholarships. And I always think it's important for families to understand CollegeReady's mission is to help a million students get into college and graduate without debt. That is what happened to my children. So the, the one with the cap and gown, um, is my son. He attended Harvard. He went pre-med, graduated with 1B, and then he decided he wasn't going to go straight to med school. He wanted to see if maybe a career was going to be his path, and he started working for Bain Consulting. Decided that that wasn't where he wanted to spend the rest of his days, and he went to UC Med— UC San Diego Medical School. He is now an orthopedic surgeon resident at UCLA. He got in and out of Harvard without any debt, and everybody asks me how and why, and I'm going to explain today what it takes to have those— that kind of opportunity. My daughter on the right She graduated from University of Alabama, then CBU, graduated debt-free, and she's a pediatric registered nurse without any debt. This is what I want to encourage you all to do. Don't listen to social media, don't listen to the news. There are plenty of colleges who want your child and they're happy to pay for them. So we're going to dive in and, and talk about how can a student stand out and how can we put these opportunities into place. So as I mentioned, if you're just joining, if you can put into the chat what is most important to you: learning about strategic planning, building a unique profile, maximizing opportunities, showcasing their leadership and impact, and crafting a compelling essay. So when I started this process a little over 17 years ago, I had no idea any of this existed. So if you could put in the chat, yes, you knew you needed to have all of these, or no, I did not know I needed to have all of these, I think it's important to speak to how much you really know and how much I can offer you without overwhelming. So our discussion today, or what you're going to learn, is strategic planning, planning and how to tailor your teen's academic and extracurricular path. We're going to talk about building a unique profile highlighting their strengths and passions that set them apart. We're going to talk about maximizing opportunities, making the most out of summer internships, research projects, and so much more. We're going to talk about showcasing their leadership and impact, how they will stand out with community involvement, and crafting a compelling essay telling their true authentic story. So if any of this sounds like something you want to learn, you're in the right place, and I promise I'm going to get through this as quickly as possible without cutting any corners. So imagine what it would be like to see your teen and their face when they get accepted to the perfect college. Just for a moment, think about they open up their computer, they press that email, they're holding their breath, and it says, "You've been accepted!" And you just— the whole family celebrates. I hope that gives you goosebumps because that's what it does. That's what it feels like. But on the flip side, it doesn't always work out like that. When students do not have a plan, Sometimes not having the plan causes them to fail. What they don't know is usually the reason why they get rejected and not accepted. So we're trying to help families like yours have the knowledge so you can decide, do I want to do this on my own, or do I want to get support, or do I want to blend? But we do this for you, the family. So we want you to rest easy and know that your student is prepared. The application process has never been more competitive or more expensive, and students are applying to a ridiculous amount of schools. That is truly not necessary if you have a solid plan. So let's talk about let's just get started. The problem that we're faced with is most families do not know how to create a strategic plan for your student. In the chat, can you put yes for you do know how to create a strategic plan and no if you don't? And there's no shame here at all. We're here to help you understand. If everybody says, yes, Shellee Howard, I know how to create a strategic plan for my child, I'm just going to quickly go through this. But if I see some nos, I'm going to slow it down. So the more you participate, the more I can help you. Solution: do not do what your other children did. What their cousin did, what their friends are doing, what the other kids in your school are doing, in your community. What this is trying to, to pull out for you to understand is this is where the planning in College Ready Plan comes out, because you need to have an academic plan. It's not just allow your high school to pick their classes in the order they want. Because that's what they want to do, right? High schools only have so many AP teachers, IB teachers, dual enrollment teachers. So once those classes are full, they may tell you there's no more room for your child to get into one of those. That can be a massive problem if you want to pick what college your child gets into. Remember, high schools do not get a bonus if your child goes to college. They don't get anything extra if they put more time into helping your child apply. Why is that important? Is because they have hundreds and thousands of students they have to help. So the idea of them being able to help your child put together a 4-year academic plan— let me give you an example. There are two students. Both of them did really well, straight A's, okay? In 8th grade, one of them took, uh, Spanish 1. The other one took Leadership. Which one is better? That's a really good question. We're talking about academic plan. And you might be thinking, "Well then, probably Spanish." Well, as interesting as that sounds, is you are correct, but it doesn't turn out the way you think because the student who took Leadership also took Spanish 1 over the summer, and so they were both allowed to start Spanish 2 their freshman year, which means they were able to get in and out of their language requirement much quicker and take the subjects they really wanted to excel in. You're thinking, well, why didn't the high school or middle school help? That is not their job. Their job is to make sure your student takes the minimum requirements to graduate. They're not concerned with Does your student want to be a doctor? Do they have AP Chem, AP Bio? Do they have AP Physics? Do they have Anatomy? What do they have? There's a strategy. It's not just a bunch of classes to let your teenager pick. This fall, we got bombarded with phone calls from from students who really didn't have any support from their school. And the first thing that they asked me is, Shellee, do I need to take X, Y, and Z? And it's not as simple as yes or no. It is most important is, do you want to go to a top-tier school, a UCLA, a Stanford, a Yale, a Dartmouth, or does your student truly just want to go to a local state school or even community college? Knowing this, and if they stick to it, would be wonderful. Since we don't always know that their freshman year, we have to plan for the best opportunity for them when they graduate high school. So that 4-year academic plan is critical. It's not just hopeful. Then there's a testing plan. Our students don't just do what everybody else does, right? The, the typical timeline will tell you in your junior year, have your child take hopefully the PSAT, because that's a critical one, but not all schools get that right. But typically most high schools will say in your junior year, take the SAT and/or SAT. Well, there are so many problems with that. I had a student this past year who had already taken Algebra 2 in 8th grade, so she had already taken all of the requirements to successfully take her standardized tests. So instead of waiting and letting her forget all of that information and have to reteach herself, We went for it, and she got a perfect 36 on her ACT her freshman year. That's amazing. But if she would have waited and did what everybody else does, that would have been a disaster. That help happened to my firstborn. He was very gifted in math. So by the time he took the test, the standardized test, his junior year, because at the, that point I didn't know any better. He had to relearn everything because he was already in Calc AB, which is yay for him, that's fantastic, but it's not great news to do for a standardized test. So the testing plan, you need to know their SAT or ACT, which one is better for them. They don't need to take both. You need to understand when should they take it, where should they take it, how should they take it, and how many times they should take it. That's a testing plan. That's what I'm talking about. Do not leave this up to some generic timetable. All right, the next one is passion with purpose. This is not community service. Community service is my child fed the homeless. That's not a bad thing, but if your child doesn't particularly like to feed the homeless. They're doing it to check a box. Or my child volunteered, um, for the children's day camp at their church. Okay, that's great if that's what they want to do, but what if they don't even like children? That's not going to make for a great essay. What about if they don't even know what they're passionate about? Uh, that's even scarier because now they're doing a bunch of random things that colleges are going to scratch their head and think, What in the world is the student inspired, or what do they advocate for? It's all over the place. So Passion with a Purpose starts with their passion. That's the first thing we do is find out what are they passionate about. Then we rank it. Then we talk, what do they advocate for? Then we rank it, and then we start to put together the brainstorming. How can they use their passion to accomplish something that they want to see changed in the world. And then we help them create a mission statement— who, when, where, why, how, and what. And then we help them to navigate the rest of the plan. If you were to do this on your own, that is something you will want, because the Passion with Purpose plan is not doing community service. Colleges, they don't want to just see another checkbox. They want to get to know who is your student and what matters to them. They want to understand, are they lazy or are they not? Are they doing things to make other people's lives better? Are they self-centered? We need your student to understand what their part is, and if they do it well, My son's essay on his Passion with Purpose plan actually got him into 7 top-tier schools, published in an essay book, Student of the Month, and Student of the Year. And that's the Harvard way. So very different checking boxes, very different Passion with Purpose. If you stayed at the end, I'm happy to tell you how we can help your child get an international Passion with Purpose project 8 national awards, and 4 leadership certifications. That's to come, but that's what we're talking about. That's passion. The next one is extracurricular plan. All right, this is so important because if your child has not figured out yet— say you're working with your 7th grader, your 8th grader, your 9th grader— there's a lot of maturity that's going on at that time. They may do a lot of hopping, they may try ballet, they may try soccer, they may try acting, they may try an instrument. It may be all over the board, but that's got to stop at some point. That is an immature student in the eyes of college, not in the eyes of Shellee Howard. So we need to help your student have a plan. What are they going to do their freshman year? How will they lead it their sophomore year? How will they grow it their junior year? And what will the essay look like their senior year? That's an extracurricular plan. What about a recommender plan? This is a big one. Most families don't realize how important the letters of recommendation are. So the recommender plan— your student needs to Start early and become, um, we used to call them teacher's pets. Now they have a different name for them, but I'm not sure if that's the right name, so I'm just going to leave it at you want your student to have, um, an opportunity to get to know their teacher and their teacher to get to know them. And it's genuine. You want your student to go in and ask for help if they need support. That you want your student, your child, to participate in class and not just sit there quietly. Because when they apply to college, they're going to need between 2 and 3 letters of recommendation written well by a teacher who knows them well, who can speak about the whole student, not just how they participated in class. So these letters are so critical because it gives colleges an opportunity to see how the teachers feel about the student. Are they teachable? If a teacher or principal or somebody, um, cannot write something that's impactful about your student, they come across as not being teachable, which is not a characteristic that colleges want. So these letters of recommendation, you need to know who to ask, when to ask, where to ask, and why they're asking this person. I'm going to give you a hint and a very secret strategy. These letters, letters, students should not need to see them if they're asking a teacher for a letter of recommendation, on their application they should put, "I do not need to see this letter. It can go right on by me." That tells the university that your child is confident in that letter of recommendation. So just know the student asking the teacher, it has to be good enough for that student not to worry that they need to read it.. It looks really bad if the student is not confident that that student will write a strong letter, so it needs to have a strategy. We start the strategy as young as their freshman year, okay? You can't go further back than that. All right, the essay plan. The essay plan is so, so important. So it goes GPA, then it goes test score, Then it goes essay. All right, so somebody's gonna have a higher GPA and a lower GPA, a higher test score and a lower test score, but the essay is where they can truly shine, truly stand out. A couple of critical things that most families don't know: each university can do it completely the way they want. They can do it with the Common App, the Coalition App, the UC App, the State App. They can do it with a private app. So it's important for families to know that each student will have to write between 0 and 18 essays per college application, not in total. Okay, there are some universities that have zero essay, and there is one right now that has 18. Your student will have some type of mix. So this is very important. Our students, as soon as they start with us, they start having brainstorming sessions, and they know, here are the essays you're going to need to write your senior year on the Common App, the UC app, the state app, the private apps. Huge competitive advantage. If that student cannot write an essay about that subject, they need a strategy to go and do that. Okay, they don't want to get to their senior year, look at a blank screen, and have nothing to write about because it's not a free writing response. One of the essays would be, tell me about a time you did something for somebody else that did not benefit yourself. Ding, ding, ding! That's community service. So if they're doing passion with purpose, now they have an amazing essay to write, but they need to answer the prompt correctly, and they need to have their genuine voice. Do not use AI. Do not use very thoughtful, considerate parents or grandparents or English teachers because if that essay doesn't sound identical to your application, it's going to go in the wrong pile. So the essay has to be compelling. Remember, colleges have between 4 to 6 minutes to read your whole application and your essay. If it is not set up correctly, it will not capture their attention. If it does not tell the university about the student, it is not right. There are some taboo things to write about, so please, if you're doing this on your own, make sure your student understands what is acceptable and what is not. This has been a problem time and time again, consistently, year after year, where students are writing about things that don't even really tell anything about them. I'll give you an example. Very common— well, COVID was very common, but the grandparent story. My grandfather is the most amazing person, and I've learned so much about him. And that, well, Grandpa is not applying to college. So as much as that's really sweet, that is not at all what they want to write about. So it is really important. Our students work with professional essay editors. We brainstorm, we help them, uh, map it out. They write it, we help and, and polish it. We do not write it because, again, colleges will know. But this is so important. Do not skimp in this area. The interview plan. All right, you're thinking interview plan. Yes, your student, your child, if they're given the opportunity to interview with a school, absolutely say yes unless they really are not going to help themself by interviewing. It is so important when we work with our students online We're helping them with their soft skills about, you know, don't touch your hair, what's behind them on the wall, because these interviews are going to be by Zoom. And so it's important if they're spinning in their chair, if they have, you know, um, bad eye contact. All of these things are very critical. My son is an interviewer for Harvard and for UC San Diego Medical, and he says that these interviews can really help a student, but they can also hurt a student. So if you're doing this on your own, practice. Help them understand what is an appropriate answer, what is an appropriate question. These are all very important for their success. Getting off the waitlist— oh my goodness, this has become so popular, especially if you're applying to a state University and the popular states, the bigger states, because they're inundated. UCLA had more applications than any other school in the United States this past year. That is the reason why so many students got put on the waitlist, and I know it's not fair and I don't agree with it, but it is what it is. And so we have a strategy If that happens to a student, we have that plan in place before it ever happens because it is possible to get off the waitlist. We have proven it time and time again, and it's really not as hard as one would think. So have a plan, have a strategy. Financial plan. This is super important. Our mission is to help students do this without taking on massive debt.. It is possible. My son did it, my daughter did it, my stepson did it, and now my stepdaughter is doing it. I've helped thousands of students all over the world navigate so they don't get in a position. I had a client this morning who thought that the student could take on the loan, and so she— the, the woman was not concerned when I explained that the student has no collateral and it's the parent who takes on the cosign of the loan. All of the sudden, finances became very important. So have a financial plan. Are you going to apply to generous schools? Are you going to apply to in-state, out-of-state, private, public? Are you going to, you know, have some reach, some comfort, some safety? What does that look like? Will you go early decision? Will you go regular decision, priority decision? There are so many opportunities that will affect your pocketbook. Have a financial plan. Career and picking a major. Oh my goodness, this group of students needs this more than ever in my career of 17 application seasons. And I think it has a lot to do with the amount of time they're online, the amount of time, you know, technology technology is in their world because they're not playing outside until the lights come on. They're not doing some of the things that we did when we were younger to help us find out truly what are we good at and what are we not good at. So with our students, we have them take, uh, 9 high school targeted assessments to help us help them figure out What would be a great career for their gifts and talents? What would not be a great career because of their weakness? What career will provide them the lifestyle they want? If you want to find out how ready your child is to navigate this, at dinner tonight, ask them this: If I gave you a million dollars cash, 'And you had 24 hours to spend it, or you had to give it all back to me. What would you do with it?' Your mind will be blown. Try so hard not to look shocked or, um, correct them, because financial literacy is not something being taught in high school. So I've had some students tell me that they would buy a yacht take all their friends around the world. I've had students tell me that they would spend a million dollars on clothes, and I've had one or two students tell me that they would buy a rental property and fix it up and then flip it and buy a couple more. And so just know that your child is so not ready to be in charge of college financially. This is one of the most expensive things in their lifetime that they will have to navigate, and they are not ready to do it on their own. So if you don't want to have that conversation with them and you're just happy to write a big old check, that is okay. But if you don't want to write the full price check, you don't have to. No matter how much money you do or you don't make, there's a boatload of scholarships Just last year, our students— it was incredible— over $9.2 million they earned on top of need-based. These are middle-class families that are having massive success. So have a talk about career. Where do they want to live? Can they afford to live there? And then Talk to them about why, but without sounding judgmental. Why a botanist? Why an artist? Why an accountant? You know, these are important. Or what about that career sounds interesting? That will help a ton. We spend several meetings just on this alone because we're finding nobody else is having this conversation. The high school sure isn't. And as parents, sometimes they just don't want to talk to us. At least 2 of my 4 didn't, and I had to pay somebody else to talk to them even though I knew exactly what to ask. So please know they're not prepared for this without your help. Picking the best time to apply. I talked a little bit about having a strategy, right? Some schools are already open. For applications for this senior year. They opened in August. Some have rolling admission. Some of them open up applications in October, some in November, some December, all the way until March. And so it is not just a 2-month period. It is really a several— it's a marathon. Let's just be honest., and it's one in which they're also having to keep their good grades and take AP classes and, you know, continue the rigor and do all the senior activities. So having a plan with a map and a strategy of when their essay needs to be done and when their application needs to be done and who's going to review it and how are they going to proofread it— all of this needs a plan. Do not leave it up to your child. Why? Which colleges and how many? This is a really hard one for families. It was a super hard one for me. I remember when I asked my son to apply to one Ivy because I really wanted him to dream a little bit bigger than he was willing to dream. And I remember he told me straight out no. And I said to him, You know, we did a little compromising, and I said if he did and he got in, there would be something special on the other side. I had no idea he would get in. I really thought it was a dream school, but I didn't want him to cut himself short. Same thing happens on the other side where the student dreams too big about all schools and doesn't have comfort and safety. They don't want to have every single application due all in October. That will sink their shit. 12 colleges to apply to is the equivalent of 20 hours of work a week on top of their schoolwork, their sport, and everything else. So I hope you learned a lot. I'm going to go ahead and do something a little different, and I'm going to start answering questions, and then I'm gonna jump back in. So, Carrie, can you help me? Are there some questions that we can get to before we move on?

I think there's a lot of questions, but let me go back. You guys can put them in the chat now if you want.

Um, See, let's see.

I didn't know how to build a unique profile, but you went over that. No questions so far. Are you guys sure you don't have any questions?

Outstanding.

Okay, now's the time to ask unless Shellee, um, did a job well done as she usually does.

I love it, I love it. Well, I'm going to keep going then, because apparently you're learning something.

Oh, what are the 3 apps?

Uh, the applications— there's actually more than 3. There is the Common App, the Coalition App, the UC App, the State App, and the Private App. There's 5. Good question, Randy. Awesome. Okay, I'm going to keep going then, and we are going to dive in a little bit deeper. What I'm going to show you next is how to decide what to have the students spend their time on, because this is something I get asked Constantly. So it must be a common denominator for families, um, to, to try to unpack this. So let me go ahead and show you inside of our vault. We have what we call our files and folders. So this is our vault. So our students have— sorry, jumped ahead. This is Vincent. He is my fake student, and this is their vault. His vault for him and his family, have my 17 years of intellectual property, as well as a custom strategy positioning and a plan for Vincent. So nobody has to do anything except for me and my team other than follow the recommendations and give input and feedback. So all of that is in here. But where, where it gets really, really important is a few things under files. I share with the students some really critical things such as roadmap for success. What does that look like? Here is— remember when I was talking to you about a 4-year academic plan? Feel free to take a screenshot. This is what we do with our families. So most families just leave this up to the high school, and again, the high school does not have your child's best interest at hand. They have their best interest at hand, and they have to balance classrooms and teachers. But just know there are requirements for different schools. The University of California schools have different requirements than the Ivies do, than the state schools do, than the private schools do. And so it's really important that you build this ahead of time so you're child doesn't take ceramics their freshman year. I know it sounds really fun, but guess what? They need ceramics their senior year because it's a visual and performing art and they need one year of it. But also, they need easy classes their senior year, not their freshman year, because they're doing the hardest classes. They are doing, um, the most challenging, um, academic plan. And so I, I just want you to realize, I know it sounds fun to let them do these photography and this, you know, psychology and all these things, but be very careful because there's history, English, math, science, language, visual and performing arts, college prep electives, health, PE. If your child does more than the, the requirement, it becomes a non-academic class and it will bring down their GPA. I know it. Nobody tells you this, and it is incredibly frustrating, and I'm sorry, it shouldn't be that way. But just know there needs to be a plan, and it is different for every student. So please don't do what Vincent, my senior, is, because Vincent is a very unique student. All 4 of my children had very different plans. Every one of our college-ready students has their very own plan. So please know, be very careful. Don't just do what everybody else is doing. Now let's look at some extracurricular ideas. I built this for my students, and I'm sharing it with you because you've taken the time to learn, and I value that so much. There, everything your student does is good. It's way better than playing games on their phone or computer or on the TV, right? It's good. It's better than hanging out on the beach and doing non-productive things. But colleges look at it as good, better, and best. Okay, let's take a look at that. So being on the honor roll, that's good. But really, was it all that hard? Not usually. Being part of the National Honor Society with other students who are of the honor roll type, plus they had to interview, plus they had to do an essay, plus they had to have certain GPA and community service, that's better. Now, the next one is National Journalism Quiz Bowl. This is a competitive national opportunity. It goes international, national, regional, local, school. So the other one, ASB president. If your student is a club president, that is not even in the same world as ASB president. It is better for your child to run for office and not get in and write about an essay than it is for them never to try. So we understand that not all students are created equal. So maybe academia is not their thing. Maybe it's art. So winning a national art competition, that's best. What about athletics? Playing varsity all 4 years, that's best. What about music? First chair performance choir, that's best. What about theater? Perform at a professional venue. I have several of those. Robotics— lead your team to a national event. School club— expand your club, make it national, make it international. As you can see, it's not easy, but it is possible. So it's very important if you want to get into the colleges This is where college-ready students get accepted. We want you to have the same opportunity that our students have. We have gotten our students into all the top schools. Last year we had a student get into every University of California school, which is unheard of. I asked her why, and she said because her sister didn't get into one of them, so it was a little rivalry, but Indeed, she was able to do that. We go from the, the state schools to the Ivy schools and everything in between. So please know that is an important factor. Then we get to the person, the personal inventory. Who is your student? Colleges want to know. They see the GPA, they see the test score. Check, check. There's a minimum requirement. If your student takes the PSAT and scores well, they're going to get bombarded, "Apply here, apply here, apply here." Why? Because colleges make money every time you give your credit card for that application. They're not crazy. That's free money. That doesn't guarantee you anything. If you really want this to be about your child, They need to get clear on their strengths, their weaknesses, their academic strengths, their weaknesses, their interest strengths, their weaknesses. This is how we're able to help students write the most amazing essays. So we're about 15 minutes till— I want to honor our time. Is there any other questions before I let you all go?

There are.

Okay.

So can you tell us more about the career assessment tests you mentioned earlier? I don't think my daughter knows what she wants to major in or pursue.

So the ones you don't want to do are like the DiSC test or Strength Finders or any of the ones you can Google because they're not meant for teenagers. They speak as your child is already an adult. That is not helpful for a child who doesn't have a clue what they want to do. So we have created these assessments that speak their language, that are fun and creative to do, not boring. Are you this or this, or, you know, 1 through 5 this? It has to be engaging. It actually needs to be kind of like their cell phone, and it has to be fun. But in the end, we get the best information. We're able to tell them, show them, and even point them to— these are the best careers. Great. What major do they need to get into that career? Great. What classes do they need to get into that major? Great. How much debt will they take on to accomplish that career? Like, we go through the whole thing. So there's nothing on the market on Google. I— if there was, I would tell you. We had to create our own because students were telling us it was a waste of time, and you never want to waste a teenager's time. So hopefully that helps. Carrie, any other questions?

Yes, except for GPA and SAT, is a sport mandatory for Ivy Colleges?

A sport is never mandatory for any college, but being exceptional is what they need for an Ivy college, an Ivy university. So the Ivies are the best of the best. So every grade, test score, passion with purpose, national awards, it, it's just the very top level of everything, but they don't have to have— they could be, uh, visual and performing arts. They can be just as committed to their trade as an athlete might be. So that is most important. If they love a sport, that's just wonderful, but it's not critical.

Uh, next question: How useful are sports and arts outside the school setting?

Well, what colleges want to know is who your student is and why they matter. So if you're going to play a sport outside of high school, there has to be a reason. So take for instance my oldest. He played soccer his whole entire life, played varsity soccer all 4 years in high school, but his high school team wasn't that great, so we actually had to pay money for him to play at a club sport because he was at that higher level. So if that's the reason, then yes, definitely do it. Art. If your student is, you know, a commissioned artist, then yes, they need to be doing it outside of high school because high school is not going to win them national awards or international awards. So it's, it's not about just checking boxes. It's about helping colleges learn about your child. And the challenging part is most teenagers don't know themselves well enough. And most parents, if you tell your child who you think they are, they don't agree. So that's why having us as a, a, uh, a mentor and only being there to give them what they want allows us to get them through that process quicker. So it— please just don't checkboxes. I see she's a dancer. Now, I have lots of dancers, so I will tell you, I have several ballerinas that are on the circuit. I mean, they are already performing in New York. So dance at what level? Do they want to dance professionally? In col— do they want to dance in college? Do they want to dance professionally? You have to make all of these decisions. There's only 24 hours in a day. So I have other dancers who are like Indian dancers where they're doing their heritage dance or American Indian tribal dancers. So if it is really important to the student and they're excelling at it and that's going to tell colleges about them, yes, that's brilliant. But they also don't want students who just go and take an education and leave and want nothing to do with their school, because that's what they're going to do in college, and that's not what colleges want. So it has to be individual, and I'm happy to address that. Um, she won many competitions and is awarded— get her nationally recognized and internationally recognized, and then decide if she wants to do that for a career. That those are really important. I have an opera singer right now who is internationally recognized. She's phenomenal. She's won awards and awards and awards. But in her senior year, she's decided, I don't want to do opera anymore. So just be mindful that all of this has to come together. Um, is there anything else, Carrie? Okay, perfect. Carrie, if you can put Empower Education um, into the chat. For you families who are on this recording or on the, the actual meeting, I want to gift you an opportunity for your student to see and be part of an international Passion with Purpose project. It's called empowereducation.world. Carrie and I are the mentors for this organization, and we mentor students to lead others to use their passion and create the change they wish to see in the world. So if that is something that you would like, there's no charge at all to check it out. Carrie and I, we, we welcome everybody. More hands the better. Um, this organization last year, um, grew up to— grew to 37 students, I believe, and raised over $18,000 and built 2 schools Uganda. They're impressive. They're making an impact. That's what colleges and the Ivies are looking for. And to be honest, the UCs aren't any easier. So being impactful and leading is critical. The other opportunity I'd like to share is if you go to collegereadyplan.info, I-N-F-O, we are going to gift you a 30-minute strategy session So we can talk to you, Randy, about your, your dancer. I love it. I would love to do that. Or we can talk about the student who has the passion for athletics. So just know our goal is to help you, and it's all about the knowledge. Just be careful not to get caught up in the negativity, because I promise you, our students are doing awesome. So thank you all very much, and we hope you have a rest of the day that's just as Impakful. Bye for now.