Workshop: Being Your Best Advocate

Hi everyone, welcome we're just going to give it a couple of seconds for folks who are still joining the session.

All righty. Well, welcome everyone. My name is Asia Gonzalez Anaya. She her hers pronounce I'm the associate director of admissions for diversity and inclusion. I'm also a first generation college graduate and really excited just to be speaking with you all today. One of the things to know is that at McAllister we typically begin our on campus gatherings with what we call a land acknowledgement. And although we are in a virtual space, it's still important that we recognize that McAllister is located in St Paul, MN.

On the occupied Homeland of the Dakota. People as a way of honoring the land and its peoples, both ancestors and descendants, many of whom still make their home here today.

So as we begin our topic of discussion today is really about being your best advocate. And for some folks who might be really well aware what that means and for others may have no idea. And this session I really want to just define advocacy, identify when and how to advocate for yourself, whether that is in your personal practice or through the admissions process, and also explain why it's an essential tool for success. So I will also cover how you can tell.

Advocate for the admissions process and share with you some examples and spaces of advocacy that we have here in math at any point in the time that we were together. Please feel free to go ahead and put your questions that you may have in the chat box on your screen, though they may not show up right away, that's OK, we do. We will see them on our side, and so I will try my best to answer them if I can within the presentation. Otherwise, I will go ahead and answer them during the Q and a portion after the slides I have for you.

All in all, this entire session should last about an hour. Alright, so with that, let's go ahead and just get started.

Will start off by defining a few terms. So for starters, what is advocacy? Well, advocacy is the act or process of supporting a person, cause, proposal, etc. Some examples include backing the social movement or to smaller things like standing up for a friend.

What is an advocate and Africa to someone who supports an or defend another person? Cause or proposal? So in many cases you could be the advocate in a situation, but most commonly while we commonly see advocates as people like lawyers, for example, right?

And Lastly, the reason why we're here today is really what is self advocacy. So advocacy is the ability to speak up for yourself and the things that are important to you. The biggest takeaway should be that advocates seek change, and you can do that for yourself.

So when is it best to advocate right? UM, next step is to realize it. Recognize when you should advocate for yourself. I just wanted knowledge that sometimes it can be scary or awkward to advocate for yourself, but those are usually the times when it's needed. Most right. There are two questions that you can ask yourself. One, is there something I need or want an two? Does this situation not feel right or needs to change its best to address those needs ASAP? Then let them continue to grow and potentially become a bigger problem.

It's easier to advocate for yourself up front than fix the problem leader. Plus it shows you care and in our invested in yourself.

So how do we go about advocating for yourself? To be fair? Advocating for yourself can be challenging, right? But it only gets better with practice. It's like going to the dentist, for example. So if you go to the dentist, you probably don't want to. But then when your appointment is over, you thinking yourself, hey, that wasn't so bad, right? Well, advocating is similar to that. In a sense, the first step is to always take a deep breath and try to relax. Once you relax, identify the problem and possible solutions.

Uh, once you've done that, that is about figuring out where to go or who to ask for help. If you don't know that's OK, start with someone he trusts. Start with a friend or a teacher or someone in your network who you often relies to you for guidance. Once you've identified where to go or who to ask for help, ask for what you need in a direct and respectful manner, right? Sometimes it can be hard 'cause you don't always know or can name what is it you need exactly, but if you have a general sense and are able to explain what it is that that is not working for you.

Right, but not often leads to having a larger conversation that could solely us ultimately get to those needs that you might have an. It may be difficult. People will take you more seriously if you ask when you are calm by then when you scream at them, right? So even if you are frustrated with the things that are going on, it's just important to contain and be calm in your manner and that's about it. Those are the easy steps so.

If you are not completely satisfied with the solution, try again. Remember it only gets easier.

One example or scenario we can work through together is maybe you don't fully understand your financial aid package and there are concerns about not being able to pay. What are some of the things you can do at this time? If you can go ahead and feel free to submit a response to the chat.

As the financial aid office to help you, yeah, that's a great great response. Go to financial aid request For more information, email the college admissions officer. Talk to your counselor. Send an email to the missions counselor. Set up a meeting. All perfect answers. That solution right. Not only can you call your talk to your high school counselor, but talking to your admissions officer is.

One way to get directly to the source of that information, right? So thinking about, can they help you clarify? Can they connect you with someone? The financial aid? Oftentimes our offices are actually connected in the same Department, so we usually work closely with those individuals. So it could be really helpful to have that bridge, but make sure that you come prepared with questions. Explain your situation an established your needs, right?

So why is always talk about advocacy and building these tools important on a college campus right? It doesn't just.

Uh, it's not isolated just to your experience in the admissions process? Well, what does it mean? Once you actually get to that college campus? Well, most apartments and resources are available to address the needs of students, and that's one of the reasons why we ask you so many questions on the application.

About your identity is in your experiences, so that way we can plan programming and connect you with those right resources. So for example at McAllister, the Department of multicultural life hosts identity collectives, which are spaces for identity center discussion support some collective. We offered this past year where things like men of color, collective and black woman of the Diaspora Collective.

The gender and Sexuality Resource Center hosts events like tee time as well as providing allyship training, the campus and the health and Wellness Center plans initiatives to educate the community. Like PR for suicide prevention training as well as programs like pause at Mac, which is a space with certified therapy dogs right? So by knowing who you are and the things that you care about, the needs that you might have in the admissions process that can later translate to some of the resources that you're going to see on the college campus.

But more specifically, why is self advocacy is so critical? Well South Africa see is a valuable learn skill that can be used in the various aspects of your life. So some examples for when you are a college student R1 it's important to be able to express disagreement respectfully, right when you're in class and you want to defend your thought or question. Someone else who without putting others down too.

Uh, work on getting what you need, like coming prepared for advising meetings, they bullet point list or three. Learn how to say no respectfully. So for example, you have a friend who really need your help with planning a none event on campus, but you yourself you're tapped out. You've already done a lot of things, a man. It's OK to say no, but self advocacy easily that you do that right.

Christina your question. Yeah, it's absolutely OK here. Here we're happy to have you join us, so thank you.

Alright, so in the chat box I'm going to go back aside real quick 'cause I don't want you to the answers, but in the chat box, can you all think about and share maybe one or two ways that you might advocate for yourself in the college admissions process?

So thinking about all the things that I might not be required of you, the ways that you are going to.

Navigate the process. What are some of the? What are some of those areas that you might think about that might be good places for you to be an advocate for yourself?

OK, it could be as simple as checking the box is a student of color.

Um, reaching out to your local or regional admissions officer to ask questions absolutely.

Advocating you're a advocate yourself to get approved for financial aid, definitely? Uh, see. User has some great answers and we try to keep up asking about student resources on campus, particularly if you are a minority.

My personal statement. Yes, asking for a letter of recommendation. Yes, I'm explaining why you are a good advocate and what you can offer absolutely. Let's see, ask my my teachers write letters are Akamai behalf email with questions. When confused, definitely sending personal statement.

Let's see, we have a question here.

I'm going to go ahead and answer that question.

I might put mispronounced name and I'm really sorry in advance. Will ya know all answer that question for you when we get to the QA section. OK Lily explaining certain situations in the additional.

Mention section writing a resume and what are personal statements we can get to that in a minute? Alright, all great answers. So absolutely 100% correct. There are many, many places in the applications process that you can start an advocate for yourself. So one of those ways.

Is in terms of just creating your college list right would be really intentional. There are over 2000 colleges in the US which is a lot right and you are tasked with at the age of 16 or 17 to go through and figure out which one is going to be my home for the next four years. And we recognize how hard that can feel. But by starting with your college list you already doing some former self advocacy. So as you're thinking about where you're applying or what it is that you want to experience, here are some of the tips that we have for navigating that right.

Start with your non negotiables non negotiables are things that you can't exist without on that college campus. So whether that is its location, if you are somebody who thrives in winter weather guess what Saint Paul has a lot of snow so it'll be great for you. If you are someone who needs to be an urban city as opposed to a rural setting. Another great option to look at size is also going to be important. Are you somebody who thrives in a larger environment with many many many students in a classroom? Or are you going to benefit more from more personalized interaction?

And smaller class sizes, right? What types of affiliations my basketball have? Whether that's religious, whether that is because it's an HBC. You so historically black college or University. Maybe it's a women's College of Art School, etc. But thinking about those questions of yourself is already a form of that self advocacy. What academic programs are you interested in? So thinking about, if you are interested in, for example, nursing at school does not have a nursing program that might not just be the best place to start, right?

Start to think about how do you cure it. That list to make sure that it includes things that you feel you need to thrive in that environment. And if you don't know where to ask, start by asking your high school counselor to help, right? They've gotten to know you are. Hopefully I've gotten to know you over the past three or four years and they can help you kind of start to figure out and ask you questions to help you get to the root of some of those non negotiables.

Next place that was mentioned quite frequently is a personal statement RSA, so the personal statement or essay is often called either one of those interchangeably.

Is basically your story. It's your narrative in this process. So on the common application, we do ask that all students fill out the personal essay. You have your choice of 6 to 7 topics to choose from, and will ask you about things like tell us a little bit about something that you identify closely with. Or is there a challenge that you have face? And how did you overcome it? Or was there a significant event in your life that is really shaped you write those are the types of questions that are personal statements typically getting out so that we have a better sense of who you are.

Your personality or characteristics, maybe your passion in your interest outside of your resume and your activities list. But just to give us a better sense of who you are most often times I like to think about the personal essay as your voice in the application, right? Not everyone is going to do an interview and we'll get to that in a little bit, but everyone, mostly for the most part, has to do that personal statement. And so this is your chance for your voice to be heard.

So when you're when you're looking at the personal statement, it's important that you choose a topic that centers on your experience, right? Oftentimes we get so caught up in focusing around these specific event or talking about the Idol. Maybe it's your grandparent who, like really did a lot to help you and get you to where you are and we start to learn more about them, but we kind of lose who you are in that process, 'cause you haven't really explained that to us, right? So making sure that whatever topic you choose feel free to introduce us to that grandparent of yours, but that ultimately you center it on yourself.

Right, that's why it's called a personal statement.

You want to speak to the parts of yourself that we might not otherwise see in the application, right? So from the application I will see your activities list. I will see your letters of recommendation. I will see your resume so you don't have to go back and re list biography of who you are starting in kindergarten all the way through to who you are now, but rather maybe focus on an episode or a clip of your life where you talk about maybe identity and culture or the challenges you faced. And notice I underline that and how you overcome them.

Right, what skills have you learned? What lessons have you learned? Things like that.

So In addition to the personal statement, each of the applications typically have what's called an additional information section, which someone named it earlier. The additional information section is a chance for you to have a catch. All right. You can address topics that you did not or could not address in your personal statement. Maybe you want to explain something that we're going to see a little bit later, but you don't know quite where to put it. Got additional information section is really valuable, so one of the things that you could do there is. You could talk about things like.

Maybe you had scheduled to take a test and then it was cancelled or you couldn't attend because I don't know you had appendicitis, which actually did happen to me before a pee test. So it's totally possible.

If you come, you know, have more siblings than what is allowed on the number of spaces that are provided to you on your application. You can talk about that in additional information section. Things like that, but new this year is a COVID-19 and natural disasters essay that's also been introduced by the common app and coalition app.

I'm sure many other colleges may have ways of also capturing this information, but this allows you to not have to use your personal statement. Maybe talk about how colon or other natural disasters, for example flooding or hurricanes may have affected you and your family, but gives you dedicated space to talk about that while still also providing that personal statement so you don't feel like you have an essay. Choose between which one do I write about, right?

So the next we have the letter recommendation, and while you're not writing a letter recommendation, you are certainly choosing who it is that is recommending you. So in order to be your best advocate, you want to choose people who not only can talk about your accomplishments, but also speak to who you are as a person. Write letters of recommendation are really helpful. I don't just want to know how well you wrote your hamlet essay, but I also want to know how you interact in a classroom setting. What is it like when things get a little hard for you? Do you just give up? Do you get frustrated, or do you have power through?

What type of community, um person are you? Are you a leader? Are you really good at supporting individuals in your class? Are you someone who is kind and caring and compassionate things of that sort?

So choosing that recommender is also one way that you could advocate for yourself.

I'm in the admissions interview. It's often the most underutilized portion of the applications process. Not very many of our students will do this. 'cause it is a self selected process. So we are not requiring it by him in any means, but it is available to you, so the admissions interview is your chance to sit down with a mission staff member, usually a counselor or one of our senior interns or interviewers, and that gives you a chance to just have a conversation for that person to kind of get to know you a little bit more. It's not about making or breaking your admissions decision by.

Any means, but really just a chance for us to kind of get a face to the name and to learn more about you and your story right? That's also great place to talk about things that might be on your application that require a little bit more context as well.

So in the admissions interview, you'll advocate yourself by sharing what is important and what we cannot grasp from your application. And you'll also be able to ask any questions that you have, so that's where you can go back to that non negotiables list and say, Hey, you know, I really notice that you had a major in psychology and I want to learn more about that right? Or I notice that you didn't have a name X club, right?

After you start one or what does that process look like, right? So it gives you a chance to kind of dive deeper and start to connect all of those dots.

So at last but not least, um, connecting with the admissions office is probably the biggest thing that you can do. Admissions professionals. We all do this because we want to help you, right? So while we are here, and especially in those age of Covid where we can't meet you one on one, we are certainly available by email by phone. We encourage you to participate in things like on campus events if they're available and it's safe to do so as well as virtual programs just like this, right? So come to an intro to Mac virtual information session.

She went online chat with one of our current students. Things of that sort. But when you're interacting with us, it's also important to represent yourself as best as possible, right? So making sure that you've edited your email before you send it of- and making sure that doesn't look like a text message right? There are still things you want to do, because those are all things that will impress us in the long run, and jealous that you're taking this serious right. Thus showing that your application for yourself.

And then not working with the campus community. So if you are interested in a particular academic program or an apartment and you are interested in learning more about that program, find their email online. Send them an email, someone will get back to you. Usually it's like faculty member could be a student. It could be a staff member and then also ask the talk with current students and alumni. And if you're not sure how how to get ahold of any of those individuals, start with the admissions office. We are often just one connecting point for you to be able to kind of reach out to the broader campus community as well.

All right?

So with that, I'd like to share some other spaces advocacy, so as I mentioned earlier, the admissions process doesn't just help us assess, you know in terms of selecting who will be in the next class of Max students, but it also that process is so expensive so that it can help us build those resources for you. I do want to share some of the.

Spaces of advocacy that we have on this campus, right? Some examples are things like cars. Like I said, Our Department of Multicultural Life, which houses a number of programs from our identity collectives to our gender and Sexuality Resource Center. They host events large scale and small. They bring in dialogue and discussion. Speakers we have our Institute for global citizenship through the Kofi Anon Institute for Global Citizenship, and IDC is really good at bringing both curricular programs also.

Nothing with civic engagement. So if you want to do things off campus and doing some volunteer work, for example, resources wise you know there is the.

Academic Excellence Center that you can go to for peer tutoring and writing support. We have the international student programs office for international students on campus. We have a number of summer.

Pre pre orientations and leadership program. So things like bonerz dollars for our first generation students we have a Mac word bound which is an outdoors adventure education program. Things of that that right? So we build all that programming because we know that that's the needs that our students have rights. All that is really helpful to us. So with that there you have it you hope and I hope that you find this in presentation helpful. Now it's time to turn it over and answer your questions.

Please feel free to keep popping them in the chat if you want some clarification around anything I talked about, I know I want that pretty quickly. Feel free to ask and I would also just love to see your comments, so I'll try to get to as many as I can write.

So first question is, I come from a Latin American country where races were not taken into account. I am a PC, but I don't believe I fit in any of the race options. What should I choose? Or can I skip that question? So certainly you know any of the biographical information is typically required except when it comes to like racial demographics. That is all optional information, but it does help us. So for international students, what I would recommend is emailing us at international@mcallister.edu. We could help you figure out.

What would be the best fit option for you if you would like, alright?

If you are an immigrant, can you still get financial aid? The answer is yes. So with McAllister, all of our admitted students, we do work with to meet 100% demonstrated need. The question will be around what types of applications you need to fill out to qualify for different parts of aid, right? So for our students who are domestic students in the US who have citizenship or abroad that have citizenship.

Um in the US? Then you're going to fill out the FAFSA and CSS profile. If you are a undocumented or documented student or an international student, then you're going to fill out the CSS profile, but either way we will work with you through that process.

Are we going to be mailed the recording? You know, I don't know if they'll be mailed the recording, but it will be posted online by the end of the week. OK, in the same spot where you likely filled out the registration for this event.

Uh, so implicitly mentioned that I am a first Gen student. Or I just thought my parents education information. Great question. So we automatically assess for that by looking at your parents education information. So it's really important that if you don't know who, ask your parents what that might be when filling that out the way that we define 1st Gen to college and McAllister is essentially you have neither of your parents have received a bachelors degree, right? So four year degree, if they received an EA.

That you're still 1st Gen in our eyes, if you have received a degree of Rod then you are not first then the only caveat is if they received a bachelors degree or four year degree within the last five years. So very very recent we would still count you as first Gen right? Great question.

He put those questions in the chat. These are all great questions.

Person, college, student or immigrant. So when I refer to 1st of this presentation, I am specifically talking to 1st generation to college students, right? So those whose parents neither parent has received a bachelors degree or a four year degree. But we also do have a large number of students on campus who are first ended. the US right? So different experience but also one that is important. An is an identity that you hold.

What are things students in the past having confused by that I should anticipate? That's a wonderful question. So I think that it's really important to pay attention to that to deadlines, right? There are a lot of words that we use in terminology that we have an admissions that feels very confusing and sounds very much the same. So, for example, we have an early decision deadline and we have an early action deadline. The while they sound very similar and they both mean you apply early, they function in two very different ways.

So early decision.

Which we have two rounds of is essentially a binding commitment. When you apply to us, you're applying only to us and you're telling us that I want to be at McAllister and I'm going to make it happen, right? Uhm, so when you apply your effectively committing a front and even signed an agreement letting us know that if you are applying early action, you still reserve the right to say no all the way up until May 1st of next year, right? So you get your decision earlier, but at the same time you might be looking at other schools and weighing your options.

Which is, you know, either one is OK and they both have their benefits. I think it's really a personal decision on that, and so it's like I said, really just important to pay attention to deadlines and to also look at the terminology. And if you're not sure what the terminology means, just ask.

Are there any advantages or disadvantages to being the first generation student?

I mean philosophically there are a lot of advantages. I think to being a first generation student, but I think you're asking probably specifically to the admissions process, right to the admissions process.

I don't wanna say it doesn't matter 'cause it does very much. Very much matters, but we don't miss. I take into account registration status is part of making a decision. We do note it because it is important to the context in which we were your application, right? We want to make sure that we have a better understanding of who you are. Holistic Lee, as we make our decisions and so that's where it's going to come into into account.

In terms of philosophically, I think being a first generation to college student is a beautiful thing. I myself was one you often come and you help us make positive change in our communities, right? You help us see areas where we can grow as institutions and so that's a really beautiful identity. The whole on a college campus.

Should you express your gender identity in an application would harm my chances of being accepted not necessarily know, so gender identity we're going to ask you both, so will ask you for.

Is your sex assigned at birth right? So what is an legal documentation? And then we will give you an option of if you want to share your gender identity, which may or may not be similar or the same as your sex assigned at birth, and so that isn't that optional. Part is up to you, but the.

Second kind of birth is required because we legally need that documentation.

So if our siblings went to college and have a degree, we are not for Shannon Correct? You still aren't yes. So the idea behind first gender colleges really thinking about the ways that you might benefit from parents who have had a college education right. Even if your siblings went off to college. So for example, I am one of five an I'm the oldest so I was the first one to go to college. My younger siblings have all gone to college sense but we are all considered first generation because neither of our parents had college degrees. It's kind of help us with that process or for us to really have an understanding of the structure.

Right and the system is in place and so you would still be considered 1st and even with with your siblings having a college degree. The question.

Can I talk a little bit more about the admissions interview? Yes, of course. So interviews are done a little differently at every institution, so you might come across different formats or ways that we do them. Some schools will be specifically with people who work there, so in admissions most likely, right? But like I said, McAllister, we also employ senior interns to do interviews as well as interviewers.

Corporate paraprofessionals outside of that at some other institutions they may have alumni interviewers, so people in your area, right? So if you are in Los Angeles, CA and you.

I wanna connect with doing interview. They match up with an alumni who is also living currently in Los Angeles.

But they mentioned in our view, and the way that we like to do them here is that we do have some questions prepared right to help kind of start the conversation off. But really we want to make it a conversation. So it's not really meant like I said to be any.

Barrier to your admissions's not meant to come to qualify you for admissions by any means. It just to give us the chance to contextualize your your applicational just a little bit further, OK?

Does being from an underrepresented country benefit my application in anyway? That's a great question and probably one that I would actually ask of our international admissions office so officer so if you would like to email international.admissions@mcallister.edu and I will pop that email in the chat shortly, I'll look it up to give it to you.

But we do take note about information. So yeah, it is certainly something that we keep an eye on. I don't know that I would say that it necessary benefits your application anyway, but it's certainly something that we that we look at that we see and then we recognize.

So I said it in the US my whole life, but I'm still an immigrant. I still travel to other places to study when I get into college. That will depend a little bit. So if you are looking at domestic travel one, it will start off with what you're.

Visa status is is right, so a certain visa status is you can't leave the country, but we do offer what we call. So we call our program on campus, study away and not study abroad because we actually have a large number of students that don't just go internationally to do a study away program but will attend another college and do a study away program within the United States and so that opportunity does allow and expand for folks who may have more restrictions around the visa side to be able to travel more locally.

In that sense.

What is the main difference between council recommendation and teacher recommendations? Great question. So counselor recommendations are coming from your high school counselor. So probably the person who has either helped you with the college and Career Center or is the person who has been helping you figure out your classes for the past four years, right? The person that you go to for guidance your guidance counselor.

Most Times Council recommendations, but it's really up to the student, so on. They'll all fill out some type of form because they'll send us your transcript. But we often ask that you still ask them to give us a actual recommendation letter, right? Teacher recommendations on the other hand, are from your specific teachers in your specific classes, so.

What we're looking for there is someone from core classes, so places like English, math, science, social science.

So a second language, etc. Uhm, not necessarily. Your, you know, soccer coach, uh, maybe your soccer coaches like your second or third one that comes in. But thinking about is that in Leicester soccer coaches or math teacher then that would count, but we want to see those academic pieces because again, like like I said, We're looking not only at their academic.

Accomplishments in the letters of rec. But we also just want to see how well you've engaged in a classroom setting, right? We are a small school are average class size is 16 students, so it's really important to us that we have an understanding of what it's going to be like for you in that setting in that space.

If one of my parents went to college, has had the USB the other parent did not go to college at all, but I still be considered 1st Gen. So if they went to college outside of the USA and received a degree, then no, you would not be considered first. Then again, the equation is neither parent has received a degree, weather that is in the US or outside of the USS within the past longer than the past five years. That's the capital.

How does the process change if I receive an offer from athletics coach? So you still have to go through the whole process admissions. We are 83 institution we you know, work closely closely with our partners over athletics. We help attend event. I know they're having a prospect evening today that I will be at things like that, but it doesn't necessarily change your processes applying by any means. You're still going to have the same requirements, the same deadlines, the same financial aid, application requirements, etc.

They all need to follow OK.

These are all wonderful questions, all kibum coming.

Um?

So Christina to your question, my parents went to University of Romania or home countries. They don't really provide any helps my application to US colleges. I'm not considered 1st Gen correct or I can ask my Schmitt so you are not considered first generation to college. However, we also recognize that there is a.

Sometimes in your parents receive degrees outside of the OS. It does shift a little bit what you know, right? So we do recognize that there is that kind of in between space around what you know when it comes to the USS framework. So we are cognizant of that. But you wouldn't be considered on paper as first generation to college.

Are you required to attend admissions interviews in order to get accepted at McAllister? No, we do not require the interview as part of the admissions process. It is completely optional and in fact we leave it to you to decide whether or not whether or not you're going to take us up on.

Um, for other schools it will be important to look at that, though, because some schools do require it. Emily notify you some of them will require it before you apply. Some will require, after you submit the application, so I may require it for a specific programs. For example, if you're applying for dance or studio art may have to audition or send an upfront folio with McAllister. We do. We do accept purple layers and audition tapes, right? But it's not a requirement because we don't admit directly by major here.

I'm so we actually do not need to see your portfolio in order to give you to offer you admission, but it is always nice. We always like to see your work.

Do you have any advice when using the additional information section of the common app? Yes, my biggest piece of advice is to really think critically about what are the things that we, as emissions as an admissions committee, need to know to make sure that we have all the puzzle pieces in place in making that decision, right? So if you feel like you've left something out, that's what you need to put in the admissions information section, or do the admissions interview for.

Um so, for example, uh, you know something I put in mine. I'll share from my perspective. So when I was a junior the morning of my APUS history exam, I had appendicitis, right?

Obviously I missed my exam and when I retook it, I was still not feeling well. A week later and I didn't do so well and so I had to write that somewhere, right? 'cause they're going to see the difference in that grade versus some of the other test scores, and they have received and so I put that in my application to say, hey, you should be aware that this happened for me, right? Maybe there's something in your family that we need to be aware of, right? Maybe just doesn't things don't look like the way that you won't read them the way that they actually are, and so you want to make sure that that information is there. I hope that makes sense.

If you do not have a close relationship with your counselor, how will the letter recommendation counselors work? So we see a number of things and we don't hold that to your fault. OK, we recognize that some counselors have just really large caseloads. It may not be able to get to know you want to individual level. The best thing that you can do is ask them what they might need to be able to write a letter recommendation for you. Often times they will tell us about what that relationship looks like and like I said, We don't hold that against you.

Are there any things that you don't recommend we do while we advocate for ourselves?

So talk a lot about the ways that you can advocate for yourself. That's a awesome question. I never thought to include that in here.

I don't think there's any right way to advocate for yourself, right? There are many different ways that you could do that. There's management tools that you can do that different spaces, right? You don't have to do all of them right. Doing all of them doesn't equal. I've self advocated just by doing one of those. You've done that for yourself, and I hope you'll do many, but I'll leave that up to you.

Uhm, I think one of the things is just to be.

Um?

Now I have to think and come back to that question, uhm?

I think this be mindful like I said, especially when it comes to interacting with admissions. Office is often times I don't say often times every once while I'll get an email, for example, that looks like a text message and the name isn't on there or there's a lot of misspellings. I can't really understand what the question is or why the persons emailing me and so just being mindful that just by reaching out isn't always just enough. You want to make sure, like I said earlier, that you want to identify your needs.

Explain your situation and know what you're asking for. Or if you don't know what you're asking for, maybe say that say I'm not sure exactly what I'm asking for, but this is what I'm going through. How do I start right?

Are the different things to think about.

Great question Maria.

Uh, does McAllister tractor to interest. We do track demonstrated interest, but I wouldn't say that we engage with it.

Um, in a way that impacts admissions decisions, right? So we do like to see how much you've interacted with us attending this workshop. For example, I may be like oh, hey G. Attending this session, I love that session. Not awesome, um, but I'm not going to necessarily say they haven't done anything, and therefore there, out, that's not what we're trying to do. It just gives a sense of what you're interested in, what you're still learning more about for the most part, and also gives us a way to kind of approach you and talk to you about things.

Right?

Good questions, yeah.

Uh Isabelle, when asking about sexuality and any other additional information about your culture and identity, what are they looking for so?

Uh, with gender identity I think is the question you're asking about, which is different from sexuality, right? I don't need an essay, know your sexual or affectionate preferences, but if you're an entity doesn't match up with what's on your application, we want to be able to honor that. So if you are comfortable sharing that with us, please do. If you're not, that's OK. We welcome that whenever you are.

In terms of culture and identity, I think that it's helpful for us again to have just that framework on the lens of what?

How is this person navigated there four years of high school, right? Uhm, what has come with that? So if for example, your faith is super important to you and that has been a guiding force and how you've chosen which organizations you've worked with through community service or the time that you spent with your church, and helping out with their day care program, things like that, that's important to know if your culture and maybe you are, you know, we have a lot of locally in the Twin Cities. You have a lot of Somali among students, right? So that.

That culture is really important to you. Talk to us about it again. It's just the personal statement that piece of your application that tells us outside of who you are academically, right, and so these are the things that you're going to continue to pursue. Continue to be passionate about, want to build relationships with. That's what we want to know.

All right, uhm? So we did discuss this one already, but I'll quickly touch back on this one. So what should I discuss in the additional information section again, just anything that you feel has been left out. So if you're reviewing your application, which you should all do the very end. Review everything in your application and you like something's missing. They should probably know this when they look at this. So for example, there is a great fluctuation question on the application. Maybe you had a rough time in precalculus right? At? That's real.

Um, tell us about it, tell us what happened, tell us why tells what you're doing. What have you learn? Uh, maybe now you're taking calculus and you're like I know I'm gonna I'm gonna get this I'm gonna be one with math kind of a thing that's what you needed to discuss. That additional information is actually just anything that provides that context has needed so that when I look at your letters of recommendation or I look at your transcript or a look at your biographical information. But I know what I'm supposed to be looking at.

Does emailing admissions officers help? How should I interact with them? Yes, I know I put a lot of emphasis on you reaching out to us. Well, we also reach out to you a lot of time sleeping for many of you have probably been emailing you this summer.

You may have seen the email from me from Veronica or Micaiah, where my diversity Inclusion Fellows, uhm, you know, you might have seen an email from Jaycor Niara or Ben or Ross or Sarah.

A number of us are emailing you or contact you by phone if you can just respond back even if you have no questions, just technology and say Hey, I'm interested. Thank you for the info. That's all you really have to do, so I leave it up to you in terms of how you interact with us, right? If you're not comfortable on the phone.

Um, email us if you want to reach out to your counselor by now. It's OK if they text. If you text them, ask us that question right. We all have different preferences around that and things of that sort, and so I leave it up to you and how you have left. Interact with us and know that it's not just up to you that we are also doing outreach to talk to you as well, so if you can just pick up the phone.

Are area codes are 651, so if you see a 651 number is probably us, and if you're not, Mary's probably us. OK, great question.

Um, is there a format for a good recommendation letter, so I believe.

I might have to look us up, but I believe earlier today we actually had a session on.

Um, the letters of recommendation. And So what I would recommend is if you weren't able to attend that session, I'm just looking it up now.

1 second please.

If you weren't able to attend that session, um, then there will be a recording of it by the end of the week, so just go back to that recording, because that is specific to the overall.

Sure, and what we're looking for in a lot of and a lot of recommendation that you can help with your counselor to make sure that is what it is that needs to be right.

So let me just double check on when that session was little moment I'm so sorry.

Yep, it was earlier today at three. Uhm. So like I said, the recording for the fashion will be available later this week. OK on our website.

Alright, let's see what results are great levels. Do you accept, for instance, a levels so mercy? I would recommend that you contact Sarah Schmidt, our international missions counselor regarding those questions because it is a little nuances. She can certainly help you out with answering that question, OK?

And what I'll do is I'll go through and put in the chat.

Or meet the staff.

If you are curious to know who you are, missions counselor is who usually connecting with where you can ask questions directly to. This is the person who was assigned to help you.

OK, um so this is the link on our website. Or you can actually find out who your person is. The way that counselors at McAllister are signs are by where you go to school. So by geographical location essentially I work with students in the Minneapolis side of the Twin Cities as well. The western side of Twin Cities.

Sarah works in folks in the Saint Paul side, the Twin Cities JS works more than the northern side of the Twin Cities, and Ben works with southern side. Might be opposite. I might be forgetting that. I also work with suits in the South, so if you're from Virginia, Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas, Mississippi.

A Georgia right? Uhm, I will be the person assigned to you, so this is also a great place to kind of figure out who is that person assigned to you by where you go to school. If you are outside of the US, even if you are a domestic student. So if you have USS and ship but you go to school abroad then you'll still be working with Sarah Schmidt.

Great questions.

Um?

Is there a word limit for the recommendation? No, there's not a word limit for the recommendation letter. We do like them to be a bit more concise, so maybe not 5 pages because we do read all of it and you are required to have two letters or recommendation plus their counselor rec. So we have a lot of reading to do in a very short amount of time with a number of applications we receive. But go ahead and watch that video that will be posted later on the recommendation piece to learn more.

Would you recommend getting our general education at Community College and transferring so with McAllister? We actually don't take as many transfer students is we do first year students, right? So if you are in a position to apply now, I would say just go ahead and apply. Now if you were admitted, you still have options, right? You can decide if you want to take some time and do a gap year. You can now you defer your admission. You can tell us no and then come back to the and revisit the possibility later.

But if you are in a position to apply now, I would just say go ahead and apply now, because like I said, we definitely except way more furniture students, only a handful transfer students each year.

Word limit on your personal statement. Yes, there is a word limit on your personal statement. So with common app you have 650 words in that space. When it comes to the Cove, it and other natural disasters question, I believe it's only 250 to 300 words. McAllister also has a supplemental application piece.

And on that application question it is limited to I believe 250 words, so that one is a bit more specific to us. So the personal statement is your story, who you are, what you want to tell us about yourself. The short answer essay for us specifically just talk a little bit about your interest in attending school within the Twin Cities in the options that that you would like to take advantage of or how you made your way to finding us. Good question, Ashley.

Um, are there any questions that we can answer that can?

Help us to make our personal statement more personal. Just in case you don't know where to start, uhm.

So I think there are a lot of brainstorming tools and we actually did a personal statement session. I can send you all the link to that now.

One moment it's gotta look that up for the recording, but we actually did a writing your personal statement work.

Shop already this summer and the recording is available online, so I'm going to just link to the broader sessions here. If you scroll all the way to the bottom past the ones that are asking to register now you will see all the recordings for that we've already hosted, so we've had one for first generation students. We've had one for you. Know what is a liberal arts college, since that's often a question that we receive talking about.

You know how do you find your sense of belonging in a college community and through the admissions process? We've had sessions on decoding, so thinking about the terminology that gets used, one of the step by step things that you need to go through to understand the college search process, and we have one that specific to US students and one for international students.

You know, in writing your college essay, so I encourage you to take advantage of those resources 'cause they're all recorded in all online for you, alright?

Uhm, you go to an Ivy School. Therefore it is harder to know how I compared to listen to usweb GPS while we IB students don't have GPS, that is correct. We know you don't have GPS. That's actually why we do not publish a GPA on our website because there are so many systems even in the US right there, most most schools are on a 4.0 scale. We have some schools that are narrative and don't actually offer great. They have transcripts that are verbal written words. We have things that are on a 6.0 scale right, 12.0 scales and 14.14 scales. So we.

What are some things that we are working with them so we actually don't have a GPA published. That's like an average for that reason. So we will look at that within the context of your school, what you, how, your school grades, and what that means within your own situation. So we are very much aware of IB. We do that. We do work with idea lots particularly internationally, but also within the USA. So we definitely understand what you're speaking to their daddy.

Alright, we about 8 minutes left so if you have any final questions go ahead and pop them in the chat. Um. What is the most significant difference between our personal statement in the essays of the common app? So there one in the same? There are actually not anything different. They might just be titled slightly differently. The common app essays are about getting to that there is one that is meant to be more vague, so that if you maybe you already wrote a personal statement for your English class and they had to do that there. Or maybe you had.

Another application that you were using and applying to, for example coalition app. Or maybe you're applying to a state school or some like that, and you've already dropped in your personal statement. That's quite alright. We don't necessarily need you to make a whole new personal statement, just maybe take out the other schools name if you mention it.

Uhm, but go ahead and um, think about which wich sandwich uh topic. Maybe makes the most sense in matching up to what you're talking about because we want to make sure that right, that you're answering the prompt, but also noting that there is one that is a bit more open ended just to give you more leeway with what you are talking about. OK, great question pieces.

Alrighty, any others out there got about 7 more minutes?

All wonderful question job.

All righty, well there are no more questions. I will give you back the gift of time I really do appreciate you all spending an hour with me this afternoon. I know you are all in the zoom, fatigue and that Videoing is a lot. But I do appreciate your time, your energy in your space.

So thank you, thank you for being here. Um, once again I'm gonna pop in the wins workshop Wednesday. We have a few more coming up, so those are of interest to you or the recording there. Also available online, so make sure that you check those out, especially for topics like writing a college essay, decoding the college search process, being the first, navigating. The college process is a first generation scholar finding your sense of belonging. What is a liberal arts college and soon to come is the getting your letter recommendation.

As well as the session here being your best advocate so those will be up soon. Then I also want to once again just put in the chat are meet the stuff so you know exactly who you can reach out to and if you're not sure I always feel free to reach out to me. I'm also available to help you even if you aren't in my my area. I'm happy to answer questions alright yall. Thank you so much and enjoy the rest your day, bye.