Webinar: 3 Keys to College Success: Intellectual Curiosity, Research, and Finding the Best Fit

Welcome everybody. As you enter into the room, we will continue to get you updated. And here they come. So welcome everyone. My name is Shellee Howard and I'm here with Brett, and we are going to start at the top of the hour as promised. So feel free to settle in. Hopefully you're having a great lunch and this is just an addition to your great lunch. And we will get started shortly. So I'm gonna set up a few of the background things and we will be good to go.

Perhaps a mid-afternoon snack if you're on the East Coast like I am.

That is true. From West Coast to East Coast, I do forget. And we have quite a few international people logging in today, I have found out. So I think you have some kind of an international following I don't know if you're aware of, but they're, they're looking for you.

Yeah, we do. We've worked with students from almost 90 countries, um, so, uh, at this point. So definitely a very international base for sure.

Excellent. Well, that's what we're finding. We have students who are logging in from everywhere, and that is super exciting. We are truly global as well. I was just in Kenya, Africa last week, and Madagascar, and there were students there who were asking the same questions. How do I get to the best colleges? So I'm excited to, to lean into that. Do you have sharing control now, Brett?

I do.

Okay, excellent. I'm going to go ahead and share our first screen. So those of you who have logged in I say on time because you're early. We do appreciate it. And so I'm gonna share that screen, and we have a few questions to get a feel for who's in the room. So as we're doing so, here are the questions that I would love for you to answer in the chat. So in the chat, if you can put which is most important to you. Finding out what your child wants to do when they grow up. What avenue do they want to pursue? Are they still unsure? That's question number 1. Question number 2: Is it most important for you to, uh, find out what are the benefits of research in high school to help prepare for college? Is that why you got on the call? Or third, um, do you want to find out how to find the best fit college academically, socially, financially? Is that what drove you to the call? And if it's not one of those three, put in the chat so we know how to address your question. So again, you can put 1, 2, or 3, or you can put in whatever you think is the best thing that you want to share. So please add that so we can make sure we have spoken and, and answered your question. Um, let's see, so the chat is available, um, and we are good to go. All right, so it's the top of the hour, and I am so excited to get this started. Again, if you're just coming in the room, put in the chat if you're most concerned about helping your child figure out their college major, their career, their future, number 2, the benefits of research on high school, or 3, finding the best fit college. So with that, we're going to go ahead and get started and, um, talk a little bit about why we're here today, and we're going to jump right in. Your time is so valuable, and we want to make sure to answer your questions. So today I have the honor of sharing with you a very, very impressive resume. Mr. Brett Fuller is with us today. And for those of you who don't know me, my name is Shellee Howard and I'm the founder and CEO of College Ready. And I am really excited to share with you what we have in store. So I'm gonna give just a brief introduction about myself, and then we are going to keep rolling. So my name is Shellee Howard. I am the founder of College Ready and the bestselling author of How to Send Your Student to College Without Losing Your Mind or Your Money. Hopefully you are not feeling either one of those, and we can just go right past that. But in case you're wondering, um, why I'm having this webinar and inviting such amazing people is because my why. These two are my why. Um, my son graduated from Harvard debt-free, uh, pre-med, went on to UC San Diego Medical School, and he is now in his final year as an orthopedic surgeon at UCLA. He will be doing, uh, knees, hips, and joint replacement. Had a conversation with him last night, and it's mind-blowing. At 30 years old, he is doing all of that. Um, my second reason is 4 years later, my daughter's dream school was University of Alabama, and she, uh, got in, got accepted, graduated debt-free, and she is now a registered nurse. And they're both in a career they love. With zero college debt. That is why I'm here today with all of you. So I'm going to stop sharing my screen and I'm going to turn it over to my guest today, Mr. Brett Fuller from Pioneer Academics.

Welcome. Thanks so much, Shellee Howard. It's a pleasure to be here. I can go ahead and share my screen. That's okay with everybody here. Okay, so I have, uh, before I get into my portion of the conversation here, I did want to give you a little bit more background about, um, my experience, where I'm coming from, uh, what I'm bringing to this conversation. I joined Pioneer Academics about 2 years ago as an academic development manager, and you'll learn more about Pioneer as this conversation continues. But before I joined Pioneer, I spent about 10 years on the college admissions side of things. So I worked at— for 5 years at Columbia University in New York. Most recently, I worked at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, and I'm currently in Charlotte, North Carolina as well. And I've had the opportunity to have some version of this presentation at a number of professional conferences. So this conversation around intellectual curiosity and research. I actually delivered this presentation at a group of international admissions counselors and high school counselors last year alongside some admissions professionals, as well as to a group of independent consultants at two different conferences in the last year. So this is a conversation I think that is very, very pertinent for our, our current time, the current landscape of the college admissions process. And it helps the audience, I think, hopefully speak the language of admissions officers, which is really— Shellee could tell you— a big part of the battle in better understanding how you can navigate this process, whether you're a parent helping your son or daughter, or whether you're a student who is taking this on. Speaking the language and better understanding what is being asked of you is such a crucial step here. So that's where we're going to get into with our agenda here today. So intellectual curiosity, I'm going to tell you a little bit more about what that even means and why it's important. We'll get into the role that research can play in your own academic development and in the college admissions process. I'll tell you about Pioneer's approach to research. And then we'll discuss research in the admissions process before turning it back to Shellee Howard and getting to some questions. And I know that seems like a lot to cover. I promise I'm not going to take too much of your time here. But hopefully this underscores why intellectual curiosity matters. One of the first questions I would often get when I was an admissions officer at Columbia was, what does the typical admitted student look like? What are the common denominators? And the answer I always gave was, you know, there is no typical student. You know, the class at a place like Columbia is so diverse in so many different ways that there is no single unifying common denominator. But then I would go on to say, but you know what a common trait is amongst these students? Intellectual curiosity or intellectual vitality. We were looking for students that demonstrated intellectual curiosity I actually pulled this quote directly from— it is the first line on the admissions page at Princeton. I think they've changed in the last few months. This was from my presentation last year. But they explicitly say, we look for students with intellectual curiosity. So why? Why is intellectual curiosity something that they're placing value on? Well, the first thing, and this is really the case with any single factor in the admissions process, The more selective the institution you're considering, the more thin those margins are in reviewing those applications. So when we get into committee conversation, it was very, very difficult to draw the line between— from one student to the next. Every student that we were reviewing had top GPAs, top testing. They had challenged themselves academically. That is absolutely the, the baseline in many ways. And so admissions officers are always looking for those characteristics that can help them differentiate the students that might be the best, best fit. Intellectual curiosity— one of the reasons they've targeted that is it demonstrates a willingness to explore on the student's behalf. And they mean that in many, many different ways. You know, one of the roles an admissions officer plays is to identify, uh, the ways in which a student is going to breathe life into the campus that they represent. And they know that high school students only have so many opportunities available to them academically and socially. But if you get to a place like Columbia or Princeton or any of these top institutions, and they have this wide range of resources available to you and brand new classes you've never heard of, brand new student clubs and organizations you've never heard of. Well, obviously they're not going to expect that you've been exposed to all of those things, but what they want to know is, are you going to take advantage? Are you going to contribute? Are you going to try new things and challenge yourself? And one of the ways that they think about that is through intellectual curiosity. The third thing here is the fit with their academic model. Many of these places, even research institutions, have what would be called general education requirements or graduation requirements or distribution requirements within your academic major. You are— it's increasingly rare these days that you get to a campus and you say, well, I'm a physics major, so I'm pretty much only going to take physics classes. That doesn't really happen. And so they want to know, are you going to be the kind of person who's excited to mix in a literature class or a language or an arts or humanities class? Or are you going to be the kind of person who sits in the back and just says, I want to get back to my physics lab, thanks very much? Um, because they, they want to know that you believe in their academic model, that those expectations, uh, matter to you and that you're going to lean in to those other classes that you're expected to take. And then finally, that also plays into commitment to mission as well. These institutions are institutions of higher learning at the end of the day. They have two currencies that they produce. They produce alumni and they produce information, knowledge, right? And so, you know, the, the ability of students to come in and have this, this thirst for knowledge, this willingness to learn, this willingness to learn from each other. Is really, really important. And that, that last point, learning from each other, you know, these, these places go to great lengths to build classes that are diverse in terms of geography, academic interests, social interests, backgrounds of various kinds. But if you're not going to be interested in learning from students from different backgrounds or faculty with different backgrounds, then, then that doesn't really go very far. And so this commitment to mission comes through this intellectual curiosity as well. So how do you demonstrate intellectual curiosity on an application? Where can you find it? Where is an admissions officer looking for it? Well, the answer is really everywhere. Everywhere on the application. The, the reality is that intellectual curiosity is not a box to be checked. This is another reason that this is a particularly appealing trait for admissions officers. And I'll give you a few examples. You might be looking at some of these saying, I don't see how intellectual curiosity shows up on a transcript, for example. Well, not only does, does an admissions officer want to see that you've taken advanced classes in your field of interest, but maybe you've decided to pick up another language, or you decided to take an advanced history course even though you're applying as an engineer because you thought it sounded really interesting, really unique. Well, that can really pique the interest of an admissions officer. That shows in some ways that you are an intellectually curious individual, that you're excited about challenging yourself and exploring new worlds and new academic perspectives. The same can go for your resume. You might have an interest in art history, and maybe you secured an internship or volunteer experience that relates to that interest and allows you to dive into that interest beyond the classroom setting. So not only are you taking that class, in school, but you're exploring that interest beyond school, and that's showing up there. Maybe in the supplemental essays you are citing a, a favorite passage or a favorite book or a favorite author or a favorite podcast, uh, and, and citing that as your inspiration for diving more deeply into an area of interest, and that's showing intellectual curiosity to the admissions officer. The reality is that by broadcasting to the AO that you are excited about challenging yourself, but also about gaining knowledge and sort of going out on your own academic journey, that, that can go a long way. And frankly, one of the best ways to do that, and the common thread here in our conversation, is research. We would often see research as an opportunity for students to connect that, that intellectual curiosity to a student's area of interest. And again, you know, I, of course, speaking as a former admissions officer myself, but I can quote directly from the folks who are still doing this. And you will see in a couple of these instances here, both from the Dean of Admissions at Penn as well as the Director of Admissions at Caltech, these quotes come from their descriptions of their admitted student class from those years. So at Penn, this was 2 years ago, last year at Caltech. And one of the statistics they cite is the number of students who were admitted after having completed research as a high school student. Now, what I don't want you to take away from this is that this is the silver bullet. Okay, I found the answer. The answer to getting into these places is doing research. That's absolutely not the case. But if you read the full write-ups of how these folks are describing their admitted student classes, one of the reasons that they've cited research is that they're excited about the way that their students go above and beyond. They're excited about the ways that their students take advantage of the opportunities that are ahead of them, and that they go actively seeking opportunities to learn more. And what they point to as evidence of that fact is research. And the third quote I've, I've pulled here is from the University of Chicago website. And I think this also speaks to why research is something that these leaders in these admissions offices are comfortable pointing to, because many of these institutions have research as a central tenet of their institution's mission. So if you think in the most optimistic terms what an admissions office is intended to do, it's intended to help, uh, these institutions carry out their mission, bring in a class that, um, is going to fill every corner of campus and help that institution stay true to its mission. Well, if research is something that is central to that institution's mission, then certainly students who have done that and demonstrated the capacity for it and an interest in it can only help further that cause. Obviously, 80% of the students admitted to UChicago did not previously do research. So they're opening the door to students who are engaging in research once they arrive on campus. But having demonstrated an interest in that and a capacity for it can only help your cause in that way. So why research again? And I really, really love this quote, and I use it frequently in these types of conversations from Picasso. He said, "Computers are useless. They only give you answers." So aside from the admissions conversations, taking a step back from that for a moment and just thinking about your own academic development, what are the types of skills that you might hope to develop by engaging in research? What are the benefits to you as a student and as a learner? Well, academic autonomy for one. You know, I've sort of used some variation of the phrase going above and beyond a few times already because it's one thing to earn A's in, you know, a preset course through your high school, which again is an extremely valuable skill and certainly something you should aim to do. But beyond that, how are you exploring your interests, right? So, this is one of the very few opportunities you have as a high school student to take the reins and to be, you know, your own driver in your educational journey. You're setting the expectations for this research project. You're setting the parameters for what a research question might look like. In that way, you might be discovering new interests, you might be developing existing interests, but you're behind the wheel, and that really makes a big difference. And in doing so, you're also developing those critical thinking skills that so many of these institutions place so much value on. There's also some very practical skills that you can learn by becoming a researcher—time management skills, problem-solving skills. These are the types of things that certainly you develop in some capacity in doing well in a, in a class as well. But again, you're setting your own benchmarks in some ways. The time management skills, for example. Depending on the research project you are taking on and the structure behind it, you might be setting your own timeline for when you want to have that literature review done, or when you want to have the first couple of pages done. It's not going to be a teacher necessarily that says, well, this is due in 2 weeks. So those time management skills and that, again, that autonomy becomes really, really important. You also get some insight into the college experience. I just told you that 80%, according to UChicago, 80% of their undergraduates do research in some way. In their 4 years on campus. So if this is something that's not previously on your radar, it might be something that's expected of you when you get to these campuses. And so getting a better idea of what this looks and feels like now is a real advantage. And then finally, learning from a mentor. That might not sound like a skill, but one of the great advantages to being on those campuses is that you are surrounded by some of the greatest minds on the planet. And you're really doing yourself a disservice if you're not learning from them, and you're not actively seeking their, their wisdom, their mentorship, and to be able to, to have an idea of what that looks like and feels like now is a real advantage. I broke the types of research into 4 different buckets here, and I'm going to go through these fairly quickly. But the first is school-based research. So some of you may have partaken in or plan to partake in AP research, for example. Some of your schools might offer capstone experiences or team-based programs. I've included this as the sort of first bucket because it's the closest to what you're already doing as a high-achieving high school student. You're not necessarily branching out too far from your norm. You're doing this within the, the curriculum offered at your school, but it's a great way to sort of get the mechanics of what research looks and feels like. The second bucket here is independent research, and this is fairly broad. It can mean anything from cold calling 100 professors to say, hey, I'm interested in doing research. Do you have any space in your research team or in your lab? Or maybe you know someone, or, you know, a friend of a friend, something like that. It can be something you're doing entirely on your own without a mentor in some way. And so that's why this is, you know, a lot more broad. There's less structure, more autonomy, but a lot more variance. And as far as the admissions process goes, you're going to have to do a lot more convincing that this was at a high level because they don't know necessarily Was your role in this research team, you showed up once a week, you cleaned up around the lab and you maybe filled out a form or two, or were you heavily involved in this research experience? The third bucket is called project fulfillment, and this is getting closer to what something like Pioneer might offer. But there are some key differences. The first is that it's still student-driven, and that is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's a good thing in that you will get exactly what it is that you're looking for. So if you have a hyper-specific research question in mind, you can guarantee that you're going to be able to address that research question. You might also be able to get a mentor, whether it's a graduate student or a PhD student. They can help you with that. The downside to that is that from an admissions officer's perspective, you still have some heavy lifting to do in terms of convincing them that this is at the highest caliber, at the highest level, because there's less oversight. You're not necessarily doing so against an established curriculum or an established baseline of rigor. And so an admissions officer receiving that work still may not know, okay, you know, are you saying that this was done at the highest level? How did you collect this data? How did you come to these findings? How did you draw these conclusions? What were the parameters? You just have a lot more explaining to do than if you were in a, what we call a guided research experience. So I would call Pioneer a guided research experience. I'd also— some of our, our peer organizations would be the Summer Science Program, RSI at MIT. And there's some key differences here. One is that this is mentor-driven. And I know I, I was talking so much about autonomy. Autonomy is still important. Mentor-driven does not mean you are losing control of this experience. It means that the mentor is establishing the baseline of rigor and expectations for what your product needs to be. So this is the expectation for what an A looks like in this experience, or what, you know, in order to finish this experience successfully, this is what we expect of you. And this is the standard that needs to be met. It's curriculum-based, meaning that, you know, again, exactly, you know, what the final product might look like, what the benchmarks along the way you need to hit are, you're still navigating through your own timeline typically. And you're leaning on that mentor, but you know that this is an experience that is going to produce a proven model. So this is how Pioneer approaches it. We are fully accredited, meaning we have partnered with Oberlin College, a selective liberal arts institution in the Midwest, and our program is actually an extension of Oberlin College. So you will earn 4 college credits by completing the Pioneer Research Program. And there are a few guarantees that we've made both to Oberlin and to any students who complete the research program. One, you only work with professors. So our faculty are all professors at the undergraduate level. They've all taught undergraduates and they all come from top 40 institutions. So you're working with folks who not only have a track record of teaching undergraduates and understand what it means to be a mentor, but they're leaders in their field and they're at the top institutions across the US. We've also guaranteed that an A in one concentration under one professor is the same as an A under another professor. So whether you're working with a professor from Yale or Johns Hopkins or Stanford or Notre Dame, the expectations for what an A looks like, what their role is, and what your role is, is universal. And in that guarantee, we not only promise to students that they know what to expect, but admissions officers who are receiving your work know exactly what that caliber means. And again, that's backed by Oberlin College and receiving that A. This is how we guarantee that every student's project is truly original. You are not just doing a literature review. You are expected to come up with an original research question. We've been around now for about 13 years. For those of us that— or for those of you that joined us early, you know that we've worked with students from around 90 countries at this point. And our expectation is that you are taking an area of interest, you are working with a faculty member within that space, and you are going to be developing an original research question. And along the way, you're going to get the basic fundamentals of what undergraduate-level research entails, You're going to get the principles for, you know, how do I, you know, I know I'm interested in biology, for example, or I'm interested in medicine, but I have no idea how to turn that into an actionable research question. Well, our Pioneer faculty can help you do exactly that. They want to make sure that our high-achieving students, even if they come to us with no research experience whatsoever, that they're prepared to develop an original research question because we think that development of that research question actually in and of itself carries quite a bit of value. And again, I don't think that the takeaway here should be that research is the way that you get admitted to these places. But what, what I want to draw your attention to here is just that research is something that these admissions offices do respect. It's something that— it's, it's part of the language that they speak. One of the, the uphill battles you have as an applicant is communicating to these admissions officers where your interests lie and what you're going to be involved in when you get to these campuses. And if you apply and you say, well, I'm interested in medicine or I'm interested in engineering, and you've done well in your classes, you've challenged yourself in some of these spaces, but they don't really know how to anchor that interest, they don't see much on your resume to set you set you apart, or to say, "Oh yeah, okay, I know they said civil engineering, but I'm really not seeing much on this application that points to civil engineering." Well, you're 17 years old, it's really tough. You can't get a job in civil engineering. So we understand that, but it presents an issue, right? And research can be one of those avenues that presents a very, very concrete way in which you can say, "This is how I've explored this. This is how I've contributed to this field. And this is the foundation from which I'm going to continue to grow." once I arrive on your campuses. So again, not necessarily a silver bullet to this process. And I hope you're not taking that away from this. But it is part of one of the building blocks you can establish in crafting that narrative for who you would be on these college campuses. I promised to be as quick as I could there. I know I threw a lot of information at you. And I know Shellee still has a lot of information to share with you. But that's a little bit about intellectual curiosity, research and the Pioneer process. Shellee, I'm going to turn it back to you. Outstanding.

So if you have questions, we will definitely be addressing those, and we have left time for that. So just know, jot them down, and we will get, uh, to those at the end. But I wanted to help from a college admissions side what we're seeing. So obviously Brett is in research. He's— he understands it. He sees the value. His stats are incredible. But I want to share some things that we saw this past year. I think there's nothing better than, than proof from an outside perspective. And so what I wanted to share are 3 things, and then I'm going to show you how to answer question 1 and 3, and then we'll answer questions. So The first thing I will tell you is my, my firstborn who, um, went to Harvard, he had one regret when he graduated. And I guess one regret's not that bad when you graduate from Harvard, but he did have one, and that was he did not do a research paper. He didn't do one prior to college, and he didn't do one at college. Uh, he worked in a, a lab which was fascinating, and he loved it, but he was at a massive disadvantage when he applied to med school. And he did not know this because he was the first to go medicine on both sides of our family, and we did not know that that was something critical. And his Harvard, uh, admissions helpers did not point out that that was a weak spot. Thank goodness he had a 98% on his MCAT and he had perfect A's at Harvard, so he did have his choice of med school. So it's not a sad story, but I think it's important to look at each stage where you're at and how it can help you now and in the future. So he is now an interviewer for Harvard and an interviewer for UC San Diego Medical School, and he will tell you the first thing they ask about is research. So that's why I had Brad on this call, is I want you, my clients, my followers, to have the very best with no regrets. There's nothing harder for a student than to get a perfect GPA, a perfect test score, awesome community service hours, leadership, extracurricular, letters of recommendation, kill the essay, and go, why didn't I get in? That is devastating for any young person, and I would never want that to happen to your child. So for me even though it's not the silver bullet, it should be a weapon in your arsenal. If your student and their positioning is not screaming exactly why they're applying for something, which is very normal for a 17-year-old, they have this and that and this and that, and they're just all over the place, right? Question number 1, that's why I started with how do you know what major and career Well, I'm going to share 3 examples of seniors that I've had this year that it absolutely was critical. So senior number 1, Kamyah, she was so brilliant in liberal studies and really struggled in STEM. And but she wanted to— she thought she wanted to go into psychology, but with an engineering twist. So it was a really kind of a tweak on things. But nothing she had coming to me spelled out any of that. It was just truly she was really good at liberal studies, tested well, did well in the APs. And so we decided that part of her arsenal would be a research project. And what ended up happening is she ended up having 100% decision on her major. Without a doubt, she knew what decision she wanted to go. She has 100% fix on her career path. And she got into her top 3 schools. So silver bullet or not, that's pretty impressive. Then student number 2, Henry. Henry knew he wanted to go into medicine from 8th grade on. STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM. But of course, being 17, how do you have experience being a doctor? So he shadowed them and he did really cool summer programs and And yes, I want to be a doctor. But what was missing is proof that he had intellectual curiosity because everything he did was a sign up and show up. That's not impressive to colleges to a level of intellectual curiosity. And so we set him up with a research project that he absolutely dove into something that fascinated him, which is something of the brain. And I can't even tell you all the details. Because it was deep research. And he now has an incredible opportunity ahead of him because he has focus. He may not be a neurologist, he may pivot, but it sure did help him to write a brilliant essay for applications. My third student is Jonathan. Jonathan knew he wanted to be an astronaut, absolutely knew this without a doubt. And there was nothing he can put on his resume or activities tracker to show proof that he wanted to be an astronaut. Um, we even had him write a brilliant essay about what it was like staring up at the solar system on his ceiling. Like, we tried everything, but until he wrote a research paper about the black hole— whoa, it was without a doubt the most impressive research paper, and his mentor was standing, and he got into his top— well, actually top 5 colleges and is now on his way to being an astronaut, which is so incredible for me because how do you even know that at that age? But I just want you to know from a parent side of things how this can impact from an emotional intellectual place and ultimately help them in their future. So for those of you who answered number 1, I'm not sure what my child wants to do, what major, what career. I like this opportunity because it brings that— I call it the, the lucky idea of find out sooner than later that maybe that's not the right path, because they could do a research paper and be like, whoa, I really don't like what I thought I liked. And that is okay. There's actually an essay prompt for that, and we have used that prompt before. So just know, the more you can do to help your teenager figure out what they're good at, their gifts, their talents, their advocacy, their passions, their core values, and then show it to college, that is the key. That is what equals success. So now I'm going to show you how we help students take it to the next level. They've done the research project, and now how do they pick the best colleges? Because that was question number 3, and then we're going to answer questions. So we're doing great on time, and so I want to honor that, um, but please feel free to write down any of your questions. So I'm going to share, um, what we call our vault. It is— I've been doing this 17 years. I know, 17 years I've been applying to college. It's kind of a sad state of affairs, but Thank goodness I love it a lot, and I love teenagers. So I'm gonna share with you— a brilliant engineer built this— of my 17 years of intellectual property. And in here, how we utilize this is to pick the right opportunity with the right essay to align to the right school to find the best academic, social, and financial fit. So it's not a feeling or a football team. It's not, uh, this is ranked number 1 on U.S. News and World Report. This is what is the best fit school for your child in their future. If they want to go on to medical school, they need to graduate at the top 5% of their college class. You're going, I didn't realize that. And they need to continue on to do well. Right now, they may be the very best at their school,. But if you go to a school that is among the best of the best, can and does your child want that? I remember when my son was at Harvard, his very first week he called home and he said, Mom, I'm really concerned. And I was waiting for this because I was very worried that my top of the class at his high school was going to meet his match, and he did. And he said, I'm in a class of 12 students in my English class, and the teacher informed us today that one of us will get an A. He says, Mom, I've never had a B, but I don't want to work as hard as all of these other kids. And I said, a B from Harvard is pretty darn good, and you're going to be okay. So I just share that because we're balancing a lot of things, but it's a real person we're talking about here. And the success of their future. So what we've done is we've built this platform to help a student figure out, what do I need to stand out? How will my positioning go into play? And what is my standout strategy? Well, the essays are critical in this place because somebody is going to have the same GPA or better, the same test score or better, the same community service hours or better. Same leadership or better. So now what? So what we do at College Ready is we put together all of that for your family. But if you're going to manage this on your own, I at least wanted to give you some weapons to use to help you get there. So the first thing that you'll notice is most applications are going to come from the Common App or the UC app. Those are the two main ones. So there's the Coalition app, there's the private apps. But let's just focus on two because I don't want to overwhelm you. So in the Common App, you will have the opportunity to list 10 activities, honors, and awards. Okay, 10. That may seem like a lot to some of you, and some of you are like, I'm going to need pages. So remember, it's quality over quantity. Okay, international, national, regional, local, school. International is always going to be the lower school-level assignment. So now we look at the UC app. There are 20. Okay, so there's 10 on the Common App and there's 20. I have to show you because nobody believes me. 20 on the UC applications, and you're thinking, 20? My kid plays a sport. How in the world are they going to have 20? And I just want you to know that that is a real thing. And so when a student does this on their own, they are going to list them in whatever random order they can remember. The problem with that is I see it every year when I get to review these. Is a student will put Eagle Scout probably second or last because why? They didn't want to do it and their parent made them do it. And so for them, they're like, "Ugh, I got it done, but I don't want to talk about it." Unfortunately, that should be one of the top things that they should be listing with research and other impressive things. So it's important to know Do not leave this up to your 17 or 18-year-old because they're truly going to put whatever is going to come to the page the fastest so they can tell you they finished it. The other thing is colleges do not know if your school, if National Honor Society is a rigorous, intense club, or If it is a pizza party, and it is at each school. There are some schools that it is a really fun, chill kind of hangout thing for smart kids, and there's another one at many schools that is insanely hard to get into. If your child cannot articulate that in their application, it's not going to help them one bit because that admissions reader doesn't know at your school what that was if your child doesn't explain it to them. So we have built this component to our Vault, and what this is, is it's a full development. It starts with your essays and the different applications—your personal statement, your insight questions, your why or why major, and your activity description. We're getting their mind wrapped around it. So you're, you're thinking, what do you mean? Well, most students are not really sure who they are and what matters to them. So we start with a personal quiz, then we define who they are, because if they don't know, they can't obviously sell it in an application. The goal of their application— if they don't know, the reader sure not going to know. The experience they bring to demonstrate intellectual curiosity and their ambitions. So if your 17-year-old or 18-year-old is doing this on their own and they're not doing any of these, how are they going to stand out and really bring the very best? You drove them there, you paid for it, you're the cheerleader, but you can't do this part for them. And they need somebody to help them, guide them through this part. Then for their resume and their activities, we help them dig deep into that. What does that look like? Well, for their Common App activities, an example would be that they're going to see is they're going to have to list the name and, and type of the activity, the position they held The organization name. Describe the activity, not what the group did, what they did. Do you see how easy this would be for a 17-year-old to go, "Well, we put on this activity and we did this and did—" That is a big problem. So just know that is critical. They did the work. We're not making it up. They're doing the work. They did the research. But if they just said, I did a research project on the black hole, that brings nothing to the table. We have to help them understand this is the first time they have to sell themselves. Brad, am I wrong? No, not at all. So from a reader, that's what they're looking for because they have sometimes less than 10 minutes to figure out who is this person, will they fit in here? Will they be successful? Will they be a great alumni and send money back? Oh yeah, probably not that part, but you know what I'm talking about. And then you have to list how many years did they do it, how much time did they participate in it, how many hours per week, how many weeks per year. And if you're not blown away, parents, they want to know if they intend to do it in college. So It is not like it used to be. It is so incredibly important that your child has the necessary things to be successful and knows how to put it all together. That is what we do. So with that, I'm going to open it up to Q&A, so I allow time for that. So if you have a question, you are welcome to put it in the chat. Um, or I can, uh, bring you off mute and you can say it out loud. It's completely up to you. So anybody with questions, I will look back at the chat. Okay, first question: How do research with Pioneer or without— or without like locally or SMTH? Not sure what SMT is. You might know.

That's just some something. Okay.

So can you answer how do research with you or without you and doing it locally, what that might look like? Yeah.

So one of the details of the program I didn't get into is that we are a virtual program. So our faculty are based around the US. Our students are coming from around the US and around the world. So you can participate in Pioneer from anywhere, and you'd be working with that, with a faculty member, typically over Zoom. But, you know, if you're engaging in research outside of Pioneer, this person who posed this question mentioned locally, that would fall more in the independent research, you know, sort of bucket that I outlined earlier. Maybe your local community college or university nearby has faculty who have space in their research teams for high school interns. The problem there is that those are few and far between, and they're difficult to secure. You have to reach out to a lot of faculty members to find anyone who will even answer your email, let alone say, yes, I have space for you. And you might not be the only high school student in your area that's thinking that way. That might also be reaching out. And so the benefits of doing a program like Pioneer are that if you are admitted— and we are a selective program, only about a quarter of applicants are admitted— but if you are admitted, you know, you don't have to run the risk of not finding a faculty member to work with.

That's so helpful. I can give an example. So I had a student 2 years ago And she was a go-getter. Wowza. I mean, she just, she brought it. And she said, Shellee, I want to work with this professor at this university. And I said, outstanding. She goes, will you help me to write an email? And I said, absolutely. And I said, and I need you to write an email to 125 of his best friends. Yeah. And she's like, what? And I said, Grace, the chance of you getting that particular teacher to be in a position to do what it is that you want to do, I said, I'm not going to stop you. I love your vision, but I don't want to let you down that we put all the eggs in that basket. So let's, let's strategize. And we made a list of all of the, the colleges and the professors and got their emails and I mean, it was hours and hours of work, but she loved it. She's a researcher by nature. And she reached out to 120— 127, I remember. And that particular one did not get back to her, but a friend of his did at the school she wanted. And out of all 127, she heard back from 4. And out of those 4, she was interested in one, and she did get it. So I do want to let families know it is not easy, but it is possible. That student got a full ride to Vanderbilt. So I just have to throw in the reality that I see. I have partnered with, with organizations, strategic partners like Brett because I know how hard this is and I know how busy your kids are. And so I just want to let you know that it depends on— it's life. Do you have more time? You will have more money. Do you have more, you know, is your student a go-getter or are they a chill kind of like wait and see? So know your child and right, child 1 and 2 are going to be different or 3 or 4.. And that's going to be very important. So it is possible, but it's not easy. Another question, um, let's see, uh, what about international students? Can you help them? Yeah, absolutely.

So again, our students are coming from all over the world, and you might be thinking, well, um, you know, I'm based, uh, you know, in East Asia, how do I work with a faculty member from the US? Well, our admission program will ask, you know, what time zone are you in? When are you available? We partner you with a faculty member who will be available at a time that makes sense for you. You're not going to be expected to be up at 2 in the morning in order to participate in the Pioneer Research Program. We want to make sure you're getting a good night's sleep as well. We know how hard all of you work already. But yes, you can apply from anywhere in the world. I should also mention we offer need-based scholarships, and that's true for international students as well. I also see a question in here about the admission process. You know, what makes you admit a student or not for the program? I didn't get into much of that. You know, in a lot of ways, we mirror a college admissions process. The sort of baseline is that you have a strong academic foundation in your area of interest. And then from there, we're determining fit with the program. And the biggest way we aim to do that is we ask a few short answer questions and there's an interview component. And mostly what we're trying to get is, why are you interested in research? And it can't be because, well, my counselor told me research was a good idea, right? That may be true, and your counselor might be giving you really good advice, but we want to know, you know, it's a lot of work. And we know you only have so much time. You only have so much bandwidth. We don't want students to try to grind out this process just because they said it's a, a box to be checked. And so this also gets back to that question of intellectual curiosity. Are you actually excited about asking some of these questions and diving into these details and learning a little bit more about your area of interest? If so, you could be a really, really good fit.

Such a great— way to answer that. Um, it's not— you don't— this is not something to check a box. It really isn't, because if it's not heartfelt, it's going to be like Eagle Scout. And I don't mean to go after Eagle Scout, but I've never met a young man who's super pumped about it. That's like the end of the end of the line, and they're just like, I just want to be done. But if you do a really cool Eagle Scout project, you can finish strong. Same with this kind of research. I've seen it go really well with every one of my students, but I also am very clear with, um, what are you going to give up in place of? And it's usually doing a zillion high school clubs— Pokémon Club and all kinds of this busy, busy work that's not going to help them. And so it's really actually quite easy to find a lot of time for them. To do this when I help them to see, well, this is up here and you're spending all your time down here. So I do encourage a lot of my students, not all, there's some of my students who this is not a good fit for and, um, it would not be a good use of their time. So again, it's, it's not for everybody, but it is for some, some intellectual curious people. Um, next question. How does the essay portion of your program work? And do you have room for upcoming juniors right now in your program? So the essay portion is so incredibly important, and it's gotten more important since COVID The reason being is there was a gap of a couple years in y'all— in your life, and we need to not talk about COVID because as an admissions reader, I'm sure that everybody can appreciate how many of those essays they have written. Uh, read. So it's important to know that your essay needs to align to your positioning, your standout strategy, your intellectual curiosity. Everything we've talked about here is why you write those essays, and we help you by doing a step-by-step process where we, we start with the foundation of, you know, everything you've done. And here are all of your, your essay prompts. It sounds so simple, but if we have all of those and we have what you've done and you can only talk about each thing once, there's going to be some missing pieces in that. And we have to figure out what that looks like. The second thing we do is we have to help you be introspective. Most of you are used to seeing stuff on social media, but not really thinking about, I'm good at this. This, this, and this. That is a new concept for a lot of teenagers. When you ask them what they're good at, they're like, I don't know, I'm kind of okay at this. We need them to really own it. And so we do that deep dive work to help them understand. Unfortunately, I have 4 kids of my own, and when I helped— tried to help my, my first 2 with this, it was a lot of butting heads. Maybe not like your family, but what I found is my teenagers thought when they said one thing, I was thinking something else. And so it never quite synced up for us. So I paid somebody, one of people on my team, to tell them exactly what I would have told them. And it was brilliant and it was perfect. And we had a, a very nice senior year at my home. So important to have the right person give the right information with absolutely nothing at stake. Our goal at CollegeReady is to give your family their dream. That's it. It doesn't matter what that dream is. We're not gonna judge them, and that gives us a huge advantage. As far as the question for juniors, we do really encourage juniors to get started in this world right now. Because it just gets busier. Your junior year is the hardest year of all, and it— I promise you, it is not going to get any easier than your sophomore year was. See, summertime is critical, but I also know there's programs that— research programs that students have done over winter break. I've seen some students who have done some intensive deep diving stuff It's not optimal. It's not as easy as it would be over a stretch of time. But doing a research project and your applications and your essays and all of that your senior year and throw testing on top of it if you're not ready, that could sink a ship. So I recommend being a little bit more proactive than that, but I have had students who got it done. Next question. Let's see. How do I improve my writing for college essays? What makes you admit a student or not for the program? I think you might have touched on that. How to improve your writing for your college essays? Do not use AI. I'm going to say it time and time again. That is so not the path you want to go. And be careful to ask your English teacher. They've never written a college essay. They've written beautiful essays that are grammatically correct, but not one that may hold the attention of a reader. So the best way to do it is like other things, and it's practice, and it's having a, a professional essay editor review it and, and help you to polish it and make it better and stronger. And then rewrite it and build it. I have never in 17 years— even my son who went to Harvard— had their very first Common App essay in and out without an edit. Never been done. So I would get started straight away. College-ready students are on their second essay right now for summer. They've all picked their colleges. We take a very proactive approach so they get to enjoy their senior year. So it's practice at the end of the day. Next question. Is summer a good time to start with the College Ready Program? 100%. Yes, absolutely. What kind of activities should the student have done? And what if there aren't many awards and honors? I'll let you take that, Brett.

Yeah, sure. So the first question, there are no right— there's not the correct activity necessarily. But I think, you know, the, the best thing you can do is reflect on that yourself, right? Because what an admissions officer is looking to see and looking to find are students who are genuinely excited about the things that they've been involved in and the things that they're going to be involved in in college. And so, you know, that, uh, again, not to, not to beat this up, but Shellee Howard's mentioned, uh, Eagle Scout And she sort of indicated that maybe students are doing this even though they're not super interested in it. I, you know, I, I think to, to some extent, if you're that close to a really distinct award, you, you finish it and you, you finish what you've started. But if you are aiming to start something or you've identified something that you want to begin because you've heard, well, this is gonna be looking good on my college application, but you're dreading it, then that's probably a warning sign that it might not be the right fit for you. Right? There are, there certainly are things that you're interested in, that you're involved with, that you can, you know, turn into something that might carry more weight in the admissions process. So the best place to start is to do some self-reflection. What are my interests? What are my academic interests? What are my social interests? And then how can I turn that into something that might be something that resonates with college admissions officers? And in terms of awards and honors, All of this is a sliding scale. So if you're aiming for, you know, the Columbias, the Princetons, the Harvards of the world, you are going to have to have some distinctions. They get so many applications. You know, I'm not going to— I'm not going to sit here and tell you that, well, you know, as long as you get A's, you're going to get admitted to those places. That's simply not true. You do have to stand out in some way. You have to be unique in some way. However, you don't necessarily have to have, you know, international awards for the vast majority of even very selective places. Not, not the most selective places. But you don't necessarily have to have, you know, a trophy case filled to the top. What you do have to have is a compelling story, a compelling narrative of who you are, who you aspire to be in college. And, you know, how does that— how does your experience at this point demonstrate those interests and what you'll be bringing? And, you know, I think starting there, and if you do happen to accumulate some awards or distinctions along the way, then, then tremendous. If you don't, then I think you can still demonstrate a compelling narrative in that way.

So for those of you who may be feeling, ah, I'm a little stressed, like we're behind in this area, I would encourage you to go to— I will put it in the chat. It's www.empowereducation.world. Um, EmpowerEducation.World is an organization that is a student-led group. It's an international organization where they are building schools in Uganda and they are, um, serving children in Oaxaca. And it's a chance to get leadership, it's a chance to get 8 national awards, it's a chance to— if you love this, again, it comes back to if you are passionate about helping kids get educated or, or helping orphans, or, you know, leaning into, uh, helping and being a part of something, you can get national awards for that, and it's not too late. So just know it's, it's a free opportunity, and I'm always here to give you massive opportunity. So at least you can go and check that out. We only have time for one more. I'm going to go ahead and put it back to you. And that is, can we apply for multiple similar fields such as math and physics while applying to the Pioneer Research Program?

Yeah, that's a great question. You can— when students apply to Pioneer, they can indicate up to 4 areas of interest on their application. So, you know, the question here implies that those areas might have some overlap— physics and math, for example. But they don't have to, frankly. You could apply to physics and history if you wanted to. You know, we know that students have multiple areas of interest. You simply have to be able to communicate effectively why you're applying to those areas, what you're hoping to study. You don't have to have a fully developed research question. That's part of the program. But you do have to have an idea of why those areas are areas that you'd like to dive into. In a research capacity. We also know that, you know, interdisciplinary research is very, very valuable as well. And so you can arrive, and if you've applied to physics and you're paired with a physics faculty member but your research question ends up touching on another discipline, that's okay as well. That's some of that autonomy that I was referencing earlier, that even though you have a mentor who can guide you through this process, it's still your process to, to run and I think that carries a lot of value as well.

Excellent. Well, that's it. I hope you enjoyed our time. Again, if you want to, um, get your questions answered, reach out to Brett. If I can help you in any way, um, college-ready-plan.info, um, set up a complimentary call and we can dive into uncovering how we can help. And then we can always refer you back over to Pioneer Academics. So thank you so much for being on the call, everybody, and we wish you all the best.

Thanks, everyone.

Okay, bye-bye.