 All right. Hello, my people. How's it going? Welcome to the score channel Today we have a special day. We have a Q&A day It's been a while since I've done a Q&A day with you guys just a day where I kind of sit here and answer questions and say What's up? So if you want to say hi in the chat, please do and if you got any questions Hit us up today because it is your last chance Before the early application deadlines in the United States if you got some last-minute questions about your common app or Your essays or anything else you're working on. It's a good time to let me know We've got a really busy week. It's uh, you know for us It's a huge day probably one of our biggest days of the year because we've got I Mean we got at least 40 people doing applications this weekend. It was intense We had a lot going on, but it worked out really well And I want to give a big shout out to the whole team Everybody's score made it possible want to say big. Thank yous to all you people Everybody in the essay team everybody on the counseling team and everybody in between I won't be lead to you guys everybody stepped up and made this thing awesome and I got to say mad respect and I'm also really pleased with all the students who've been working with us Everybody's doing a great job and really getting things done You know always got a few people that do things at the last minute But they can work we get out there. We get it done. So that was cool Yeah, so this was a big deadline because I mean you're looking at the early applications the early action early decision Applications for the United States. So that's a lot of universities and that is tough Okay, that's that's a tough one to do. We got a lot of deadlines that we got to take care of so We had a lot of lot of essays to check a lot of applications to fill out, but it's gone really smoothly so far I know there's people though that haven't finished yet I know there's people that like are still working on this right now So if you need some help hit me up. That's what I'm here for I've basically been the fireman at score this weekend just trying to Get everything done and get it done right and make sure we don't have any problems if something comes up last minute I'm there. I swoop in save the day. That's been my style so far So that's that's pretty much how we've been doing things and handling business. It's gone really well But you know, there's always a lot of things to learn and things that I think we we find that every year There are surprises every year There's things that pop up that you don't expect and that's something you want to take in mind when you're doing these applications is like do them early You honestly should be doing them right now If you haven't already you should have had them done probably yesterday because you never know what can pop up Sometimes you start out applying to a place and then after you apply they ask you more questions They ask you for more things It's there's a lot of stuff that comes up in this process that you learn as you do it multiple times You know the more we do this the more we understand the process But at the same time even if you understand the process inside and out, there's always surprises There's always things that you know take you by surprise So you got to be ready for those things you have to have people around you that can support you We also got all these recommender letters that we got to take care of too. That's another big thing Your recommenders need to get their stuff up and that's been another Fun time for us is helping everybody figure out how to upload those and get things ready So we've had a lot of stuff going on there So yes, it's been a busy week, but we're getting through it and from this point forward things get a little easier You know, we're gonna have a simpler time in terms of The rest of the next couple months because a lot of your essays You know you can reuse parts of those when you go forward into the next couple months for your regular Emission deadlines or even like your early December deadlines. You already got some material that you can use So that makes your life easier as far as you know The actual common app stuff you've already filled out the bulk of that So, you know, you've done all the general information stuff the education stuff, you know, you've got your recommenders lined up So basically from this point forward, it's just not got a few essays and hit that send button and then you're happy and life goes on It's a good time. So so yeah, we're making good progress. We're we're closing in on the end of the year already It is crazy to think about that we have six weeks Well six weeks until the middle of December, which is basically when Most of the applications are due in the States and then we get into our holiday break where everything kind of chills out for a while January you got some big countries come and do you got ones like, you know, the Netherlands UK got to finish up those applications in January Some more European ones to take care of in the next few months after that, you know around like January February You got some Spain universities like IE which has rolling admissions But still is good to get your stuff in early especially for the scholarships So there's a lot of stuff coming down the pipe But you know, it's it's much more manageable now that you get this big one out of the way. So Looking really good. The state of the Union is strong here at score now the You know, I guess next question is where we go from here What are we gonna be doing next and you know, we got a lot of cool ideas over here about things that we want to do I'm excited just for the channel because in six weeks, it's the channel's birthday I believe the first upload went up on the 15th so literally in yeah, it should be six weeks that we have December 15th come around and we'll have our like one-year special, which is crazy to me that like We're coming up on a year of consecutive uploads every week 52 weeks You know, I've been doing good about that and I'm really excited to have a video out for that to just sort of Commemorate that and also say thanks to everybody who's followed the channel and everybody who's like been a part of this so far I think this first year of things has gone really really well and I can't wait to see what next year brings We got some cool ideas some cool plans. I want to do some more trips make some more visits to universities in person And we're gonna have a ton of success stories next year. I know it We're gonna be doing a bunch of videos about success stories because we got a ton of people that are gonna get admitted to University this year like it's not even I don't even have an exact number to give you That's how many it is last year. It was like 10 people and I know that I worked with each one of them this year This year is different man. This year is Something else we're gonna have a lot of people in a lot of universities all around the world And I cannot wait to follow up and visit them like something that I think is really important is You know, not just helping people get there but also seeing them after they get their visiting saying hi And I think that stuff is really important I think it's it's important for us to show that support to people beyond what we're obligated to but also I Want to see where these people go. I want to see the work, you know the result of our work I want to see what what happens with these people So I'm definitely gonna be reaching out to the score army to kind of find out what you guys are willing to do If you guys want to make some videos, it'll be really cool because if you are someone who has gone through our program And you're getting admitted to university. I would love to come see you I'd love to like pay you a visit at your campus say what's up already did with Julie, but like that's just one You know, I got plenty more people that I want to go see so that's something that's high on my list of things to do You know, it's it's big for me, you know to just go visit people and see see what we've accomplished together And I say we I mean mostly the student but you know, we helped a little bit so So, yeah That's pretty much what's going on if like I said y'all if you got some questions you got some things you want to hit me up About please do I'm here for you today. I'm just hanging out and chillin So We got some aisles classes starting up Open people up So another fun adventures Talking about trips places. I want to go we are looking into a Europe run, maybe a Spain run soon That's a possibility Maybe a Netherlands run soon. I don't know. You guys got to tell me where you want us to go What do you want to see because that's important to me? I would love to hear from you Okay, my people it means a lot when you guys can hit us up and tell us Hey, this is what we need is what we want to do that stuff goes a long way for me because the more you tell me what you want the more I'll give it to you and I've been thinking about Spain been thinking about Netherlands for a while. We got people up there, you know, so I Would like to go visit some universities in those countries and go see some of the people that we know up there and Make some content. I think that'd be a lot of fun and I've never been to those places So that's another reason the only time I've ever been to Europe was when I went to Italy on the Ramon de school trip And so I would love to go see some of these universities and see some of the people that we know up there and just You know get a firsthand look at those things because I think that you know We we have a good idea of how to get you into those places, but it's hard to really transmit the you know What it's like there the real experience without going there and actually visiting and seeing what's up So that's something I want to do, you know I want to make a trip up there and really go see some of these different countries and just like Visit universities visit students interview people get the scoop find out what it's really like because uh, you know We talk a lot about these different destinations and you know, like I just put up the South Korea video a couple weeks ago I've never been there. I mean I wish I could like have attended a university there So I could tell you what it's really like I wish I could go visit it and show you what it's really like and I would love to do a study abroad Episode like a proper country episode on location. That's something that like I really want to do and Yet with each one that I publish, you know, I'm losing those opportunities. It's like, oh man, when can I do that? So I'm hoping I'm hoping that we can have a day where like, you know I can go visit a country make the video about that country. I think that'd be a lot of fun I think that'd be really cool So we got a fear of what country that could be I am working on the Japan script right now for how to study in Japan That is something that we are trying to make What else I've got a couple other countries in the works ones that were requested by some people in our comments Austria for example, it's on my list. So we got a couple of countries that we got to put together and Got a couple other videos in the works a couple other things that have been recorded They're kind of sitting here that I still need to figure out how to use So we got we got content coming down the pipe this week I'm launching the video about the problems in Peruvian education starting with the public sector and Financing especially I think that video is gonna be very cool. I hope you guys like it The that'll be a multi-part series of sorts I'm gonna do a couple other videos on that topic because I want to give something to the Peruvian audience You know, I know that a lot of the people here are Peruvian people I know that a lot of other people are not But at the same time like I think a lot of the things I say that apply to Peru apply to other countries as well And you can kind of see maybe some similarities there And at the same time, you know Understand your country better by looking at another country's perspective and and again, it's is for the people right? This is Peru and I want Peruvians who watch this to see our interest in the situation because truthfully You know, I would love to see a world where You have better Support for going to university in high school like it's frustrating that you know even good private schools here Don't have a designated school counselor. They don't understand the processes. We try to help with that, but it's like Some places don't want the help, you know, some places don't want to go and improve things and it's like We need that we need that in our public sector and our private sector But I think if we started in the public sector, it would pressure the private sector That's the thing like the standard that the public system sets is the standard that the private system follows so To me it would be best for us as a country and every country to have a system in place to help people who are talented To go study abroad. I would love to help everybody, but that's impractical We need more public support at that for that purpose and then when that exists, you know If you imagine a system where every public school has a counselor like in the United States Every private school has to have at least as good of one if not better When you look at the United States and you look at people who apply from the United States They get a lot more support just from their school counselor, you know, it's still not everything you need It's it's like getting a public defender if you go to court You know if if you got to depend on the public defender, you're probably going to jail But at least, you know, you have something there. You have some resources That's something that I think is missing in in Peru is a lot of people don't have those resources And that's part of the reason we exist, you know, we we fill that space, but I would like to see a situation where More people could get access to this kind of service without necessarily having to pay anybody or without, you know Having to come to us because as much as I would love to help everybody I want everybody to get help. It doesn't have to come from me That's important thing. It doesn't have to come from score Another interesting thing that I've noticed over this week is just how many people Are applying at the same time to these places and and how many people are confused by the process You know, I spend a lot of time on reddit found a lot of her people even on reddit actually several of the essay experts or reddit hires we made a Post on there and got a bunch of interested people and that's where I found some of the best people working for us right now but the other part of reddit that I've gone a lot is applying to college a to see and a to see is like a Really big section of reddit for people who are applying and it's just wild I've been spending the last couple days there just reading it all day The questions that come out the mistakes people make the you know a lot of people are doing this application process on their own with zero support and They make mistakes They screw stuff up and then they panic and they're like, oh no I just ruined my future and like in some cases they really have some people like forget to put their SAT scores Some people put the wrong name of the of the program I've seen people like, you know apply late have payment problems like all sorts of problems And I'm watching all these people panicking over all these little things and I think man This is so preventable. This is so easy to avoid if you just had some support, you know If you just had somebody watching your back, you know, that's that's the thing that unfortunately a lot of people do Not a lot of people are lacking that support system and that is where we've seen Trouble, you know, we've seen people have problems and and that's where it pains me because we've had people come to us You know people who have been trying to do things on their own and then we see that they got a lot of problems Or they've been working with somebody else that doesn't know what they're doing And they got a lot of problems and it's like we come in and try to save the day and help them out at the end But like man, you know, this could have been so much easier. This is not an Incredibly complicated process. There are a lot of moving parts. There are A lot of things you got to do but the number one thing that you need is organizational skills If you have that if you can organize yourself manage your deadlines, you should be okay I think that is the the main thing, you know that people need And that's what sometimes is missing, you know So Yeah, we got some classes starting up. So I gotta let people know Everybody's doing such good work. I don't really have anything to do I've been in you know, like I said, I've been in the fireman mode where I'm putting out fires But honestly, I haven't had many fires to put out like the fact that I can even do this right now And not stress and not worry about application stuff is kind of amazing because like I Last year was in pain around this time, you know, like it was rough We had and I only had a handful of cases. I had less cases than some of the people work in this year um And I remember just constantly being bombarded with last-minute things that we didn't see in advance and You know, just little things and and this year has been so much smoother despite the fact that we had Five or six times the number of people applying Compared to last year I would say we had as many last-minute issues or even maybe less Than the year before which is awesome that to me is like super cool that We are at the point where we're managing things so well that I don't have to really freak out all weekend I can just kind of take care of my business and relax. It has been a long weekend No, I won't lie We've been and I keep saying weekend even though it's monday because it doesn't even feel like a monday to me anymore It's been one of those things where you're up like all day Just like on your phone just constantly people buzzing you with like little things like do you need this need that? You're like, oh, okay. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. I got you and and by the time, you know The day is over you've been sitting at your desk for 16 hours And not all that time am I doing anything important? But I'm just there in case something comes up and it's a lot of work But um, but yeah, like I said before I'm super proud of all the people that made it work and made it happen and I think it's we we all deserve a good hearty pat on the back because this application season was difficult as most are but We took care of business and things have gone really really well. I hope they're going well for you I hope that you're doing well and that you know, everybody's cool. Your family's good If you're thinking about going abroad and you know, you get getting your applications ready I hope that's going well for you if you need any help holler if you got any questions Please let me know say what's up in the chat. You know, I appreciate that That's what we're doing here today just trying to help people out and also I'll be honest I didn't have enough time to really prepare like a proper Educational experience for you today because man just too much stuff this weekend too many things to do so You know, that's what it is But yeah, things are going well the Other stuff that we're thinking about doing what else? I guess I could let you in on a little bit of a something something like we want to expand into more places, man We want to get I know there's people from the united states watching this So it'd be really cool to start helping people in the united states with their applications I would love to see you know More opportunities for people in the u.s to get access to these kinds of services And honestly, we can definitely do it cheaper than a lot of other people. So that's something I want to do Um, maybe brazil, you know brazil's a big market. It would be nice to go into brazil just saying Um, there is a lot There's a lot of places that need our help mariale. I'll see you in a chat. What's up mariale? How you doing? so I hope everything is ready for saturday mariale Sam, what's up? That's that's the question That's that's the question saturday's of we got a special saturday coming up here at score. We're gonna it's gonna be weird I'm gonna actually meet the the people that work for score like not all of them But a lot of them I haven't I haven't met in person a bunch of these people and i'm looking forward to it It's gonna be very cool To actually say hi and see people it's weird We've been when we're in all virtual company and we always will be but still like The fact that We got so many people doing all this awesome work and I have not met them yet is It bugs me and I want to meet people. So I'm looking forward to that We're gonna have us a nice little score lunch on saturday And um, you know the essay expert crew is a little harder to meet because they're all over the place I gotta I have to rack up some frequent flyer miles, but I could probably I mean there's a few in brazil There's one in mexico There's one in the united states who I've already met who I have a video to make with with her We did the recordings and everything. I just haven't edited it down yet to kind of do what I want to do with that video But that'll come out soon because that's been sitting in my back pocket kind of for a rainy day and um What else and then yeah, I got to go all the way to cut that and see my boy salmon So like we got people in multiple countries and it's like, you know, I gotta go see these people someday I gotta meet the rest of the score team It's a it's a weird feeling You know having all these people you're working with every day and then not ever seeing them though, you know In a fully virtual company. It's a different thing um Even though a bunch are here in lima like a bunch are Right here, but I still haven't seen them. So I'm looking forward to saturday. It's gonna be fun You're gonna see uh, see the score staff say what's up Should be pretty good. You're gonna get some good food. You know treat ourselves after a victorious application weekend So it won't be the last one though. We still got more stuff coming up We got november 15th is always big december 1st is always big You know and then from there, man, it's smooth sailing. It's gonna be so nice Be able to focus on other things for the summertime our summertime, you know here in peru That is uh, that is something I enjoy very much. I'm looking at what we can do in summer go Where can we go? What can we see? Gotta come up with some cool plans. So Looking forward to those So, yeah It's so quiet today. I appreciate you know, I kind of appreciate that because it's like If it's quiet today, that means the things are going well That means people got their stuff done and they're relaxing and they're not stressing today That to me Is a success Okay, the fact that we can just kind of relax and enjoy our monday. It's a very good thing makes me very happy A lot of the times that's not an option You know very few the last few days. That was not an option. That's for sure. We're definitely running around like crazy So it'll be cool to kick it Take it easy I've been helping somebody with a acting application She's got to make a bunch of pre screening as important portfolio It's super important to you guys if you're doing any sort of artistic programs Check your deadlines because some of those are even earlier than the early action deadline Sometimes they ask you to pre screen and send stuff in Before you go and apply And that means that they might have a different deadline for those pre screen materials We actually saw that in a couple of cases Some deadlines had already passed. So, you know, we had to readjust that schedule so Yeah, certain careers certain professions Require you to get ahead of schedule. You know, there's certain programs that are more competitive Certain types of programs that have extra requirements and all that stuff can complicate your deadline So it's always important to make sure you're not doing things last minute because you might find stuff out Are you saying yes money lately? You got we got stuff for saturday. Cool. Good. All right I expect like a really good drink on my table. All right something really good nice and strong Please and thank you if you can arrange that Because I need, you know, it's been a busy week. I'm gonna need some some something something But yeah, looking forward to it It's not to be cool but yeah The uh, the acting stuff is pretty cool Like we're working on the pre screenings and we're working on all these different things for the application requirements Very interesting to see all the stuff you have to do for those types of programs You know, you have so like they ask you for a couple of monologues for example to do An acting application you might have to do a headshot You might have to send in even additional essays that explain your point of view on artistic matters I think those kinds of things are very thought-provoking very interesting But you know, they tend to be a surprise. They tend to be kind of like Hidden when you're applying, you know, the university just says hey, you gotta apply by this day and you go Okay, cool. I gotta apply by this day and then you check out the details of that specific program And it's got all these other requirements So make sure you check out your specific school and your specific program Make sure you don't just say oh the university is november 1st. It's good because Different programs can have different deadlines different schools within a university can have their own deadlines They can have their own requirements and you might not find those out Until you you're just about to finish your application. So don't wait for the last minute, you know So make sure you get ahead of things because We've had a couple of those surprises. We don't want you to have surprises Recommendation on the best videos for writing a personal statement. What's up? Alba's saying hi too Good questions. Um, okay. I'm gonna start with Alba's real quick so part of additional information in common app the common app Asks you to fill out a few things essay They have an optional covet question They have a gap year question Which you must do if you do a gap year and then they have this extra additional information section that They give basically no instructions for it All they really say is if there's anything you feel you need to mention that is not already covered in your application Please share it here generally speaking I think that this area is sometimes I don't want to say Misused, but I think that it's not really meant to be another essay space Like nobody's sitting there expecting you to write like a second personal statement Uh that covers a whole different aspect of your life I think it's meant to be a good space for some short direct to the point material And it should be Something that really explains maybe some of your circumstances or situations like If you had a personal problem in the year that made it difficult for you to do Some of the things you needed to do for your application. That's a good place to explain it I think if you have Maybe some learning issues, you know I mean, maybe you're diagnosed with something that could be a good place to express that and if it's not already covered somewhere else I think it's good to show like this information Helps them understand the rest of the application. So that's what my criteria is for that additional information section Does what you put there Help me understand other parts of your application Do I understand maybe why you talked about certain things or why your grades might have been Not the best or why you're you only had one sat score or why you didn't have as many extracurriculars like I feel like it's a good space to justify Some things that might not be as strong in your application So I don't see it as mandatory. I don't think it's super super important Unless you really do have something super important to share And there's something that you think you really need to make clear And that's where I would use that but I would keep it really light I would never put like a really big full essay in there because I think that that's not what they're looking for. They're looking for very precise like specific information So that's what I would try to do um and Maria this question is a really nice layup, uh, like yeah best videos for personal statement. I made one um about that That one's done pretty well. We we put that up there a couple months ago But writing the personal statement kind of just some advice for how to do that It's one way of looking at it. I think that there are others um college essay guy Does a good job Of of making videos on that topic Um, there's also a guy named Shane Shane hummus. I think it's his name I think it's hummus like the arabic food. Let me let me double I think it is yeah Yeah, Shane hummus does a whole bunch of uh videos about universities his are a little more focused on degrees and like You know Whether you should study this or that and I feel like you know He has his kind of take on the university scene and but he's he's done a few videos about Things like how to do your applications and stuff, but um, obviously You know the score channel videos are great and you could obviously go check out our videos I mean, you know ours are pretty good But I like to share other people's stuff too. I you know I'm not the only person on the internet making things about going to university and I don't think that You know I am the only good source of information out there There's a lot of other good sources of information and you should compare and you should get different perspectives Especially when we talk about writing like if we're talking about personal statements Um, you know, there's a lot of different theories and philosophies as to how to Do those, you know This was the basic like this was the video we did on just the general sort of approach to the personal statement Kind of how you Should organize it or how you should write it and then I actually did write one about myself Uh, and then I trimmed that down to make that second link that's in the chat right now So if you want to check those out you can Well, yeah personal statements very helpful, you know if you need those, um whitest university five tips for writing better Yeah, there's those ones. Um All right, personal statement. Yeah, yeah, those are those are another good two for like supplementals about the five tips and whitest university I think I If you're asking me which one I actually like the best so like I think from a writing perspective I like my personal statement one a lot the one I did live just because It's very uh, you know Personal if you want to get to know me better. It's a it tells you a lot, you know what I mean and I like that stuff I like getting honest with people Um as far as videos go I feel like this personal statement how to write the personal statement video is a good like overview though I thought that was pretty neatly done Um, the I love writing now one where I say like five tips for writing. I think is good advice It's been covered elsewhere. Uh, there's a lot of people who've done red flag videos People have done writing tip videos and I think that mine You know, I'm explaining them in my own way, but there's always going to be people who have touched on similar points writing is a craft You know, it's there's only so many things you can say about writing. It's um, it's like cooking cooking You know, it's there's certain ways that are right. There's only a couple ways that you can boil water You know, there's there's not much that you can say about how to boil water It's it's you get water in a pot and that heat done So so I think that writing tips are good for people to check out and you should check out different sources for that too To see maybe somebody else has tips that I didn't cover or maybe they explained them in a way that you understood better and that would be great uh the But yeah, I like doing writing videos I like doing the ones where I write live just because I like writing and You know, you want to improve your personal statement. Where should I begin if I'm totally not convinced so Huh, that's a good question. I'll but um the I'll say this first of all that You're if you're the type of person that really cares, you'll probably never be totally satisfied with your personal statement. I'll be honest like that's a sign of a good writer is someone who kind of always thinks their writing sucks and doesn't fully love it um as someone who's written You know short stories even a novel and like a bunch of other stuff I've I've written a lot that I look at and I have a lot of negative feelings about even though I think it actually is really good and people would probably tell me it's really good So I I just want to start by saying that because like it might be better than you think Okay, first of all, maybe leaving it alone is the best answer but what I would say is this the One piece of advice that I would give people who really want to take their personal statement to like the next level Is really show don't tell at the beginning of your statement like can you put me in a scene? And by put me in a scene, I mean Imagine that you the narrator are a camera and you are showing me the scene right you imagine a camera like I don't know I think about a scene where Maybe like the the opening of that scene is a room right and then we're zooming in on a person on the bed And then we're going in towards their head and they're having a dream like We we describe that shot. Maybe we describe the room. Maybe we describe the person now on the bed Then we describe what's going on in their head and then we continue there like That concept of showing and not telling is using lots of actions Not using a lot of adjectives, you know, if I say something is fast That's not showing that's telling I'm telling you it was fast, but if I say, you know the car flew by And the wind swept me That's showing I can picture that right I can close my eyes and picture a car flying by really fast and the wind from the car catching me, you know so I encourage people to try to open essays that way if you can like put me in a scene that really gives me some feeling and gives me some you know More sensation don't just describe your experience, but really help me live it I think that's hard to do So I know it's not easy like what i'm talking about is like advanced writing techniques and stuff So I know it's not as simple as it sounds but That's something I try to do is inject a little bit of visual to the writing, you know It's also good because it breaks up the flow. I think another thing you should do is show it to somebody else Show it to somebody who's never seen it before And show them your essays and ask them to read it and tell them to tell you when they get bored When do they want to stop reading encourage them to put that paper down at that moment That is actually a really good strategy because If we're all being honest when we check people's work or when we look at some writing If it's not great if it doesn't hold our attention the whole time You'll know it now, you know for a friend you'll you'll keep reading because it's your friend or your family But you should try to Like Get somebody else to be brutally honest with you. Tell them. Tell me when you're bored Tell me when you don't want to read anymore And if they put it down after three sentences, that's where you need to start working If they put it down halfway through that's where you need to start working If they make it to the end great If they make it to the end and genuinely wanted to keep reading That's a great essay That's that's and I make a mental note of that when I check these with our people like when some so when I check a When I check a personal statement, I've looked at them all That's one of my criteria is like When do I get bored? Is there a point where I'm kind of like, oh And that's what I'll tell myself around here. I kind of started losing interest. What can we do to keep that interest? um to me To keep that interest you want to change things up, you know If your sentences are all kind of long put a short sentence in there If you are doing a lot of regular sentences throw in a rhetorical question. Um Try starting your sentences with different structures try Not repeating the same word at the start of a sentence more than once like, you know If every sentence starts with I I I I you can diversify that somehow you need to figure out a way to do it. So Um instead of saying, you know, I was very responsible. Maybe I say responsibility was my forte I'm just flipping that around and putting the word responsibility first changes up the flow It keeps it interesting and that is the kind of thing that You need to do if you want to keep readers engaged. So Yeah, I wouldn't stress too much about your essay quality. Try to think more about the reader, you know And what can you do to make your essay more engaging and more fun to read and like One that they genuinely want to finish Because you got to remember these people have a lot of work. They have to look at a lot of essays So Oh now the boss man's hitting me up. Uh oh I don't have to start answering to the boss man um Maybe maybe I can help hang on. Let's see. See, this is what I mean people hitting me up for things. They need my help You know, all right. He's saying he doesn't need me that bad now Oh, man. Oh, no, I feel bad he's uh I I want to know what people want from me now is people blowing me up and saying, hey, you freak can you help me with something? And then I say no, I'm doing this right now. And there's no no no Well, I want to know what it was. I'm like now. It's tormenting me But yeah, that's how it goes sometimes. So, yeah essay advice Yeah, if you got any writing questions, I've done a lot of writing in my life. So I can help with that stuff That's that's one of the reasons why I got into this stuff at least from the essay side I've always Enjoyed correcting writing. It's even though it's like when you're a teacher and you have 70 essays in a row to check From the same topic that can be a little annoying. It gets boring, but it's fun at the same time I like picking apart other people's writing and really trying to understand the message They want to send and then helping them bring that message to the surface and make it really clear And uh, it's fun for me. You know, it's a it's a fun activity I I like the art of writing the Challenge of writing because it is a challenge It's you are trying to get the thoughts out of your brain and put them in a way that Will transfer that idea clearly to another person. It's it's tricky It's it's encoding a message In a written format and it's There's so many things you can do to manipulate that, you know metaphors outline I I think that okay, so this idea of like metaphors can totally be useful. I think that You can absolutely use them um Sometimes I've seen a lot of people do like a metaphor that kind of starts out the essay And then they bring it back to that metaphor at the end and kind of creates that sensation of closure Going full circle. I love that um a topic that connects a lot of aspects of your life that could work that's sort of a Kind of a spider web style essay where we've got this like central key theme this main idea in the middle And then from there we branch off into different paragraphs about Different things that we've done related to that topic The one thing I would say is to be careful with there is Just remember that you want to show some development They one of the things they like to see in these personal statements is how you have changed how you have grown how you have You know overcome some difficulties So if all you do is talk about like five separate instances where you were or are doing a certain thing That could be Maybe a little too shallow, you know, for example, like I don't know my main theme is like I want to be a doctor Okay, and I want to transmit this idea of like why I want to be a doctor And then I talk about maybe my parents were doctors and I talk about like a medical show I saw on tv and I talk about like an experience where I saw somebody injured and so Yeah, I'm explaining really why I want to do this career and maybe I'm explaining it, but Each of those points just sort of adds a little bit and doesn't really show a whole lot about my development I think it would be better to focus on a more personal characteristic in that way And maybe think about two or three instances Where you exhibited that characteristic in different ways show the evolution, you know Maybe for example, I talk about empathy and I start out with like a childhood story where I didn't show any empathy and then maybe Us an experience where someone showed some empathy to me and then finally an experience where I showed empathy to someone else And therefore we get a progression. We get an arc Right like oh, okay. I didn't have this thing. Then I became more aware of this thing and now I actually have this thing That sort of approach to like an outline is great because then you're going to show that development you're going to show the progression that you've made as a person and You show that ability to reflect and I think that that's something that is Underrated when we talk about our writing like writing is recording your thought but you need to stop and look at those thoughts and really think about them again and Reflect on those experiences and ask yourself like What did I get out of this? It's a great opportunity for you to really stop and think about your life when you write Every year I write stuff for myself. I write a little Review of the year, you know, I sit down to sort of type freely and then I record myself talking to myself This is something I do every year. It's my I call it the state of the mechum address You know sort of playing off the state of the union thing. So like I Just simply talk to myself or let myself think out loud through writing And then I read and listen again to what I what I wrote the year before, you know When I sit down to do it for this year. I'm going to listen to last years and read last years and Doing that It helps me really put things in perspective helps me understand that development and growth Word count that's another thing though. Um Express concisely, I think the number one thing is redundant phrases like there are always ways to say things more effectively Um, and there's a lot of words. I'm going to give you some examples in the chat here like Like this right here. Okay. Say I use this sentence. I was able to graduate at the top of my class. Um I can shorten that down to I graduated first in my class like right there. I just said the exact same thing But I said the exact same thing In six words as opposed to 11 so right there you just saved five words Like you would be surprised how many words you can delete um, I also encourage you to delete any Halfway modifiers delete like some many Like words like that Veries you can delete pretty much every very really pretty like delete all those Um, instead of saying some people just say people instead of saying many people just say people Uh, instead of very or really use a better word instead of saying it was very small. Say it was tiny miniscule You know lily poochian if you must Um, instead of saying something is really big. It's huge. It's massive. It's gargantuan like try to find Single words that say the same thing as multiple words. That's a great way to really trim down your essays Um, so look at your sentences also and think about the structure You might find that you could Synthesize some things in a better way if you just reorder the sentence moving some ideas around can make it easier to Make things smaller. Um, I always encourage people though to go over the word count. Don't stress about it at first because you need to Have more material to work with then you can cut out stuff that doesn't contribute much to your work if you try to write for the word limit Then odds are you're gonna come up kind of short You'll you'll be struggling to find content and then you'll be like No, no, I got I don't have enough and I don't know what to put now Whereas if you kind of or if you're gonna try to write for a word count add 100 words to your count If you like to write for 500 on a 500 word essay, well now just write for 600 If you write for 600 you'll have that extra And then you can decide what you want to cut you can delete one thing that you don't like You know, you'll get to the number that you need. Don't be afraid to delete stuff Sometimes some of the stuff you put isn't that important Also watch out for things that are implied like There's a lot of things that are implied that you don't necessarily have to say Explicitly right they can make sense. Um You know, I was working on somebody's essay for a music application And she was saying how she liked music at the beginning of her essay and I was saying well if you're applying to a music Career they know that right like do we need to say that? Probably not It would be really strange if you didn't like music and you were applying to a music major Like I know that sounds kind of obvious But like that's sort of the mentality that I think we should have when we edit our stuff is like do we need this? Will they understand this if I take it out odds are yes Don't feel that you need to explain every little detail that leads up to something. Okay um Okay, good question about moon and I like that you're asking me lots of questions. Thank you. Alba. You're making my day. Um, that's why I do these so How can you write about activities that a lot of people do and you want to sound different? Obviously you want to you know Talk about how it was meaningful to you, but you don't want your essay to sound like every other dude who's done moon my Two takes on that number one Don't focus too much on the activity. Don't describe like You know that moment where you finally gave your speech and you felt confident and everybody applauded you like That's that's the kind of thing people like to tell a lot in these essays and I think that it's better to Focus again on yourself and how it transformed you specifically Can you pick one thing that you learned a lot from m un? and can you show How you developed that and how you applied that outside of m un That's what I think is important. Like I would talk about I've done m un. You know, I got I got my I'll take it. All right. It's right here. Um, so what I would say is like I would talk about leadership because if there's one thing that I learned from m un It was about leading people and really how to bring out the best in other people how to see leadership as a You know as a supportive role not a boss Not the dictator but as someone who tried to support everyone else around them Because that's how I won and that's what I learned was effective was like don't see other people as your servants See yourself as the servant for other people make everybody else look good around you and they will notice that you're in the middle of that so That's something I learned through m un I would explain that I learned that through m un and then I would look at how I could apply that somewhere else in my life And I can see where I've done that as a faculty advisor. For example, I can see where I've done that here at score I've taken those lessons from that activity and applied them to a new context That is really what they want to see how about like the thing is they Again, like you say everybody's done these activities, right? A bunch of people have done sports A bunch of people have done m un a bunch of people have done debate Lots of people do these things So what they want to know is how is that going to help you here? How can you apply those things to your new life? And I think that's something you can think about is like I feel like these skills are going to prepare me for university Because I feel like I can use these skills when I do this at the university That's something that Will I think make your essay more unique? And we'll show them that you didn't just do this so that you could put something pretty on your cv But you did this and you are learning from it and you want to use that to improve yourself going forward So that's that's what I encourage people to do with extracurricular activity essays like Talk about what you learned from it and how you've applied that somewhere else because if you can apply it into another aspect of your life Then that shows that you learn from those activities and that the university will appreciate that, you know They're gonna see that and go okay this This person knows how to take Their skills and use them in different contexts And that is something that is very big to most universities is the idea of interdisciplinary Use of skills like I take a skill from this course and I apply it to this course I take a skill from this activity I apply it to that activity That's that's like high level learning right there and they like to see that So think about what you can do, you know think about how you can apply that stuff Only talk about moving one paragraph with the person. Yeah, I think so. I mean I think it depends on Again, the role that m un plays in that personal statement if you think that it's really significant And it's really something you want to talk about and it had a transformative effect on you That you think is relevant to the rest of the personal statement do it but yeah, like You're right. There's a lot of supplementals that ask about your Other stuff, you know, so I generally try to encourage people you can mention it I think I think you can mention it in your personal statement But just don't explain it so much that when you get to that question about extracurriculars you have nothing left to say Then the other question also is do you have more extracurriculars that you want to talk about like Besides m un. What's your next one? And then would that be able to stand up by itself as its own essay? Those are the questions I would ask you Because if if if you're only great extracurriculars m un then maybe you should save it for those essays and don't put it in your personal statement But if you got something else that you feel like you could go deep into Then okay Flex all the things you got Show them show them what you got I appreciate the you mariella hanging out and uh Having like a watch party tonight. Thank you. It's a good time I like these kinds of questions I like questions in general. I like it when everybody asks me questions people hit me up all the time and people always be like I'm sorry. I'm bothering you. I'm asking you so many questions like no It's it's the teacher in me every teacher likes it when people ask questions We we will never be mad if you ask questions I would much rather you ask questions than not ask questions and then do something stupid so Ask away makes me happy I uh Yeah, I've got some people blowing me up this week asking a lot of questions about applications and stuff people trying to do it on their own and You know just little things come up like how do I do this on common app? How do I what do I do with my TOEFL scores all this other stuff? There's so many little things to take care of this week so I'm sure your stuff is going to come out great though. But like your writing is really good. I've seen your stuff I've taken a look So I know I know what's up My I've had a small hand in in everybody's things I not very much with yours because I opened it up and it was all really good And I was like, okay, I don't need to do a lot of work here, but I have pretty much looked at everybody's essays um Not every single supplemental just because there's way too many of those for me to see um But all the personal statements I checked all those And I've looked at probably half the supplementals just looked at at least Unless somebody specifically asked me and was like, hey help me. I don't know what to do But yeah, no your stuff is good. Um, it's It's refreshing to read like good writing. You know what I mean like quality stuff where you go This feels nice. And the other thing is you know And and although I don't know you super super well I do remember like a couple meetings we had before you joined score and like The the one thing I noticed when I read good writing is I can hear the voice of the person I can kind of like hear it in my head That's always a good sign I kind of got that vibe when I was open to your personal statement like I could imagine the voice and that That's key. That's really a good sign to me if I can sort of hear that voice and sort of say, okay This person's personality is coming through Right, what little bit of it I know Uh is is still there. I can feel it and that's that's always a good sign. So Yeah, I think it's going well that's something that I used to look for a lot when I uh Taught because you know you You can see you can feel that difference like that you get like 30 40 essays that all sound the same like none of them sound like that person They sound like that person trying to write an essay But then there's the people that sound like themselves when you read it, you know like that I hear their voice It's like, oh, that's you you're not trying to write an essay. I'm hearing you It's it's different. It's hard to explain but uh It's a cool feeling when I get that, you know that voice feeling Oh, yeah Wherever you end up. I gotta like go do a follow-up video. We gotta do the uh, you know Score success story go go see you go visit you. I'll be fun I'm saying at the beginning of this dream. I gotta do a bunch of those next year We're gonna have so many people Who I gotta go visit it's gonna be fun I'm gonna make a whole trip out of it for sure And you're welcome Thank you. I know it's weird. I'm not getting hit up much today. It's pretty chill today. That's good. Makes me happy I am super pleased honestly It's one of those weekends where like no news is good news if nothing bad is happening. I'm happy Everything's going fine. Yeah. Now definitely be cool to Pay your visit. I want to do more of those next year That's like a big thing on my list is more of these like visits with people have more interviews with with students in general I want to know how people feel going into university like for their first semester And like do follow-up videos and like where are they now? Like I did that interview with the two people who went to study in france And we talked about that. I said listen when you guys get up there Let's talk let's talk again. Let's do like a follow-up and see Okay, what Did you expect versus what reality is like because I think that's something that we need to talk about more like You and I know this from my experience studying abroad and living abroad like you always have Some idea of what it's going to be like That idea is never correct. That idea is always In some way wrong You do not there's so many things you don't know. There's so many things you can't even imagine Because you don't even have the framework for it And so for me like I want to show more of that to people I want more people to see like this is what it's really like So that you can go in and be prepared mentally you'll still be surprised I don't care how many videos you watch or how many things you read you will still have things that you do not fully understand I when I came to peru I I don't know I had this idea of what peru would be like in my head and I didn't know what to really expect But I you know, I had some sort of vague idea from pictures I'd seen in a couple videos I'd watched and mind you I moved down here Before there were a lot of videos on youtube about peru youtube was still very new But when I got here, you know, then you drive around and you're just like this is nothing like what I expected This is completely different and that's Cool, that's a great feeling But at the same time there's that sensation of whoa, I'm not prepared for this And I want people to have maybe somewhere more in between like to see What it's like to be a student abroad in these different places and to to really get that perspective of someone coming from peru and then going to study somewhere and then arriving and Discovering that experience for the first time and I want to know what are those things that you didn't expect What are the things that surprised you? What are the things you wish you knew a few months ago? That's the kind of stuff that I want to get into so I'm looking forward to doing a bunch of cool interviews with people In the next few months and over next year because we're going to have all these people Go into study for the first time in all these places and I want to get those details I want to know what it's like even some of the people that are Just starting now we have people who've just started university from last year's applications several people, you know in the united states like meeting julie and and You know, I met her literally like after the first day of classes So she didn't have a lot of perspective yet I want to go see people who have done a semester now who can tell me Okay, what is it like? Tell me tell me everything about it. Tell me What you didn't expect and what you did and all that stuff. I think that'll be a lot of fun I'm really looking forward to those the content. We're going to make next year. I think that between Visiting people who get admitted and following up on people got admitted last year and visiting more universities and Going to more countries like we're going to have some really really cool Stuff to put up for you guys and I hope you like it all and I hope to keep doing these The uh monday lives. I'm uh I'm enjoying these, you know, I have fun. So It's a it's a pleasure to set some time aside and talk to you guys and help you out I would love to keep doing these and so far it's been going really well So I intend to keep doing the monday lives We'll uh, we'll see if they stay in the same schedule because monday can be a little tricky But so far it's been going pretty good. I haven't had too many issues with my mondays So yeah, it should be fun. We're gonna have a lot of cool stuff coming out for you guys So I can't wait Any other questions my people anything else you want to know? I'm gonna give you a last chance if I don't get some more soon I'm gonna bail it's been an hour So Been going at it for a while. It's been a very busy weekend I would like to spend some quality time on my couch I haven't had as much of a chance to do that this weekend I've had like brief moments on the couch, but then they're usually interrupted very quickly. So Yeah, it's uh, it's a lot of work getting all these applications done But we're doing it. We're making it happen. So I hope that everybody here has a wonderful evening And I hope that you guys are good to go for your applications tonight and that you don't need anything else I want you to apply Relax celebrate a little bit click that celebrate button on common app. That's my favorite button The little button that makes the fireworks up here just spam that button like over and over and over That's a lot of fun. So make sure you hit that button too and reward yourself because look is a lot of a lot of work Oh tips for interviews um Okay, so that's a good question. We need to do some stuff on that So I'll tell you this a lot of times The interviews are going to be with current students or recently graduated people. Okay They're not as serious as people think like They are I mean, they can be important, but they're not making dramatic decisions on you unless You Do something really really really weird Like I don't know if you were really creepy or strange or whatever like that would be weird and maybe they would say I don't know about this person, but Now most of the interviews are not super consequential The ones that I think you what what you should try to do is have a list of questions you want to ask the university The interview is as much for you as it is for them and something they want to see is what we call demonstrated interest and Demonstrated interest can influence whether you get in or not, you know um, if you're doing the interview after you've been admitted then Definitely understand this if you're doing an interview after they've accepted you Then they are basically trying to make you feel comfortable So you say yes If you're doing an interview before they've accepted you they want to know how likely you are to say yes Okay, there's nothing to understand it if if they're willing to consider you for an interview That means they're very much open to accepting you or they already have But from a university perspective It's very important for them to calculate how many students are going to enter and how many won't they never know until decision day may first so the The thing that's happening in the interview and I'm explaining this so you understand why this is important They want to know if you're really interested and you would would probably go there So the best way to show that if that's true is to ask questions Like prepare questions and get as specific as possible. The more specific your questions are the better okay Come up with as many as you can ask about certain clubs Ask about certain things they do on campus ask about different festivities if you look up, you know Nova southeastern has shark week Two weeks for people to come in and see the university and learn about it before they decide if they want to go there or not Ask about that stuff. Um, if they have a master's program, you'd be interested in later. Ask about it if like genuinely ask a ton of questions because When you ask those questions to the admissions people and to the interviewers You're showing them that number one. You've done your research number two. You care number three You genuinely would like to go there, but you got some questions first When they see that they're gonna go, okay, this person really wants to be here This person's like serious And they're more likely to extend that offer to you so Be yourself. I know that's cliche, but like be yourself at an interview. Don't sweat it Don't feel like it needs to be super formal. You're not suit and tie and like It's just be a normal person but ask questions ask them about, you know, their stuff find out If you start asking more questions You kind of take control of the interview. It stops being stressful because you're in control So that's my number one tip. Don't go in there without a list of questions Write them down on a card if you have to, you know, um, that's super important so Yeah, um Anything else it's a good question about the interviews. I think my number one problem I see with college interviews people people Think that it's going to determine their future not necessarily people think that it's like, oh, they're gonna grill me with a ton of questions They might ask you some questions, but they're not You know, they're not looking for a rehearsed perfect answer. They're looking for Whether or not you intend to go there as a student, you know, so I think that's the The way to go Yeah, there's gonna be and honestly, it's funny like I talked to one of our students from last year about the interviews Claudia, she was talking to me about them and like she said that some of these ones, you know The one girl according to her at university a really good place Apparently this girl was just painting her nails while doing the interview like she was just like I mean it's There's some people like again, it's students doing this. Don't expect necessarily the most professional super pro interview for the most part You're gonna be interviewing with current and former students Uh, that's something that is quietly Like unspoken in the university world is that a lot of the admissions people Are people who went to the university? They're they're not necessarily specialists in that area they are People who volunteered maybe in student affairs or student support offices And then they got into admissions and helped out kind of like, you know While they were on campus working and then they went and stayed along to continue working as a paid person You know after they graduate or maybe in their last year so They're not all The most professional people. Okay. I mean they're good people, but they're not Don't expect some old lady to sit down in a suit and tie. That's my point It's not as stressful as people think it's gonna be Last call anything else you all want to know I want you to know that I appreciate you hanging out and watching this and getting your questions on and I appreciate Your support of the channel. Make sure you guys subscribe because Thursday. We're gonna have cool stuff Thursday's video is gonna be dope. I'm telling you my video about why Peruvian education sucks It's one of my favorites I Most of the time when I say video is one of my favorites. It doesn't get a ton of views It doesn't get like a ton of popularity It's usually the ones that I think won't be super popular that actually blow up And the ones that I like a lot and the ones that I put a lot of effort into Typically don't get the performance, but I don't care so much about that. I I'm all like whatever Like it's just a funny thing that I've noticed, you know The ones I tend to put the most work into are more obscure topics and things But uh, I think this one will be fun. So I'm looking forward to putting it out this Thursday Uh, it was a real test of my editing skills. I was trying to push myself I'm always trying to learn new things with editing. I'm always trying to push myself So I try to go a little further each time and this time was like, all right I'm gonna do a whole video in after effects and let's go and do 3d renders and Yeah, it came out. It works. But yeah, thank you. Check it out. Yeah, I uh And I did a lot of like math research on it. So that was fun I like doing charts and graphs. So I got like charts in my video data visualization stuff. So Yeah, it's coming out. It should be fun. Watch it. I saw I see what you did there It's okay. See it's okay too. See it. You can you can say see watch is a little more appropriate But I see he's okay too. It's all good Do you know where you're gonna interview already? Have they already told you anything about that? Drew and Syracuse. Okay, cool Nice, um One of the girls did one for drew last year off to ask And I think we have a really good like rapport with Syracuse. So don't sweat that that'll be chill. Um They're they're pretty chill over there Syracuse. I mean, it's not it's a big university, obviously But they're they're super friendly with us. We've uh, we've been in touch with their admissions people We talked to them a lot and you know, they probably just want to get to know you and like I said see And and what I said about them looking for whether you're serious or not That applies even more to the big universities. Like again, you figure if they admit Let's say a number 20,000 people and they only have space for Whatever 10,000, you know, like they have to now do the math and go, okay Well, how many of those people are actually going to accept our offers because You know, if you get admitted to 10 places, you can only take one So they usually admit far more people than actually enroll. So for them, it's like These are really important for them to kind of define those numbers and say, okay I'm pretty sure this person will say yes, or I'm very sure this person will say yes Or this person's definitely not that interested in us You know, so don't even bother So again, that's the thing they're trying to see interest and that's where you're going to get a chance to show it So just make your questions. Have your list of questions for drew and Syracuse and Dig into it deep I should hit up Syracuse and see if we can make a university episode over there Go visit them one day Do a new york run That'd be fun. Maybe do a follow-up to that RIT episode and actually go see RIT in person. That'd be cool Those guys are those guys are really cool with us, too The new york places are nice Yeah, actually now that I think about it I've had we've had meetings with columbia. We've had meetings with NYU. Syracuse RIT Yeah, all the ones in new york have been really cool with us And then there's other universities whose names I won't mention who haven't been as cool with our projects You know, sometimes it'd be like that University episodes got rejected from a lot of places for a lot of different reasons, but you know sometimes that's what it is I can't make people do things someday, you know, I'm obviously we're nobody right now. We're tiny I can't expect them to be like, oh, wow the score channel wants to do an interview. Come on But someday someday they'll be like, oh, I wish we had said yes to the score channel that that'll be the day And when they go, hey, now you're big enough for us That's right Now you want me Someday we'll get there All right, my people. Well business calls. I got some things. I gotta take care of so thank you for hanging out and thank you for watching And uh, thank you for your questions And if you got anything else you can always hit us up Leave a comment in another video or just you know, say hi in another live stream And we'll we'll be happy to answer your questions and help you out with your stuff Good luck with your applications tonight. If you still got applications to do and I will see you next week