001form so fingers crossed okay we are all here i don't know if there's any way to tell who's watching um i should have asked that i'm just gonna actually go ask it right now um tell you what if there is somebody watching could you post a comment so that we know you're there all right we can see you in the chat so at least grace is here hi grace um i'll introduce myself and the speakers then and yeah we're on time um so for anybody in the audience who doesn't know me um i am uh one of the teachers here at amherst i teach in the social studies department and i'm welcoming uh five guests from various admission programs uh who are going to talk to us about transcripts and essays and recommendations and tell
002us what selective college admissions are evaluating um so we have i'm going in alphabetical order uh nathania francois from bates college um and one not here uh naftali uh lara from northwestern university and mouse from springfield college mary pura from simmons university and matt truck from american international college um so i'm gonna take myself off the screen you guys get a little bit bigger and i'll be watching the chat and letting you know if there's any questions that seem like worth interrupting so in alphabetical order nathania you'll go first awesome hi everyone my name is nathaniel francois and yes i work at bates college i've been with bates for about three years now i'm on my third year but i've been in admission for about six years i'm on my sixth year um and so
003hello oh this is really cool i guess we get to see everybody now sorry um so my job yes is to let you know what selective colleges are looking um when we're looking at applications as it relates to the transcript recommendations and essays and and and all that fun stuff um and so for for bates college and i could only speak for bates college um looking at the transcript i think what is very crucial is understanding that you know all of our students are unique and they come from many different backgrounds all right and so what we're what we want to do is really highlight your your uniqueness and really um be 100 positive that admitting you would mean that you'd be successfully um academically successful socially successful at bates and all other things professionally
004personally all of those components as well but when looking at the transcripts for us it's not just one student that we want to admit we don't want to admit the same student because again you're all unique unique from many different backgrounds so for us it's really looking at what your high school offers you and so with every transcript we get a high school profile and that high school profile will tell us what is offered at your high school and so with that you know we understand that not every high school has aps not every high school has honors but we take that into consideration right um and so my question to you is um based off of what your high school is offering you how are you stretching the rigor because that's what we're asking
005when we're looking at your application documents um and so with the transcript it tells the story it it flows um it could go up and down it could have an um an upward trend um sometimes it may have a downward trend um there are also pieces in the application process where you're able to explain um and give us a little bit more information behind what is going on if there are things that are just not traditional for you so please feel free to use that um and then with the recommendations we're looking for three recommendations and it's really um thoughtful to really highlight your academic strength your social strength your your personal strengths your characteristic things like that so be mindful of who you ask to submit a letter of recommendation for you and i
006would highly recommend that you have a conversation with them there are many times that i have had students ask me well i took this course uh in ninth grade and i haven't had this teacher in two or three years so um should i have them submit a letter of recommendation because i had a really great time in that class i had got an amazing grade yes you can but i would recommend having a conversation with with that um with that teacher um and then other things in terms of recommendations depends i know a lot of students ask well can i submit a letter of recommendation from my or my mentor you could certainly do that um be very mindful what um each school is asking because i know for bates we ask for and then
007one from your your your school counselor um if you want to submit more than that i believe it's common for the common act to not expect um more than three so what i would uh advise is that you email the school and you they have a general most schools have a general admission email or you could email your admission representative within the area um but highly recommend doing that and submitting or having the recommender submit the recommendation through that so you could totally submit more than three recommendations it's okay don't feel like uh well my limited three one that's that you could submit more than that um and then um i'm blanking out on the third piece what was it was it the essay okay great i see some head knots i'm just gonna roll
008with it um with the essay that is probably my my favorite part of the whole entire application um and i get really excited i get really emotional sometimes i cry um but with you i'd say it's a glimpse into who who you are um it lets me see your soul um and i think the question that i would i would ask you is out of everything else that you're already saying what more can you tell me about who you are that i i don't know based off of your transcripts or recommendations some of the activities that you did right what are what are some things that you want to share about who you are as a person so those are some of the things that i'm looking for in an essay and it could be
009very basic um um it could be very traditional um and i i'm gonna end with one of my favorite favorites um from a student a few years back um and it talked about having family dinners every sunday and that was literally the topic of the essay family dinners every sunday and for that student um you know it was it was very it was very basic you know she talked about the placement of um seats uh where everybody sat every sunday what they were eating uh the process of making the food it was very descriptive which i love because i love food and i felt like i was at the dinner table eating um and i was very hungry at that moment um because you're reading applications all day an essay so you're hungry so i
010was really hungry so it was kind of like okay well i'm drooling at this point um but the essay switched for me and um that's when i realized this is who the student is and this is who the student wants to go to college and come out be in this amazing person based off of her family values um and so she talked about pulling out her cell phone and her brother and then just being on technology right teenagers um so i guess her parents got really upset and said can you please put that away like it's family time it's time for us to have dinner and and for her she said well that was a moment where she realized that this is her family this is a family value right having time for each other
011having a happy time to talk to each other check on one one another and she said this is what she wanted to bring to college right she wanted to be in a college environment where she's able to actually um meet with people and and and it'd be a very small small school it'll be somewhere where she could you know um go to dinner or go to go to the the commons which is our dining commons um and and have dinner with not just students but also faculty and staff and and feel a community within her um her her institution and so for that she she said i also want to graduate and that's something i want to pass on to my to my children it's something i want to take with me for the rest
012of my life so for me it felt very personal but it came from a very basic topic and i i grew to love this essay and i i talk about it all the time just because it's it's just it's such a random topic but it meant so much for this student to share um a little bit of of who she could see herself being um in the future so that's that's that's my my uh transcript recommendation essay advice in terms of what we're looking for but again i could only speak for bates college so that is what we're looking for when we're looking at the application [Music] um i forget what we're going in but i can go next um so hello everyone my name is of talia lara you see her pronouns and i'm
013an assistant director in the office of undergraduate admissions at northwestern um so in terms of rex essays and transcripts i want to start off by saying that northwestern has something called a holistic review process this is basically a very fancy word for saying that context is everything we're going to be looking at you in the context of your specific school like um my colleague before she mentioned that your transcript is telling a story and we'll be looking at that school profile to really understand how you took advantage of the opportunities and the rigor that were available at your school and how you succeeded in them so especially now considering everything that's happened all the craziness in 2020 um northwestern has decided to go test optional and since we're not going to have those test scores
014again it's your personal choice we're really not going to hold it against you decide not to put them um if you don't have them or if you have them and you feel like they don't really indicate or a good reflection of your academic ability that's fine we still have those transcripts to really tell us how you've been doing in high school how you've been challenging yourself how you've succeeded in those courses um we really want a very diverse community so we're looking for students who are going to be successful at northwestern it is academically rigorous but we also understand that everyone's coming from different backgrounds and this is where those rec letters and those essays really come into play so in terms of letters of recommendation we have one required from a high school counselor
015and another required from a teacher who teaches a core academic subject so that is math science social science english um you are more than welcome to get additional recommendation letters um whether it's like pastor like i was mentioned before or i don't know a coordinator for your volunteer group or something else like that definitely totally doable i will say that i read everything as the reader for your application i'm going to read it from start to finish so i really want you to take into consideration that you're being very strategic about who you're asking for those letters of recommendation if you want to let me know that you're good at math i'm going to see your grades on your transcript and one recommendation letter from math teachers enough i don't need 10 to understand that
016you're good at math i kind of already got it um with that first letter of recommendation and from your grades i also really want to highlight that you want to one really be thankful for the people who are writing your love recommendations um it's a lot of time and there are a lot of students who are asking them so yes go and have a conversation with them so that they not only understand who you were in the classroom but also about where your interests are going right now what you intend to study um kind of like your thought process and also send them a thank you note they're taking the time to write very beautiful recommendation letters and you should definitely be thankful because they're a part of making your application whole now for the
017essays this is like the one place that you can really craft your own story you can't change your transcript that's three plus years in the making uh your activities list you can add on other ones but they're not going to show that continuity and your letters of record are read by you so like the essay is the one place where you really are able to use to use your voice and i really want to emphasize that i don't want you to tell me what you think i want to hear i really want it's a very cliche advice but it really is your own genuine voice and i really um like was mentioned before i want to highlight that i want to get to know you as much as i possibly can so i'm going to
018use an example theater let's say you are very invested in theater i'm going to see that on your activities list we'll see that you're involved in multiple productions and multiple groups and have multiple roles i'll see maybe you submit a lot of recommendations from your theater director also going to talk more about that if you want to speak more about your involvement in theater in your essay you can totally do so however like my colleague mentioned it's totally okay if you talk about something random like you're look for grilled cheese and connected to something bigger um i just really want to get to know you as much as i can since i'm not able to have like a conversation with you and this also brings me to the supplemental essay a lot of schools are
019going to have something along the lines of why this school so we have something called wine earth western if i am taking the time to read the entirety of your application i also want to know that you are taking the time to research my school i want to know that you have gone on our website that you've taken advantage of our virtual content to learn more information that whether it's from events like this where you're hearing from me or from our students or for my other colleagues in my office really taking advantage of that to understand why it is that you're interested in applying to northwestern additionally if i am able to like erase northwestern's name and put into different schools and it still sounds okay that means it's not specific enough this is where
020doing your research really comes into play we want specifics is there a specific course that you're really interested in taking a specific professor you'd love to do research with a specific program or a specific student organization that you really want to be a part of and this year we altered our supplemental essay question because we understand it's a two-way street not only is it what northwestern can give to you but how do you also envision yourself contributing being like i mentioned we are going to try to enroll a very diverse class with different interests perspectives and backgrounds we have eight thousand undergraduates from over 95 countries and all 50 states so we want to enroll people who are going to who want to be at northwestern who are going to contribute to the community and
021make it to be continue as inclusive and as welcoming as it is so not only is it what we can give to you but recognizing that mutual relationship how you envision yourself contributing to the northwestern experience and community are you doing i'm gonna go back to that theater example let's say you are involved in theater in high school do you can um expect to continue doing theater at northwestern through one of our student organizations um or do you if you're in sports are you going to be um i don't know contribute continuing in a varsity or an intramural or a club sport do you want to be a captain um these different ways of really engaging not only the opportunities are available at a school but how they align with your interests and what you
022want to do but i'm going to leave it there and pass it on to whoever is next very happy to once we have the time for a q a section to talk more about all these different topics awesome hi everyone my name is nikki levine i'm the director of undergraduate admissions at springfield college and i work with all students from amherst regional high school so if you're applying to springfield i'll be the counselor reviewing your application at springfield college um at springfield we also really value a holistic review application pro um a holistic review of the application it really ties into our mission statement and our humanities philosophy of wanting a really well-rounded student who's balanced in spirit mind and body and who's interested in pursuing a career in leadership and service to others that's
023been our mission statement since day one as an institution so we're still looking for that type of student at springfield so definitely we're looking at everything in your application i also read everything that comes through from your list of activities to your essay to your letters of recommendation to your transcript we also really want to focus on making sure we're accepting students who are going to be successful at springfield um and who are challenging themselves appropriately in high school so again we're also looking at your school profile to see what's being offered to you and how you're taking advantage of the different opportunities that you have within the curriculum that's being um that's available to you at amherst regional we do have a handful of programs at springfield and i know we typically have some
024students from amherst regional who are interested in our more limited enrollment programs so physical therapy physician assistant occupational therapy and athletic training those programs in particular we're definitely looking for students who are taking advantage of those more rigorous courses who are continuing their math and science sequence through their senior year um instead of taking just you know math through algebra two or three years of a lab science which are our standard admissions requirements um so we definitely want to see students in those programs that are you know stepping beyond what's um required for admission at springfield and continuing to challenge themselves we also really value the letter of recommendation we require just one um to apply to springfield college and that can be from your school counselor or teacher i always recommend to students though
025submit two or three or more letters of recommendation i'm going to read every single one some of those limited enrollment programs do require additional letters of recommendation from either a science teacher or health care professional um so if you are applying to one of those programs you're definitely going to need to submit more than one but a couple different letters of recommendation give us a few different viewpoints of who you are so if you have a coach or um a mentor or a supervisor who you'd like to ask for a letter of recommendation in addition to your teacher or school counselor that is a okay with us we're happy to take a look at those letters i agree your essay is your voice in your application so you should use your essay to tell your
026story i always tell students think of what would be helpful for us to know in your application that's not evident to us through your letters of recommendation through your co-curricular experiences or a story that's really really important to you so we're a common application school there's seven different common application topics including one that's a really open-ended topic so feel free to pick the prompt that you connect the most with um because unless i'm meeting with you one-on-one through a virtual interview um or school visit or something of that sort your essay is really how i'm getting to know who you are because as was mentioned previously everything else in your application is really submitted from your teachers your letters of recommendations are from other individuals not yourself your transcript is showing your academics snapshot over
027four years but it's not telling your personal story so we really like to get to know who you are through that essay we also have a y springfield college essay um and same thing that was mentioned before we really want students to share with us why they're passionate about springfield what they can bring to our institution to make springfield college an even better place so definitely make sure that you're taking time on that question and for those limited enrollment programs we also have supplement application questions specific to those programs what our faculty are looking for in those responses and our admissions office is your demonstrated interest in those majors physical therapy physician assistant occupational therapy and athletic training are such competitive programs at springfield we want to make sure that we are accepting students who
028not only know that they want to be a pa for example um but know that they want to be a pa at springfield college so in those supplement essays show us that you've done the work you know you know that you this you is definitely the field that you want to go into um and how you've come to that conclusion that's really really important to us um i do also want to note that springfield college is completely test optional for fall 2021 we did move test optional for the majority of our programs for spring 2020 uh or i'm sorry for fall 2020 um but this year we recognize that has been a really big barrier and challenge for students and we want to eliminate that challenge so even our programs that we're still requiring test
029scores physical therapy physician assistant occupational therapy and athletic training and our education programs we are waiving that test score requirement for this current year i'm going to go ahead and turn it over to the next person i i think it's me okay hi everyone my name is mary pierre you share her pronouns um and i am one of the reps from simmons university uh simmons is a small liberal arts women-centered institution in the fenway area of boston um how do we define women-centered um we define that as meaning a school that historic is historically a women's college accepting trans and non-binary students um so that's how we define it and a major component of how we personally review applications as many of my colleagues have said is that holistic review process and we're also looking
030for attributes of leadership now leadership doesn't necessarily have to mean you were captain of the volleyball team or lead in a school play of course it could mean that but also um do you display passion in what you do as you display in your application what do you like to do what are your goals um what is it what is a skill that you've really honed over the years um that you've really spent time to work on so we're looking for all those central components um someone who has demonstrated those leadership skills and who has the potential and the drive to get there so that's a major component as well and i'm actually going to share my screen because i do work better with visuals so i'm just going to do that briefly if that
031works now can people see my my screen okay great um so um in terms of sort of the overall application of what we're looking at um you know for transcripts uh you know especially um when it comes to high school transcripts we are going to be looking for all those components we want to see that you've been um of course taking those core courses um but also that you've been challenging yourself have you taken courses that are maybe outside of um out of your comfort zone um if it's available to you in your school have you been taking the opportunity to do those aps or take those honors courses those are all components to consider and especially when it comes to our more focused programs like the nursing program which people apply to directly in
032our physical therapy program we are going to be looking a little bit more at those math and science courses we want to see that you've been getting in those prerequisites so have you been taking courses like statistics and biology in chemistry um so all of that we're really going to be looking at so especially within those specialized programs that you will be able to really jump right into the curriculum your first year so we will be looking at that in general now in terms of letters of recommendation we're pretty simple at least one teacher one counselor recommendation we do accept up to three so you can throw in another teacher recommendation there i also recommend personally for students that are targeting those nursing and physical therapy programs maybe you do really want to ask your
033science or your math teacher or both uh to write your recommendations so that they can really speak to the quality of your work how you've improved um especially let's say there's one class that maybe was not as successful as another and and you really want them to provide that perspective of how much you may have improved in that course um so those are all really components um to consider um and as my colleagues have mentioned um whoever you asked to do your recommendation letter um making sure you you take a moment to pull them aside chat with them um and tell them about yourself a little bit more um if there's more about you that you think they should know that's essential to their recommendation as well um so for us uh this year like
034um you know many institutions this year we are going test optional which we were not in the past so this um i'm really excited about as well and this will apply to all programs so nursing physical therapy everything you do not need to send us your test scores um you absolutely can if you would like but certainly not necessary but if you do end up sending us those test scores we will review them based on sort of our review criteria of that but of course my favorite is the college essay um and forgive me with my spongebob references i always find there's like a spongebob episode or scene that applies to everything in life um so i applied to the college essay and i agree with what everyone's already said um so you know i
035just want to reiterate um this essay is a reflection of you we want to learn about you and not what you think that we might want to hear um so in terms of language talk to us the way you would talk to someone use your own voice um and don't feel like you have to go into a thesaurus and dig out language that you think would apply to the college um you know so again you're giving voice to your application we want to know basically essentially can you answer the prompt clearly and analytically when you go on the common application you're going to see a bunch of different options and from all those choices you can really apply anything from your life to it that makes it relevant uh but just making sure that you
036know when you do make your essay um that you go back to that prompt and you ask yourself did did i answer that question clearly um and not only did i answer that but did i tell the school something about myself um again it's all it you know it can be something um that's your that you're passionate about um but in the end it has to reflect you um and of course it also reflects your potential so of course we're not going to expect college level writing because then you have because you haven't gotten to college yet um we just want to see your best work um that it shows that you spent the time to really think about um you know how you're going to approach this essay um and and you know really
037wanting to show a polished result in the ends um and so you know finally just for this is more of a simmons thing we do have interviews as a component of the application process this is completely optional but if simmons specifically is a place you really you know would like to see yourself at interviews can only serve to help you more um we we keep it super chill um it's just the chance for us to put a face to the application um so by the time i'm sitting here and looking at your transcripts and your wrecks and your essay i can also reflect um upon our meeting together um so this is all really meant meant to help you in this process levi next hi everyone and everyone is asking such great questions right now
038in the chat and i really cannot wait to get to that portion to answer them all but um first and foremost my name is matt sykes i'm an undergraduate admissions counselor at american international college located in springfield we're a small liberal or liberal arts private institution and first and foremost i just want to thank you all for being here you all are doing the first step towards making a great application is you're doing your research you're asking the questions you are you know doing research on these schools that are putting that information out there so you can make the best application that you possibly can so i just want to agree with um you know and echo the sentiment of my colleagues that american are not an international college my goodness sorry um we have
039a very holistic approach as well um one of our mottos here is you are more than a number and that's been as true as long as i can remember um we do try to get to know you as a person and try to get to know you um and what you can offer to the institution what we can offer to you and not just the numbers not just the gpa and not just anything like that so when reviewing the application process for me personally of course the official transcript is extremely important it's probably the most important aspect of an application so everyone can see your gpa or your prerequisites and that kind of thing but um we do like to see it as a big picture uh process and like my colleagues i read everything
040from top to bottom all the time so of course the transcript is important and getting those prereqs in are important but it's not everything um and i i think my colleagues would echo that sentiment as well it's you know um having meeting those requirements are great but learning who you are as a student is i believe much more important and i would jump straight to the essay here because i believe we've kind of touched on everything regarding the transcripts in this meeting but um you know a personal essay really does give you a better view of who you are as a person and as a student and why you are going into the fields that you want to go into so natalia is that theater arts example what i would like to know in your
041personal essay is yeah you're interested in theater arts i can see that on your transcript i can see that in your letters of recommendation and see it in your extracurriculars that's great but what i would love to know is why why are you interested in theater arts why are you so passionate about this and and how can you bring that passion to the institution and how can we help you you know expand that passion and bring that out into the world where our main focus is getting you into the college and then getting you out we want we want you to you know move past our institution learn the things you need to learn have the experiences you want to experience and then bring that out to the world so our essays are you know
042very similar in the sense that we really are just looking to see who you are as a student who you are as a person why you're pursuing the educational path that you are and i read them constantly and i would say they're they're extremely important especially to me and the other counselors at american international college because i've had students who you know like we spoke about earlier nursing programs they are that a lot of programs have prerequisites uh gpa requirements uh class requirements at aic our nursing program requires a 2.5 gpa and a chemistry grade of a c plus or better that's great but we're also looking for you know proficiency in science classes and math classes so it would help to see you know you have anatomy and physiology or statistics course or something
043along those lines but what i like to see in these essays are i've had students that have met the nursing requirement have met the chemistry requirement but may have not done so well in other science or statistic based classes or didn't take them at all so they didn't uh you know they didn't show off that rigor or that that um they weren't solely focused on that program now that could have been for many other reasons they could have had a difficult year that year or maybe they chose to go down the nursing path their senior year or junior year and they didn't get a chance to take that class the personal essay is important because you can explain those circumstances you can explain a gpa circumstance you can explain um you know how you fell
044into the path of wanting to go into nursing and i've had students who have met those requirements but didn't show that they took anatomy and physiology or statistics or something along those lines and i thought maybe maybe this pathway may not be right for them or maybe they won't excel in this pathway and i'll have a talk with that student but personal essays i've had students that have said no this is something happened in my life i'm so passionate about this i know i can do this this is something that i truly want to do and i fought for those students i've said you know what you belong to be here you deserve to be here because you truly want to be here i would much rather and i think i would say uh the
045same for uh most of my counselors here at american international college is that if we would much rather a student who is extremely passionate and devoted to the path that they want to go down and that may be missing uh you know anatomy and physiology or something along those lines then a student that just checks all the boxes and it's just kind of you know iffy about the program we really want you to bring that passion that dedication to the college and we really look at that that's one of the most important things for me in a in an application is a well thought out essay that explains explains who you are explains why you're doing this explains what you want to do with this that kind of thing at aic the essay is actually
046optional it's not required at all we don't have a required essay for your application all we do requires an official transcript but of course you kind of want to have as robust of an application as possible so um i would highly suggest no matter what school you're applying to whether it is required or not please an essay i think that would i think that's a great way to show who you are as a person and and everything that i stated before now moving on to the letters uh recommendation at aic those are also optional um not required at all but i would highly suggest it um like my colleague said earlier that i really would choose someone that knows you i wouldn't ask a teacher that you had you know one class with and you
047did fairly well you had a great time and you thought you you know hit it well off with this with this teacher i would say pick someone that really knows you that can speak to your character that can um you know it's maybe explain one of those circumstances that you would explain in a personal essay i've had teachers and counselors reach out to me from students to to kind of give an in-person kind of recommendation um that all works that's all great um but of course choose someone that really does know you because if it really is kind of a you know rubber stamped template kind of recommendation letter we do read it we we really do drill down on applications and really read everything from top to bottom because we do want to get
048that personal connection with you as a student instead of just a name on a transcript and if it is kind of a template you know this student was great you should admit a type of letter recommendation that's fine that's great but it doesn't give us a real glimpse into who you are and we do notice those things um for our application for sats and act scores we are completely test optional we always have been and i don't believe that we will be changing at any time in the foreseeable future so it's not just a pandemic type of thing we are sat optional but of course you can always self-report them you can choose to waive them or you can choose to send them in there is no it isn't a detriment i've had students not
049decide not to send in an sat or i've had students that who have decided to send it in and the scores weren't that great but i don't look at them and say oh well this student clearly can't do it um i we don't look at it that way we look at you as a well-rounded person and you know who you are as a as a student so it's not just about the number so of course you can always send it in all these things that are optional won't be a detriment to you if you don't send in but i would highly suggest that you do because we really do want to get to know you as a person not just a student and what you can offer to the institution like my colleagues said it's
050a two-way street we want to see what you can offer to us and what we can offer to you and then what you can offer to the world afterwards because that's what we're trying to create here is the the world's next you know business leaders leaders in nursing and health science and sciences and things like that so yeah i would i would say um that it's a big picture holistic approach um but we do look at the details and we do look at um who you are as a as a student and we want to create a relationship with you and we would hope that you as you are creating your application that you would aim to try and create a relationship with us as well okay are we going to just start answering questions
051or i should just yeah i can speak about um so how our admission process has changed at northwestern north i forgot to preface with this but northwestern is a private medium-sized university in evanston illinois so just three miles north of chicago um and in terms of being test optional like i mentioned before it's your personal choice and we're not going to hold it against you so let's say you do have some test scores and you're proud of them you're proud of the score that you got you are still able to self-report your scores northwestern so you have to pay that is what 20 inch dollars to send the official report and we still super score so if one of the very few people who was able to more than one setting of a standardized exam
052just to self-report them as is and our system will recalculate a higher score based on the highest sub scores and if you're not submitting tests a lot of our students are asking like are you really test optional like is it like a nudge um we are and that's again because we're going back to the holistic review process we don't have the task force but we still have so much more to look at and in terms of being able to look more at your academics this is where the transcript really comes into play um i don't know what they're calling it i'm just going to even test optional for about 40 plus years which is really cool but really good about um not having to change anything with our admission process but you know for students
053who do submit testing who sorry who decided not to um submit testing for us it's it's we always say um the the transcript will hold the most weight no matter what um so it's always going to be the transfer because it's four years of academic work versus what four hours of taking your s.a.t or acp so for us we value that revolt yeah i'll say for simmons uh that uh it is new for us being test optional so my colleagues and i at simmons are just super excited because we've been pushing for that um and then i'm hoping right i noticed there wasn't also a question earlier about you know will we remain so um i hope so um and that's something to check in with us later on in the year um so i
054think definitely the school is seeing this is the trial one year um but everyone in the office is definitely behind um making it a permanent part um so it will definitely be new for us going through the test optional route so we're really excited to do that um and so yes um like my colleagues have said we will be then looking uh maybe a bit more at that transcripts um and but overall looking at that application holistically which we've always done um and in terms of sort of the average gpa we do look around for um the transcript is scram transcript is around a 3.7 give or take um so we will be looking at all those components yeah so from springfield college we moved test optional for the majority of our programs as i
055mentioned last fall for fall 2020 students um so only those select programs were still requiring test scores um we're going to you know continue to monitor we're also crossing our fingers that hopefully for at least a few of those programs will continue to be test optional but we'll definitely have more information as we get closer to the fall 2020 cycle um but the same thing with springfield we've always placed even when we weren't test optional we placed the majority of our emphasis on the transcript because that's a more accurate snapshot of who you are as a student than one test that you took um you know one time or a couple times to to get the best possible um super score but um i've always said you know even when we weren't test optional or
056for those programs if we do continue to require test scores 75 of our emphasis is always on the transcript at at least and then the other percentage is on um the test scores so the transcript will look at a little bit more closely for those more competitive programs this year and i have a feeling we're going to look even more closely at those supplement questions um for those more competitive programs that we typically would require a test scores for this year as well um okay maybe we can just jump to this question for uh guys counselor recommendation letters do you recommend that the student get to know them well before writing the letter so i would say uh at aic yes i would and i i believe my colleagues would mirror that sentiment is that
057i really do believe that it's extremely important to have a good personal relationship with whoever's writing the uh recommendation letter um just because like i said um with a holistic big picture approach we really do care about you more than just your gpa and just your application and we really do want to get to know you as a person and you know having like i said those rubber stamp template recommendation letters um really don't you know convey your story to us at all we really do want to get to know you for who you are so um yeah i would absolutely recommend that you at least have a conversation or two a few conversations pick someone that really does know you as a person not just your academic achievements though that helps as well but
058definitely who you are as a person first yes i agree i um you know in terms of getting to know your your teachers or whether it's you know you set aside some time to um meet with them get to know them and because um you know we are living in a pretty virtual world right now um i'd i'd like to say that people are more available than ever um to meet with you um so setting up a zoom call setting up a phone call um just asking your teacher to just come aside and and meet with you um and so that's gonna be easier more than ever to do something like that um so so the natural introvert within myself you know kind of at first like oh i don't want to um but you
059know it's a necessary component um and your teacher of course um you know if they agree to write your recommendation they're going to write you a a good recommendation um they wants to help you um so just making sure that you know whether it's a teacher you know well or maybe a teacher you don't know so well um that they know um you know what your goals are what you hope to study um and especially especially when it comes to specific schools um you know why you want to go to these specific institutions yeah definitely echoing that if you have any juniors in the room definitely try to get started with getting to know your council right now it will really help once you get into the college application process um and if you're able
060to take advantage of the more flexible scheduling that we're experiencing now take advantage of that but i also want to highlight that we understand that well i'm not very familiar with um your school because my first time being a wreck with northwestern i will say that we understand that sometimes you just meet with your counselor once a year um and sometimes you aren't don't have the time or unable to develop that strong relationship so if you do feel a little bit worried about maybe not having a very strong counsel recommendation this is where your teacher recommendations and supplemental recommendations really come into play and i want to give one more tidbit for those teacher recommendations if you can choose for example if you got an a plus in a class um and you want that
061teacher to write your recommendation but like you never met with them and you were just stellar naturally and didn't get really enough time to interact um and if you have the option of for example you gotta be plus in the class but like you really worked your butt off and we're always meeting with that teacher to try to ensure that you are on track to do better and you were showing so much effort that teacher despite the fact that you got a b plus in it as opposed to an a plus is probably gonna be able to speak more about who you are academically and how driven you are as a student i'd also just like to add that you know don't be afraid to ask teachers or guidance counselors for recommendations they are they
062want to help you no matter what um so i know like we were speaking about earlier is you know the the inner introvert in me maybe doesn't want to go up to a teacher or a guidance counselor and ask for a recommendation letter or don't know how to go about starting that process please reach out to them i meet with guidance counselors every single week every single day almost and they really do want to help so i would say start that relationship as early as possible and they are very happy to open that door for you i could definitely start off with the next question i finally figured out how to get myself back on board sorry about that weirdness just to let you know we've got about five minutes left and i think this
063is probably a great great question for us to wrap up on um so whoever wants to take it please go ahead yeah i could i could tackle um it in my own way um but i think in terms of what sets you apart or doing things to set you apart i think i think there you have to really rely on the essay um because not everybody's going to have your essay um your story is going to be very different from anybody else's story the way you tell it it's going to be different um so i think that that is that is really what will make you to stand apart from others so really try to um work on that focus on that and and utilize utilize the resources that are available for you in your
064high school right your guidance counselor um your english teacher um we have there's a really cool website um you could go to if you type up essays that worked where you could read essays from previous students that have gone to many different colleges um and maybe that could help you get your creative juices flowing in terms of puppet choice uh the way that they went about it and how the essay flowed um just to get your mind going so maybe that's something that you could also do and then um really in terms of editing your paper i would or your essay i would i would highly recommend having a conversation with someone about that especially if they're not your english teacher um because i feel like if you have someone who's not your english teacher
065right all over your essay we lose your voice um and we want your voice because your voice is what will make you stand apart from everybody else that's that's my two cents i completely agree i think um oh sorry go ahead no no no go ahead i think the essay is a great piece that you're going to be able to tackle right now as a senior um the other thing i would say to take advantage of for schools to offer them is the interview springfield college also offers an optional interview opportunity and that's a great chance for you to sit down with us either virtually or we are offering socially distanced in-person interviews in our office for students who meet the massachusetts state travel guidelines so we are able to sit down with you and
066have a conversation and get to know you a little bit more you know we might talk about some things that come up in your application but oftentimes there are things that come up in the interview that wouldn't have been disclosed in the application otherwise that are really helpful for us to get to know who you are so the interview is also a great thing to look at to take advantage of i just want to add very quickly um grant this is a great question because i would say that um one other aspect that we haven't touched on to set yourselves apart is using us as a resource i do have students reach out to me to start forming that relationship with me as an admissions counselor and to ask questions and to get advice and
067we're more than happy to help as well if there is a college that you're interested in and you can find the admissions counselor for your territory or would be in charge of you know looking at your application for me i'm in charge of this area of western massachusetts so if you did intend to apply to aic i would be the one to review your application i would say get in touch with admissions counselor out of college and say hey what can i do what what more can i say what more can i do to set myself apart and of course we're not going to you know give the answer for you and write your essay for you but we can absolutely give you advice and um you know i've had students call me and i
068after the phone call said wow this student really does want to be here they really do care um they really do care about their their essay they care about their application so i would suggest using us as a resource as well not just your guidance counselor at your high school or your teacher but us at the colleges that you're interested in yeah i was going to say something similar yeah email me um you know i think all of us are you know all from the western mass territory we're going to be reading applications from this area so um you know make sure to ask questions what you know even if you feel like it's like a really small uh question you know don't be afraid to reach out i'll be happy to answer it um
069and especially i've found in the past that the students who've reached out to me whether it's been email or it's been setting up an individual appointment which you can do now virtually um or whether it's just calling me on the phone i i remember that student more students who were really engaged um throughout the whole process um so you know don't be afraid to work with us that's that i mean that's our job apart from reading your application um you know we want to be with you throughout that whole process and we want to help you craft that application to the best of your ability um so yeah use your resources um reach out we're always happy to chat great um thanks so much for for joining us uh it's been so helpful to have
070all of you especially to hear your sort of different perspectives from your different schools uh on behalf of the about 17 people that were joining us uh thanks to the students who put questions in in the chat um that's really what makes people want to join in so they know that you're listening um so on behalf of arhs this is exactly the perfect time for us to be wrapping up uh and those of you who were here from the student body there's of course the whole second group of panels to join in so thanks to everyone and i'm going to end our broadcast now thank you so much for having us