IvyCompass讲座回放| 2027美国顶尖名校申请趋势预测

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stop sharing. Um now everyone attention to your presentation you'll be able to share your screen. Uh let me stop mine.

>> Okay.

Thank you so much Sophia. So while we're uh I'm trying to get the technology straight to share my screen. Thank you

again for having me here. Um uh Sophia please tell me if I'm running over time because I of course want to make sure that we leave time for questions. And so

with that said I've got a short presentation. What I wanted to talk

presentation. What I wanted to talk about was so far they're all of the colleges are neck

deep in applications of course and so um I think what's interesting is for rising seniors and for students who are

currently 9th and tth graders and then even students who are about to start high school soon. Um, I think there's some really interesting things to be

inferred so far from what's going on in this application season and also what the expectations are for next application season. So, I think

application season. So, I think hopefully tonight will be helpful for current 11th graders who are rising seniors. So, you've got your summer

seniors. So, you've got your summer coming up and then you're going to be applying. And then I think this will

applying. And then I think this will also be very helpful for ninth and tth graders in terms of again your summer and you have another year, your most important year, your junior year, and

then you'll be applying. And then I like to think I'm going to try to make this helpful for people who even though it seems like it's way down the future, if you're a seventh or eighth grader right

now, um it's actually not as far down the future as you might think. Okay?

based on what the current and the expected trends are. So that's what I wanted to talk about tonight. So let me go ahead and uh share my screen if I may.

>> Yep.

>> Okay. And Sophia, are you able to see the uh presentation slide?

>> Yes, I can.

>> Okay. Okay, perfect. So um what I'm here to talk about tonight is for is new trends for the upcoming 2027 cycle. So

that will mean that means when the uh seniors apply this coming fall where the deadlines again are November and December generally and then those are early deadlines and then the January

first week of January 2027. So those are the deadlines that we're talking about.

um some of the trends uh there are about 6,000 colleges in the United States and so obviously there's not one single school that's a trends setter but what

I've noticed over the years over over 10 years plus is that it seems like uh some of these top colleges that have very low acceptance rates especially your Ivy

League schools and similar schools and I put the monikers the uh the insignia for all eight of the Ivy League schools but then also for uh you know MIT and

Stanford as well. So those are 10 of the schools that we generally focus on but of course we're familiar with I personally I'm familiar with about I'd say comfortably at least around maybe

110 120 colleges. Uh those are the main colleges. Um I'm also a member of some

colleges. Um I'm also a member of some major associations and these associations are very helpful in terms of a lot of us who are involved in admissions. Um you know sharing a lot of

admissions. Um you know sharing a lot of ideas and again I get a lot of I think helpful information just talking with so many other admissions people in uh

especially these schools the the 10 that I was talking about the trends that I'm going to just at least generally address for tonight they come from both sides.

Okay, colleges, we have our own trends that are going on in terms of how the admission cycle is changing. So, I'll

talk about those trends and they're mostly these three things. Um, from the students point of view, there are also some trends that I think are going to affect the way you continue your high

school career or if you're a rising senior, the way you're going to do your summer and then apply. Okay? And so the bottom line is is I want to end tonight's discussion with what I suggest

that you do if you're a rising senior, a ninth or tth grader right now, or if you're about to start high school. Okay.

So, with that said, there's a couple things. Uh, one of the biggest trends I

things. Uh, one of the biggest trends I would say is that colleges are becoming more what I would call backended or selectively backended. And what I mean

selectively backended. And what I mean by that is there's generally three stages for you to get in. And this is this applies generally for all all this

all 6,000 colleges in the United States.

There's a filtering process and this is usually computer-driven. You know, for

usually computer-driven. You know, for example, um what's your SAT? What AP

exams have you taken? Uh and then even things like uh do you have disciplinary issues? Uh do you have excessive

issues? Uh do you have excessive absences? These are all like data points

absences? These are all like data points that can be easily filtered out.

Assuming that your application gets through that stage, there's an assessment stage. This is where an army

assessment stage. This is where an army of individuals will start dividing and evaluating parts of your application. So

for those of you who are rising seniors are probably already familiar with what's going to be in your application for the fall. But for those of you who are not yet rising seniors, you should

know what the components of your applications what an application is.

That way you you don't turn into a senior and you go, "Oh, wait a second. I

have to write about 10 different activities. I didn't know that." Okay.

activities. I didn't know that." Okay.

So, in the assessment stage again, you have an army. You have somebody like me who might be assigned to read, say, if I'm your essay evaluator, uh, I might have to read about 2,000 essays that

cycle. Or if I'm your teacher

cycle. Or if I'm your teacher recommendation letter evaluator, I might have to read around 3 or 4,000 teacher recommendation letters and so on. If I'm

your transcript reviewer, then I'll have to read about 800 to,200 transcripts and so on. And each one of these components

so on. And each one of these components is assessed in a pretty meticulous and methodical way. For example, the

methodical way. For example, the transcript when that's uh evaluated, usually it's scored based on your course selection, the GPA somewhat, and then

the commensurate standardized test score that goes along with that. Okay. Um, and

so each one of these components all the way down to your activities, the as I said the teacher recommendation letters, your essays, even the interview report, all of these components get assessed and

they get scor usually they get scored individually. Okay? And so like I said,

individually. Okay? And so like I said, this is this is where human beings are actually doing the evaluation. It's a

subjective process, yes, but it's nothing compared to the third and final stage. So assuming your application gets

stage. So assuming your application gets past this assessment or scoring stage, then it goes to something that most colleges call committee. And in

committee, this is where again somebody like me and usually two other people or four other people. Some with some schools, it varies. Some of the IVS use seven people total and so on. But this

is where a committee will literally review your the application, the scoring, couple of components. the

components are weighted differently.

But the whole point of the trend being that colleges are being more selective and more selectively backended. What

that means is this third and final stage is becoming all the more important. It

does not mean that you don't have to worry about your GPA or your SATs. It

does not mean you don't have to worry about your activities or your teacher recommendation letters etc. What it actually means is this is where the

most weight in terms of how you get in is applied.

The important thing about the first and second stages is that if there's a question for example about your ability to perform in courses uh you know

suppose you're taking um instead of taking AP say biology instead of taking honors chemistry you're taking on level

say language arts and your onle GPA is a C minus okay there's going to probably be a question now about your ability to perform. If you have too many of these

perform. If you have too many of these issues on the filtering stage, your application will not even get to the scoring stage. The same thing happens in

scoring stage. The same thing happens in scoring. If the different components of

scoring. If the different components of your application don't score enough, for example, suppose your teacher recommendation letters, they score low or perhaps your essays score low and so

on, then your application won't get to committee. Okay? So the whole point is

committee. Okay? So the whole point is you still have to perform well but the most weight is unfortunately in the most subjective area. It's subjective meaning

subjective area. It's subjective meaning we have to make personal judgment calls.

Okay. I mean

it's consider this. We have to read a teacher recommendation letter or three teacher usually two to three teacher recommendation letters. We have to read

recommendation letters. We have to read essays. We have to infer what kind of

essays. We have to infer what kind of person you are based on your activities and so on. It's purely subjective.

Speculative means we also need to try to predict in the future what kind of uh alum you're going to be. So the question is usually two parts. What kind of

student are you going to be or what kind of person are you going to be when you're with us for four years? And then

what kind of person are you going to be after you graduate for the rest of your life? Because you're supposed to

life? Because you're supposed to personify the best of what that college has to offer. With that said, a lot of the things that we look at are why you do things and how you go about doing

things. And this I'll emphasize at the

things. And this I'll emphasize at the end of the talk for tonight. Um because

you know a lot of uh I'd say applicants unfortunately in my opinion or in a lot of people's opinions they spend a little bit too much time worrying about what

they're doing or whom they're doing it with, where they're doing etc. rather than why and how. Um, holistic means that everything is looked at together and I'll talk about that in more detail

in a minute. Okay. Um, this is really an explanation of how subjective but how important the judging final stage is for you to either get accepted or not

accepted. Okay. So, in terms of what the

accepted. Okay. So, in terms of what the current situation is now and what we expect the future trend to be, I know this is very difficult for you to see in terms of the data. So, I'll try to

expand it. But before I expand the view,

expand it. But before I expand the view, I think it's clear this goes from 2012 all the way up until the just this last cycle. Okay? And I think it's clear that

cycle. Okay? And I think it's clear that two things are happening. The percent

acceptance rates are all going down and then they're all going from wide to narrow. And so

narrow. And so these are your these are the 10 schools that I was referring to. Cornell

traditionally may empirically have the higher percentage acceptance rate, but it by no means means that it's any less selective. Okay. Um but in the big

selective. Okay. Um but in the big picture, a lot of top colleges, um Duke, John's Hopkins, University of Chicago, and so on, you know, UC Berkeley, etc.,

a lot of these schools, they're very competitive. And if I were to put some

competitive. And if I were to put some of those schools on the scale, you would see how low these percentages are. Okay?

And the main thing that's driving these unfortunately is the size of the applicant pool and also the quality of the applicant pools in general seem to be getting even more competitive. Uh

with that said, let me talk a little bit about how holistic the process is. So

this is something I mentioned a minute ago. Okay, so one thing before I talk

ago. Okay, so one thing before I talk about holism is standard these are a couple trends that are happening that that that myself and a lot of others have noticed. Um, one thing is that

have noticed. Um, one thing is that standardized testing is becoming increasingly important. So, here's a

increasingly important. So, here's a tip. If there's a college that says that

tip. If there's a college that says that the SAT or ACT is optional, don't do not interpret that as, "Oh, good. I don't

have to take it anymore." Okay? I can

explain later if somebody has a question as to why that's the case. But the

standardized testing is actually becoming more important. 12 by five. 12

x five refers to a kind of student who took 12 AP exams and got fives on all of them. Okay? We see a lot of 16x5s. As a

them. Okay? We see a lot of 16x5s. As a

matter of fact, I've worked with a high school student who was a 17x5. Okay? So,

being a 12x5, uh, it's not as special as it used to be. Again, that does not mean that the

be. Again, that does not mean that the AP exam is not important. Conversely, it

actually means that it can be even more important because when we assume in an applicant pool everyone is about the same in terms of standardized testing

and certain other um more quantifiable statistics. Okay. Then we can focus on

statistics. Okay. Then we can focus on the judging part which is more subjective. So that's why I was saying

subjective. So that's why I was saying of those three stages the judging is all the more important. a 16 by 36er. This

mean this is the student that we often refer to who got either a 1600 on the SAT or a 36 on the ACT. Again, it's not what it used to be in the like in the

'9s or in the 2000s, unfortunately.

Okay. Um the other trend that a lot of us are seeing is that the colleges are becoming a whole lot more selective. Uh

and that's because of I mentioned the applicant pool is becoming a whole lot more competitive. People are doing

more competitive. People are doing research earlier. they're doing

research earlier. they're doing internships earlier. The level of their

internships earlier. The level of their their involvement in the activities is becoming um I'll say it's it's increasing at the level of responsibility and impact. Um the

personal development is something that is um again maybe we'll discuss this in the Q&A but in terms of the um you know how does a high school student show

maturity in a way that a college wants to see it especially in final committee you know that's a big question. the size

of the applicant pool I mentioned is getting larger. It's also becoming more

getting larger. It's also becoming more diverse. A lot of that has to do with

diverse. A lot of that has to do with international applications as well.

Okay. Um and then another I'll say general category of trends I would say is that the due diligence that colleges are doing is becoming more rigorous. Due

diligence is just how rigorously does the college vet or evaluate the student.

So, um, fine, the student might have some activities. You're president of

some activities. You're president of this, you're co-founder of that, uh, you're a member of this and that. Um,

but, you know, that's not taken on face value like it was many years ago. Now,

we look at, oh, you were president.

Well, what did you do as president? How

did you become president? As president,

what are some things that you did incrementally beyond what the president is already supposed to do? So, those are examples of how things are becoming more rigorous. And so getting back to what I

rigorous. And so getting back to what I said earlier, one of the mistakes that I and a lot of others uh who uh will look at an application think that we almost

think is tragic is that a lot of students will focus too much on the what rather than the how and the why. And so

for example, oh I have to become president of this club no matter what.

Uh but then they don't really do anything in terms of that higher visibility as president. As a matter of fact, a lot of times it's better to not be an officer and um actually have more

impact on the, you know, the club or the activity. And I can talk about that

activity. And I can talk about that again if in case there's any questions towards the end. Um couple of the specifics interviewing is taking on some interesting changes. So a lot of there

interesting changes. So a lot of there are three general categories. A lot of colleges are increasing their emphasis on the importance of interviewing people. And if you think about it, it

people. And if you think about it, it makes sense because if everyone has the similar SAT, everyone is a 12x5 or they're similar with their APs, they're similar with activities, etc., how are

you supposed to tell the difference?

Okay. And so the interview is one of those ways. I said there are three

those ways. I said there are three general categories of schools that view interviewing. So the first category is

interviewing. So the first category is the the schools that really put emphasis on interviewing. Another category is

on interviewing. Another category is schools that are trying to replace interviewing with videos. And this is more for I'll say expediencyy's sake

because for example like my the the the IV that I work with is University of Pennsylvania. And so this year we got

Pennsylvania. And so this year we got well I can't give you the official number but we got over 50,000 applications. Well well over 50,000

applications. Well well over 50,000 applications. Um, our goal has always

applications. Um, our goal has always been to interview everyone who wanted an interview. Okay? And actually, we hit

interview. Okay? And actually, we hit that goal four or five years ago. We hit

100%. A couple years before that, we were in the mid 90s percents and so on.

But then we realized, you know what, what is it about the interview? We just

want to get a chance to interact with you on a personal on a face-toface level. Okay. And so, um, a video, a lot

level. Okay. And so, um, a video, a lot of schools are now, um, um, experimenting with videos. like Brown

for example is a is an Ivy that actually does allow videos. Um Yale has experimented with it. My school of course we've been toying with the idea for many years now. And so the video alternative is something. The other

thing is that there's a whole lot more training with the interviewers. Um

before there were some schools I won't mention which IV was doing this but they were even using actual students undergraduate students to interview.

Okay. Um those days are long gone now.

And so even the alumni interview, the alum interviewers um they have to go they go through a whole lot more training. There's more of a vetting

training. There's more of a vetting process. It's a lot more structured now.

process. It's a lot more structured now.

And so one of the big trends is this interviewing. And I mentioned that there

interviewing. And I mentioned that there are three categories of schools that view interviewing. And the third

view interviewing. And the third category, so the first was it's a it's very emphatic about it. The second was the video alternative. And I'll say the

third is they're viewing interviewing as uh something of that's very selective.

In other words, um there are some colleges that and again I don't have official data to to prove this, but just in discussions with a lot of other um

admissions folks from other schools, um it seems as if they do not want to grant a video uh an interview to just anyone.

And so depending on the evaluation of the applicant thus far, then they'll decide, okay, we want to interview. So,

in other words, for some schools, it's possible that getting an in interview invitation is a good sign because they actually want to know more about you or they feel like they want to verify

certain things or they want to confirm what your application is already making them believe. And so, it's possible that

them believe. And so, it's possible that when a school does not interview you, it's a sign that they're basically saying, "We've already made up our mind.

We don't need to know more about you. We

don't want to spend the time and effort to do to do it because we already know the answer." Okay, so that's the third

the answer." Okay, so that's the third category. Um, couple other trends and

category. Um, couple other trends and I'll move along Sophie. I'm sorry if I'm taking a little bit too much time, but um supplemental information. This is

becoming a new trend as well. So, uh,

deferral Loki, these are letters of continued interest. Deferral Lokis are

continued interest. Deferral Lokis are nothing new, okay? So, if you get deferred after an early application, a lot of times they'll give you an opportunity to send more information.

That more information is becoming a lot more important. In the past, it

more important. In the past, it generally did not. I would not say that it is um extremely important yet but it is becoming a lot more important. Um

there are also parts of the application that uh give the option for supplemental information. For example, what's a great

information. For example, what's a great MIT is a great example. So they give you they gave you an opportunity to do an artistic maker portfolio if you wanted to of all schools to show off how good

of a musician or dancer or artist you are. MIT absolutely yes. Okay. Uh my

are. MIT absolutely yes. Okay. Uh my

school Wharton for example, you know, you have an opportunity to show that you do a whole lot of things that may have nothing to do with business or finance.

Perfectly fine. Okay. So the

supplemental that that that goes beyond now just in the past the only supplemental really was you might get an option to provide a supplemental uh

recommendation or a reference letter. Um

now the supplemental aspect is be the trend is that that's becoming you know more important. Um there are also some

more important. Um there are also some interesting this is an interesting trend too. So there are some schools that will

too. So there are some schools that will now ask for just more information and that generally is a very good sign.

Okay. Um it's not part of the deferral process. This is usually part of the

process. This is usually part of the regular decision process. So imagine as a 12th grader, you filled out your application, turned it in for a regular deadline, and then 3 weeks later, you

get an email asking, "Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about yourself?" Okay, so that's becoming more

yourself?" Okay, so that's becoming more common. Okay, recisions are also not as

common. Okay, recisions are also not as rare as they used to be. A recision is when a school rescends the acceptance.

It's usually an early acceptance. So

imagine again you're a 12th grader, you submitted, you applied early either ED or EA and then you got accepted and in the middle of your

you know how how jubilant you feel during the start of the next semester you get an email in say the end of say the beginning end of January, beginning

of to middle of February that says we're concerned about your performance. can

you give us an update all the way up until and then it'll say something like end of February or March or something or in the worst case scenario they'll say you know we believe there was a some

sort of an issue with your application upon further review please contact us and then that might end up actually with a recision and unfortunately I've had I've worked with students where that

situation did come up luckily at least so far I've never had a student where the recision went through and the acceptance was rescended. Okay, but that

is a you know this is happening. This is

not as rare as it used to be. Um and

then there's subjective differentiators.

So the trend is that these are becoming more important. Um an SAT if you know

more important. Um an SAT if you know five people score exactly the same say 15 20 on the SAT you can't tell the difference between them based only on that. Okay. But a

recommendation letter an essay an interview these things you absolutely can tell the difference. Okay. um act

activities. Another the final trend I'll mention or I think is worth mentioning is activities the committees and this is along the lines of more rigorous due diligence.

You need to be able to evidence what it is you're doing with your activities.

And so that's something that also I think it just shows that there's a trend towards admissions committees becoming even more rigorous, even more

meticulous. they're having to use finer

meticulous. they're having to use finer um you know teeth tooththed combs, okay, to vet applicants. Um it just is a reflection of how competitive things

are. This is an example of or this is

are. This is an example of or this is this is not an example. This illustrates

at least based on one survey, okay, or a couple of surveys and mixed with a little bit of research um about how important certain parts of the application are compared to other parts of the application. And this I find to

be useful because a lot of times I'll work with a student and they'll say something like you know um professor on I googled um does the essay matter in my

application and it said no and then they Google again and it says uh yeah it matters a lot and they do that with a lot of things and I think um what's

important to note is it depends on where in the application process you are. So

for example, I think the simplest way to separate it is is this in stage one or two or in stage three. So remember stage one was the filtering, stage two was the

scoring and stage three was the judging.

Okay? And so if you might remember I was saying the judging that third and final stage is really the most subjective, heavily weighted stage. Okay? But what

does that mean? Before committee test scores like the SAT, that matters a lot.

Okay? in your filtering, in your scoring stage, if your application makes it to final committee, nobody even looks at your SAT, nobody even cares about it.

And the thinking is, if we had a question about your GPA or your course selection or your ability to take tests, then your application never would have made it to committee in the first place.

Okay? Now, I'm not talking about every possible situation, but again, just in general. Okay? Uh same with activities.

general. Okay? Uh same with activities.

activities seem to be important across the entire um uh um application review process. Um these differences I think is

process. Um these differences I think is what where it's more interesting. Again,

the curriculum, your transcript, this says uh curriculum and GPA. So your

transcript score and your GPA very important in the beginning once you get to committee, we don't even care about it. We don't look at it. Again, your

it. We don't look at it. Again, your

application never would have made it to committee if we had a concern about your ability to perform well in class. Um and

this is uh part of the bullet point that I had in an earlier slide that said college admissions committees they can be more selective now. Okay.

And so if you can imagine this, why would say well I won't name any particular school but why would a certain say top college in committee spend the time and effort trying to

evaluate a student that had a below average SAT had a very underachieving transcript was uh you know not very um active in activities etc or did not

evidence a lot of uh you know leadership and impact. Why would committee even

and impact. Why would committee even waste time with that kind of applicant when there's so many other applicants that far exceed that level? Okay. And so

that's why again there's certain things that weigh very heavily in committee and things that uh do not weigh heavily in committee. Okay. Uh with that said, a

committee. Okay. Uh with that said, a lot of the students I work with and this is uh became a whole lot more uh known in the public media because of the

Supreme Court of the United States.

Scotus um famous landmark decision uh it was Harvard, University of North Carolina, etc. Um I'm not sure if anybody remembers this. This happened a few years ago, but um supposedly now

colleges are not allowed to consider race. That's why on the scale of less

race. That's why on the scale of less important to more important, race is all the way down here because now according to the Supreme Court, that's law. The

reason why this circle is not colored in is because I think there's a caveat to that. Um for two year or for a year year

that. Um for two year or for a year year and a half I was saying oh really well let's see what the demographic makeup is of the incoming classes of various

schools to see indeed. Okay. And you

know maybe it's coincidental or maybe it's not but it really hasn't changed that much and it's not expected to change much. Does that say that all the

change much. Does that say that all the colleges are violating the law? Of

course not. Okay. No one ultimately can know what's actually going on inside the committee room. And I'll even say it

committee room. And I'll even say it this far, the only people who know what goes on in the committee room are the three people who are voting in committee or the five or the seven people and so

on. Okay? Even the dean of admissions,

on. Okay? Even the dean of admissions, if the dean is not in that committee room, then even the dean, there's no way the dean can know what is going on in that committee room. Okay? So with that

said, um a lot of this is uh of course this is why I was emphasizing a lot of these you know associations are very helpful because this is where you can act this is where we actually can talk

with each other and just see informally what's going on and so these are generally the changes not the level of importance but the change so the transcript is still important and it

still has its place before committee and afterwards standardized testing as I mentioned earlier has becoming a little bit more important. Okay, activities

definitely becoming more important.

Recommendations, essays and interviews, these are pretty subjective if you think about it. And so I think that these

about it. And so I think that these especially and including this as well, these are becoming more important because they help admissions folks

differentiate between candidates. Why

then is this becoming more important?

We're seeing a lot of colleges are seeing students that have very diverse backgrounds and so it's becoming harder to compare students when for example you have different styles of curriculum for

examples there's so many different kinds of even high schools so and I'm not talking about just public and private but even within public right there's

magnet right there's these um um uh what are they called the um uh they're the unconventional charter schools uh and

then of of course you have basis K12 uh IB you know you have so many different you know forms of schools and so um it's getting hard you have parochial schools

so I think that's around six or seven different kinds of school and of course there's even homeschooling so there's so many different ways that people are now showing their high school educational background and so that's what's making

some of the standardized testing a whole lot more important it's the only way for us to to to do at least some sort of comparison Okay. Uh I'd say the next um data point

Okay. Uh I'd say the next um data point that I think is very interesting and this gets a little bit at that Scotus uh race issue. And so um this is not um

race issue. And so um this is not um intended to have any sort of a socioeconomic or political message. This

is simply referencing two studies that I think are very interesting and I encourage you to look up these studies on your own if you like. One is from Princeton and the other one is from the

national study of colleges. This this

ferm represented by these two these two researchers and I think it shows two things that are very interesting. Okay.

So these are equivalencies. So what that means is for example this kind of student needs to score or needed to score here. The white is the older

score here. The white is the older study. The gray is the newer study. So

study. The gray is the newer study. So

in the past this kind of student had to score here to be considered equal to this kind of student who scored here

or to this kind of student who scored here or this kind of student who scored here. Okay. And what has happened now is

here. Okay. And what has happened now is I think the second interesting point at least according to just these two

studies. Okay. is that this group

studies. Okay. is that this group has to score even higher. If you notice, this gray bar actually gets a little

higher now. So, that's worse, at least

higher now. So, that's worse, at least for this group. Okay? And there's other groups that actually can score lower just to be

more equal. Okay? So, that gives you an

more equal. Okay? So, that gives you an idea, at least according to these two studies, of what an earlier trend has been. I think what would be interesting

been. I think what would be interesting would be to see if there's either Princeton might, you know, update this study or something, especially in more recent times, especially after the Scotas decision. But anyway, I think

Scotas decision. But anyway, I think this is not hiding any sort I don't think this is um, you know, uh, I think like al I don't think this is altering any sort of uh, notion that a lot of

people had anyway. So anyway, as I wrap up this uh, presentation and I'm anxious to get to questions. So again, Sophia, I'm sorry for going a little bit longer.

uh I want to try to impart a little couple of suggestions uh on what people should do now. So based on these trends, what should you do? Well, before we think about what do we do, what should

you know about what's going on? Okay, so

a couple things. Colleges differentiate

between achievement and accomplishment.

Accomplishment is you got something done. Okay, mission accomplished or you

done. Okay, mission accomplished or you you know, did you mow the lawn? Chore

accomplished. Achievement is doing something at a very high level. Okay.

And so to emphasize both of these I think is something for that's important for you to know how to distinguish to make sure you can track these things.

Okay. The who, what, where, when, how, why you're doing things. I've mentioned

how is how resourceful you're doing things, how much initiative you take, how adventurously you do things, how resourcefully, how you do it. I

mentioned resourceful. How creatively do you do things? Um, how do you do things in a team setting? Are you always doing things by yourself or are you doing them with others and so on? Why? Obviously,

that's all about motivation and there are a lot of different kinds of motivation which I'll talk about in a minute. Pyramid of T-shape. What this

minute. Pyramid of T-shape. What this

gets at is if you think of a pyramid, what we like to see is early in say your high school career, 9th grade to say middle school. Okay. Uh well, middle

middle school. Okay. Uh well, middle school's not going to show up in your college application, but I'll talk about uh if you're a middle schooler right now, but from 9th going to 12th grade,

what colleges generally like to see is you had a broad base of experiences, but then you eventually narrow things down and you do not have to reach a singularity at the top of your pyramid,

but it should be clear to the admissions committee what you are specialized in, what are you good at, what do you like to do, etc. And this eventually gets used to something called a T-shaped

student. If you think of the shape of

student. If you think of the shape of the letter T, this this kind of student does everything well across the board, but they specialize very deeply in in maybe one or two particular things or

maybe one or just a few, you know, several things. Um this trend here or in

several things. Um this trend here or in terms of what you need to know for the future is um you know what I noticed over the years um I think about maybe 10

years ago or so I started tracking this.

I noticed that it seemed to me a lot of people who vote in committee, they seem to use the same criteria. And so there's about seven or eight of these criteria that I've been keeping track of over the

years. I think these are three of the

years. I think these are three of the probably the most important. Intrinsic

motivation is, you know, why are you doing something on a deeper level rather than just chasing a grade or a trophy or a title? A title, you know, like

a title? A title, you know, like president or captain, that sort of thing. um intellectualism and utility.

thing. um intellectualism and utility.

Intellectualism and utility are not the same as academic achievement. So

intellectualism is simply just how do you think? Utility is all about how do

you think? Utility is all about how do you use what you studied and what you think. And then finally convergence is

think. And then finally convergence is how things come together. So suppose you like to volunteer, you have a very kind compassionate heart. Um suppose you

compassionate heart. Um suppose you speak Spanish and suppose um you know you really love robotics. Well, maybe

you want to volunteer at a summer camp for robotics for only Spanish-sp speakaking students who are underprivileged. And so that's an

underprivileged. And so that's an example of convergence, things coming together. If you think about people who

together. If you think about people who are successful out in the real world, usually they have converged, okay, in terms of their talents and their skills,

okay? Uh and then finally, what should

okay? Uh and then finally, what should you do now in terms of moving forward?

And so this is where I wanted to give a little bit of advice based on the trends that I've noticed. And so if you're a rising senior, focus on how you can demonstrate things. What evidence do you

demonstrate things. What evidence do you have to show your T? As I mentioned, the T-shape. Okay. What is your S3? What

T-shape. Okay. What is your S3? What

what are you going to do for your third summer? This is a lot of us call a lot

summer? This is a lot of us call a lot of admissions people call your S1, S2, S3. So these are the three summers that

S3. So these are the three summers that you have in high school to really pro prove things outside of the classroom.

Uh, and then how do you evidence these things? I mentioned there are about

things? I mentioned there are about seven or eight determinants. I mentioned

three key ones a minute ago. But how do you actually prove that you've been converging or you have a true intellectual motivation and so on? Uh,

or intrinsic motivation or true intellectualism, etc. Okay. If you're a ninth or a tth grader, um, I would say discovery, the pyramid I just described.

Okay. Go ahead and try different things.

Admissions committees generally prefer or we a lot of us believe that the person who says okay I think I want to go to medical school or I think I want to be an engineer or a lawyer or

whatever. You arrive at that decision

whatever. You arrive at that decision having exposed yourself to a lot of things as opposed to saying oh yeah you know I I knew ever since I was 5 years old that I wanted to be an engineer.

Well how do you know? Well because

that's all I've done. Not a good way to make a decision at least in the admissions committee's mind. It's not a mature way to think in the admissions committee's mind. It's not an

committee's mind. It's not an experience-based um prudent way to make a decision about what you think you might want to major in or what you what you think your

special interests might be or maybe even what your career interests might be. Um

challenges, setbacks, and failures. This

is a good litmus test. I think as a ninth or tth grader, don't be afraid of failing. Usually, there's no such thing

failing. Usually, there's no such thing as quitting. Okay? And um if you're not

as quitting. Okay? And um if you're not challenging yourself, think about it. A

lot of colleges not really that interested in that kind of person. Okay?

This uh well I'll move on. Uh and then growth. Okay. And the growth should be

growth. Okay. And the growth should be in especially these areas. Intellectual

and academic growth. Two different

things by the way. Uh and then real world in terms of experience and how things um go outside of the what I'll call what a lot of us call the high school bubble or microcosm. And then

just personal maturity. If you are a middle schooler right now, what I would encourage, and I do work with um actually quite young students, the youngest student I've worked with was a

was a fourth grader, believe it or not.

But um I encourage you to explore different things. Um the one thing that

different things. Um the one thing that or one of the things that I think is important for any middle schooler to have mastered before you enter high school is to know what kind of academic

or what kind of intellectual you see yourself becoming. You know, and I mean

yourself becoming. You know, and I mean are you do you are you more interested in STEM? If so, why? Are you more

in STEM? If so, why? Are you more interested in humanities? If so, why?

You'll notice that admissions committees generally don't care that much about what it is you're interested in. common

myth. If this comes up in questions, I'm happy to answer it. But um there's no such thing as a college that's looking to populate their department. So the

people who think, oh, you know, I want to apply to say say uh a technical school in technical institute. You know

what, there's so many who apply for computer science. I'll think I'll apply

computer science. I'll think I'll apply as uh you know African-American poetry and literature. Hm. You know, that'll

and literature. Hm. You know, that'll make me special and have a high chance to get in. It's not the way that works.

So instead of trying to game the system, I encourage you to as a middle schooler, see what kind of, you know, what kind of learner you are. Um how you study, okay?

What you find to be interesting, okay?

Um how are you when things are confusing or challenging, how are you by yourself or in team situations, you know, how are you with different kinds of activities

in the ST STEM to humanity spectrum?

Okay. Um, I encourage pre high school students to not pigeonhole themselves, which means to pick one thing because they love it and stick only with that one thing and they don't want to try

anything. Okay. So anyway, um if I were

anything. Okay. So anyway, um if I were to give a final suggestion for what to do now for the future, and this applies really to everyone, but I think at varying degrees, because of course, you

know, a sixth grader is very different stage than a rising 12th grader, but I think this does apply to everyone, which is to master what I've called, at least

for now informally, is a stack, the IB stack, the success tools for admission to college. So this stack, if you think

to college. So this stack, if you think about it, stacks up with three main tools. I would say um what I call

tools. I would say um what I call critical thinking. Uh critical thinking

critical thinking. Uh critical thinking needs to be communicated. And that's

going to be communicated in your writing. It's going to be communicated

writing. It's going to be communicated in your speaking. But the reason why I think writing stacks on top of thinking is because thinking, of course, you can just sit, think of Isaac Newton, as

legend has it, under the apple tree, right? You can just sit there all day if

right? You can just sit there all day if you want. Okay? Writing is a little bit

you want. Okay? Writing is a little bit more of an iterative process, but you can still ponder things as you write and rewrite draft after draft. Speaking is

probably the most extreme. You have to be a critical thinker. You have to be able to communicate as a writer in terms of how you express yourself with diction and your word choice, your phrasiology.

Okay? But speaking ultimately, I think is one of the most critical success tools because you can't prepare like you can for writing. You can't do a rough

draft in your speaking. Okay? And a lot of studies show that over 80% of communication is nonverbal. And it's not only the

is nonverbal. And it's not only the words that you use, but how you speak.

And so that's why um I believe that this stack is one of the best ways no matter what grade level you're at to really prepare yourself to eventually

show through your transcript, your activities, and they'll show even in your essays and interviews and everything about why you should get into, you know, any certain school. So

with that said, um Sophia, I apologize for taking too much time. I'm happy to answer some questions if there are any.

So should I just hand it uh hand the shared screen over to you now?

>> Okay. Um

yeah, hold on one second. Let me share my screen.

>> Okay. So I will >> Thank you.

>> Sure thing.

>> That was a very very good content. Uh I

just wanted to follow where you just last start and I wanted to kind of quickly before we do Q&A to let the uh

our family to know we are very very happy to join your guidance and effort to rolling out a critical thinking

because I have to tell you I have the p privilege to follow many student to your session or some other independent

dependent counselor session and one thing multiple times I watch the session going especially during the application season when our coach is doing the essay

editing brainstorming with a personal statement I so much wanted to recording those sessions and then do a document

documentary the reason is because I see a lot of the student are very good student um they doing very high GPA days have very high standardized test but

unfortunately when you doing that session with them I feel the idea they wanted to present to put into the personal statement are

so shallow I'm sorry to say that so shallow almost feel like they don't have they don't know what is the deep thinking nor they know what is critical

thinking nor they know what is interesting point for them to express themsel So um that's why we came to you and asking knowing you had the

experience of um doing in the past of hosting the critical thinking class to give student a opportunity. I even

mentioned to you I want some the parents come to this class with you because I feel the student are coming from a ground of home soil that soil if it's

not right they don't have opportunity to think deeply they don't have opportunity to have the habit of uh learning critical thinking which is ultimately I

feel when you have the student going to competing in the Ivy League school level, top 20, top 15, top 10 school.

You know, many parents coming to us saying, you know, my kids want to go into aim for the top 10 school, top 15 school. Ultimately, when we watch it on

school. Ultimately, when we watch it on the side, it's about maturity. You know,

we see the kids when they competing in that level, it's almost like a maturity competition. You know some of the kids

competition. You know some of the kids part to be more mature they can think they think on their own feet they have opinion they have perspective they can

have that expressed to you. So we feel towards end you know when the parents saying what else is matters you know uh

my way thinking is the maturity. So how

do you make the kids mature? Um I feel this is you know one way that's why uh I wanted to kind of quickly mention you know you just you know hear professor

mention about high GPA high SAT more and more student doing that the requirement going higher higher so it become more difficult more competitive

the AP also getting harder the um uh everybody doing independent research competition also become become a

standardized portfolio and also all the uh outside school activity become more and more um number-wise right so we are

lacking of deep thinking we are lacking of intellectual identity so I wanted to uh let all the family know we are going

to rolling out a class hosted by professor to teach kids um in the critical thinking Okay. Uh because this

is so important. Uh your essay editing become um uh let's say more difficult because the kids doesn't have a good ideas. Doesn't matter how much session

ideas. Doesn't matter how much session we're going to brainstorming. We still

not able to develop to a ideal which is student thinking it's good enough to present in their personal statement. So

now I wanted to let all our family know uh professor R is going to have a 12th session of critical thinking program uh

starting in March right in March and that uh compile of a session of critical thinking talk about how to build that way of thinking and then two session is

apply thinking to writing and also two session add on to apply for thinking for speaking which This professor just you know mentioned about um if you um

thinking this going to be especially for the good students especially for those G GPA very very high student this is critical you know that's like towards

end of a final finish line um you're welcome to um scan the barcode and if you're interested in we will be able to have somebody follow up with you we only

have a student I'm thinking you know we're thinking about 10 student port uh session. That way, Professor has a ton

session. That way, Professor has a ton of interactive activity going on to make sure every single participants and student have the opportunity to

practice, you know, from different angles, right? To practice how to do,

angles, right? To practice how to do, you know, the critical thinking and how to writing and and speaking and uh I I I'm sure uh professor I mentioned to

you, right? If this is successful for

you, right? If this is successful for the student, we always want to engage with you again to have a different session for the parents because parents

are crucial without be honest with you I feel parents level the mindset is the ceiling is the glass

ceiling of students maturity. If the

parents doesn't have very deep thinking then students I want to say majority times will stop them for that you know environment to help them. So that's our

next session. I'm going to you know

next session. I'm going to you know mention that. Okay. I want to also put

mention that. Okay. I want to also put in here then we're going to Q&A session.

I just want to mention uh if the parents wanted to have a dialogue with professor an feel free to raise your hand then I can open up the mic have you asking

question directly uh if you have a question wanted to you know continue put on chat box I will read them and professor on will answer them uh if you're thinking you wanted to have a

one-on-one 30 minute session with professor an you can tell he has pool of experience He done this for so many so many years.

He know inside and out about how to prepare your child to become someone more competitive. You want to spend your

more competitive. You want to spend your time wisely. You can scan the barcode on

time wisely. You can scan the barcode on the right hand side. That way somebody will follow up with you so you can schedule 30 minutes oneonone session with the professor on. If you want to

just kind of stay in put to knowing every single month what we're going to share with you on the knowledge base just to learn if you think your child's still young uh you wanted to also still

watching and also uh see what's going on then you could scan the barcode on the left hand side that way um we also uh will be able to inform you uh within our

WeChat group. Okay. Then uh let's go to

WeChat group. Okay. Then uh let's go to the um information. Uh professor I'm going to uh read some of the question for you and then you know you can answer

that and like I said you know any parents if you think you want to have a you know more dialogue then feel free to raise your hand. Okay.

Okay. Uh first question from June Wang.

Which university have interviews and which one don't?

>> Right. Well, there's 6,000 colleges, so the easiest way to answer that is just to look it up, but that answer is not going to help you either because it can

change for this upcoming sighting. So,

um, that's number one. So, number two, uh, it's a little bit a bit of an odd question because you should assume that there will be an interview. Number

three, you should hope that there's an interview. So, if you ever get an

interview. So, if you ever get an invitation, it's always optional. do not

do not reject that offer. Okay? So, uh

as a matter of fact, you need to understand that if you're not if you ask or ask for an interview and you reject it, that alone is going to hurt your application. I believe it will probably

application. I believe it will probably end your application. Okay? So, that's

the third thing about the interview. And

then the fourth thing is is you should be at a stage where you're articulate enough, your ortorial skills are good enough, your poise and confidence, all of your nonverbals should be at a mature

enough level so that you would interview well anyway. Um to me the fourth and or

well anyway. Um to me the fourth and or I think the fifth and last thing I'll say to that is it's a little bit of an odd um question or mindset in my opinion at least because um the interview is

becoming more important. It's be the subjectivity is becoming more important for differentiating people. If it's not an interview, some schools are now switching to videos etc. Some are doing

selective interviews and so you should not gamble. You should not think well I

not gamble. You should not think well I think most of my colleges that I will be applying to they did not interview last cycle so I'm not going to worry about my

speaking or my interviewing skills. I

think that's a bad and a risky strategy.

Okay, thank you. Okay, next question from Ho Hang. Do they compare students from different grades within the same school or compare them to student from a

previous years?

>> Um is I'm not exactly sure if I understand the question, but I'm assuming it means um does the admissions criteria change from each cycle to the

each cycle? We call them cycles, but for

each cycle? We call them cycles, but for each season, each year. And so the answer to that is no. Okay. So uh and the reason for that is for most of the school at least for the colleges I'm

most familiar familiar with that becomes a moot point because the quality of the applicant pool has continued to become more competitive. The quality has risen

more competitive. The quality has risen um and the size of the applicant pool is getting larger. So there's no reason for

getting larger. So there's no reason for a college to downgrade their criteria when they're evaluating applicants. If

anything the criteria continues to go higher and higher. Um the second answer to that is is generally colleges are focusing on of course a lot of data

points but two of them are how many people are accepted and of those how many people are going to say yes. Okay.

So the acceptance rate and the yield rate. So those are two things that

rate. So those are two things that colleges are very keen on targeting.

Okay. And so what they'll do is pick of say and I'm not going to name any particular school but suppose there's an IV league school and they have a quota of accepting 3,000 candidates. Okay? So

they're going to accept 3,000. They're

not going to lower their admissions criteria just to get the 3,000. But the

reason the reasoning is is uh as I mentioned earlier they don't have to because again when the applicant pool is becoming better more competitive and larger the only way for that criteria to

change is to go up. So there's no reason for us to look backwards.

>> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Um if we don't understand your question any audience you can also obviously raise uh your hand. I will give you opportunity

your hand. I will give you opportunity to clarify your question because I know sometime when you're typing may not be exactly um but they do compare right they do compare same grade student

meaning coming from yes the student coming from same school will be compared as a group to evaluating >> oh I see okay actually if that's the interpretation of the question um

there's a couple answers that number one in general no which means there's no quota for how many students from what school okay number two that data is

tracked but that's usually what we call lagging not leaving data. What that

means is lagging which means after we've evaluated the application then we may look at oh are these you know do we have 30 students from the same school or so

then we look at that okay um and then the third thing is is generally speaking we don't limit it by saying for example oh you go suppose you go to one of the

10 you know those are um Phillips Academy Philips Andover Hodgekiss Deerfield you know those schools uh Lawrenceville etc um they don't look at the school and say we're going to take

only you know 10 students from that school, five students from that school and two from that. There's no limit or quota that's that arbitrary. So um yes

it's tracked but it's lagging more than leading you know.

>> Makes sense. Makes sense. Okay. The next

question coming from Stacy is there any minimum cut off GPA for each college before getting to a committee? If so, do they look at a weighted or unweighted

GPA? Do you have any example for some

GPA? Do you have any example for some colleges?

>> Yeah. So, um the answer is unfortunately yes and no. I've heard of many colleges that actually have a minimum cut off in the first filtering stage and if it's way too low, for example, it's if it's

in the fourth quartile, then your application's over. Okay, that's number

application's over. Okay, that's number one. Number two, um a safe cut off would

one. Number two, um a safe cut off would be 3.65 generally speaking. Okay. Number three,

generally speaking. Okay. Number three,

everybody looks at weighted and unweighted. We also, if possible, will

unweighted. We also, if possible, will look at how many stu the population of the high school. Some colleges I've heard will also, if possible, they'll

try to find out what the validictorian's GPA is. So, a lot of times, you know, or

GPA is. So, a lot of times, you know, or we'll they may ask for class rank. A lot

of times it's not available either, but we'll take any data point that we can so that at least we can see where that student performs within that environment. But keep in mind that's not

environment. But keep in mind that's not as important as the standardized testing. So let me give you a couple

testing. So let me give you a couple examples. There are some high schools

examples. There are some high schools that there probably around 40 or 50 high schools that actually have I'll say uh unofficially a reputation of something

called grade inflation. That means that everybody's grade is high. And I'm not saying it's all private schools, but imagine you your parents spend a lot of money. You go to a fancy school and the

money. You go to a fancy school and the grades are low. you might be unhappy compared to if the grades are high. And

so again, this is unofficial, but you know there it's a little strange if everyone has a perfect GPA, but the AP exam scores are all three or

two, okay? Or everyone's grades are so

two, okay? Or everyone's grades are so high in honors and advanced class, but their SAT is, you know, 1100. Okay,

that's a little bit strange. So the GPA, you know, you should simply, you know, if you're performing well or not, you know, if it's inflated or not, but regardless, it's not as it's important,

but it's not as important as other data points.

Makes sense. Thank you. Uh, next one from Gloria one. Does ACT score of 1550 versus 1570 or 1580 make a meaningful

difference in admission officer's eyes?

>> No. So those are SAT scores. So um the reason being and think of it this way um >> the ranges are such that um you know

once you're at a certain level we feel like okay combined with your transcript and your other standardized test testing scores. So for example suppose you took

scores. So for example suppose you took a national exam or you took some APs and so on or say you're in an IB program or you're in a basis or K12 program. you

know, as long as we get the sense that you can do the work, you can perform well, you have a minimum or you have a certain level of aptitude, academic aptitude, then that's fine. So, that's

the reason why for a lot of people who I've worked with students, they got a 1520 and they just got to get that 8,600.

That's that's about three depending on the year, that's about three questions that you that you need to get correct.

Three more questions. Sometimes only two questions to get more correct. the

admissions committee doesn't think, oh, because you answer three more questions, oh, you're a different person now and we really want you. And that's not the way we think. And so, you know, two or three

we think. And so, you know, two or three questions that that kind of thing isn't going to make a difference. This the

second point I'll say also is we look at things holistically. Okay? So, again, we

things holistically. Okay? So, again, we look at more than just that that the the the SAT, ACT, etc. And then the third thing I'll say is um there are two types

of interpretations with the there's one with a high score and one with a low score. And what that means is if you

score. And what that means is if you score suppose you score low on the SAT or you feel it's low but you have other evidence that you are still an

outstanding student. Okay. Um that is

outstanding student. Okay. Um that is possible. A lot of admissions people

possible. A lot of admissions people think it's possible you can be very intelligent but you just maybe had a bad day or bad days and you didn't score

well on the SAT. The other

interpretation is generally not possible and what that means is if you score high suppose you make a 1580. Okay. So in the admissions committee's mind you cannot

be stupid and accidentally score 1580.

Okay. So that means if you're a 158, if you're that level of a student, then holistically a the rest of your application should look like that too. So the strange thing

is is we would rather have someone perhaps they had a for something in the mid400s, but the transcript also showed that, you know, they had some fives,

maybe a four here and there, but they were challenging themselves. We'd rather

see that than someone who had a 1580 and they just took on level or honors courses and they got A's or they picked the wrong courses. You know, there's certain AP even certain AP courses that

should be selected. There are some AP courses that should not be selected because in the admissions committee's minds, there's certain categories of courses that are more meaningful than others and some are meaningful in a

negative way. So that course selection

negative way. So that course selection becomes important too. Again, it's

holistic though. So you're thinking only of the ACT or SAT I think is a little bit risky.

>> Yeah. On that note um professor on like our college application counseling we do uh school selection uh course selection is one of uh you know very big component

of what you're coaching student right >> yeshuh yeah >> yeah okay sounds good. The second part of question from that same person is is

a soft market gets 1550 which is 800 math is it worth retaking or is time better to spend on research or other you know area.

>> Yeah I'll just say no it's not worth retaking for the same reason you need to answer 1550 again you need to answer two more two maybe three more questions and then you'll have a 1600 doesn't make any difference to us.

>> Okay.

>> Okay. Excellent from S Yang Chun. Sorry

bad reception in the past couple of minutes. Can you explain what is a T and

minutes. Can you explain what is a T and what is the S3?

>> Uh S3 is simply the third summer. S2 is

the second summer. S1 is the first. So

the way we think of your high school career, your application, you have your 9th, 10th, 11th grade, and then you have a summer in between each one of those.

So S1, S2, S3. Um, and so we look for different things depending on which summer it is. The T and that's somewhat related to your T. So a T, if you just

think about the shape of a T. So, uh, it means you do everything well because you have a good attitude, you're smart, you have leadership, you work hard, you know, you just have a lot of good qualities about yourself, but there's

one thing that you do very deeply, very specially. It doesn't have to be only

specially. It doesn't have to be only one thing. Maybe it's two, maybe it's

one thing. Maybe it's two, maybe it's even three things, but the whole point is you do everything well, but there's something that you do deeply.

>> Excellent. Thank you. Uh, next question from Leen Drew is what is the typical GPA to go through the first part? First

part you mean the first GPA, first semester or >> Right. So again, it's going to vary per

>> Right. So again, it's going to vary per college. So for your Ivy's, they are

college. So for your Ivy's, they are going to be they are going to be pretty high. What you should do is you should

high. What you should do is you should look at the mid tile which is the um middle the second and the third quartiles and see what the range of the

GPA are. You should do the same with the

GPA are. You should do the same with the SAT or ACT as well. But for the GPA like I said 365 should be a minimum. Okay.

Um, and then, uh, a lot of, for example, I won't tell you which school it is, but one of the IVs loves to talk about how 10% of their incoming class every year

was either a validictorian or saludiatoran in their in their respective high school. A lot of them also like to talk about how one of the colleges likes to talk about how 15 to

20% of all their incoming students have scored in the top percentile of the SAT and ACT. That's in addition to those

and ACT. That's in addition to those midtile um um statistics that they that every college shows on their website, you know. So like like I said, it's

you know. So like like I said, it's going to vary per college, but those are the minimums. >> Okay, great. Thank you, professor. Okay,

from CL with respect to summer program between CI and YGS, which one would you recommend?

>> Oh, either one of those is going to be fine. So number one, that's number one.

fine. So number one, that's number one.

Number two, what you do with those programs is much more important. So, for

example, a lot of people just go to Yway, they go to Yale, and then they they do they pick which category that they're going to do their research, their project in. They give the presentation and and then they're done.

Okay? If you that's all you do, then that's not going to show that's actually going to show very negatively. Um that

number two, um getting in. So, you know, number one is which program you necessarily go to isn't going to make that much of a difference. It's really

what you do with it. Okay. Uh number

two, there's only a few programs depending on your team, your specialty area, what your interest is that can sometimes catch the the notice of your admissions officer or the person who's

scoring your activities. So, for

example, if you're on the humanity side, if you do, you know, Colombia writing or you do, you know, Kenyon writing or something or you do you go, you know, NYU film school, there's certain, you

know, summer programs on the STEM side.

If you do RSI or you do SSP or there's, you know, MIT Primes, there's certain other programs that that that do catch our eye because we know how competitive they are. But in general, I wouldn't

they are. But in general, I wouldn't worry too much about um the program itself. I know ys and you know there's a

itself. I know ys and you know there's a lot of other my school for Wharton alone we have five summer camps. Yeah they're

competitive or they they feel very competitive because you have to write essays you have to do teacher recommendations submit your transcript etc. Some of us are some of the schools now even are require we're thinking

about requiring interviews now. Okay. So

it's getting pretty competitive. Okay.

But the point is is just because you get in doesn't really mean anything. You

need it's what you do at that program.

So that's the I think the second point I was making. The third point I'm making

was making. The third point I'm making is there are a lot of applicants who get accepted and they don't go anywhere. A

lot of times they can't afford it. A lot

of these programs are expensive. Um,

look at again, I won't name which Ivy, but there's one Ivy in particular who's very known for accepting a lot of homeschool students. Um, one of the

homeschool students. Um, one of the other IVs gives more money than any other co. They're tied for the top five

other co. They're tied for the top five colleges that give away more money to, you know, to for stipens and grants, etc., uh, for underprivileged kids. A

lot of these kids, they can't they can't even go to YMCA summer camp. Okay. But

the real issue is is what are you doing with your S1, S2, S3. That's what we really care about. So the how and the why is a whole lot more important. I can

give some anecdote. Well, we don't have time to tell you stories, but there are some amazing applicants and they couldn't they couldn't afford to go or do go anywhere or do anything, but what

they did in their small town, amazing.

Everybody voted yes for these applicants. And so so I wouldn't worry

applicants. And so so I wouldn't worry so much about which program you go into.

worry more about what you do when you get there. And so, you know, stay in

get there. And so, you know, stay in touch with your professor, go explore the rest of the the college, go sit in on another uh classroom that's having their summer session, you know, go suggest another project, you know,

outside of the project that you're already been assigned. Go, you know, create some new event with another, say, uh, team that's doing some work in another area besides yours. you know the

there's a lot of those kinds of opportunities that are there but they're missed and so those are the things that will really differentiate you.

>> Thank you. The next question I think taking really to the home um from Lee J uh which is I think I want you to share with more and I do see a lot of Asian

student are in that category. Um if a student are shy not good at speaking what kind of class or activity as a parents can recommending to a student.

>> Okay so number one shy is not introverted. So being introverted just

introverted. So being introverted just means one is not outwardly expressive and that's fine. A lot of people are not outwardly expressive. Number two there's

outwardly expressive. Number two there's no one set personality that you need.

Okay. Number three, shy means you're not outwardly expressive because you don't have a lot going on in your head.

Introverted means you have a lot going on in your head, but maybe you're just not outwardly expressive. Okay, so

number one, so the third point I'll say is make sure you're introverted, not shy. The fourth thing that I'll say in

shy. The fourth thing that I'll say in terms of activities or things, um, of course there's things like debate, model UN, mock trial, drama theater, you know, there's Toast Masters. There's so many

speaking things that you can do and that's fine. I really applaud that

that's fine. I really applaud that someone would want to do that. Um, but

the real thing is just to um, you know, if you're a if you enjoy speaking, that's going to show in everything that you do. It'll show up in your teacher

you do. It'll show up in your teacher recommendation letters. It'll show up in

recommendation letters. It'll show up in the activity the kinds of activities you do. It'll even show up in the kind of

do. It'll even show up in the kind of awards that you get. And I'm not talking about getting first speaker in a debate tournament or that kind of thing. I'm

just saying, you know, if you are awarded a citizenship award for volunteering, clearly you're going to be a good speaker, you know, it's a so I wouldn't worry so much about a particular activity or award or camp or

something like that. So that's that's the other point. And then the final other point I would say is in terms of the speaking, that's something that I think should come naturally, especially if you're not a rising 12th grader.

That's something you have time to develop more confidence in in your poise as well as showing the way that you think is going to be reflected a lot of

ways in the way that you speak. And if

you're not a rising 12th grader now, you should assume that interviews or the way that you present yourself, okay, in the way you speak is eventually going to become even more important than it

already is.

>> Thank you. Thank you. Okay, next one is, "Hi, Professor. Um my daughter is in

"Hi, Professor. Um my daughter is in 10th grade. She has good GPA. However,

10th grade. She has good GPA. However,

she doesn't have any particular interest in STEM or liberal arts subject. Any

suggestions?

>> Sure. There's two kinds of undecided.

Okay. The good the bad undecided is I have no interest or I don't have any idea what I'm interested in because I've never really explored anything. That's

the bad undecided. The good undecided is well I have no idea what I'm interested in between poetry, literature, newspaper computer robotics debate

math, you know, because I've tried all the I have no idea what I'm interested.

That's the good kind of undecided. So if

she's in 10th grade, it's fine that she doesn't not everyone necessarily has to have a T or a pyramid depending on the way their the rest of their application looks. So that's number one. So that's

looks. So that's number one. So that's

holistic. Number two, be the good undecided, not the bad. Okay? Number

three, in order to be the good kind of undecided, that means you were busy trying things out. Okay? And so for you, it's like going to a buffet saying, "Oh, I don't like any of the food." Well,

what did you try?

Nothing. Well, then we're not interested in that. But if you tried a lot of

in that. But if you tried a lot of things and you're still undecided, that's fine.

>> Um, your Ivy League schools, remember, traditionally, these are the eight Ivy's. um historically and traditionally

Ivy's. um historically and traditionally we all and I can say this confidently because we all we all meet quite frequently um and um I'll say that um on

in a lot of different contexts but I will say that I think this is not only the same but I think it it is becoming even more ingrained amongst the IVs and

a lot of other schools where they want you to come and explore. So you may have a T-shape, you may be interested in say you know bio bio biochemical research or

maybe in you know classical literature or whatever it is you're interested in but we still want you to come and explore. So if you notice some of the

explore. So if you notice some of the applications one of the Ivy League applications they ask you to choose what three majors might you want to study

might you want to study. Okay. um a lot there's another uh Ivy League school and they say you know which of these activities do you think you might want to do and rank which what level you

think you might want to participate in you know and that ranks from a lot to a little and so on. So, the colleges, we want you to come and explore. I'll share

a quote that comes from one of the Ivy League admissions committee rooms. And she told me that what they say is like every time they come across an applicant who seems like they know exactly what

they want to do, they say, "Great, another 17-year-old who thinks they have the whole world figured out. Why do they need to come to our school then?" Okay.

So, a little bit of that undecided is perfectly fine.

>> Thank you. That's great. That's great,

Elsa. Okay, next one. It's uh things are very good. I'm I'm glad uh SL asking for

very good. I'm I'm glad uh SL asking for can you speak more about critical thinking class like what are the content? What type of student junior or

content? What type of student junior or senior is a more le uh lecture based or more group discussion? How many student and what is a schedule like?

>> Okay, so there's a lot of questions in there. So think that how many students

there. So think that how many students and the schedule that's driven more by Ivy Compass but I think it was nine or 10 and the schedule is I think 90 90-minute sessions. I'm sure there'll be

90-minute sessions. I'm sure there'll be a break here and there but there's no lecture or discussion. It's all

interactives.

>> Okay. So I'm asking you questions or you're asking me questions. Um you're

figuring out problems or I'm helping you how to show how you figure out problems. And there are a lot of different approaches. I'm sure a lot of high

approaches. I'm sure a lot of high school students even though the parents may not have heard of different methods but there are algorithmic methods sequential thinking there's socratic seminar there's a lot of different way

there's a boolean logic there's a lot of different approaches for critical thinking I can also so that's the second part the third part I think the third or part of the question was in terms of

maybe an example of what exactly is critical thinking because I get that question a lot like what do you actually teach like what is the critical thinking so There are a lot of different kinds of

it but a lot of it has to do with de the depth at which you um analyze things and then how you inquire about things. So

the depth for example would be something like might be oh so Apple uh is selling more and more iPhones. Uh is that a good or a bad thing? Well let's analyze that.

Let's think about that critically. Okay.

So they're selling more phones. Okay.

Well what does that mean? Are they

pricing them higher or are they selling more of the phones? Well, is it possible that Apple is making more money by selling fewer phones? Of course it is.

If the price goes high enough, is it possible that Apple is making more money even if they sell at a lower price? Of

course it is. If they sell more of these, well, suppose they are making more money by lowering the price and selling more. What effect might that

selling more. What effect might that have long term? Does it cheapen the product? Does it make some customers

product? Does it make some customers more sensitive? Does it make other

more sensitive? Does it make other customers want to delay their purchase?

Oh, they want to delay. And then let's dig into one of those. They want to delay their purchase. Why do they want to delay their purchase? In other words, why are they buying? Is it for aesthetic reasons? For utility? Is it because

reasons? For utility? Is it because they're doing something called sandbagging? Okay. Well, what if it's

sandbagging? Okay. Well, what if it's for utility? And then again, you just

for utility? And then again, you just keep digging deeply instead of just taking something on the surface level.

And then the second area of critical thinking has a lot to do with questioning. And a lot of that is just

questioning. And a lot of that is just creativ a lot of it has to do with creativity but it's mostly rooted in what's called intellectual curiosity.

Okay. And so intellectual curiosity has something to do with for like for example uh I don't know the person asked this question. When's the last time you

this question. When's the last time you thought about let me think of an example. Think about milk. Okay. So

example. Think about milk. Okay. So

everybody drank milk or drinks milk. So

what? Okay. Well think about the first person who drank milk the very first time. Okay. So, they're maybe sitting on

time. Okay. So, they're maybe sitting on a farm. They see some really big animal,

a farm. They see some really big animal, some big cow, and then they look underneath and they go, "You see that thing under there? I'm going to squeeze it and see what comes out." And then

some white stuff comes out. And then

that person says, "I wonder what will happen if I drink it." And so, so this is what I mean by asking questions about things that maybe um people might not

normally ask questions about. So it's a certain kind of intellectual curiosity, okay, that can lead to something else.

So that might be kind of a silly example, but hopefully it's something that you know you can remember and it'll give you an example of what the the ways

that we inquire about things.

>> Okay, excellent. Thank you. Um there's

couple question on that. I just want to also mention uh this session is for seventh, 8th, 9th and 10th student because when you get to 11th and they

will be very busy getting into almost application season. So this class is

application season. So this class is aiming for 10 7th to 10th grade student uh together you know as as one one one

class um because it's training way of thinking. So that could be um you know

thinking. So that could be um you know um suitable. Uh if we have a lot more

um suitable. Uh if we have a lot more student then maybe in the future we can divide them to a younger age or older you know a little bit older high school student. Okay good. Um there's still lot

student. Okay good. Um there's still lot questions professor I don't think we can finish everything.

>> Yeah. Okay. Yeah I'm thinking maybe if we are because I'm actually I apologize I'm over the time I was allotting. So

maybe one or two more questions if possible.

>> Okay. Uh okay, let me just choose some because there's so many come in. Uh why

uh why Harvard asking what percentage you are going to change majors? Do they

want you uncertainty about what you're going to do? I don't know if you answered that question.

>> Yeah, I Okay, so I mentioned that there's one col one ID that does ask what are some of the things you're going to do and what's the likelihood or your uh percent of involvement. So that's

that that's Harvard. So Harvard also is asking about your potential majors at least this year and the last two years they've been asking that. So that's

number one. Number two, they do like to know they like to keep track of what the levels of interest are in certain departments. Okay. The other thing is

departments. Okay. The other thing is they also like to have some sense of what your what's called an ancillary interest might be. So ancillary interest is something that's closely related to

your initial choice. For example, you might say you're interested in biology, but then an ancillary interest might be neuroscience. Okay? You're interested in

neuroscience. Okay? You're interested in in say you know um say applied math and now you're interested in say econometrics or something. So so they do

like to some colleges especially Harvard they do like to keep track of what your ancillary interests might be as well.

But I will say this, um, the two people that I know pretty well at Harvard in terms of the admissions process, um, they are similar to the other IVs in that they're not looking to populate

their departments. Harvard is not

their departments. Harvard is not worried that they're not going to get enough qualified applicants for their departments in terms of majors. They're

not worried about that, but they do like to track it. So again, that's what we call more of a lagging indicator than a leading one. So in other words, if you

leading one. So in other words, if you pick a high or low percentage, they're not going to reject or accept you because of that. Okay? So that would be a leading, but they're it's not a leading indicator. It's a lagging one.

leading indicator. It's a lagging one.

So after you do it, they just like to keep track of what that is.

>> Okay. Um there's a question I'm thinking, you know, what's good can be?

Um what do you look for selection? Do you

mean meaningful or not meaningful? I

think that question may be not as uh okay um can you maybe elaborate a little bit about course categories in admission officer rated more than

others? Yeah. So, um the course

others? Yeah. So, um the course selection is actually very important mostly to show two things. Your

interests but also more your interest slash how much you experiment. And then

second and more important is how much you challenge yourself. Um the second point I'll say is the course selection is not viewed in isolation. Usually it's

viewed in the context of your standardized test score, your SAT and then sometimes even your teacher recommendation letter. So, let me give

recommendation letter. So, let me give you I can give a quick example because a lot of people just think, well, let me just pick as many AP courses as possible. That's a very bad strategy.

possible. That's a very bad strategy.

I'll give you an example. Suppose you're

a STEM student. Um, suppose you took BC calculus as a 10th or 11th grader. Well,

that's great. You have no business taking AP statistics. Your transcript

reviewer, we will immediately know that you're wasting your time. you are doing what we call padding your GPA which means that you want to get a easy

A because anyone who took BC calculus as a 10th or 11th grader can teach themselves AP statistics so you should not pick that okay um if you're interested in business you should not be

taking AP economics you should self-study for that one okay and take a dual enrollment elsewhere if you're interested in say you know uh say in literature you should not take dual

enrollment in ELA English language arts or AP, you know, uh comp literature composition. Okay, you should take it.

composition. Okay, you should take it.

You know, if you do the dual enrollment, we all know that you're just wasting your time and it's an easy A. Okay. So,

uh I suggest number one um you know in your heart if you're challenging yourself and then also if you are um not diverse enough in your selections

usually the school requires you to take a certain variety of courses even if they are all AP. So you don't usually have to worry too much about being too narrow in your course selection. being

too narrow in your course selection.

Sometimes that occurs with um like I said the um like uh like the basis K12 sometimes some of your IB schools or the parochial schools. Some of those schools

parochial schools. Some of those schools when you have too much freedom to choose the courses you want to do and then we look at a transcript and all you picked was nothing but chemistry and related

courses and that's it. You know that's going to hurt you. Okay. unless you're

applying I suppose only to a certain you know um school that focuses on a certain area of STEM and so on. So that's

another point about the course selection. And then the last other thing

selection. And then the last other thing I'll say is is um to make sure that you're challenging yourself um in your courses and if you are they show up in your activities and a lot of times in

your teacher recommendation letters. So

suppose you make an A in pre-calculus.

Okay. Um but then you take AB instead.

Well, you have two cho Well, you really only have one choice. Um if you were required, if you were forced to take AB, then you need to write about that in the section in the application that talks

about additional information. Okay?

Otherwise, your transfer reviewer is going to assume two things about you.

this is the student who got a A in pre-calculus and now you're taking AB or you're taking AP statistics or something like that. Uh they're going to think two

like that. Uh they're going to think two things about you. You're lazy and you're afraid. Okay, you're lazy because anyone

afraid. Okay, you're lazy because anyone who got an A in pre-calculus can make at least a B+ in BC calculus. Okay, so if you don't take BC, you're lazy. Okay,

and then also you're afraid because you're afraid of getting the B+ instead of an easy A and AB. Okay. So, that's

why again how course selection can link to to other courses. If you took honors chemistry and then now you're going to take AP chemistry, a lot of times that's going to hurt you too, okay? Because um

you probably should have taken AP chemistry to start with or if you took honors chemistry now you should take something like AP biology or maybe AP physics 1 2 or C instead of AP chemistry

because now again you come across as lazy and afraid. So the course selection a lot of times can have a big impact irrespective of even the subject matter you know. Um, so with that, I hope that

you know. Um, so with that, I hope that answered that question. Sophia, I'm

sorry. I wish I could I wish I could.

These are such good questions. I wish I could go on all night, but I can't.

>> Unfort then, um, last one. Uh, I allow one uh, parents uh, raise hand for a while now.

TJL, now you open mic. You can you can speak.

>> Yes. Thank you, Sophia. And and thank you, Professor An. I'm just curious in terms of taking AP classes. Is it okay

to take a bunch of AP classes without taking all the AP exams? The reason is because the student wants to explore and just learn different things, but knowing

that she may not get fives in all of them. So, is it okay or is it a red

them. So, is it okay or is it a red flag?

>> It's an absolute red flag. So, make sure that student does not do that. Um this

is the way that an ad you're there's someone called a transfer reviewer who's going to look at the transcript and the standardized test score for usually it's the same person and having done this having looked at so many reviewed so

many transcripts etc like thousands there's a very standard way to interpret a lot of situations as as you can imagine there's no situation that we've

never seen okay so that situation shows usually oh they're afraid here's the way we interpret it if it's a wrong student and they would have done well, would they choose to take the AP exam? Of

course they would. If they knew they were going to get a five, of course they would take it. If they knew they would do badly, of course they would not take it. If they think they might do

it. If they think they might do somewhere in between, then they should just study harder and then they'll do well. So those are the three basic

well. So those are the three basic interpretations of someone who's taking an AP course. So if they take the AP course and they do not take the exam, then usually that gets interpreted very

negatively. Um the ideal is the student

negatively. Um the ideal is the student does not take the AP course, but they do take the AP exam. So there's certain subjects where that shows very well. I

usually with high school students I work with, I make specific recommendations, especially for the ones where that shows well and it's relatively easy. Okay, if

you've never taken calculus, it's very very difficult to study by yourself to get a five on the AP physics one, two, or even C. Okay, but say for example, a

foreign language is an easy example.

Okay, where you may take uh the foreign language level one, two, and three. And

suppose you're in three honors, that's a great opportunity to self-study and take the AP safe Spanish, you know, so you get Spanish three honors and then go

ahead and just study for yourself and take the AP Spanish exam. There are even some strategies, I don't have time to get into it now, but um where you can um

register for the AP exam as a rising senior, but we don't the admissions, we don't get the scores. the scores come out, you know, after, you know, way after the decisions are made. So then

why should you still sign up for that?

That's that's a longer story than I have time to explain. But, uh, the whole point though, bottom line, if you take the AP course, you really should be taking the AP exam.

>> Great. You just quick follow up. If you

take say take 12 AP classes, but if you get a bunch of fives, but some fours, is that also a red flag?

>> No, that's not a red flag. But it also depends on what the course is in and what else did you do? You know, if you got say a five in in your in your calculus and then you got a a three on

your physics one, your AP physics one, well, what else have you been doing with your physics 3? Who else is the teacher recommener? What, you know, have you

recommener? What, you know, have you been doing any competitions? Did you go to any summer camp? Do you have a patent? Are you in robotics? Are you

patent? Are you in robotics? Are you

There's so many. This is what I meant by the holistic process. Um, I worked with a student, she got a um, she failed her

AP biology course unweighted, waited, it was barely passing. She got a two on the AP biology exam. Okay. U, but we worked

out a strategy. She got into her Ivy.

I'm not saying that uh um, oh, I have the magic solution, but obviously what we did with our application worked because it wasn't such a red flag that she got rejected. So even if there's a

negative scenario, there's a way to take advantage of what this word holistic means. We look at everything together.

means. We look at everything together.

That's why, you know, in the 90 in the 80s, if you got a perfect score on the SAT, it almost didn't matter what else you did. You just got accepted by most

you did. You just got accepted by most of the IVs. It's not like that anymore.

We look at everything together now. So

imagine someone failing AP biology. You

got a two on the exam. So how can you cover that up? So that's that's what Ivy compass and I work on.

>> Anyway, I hope that helps. Um Sophia, I apologize, but I really do have to >> have to explain.

>> Got it. Yeah, before I was thinking there's one question really really good.

Just before you go, let me squeeze in.

Um this question I think will be explaining why we engage you to do the critical thinking class. Uh the question really good. How would critical thinking

really good. How would critical thinking class prepare student for the college essay writing interview or science project preparation? What is the time uh

project preparation? What is the time uh uh uh exception per pre uh expectation for the per week? It could class time homework if any when you mentioning the

class for parents be same class or different one for parents.

>> Okay, just real quickly the class time I think is 90 minutes. The homework isn't going to be more than about 30 minutes to an hour. Thirdly, it's not so much homework. The nature of the question

homework. The nature of the question tells me even the way this person is thinking about what critical thinking is. Critical thinking is you need to

is. Critical thinking is you need to it's changing the entire way you think of things. This is not like you're going

of things. This is not like you're going to take a you know a lesson and then a month later you can play the violin or now you know how to do derivatives. It's

not that kind of course. This is

something to in in 10 sessions.

It could take a thousand sessions, but you need to think of how you're changing the way you think. And then the fourth and last thing I'll say is the way you think shows up in everything that you

do. For example, in your essay writing,

do. For example, in your essay writing, if you don't know the difference between large and big or quick and fast or the difference between precise and accurate,

then you're already not thinking in the way that's a critical high level for writing essays. when you speak, okay,

writing essays. when you speak, okay, the way that you structure your comment is going to show it's going to reveal how you think. So that's why the speaking is part this person asked about

essays. So I talked about the writing,

essays. So I talked about the writing, but the speaking also reflects the way that you think. If I ask you, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream? And

you say, oh, chocolate. That's fine.

Okay, but that tells me how you think.

What you really should have said is, huh, my favorite flavor of ice cream?

Well, sometimes it depends. If it's a hot summer day, I like chocolate. If

it's winter, I like strawberry. If I'm

happy, I like, you know, swirl. If I'm

sad, I like, you know, chocolate with and so on. Right? So, it's not telling you how to think or to complicate the way you're thinking, but it's really to change the entire way you go about

thinking of everything. And then that shows in your writing and in your speaking. It's also going to show in

speaking. It's also going to show in your classwork at school, your activities, and competitions. It

definitely shows up in the teacher recommendation letters. So if I had

recommendation letters. So if I had time, I would share some comments from teacher recommendations. What teachers

teacher recommendations. What teachers say about students, the student picks the teacher thinking, "Oh, I made a high grade and the teacher likes me because we always say hello." But then that

letter actually ends up being very negative because of the way that student shows how they think in class, the kinds of questions they ask in class. Okay?

the kinds of comment or maybe the lack of comment you know that shows up in the teacher recommendation. So, uh this

teacher recommendation. So, uh this person who asked the question about how does it show up in the college essay or you know anything about activities and things that's too narrow and shallow of

a way of thinking about what at least I've I've taught this critical thinking now several times and um what what I try to achieve has nothing to do with in 10 sessions you know you're done and now

you know how to do it. Yeah,

>> that's that's the reason why I don't target, you know, I target, you know, the the younger students uh in terms of how you go about thinking of things and then that's going to manifest in everything you do.

>> So, yeah. Okay. Well, so thank you so much for having me. I'm sorry I can't go further. Yeah.

further. Yeah.

>> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. You um maybe I stay on to give uh some uh you know more explanation. You're welcome to drop off

explanation. You're welcome to drop off and thank you very much for tonight again. wonderful content and also a lot

again. wonderful content and also a lot of insight. Appreciate your time.

of insight. Appreciate your time.

>> Thanks for having me. Okay. Thank you so much for having me.

>> Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night.

All right. Talk to you soon. Okay.

Thanks. Bye. Uh shall we stay on uh about critical thinking?

Engaged professor critical thinking.

Prepare.

Critical thinking.

application coaching material.

A student about how beautiful your English is.

It's not about how grandma it's all correct probing leading to thoughtful

self-reflection personal statement top 10 school 15 Top 15 school thinking barrier.

The core value factor.

Engage. Professor

thinking conquer.

Fore thinking why we doing this? Uh what's the purpose? They show everything. Um we

purpose? They show everything. Um we

throughout application showing thinking professor executive Don't have room to grow.

Fore sharp.

Target.

That's it.