Before You Hit "Submit"! | Real College Talk Season 2, Ep. 5

Real College Talk

Welcome to Real College Talk! RCT is your destination for honest and relevant college and postsecondary conversation. We bring the best of the best to our podcast to share both their personal and professional experiences and advice regarding all things school, college, career paths, and life in general.

Personal statements, supplements, resumes, oh my!

In the heat of application season, Morgan and Nikhil are taking a deep dive into three main aspects of the Common Application, sharing proven tips, best practices, and personal advice sure to leave everything from your essays to your activities list in tip-top shape. The goal? Each of these elements should complement one another, uniting together to reflect YOU (1:30).

To start, we’re talking all about the personal statement (1:48) and the various approaches to this aspect of the application (4:00). There’s no “right” way to write a personal statement, but before you hit submit, be sure that your approach to the topic allows admissions officers to understand a unique aspect of your authentic personality or a captivating transformation you’ve experienced (3:08), coming back around to why you would be an amazing addition to their college or university. Nikhil and Morgan share examples from their own personal statements to illustrate how to make this essay unique to you (5:22) with an emphasis on “show, don’t tell” (7:17).

Next up, we discuss the two main types of supplemental essay prompts: one that asks you to speak directly to the ways in which you are a good fit for that college/university/program, and another that poses a personal (or seemingly random!) question meant to illustrate your values and intellect (10:03). These distinct topics should be approached uniquely, but we encourage you to establish a consistency between your supplemental essays such that they each reflect your authentic beliefs and personality (13:10). What do you REALLY love about that school? A particular set of courses or study abroad opportunity? The unique culture? How does your favorite book or movie connect to your choice of major? Can you bring your own flair to the supplement with a short story or unique writing style (14:53)? Before you hit submit, be sure to check that your supplementals strike a balance between answering the school’s prompt directly and addressing the deeper question of “how is this particular applicant a great fit for our school?”

Finally, we spend the latter half of the episode exploring rudimentary aspects of college apps, such as the activities and honors lists, additional info section, and resume (16:22). To start Nikhil conducts a comparison between the activities and honors lists, while emphasizing that admissions officers care less about the amount of activities you’ve been involved in and more about the type of role or leadership influence that you’ve held in the extra-curriculars you’ve chosen to list (17:55). Be on the lookout to create synergy between your activities and your supplements: Are you a strong academic? A natural leader? A creative both in and outside of the classroom? A unique blend of it all? We discuss specific tips and word choice tricks to ensure you’re making the most of the limited word space for each activity (18:54) before wrapping up with a final checklist for your additional info section (23:41) and college resume (28:52)!

This was a packed episode, but with each of these application elements locked in, you’re ready to hit “submit”!

Real College Talk is a podcast that you won't want to miss! To catch every episode, make sure to hit the subscribe button and turn on our notifications. You can follow us on Instagram @realcollegetalk and follow our co-hosts @morgs__anne and @nikhil.vn. We are always working on new content, so be on the lookout for our latest episodes. In the meantime, Keep It Real!