Tiger Tip 7: Common Application Prompts & Essay Writing

Hi everyone, welcome to Tiger Tip #7. My name is Leticia. I am one of the admission counselors here in the Office of Admission at Suwanee, and today we are going to chat about common app prompts and essay writing. I know that this can be a daunting subject, so hopefully you'll learn some tips and tricks today. I'm happy to answer any questions that you all have surrounding the essay or application prompts and things like that.

But before we get started, I'll just go ahead and introduce myself. So like I said, I'm Leticia, I work primarily with first year domestic students from the Mid-Atlantic and California. So it's California, MD, DC, Virginia, Delaware, PA and New Jersey. So if you're from any of those areas, I would be your admission counselor. But one thing I'll do at the end is I'll pop a link in the chat. So that way if I am not your admission counselor, you can find who your admission counselor is in case you want to get.

The contact, OK. And I love seeing where everyone is from. We have folks from all over, actually all over the world. We have some folks from Russia. So really cool. So thank you all for introducing yourself and telling us where you're from. I think that's always just cool to see. But you know, let's just jump right in. I don't want to waste any time. So this chat that you all have introduced yourselves in, I always like to do that, but also just to get you familiar with the chat because that's where you'll be able to ask any questions that you have.

Um, the chat is moderated. So what that means is you might type in a question and you won't see it right away because I have to approve them on my end. And so feel free to pop in any questions that you have as I'm going along and I might stop and answer it right then and there, or I will definitely leave some time at the end to answer questions. OK. But feel free to type them in the chat as you're thinking about them at any point. If you don't see it right away, don't worry, OK, And then.

Any point you have any issues or you can't hear me or anything like that, feel free to use the chat to let me know that, but also feel free to try refreshing your page, OK?

So we are just going to jump right in to UM.

Application prompts, essay writing and kind of go over that. So these are the different types of application essays that you can have and then kind of how we review them on the college side. OK. So depending on the the system that that school uses, you might have a holistic review in which an essay is just kind of like one piece of the component in which a school is looking at when when we're doing our evaluation. Some schools have an automatic.

Admission process in which it could be automated on different factors. It could be automated on GPA or test scores or or really anything that that school sets as their parameters. Some schools do kind of a hybrid process, so that means they do a little bit of both. They do a little bit of a holistic review, but there might be still some automatic processes happening in there. And then also an essay could come into play when it comes time for scholarships or fellowships or different things like that. OK, so here.

Miss Swanee, we use your essay as a part of the holistic review process. You know, so for us, we do a holistic review of every single applicant. We do not have any automatic admission processes. So real people are reading your essays or reading your application through and through our reading your recommendation letters like, and we're using all of those pieces to make a decision, OK?

Um, and so.

The role of the essay. There's a lot of different roles that the essay will serve, so this is just some of them. Basically, you know, it's a dynamic component of the app. It more specifically can show us your written communication skills. I think that's one of the most important aspects of it. We want to get to know you through the essay, but we also want to see your writing ability and your writing skills. So it also gives us context beyond just the numbers and beyond just the things, the other things that you've written in your application we can get.

Insight into your life experiences. We can understand things directly from your point of view. And then lastly, it's an opportunity for you to express yourself you know it's an opportunity for.

It's like a component that humanizes the application. You know, everything else is kind of numbers and grades and just different things like this, positions and and leadership and things you've done. But the essay is the one piece that really kind of brings you to the application and allows the person reading it and reviewing it to get to know you to an extent. You know, it's it's not a perfect science and of course we're not going to know who you are completely from just reading one essay, but it's really nice to be able to.

Kind of just get to know you or hear things from your perspective and you know just get some additional context in addition to all the other pieces that we're seeing.

Alright, so when it comes to the Common app and so really today I do want to mention, so a lot of what I'm talking about is geared towards the Common application here at Suwannee, we are Common app school, but there are some schools that are not coming up schools, there are other application options besides the Common app, but we are just kind of talking about the Common App today. So just a word of advice is that you're if you're looking at any other schools that are not a Common app school or have other ways of applying.

Be sure to do your research, reach out to the emission counselors there and be sure that you understand the processes and you know what you need to do in that regard. So I do just want to say that a lot of this is geared primarily towards the common app, OK.

So when it comes to the common app, there is a couple different options for your writing sections. So the common app, the most common one is the personal essay. OK, so most schools are going to require that common app essay. Now there are some schools that make that optional here at Suwanee that is required, but that's the only piece that's required. So you have your common app personal essay.

You have college specific questions so you might see in the common app with school is asking you know why do you want to attend our university or what do you feel that you could bring to ex university. You know So those are going to be your college specific questions and they want to know specifically how you see yourself fitting in at that university and and how you can be an asset and what you can bring to that university. And then some schools also will have writing supplements. So those are going to be your short answer questions they can be about.

Various topics the questions can vary will vary from from school to school and so it depends. Some schools have this as something that's required, some maybe only have it required for certain pieces like scholarship. Some colleges request this based on how you answer other questions. So it really just depends. And again, I'm going to keep driving it home that I want you to make sure that you are doing your research for all the schools that you are applying to. That way you understand what's needed.

For those institutions. And that way you can prepare yourself because you might not have to just write one essay, you might have to do an essay, you might have to also do some short answers, and you just want to be prepared and give yourself enough time to write all of those pieces. OK, so here at Suwanee we do only require just the common app personal essay. We do not have any college specific questions. We also do not have any additional writing supplements or short answer questions. OK, so there's nothing more you need to do besides just your common app.

Say, OK, so we have some different types of essays, all right? So we have narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive. OK. And so the different kind of differences in between them. And so a narrative essay is kind of telling a story.

OK. And a descriptive essay can be describing any, you know, these kind of self-explanatory, but describing anything, describing an experience, describing something that interests you, anything that you kind of falls in that room for you. An expository essay is something that is just kind of like exposing something. So think of it as you are digging deeper. You are exploring some topic and you are using your.

Say to kind of dig deep and and explain something in some sort of way or persuasive and so having a persuasive essay. So really it's up to you what type of essay you're choosing. I think the main.

Focus is that it just comes from you and it is something that you are passionate about. And so when thinking about the essay, you know your main focus of the essay, of course we would love for it to be you. Again, we want to hear about you and we want to hear from you. Some students choose to kind of have the focus of their SAB, why They think they're a great fit for the institution that they're applying to. Some students get really creative. I mean, it really is no right or wrong way to approach or write the essay.

Um, and it's really just up to you what speaks to you and and kind of what you feel passionate about. I am going to take a little break. So someone asked will the meeting be recorded? Yes, this is going to be recorded and then it's going to be up on our Tiger Tips website as early as tomorrow possibly, but not if not definitely by the end of the week. So yeah, if you, you know, miss anything, you want to go back, this will be up on our website soon. OK. So next I am going to list.

All of this year's Common app prompts. OK, so there's a lot on this one page, but the Common app has seven different prompts that you can choose from every year, and so these are the prompts for this year that you will have to choose from. OK, so if you are a rising senior and planning to apply to schools this fall, these are the prompts you're going to be able to choose from. And so.

It really, again, is up to you. You know what sits with you, what what speaks to you, and what you want to talk about. But one through 6 are specific prompts. And then #7 is always just you submitting an essay of your choice. OK, and so you have the option of whether or not you want to choose one of these.

Prompts that you see in in one through 6. Or you can just choose seven and you're able to write about whatever it is that you want. OK, so you're not limited to these prompts, but it's just if you're not sure where to go, it can be a great starting point. Okay And so. Like I said, these will be This session will be recorded. These are also online as well. If you just Google 2023-2024 common app prompts, you'll be able to see this online as well, OK.

All right, so now I'm just going to jump in to a little advice, tips, tricks, and how to go about writing, revising, proofing your essay. Of course, you do not have to do it in this way, just things for you to think about, Think about how you work best and what's going to work best for you. But you know if any of these will help you in the process, you know, feel free to definitely take what you need. OK, so I've broken it down into 3 phases, and so the first phase is going to be brainstorming.

Um. And so if you are starting from scratch today, you do not have an essay yet. You don't even know what you want to write about. This is where you want to start, OK, And so you one just need to set aside some time to get it done. Again, I know it's a daunting thing, and it's probably the last thing you want to do during the summer, but the earlier you start kind of just brainstorming, getting things down on paper, wrapping your mind around it, the easier it will be. Come later. You know your essay, your college essay is not something you want to.

Wait until the last minute and try to kind of rush through. So give yourself time maybe like just devoting one hour per week to getting some things on paper, You know, adding to an essay, creating a draft, things like that.

In this time, you can look through those prompts. You can choose one um and really understand what it is the prompt is saying. Or if you know that you want to just write about something of your own, think of start kind of getting those notes on paper. Jot it down, see what you might want to do. OK. Identify the question for the essay. So what is that prompt really asking? Like what? What is the question And what is it that you should be responding to based on that prompt in your essay? OK, and then.

Another piece of advice would be to just set a timer, maybe for 15 minutes, and just brainstorm free flow. Write, write down words. They don't have to even be full sentences at this point, You know, just write down things and just kind of see where it takes you. Feel free to do some research on yourself. You know what's important to you, what's meaningful to you, What could you write about for hours? You know, like what holds your attention? Think about things like that. And then.

What moments or experiences align with your strengths? And you know your essay topics, so think about things that you've been through, your life, your life experiences.

That stands out for you. What is something that you want to highlight? You know, so really, in this brainstorming phase, just really think about what's what's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about what you might want to share in a college essay and explore it, Brainstorm, jot things down. At this point, you do not have to be writing a full-fledged paper or paragraphs or anything like that, but just kind of having some time to just sit brainstorm.

Is totally fine. And the this might take multiple sessions. This might take multiple weeks. You know, I don't expect you to sit down one time and then get up and say, alright, I know exactly what I'm writing about. You know, sometimes it's a little bit harder than that and that's OK And that's why, you know, we always suggest you give yourself a little bit of time in the process. OK. So next phase is going to be the rough draft. All right. So answer the question, Have you answered the question at, you know, in the prompt? One thing that you can do is just make sure you have the prompt.

On the page that you're brainstorming and writing your draft on. That way, you can always go back to it to remind yourself what you're writing about. Feel free to just tell a story. Like start it off by just talking, like how you would talk to a friend, how you would talk to a family member, how you would talk to a mentor about what it is you want to write. OK. And so like, write it like you would say it. So write it like you're just having a conversation with a friend and then you can always go back later and revise it. I think you know one of the things that.

Holds people up. A lot of the times is you're trying to sit down in that very first draft and write the paper the exact way that you wanted to turn it in with your college application. And sometimes that works and sometimes that can hold you up a little bit. But feel free to just write it out the way you would say it if it helps you to sit in front of your laptop and record yourself just talking about it. Or open up, you know, your phone and just record yourself talking about it.

And then you can kind of listen back to that, pull out things that you want, um, you know, whatever helps. But feel free to just kind of it's a rough draft, you know, it's just you getting out what you want to say and you can always revise it later. OK. And so the most important thing though, as you're writing your essay and I'll probably say this many, many times again before this is over, it's just be yourself. I know you probably hear that a lot, but it's true, you know, don't write about.

What you think someone wants to read or what you think a certain university wants to hear about. Like, just be yourself. Write about what is important to you, what is what you're passionate about, what you're interested in, whatever it is. That's always going to go so much further than, you know, just a generic essay that you feel like a school wants to read, OK? And then when you've kind of gotten some things down, then take time to edit, you know, go back.

Go back again, revise your words, move things around. Like you know that's when you kind of start to refine what you've written down, OK, but don't worry about refining it as you're writing it. Go back and do that later.

OK, lastly, once you have something on paper, once you have somewhat of an essay, you are going to need to proofread. Ideally you'll pull other people into this process as well to help you, because it's always one piece of advice that I always give and it's on here as well, is have someone else read it. Don't tell them anything about what you've written. Don't explain it to them first. Just give them your essay. Ask them to read it.

And then ask them to tell you what they got from it and what they think you're trying to convey. OK. And I think you will know where you are in your proofreading process depending on what they tell you. So if what they tell you is exactly what you're trying to get across, then great, you know you, you've done a great job in in actually saying and conveying what you want. But if what they kind of got from your essay is a little bit different than what you were hoping to convey, then you can have that time to proofread.

And think about what you want to say and kind of refine that. OK, Um.

Because one thing to always note is that you never know who's going to read that essay. People come from all different walks of life and experiences. So one thing that I always also mention is don't use it. A lot of acronyms in your essay that are not widely known, like maybe they're things that your high school that are are widely known and people know what they mean. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to know what it means, you know, when I read it.

Or, you know, certain humor or just different things like that. I'll get into those things in just a little bit. But, you know, just think about the fact that different people will read this from all walks of life. And so just making sure that you are conveying what you want to convey, I think is really important. OK, And and then feel free to edit it Again, your language, let it be simple, direct, clear. You know, it's a personal essay. It's personal to you. It's not a paper for a grade. So you don't need to try to use.

The biggest words that you can find, if that's not actually how you talk, again, just be yourself. Be yourself in the essay. Okay. Keep proofreading it. Make sure you're uploading and you know, putting in the correct essay when it's actually time to submit it and and then preview it in the common app before you actually submit it. OK, so just to break it down, OK, so my my advice for your first step is just brainstorm. Get things on.

Paper. It doesn't have to make sense. It does not have to be complete sentences. Then start to kind of write out. Record yourself talking. Whatever works just about your topic. Just kind of talk. Ramble right and and see what comes out. And then go back and start to refine it. Start to put it in complete sentences, start to put it into paragraphs, start to move things around. And then when you have a full body of work, you have a full page of writing. That's when you go in and.

Read it OK.

So common oversights, common things that people might, you know, overlook in the process or common errors, I think I would say that we probably sometimes see on our end is like inappropriate use of sarcasm or humor again, or overuse of cliches. You know, again, just going back to, you never know who's going to read your essay. You know, it can be people in different generations or from different walks of life and so things that you might find.

Funny and hilarious. Maybe, you know, someone in their 50s, if they're reading it, might not find it so funny and hilarious, you know? So just think about those kind of things, you know? Again, be yourself. But.

You know, it's kind of that that fine line of still providing a professional body of work that you want to kind of do because again, we want to get to know you, but we also want to see your written communication skills, Okay. So it's kind of balancing the two.

You know, we get essays that it's very clear that there has been no editing or proofreading. So please don't do that. Look over your essay and definitely have someone else look over it if you can. I if I had a dollar for all the times I've read an essay that was addressed to the wrong school, I would have a lot of dollars. So be sure that you are looking at the essay and making sure that it's addressed to the school that you're actually sending it to.

Um, you know, make sure that it's appropriate length as well. Um, depending on how you are submitting your essay or the the schools that you're submitting it to, it's possible if your essay is too long that it's just going to get cut off and then we're getting an essay that just stops mid sentence and that's really confusing. It feels like you didn't proofread it and we don't really know what's going on, you know, So just make sure you're abiding by the length requirements so you know, just again an appropriate.

So you don't want it to be too short? Um, you know.

It is an essay, so we don't want to see something come through with only four sentences. You know that definitely would be way too short. And then you don't want it to be too lengthy as well, OK?

Again, make sure that you're just addressing the topic. If you do choose one of the prompts and, um, you know, make sure that that what you're talking about comes back to that prompt and answers and addresses that prompt. Okay. Overreaching, over stretching, stretching the topic elevated language. Again, don't try to sound smart or use big words if that's not naturally how you speak and how you talk. And also don't use your essay as just a space to rehash.

Resume and your activities and your leadership and your grades, because we can see all of those things in your application as it is. OK. So we already can see the things you're involved in, the leadership positions that you have. We can see your grades, we can see the classes that you've taken. So really the essay should be a piece that introduces some new information. OK, now don't get me wrong if you are in.

Boy Scouts and you had a very profound experience within that and that's what you want to write your essay about. That's totally fine, you know. But don't just say in your essay that you are in Boy Scouts and you've been in it for X amount of years and you know, don't just run through your resume, you know, in your essay because we can see that that in other places, so.

All right. So last piece of advice is when you're going through UM.

Maybe these are some areas to kind of help you along if you're feeling stuck, If you're having writers block, um, these are some things that you could do, some things that could help. And so if one thing that you're struggling with is it's just too many topics to choose from and you have no idea which one to choose and you know where to start, just think about your, like, take away first, think about which one. Just like, read all the prompts and without thinking too hard about it.

Which one stands out to you the most? What story comes to your mind? What experience pops in your mind 1st? And just explore that. You know. Sometimes I think we can overthink things like this. And so sometimes just going with that first thought that that first, you know, kind of idea that pops in your head or experience that you think of or memory or whatever the case may be might be what you're most passionate about, you know. And you might find that that's something that you're able to to speak about and.

Speak about in in an essay. So if you're having trouble like digging deeper or getting your point across, don't be afraid to add vulnerability to your essay. It definitely does not have to be a place where you spill all your deepest, darkest secrets. But don't be afraid to be vulnerable again. Don't be afraid to be yourself.

Um, that ultimately is what we want to see. We want to kind of learn a little bit about you. We want to feel that we've gotten to know you a little bit better in your essay. And so I think if you can add some pieces of who you are and just kind of think about it from that perspective, then hopefully that can help you push along as well. Avoid the five paragraph structure. Again, this is not a term paper for grade.

Um, you don't have to start with like a title or, um, you know, paragraph introductions, things like that. I mean, it doesn't have to be super formal in that sense, but you still want it to have correct structure. You do still want it to have paragraphs. You don't want it to be one big body of work, but don't feel that it has to be so rigid. It doesn't have to be APA style, you know? So just think about it again, as this is a personal essay, it's still an essay and so you do still want to have paragraph structure.

But it doesn't have to be so structured that it loses the essence of you and who you are. Um. And we don't want it to start to feel like you know a paper that you're submitting for your English class.

Um, alright. So this one is 1 that I hear a lot. You know, I think there's a, you know, I don't know if it's a misconception, but I think there is the idea that.

You don't really have much to write about if you've never struggled through anything in life, you know, but that's not what the essay needs to be about now. If you have overcome some challenges and some struggles in your life and that's where your passion lies and that's what you want to talk about and you are proud of yourself and and you know that's what you want to focus in on.

Absolutely. Feel free. Go ahead, you know, But you don't have to have overcome something great or or struggled in your life in order to just express yourself in and tell us a little bit about who you are. Every single person has had experiences, personal experiences and things that have happened to you that are important. And so it doesn't have to be something that was a hardship that you faced or something that you've struggled with and.

That's not the focus of this. The focus of this is just for us to get to know you and again, for us to evaluate your writing ability. And so like I mentioned, if you do have something that you want to tell us about in that realm, feel free, Go ahead. Absolutely. But don't feel like you have to have, you know, overcome something very difficult in order to have a good essay to write about, because that's not the case. That's not the case at all. And then balance your humor, again, just understanding the variety of viewpoints.

At an essay reader might bring. And so I talked about that before. But just looking at and thinking about the fact that it's not going to be one of your friends reading it. So your humor, you know, you kind of just have to be mindful of of things like that. It could be a wide variety of folks reading your essay. Here at Suwanee our applications go through multiple reads and multiple people. So there could be very, you know, a couple different people reading your essay and so just balancing the things that you're talking about.

And them and making sure it's appropriate and things like that. It's always super important.

OK. So any questions that you all have?

I definitely AM.

Wanting to leave a ton of time for questions. Anything that you're wanting to know, anything that you have questions about, Anything that I can kind of clarify when it comes to the essay? Feel free to pop that in the chat now.

OK, one question is what What do I mean by the five paragraph structure? Is the essay just supposed to be one big paragraph? That's a great question and no it is not. It is not supposed to be one big paragraph. But I what I mean is I don't want you to get so bogged down into the essay format in terms of so like A5 paragraph essay is usually very formal. You know, I kind of just use that as an example, but maybe it wasn't a great one because yes, you definitely still need to have paragraph and structure.

To your essay, like 3 paragraphs is usually a great rule of thumb, but it just doesn't have to be so structured. APA style. Things like that, like what you would do for a paper that you're turning in for a grade. Now sometimes we get essays and we can kind of tell that this was probably a term paper, an English paper, something that they had to submit for a grade. And that just doesn't always kind of resonate as well or, you know, come across as great because it's it doesn't allow us to.

Kind of get to know you in that sense when you're kind of just trying to submit a a good paper for a grade type of mentality, if you get what I mean. But we definitely still want to see sentence structure. We definitely still want to see paragraph structure. We do not want it to just be all one big paragraph. But just remember this is not something you're turning in for a grade. So it doesn't have to be, you know, with the title and and you know different things like that. You don't have to do all of that.

Hopefully that makes sense.

OK, I see people add dialogue in their essays sometimes. Does that stand out to admission officers? That's a good question. It definitely can. I mean, if if your dialogue is something that is interesting and unique and adds to the story that you're trying to tell, it definitely can. And. And it's something that kind of like draws the reader in. You know, you might hear some folks say that your essay should have like a hook something that.

Kind of like draws you in the beginning and and makes you makes the reader want to keep on going. And so I think that's great. I don't think it's like don't get so hung up in having like a hook for your essay if it's not something that is naturally kind of coming to you. You don't have to have this super dramatic entrance, you know, to your essay in order to keep people reading. But.

I think adding dialogue, being creative, I mean, you know, I'll tell a story. So one time I read an essay that was kind of like a poem style, but it was the essay was written to the theme song of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. OK, if you all know that show. And so the person who was writing their essay said at the top, like read this to the theme song of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. And so it was a super untraditional essay, but.

It was. It was creative. It was cool. It was, you know, energetic. It was interesting. And it was something that, like our entire office was like, you guys have got to see this is how cool is this? So I'm not saying that you have to do something so out-of-the-box, but I also don't want you to feel that you're so constrained in your college essay either. Now think about and and do your research into the schools that you're applying to. Some schools might want more formal essays, things like that, but some schools might be open to.

Some creativity, some dialogue, whatever the case may be. So be sure to do some research. Those are those are great questions to ask Admission Counselor. Is that all of the schools that you're interested in applying to?

But you know, here at Swanee, we we love some creativity in your essay. We do love a little bit of dialogue or you know, just memories, experiences, anything that you feel would add to kind of telling your story is is totally doable and something that we look forward to reading for sure.

OK. All right. So there's a couple more questions here. So it says, would it be better to mention health problems that a student overcome or is it something that the college does not want to know about? That's a great question. And so I think that is, again, up to you if that experience is something that is, is really profound to you and something that you want to share.

Feel free, go ahead. I think it's not. It's something you don't have to share if you don't want to, but if you do want to, then then absolutely. I think that would be a great thing to talk about. So I think it really just kind of comes down to what what you want now if you're thinking that you don't want to write your essay on that and you just think it's info that the school has to know.

Again, I it's not something you have to put in your application, but if you want to, you can. So in addition to the essay, there is going to be a space in the common app for additional information. And so if there's something that you just want us to know, if there's something that you feel will add more context to your application, you can always put it in that additional section space instead of writing your essay about it. So you you have a lot of options there. But yeah, if you think it's something that.

Is a profound experience to you in a story that you want to tell. Feel free to write your essay about it. If it's just information that you feel would be good context for us, you can always put it in that additional section space, OK?

Would admission officers prefer prefer a narrative essay style or something more direct about our experiences that can appeal to the school? Again, it's so hard with some of these because I think my answer is always going to be it's up to you because again you know you don't want to go into it writing or writing about or writing how you think that schools want to see. But you know at Suwanee we.

Will we see both kinds of essays? I've I've seen a lot of narrative essays that are great. I've seen a lot of essays that are just kind of to the point about experiences that are great also. And so again, I think just whatever is going to be easiest for you to write about is the way that you should go. You know that whatever feels the most natural to you, because I think that's going to produce the best product In terms of your essay, you know that you're going to be proud of. I think if you're trying to write in a style that doesn't feel supernatural to you.

And is not something that you can do easily. It might seem a little bit forced. It might not be your best work. So just think about it like that. Unless the school has specifically said that they want a certain type of essay or they prefer a certain type of essay, I'd say take the approach of writing in the style that feels best to you. Because again, I think that's going to produce the the best result in terms of your essay.

OK. Any other questions, anything else that I can?

Answer about application process, how we review essays, things like that.

OK. It says, would it be wise to link a personal website in the additional info space of the common app, something major specific? Yeah, absolutely you can. I've I've seen, I've gotten links to students portfolios or just any kind of. I've gotten links to students who are entrepreneurs and they have online businesses. They've sent those links before. Yeah. I think anything that you want to show us, you want us to see about you, whether it's your passions.

Or work you've done or a portfolio or something that is unlined with the major that you want to go into. Feel free to share those things with us. We always love just kind of seeing students interest, hobbies and work and things like that, even if it it it might not even be major specific. And that's OK too if it's something that you're just passionate about. I love getting a link and and clicking around on a student's website, exploring their portfolio, seeing their artwork, seeing their projects or things that you've worked on.

Because it just, again, gives us a little bit more context of who you are and what's important to you. And we kind of get to know you a little bit more, especially if we can like step into your world of like a website you've created or you know, seeing your work or something like that. So absolutely, if you think that that's something that you want to share and we'll complement your application, feel free, Definitely feel free to share that, Yeah.

And then also when it comes to the app, this isn't really essay specific, but here at Suwanee you can send an additional like resume or something like that if you want. It's not required at all. You will, you know, not be at a disadvantage if you don't submit it. But if you have things you want to explain in more detail or you know the extracurricular section in the common app is not enough to kind of like thoroughly explain what you've done and what you've participated in.

Feel free to, you know, send something to your admission counselor or feel free to use that additional section space and feel free to explain a little bit further. You know, I've I've come across students who have been involved in you know, like really great research and really cool internships and projects. And you know, the couple of lines that you get in that extra curricular section just weren't enough to fully explain the magnitude of what they had done and been involved in. So feel free to, you know, add that context and and give us that additional info as well.

OK, OK. If you have any more questions, feel free to pop those in the chat.

I don't see any yet.

So I can, you know, I'll stick around for just a little bit, but here on this slide is some QR codes. If you want to learn more about any of these different areas, you can just put your phone right up to the QR code and it'll take you right to that website. So that is pretty cool. And then I will also link, like I mentioned, the admission counselor page so you can find your specific admission counselor if it is not me. So that is that page. And then umm.

What is it? Ohh, you know what? And I will also link the website where this session will will be. The recording will be on this Tiger Tips website by the end of the week. Also, this is Tiger Tip #7. So we've had six other tips this summer that are about different things. If you've missed any of those, you can find those recordings on that second link that I just put in there as well on the website. So feel free to pop in and and.

You know, look at any of those things. Feel free to reach out to us if you have questions, you know, reach out to us, your admission counselors. I don't want you to be nervous about reaching out to us. It's literally our job. That's what we do. We're here to help. I know this is it's a, it's a, you know, it's a different process and you've never done it before. We're applying to school. And so utilize your resources. Don't be afraid to reach out to the universities, to the admission counselors and ask for help. So you know, if you do have any questions after this is over, you can use that.

Think for the admission council, the page, you can find my e-mail, You can shoot me an e-mail. I'm happy to help with anything. Yeah. And I hope you all have a really great summer. It's really great that you all are thinking about the application and getting a jump start on things. That's amazing. But I also hope you get to have some fun this summer and relax a little bit. And I wish you guys all the best this upcoming school year. And like I mentioned, just feel free to reach out if you have any questions. So, all right, Thank you.

For tuning in and I hope you all have a great rest of your day.