Show Notes
Today’s episode is part two of our series, Inside the Application. Ethan is joined by Cassidy, a current high school senior who is working on her college applications for the Fall 2025 term. Ethan and Cassidy will be walking step-by-step through the college application process as it unfolds this school year. In episode 2, they get into:
How is Cassidy’s personal statement coming along?
What does Cassidy want colleges to know about her?
How is Cassidy approaching her supplemental essays?
What is Cassidy looking for in a college and how did she develop her list?
And more
Stay tuned for future episodes where Ethan and Cassidy continue the conversation! This series is a bit different in that, normally, we share episodes-in-a-series consecutively. For these, we’re releasing them pretty much as we record them, so you’ll notice them interspersed among other topics we’ll be covering. We’ll continue to check in with Cassidy to see how things are going, and you’ll find out how it turned out a few months from now.
Cassidy is a current high school student going through the college application process. She lives in the Bay Area, loves ballet, knows a lot about Biology, and identifies as a “yapper”—more on that in our conversation.
We hope you enjoy!
Play-by-Play
1:36 – What has Cassidy been working on since last episode?
3:28 – Cassidy reads draft two of her personal statement
7:51 – Cassidy shares her thoughts on her draft
9:18 – Ethan gives feedback and shares suggestions for the next draft
12:57 – Ethan reviews Cassidy’s “Everything I Want Colleges to Know About Me” list
21:38 – Ethan reviews Cassidy’s CommonApp Activities List and Additional Info sections
26:09 – What is Cassidy looking for in a college and how did she develop her list?
25:00 – Ethan reads the supplemental prompts from Cassidy’s college list tracker
35:56 – What is a “super topic” and how might it help Cassidy?
50:50 – What is the Roles and Identities exercise?
58:55 – What are Cassidy’s next steps in her drafting process?
Resources
The “Everything I Want Colleges to Know About Me” List: A Brainstorm Exercise
8 First Choices: An Expert’s Strategies for Getting into College by Joyce Slayton Mitchell
How to Combine Your College Essay Prompts (To Save 20+ Writing Hours)
Show transcript
Ethan Sawyer 0:00
Cassie, Hi friends, and welcome back to the podcast. So this is episode two in my series with Cassidy. Cassidy is a student at a high school in California right now. She's working on her essays and applications this year, and she's been gracious enough to let me record our sessions. I'm basically walking through the whole process with her. We started in our last episode talking about her personal statement, how she came up with the ideas, why she settled on the topic that she settled on. I gave her some notes for revision, and in today's episode, we're going to look at how the personal statement is coming along. We read through it, I give her some notes, and then we talk big picture about her application more broadly, what are the things that she wants colleges to know about her? Because there's much more to the college application process than just your personal statement. And we talk about her supplemental essays, we talk about her activities list, we get into her Additional Information section. Then we even talk a little bit about her college list and what she's looking for in the college finally, we talked about something called a super topic, which is basically an essay that you can write that's gonna work for multiple different prompts. It's a technique I love to use. And we talked actually through two different super essay possibilities she's gonna work on those. I gave her some action items and center off, and we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1 1:29
Hi, Cassidy, how's it going? Welcome back to the podcast. Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be back so we've
Ethan Sawyer 1:36
it's been a few weeks since we talked. I'm curious, what are some of the things you've been working on since we last spoke,
Cassidy 1:41
Oh, lots of new stuff. So I have been revising my personal statement. I drafted an activities list and an additional info section. I formally put all of my colleges into my essay tracker, and I started working on one of my supplemental essays, the Stanford roommate essay, beautiful.
Ethan Sawyer 2:00
All right, well, let's jump in. Let's read it. And then after, I'd love to just ask you some questions about it and maybe give you some some thoughts, some ideas. Okay, and by the way, this is the first time I'm reading it, so I save reading it live to right now. But before I jump in, last time you read it, do you are you done? To read it again? Or would you like me to Yeah,
Cassidy 2:20
yeah, I can totally read it again. All right, go for it. Okay, circular, black eyes, square head, with rounded edges, disproportionately small body. No, this isn't an otherworldly species or me for that matter. These are my childhood, childhood obsessions, tiny figurines that captured my heart from a young age, Funko Pops rather than rocks or seashells, I fell in love with collecting pop culture mini figures. Yet it is not just the characteristic Japanese chibi style of the Pops that endears me to them, but also the shards of myself that I glimpse in their reflections, fluffy white ears, red vest and a tiny golden pocket watch the size of my pinky finger, my white rabbit pop. He mirrors my ability to take an entropic situation and learn how to thrive in it. At 12 years old, my dad died suddenly, uprooting the foundations of my life and drastically reshaping our family dynamics. I learned to adapt to having only one parent, from carpooling more often to surrendering my mom's attention to my younger brother, though tragic, it taught me how to adapt confronting challenges to me means reshaping my mindset to adapt to the situation, rather than trying to force such as the situation to fit my expectations. MJ, from Marvel's Spider Man franchise, may not be the picture of happiness, but her dry humor and ability to lighten tense situations echoes my love for laughter, whether it's bridging the gap between 17 and seven years old at ballet or softening my family sorrow, I've learned that laughter is a powerful force. Now I constantly utilize it to build relationships with others, including volunteering at the hospital. While I can't perform a joint replacement surgery, I can support patients emotional health by stopping by their rooms to chat after my hospital task list duties are done, cracking jokes at their bedside. I see how laughter allows others to see me as someone they can connect with a faint reminder of their granddaughter or friend or child, and more than just the girl restocking the gloves, Bell, saffron dress builds out mid spin, her character, reminding me of the power of empathy I am as Gen Z has coined the term a yapper, meaning that I have a tendency to overshare. Never ask me what my favorite book is, because I'll go through my top 10 recent reads in each genre, including a procon list for each one before remembering the actual question. However, the death of my dad revealed to me the importance of listening, of empathizing with someone simply by remaining quiet. I see it at House of grace, hearing the stories of addicted women seeking liberation and responding with silent recognition, discerning the gratitude in women's voices when. Grasp that they're not alone. It's clear to me that a listening ear speaks to the heart more than a rambling mouth ever could. Tail swishing back of who's it's and what's at hand. Ariel reflects my curiosity, whether I'm holding avid study hall discussions with my AP Bio teacher about riff lip or restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis or researching the effects of long er wait times on the progression of traumatic brain injuries. I am driven by an insatiable craving, insatiable craving for knowledge. This has, in turn, allowed me to help others succeed, whether that means leading monthly AP Bio study groups or informally tutoring my friend in I am too posed in a warrior stance. Mulan guards all of my red books. She reminds me that there is strength and vulnerability, something especially manifests in my identity as a Christian at school, I can find myself feeling insecure about being in the minority as a person of faith, my desire for belonging warring with my authenticity as I begin exposing my raw self and opening up about my beliefs to people I once feared would cast me out my insecurities of being mislabeled, seemed to shrink in the midst of their growing understanding of who I really am. Long ago, these figurines captured my heart. Now they live in it as society demands rocks or seashells. I'll continually fight to be a Funko Pop, leading by example and thriving in my singularity. I aspire to be to others. What Funko Pops are to me, square head notwithstanding, of course.
Ethan Sawyer 6:35
Okay. What do you think as you read this, as you hear this in your own words, what do you Yeah, share your thoughts.
Cassidy 6:43
I feel like I really like how my voice is coming through. I feel like there are moments of vulnerability and seriousness, but also moments of humor that show that I I'm not taking myself too seriously here. Yeah,
Ethan Sawyer 6:56
yeah. Now I'm gonna ask you to be objective about this. What do you feel like you learn about this student through their essay. So imagine that you're someone else reading this, and you can speak about yourself in the first person or
Cassidy 7:07
the third person. Okay, I feel like this person has gone through a lot in life, like she's she's had a lot of experiences in many different aspects, and has collected and kind of organized those experiences into lessons that she's learned. I feel like her family is a is a big deal to her, and then I've also learned that she likes to have fun, but she's also a little nerdy, yeah,
Ethan Sawyer 7:36
yeah. I learned those things too. What questions do you have, or areas where you think it could potentially be improved. I think
Cassidy 7:43
if I were reading it, I would be wondering when she's talking about vulnerability, like, how did she get from being insecure about talking about her faith to suddenly opening up and discovering how to talk about it? So I feel like that could be elaborated on. I think I'd also maybe be wondering, why is it that she's so interested in the sciences, like, what got her into that? What interests her about it?
Ethan Sawyer 8:10
Oh, love this. You're you should do this. You're good at this. So I my take on this. I love your voice in this essay. I love it's so and I'm just getting to know you, but I feel like, I think I maybe said this last time, it feels like very you, and I make up that if other people were at it, and they would be like, Oh, they would recognize that this is Cassidy's essay, you know, this is like, you know, there's like, a there's enough specificity and detail in it that it feels it's hard to mistake, it would be hard to mistake this for your friend, or, you know, somebody else, and not just because of the Funko Pop dolls. There's so many specific details in here that connect to things that I can tell that are important to you. Yes, I'm just guessing some of the things you said to the vulnerability, and not just the vulnerability. Like, I've been through hard stuff, but like, I've what I get from this, like, I've been through hard stuff, and I've metabolized some of this stuff and processed and so I see, like, an emotional talent intelligence in you and in this that's coming through in this writing. I love the humor that you're bringing to this. I really feel that, like you're not trying to, like, prove yourself, or be like, Look at my grades, or look at all this like, sure, you even extracurricular activities, but it's in the context of laughter and the connective power of that in your life. I love the way that you've taken these quote, unquote, Kid things and elevated them through, you know, both like, almost like you're doing critical thinking, but like, there's like, these wisdoms, these little moments of wisdom and like insights. And there's this, you've brought the geeky language, which I talked about last time. You know, a couple of things that we talked about are, like, colleges are looking for intellectual curiosity. And this little bit about RF, LP, you know, restriction, fragment, length polymorphism. Yeah, and then thinking about, you know, the effects of long er wait times and the progression of traumatic brain injuries both shows this quality of, like, wanting to serve others and also signals, hey, that's maybe something that I might want to go into in the future. So I think it's doing double duty there, which is, like, really sweet, super tiny note. When you say I am two, they might know what I am too is, but you might just spell that out. I think you're talking about integrated math there. Yeah, yeah, okay, cool, yeah. You might just like, mention, just spell that out. That's a really tiny note. The and I'm so my notes are going to be light. And what I might do after this, just to spare folks all the details, is like, just give you a couple, you know, notes and specifics after, after we record the podcast. So one paragraph here at the end, when you talk about vulnerability, I guess the main thing I would say for this paragraph, because one of the things you asked me before we started recording is, should I just cut this paragraph because you're over the word limit? You're only like 50 words over the word limit. So and with just 50 words, I think you can do some trimming elsewhere to get down that 50 words. But I think here, the question I would ask is, Can you reveal something new about yourself, and if you're kind of in the same genre of like, I want to bring vulnerability, I would go, Okay, well, what new aspect of vulnerability you mentioned? For example, authenticity. What aspect of authenticity could you bring that's going to give something that, for example, your second paragraph isn't giving, which is also a vulnerable paragraph. So just something to think about. And what I'd like to do in terms of thinking about, Okay, first of all, I think you could keep talking about your faith in this paragraph, because I think that colleges that have supplemental essays that do not ask about your faith, I think this is still a powerful, you know, a big part, important part of you. So I think it could be cool to bring it in. But as you if we brainstorm, okay, what are some other pieces of yourself that you could bring in? I'd love to zoom back to an exercise that you did on the course a couple weeks ago, which was like, everything I want college is to know about me. So one of the things, Alex, let me just, let me just kind of read through some of those things that you had on that Doc, so that folks can get a sense of what are some of the things that you wanted to bring through. And as we go, I want to sort of name some of the things that I feel like are already coming through in your application, and some of the things that you know could potentially, in other words, other potentials for this paragraph, if you were to switch it out. So you wrote down the top 10 things you want colleges to know about you. And by the way, for folks listening, you can find this can find this exercise linked in the show notes. So you say, first, you're a huge family oriented person, and that's something that I think is coming through, you know, is the hugeness coming through. Maybe there was a piece that you cut from the earlier draft about, you know, laughing with your brother, then you switched it out for the hospital paragraph or the hospital details. So it could be, just as a side note, that you bring back, because you could do a series of examples of how laughter has manifested in your life, and it could be that you bring in that family oriented side of yourself back just a little bit. And then it could be that, just as an idea, that you still use that paragraph to show your hospital volunteering work and the power of laughter in particular, but maybe after you've listed a couple of those other details, because I found those to be really charming, I think you know the details I'm talking about. Yeah, okay, great ballet. You love ballet, not just for the art of it, but also for the community that it builds. That's the second thing you want colleges to know about you. I think they're going to be some great opportunities in both the Activities List, which we'll talk about in a few minutes, and the supplemental essays to bring in ballet. So, you know, the fact that that's not like a huge feature of the personal statement, I think, is fine. One of the things you talk about is your adaptability. I'm a very adaptable person, and I see that to some extent in this essay, where you are able to sort of, you know, draw lessons from different experiences, and I can see, sort of like, your mental adaptability some of the examples that you give when you were doing the exercises that you had to self study the last couple units of AP, bio, like, you know, those kind of details I think could come through in more pronounced ways, potentially in your supplemental essays. So I'm going to just say, rather than be like, Hey, you definitely need to bring adaptability into your other into your personal statement. More. I'm going to say, I'm going to just highlight this in bold and say this could be something that you could bring more into your supplements, which we'll talk about in a bit. You talk about really trying. This is the fourth thing you want colleges to know. You really try to learn from experiences you've had as a participant in activity, as a follower. And I think that the examples you give in terms of like working at the local hospital, I think that this, this is something you know in terms of your ability to learn from experiences, could be something that you put in the activities list, or the supplemental essays you also mentioned before we got on that in your Additional Information section, which we'll talk about as well in a minute that You're interested in potentially talking about some of your research. So I think this notion of, like learning from experiences is something that could come through even more clearly. You note, I'm interested in pursuing a career in the medical field. You know, this could be something that you mentioned you. It's certainly like, if you, if I were to read that on your, you know, in somewhere in your application, I wouldn't be so. Prize because you've mentioned it at least twice in the personal statement. But it could be that you, if you wanted to, towards the end to the last two paragraphs of the essay, that you could discuss more if you wanted to, about how that your interest in the medical field, you don't have to. But I do like it sometimes when a student is like, here's the path that I think I'm on depending on Well, let me, let me ask you this, out of, out of one to 10, how certain do you feel about the medical field, that that's an area that you want to pursue?
Cassidy 15:27
I'd say, like, eight where, like, I'm really certain that I want to pursue an undergrad, but maybe not, not fully, fully committed, where I want to go into, like, a bsmd program, great
Ethan Sawyer 15:39
if you're that certain about it, like, so this is a question that I'll sometimes ask students, like, How sure are you if you're like, above, like, seven out of 10 or above, then I think it's not necessarily a bad idea to mention it, because I think that it can be orienting for the reader to be like, Ah, cool. This is where the student's headed, and it, you know, can show directionality. Now, side note, do I think that it's fine to apply undecided and not leave it on there. Yes. Also totally cool in, you know, it sort of depends on the school, but given that you're that certain about it, and given that you've kind of already mentioned it, it could be something that you mentioned at or near the end of the personal statement. Let's see. You used to be scared of making phone calls, you know, but then working at House of grace, sort of like, that's that's that's become something that you had, that you overcame. And then I love this insight you say you sometimes you can make a greater impact on someone by listening to them instead of talking, which is beautiful. And I think actually came into your personal statement in a really lovely way. It's the power of listening. I love reading is something that you mentioned now that's not something that's coming through just yet in your personal statement. So I'm going to flag. This is another possible thing that I would love to in the spirit of bringing that intellectual curiosity in your application. I'd love to see that come through somewhere in your supplements. Potentially, I participate in all my friends clubs at school. I love that. It's like, you know, a way of bonding for you. And I think that you know the fact that it's your friends clubs you don't, doesn't necessarily have to come through. But I think that it's a fun detail. It's just nice knowing that. And I think that and I think that your participation in clubs is going to come through in your activities. Lists, you mentioned nine, you're a Korean American, and that 10, you're a huge fan of finding efficient ways to study. So I'm going to just bold both of these, Korean American identity, and then huge fan of finding efficient ways to study as other possible things that I just want to put on the board. And as we're thinking about supplemental essays, other things that could come through somewhere in your application. But when it comes to thinking about this last paragraph right now, in terms of so like option one is just sort of keep with what you've got, which is an essay or a paragraph that's on vulnerability, talks about your faith a little bit and as you've said, sort of talking a little bit more about what that journey was like for you and how you went from, I'll just say who you were, let's say two or three years ago, to who you are now. And I'm kind of not giving a specific note about this, because I sense that you might just, with some thought, be able to come up with something that would clarify what that journey has meant to you and what you've taken away from that. So with students who are good writers like you are, I'm actually going to not give you a note and be like, think of it more like this. I'm just going to say, Yeah, you're impulsed to maybe do something different here. I want to just encourage you to follow that and see what else could you come up with. So the note I'm literally putting on your Google Doc is what else here, and I just want you to come back with something else, and let's see where it goes. And then the your other note to yourself, I want to follow your lead there too, and say, in terms of your interest in science, I'd love to know a little bit more. You mentioned your insatiable craving for knowledge. And then what you say after that is, it's in turn, allowed me to help others succeed. You know, leading monthly AP Bio study groups or informally treating my friend. That's cool. I think you've got a good number of examples of helping others here now. And so while that could work, and you could keep that sentence, I want to just encourage you to like, I'm just going to put here, like, why science in this paragraph? And then maybe Medfield mention is the note that I'm going to make, because it could be that you This is like, you know, two thirds the way into the essay. Give us a little insight into why you're interested in potentially going into the medical field. I think that could be really cool. And, you know, kind of like I said orienting for the reader. It's like, Ah, okay, here's the path this student's on. So, so far, I'm giving kind of light notes throughout, but the two main paragraphs, why science and again, thinking about what else is possible for that paragraph. The second option, I'm kind of jumping back to the vulnerability paragraph, is if you find that you're like, I don't know if I'm really feeling this, you know, aspect of myself or wanting to I'm not able to like, differentiate it as much when I put what else here, let me just go. So let me I want to encourage two options. One is the vulnerability option, which is like tweaking kind of what you already have. And then version B is like something else altogether. And the options for that are going to be some of the things that I flagged in your everything I want colleges to know about me list, so I want you to just kind of surprise me next time. We meet with, like, some new paragraph that's on some other side of you that maybe it gets kept, maybe it gets cut, or maybe it turns into some content for a supplemental
Cassidy 20:11
essay. Got it That sounds awesome. Thank you. But
Ethan Sawyer 20:13
I'm super vibing with the rest of your essay so far. I'm really, I'm really liking the direction it's going. And I actually oftentimes when students don't edit much. I'm kind of like, Oh, you didn't really change much. But to be honest, this is one of those kind of rare situations where I don't think there's as much to change in some of the earlier paragraphs. So I think it's great, and I think it's good for us to just maybe spend the time focusing on supplements. Now, your personal statement is just one part of your application you've got, besides that, the Activities List, which is basically your brag sheet. You've got your Additional Information section, which is like, what else can go here? And then we've got the supplemental essays. So I'd love to just briefly look at your activities list, share some of the things that you've done, just so that the person listening has some of those things in mind as we're talking about other parts. And then I'd love to shift and talk about supplemental essays. So on the activities list, the first thing you list is ballet. You've got a beautiful description here, which I'm not gonna read right now. The second one you've got is volunteering at the hospital. The third activity is being a student ambassador at your school. The next one is volunteering as part of an office working at this organization called House of grace, a women's substance abuse residential rehab program. We've got this, the fifth activity, participating in a clinical neuroscience immersion experience at a selective university. We've also got youth group involvement crew leader, so that's part of you know, being involved with Vacation Bible School with younger students helping with activities. We've got another group like basically volunteering to help freshmen transition into high school. We've got also, let's see ASB working with a student body, coordinating like student events, you know, choreographing like homecoming, you know, dances, etc, and then something potentially related to a summer research project, which you're working on now, to everyone listening, that's 10 activities. And you do not have to have 10 activities. If you're applying to college, you could very well have five. In fact, the average student has, I think it's between five and six activities on their list. So don't be overwhelmed or intimidated or think like, Oh, my application has to look just like Cassidy's. I just wanted to basically give a sense of here are some of the things that that Cassidy has been involved with. Now, a couple considerations. One is, as you're thinking about these, I think it's important to have sort of like, broadly speaking, the things that are the most important to you, or the things you've been most involved with closer to the top, and then the things you've been less involved with closer to the bottom. And I don't want people listening to feel like they have to obsess over which comes second and which comes third, etc. But would you say, broadly speaking, that the most important ones are closer to the top and the least the less important ones are closer to the bottom? Yeah. Okay, great. And what I'll say to students who are, you know, going through this is like, if you can just sort of broadly list them in that order, it doesn't matter. Too, too, too much. The reader is going to read them or they're not, but it's not going to matter. But I would say, just put your most important ones at the top. So we've got ballet, we've got working at the hospital, and, you know, involved. Just call it like, involvement in, like, you know, school stuff next. And then we've got, you know, we'll call it house of grace and research, broadly speaking, okay? And I think these are all awesome things. And you've, you've you've clearly shown, you're showing a wide range of activities, which is which is awesome. Now, I'm not going to give you a ton of notes for this, in part because I've given you those on the course, and I think also just getting scanning them, they're looking really good so far. But for the Additional Information section, take me through your thinking here. So there were a couple things that you wanted to expand on. Why did you expand on you've got ballet here and you've got your work volunteering at the hospital. Why did you decide to expand on those two things?
Cassidy 23:47
I feel like I've just been involved so much more than can really come through in 150 characters for each and then I've had like, more impacts than I was able to put just in that 150 characters. So I wanted to expand on that
Ethan Sawyer 24:02
a little bit beautiful. Yeah, I think you've done a really nice job. And for those of you who aren't looking at this right now, there's you've you've given like, four bullet points for ballet, and you've given three bullet points for four volunteering, and the descriptions are succinct and they're informational. And I just want to emphasize that. I think it's so important to just give the facts. And if this doesn't have to be, like, poetic, you know, I like that you've included some of the lead roles that you participated in through ballet, you know, you've specified that you're also, I'm CPR first aid certified as part of teacher assistant training. Like, that's such a nice little detail, a little thing that's, you know, sort of a footnote, but it's, it's cool to just know that. Again, in terms of what are college is looking for. You know that what I would call either big picture thinking, but also, as it relates to helping others, it's just another bit of evidence for that, that you're somebody who is willing to go the extra mile to to be prepared to help others. And also, if you know they need someone to do CPR on first aid, you're going to be there. A thing that you asked me about before we hit record was. You have a research project that you might be putting here as well. What's your thinking in terms of this research project? Like, and basically, I just want you to share back what you shared with me. Like, why will you put research project in the additional info or not? Or what's your thinking there? I definitely
Cassidy 25:14
want to talk about it more than just the 150 characters in my activities list, but I am not sure if I'll write a supplemental essay on that, because it's been pretty big to me. So if I don't end up writing a supplemental essay, then I'll definitely put it in the additional info.
Ethan Sawyer 25:29
Great. And one thing to keep in mind is that different schools are going to have different supplemental essays. So I could see you putting the like. What I'll encourage you to do is go ahead and create it, put it in there so that you have that version that's ready to go, and then you can just basically delete it for the schools that don't have a supplemental essay on it. And by the way, if you forget and you submit it, like, in the supplemental essay and in the additional info, it's not the end of the world, like, that's what I would call selective redundancy. And you know, in case they miss it in the additional info, they'll catch in the supplemental essay. So it's not the end of the end of the world, but I noticed that some of the schools you're applying to have, you know, just a couple supplements. So great. We've talked about the personal statement a little bit. We've talked about the activities list, basically just reading through it and the additional info. I want to turn our attention to the supplemental essays for a few minutes, what I'm looking at and what we'll maybe share in the show notes is I'm looking at your essay tracker, which has got this, the list of the schools that you're applying to, and it's got their supplemental essays. Now I'd love to know I'm going to read what the schools are aloud, and I'd love to just hear what your thinking is and has been around, why you're applying where you're applying. So we've got USC University of Southern California. We've got Stanford, Chapman University, we've got Pepperdine Biola and the UCS University of California schools. Now you noted also, before we hit record, that you're also applying to the Cal States? Correct? Yes, cool. And those schools, as we know, don't require essays, so I can see why you didn't list them here. I noticed these are all in Southern California, so I'm guessing you're thinking about SoCal. But tell me a little bit about what what was your thought processes you were putting together your college list?
Cassidy 27:14
Yeah, so I was definitely keeping location in mind because I wanted to stay in state, both for the price and because I just love California, and I do love all of California, but I wanted to really focus on SoCal, because I love, like, the atmosphere and the weather there. So that's what I was kind of like, keeping in mind, obviously, USC is like a big school, so I was able to, like, brainstorm that one pretty easily. I know they have a really good pre med, like advising track. I know some friends who go there, and they really enjoy, like the student life. So I thought that was cool for Stanford. I actually live near Stanford, so I've been there a few times, and I really like the campus, and just the feel of like the student student life. They have a really cool shadowing program for pre med students, where you can shadow physicians at the nearby hospital. So I thought that would be really cool to be able to participate in if I went to that university. And then also just knowing that they have good pre med advising for Chapman, I attended, like a webinar a while back where pre med students there talked about their experience with the pre med advising and counseling program on Chapman, and I thought it sounded like a really, really good program to to look into, because they have a lot of resources and counselings that will give you like personalized so I wanted to look into that for Pepperdine. I just liked it because he was in SoCal. And I have some friends who go there, and they say they enjoyed it. So it's not like one of my top top ones, but I would still, I would still like going there for Biola. My friend is going to Biola. She said she loves her counselors and how they really know you so I thought that would be good to apply to pre med advising, and then also, because they have a really strong Christian community, which I was kind of looking for, if not in the club, then in, like the whole school, and then for the UCs, just that they're, you know, all really good schools with good teachers and good courses, and they have better like, in state tuition,
Ethan Sawyer 29:27
great. And if you had to say, what are your top three priorities for like, what you're looking for in a college or university, what would you say are some of your I mean, top three is kind of intense, but like, what are some of your top the most important things for you? I think
Cassidy 29:40
good pre med advising, which I've talked about, Christian community on campus, where I can fellowship with others. And I think fun campus life,
Ethan Sawyer 29:55
awesome, and in California
Unknown Speaker 29:57
and in California, yes. Number
Ethan Sawyer 30:01
four, number but maybe number one. Okay, great, great. I'm digging the research that you've done, and I'm curious how did you do your research, as you were looking into these different
Cassidy 30:11
schools Google search, because I know what I want to major in, and I know like, the track that I want to be on, so I was just doing Google searches related to, like, specific colleges and what programs or advising they offer for pre med students. Awesome
Ethan Sawyer 30:28
side note, quick question. I mean, this is so you've got some highly selective like USC, you know, Stanford, some of the UCS will be selective. You've got some less selective schools, you know, like Pepperdine, Chapman, Biola, there are some other schools that are kind of in the back of my mind, that are in California that also have great programs. Are you open to potentially expanding your list if you found another couple schools that you know, that you would that you know might meet some of your criteria that you you, you'd be interested in potentially checking them out. Are you feeling like you're pretty much good with these schools? No,
Cassidy 31:02
I would be open, especially because, yeah, I know my list is pretty small, actually, great.
Ethan Sawyer 31:06
Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna consult. I've got my my counselor colleagues who have sort of encyclopedic knowledge, and I want to kind of run this by them and just say, Hey, would you be willing to suggest some other schools? So I'll get back to you on that. And yeah, there might be a few others that could also, you know, check some of these boxes for you. And also might not be as highly selective, because I'm, I'm rarely in a situation where I'm like, You need more selectives on your list. Usually it's like, hey, there are some other schools that would love to have you, and maybe even, you know, give you some money that you may not know as much about. And you know, I say this, you my counselor said to me when I was in I don't know what your financial situation is, but or your family, so we don't even need to get into that now, because that's maybe a whole separate podcast. But I didn't have a lot of money, you know, coming into when I was graduating high school, and somebody's like, you should think about Northwestern. And I was like, I'd never even heard of Northwestern. I was like, What is, what is a Northwestern? No, I'd heard about their football team, but it was just, it was, it was a counselor suggesting a school that I'd never heard of much and, like checking it out that I was like, whoa, this actually does have all the things. And they did because I was, you know, need based. I needed lots of money. They did end up giving me a really great scholarship. So for students who are listening, the school that you end up at could be a school that you never even heard of, or have only barely heard of, and it could be the place where you spent the best four years of your life. So I'm appreciating, though, Cassidy, your orientation to being open to like, considering, you know, other possibilities. I think that's the best place to be. And I love that you have on your list schools that as counselors, we also often call these foundational schools, which is to say schools that you can get into and that you would enjoy. I mean, as I hear you talking about these, like you have reasons for wanting to go to these schools, even the less selective ones that aren't just like, well, that's my backup, and I think that that's a really healthy way to go through this. I mean, we haven't really dug in, but you know, you might have your heart set on certain ones, and oftentimes they're the more selectives. But as I hear you talking through these I don't have a super clear sense of like, I definitely want to go to this school, and I definitely don't want to go to this school. Like, what I'm making up is that you have reasons, and would be even almost excited about going to a number of these schools. Yeah. Does that feel true? Yeah,
Cassidy 33:18
totally. I would be. I'm excited about all the schools on this list.
Ethan Sawyer 33:22
That's where I want you to be. There's a book from the I don't know how long it was written, but it's called eight first choices, and that's an awesome way of thinking about your college list, like I want you to have eight or maybe even 10. Quote, unquote, first choices. Work hard. This is a note to everybody listening, students going through this, work hard to develop a list of schools that you are, like, Cassidy, excited about, and part of that just comes from doing research. Now second question, how much time would you say you spent doing research on these schools?
Cassidy 33:51
If you had to guess, do you mean, like, research, finding the schools, or research, like, about the schools, learning
Ethan Sawyer 33:56
about them, yeah, just learning about them. Like, would you say, let me do it this way. Was it more like five hours of research or 10 hours of research, or more just just learning about the schools and the programs and what they
Cassidy 34:06
had to offer? It was, it was more five, but like, it's been like throughout my whole high school experience, I think in like, little bits
Ethan Sawyer 34:14
great and and what I want to say is, like, I think that this is one of the most important shopping trips that you'll ever take, and it's amazing to me how students will spend more time researching which headphones to buy than which college to go to, right? It's like, well, I don't know these headphones do this. And then, you know, it's just wild to me that this is a place that could potentially shape, you know, a lot that your future friends, your future colleagues, etc, but I love that you've spent, you know, so that doesn't, maybe, hopefully, isn't too intimidating to students. It's like, you know what? I can maybe hopefully develop a list that I'm excited about with about five hours of research. Now, granted, I'm going to share with you some other ideas from my colleagues, but great. I love that you've, you've got this list here. Okay. Let's get into the prompts now these. I'm not going to I'm going to spare the reader reading all of these essay prompts. I'm going to speak about them broadly, just real quick, so that folks have a sense of what we're working with here. But I'm not going to read all. I mean, this tracker has 53 lines on it. I'm not going to read all of them. But broadly speaking, for USC, they're asking for a y us essay, which is to say, they say, describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests at USC, specifically. So it's a little bit of a combo of, why do you want to major in bio and medicine? And then how do you want to do it at USC? And that's 250 words. There's also now, and this is people may listen to this in the future, but there's also a more open ended one, and they say in this this particular year, many of us have at least one issue of passion we deeply care about a topic on which we would love to share opinions and insights. If you had 10 minutes in the attention of a million people, what would your talk be about? Now, I'm not going to ask for your topic just yet, but I want to say to everyone listening is like, this is one of those topics that's open ended enough that if you have something, some aspect of yourself that you really want to show, you can potentially identify what I would call a super topic, which is to say, a topic, a thing you want to write about, that can work for many different schools, because some schools have prompts that are open ended like this, where it's like, Hey, you can talk about anything you want. What do you want to say? So we'll talk about your particular super topic, potentials, in just a minute. USC also has some short answers, which I'm not going to read right now. The next school that you've got on your list is Stanford. Stanford has an essay that asks you about what do you basically, what's an idea or experience that makes you really excited about learning? We've also got the Stanford roommate essay, which has been around for years, which is like, write a note to future roommate, and then Stanford this year is asking what specific aspects of your life, experiences, interests and character would help you make a distinctive contribution as an undergrad at Stanford. Now this is a really popular essay prompt that's become more popular since the Supreme Court decision to ban race conscious admission, and they're asking essentially, what are you bringing to the table? So this is another one that I'm just going to say side note to students listening is the potential for a super topic. In other words, you could potentially write an essay that works for this one for Stanford or insert school, and then you can reuse that content for other schools if they have a similar prompt. Stanford also has some short answers, 12345, this year. And then Chapman, broadly speaking, has one, why us? Why do you want to go to Chapman? It also has one that's asking about, how would you contribute to the campus? You know, in particular, what's a particular experience that has led you to become who you are, and then how has that shaped what you'll contribute to the campus? It's got some short answers as well. Pepperdine and Biola both have faith based, you know, questions. So Pepperdine is asking essentially, considering Pepperdine as a Christian university, why do you want to attend? And how would you contribute to come? Contribute to conversations of faith on campus? Now this is similar to the other essay, where it's asking, What are you going to bring to the college campus? How will you contribute, but with a lens toward specifically faith, like, what are you going to bring to our campus as a Christian university, Biola is asking you about your personal testimony. When did you make a decision to follow Christ? Give personal examples, talking about that. And then there's a Why do you want to attend Biola? So another, why us? And then the UCs, I'm not even going into it's a whole separate podcast, but broadly speaking, they're asking about leadership, a creative side, a significant challenge you've experienced in an academic subject that inspired subject that inspires you. These are the four of the eight essay prompts that you've chosen to write about. So that's a lot of details and content, and sorry if anybody tuned out for that part, but broadly speaking, I'm curious, what are maybe just let's go with what are two different topics that you've identified as potential super topics, which is to say topics that you think could work for multiple different prompts.
Cassidy 39:06
Yeah, I think the first one is biology. My love for biology and interest in medicine, and my dad's death and how that has affected me. Let's
Ethan Sawyer 39:16
start with the first one. So in terms of the writing about bio, writing about medicine. Certainly, I think that's going to work really well for USC, because they've got that tell us, it's basically a y major essay that segues into why us. And then I can also see that working really well for the Stanford one, which is like, reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning now. Quick side note, this is getting into the weeds a little bit, but because they're both 250 word essays, and because USC is asking you to also segue into talking about, well, why do you want to go to, you know USC? It's not going to be the exact same essay, right? So Stanford's asking about a particular experience and what, how did that make you excited about learning? And you'll, you'll have 250 words to explain that or to describe that. Yeah, you're only going to have, like, maybe 125 words. So things to consider, one is that you could potentially just write the Stanford essay and then do a short version, like, shrink it in half, and then, you know, for and then be like, Okay, and here's why USC, that could work. It could be, though, that you end up doing a why Stanford essay. That's not why Stanford, sorry, that's sort of like a y biology medicine essay that is specific to a particular experience that you had related to that. And that goes for Stanford. And then you're like, you know what? I think I want to take a different approach for the USC essay. So, you know, let's start this week. I'd have, you know, I've shared with you some resources around how to do this, on how to write that, on writing that y major essay as it relates to biology and medicine for Stanford. And I would say, go ahead and write the Stanford essay first. And what I'll say, and this is just a side note to students, if you've got two essays that you think are going to overlap, write the longer one first, because I think it's easier to cut your essay and trim it, rather than writing the short one and then trying to expand on it. I just that tends to be easier. Just that tends to be easier. I'm just scanning to see if there are other possibilities. I'll say this, you've got enough a bunch of why us essays. It could be that some of the language about why you want to study, what you want to study, ends up going into the essays that are about why you want to go to a particular university. So if you end up finding a beautiful phrasing for like, why you want to go into biology study medicine. It could be that that sentence ports over to the essay, for example, for Chapman or some of the others. Okay, you've also got that us or, sorry, the UC, think about an academic subject that inspires you describe how you further this interest inside and or outside of the classroom. Now, I've seen students reuse their UC personal insight question for other, you know, other schools, but I'm going to actually suggest something slightly different here. So I think you could write a 350 word essay for the UCs and be like, boom, and then I'm just going to, like, cut it to 250 for Stanford, but I'm going to recommend what I sometimes call a montage version, where as you're thinking about biology and medicine in the larger sense, I think it would be nice to get a sense of some of the different experiences that have led you to be interested in biology and medicine. For the UC personally, because I question six and the Stanford prompt is just a little bit different. So the Stanford community is deeply curious and driven to learn and out, in and out of the classroom, reflect on an idea or experience. They're asking for one idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning. So even though these are going to be on similar topics, I'm going to suggest that you actually maybe try to focus on a particular experience for the Stanford one, and actually go a little more broad for the UC personal insight question one. And the reason that is, i is, if you just focused on one experience for the ucpi Qs, which is to say personal insight questions, I worry that you might be a little bit leaving a little bit on the table and instead for the ucpi q6 and I'll share with you an example essay on this. I'd love for you to think about this in terms of like each paragraph is just like a mini scene, a different experience that has helped shape your interest in love of and desire to pursue biology and medicine. So sorry, that's not making your job easier there, but it's just sort of like, I want to flag that I think those might actually end up being two different essays. Yeah, that's okay. Okay. Let's talk about your second topic, dad's death. Talk to me about so for the USC one, let's just, I just want to hear your initial thoughts on this, and I'll read the prompt again. Many of us have at least one issue or passion we care deeply about a topic on which we'd love to share opinions and insights. If you had 10 minutes the intention of a million people, what would your talk be about? And then one of the and then let's, I want to overlap that with the other Chapman, one that you've noted that could be a potential for this topic as well. Our committee would like to learn about a personal experience or lesson that's helped you better understand who you are. Now. How would you utilize this understanding to contribute to our campus community when it comes to writing about dad's death? What do you feel like could be useful for the college application, interesting for folks to learn about you and your perspective?
Cassidy 44:00
Yeah, so I would just want to talk about how, how difficult the grieving process was, and then how, how much of a unique experience it was, I think because I was in middle school at the time, and I feel like a lot of people around me didn't really know how to how to deal with that, or how to talk to me about it. So for the USC one specifically, I would really want to talk about the grieving process and the healing process and how, like, how it's important to treat people who are going through that kind of experience with with sensitivity and thinking about what you say, Yeah, just thinking about some experiences or things that people have have told me that were like, not the most sensitive things, and I know they didn't mean it, but, but yeah, I think that's really important to me, and it's one of my values, just being sensitive to others.
Ethan Sawyer 44:56
Yeah, yeah, I get that in a huge way. You're i. I make up is that your ability to empathize was just like, cranked up, and I imagine that it extends, I'm just projecting here, but I imagine it extends to beyond just people who are going through grieving process.
Cassidy 45:14
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Ethan Sawyer 45:17
My dad used to always say to me, like, you never really know what people are going through.
Cassidy 45:23
Yeah, yeah,
Ethan Sawyer 45:25
neat. So I think that that's a powerful element here. I'm gonna just prod a little bit. What else? What else do you feel like that experience taught you, or how does it shaped you? I think it
Cassidy 45:35
has really, really, really shaped my love for family and for community, which I think is a is another place where I could maybe, like, turn the dial up on, on, focusing on my the fam, the value of family and community too. Because I feel like when, when I was trying to go through the grieving process, and when I was in the midst of my my healing, a lot of people that I knew, like from my childhood, like in the neighborhood, from my old church, they came back into my life, and they really helped me, like, work through all of that. So, yeah, yeah,
Ethan Sawyer 46:13
what did you learn about community?
Speaker 1 46:18
I don't know how to say it without sounding like, super cheesy. Let's start
Ethan Sawyer 46:21
with cheesy, cheesy. Let's go Hallmark card version.
Cassidy 46:26
Just that it's so important to to have a strong community that you can rely on, because they'll really like uplift you in your hardest times. And I feel like they really know how to how to make you feel better.
Ethan Sawyer 46:41
What have you learned about listening?
Cassidy 46:45
Listening is a huge deal. When I was, you know, like going through that, and people would just like, sit and listen to me cry or listen to me talk about him. It really made me feel seen. It really made me feel heard, and it made me honestly feel like I was really close to him again. We're still close to him. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Ethan Sawyer 47:08
thanks for sharing that. I'm I'm feeling what you're saying right now. And were there any times when let's just go like the what did you learn is like not good to do like. So if we made a list of do's and don'ts, do's and don'ts when someone is going through a grieving process, like, what are some? So you mentioned things that people have done, which is, like, just being with you and seeing and listening, were there any like, don'ts that came out of that process, or things that were like, less helpful?
Cassidy 47:38
I think just, I don't know, because I don't want to sound like, like, like, you can't like, do this
Unknown Speaker 47:45
specific thing, but
Cassidy 47:46
because I know the grieving is totally different for everyone. But one thing that happened to me, it was like a week after it happened after you passed away someone, I know they were trying to come for me, but they said, You'll, you'll be okay. Like, you'll, you'll move on. I was like, Oh,
Unknown Speaker 48:06
yeah. So I think a big thing
Cassidy 48:07
for me is just really acknowledging that, that my feelings are valid and and I'm living in the present right now, and when I'm going through it's okay, it's okay to feel that, yeah,
Ethan Sawyer 48:19
yeah, what I hear in that don't is like the person wanting to change you a little bit, yeah, and wanting you to be different and wanting you to be okay, quote, unquote, definitely wanting me to be okay, and probably feeling uncomfortable. Yeah,
Speaker 1 48:33
I don't blame them. I would be totally uncomfortable too, but dad just being
Ethan Sawyer 48:41
sensitive. The reason I asked you that question is not because I think in your essays, you need to talk about, hey, here's how I'm not five steps to not being with someone when they're going through a grieving process. But it's like, because what you you did it naturally, is it brought you to the what to do, and you'd kind of already said it, which is like, just be with somebody and, you know, just hear them and, like, help them feel heard. But there was some other way that you said it just now, and I'm forgetting exactly you phrased it, but it's like, there was, there was something it's like, instead of this, this instead and that's actually the insight, you know, that's the thing that you carry with you, in terms of a way of being with others and and seeing them. So I'm appreciating that. So what I was trying to do was kind of like, I don't know, it's like, it's like, kind of guide you into an insight backwards. Yeah, it's like, what's what not to do, and then what's better to do? So great. Okay, I think that that's you've got a few things there, a few different elements. And as far as the USC essay goes, I want to say back to you some of the things that I'm hearing you say so far. So there's something about empathy and something about the way that that was, you know, you didn't use the term dialed up, but going through that process allowed you to, I don't know you should see each other or see others or hear them more, but that seems like a big. Big piece. The second one was just the power of community. And you kind of got self conscious about, like, oh, I don't know if it's gonna be cheesy, but if you can drill down into the power of I, you know, I riffed on listening for a second, but like, potentially, it's about how to be with someone and help them feel seen. Because I'm interested in, like, what are the, sort of like, almost like the practical things are, like the superpowers that you developed, you know, during that time. And then I want you to just keep riffing, like, I'd just be curious to see you, you know, outline, what are some other pieces of things, some insights. And as you think about So, the one that you're thinking about reusing this for is Chapman, how would you utilize this understanding? In other words, these different insights that you've had to contribute to the values and welcoming fabric of our campus community. So so far, we're talking about something like empathy. We're talking about something like community. There's an exercise that I mentioned to you at the end of our last session that I want to bring up again, and it's that roles and identities exercise, and I'm just going to bring it up once more, and I think you've got it as well. And I'd love to just bring that one up a second and take a look at it. And just let's look at it through the lens of going through the grieving process. Let's just pick maybe three different identities that you felt like going through this process helped to strengthen or Summon, as it were, empathizer,
Cassidy 51:22
cheerleader and self starter. Ooh,
Ethan Sawyer 51:27
okay, self starter is a surprising one for me. How kind of this experience to me to becoming even more of a self starter.
Cassidy 51:36
I think being in like that year after he passed away, was such, like, a huge period of stagnance for me. I was like, I want to like, I want to do something. I want to be I want to take initiative for myself again. And it's really driven me, I think,
Ethan Sawyer 51:53
huge Cassidy, huge. I mean, this is such a beautiful connection that you're making here. And for the practicals of like, I mean, first of all, let me just like, on a human level, just say like that is, wow, like that you're taking this awful situation and spinning it into like, what can I do? What can I create? What can I build? Is just like, I find that really moving and and practically speaking for your college essays, even though that sounds like so humdrum like and just like, I feel even embarrassed, just like segueing like that, I mean, it just gives you so much to say and to write about. And we don't have to get into the all the details of it now, but like you've listed some of the things on your doc here, of like, ways that things that you started to get into, because you were probably, Ooh, let's go one level deeper. There were probably, I'm guessing, some needs that you were hoping to meet during that time. And we haven't ever talked about this, and I don't think I talked about it on the course at all, but I'm going to just, I'm interested in just looking for just two, two minutes at this list of needs, and I will. I'm going to share it with you here. Take a look at this list of needs. I'd be curious to know based on this list here, what are some needs that you feel like you were things that you were needing in that period of transition that then led you to like, I want to do something. I want to start something like by starting those things, by getting involved in those activities. What deeper needs do you feel like we're being fulfilled for you during that time?
Cassidy 53:27
I think, in a way, independence, because I felt like that grief had like, tied me down. Yeah,
Ethan Sawyer 53:34
great. Let's just riff here for like, what's like, three to five? Let's just, it doesn't have to be perfect, but I'm just rough draft here. So what are some other needs that you feel like getting involved in these activities? These activities, these organizations, these groups, these communities, what other needs did they fulfill for you?
Cassidy 53:48
Definitely mutuality, I think, not just like being supported by people, but also being able to support other people to like, reciprocate that instead of just, you know, relying on them to help me through, through what I was going through.
Ethan Sawyer 54:02
Awesome, awesome. Let's see what else we got. Let's see a couple more. What else do you see on this list that resonates? I think, play
Unknown Speaker 54:11
cool. Yeah, it's just it's so
Cassidy 54:14
tiring to to have to heal like that and just being able to play and get back all that joy. It was really healing also, but, yeah, I needed that
Ethan Sawyer 54:26
amazing. And when you said that, it surprised me. And you're there was some, there was a lightness in your voice that I just that I love and I want to just like, yes, so big. And as you're relating some of these experiences that you then got involved with. Part of what I think that this piece of your story could do is help connect some of the dots, because you've got, yeah, I went through this really tough experience in middle school, and separate from that, I have all these activities and things, and I think that one of the cool, what I'll call it, the glue, the magical glue in between these things, is. Like getting your needs met, getting your needs met for independence, for play, for mutuality. You know, I bet you there's more here. So as a kind of like homework for this Chapman essay, I want to encourage you to think about what were the deeper needs that were getting fulfilled by some of these activities. Because without understanding the glue, sometimes when students are writing about big experiences, and then they're trying to like, be like, so then I got involved in these activities. We might reading it be like, Wait, why? Like, what? Because it could just be like, like, my parents got divorced, and then I got involved in theater. And you're like, Okay, well, what do those two have to do with each other? That's me speaking about myself. And it's like, Well, during that time, I was looking for connection and love and, you know, feeling seen, and, yeah, theater brought me all these things. So anyway, that's another little mini homework that I'm giving you on this on the USC Chapman one when it comes to this essay type, that's all about, what are the different, you know, qualities that you're going to bring to the college campus. I just want to, like draw you back to that roles and identities exercise, and I bet you there's more there, and I want to encourage you to just revisit that exercise and look at what are the different sides of you that you'd like to bring forth in your application that aren't yet being revealed in your personal statement. Because I think that the supplemental essay could be a beautiful place to bring forth some of those sides of you. And I want to encourage you to write the quote, unquote, secular version, which is like, you know, for schools like Stanford. And let's see who else asks about that. Chapman asks about it. And then I think that once you've written that one, then I would encourage you to go ahead and write the the Pepperdine and Biola ones, because they both kind of have a version of that in their own ways. But I think writing the secular one first is going to just generate a whole bunch of content. And I think this actually is a situation where even though Pepperdine word limit is longer, there's going to be stuff aside from that related to your faith that you're going to be able to bring in. But I think it'll be important to have both quote, unquote, secular values. And by what I'm saying, there is just universal values that anybody can vibe with, whether you're Christian or Jewish, you know, whatever faith you are. And then separate from that, you can go and hear the values that as a woman of faith that I've that I've cultivated in my life, we've gone on for a while here. So I don't know that I'm going to get into necessarily the UC personal insight questions, because it's kind of like a whole other, you know, thing, a whole nother situation. I don't know. Maybe we'll do another episode, but I would just for, just in terms of action items for you here, I want to encourage you to take some of what we've started to brainstorm, you know, as it relates to coming through the grieving process. And I want to encourage you to free ride a little bit, particularly for the USC one. And I think that that's going to turn into some beautiful content for the beautiful content for the Chapman one. Part one of that essay is going to be all about you. How have you grown, developed? What are the identities, roles that you've summoned? And then part two is really going to be a research in other words, you're going to need to then go into Chapman and figure out, okay, based on these different sides of me, how are they going to manifest on the Chapman campus? And to research specific opportunities, to manage where you'll manifest those roles. So for example, let's say you're like, you know, one of the roles or identities that you want to bring forth is the role of, you know, self starter. And you've become a self starter by, you know, and you've listed some things on the dock, but you know, seeking out new opportunities and oncology, and, you know, different clubs you've been a part of as a self starter at Chapman, what do you help to catalyze? What do you help to start? What do you want to begin? You've been a cheerleader with your friends at the hospital, definitely in ballet, right? These are all beautiful ways that you've manifested this, what I'll call like the enthusiast or cheerleader identity. Where are you going to apply that? At Chapman, what are the particular opportunities on campus that you'll find to cheerlead your new friends? So that's something to brainstorm for that. One in particular. We're not even getting the short answers this week. Feel free to draft those. I've got a separate guide on that that I can send you. But next time when we come back, I'd love to take a look at some of these drafts. I'd love to look at both of these essays that we've talked about, the science one, the biology, medicine one. And I'd love to see how things are coming along with this essay about going through the grieving process and what you learned through that maybe even the Chapman one, pausing for just a second, and I've been doing a lot of talking, just curious what's happening in your brain. What are you noticing?
Cassidy 59:25
I mean, this show is awesome. Like, I love having the specific things that I can put on my to do list to, you know, up level, up level, my application. And just making sure that I'm showcasing like every side of me is, it's really good. Thank you. Awesome.
Ethan Sawyer 59:41
When it comes to this, maybe we'll talk a little bit the Stanford essays next time. The way that I think of this application is you've got the brainy essay, which is the idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning. That's that intellectual curiosity, in your case, biomedicine. And then you've got the. Personality essay, which is the roommate essay that shows that side of you and then separate from that you've got. Now this, it used to be a different prompt, but now it's sort of like and how are you going to manifest this all at Stanford? Bonus points, if you have time and energy to draft all three of those would be awesome, and we can look at those. If not, I'll take what you've got, and we'll talk about whatever you've got, but we'll basically, let's make our next session reviewing this, these two super topics, and I'll go from there. Awesome.
I can hear you writing. I love I love you writing. It's so great.
Speaker 1 1:00:36
I have a ton of sticky notes all on my desk over here. So Cassidy,
Ethan Sawyer 1:00:41
I want to thank you again for being willing to go through this process with me like live as it were, and your vulnerability and your your hard work is just really, I find it really inspiring. And yeah, I just feel deeply, deeply grateful.
Cassidy 1:00:53
Thank you so much. I'm so grateful for this opportunity. Thank you for thank you for taking
Unknown Speaker 1:00:59
a chance on me.
Ethan Sawyer 1:01:00
Right I'll talk to you in a couple weeks. Okay, bye. Bye. Hey friends, thanks again for listening. In our next episode with Cassidy in a few weeks, we'll revisit and see how she's doing. How are things coming along? And I'm recording this live, so I have no idea how these essays are gonna go. In the meantime, though, while we're waiting for Cassie to work on her drafts, we've got a special three part series called storytelling and identity, and this is me interviewing my screenwriter friends and asking them about how their identity, or identities show up in the movies they choose to write. We'll start off with my friend Dave, who wrote a little movie called Shang Chi in the 10 Rings. Yes, for Marvel, he talks about action movies. How do you write a great action scene and why? In some cases, it can be like a love story and lots more. Stay tuned for that. And as always, stay curious. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Show transcript
Ethan Sawyer 0:00 Cassie, Hi friends, and welcome back to the podcast. So this is episode two in my series with Cassidy. Cassidy is a student at a high school in California right now. She's working on her essays and applications this year, and she's been gracious enough to let me record our sessions. I'm basically walking through the whole process with her. We started in our last episode talking about her personal statement, how she came up with the ideas, why she settled on the topic that she settled on. I gave her some notes for revision, and in today's episode, we're going to look at how the personal statement is coming along. We read through it, I give her some notes, and then we talk big picture about her application more broadly, what are the things that she wants colleges to know about her? Because there's much more to the college application process than just your personal statement. And we talk about her supplemental essays, we talk about her activities list, we get into her Additional Information section. Then we even talk a little bit about her college list and what she's looking for in the college finally, we talked about something called a super topic, which is basically an essay that you can write that's gonna work for multiple different prompts. It's a technique I love to use. And we talked actually through two different super essay possibilities she's gonna work on those. I gave her some action items and center off, and we'll see how it goes. Speaker 1 1:29 Hi, Cassidy, how's it going? Welcome back to the podcast. Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be back so we've Ethan Sawyer 1:36 it's been a few weeks since we talked. I'm curious, what are some of the things you've been working on since we last spoke, Cassidy 1:41 Oh, lots of new stuff. So I have been revising my personal statement. I drafted an activities list and an additional info section. I formally put all of my colleges into my essay tracker, and I started working on one of my supplemental essays, the Stanford roommate essay, beautiful. Ethan Sawyer 2:00 All right, well, let's jump in. Let's read it. And then after, I'd love to just ask you some questions about it and maybe give you some some thoughts, some ideas. Okay, and by the way, this is the first time I'm reading it, so I save reading it live to right now. But before I jump in, last time you read it, do you are you done? To read it again? Or would you like me to Yeah, Cassidy 2:20 yeah, I can totally read it again. All right, go for it. Okay, circular, black eyes, square head, with rounded edges, disproportionately small body. No, this isn't an otherworldly species or me for that matter. These are my childhood, childhood obsessions, tiny figurines that captured my heart from a young age, Funko Pops rather than rocks or seashells, I fell in love with collecting pop culture mini figures. Yet it is not just the characteristic Japanese chibi style of the Pops that endears me to them, but also the shards of myself that I glimpse in their reflections, fluffy white ears, red vest and a tiny golden pocket watch the size of my pinky finger, my white rabbit pop. He mirrors my ability to take an entropic situation and learn how to thrive in it. At 12 years old, my dad died suddenly, uprooting the foundations of my life and drastically reshaping our family dynamics. I learned to adapt to having only one parent, from carpooling more often to surrendering my mom's attention to my younger brother, though tragic, it taught me how to adapt confronting challenges to me means reshaping my mindset to adapt to the situation, rather than trying to force such as the situation to fit my expectations. MJ, from Marvel's Spider Man franchise, may not be the picture of happiness, but her dry humor and ability to lighten tense situations echoes my love for laughter, whether it's bridging the gap between 17 and seven years old at ballet or softening my family sorrow, I've learned that laughter is a powerful force. Now I constantly utilize it to build relationships with others, including volunteering at the hospital. While I can't perform a joint replacement surgery, I can support patients emotional health by stopping by their rooms to chat after my hospital task list duties are done, cracking jokes at their bedside. I see how laughter allows others to see me as someone they can connect with a faint reminder of their granddaughter or friend or child, and more than just the girl restocking the gloves, Bell, saffron dress builds out mid spin, her character, reminding me of the power of empathy I am as Gen Z has coined the term a yapper, meaning that I have a tendency to overshare. Never ask me what my favorite book is, because I'll go through my top 10 recent reads in each genre, including a procon list for each one before remembering the actual question. However, the death of my dad revealed to me the importance of listening, of empathizing with someone simply by remaining quiet. I see it at House of grace, hearing the stories of addicted women seeking liberation and responding with silent recognition, discerning the gratitude in women's voices when. Grasp that they're not alone. It's clear to me that a listening ear speaks to the heart more than a rambling mouth ever could. Tail swishing back of who's it's and what's at hand. Ariel reflects my curiosity, whether I'm holding avid study hall discussions with my AP Bio teacher about riff lip or restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis or researching the effects of long er wait times on the progression of traumatic brain injuries. I am driven by an insatiable craving, insatiable craving for knowledge. This has, in turn, allowed me to help others succeed, whether that means leading monthly AP Bio study groups or informally tutoring my friend in I am too posed in a warrior stance. Mulan guards all of my red books. She reminds me that there is strength and vulnerability, something especially manifests in my identity as a Christian at school, I can find myself feeling insecure about being in the minority as a person of faith, my desire for belonging warring with my authenticity as I begin exposing my raw self and opening up about my beliefs to people I once feared would cast me out my insecurities of being mislabeled, seemed to shrink in the midst of their growing understanding of who I really am. Long ago, these figurines captured my heart. Now they live in it as society demands rocks or seashells. I'll continually fight to be a Funko Pop, leading by example and thriving in my singularity. I aspire to be to others. What Funko Pops are to me, square head notwithstanding, of course. Ethan Sawyer 6:35 Okay. What do you think as you read this, as you hear this in your own words, what do you Yeah, share your thoughts. Cassidy 6:43 I feel like I really like how my voice is coming through. I feel like there are moments of vulnerability and seriousness, but also moments of humor that show that I I'm not taking myself too seriously here. Yeah, Ethan Sawyer 6:56 yeah. Now I'm gonna ask you to be objective about this. What do you feel like you learn about this student through their essay. So imagine that you're someone else reading this, and you can speak about yourself in the first person or Cassidy 7:07 the third person. Okay, I feel like this person has gone through a lot in life, like she's she's had a lot of experiences in many different aspects, and has collected and kind of organized those experiences into lessons that she's learned. I feel like her family is a is a big deal to her, and then I've also learned that she likes to have fun, but she's also a little nerdy, yeah, Ethan Sawyer 7:36 yeah. I learned those things too. What questions do you have, or areas where you think it could potentially be improved. I think Cassidy 7:43 if I were reading it, I would be wondering when she's talking about vulnerability, like, how did she get from being insecure about talking about her faith to suddenly opening up and discovering how to talk about it? So I feel like that could be elaborated on. I think I'd also maybe be wondering, why is it that she's so interested in the sciences, like, what got her into that? What interests her about it? Ethan Sawyer 8:10 Oh, love this. You're you should do this. You're good at this. So I my take on this. I love your voice in this essay. I love it's so and I'm just getting to know you, but I feel like, I think I maybe said this last time, it feels like very you, and I make up that if other people were at it, and they would be like, Oh, they would recognize that this is Cassidy's essay, you know, this is like, you know, there's like, a there's enough specificity and detail in it that it feels it's hard to mistake, it would be hard to mistake this for your friend, or, you know, somebody else, and not just because of the Funko Pop dolls. There's so many specific details in here that connect to things that I can tell that are important to you. Yes, I'm just guessing some of the things you said to the vulnerability, and not just the vulnerability. Like, I've been through hard stuff, but like, I've what I get from this, like, I've been through hard stuff, and I've metabolized some of this stuff and processed and so I see, like, an emotional talent intelligence in you and in this that's coming through in this writing. I love the humor that you're bringing to this. I really feel that, like you're not trying to, like, prove yourself, or be like, Look at my grades, or look at all this like, sure, you even extracurricular activities, but it's in the context of laughter and the connective power of that in your life. I love the way that you've taken these quote, unquote, Kid things and elevated them through, you know, both like, almost like you're doing critical thinking, but like, there's like, these wisdoms, these little moments of wisdom and like insights. And there's this, you've brought the geeky language, which I talked about last time. You know, a couple of things that we talked about are, like, colleges are looking for intellectual curiosity. And this little bit about RF, LP, you know, restriction, fragment, length polymorphism. Yeah, and then thinking about, you know, the effects of long er wait times and the progression of traumatic brain injuries both shows this quality of, like, wanting to serve others and also signals, hey, that's maybe something that I might want to go into in the future. So I think it's doing double duty there, which is, like, really sweet, super tiny note. When you say I am two, they might know what I am too is, but you might just spell that out. I think you're talking about integrated math there. Yeah, yeah, okay, cool, yeah. You might just like, mention, just spell that out. That's a really tiny note. The and I'm so my notes are going to be light. And what I might do after this, just to spare folks all the details, is like, just give you a couple, you know, notes and specifics after, after we record the podcast. So one paragraph here at the end, when you talk about vulnerability, I guess the main thing I would say for this paragraph, because one of the things you asked me before we started recording is, should I just cut this paragraph because you're over the word limit? You're only like 50 words over the word limit. So and with just 50 words, I think you can do some trimming elsewhere to get down that 50 words. But I think here, the question I would ask is, Can you reveal something new about yourself, and if you're kind of in the same genre of like, I want to bring vulnerability, I would go, Okay, well, what new aspect of vulnerability you mentioned? For example, authenticity. What aspect of authenticity could you bring that's going to give something that, for example, your second paragraph isn't giving, which is also a vulnerable paragraph. So just something to think about. And what I'd like to do in terms of thinking about, Okay, first of all, I think you could keep talking about your faith in this paragraph, because I think that colleges that have supplemental essays that do not ask about your faith, I think this is still a powerful, you know, a big part, important part of you. So I think it could be cool to bring it in. But as you if we brainstorm, okay, what are some other pieces of yourself that you could bring in? I'd love to zoom back to an exercise that you did on the course a couple weeks ago, which was like, everything I want college is to know about me. So one of the things, Alex, let me just, let me just kind of read through some of those things that you had on that Doc, so that folks can get a sense of what are some of the things that you wanted to bring through. And as we go, I want to sort of name some of the things that I feel like are already coming through in your application, and some of the things that you know could potentially, in other words, other potentials for this paragraph, if you were to switch it out. So you wrote down the top 10 things you want colleges to know about you. And by the way, for folks listening, you can find this can find this exercise linked in the show notes. So you say, first, you're a huge family oriented person, and that's something that I think is coming through, you know, is the hugeness coming through. Maybe there was a piece that you cut from the earlier draft about, you know, laughing with your brother, then you switched it out for the hospital paragraph or the hospital details. So it could be, just as a side note, that you bring back, because you could do a series of examples of how laughter has manifested in your life, and it could be that you bring in that family oriented side of yourself back just a little bit. And then it could be that, just as an idea, that you still use that paragraph to show your hospital volunteering work and the power of laughter in particular, but maybe after you've listed a couple of those other details, because I found those to be really charming, I think you know the details I'm talking about. Yeah, okay, great ballet. You love ballet, not just for the art of it, but also for the community that it builds. That's the second thing you want colleges to know about you. I think they're going to be some great opportunities in both the Activities List, which we'll talk about in a few minutes, and the supplemental essays to bring in ballet. So, you know, the fact that that's not like a huge feature of the personal statement, I think, is fine. One of the things you talk about is your adaptability. I'm a very adaptable person, and I see that to some extent in this essay, where you are able to sort of, you know, draw lessons from different experiences, and I can see, sort of like, your mental adaptability some of the examples that you give when you were doing the exercises that you had to self study the last couple units of AP, bio, like, you know, those kind of details I think could come through in more pronounced ways, potentially in your supplemental essays. So I'm going to just say, rather than be like, Hey, you definitely need to bring adaptability into your other into your personal statement. More. I'm going to say, I'm going to just highlight this in bold and say this could be something that you could bring more into your supplements, which we'll talk about in a bit. You talk about really trying. This is the fourth thing you want colleges to know. You really try to learn from experiences you've had as a participant in activity, as a follower. And I think that the examples you give in terms of like working at the local hospital, I think that this, this is something you know in terms of your ability to learn from experiences, could be something that you put in the activities list, or the supplemental essays you also mentioned before we got on that in your Additional Information section, which we'll talk about as well in a minute that You're interested in potentially talking about some of your research. So I think this notion of, like learning from experiences is something that could come through even more clearly. You note, I'm interested in pursuing a career in the medical field. You know, this could be something that you mentioned you. It's certainly like, if you, if I were to read that on your, you know, in somewhere in your application, I wouldn't be so. Prize because you've mentioned it at least twice in the personal statement. But it could be that you, if you wanted to, towards the end to the last two paragraphs of the essay, that you could discuss more if you wanted to, about how that your interest in the medical field, you don't have to. But I do like it sometimes when a student is like, here's the path that I think I'm on depending on Well, let me, let me ask you this, out of, out of one to 10, how certain do you feel about the medical field, that that's an area that you want to pursue? Cassidy 15:27 I'd say, like, eight where, like, I'm really certain that I want to pursue an undergrad, but maybe not, not fully, fully committed, where I want to go into, like, a bsmd program, great Ethan Sawyer 15:39 if you're that certain about it, like, so this is a question that I'll sometimes ask students, like, How sure are you if you're like, above, like, seven out of 10 or above, then I think it's not necessarily a bad idea to mention it, because I think that it can be orienting for the reader to be like, Ah, cool. This is where the student's headed, and it, you know, can show directionality. Now, side note, do I think that it's fine to apply undecided and not leave it on there. Yes. Also totally cool in, you know, it sort of depends on the school, but given that you're that certain about it, and given that you've kind of already mentioned it, it could be something that you mentioned at or near the end of the personal statement. Let's see. You used to be scared of making phone calls, you know, but then working at House of grace, sort of like, that's that's that's become something that you had, that you overcame. And then I love this insight you say you sometimes you can make a greater impact on someone by listening to them instead of talking, which is beautiful. And I think actually came into your personal statement in a really lovely way. It's the power of listening. I love reading is something that you mentioned now that's not something that's coming through just yet in your personal statement. So I'm going to flag. This is another possible thing that I would love to in the spirit of bringing that intellectual curiosity in your application. I'd love to see that come through somewhere in your supplements. Potentially, I participate in all my friends clubs at school. I love that. It's like, you know, a way of bonding for you. And I think that you know the fact that it's your friends clubs you don't, doesn't necessarily have to come through. But I think that it's a fun detail. It's just nice knowing that. And I think that and I think that your participation in clubs is going to come through in your activities. Lists, you mentioned nine, you're a Korean American, and that 10, you're a huge fan of finding efficient ways to study. So I'm going to just bold both of these, Korean American identity, and then huge fan of finding efficient ways to study as other possible things that I just want to put on the board. And as we're thinking about supplemental essays, other things that could come through somewhere in your application. But when it comes to thinking about this last paragraph right now, in terms of so like option one is just sort of keep with what you've got, which is an essay or a paragraph that's on vulnerability, talks about your faith a little bit and as you've said, sort of talking a little bit more about what that journey was like for you and how you went from, I'll just say who you were, let's say two or three years ago, to who you are now. And I'm kind of not giving a specific note about this, because I sense that you might just, with some thought, be able to come up with something that would clarify what that journey has meant to you and what you've taken away from that. So with students who are good writers like you are, I'm actually going to not give you a note and be like, think of it more like this. I'm just going to say, Yeah, you're impulsed to maybe do something different here. I want to just encourage you to follow that and see what else could you come up with. So the note I'm literally putting on your Google Doc is what else here, and I just want you to come back with something else, and let's see where it goes. And then the your other note to yourself, I want to follow your lead there too, and say, in terms of your interest in science, I'd love to know a little bit more. You mentioned your insatiable craving for knowledge. And then what you say after that is, it's in turn, allowed me to help others succeed. You know, leading monthly AP Bio study groups or informally treating my friend. That's cool. I think you've got a good number of examples of helping others here now. And so while that could work, and you could keep that sentence, I want to just encourage you to like, I'm just going to put here, like, why science in this paragraph? And then maybe Medfield mention is the note that I'm going to make, because it could be that you This is like, you know, two thirds the way into the essay. Give us a little insight into why you're interested in potentially going into the medical field. I think that could be really cool. And, you know, kind of like I said orienting for the reader. It's like, Ah, okay, here's the path this student's on. So, so far, I'm giving kind of light notes throughout, but the two main paragraphs, why science and again, thinking about what else is possible for that paragraph. The second option, I'm kind of jumping back to the vulnerability paragraph, is if you find that you're like, I don't know if I'm really feeling this, you know, aspect of myself or wanting to I'm not able to like, differentiate it as much when I put what else here, let me just go. So let me I want to encourage two options. One is the vulnerability option, which is like tweaking kind of what you already have. And then version B is like something else altogether. And the options for that are going to be some of the things that I flagged in your everything I want colleges to know about me list, so I want you to just kind of surprise me next time. We meet with, like, some new paragraph that's on some other side of you that maybe it gets kept, maybe it gets cut, or maybe it turns into some content for a supplemental Cassidy 20:11 essay. Got it That sounds awesome. Thank you. But Ethan Sawyer 20:13 I'm super vibing with the rest of your essay so far. I'm really, I'm really liking the direction it's going. And I actually oftentimes when students don't edit much. I'm kind of like, Oh, you didn't really change much. But to be honest, this is one of those kind of rare situations where I don't think there's as much to change in some of the earlier paragraphs. So I think it's great, and I think it's good for us to just maybe spend the time focusing on supplements. Now, your personal statement is just one part of your application you've got, besides that, the Activities List, which is basically your brag sheet. You've got your Additional Information section, which is like, what else can go here? And then we've got the supplemental essays. So I'd love to just briefly look at your activities list, share some of the things that you've done, just so that the person listening has some of those things in mind as we're talking about other parts. And then I'd love to shift and talk about supplemental essays. So on the activities list, the first thing you list is ballet. You've got a beautiful description here, which I'm not gonna read right now. The second one you've got is volunteering at the hospital. The third activity is being a student ambassador at your school. The next one is volunteering as part of an office working at this organization called House of grace, a women's substance abuse residential rehab program. We've got this, the fifth activity, participating in a clinical neuroscience immersion experience at a selective university. We've also got youth group involvement crew leader, so that's part of you know, being involved with Vacation Bible School with younger students helping with activities. We've got another group like basically volunteering to help freshmen transition into high school. We've got also, let's see ASB working with a student body, coordinating like student events, you know, choreographing like homecoming, you know, dances, etc, and then something potentially related to a summer research project, which you're working on now, to everyone listening, that's 10 activities. And you do not have to have 10 activities. If you're applying to college, you could very well have five. In fact, the average student has, I think it's between five and six activities on their list. So don't be overwhelmed or intimidated or think like, Oh, my application has to look just like Cassidy's. I just wanted to basically give a sense of here are some of the things that that Cassidy has been involved with. Now, a couple considerations. One is, as you're thinking about these, I think it's important to have sort of like, broadly speaking, the things that are the most important to you, or the things you've been most involved with closer to the top, and then the things you've been less involved with closer to the bottom. And I don't want people listening to feel like they have to obsess over which comes second and which comes third, etc. But would you say, broadly speaking, that the most important ones are closer to the top and the least the less important ones are closer to the bottom? Yeah. Okay, great. And what I'll say to students who are, you know, going through this is like, if you can just sort of broadly list them in that order, it doesn't matter. Too, too, too much. The reader is going to read them or they're not, but it's not going to matter. But I would say, just put your most important ones at the top. So we've got ballet, we've got working at the hospital, and, you know, involved. Just call it like, involvement in, like, you know, school stuff next. And then we've got, you know, we'll call it house of grace and research, broadly speaking, okay? And I think these are all awesome things. And you've, you've you've clearly shown, you're showing a wide range of activities, which is which is awesome. Now, I'm not going to give you a ton of notes for this, in part because I've given you those on the course, and I think also just getting scanning them, they're looking really good so far. But for the Additional Information section, take me through your thinking here. So there were a couple things that you wanted to expand on. Why did you expand on you've got ballet here and you've got your work volunteering at the hospital. Why did you decide to expand on those two things? Cassidy 23:47 I feel like I've just been involved so much more than can really come through in 150 characters for each and then I've had like, more impacts than I was able to put just in that 150 characters. So I wanted to expand on that Ethan Sawyer 24:02 a little bit beautiful. Yeah, I think you've done a really nice job. And for those of you who aren't looking at this right now, there's you've you've given like, four bullet points for ballet, and you've given three bullet points for four volunteering, and the descriptions are succinct and they're informational. And I just want to emphasize that. I think it's so important to just give the facts. And if this doesn't have to be, like, poetic, you know, I like that you've included some of the lead roles that you participated in through ballet, you know, you've specified that you're also, I'm CPR first aid certified as part of teacher assistant training. Like, that's such a nice little detail, a little thing that's, you know, sort of a footnote, but it's, it's cool to just know that. Again, in terms of what are college is looking for. You know that what I would call either big picture thinking, but also, as it relates to helping others, it's just another bit of evidence for that, that you're somebody who is willing to go the extra mile to to be prepared to help others. And also, if you know they need someone to do CPR on first aid, you're going to be there. A thing that you asked me about before we hit record was. You have a research project that you might be putting here as well. What's your thinking in terms of this research project? Like, and basically, I just want you to share back what you shared with me. Like, why will you put research project in the additional info or not? Or what's your thinking there? I definitely Cassidy 25:14 want to talk about it more than just the 150 characters in my activities list, but I am not sure if I'll write a supplemental essay on that, because it's been pretty big to me. So if I don't end up writing a supplemental essay, then I'll definitely put it in the additional info. Ethan Sawyer 25:29 Great. And one thing to keep in mind is that different schools are going to have different supplemental essays. So I could see you putting the like. What I'll encourage you to do is go ahead and create it, put it in there so that you have that version that's ready to go, and then you can just basically delete it for the schools that don't have a supplemental essay on it. And by the way, if you forget and you submit it, like, in the supplemental essay and in the additional info, it's not the end of the world, like, that's what I would call selective redundancy. And you know, in case they miss it in the additional info, they'll catch in the supplemental essay. So it's not the end of the end of the world, but I noticed that some of the schools you're applying to have, you know, just a couple supplements. So great. We've talked about the personal statement a little bit. We've talked about the activities list, basically just reading through it and the additional info. I want to turn our attention to the supplemental essays for a few minutes, what I'm looking at and what we'll maybe share in the show notes is I'm looking at your essay tracker, which has got this, the list of the schools that you're applying to, and it's got their supplemental essays. Now I'd love to know I'm going to read what the schools are aloud, and I'd love to just hear what your thinking is and has been around, why you're applying where you're applying. So we've got USC University of Southern California. We've got Stanford, Chapman University, we've got Pepperdine Biola and the UCS University of California schools. Now you noted also, before we hit record, that you're also applying to the Cal States? Correct? Yes, cool. And those schools, as we know, don't require essays, so I can see why you didn't list them here. I noticed these are all in Southern California, so I'm guessing you're thinking about SoCal. But tell me a little bit about what what was your thought processes you were putting together your college list? Cassidy 27:14 Yeah, so I was definitely keeping location in mind because I wanted to stay in state, both for the price and because I just love California, and I do love all of California, but I wanted to really focus on SoCal, because I love, like, the atmosphere and the weather there. So that's what I was kind of like, keeping in mind, obviously, USC is like a big school, so I was able to, like, brainstorm that one pretty easily. I know they have a really good pre med, like advising track. I know some friends who go there, and they really enjoy, like the student life. So I thought that was cool for Stanford. I actually live near Stanford, so I've been there a few times, and I really like the campus, and just the feel of like the student student life. They have a really cool shadowing program for pre med students, where you can shadow physicians at the nearby hospital. So I thought that would be really cool to be able to participate in if I went to that university. And then also just knowing that they have good pre med advising for Chapman, I attended, like a webinar a while back where pre med students there talked about their experience with the pre med advising and counseling program on Chapman, and I thought it sounded like a really, really good program to to look into, because they have a lot of resources and counselings that will give you like personalized so I wanted to look into that for Pepperdine. I just liked it because he was in SoCal. And I have some friends who go there, and they say they enjoyed it. So it's not like one of my top top ones, but I would still, I would still like going there for Biola. My friend is going to Biola. She said she loves her counselors and how they really know you so I thought that would be good to apply to pre med advising, and then also, because they have a really strong Christian community, which I was kind of looking for, if not in the club, then in, like the whole school, and then for the UCs, just that they're, you know, all really good schools with good teachers and good courses, and they have better like, in state tuition, Ethan Sawyer 29:27 great. And if you had to say, what are your top three priorities for like, what you're looking for in a college or university, what would you say are some of your I mean, top three is kind of intense, but like, what are some of your top the most important things for you? I think Cassidy 29:40 good pre med advising, which I've talked about, Christian community on campus, where I can fellowship with others. And I think fun campus life, Ethan Sawyer 29:55 awesome, and in California Unknown Speaker 29:57 and in California, yes. Number Ethan Sawyer 30:01 four, number but maybe number one. Okay, great, great. I'm digging the research that you've done, and I'm curious how did you do your research, as you were looking into these different Cassidy 30:11 schools Google search, because I know what I want to major in, and I know like, the track that I want to be on, so I was just doing Google searches related to, like, specific colleges and what programs or advising they offer for pre med students. Awesome Ethan Sawyer 30:28 side note, quick question. I mean, this is so you've got some highly selective like USC, you know, Stanford, some of the UCS will be selective. You've got some less selective schools, you know, like Pepperdine, Chapman, Biola, there are some other schools that are kind of in the back of my mind, that are in California that also have great programs. Are you open to potentially expanding your list if you found another couple schools that you know, that you would that you know might meet some of your criteria that you you, you'd be interested in potentially checking them out. Are you feeling like you're pretty much good with these schools? No, Cassidy 31:02 I would be open, especially because, yeah, I know my list is pretty small, actually, great. Ethan Sawyer 31:06 Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna consult. I've got my my counselor colleagues who have sort of encyclopedic knowledge, and I want to kind of run this by them and just say, Hey, would you be willing to suggest some other schools? So I'll get back to you on that. And yeah, there might be a few others that could also, you know, check some of these boxes for you. And also might not be as highly selective, because I'm, I'm rarely in a situation where I'm like, You need more selectives on your list. Usually it's like, hey, there are some other schools that would love to have you, and maybe even, you know, give you some money that you may not know as much about. And you know, I say this, you my counselor said to me when I was in I don't know what your financial situation is, but or your family, so we don't even need to get into that now, because that's maybe a whole separate podcast. But I didn't have a lot of money, you know, coming into when I was graduating high school, and somebody's like, you should think about Northwestern. And I was like, I'd never even heard of Northwestern. I was like, What is, what is a Northwestern? No, I'd heard about their football team, but it was just, it was, it was a counselor suggesting a school that I'd never heard of much and, like checking it out that I was like, whoa, this actually does have all the things. And they did because I was, you know, need based. I needed lots of money. They did end up giving me a really great scholarship. So for students who are listening, the school that you end up at could be a school that you never even heard of, or have only barely heard of, and it could be the place where you spent the best four years of your life. So I'm appreciating, though, Cassidy, your orientation to being open to like, considering, you know, other possibilities. I think that's the best place to be. And I love that you have on your list schools that as counselors, we also often call these foundational schools, which is to say schools that you can get into and that you would enjoy. I mean, as I hear you talking about these, like you have reasons for wanting to go to these schools, even the less selective ones that aren't just like, well, that's my backup, and I think that that's a really healthy way to go through this. I mean, we haven't really dug in, but you know, you might have your heart set on certain ones, and oftentimes they're the more selectives. But as I hear you talking through these I don't have a super clear sense of like, I definitely want to go to this school, and I definitely don't want to go to this school. Like, what I'm making up is that you have reasons, and would be even almost excited about going to a number of these schools. Yeah. Does that feel true? Yeah, Cassidy 33:18 totally. I would be. I'm excited about all the schools on this list. Ethan Sawyer 33:22 That's where I want you to be. There's a book from the I don't know how long it was written, but it's called eight first choices, and that's an awesome way of thinking about your college list, like I want you to have eight or maybe even 10. Quote, unquote, first choices. Work hard. This is a note to everybody listening, students going through this, work hard to develop a list of schools that you are, like, Cassidy, excited about, and part of that just comes from doing research. Now second question, how much time would you say you spent doing research on these schools? Cassidy 33:51 If you had to guess, do you mean, like, research, finding the schools, or research, like, about the schools, learning Ethan Sawyer 33:56 about them, yeah, just learning about them. Like, would you say, let me do it this way. Was it more like five hours of research or 10 hours of research, or more just just learning about the schools and the programs and what they Cassidy 34:06 had to offer? It was, it was more five, but like, it's been like throughout my whole high school experience, I think in like, little bits Ethan Sawyer 34:14 great and and what I want to say is, like, I think that this is one of the most important shopping trips that you'll ever take, and it's amazing to me how students will spend more time researching which headphones to buy than which college to go to, right? It's like, well, I don't know these headphones do this. And then, you know, it's just wild to me that this is a place that could potentially shape, you know, a lot that your future friends, your future colleagues, etc, but I love that you've spent, you know, so that doesn't, maybe, hopefully, isn't too intimidating to students. It's like, you know what? I can maybe hopefully develop a list that I'm excited about with about five hours of research. Now, granted, I'm going to share with you some other ideas from my colleagues, but great. I love that you've, you've got this list here. Okay. Let's get into the prompts now these. I'm not going to I'm going to spare the reader reading all of these essay prompts. I'm going to speak about them broadly, just real quick, so that folks have a sense of what we're working with here. But I'm not going to read all. I mean, this tracker has 53 lines on it. I'm not going to read all of them. But broadly speaking, for USC, they're asking for a y us essay, which is to say, they say, describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests at USC, specifically. So it's a little bit of a combo of, why do you want to major in bio and medicine? And then how do you want to do it at USC? And that's 250 words. There's also now, and this is people may listen to this in the future, but there's also a more open ended one, and they say in this this particular year, many of us have at least one issue of passion we deeply care about a topic on which we would love to share opinions and insights. If you had 10 minutes in the attention of a million people, what would your talk be about? Now, I'm not going to ask for your topic just yet, but I want to say to everyone listening is like, this is one of those topics that's open ended enough that if you have something, some aspect of yourself that you really want to show, you can potentially identify what I would call a super topic, which is to say, a topic, a thing you want to write about, that can work for many different schools, because some schools have prompts that are open ended like this, where it's like, Hey, you can talk about anything you want. What do you want to say? So we'll talk about your particular super topic, potentials, in just a minute. USC also has some short answers, which I'm not going to read right now. The next school that you've got on your list is Stanford. Stanford has an essay that asks you about what do you basically, what's an idea or experience that makes you really excited about learning? We've also got the Stanford roommate essay, which has been around for years, which is like, write a note to future roommate, and then Stanford this year is asking what specific aspects of your life, experiences, interests and character would help you make a distinctive contribution as an undergrad at Stanford. Now this is a really popular essay prompt that's become more popular since the Supreme Court decision to ban race conscious admission, and they're asking essentially, what are you bringing to the table? So this is another one that I'm just going to say side note to students listening is the potential for a super topic. In other words, you could potentially write an essay that works for this one for Stanford or insert school, and then you can reuse that content for other schools if they have a similar prompt. Stanford also has some short answers, 12345, this year. And then Chapman, broadly speaking, has one, why us? Why do you want to go to Chapman? It also has one that's asking about, how would you contribute to the campus? You know, in particular, what's a particular experience that has led you to become who you are, and then how has that shaped what you'll contribute to the campus? It's got some short answers as well. Pepperdine and Biola both have faith based, you know, questions. So Pepperdine is asking essentially, considering Pepperdine as a Christian university, why do you want to attend? And how would you contribute to come? Contribute to conversations of faith on campus? Now this is similar to the other essay, where it's asking, What are you going to bring to the college campus? How will you contribute, but with a lens toward specifically faith, like, what are you going to bring to our campus as a Christian university, Biola is asking you about your personal testimony. When did you make a decision to follow Christ? Give personal examples, talking about that. And then there's a Why do you want to attend Biola? So another, why us? And then the UCs, I'm not even going into it's a whole separate podcast, but broadly speaking, they're asking about leadership, a creative side, a significant challenge you've experienced in an academic subject that inspired subject that inspires you. These are the four of the eight essay prompts that you've chosen to write about. So that's a lot of details and content, and sorry if anybody tuned out for that part, but broadly speaking, I'm curious, what are maybe just let's go with what are two different topics that you've identified as potential super topics, which is to say topics that you think could work for multiple different prompts. Cassidy 39:06 Yeah, I think the first one is biology. My love for biology and interest in medicine, and my dad's death and how that has affected me. Let's Ethan Sawyer 39:16 start with the first one. So in terms of the writing about bio, writing about medicine. Certainly, I think that's going to work really well for USC, because they've got that tell us, it's basically a y major essay that segues into why us. And then I can also see that working really well for the Stanford one, which is like, reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning now. Quick side note, this is getting into the weeds a little bit, but because they're both 250 word essays, and because USC is asking you to also segue into talking about, well, why do you want to go to, you know USC? It's not going to be the exact same essay, right? So Stanford's asking about a particular experience and what, how did that make you excited about learning? And you'll, you'll have 250 words to explain that or to describe that. Yeah, you're only going to have, like, maybe 125 words. So things to consider, one is that you could potentially just write the Stanford essay and then do a short version, like, shrink it in half, and then, you know, for and then be like, Okay, and here's why USC, that could work. It could be, though, that you end up doing a why Stanford essay. That's not why Stanford, sorry, that's sort of like a y biology medicine essay that is specific to a particular experience that you had related to that. And that goes for Stanford. And then you're like, you know what? I think I want to take a different approach for the USC essay. So, you know, let's start this week. I'd have, you know, I've shared with you some resources around how to do this, on how to write that, on writing that y major essay as it relates to biology and medicine for Stanford. And I would say, go ahead and write the Stanford essay first. And what I'll say, and this is just a side note to students, if you've got two essays that you think are going to overlap, write the longer one first, because I think it's easier to cut your essay and trim it, rather than writing the short one and then trying to expand on it. I just that tends to be easier. Just that tends to be easier. I'm just scanning to see if there are other possibilities. I'll say this, you've got enough a bunch of why us essays. It could be that some of the language about why you want to study, what you want to study, ends up going into the essays that are about why you want to go to a particular university. So if you end up finding a beautiful phrasing for like, why you want to go into biology study medicine. It could be that that sentence ports over to the essay, for example, for Chapman or some of the others. Okay, you've also got that us or, sorry, the UC, think about an academic subject that inspires you describe how you further this interest inside and or outside of the classroom. Now, I've seen students reuse their UC personal insight question for other, you know, other schools, but I'm going to actually suggest something slightly different here. So I think you could write a 350 word essay for the UCs and be like, boom, and then I'm just going to, like, cut it to 250 for Stanford, but I'm going to recommend what I sometimes call a montage version, where as you're thinking about biology and medicine in the larger sense, I think it would be nice to get a sense of some of the different experiences that have led you to be interested in biology and medicine. For the UC personally, because I question six and the Stanford prompt is just a little bit different. So the Stanford community is deeply curious and driven to learn and out, in and out of the classroom, reflect on an idea or experience. They're asking for one idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning. So even though these are going to be on similar topics, I'm going to suggest that you actually maybe try to focus on a particular experience for the Stanford one, and actually go a little more broad for the UC personal insight question one. And the reason that is, i is, if you just focused on one experience for the ucpi Qs, which is to say personal insight questions, I worry that you might be a little bit leaving a little bit on the table and instead for the ucpi q6 and I'll share with you an example essay on this. I'd love for you to think about this in terms of like each paragraph is just like a mini scene, a different experience that has helped shape your interest in love of and desire to pursue biology and medicine. So sorry, that's not making your job easier there, but it's just sort of like, I want to flag that I think those might actually end up being two different essays. Yeah, that's okay. Okay. Let's talk about your second topic, dad's death. Talk to me about so for the USC one, let's just, I just want to hear your initial thoughts on this, and I'll read the prompt again. Many of us have at least one issue or passion we care deeply about a topic on which we'd love to share opinions and insights. If you had 10 minutes the intention of a million people, what would your talk be about? And then one of the and then let's, I want to overlap that with the other Chapman, one that you've noted that could be a potential for this topic as well. Our committee would like to learn about a personal experience or lesson that's helped you better understand who you are. Now. How would you utilize this understanding to contribute to our campus community when it comes to writing about dad's death? What do you feel like could be useful for the college application, interesting for folks to learn about you and your perspective? Cassidy 44:00 Yeah, so I would just want to talk about how, how difficult the grieving process was, and then how, how much of a unique experience it was, I think because I was in middle school at the time, and I feel like a lot of people around me didn't really know how to how to deal with that, or how to talk to me about it. So for the USC one specifically, I would really want to talk about the grieving process and the healing process and how, like, how it's important to treat people who are going through that kind of experience with with sensitivity and thinking about what you say, Yeah, just thinking about some experiences or things that people have have told me that were like, not the most sensitive things, and I know they didn't mean it, but, but yeah, I think that's really important to me, and it's one of my values, just being sensitive to others. Ethan Sawyer 44:56 Yeah, yeah, I get that in a huge way. You're i. I make up is that your ability to empathize was just like, cranked up, and I imagine that it extends, I'm just projecting here, but I imagine it extends to beyond just people who are going through grieving process. Cassidy 45:14 Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Ethan Sawyer 45:17 My dad used to always say to me, like, you never really know what people are going through. Cassidy 45:23 Yeah, yeah, Ethan Sawyer 45:25 neat. So I think that that's a powerful element here. I'm gonna just prod a little bit. What else? What else do you feel like that experience taught you, or how does it shaped you? I think it Cassidy 45:35 has really, really, really shaped my love for family and for community, which I think is a is another place where I could maybe, like, turn the dial up on, on, focusing on my the fam, the value of family and community too. Because I feel like when, when I was trying to go through the grieving process, and when I was in the midst of my my healing, a lot of people that I knew, like from my childhood, like in the neighborhood, from my old church, they came back into my life, and they really helped me, like, work through all of that. So, yeah, yeah, Ethan Sawyer 46:13 what did you learn about community? Speaker 1 46:18 I don't know how to say it without sounding like, super cheesy. Let's start Ethan Sawyer 46:21 with cheesy, cheesy. Let's go Hallmark card version. Cassidy 46:26 Just that it's so important to to have a strong community that you can rely on, because they'll really like uplift you in your hardest times. And I feel like they really know how to how to make you feel better. Ethan Sawyer 46:41 What have you learned about listening? Cassidy 46:45 Listening is a huge deal. When I was, you know, like going through that, and people would just like, sit and listen to me cry or listen to me talk about him. It really made me feel seen. It really made me feel heard, and it made me honestly feel like I was really close to him again. We're still close to him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Ethan Sawyer 47:08 thanks for sharing that. I'm I'm feeling what you're saying right now. And were there any times when let's just go like the what did you learn is like not good to do like. So if we made a list of do's and don'ts, do's and don'ts when someone is going through a grieving process, like, what are some? So you mentioned things that people have done, which is, like, just being with you and seeing and listening, were there any like, don'ts that came out of that process, or things that were like, less helpful? Cassidy 47:38 I think just, I don't know, because I don't want to sound like, like, like, you can't like, do this Unknown Speaker 47:45 specific thing, but Cassidy 47:46 because I know the grieving is totally different for everyone. But one thing that happened to me, it was like a week after it happened after you passed away someone, I know they were trying to come for me, but they said, You'll, you'll be okay. Like, you'll, you'll move on. I was like, Oh, Unknown Speaker 48:06 yeah. So I think a big thing Cassidy 48:07 for me is just really acknowledging that, that my feelings are valid and and I'm living in the present right now, and when I'm going through it's okay, it's okay to feel that, yeah, Ethan Sawyer 48:19 yeah, what I hear in that don't is like the person wanting to change you a little bit, yeah, and wanting you to be different and wanting you to be okay, quote, unquote, definitely wanting me to be okay, and probably feeling uncomfortable. Yeah, Speaker 1 48:33 I don't blame them. I would be totally uncomfortable too, but dad just being Ethan Sawyer 48:41 sensitive. The reason I asked you that question is not because I think in your essays, you need to talk about, hey, here's how I'm not five steps to not being with someone when they're going through a grieving process. But it's like, because what you you did it naturally, is it brought you to the what to do, and you'd kind of already said it, which is like, just be with somebody and, you know, just hear them and, like, help them feel heard. But there was some other way that you said it just now, and I'm forgetting exactly you phrased it, but it's like, there was, there was something it's like, instead of this, this instead and that's actually the insight, you know, that's the thing that you carry with you, in terms of a way of being with others and and seeing them. So I'm appreciating that. So what I was trying to do was kind of like, I don't know, it's like, it's like, kind of guide you into an insight backwards. Yeah, it's like, what's what not to do, and then what's better to do? So great. Okay, I think that that's you've got a few things there, a few different elements. And as far as the USC essay goes, I want to say back to you some of the things that I'm hearing you say so far. So there's something about empathy and something about the way that that was, you know, you didn't use the term dialed up, but going through that process allowed you to, I don't know you should see each other or see others or hear them more, but that seems like a big. Big piece. The second one was just the power of community. And you kind of got self conscious about, like, oh, I don't know if it's gonna be cheesy, but if you can drill down into the power of I, you know, I riffed on listening for a second, but like, potentially, it's about how to be with someone and help them feel seen. Because I'm interested in, like, what are the, sort of like, almost like the practical things are, like the superpowers that you developed, you know, during that time. And then I want you to just keep riffing, like, I'd just be curious to see you, you know, outline, what are some other pieces of things, some insights. And as you think about So, the one that you're thinking about reusing this for is Chapman, how would you utilize this understanding? In other words, these different insights that you've had to contribute to the values and welcoming fabric of our campus community. So so far, we're talking about something like empathy. We're talking about something like community. There's an exercise that I mentioned to you at the end of our last session that I want to bring up again, and it's that roles and identities exercise, and I'm just going to bring it up once more, and I think you've got it as well. And I'd love to just bring that one up a second and take a look at it. And just let's look at it through the lens of going through the grieving process. Let's just pick maybe three different identities that you felt like going through this process helped to strengthen or Summon, as it were, empathizer, Cassidy 51:22 cheerleader and self starter. Ooh, Ethan Sawyer 51:27 okay, self starter is a surprising one for me. How kind of this experience to me to becoming even more of a self starter. Cassidy 51:36 I think being in like that year after he passed away, was such, like, a huge period of stagnance for me. I was like, I want to like, I want to do something. I want to be I want to take initiative for myself again. And it's really driven me, I think, Ethan Sawyer 51:53 huge Cassidy, huge. I mean, this is such a beautiful connection that you're making here. And for the practicals of like, I mean, first of all, let me just like, on a human level, just say like that is, wow, like that you're taking this awful situation and spinning it into like, what can I do? What can I create? What can I build? Is just like, I find that really moving and and practically speaking for your college essays, even though that sounds like so humdrum like and just like, I feel even embarrassed, just like segueing like that, I mean, it just gives you so much to say and to write about. And we don't have to get into the all the details of it now, but like you've listed some of the things on your doc here, of like, ways that things that you started to get into, because you were probably, Ooh, let's go one level deeper. There were probably, I'm guessing, some needs that you were hoping to meet during that time. And we haven't ever talked about this, and I don't think I talked about it on the course at all, but I'm going to just, I'm interested in just looking for just two, two minutes at this list of needs, and I will. I'm going to share it with you here. Take a look at this list of needs. I'd be curious to know based on this list here, what are some needs that you feel like you were things that you were needing in that period of transition that then led you to like, I want to do something. I want to start something like by starting those things, by getting involved in those activities. What deeper needs do you feel like we're being fulfilled for you during that time? Cassidy 53:27 I think, in a way, independence, because I felt like that grief had like, tied me down. Yeah, Ethan Sawyer 53:34 great. Let's just riff here for like, what's like, three to five? Let's just, it doesn't have to be perfect, but I'm just rough draft here. So what are some other needs that you feel like getting involved in these activities? These activities, these organizations, these groups, these communities, what other needs did they fulfill for you? Cassidy 53:48 Definitely mutuality, I think, not just like being supported by people, but also being able to support other people to like, reciprocate that instead of just, you know, relying on them to help me through, through what I was going through. Ethan Sawyer 54:02 Awesome, awesome. Let's see what else we got. Let's see a couple more. What else do you see on this list that resonates? I think, play Unknown Speaker 54:11 cool. Yeah, it's just it's so Cassidy 54:14 tiring to to have to heal like that and just being able to play and get back all that joy. It was really healing also, but, yeah, I needed that Ethan Sawyer 54:26 amazing. And when you said that, it surprised me. And you're there was some, there was a lightness in your voice that I just that I love and I want to just like, yes, so big. And as you're relating some of these experiences that you then got involved with. Part of what I think that this piece of your story could do is help connect some of the dots, because you've got, yeah, I went through this really tough experience in middle school, and separate from that, I have all these activities and things, and I think that one of the cool, what I'll call it, the glue, the magical glue in between these things, is. Like getting your needs met, getting your needs met for independence, for play, for mutuality. You know, I bet you there's more here. So as a kind of like homework for this Chapman essay, I want to encourage you to think about what were the deeper needs that were getting fulfilled by some of these activities. Because without understanding the glue, sometimes when students are writing about big experiences, and then they're trying to like, be like, so then I got involved in these activities. We might reading it be like, Wait, why? Like, what? Because it could just be like, like, my parents got divorced, and then I got involved in theater. And you're like, Okay, well, what do those two have to do with each other? That's me speaking about myself. And it's like, Well, during that time, I was looking for connection and love and, you know, feeling seen, and, yeah, theater brought me all these things. So anyway, that's another little mini homework that I'm giving you on this on the USC Chapman one when it comes to this essay type, that's all about, what are the different, you know, qualities that you're going to bring to the college campus. I just want to, like draw you back to that roles and identities exercise, and I bet you there's more there, and I want to encourage you to just revisit that exercise and look at what are the different sides of you that you'd like to bring forth in your application that aren't yet being revealed in your personal statement. Because I think that the supplemental essay could be a beautiful place to bring forth some of those sides of you. And I want to encourage you to write the quote, unquote, secular version, which is like, you know, for schools like Stanford. And let's see who else asks about that. Chapman asks about it. And then I think that once you've written that one, then I would encourage you to go ahead and write the the Pepperdine and Biola ones, because they both kind of have a version of that in their own ways. But I think writing the secular one first is going to just generate a whole bunch of content. And I think this actually is a situation where even though Pepperdine word limit is longer, there's going to be stuff aside from that related to your faith that you're going to be able to bring in. But I think it'll be important to have both quote, unquote, secular values. And by what I'm saying, there is just universal values that anybody can vibe with, whether you're Christian or Jewish, you know, whatever faith you are. And then separate from that, you can go and hear the values that as a woman of faith that I've that I've cultivated in my life, we've gone on for a while here. So I don't know that I'm going to get into necessarily the UC personal insight questions, because it's kind of like a whole other, you know, thing, a whole nother situation. I don't know. Maybe we'll do another episode, but I would just for, just in terms of action items for you here, I want to encourage you to take some of what we've started to brainstorm, you know, as it relates to coming through the grieving process. And I want to encourage you to free ride a little bit, particularly for the USC one. And I think that that's going to turn into some beautiful content for the beautiful content for the Chapman one. Part one of that essay is going to be all about you. How have you grown, developed? What are the identities, roles that you've summoned? And then part two is really going to be a research in other words, you're going to need to then go into Chapman and figure out, okay, based on these different sides of me, how are they going to manifest on the Chapman campus? And to research specific opportunities, to manage where you'll manifest those roles. So for example, let's say you're like, you know, one of the roles or identities that you want to bring forth is the role of, you know, self starter. And you've become a self starter by, you know, and you've listed some things on the dock, but you know, seeking out new opportunities and oncology, and, you know, different clubs you've been a part of as a self starter at Chapman, what do you help to catalyze? What do you help to start? What do you want to begin? You've been a cheerleader with your friends at the hospital, definitely in ballet, right? These are all beautiful ways that you've manifested this, what I'll call like the enthusiast or cheerleader identity. Where are you going to apply that? At Chapman, what are the particular opportunities on campus that you'll find to cheerlead your new friends? So that's something to brainstorm for that. One in particular. We're not even getting the short answers this week. Feel free to draft those. I've got a separate guide on that that I can send you. But next time when we come back, I'd love to take a look at some of these drafts. I'd love to look at both of these essays that we've talked about, the science one, the biology, medicine one. And I'd love to see how things are coming along with this essay about going through the grieving process and what you learned through that maybe even the Chapman one, pausing for just a second, and I've been doing a lot of talking, just curious what's happening in your brain. What are you noticing? Cassidy 59:25 I mean, this show is awesome. Like, I love having the specific things that I can put on my to do list to, you know, up level, up level, my application. And just making sure that I'm showcasing like every side of me is, it's really good. Thank you. Awesome. Ethan Sawyer 59:41 When it comes to this, maybe we'll talk a little bit the Stanford essays next time. The way that I think of this application is you've got the brainy essay, which is the idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning. That's that intellectual curiosity, in your case, biomedicine. And then you've got the. Personality essay, which is the roommate essay that shows that side of you and then separate from that you've got. Now this, it used to be a different prompt, but now it's sort of like and how are you going to manifest this all at Stanford? Bonus points, if you have time and energy to draft all three of those would be awesome, and we can look at those. If not, I'll take what you've got, and we'll talk about whatever you've got, but we'll basically, let's make our next session reviewing this, these two super topics, and I'll go from there. Awesome. I can hear you writing. I love I love you writing. It's so great. Speaker 1 1:00:36 I have a ton of sticky notes all on my desk over here. So Cassidy, Ethan Sawyer 1:00:41 I want to thank you again for being willing to go through this process with me like live as it were, and your vulnerability and your your hard work is just really, I find it really inspiring. And yeah, I just feel deeply, deeply grateful. Cassidy 1:00:53 Thank you so much. I'm so grateful for this opportunity. Thank you for thank you for taking Unknown Speaker 1:00:59 a chance on me. Ethan Sawyer 1:01:00 Right I'll talk to you in a couple weeks. Okay, bye. Bye. Hey friends, thanks again for listening. In our next episode with Cassidy in a few weeks, we'll revisit and see how she's doing. How are things coming along? And I'm recording this live, so I have no idea how these essays are gonna go. In the meantime, though, while we're waiting for Cassie to work on her drafts, we've got a special three part series called storytelling and identity, and this is me interviewing my screenwriter friends and asking them about how their identity, or identities show up in the movies they choose to write. We'll start off with my friend Dave, who wrote a little movie called Shang Chi in the 10 Rings. Yes, for Marvel, he talks about action movies. How do you write a great action scene and why? In some cases, it can be like a love story and lots more. Stay tuned for that. And as always, stay curious. You. Transcribed by https://otter.ai
