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A normal gorgeous day in Malibu. Sunset over PCH. Los Angeles this week. The Palisades Fire. Los Angeles is burning, and I am not home. My family seems to have a history of unknowingly escaping disaster. In March of 2024, we crossed a bridge in one of Taiwan’s national parks. A few days later, that bridge collapsed thanks to a 7.4 earthquake. In August of 2023, as we boarded our flight to Korea, we watched a tropical storm blow through our backyard on our Ring cameras. Once, a flight to Hawaii that took off only a few hours after ours experienced intense turbulence, injuring four people. This week, as I boarded my 15-hour flight to Taiwan, my hometown started to burn. Since I’ve landed, I’ve been unable to look away from my city on fire. Photos of firefighters and flying embers, shaky phone videos of wild winds and smoke plumes. I report updates of my friends evacuating to my parents, as if their upheaval and pain and confusion is mine. It doesn’t take much for my heart to hurt and tears to roll at the most random of times, like when I’m in a taxi on the way to Taipei 101. Here, across the ocean, the only thing I can do is watch and feel: worried I’m not home, guilty I’m not home, relieved I’m not home. People I follow on Instagram—mostly LA creatives whose work I’ve admired—post about losing their homes and yet how grateful they are to be alive. I wonder if they are able to write about their devastation with such perspective because they are creatives, accustomed to creating something from nothing, or in this case, hope from ashes. One creator made an MTV Cribs-style video in the ruins of her home. I marvel at how she uses comedy as a coping mechanism—surely better than the alternative of utter desolation. Even in an apocalypse, Los Angelenos still articulate hope through acts of creation: crafting resources, organizing aid, telling stories of courage and kindness. Far away from the wreckage, I can only pray, donate, and write. I am grateful to the people who have checked in, and the people who have posted about the fires, getting the word out. Continue to do so. It might feel futile in the face of flames, but words are important because they connect and mobilize. They stir hope. And sometimes they’re all we have. To donate, please visit: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/help-victims-california-wildfires-affecting-los-angeles-county/

I’m so excited to share snippets of a conversation I had with a dear friend who is an application reader for one of the top honors programs in the nation. There are many state schools that offer premiere full ride merit scholarships, along with international travel grants, group travel-study trips over spring break, study abroad programs overseas, and more. Some of these honors programs have as low as a 2% acceptance rate, with classes being as small as 30. She says that the majority of her class turned down Ivies in favor of the honors program fellowship: not only for the financial benefits but for the personalized support and tight-knit community.   I got the inside look at what goes on in the admissions scene. In the process of evaluating potential candidates, every application is assigned two readers, who independently rank the candidates from 0-10. The total score determines the next stage: 20’s and 19’s move on to the next round, 18’s and sometimes 17’s get a second read. She estimates that 15% of the applicants move on to the next round, which involve faculty readers and administrators.  Finally, a select number of candidates are invited to interview in person at the school, and from there, the final class is selected.  Though she is speaking from her perspective as a fellow as well as an admissions reader for her particular school, a lot of her advice still stands for merit scholarships at state schools. Here are my biggest takeaways from our conversation: Q: What is your biggest tip to someone who is applying to this program? A: I think I was surprised by how much voice and authenticity and passion actually shine through in your essays.  Q: How do you feel that warmth or passion through essays?  A: I think it's through specificity. It's having a unique point of view, but I think in terms of how you communicate it, it‘s definitely in specificity. It's being unafraid to use your voice. I think it is a risk to break the mold and maybe use more humor or more of a casual tone that shows your personality, but I think [it is worth it] if it is executed.  Q: How do you determine the number to give? A: The 9’s and 10’s are people generally who do excel across the board. Like they are incredible writers. Some people will have a more straightforward way of writing. Some people will have a more stylistic creative way of writing. But either way, those people almost always tend to be extremely effective communicators in whatever way they're approaching it. Some people might be really, really amazing candidates, but they don't know how to express themselves and they suffer in the essay portion. But I do think on average, you would overwhelmingly find that the candidates who have the most amazing accomplishments, who do the best in school, who excel the most in their activities, are also the candidates that have the best essays. They're good storytellers, or they understand themselves. They understand how to communicate. No one has to know one hundred percent who they are as a young person, or at any age. But someone who can figure it out, who has a strong sense of self—you know where they want to go. An 8 or a 9 is the ideal candidate. So someone who is truly impressive. It doesn't mean you have to be the best at everything. You once said that it’s better to be the point of the pencil than the eraser. It's better to be sharp than well rounded—better to excel in one or a few areas than it is to be just well rounded in a lot of things. A 7 or 8 would be advanced or excellent, so they clearly excel in school. An excellent student, but maybe not the most impressive person. Q: When you say impressive…?  A: Impressive is hard to counter. I’ve seen candidates who are just, like, wow. How are you a stunning writer and taken X amount of APs and you get straight A's and you have a perfect SAT, but you're also doing research at your local college on the side and you're also an award winning violin player or a championship winning sports player. There are people who really do it all to the highest degree, and it's impressive. Q: Is that word impressive on the rubric?  A: It is on the rubric.  Q: Interesting. What about ideal? What does that mean on the rubric?  A: Ideal is the archetype of someone who’ll succeed in this program. Something unique about the program is that we’re looking for a really well-rounded diverse class of people who are impressive in many different ways and come from many different backgrounds in terms of identity, geography, income, major, what you want to do in life, what your activities are and what your perspective is. Ideal is definitely someone who has clear passions and unabashedly, aggressively pursues them. It may not be someone who knows exactly what they want to do, but it's someone who really knows themselves and is chasing those passions. I do think we're also looking for a specific type of candidate that tends to feed into the major scholarships: Rhodes, Marshall—students who may pursue higher education at the grad level and beyond.  Q: What made you an ideal candidate?  A: We’ll never know because we don’t see our own admissions file, but before we start reading they do give us our own applications back.  Q: To calibrate? A: To calibrate, but also to reorient yourself back into being a senior in high school and understand what it’s like in those shoes. To remind us we’re judging 17 year olds and not who we are today. We were told, you know, you're gonna look back at this and you're gonna cringe at what you wrote. So if you cringe a little bit at what a student has written, it’s natural. We’re looking at potential. Someone who is excellent for the position that they're in at that moment. For me, it was probably a combination of clear passion and unique perspective.  Q: But it’s still important to have a cohesive narrative in your application. A: We look at these applications a lot longer than at least the statistics say. We discuss each application for an average of six to eight minutes, maybe up to 10 minutes. But because people are looking through applications so quickly, you don't want to be confusing. You want to have a clear story, which is not to say you can't be interested in multiple things, but you have to find a way to connect it together. You just don't want to leave your reader wondering why this person chose to pursue this and has never expressed an interest in it before, or why this person has spent so much time in a certain area and is seemingly gonna drop it and never do it again. Q: Who's interviewing?  A: There are six panels of five interviewers each, gathered around certain interests in humanities and sciences. You’re assigned one panel based on your interests. Generally there’ll be one distinguished alumni, one trustee, one school administrator like a dean or provost, a faculty member, and someone who is on the scholarship team.  Q: Any tips for the interview portion? A: A panel interview, especially at that age, is very intimidating. In my panel in particular, one of my interviewers famously has made multiple students cry. So, tip: don't cry in your interview. Even though they try to tailor the panels to be people who are in your field, I think there's also something to the fact that you're putting hopefully six genuinely curious people in a room who are able to speak about anything as long as someone in the room is passionate about it. It’s about finding points of connection and being able to express your passions in a way that bring other people in, even if they don't come from that background. Q: Did you feel good about it afterwards?  A: I definitely felt shaky about some things. If you have taken a foreign language, they will ask you a question from that language. The question was, in French, how would your friends describe you? Which is a hard question to answer in English! I said my friends would describe me as kind in the mom of the group, and that was the extent of my French.  Q: Any other surprise questions?  A: Everyone’s asked a surprise question, like an unexpected question about their resume. Mine was because I was a poll worker in high school, I was asked my opinion on the electoral college. My panel had a 70 year old so I very much hedged my answer. But yes, I think these places will always ask a question with a twist. They care less about what your political opinion is and more about how you express your opinion in thoughtful and informed ways.  Ultimately, this application reader’s bottom line is that AO’s are impressed by students with a strong sense of identity. She adds, “No one has to know one hundred percent who they are as a young person, or at any age. But someone who can figure it out, who has a strong sense of self, and you know where they want to go—that’s who we’re looking for.”

Listen to our podcast here! Why does purpose matter? So often we find ourselves mindlessly scrolling through social media, adrift in life, just going through the motions. Without a clear sense of purpose, we remain in our comfort zones. We allow fear to rule our lives and prevent us from stepping into our God-given destinies. Just as a creator imbues purpose into their creations, so too does our God (the greatest Creator) give us unique purposes. Often times discovering purpose is really all about finding your true identity first. For students currently in high school, discovering your purpose means opening yourself up to adventure and exploration. If I hadn't been open to writing in different mediums (playwriting, poetry, screenwriting), I might not have discovered my passion of storytelling, and my following purpose to make people feel less alone through my stories. Had I not volunteered to help out with my church's high school group, I wouldn't have discovered my calling to impact and inspire the youth. Purpose sparks us to life and brings us joy. There are hard moments in pursuing your purpose, of course, but at the end of the day, it shouldn't feel confusing or stressful or anxiety-inducing; it should bring joy on the deepest level. My mom's purpose is to be a mother. She knew that from a young age. What a beautiful purpose to embody: embarking on this journey to shape her children's lives. Even though now me and Jeremy, my brother, are young adults, her purpose of a mother doesn't end—it simply evolves as our relationship transforms as well. Take the time to discover and reflect on your purpose. This is not an overnight thing—it takes years, maybe even decades, to discover purpose. For example, one woman in her 70's discovered a love of running. She finds so much joy in running, and by doing what she loves, she's inspiring those in her community to find their purposes as well. It's never too late to find your purpose. Dare to find your purpose!

In the ever-evolving landscape of college admissions, the idea of being a well-rounded student has shifted. Rather than seeking well-rounded individuals, colleges now aim for a well-rounded class. What does this mean for you? It means developing a spike – a specialization in 1 to 3 areas you're passionate about and genuinely excel in. That was my secret sauce to getting into all 17 schools I applied to, including all eight Ivy League universities: I developed a spike in storytelling, focusing on poetry, playwriting, and journalism. Here's where Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule comes into play (it might seem crazy high, but you have a head start as a high school student!) While you may not reach 10,000 hours, dedicating significant time and energy to your spike is crucial. For me, it was honing my storytelling skills, and in the process, winning honors and awards. Why are honors and awards important? This is a third-party validation of your dedication and skill. It proves to admissions officers you are not only dedicated to your spike, but that you are objectively good at it (aka your hard work has paid off)! But what if there are no honors and awards to be won? For example, what if my basketball team sucks and we come in last every season? Or what if my school has a lack of resources? The key is to make the most out of your situation. If your team is at the bottom, be the best within that context. Go for leadership positions—assistant coach, team captain. Innovate a new way of working out and keeping team morale high. If your school lacks clubs, create one — this demonstrates initiative, creativity, and perseverance. Admissions officers consider your impact relative to your community. Starting a club or initiative and nurturing it over time reveals grit and determination. Build your spike, put in the hours, earn recognition, demonstrate creativity. This is what will help you stand out! Remember, colleges want a well rounded class, not a well rounded individual. And this advice isn't just for getting into college—it's what helped me build a deeply fulfilling and exciting life.

When is the best time to start college apps? This is one of the most common questions that I get. My answer? Second semester junior year, aka… now. As we celebrate the new year, making new resolutions and goals, this is also the perfect time to do two things: One, reflect on the past. The reason why colleges have these long applications with numerous supplements is so that they can understand what made you into who you are today. Think back to what you accomplished in the last year, and the years before. How did you get to those milestones? What were some of the challenges you overcame to get there? Why did you set those goals in the first place? Thinking about these questions are key to brainstorming not only your common app essay, but also how you’re going to present yourself in the rest of your supplements. Two, start scribbling nonsense down. See, I could’ve said “start writing your memories down” but I don’t want to place pressure on you… just get something on the page! Even if it’s nonsense. Because nonsense on the page is more of a starting place than a blank page. Get into the practice of freewriting every day for 5 minutes. Freewriting is the practice of writing whatever comes to mind without stopping—don’t let your pen ever leave the page! We have to write the nonsense in order to get to the good stuff. Lin-Manuel Miranda once told me: “Keep writing. Don’t stop writing. … When you start writing, you’re turning on a faucet and when you turn on a faucet, the water’s brown and it’s full of whatever’s just been in there, clogged up and waiting to come out. Then you just keep writing and writing until the water’s clear and that’s when you find your own voice.” Believe it or not, I had a good time writing college apps. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely stressful at times, but looking back on that season, it was a time where I could really dive deep into my origin story and why I became who I am today. It is a platform to handwrite your dreams and goals for the future. Perhaps for many of you, like me, it’s the first time we really get to sit down and be thoughtful about the next 5-10 years of our lives. It is not easy to land on an idea or story to “capture” who you are… which is why you MUST start early. I went through 5-10 drafts before my final version, starting spring of my junior year. This is why I am offering a spring class on college essay writing starting in February. Spots are going quickly, sign up here!

So far this year, I’ve had students get into Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, Brown, Boston College and Notre Dame. Congratulations! It's an exciting time! However, I’ve also had students waitlisted, deferred, or rejected from their dream schools. Rejection is painful, and in college admissions, can even feel extremely personal, since colleges are evaluating your activities, your grades, your academic interests, your passions, your hobbies. But what you do is not who you are. And similarly, where you go is not who you are. I’m no stranger to rejection. I faced so many closed doors in my stint as a kid-teen reporter. I submitted countless portfolio after portfolio filled with my best creative work, from poetry that came from the deepest parts of me to plays that I edited endlessly. I sent out applications to programs I was convinced would make or break my high school and college careers. Every email that contained “I regret to inform you” felt like a jab to my heart. It was hard not to take it personally—after all, it was my work on the table, oftentimes creative work I poured my whole self into. I started collecting a folder of rejection letters I received in the mail. At school, one of my teachers suggested we start a “rejection ceiling” where students could paste their rejection letters above, as a symbol of pride. Because every rejection meant another try. It was physical proof that we hadn’t given up. And that, my teacher would say, was the real victory. We never did start that rejection ceiling, at least while I was there, but I still have my folder of letters, which I’m proud to say, never stops growing. I’ve never stopped putting myself out there because I don’t want to stop myself from getting my next Yes. The people who push past rejection are the brave ones. The ones who keep going. Rejection brings you one step closer to where you need to be. The school you end up at might not have been your dream school. But who knows the friends you’ll meet there, the discoveries you’ll make with your professors, the home you’ll build yourself for four years. Don’t write off your future because of rejection. Take some time to process your emotions, which are totally valid, but don’t put the blinders on. Instead, get excited about the many possibilities for your very young life ahead of you. One final note about college admissions: to a certain degree, college admissions relies on luck, in addition to hard work. Because of the opaqueness of the process, we’ll never quite know why one school rejected you when others might accept you. This is why it’s essential to diversify your list and apply for reach, match and safety schools because the process is, at times, inscrutable and unpredictable. It may seem like the world has ended; I am here to assure you that is very much not the case. Especially for those I’ve worked with—every single one of my  students is tenacious and driven to do great things to help their communities. Where you go doesn’t limit your impact on the world—I look forward to seeing how you’ll change the world.

The way that I like to approach the UC essays is by asking my students, what are the four to six most important areas of your life? Now, everybody has these things. It can be things that you do in school, it can be things that you do outside of school, and it also doesn't have to be a thing that you do. It could be that you want to talk about your family structure or family dynamic. Maybe something to do with your culture. Maybe there's a part of your personality that you really want to show. We want to find a way to squeeze all four to six of these things into your UC application, which is four questions. It's going to take a little bit of puzzling and Tetrising to figure out what goes where. For me, at the time, I was really big into creative writing in general, but specifically playwriting and poetry. I was really into journalism. I had a lot of leadership experience. I went to leadership camps. I did a lot of volunteer work. I worked with kids, whether it was to collect canned goods or teaching them in Sunday school. Some other parts of me that are important include why I am so attracted to storytelling. I also wanted to showcase a part of my personality, which is fun and that I don't take myself too seriously, and at that time, I was a really passionate fan girl. So you'll see elements of that spread throughout these four UC essays. Here's my first essay: 1. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time. (350 words) "My kids are demanding. From spilled orange juice to my homemade cookies smashed on the floor, it’s a lot to take on as the sole “adult” in the room. My kids fight a lot--Dora steals James’ toys and James pulls Dora’s hair. Edith holds grouches longer than any child I’ve ever met. Ariel is painstakingly shy because she has a lisp. I’ve taught classes as big as 20, endured circular conversations of “Why?” “Why not?” and “How come?”, and held kindergarteners as their temper tantrums left bruises for days afterwards. Kids, with their unflinching honesty and unbridled emotions, can be really mean sometimes. So why do I do it? When I teach Sunday School and lead cell groups, my needs don’t come first--theirs do. Whether it’s breaking up a fight or soothing a fear, it’s a responsibility that demands sensitivity. To mirror a child’s feelings, to make them feel understood--these are some of the tasks that have tested my patience. I have messed up before: I learned that kids take things at face value, and sarcasm is not in their vocabulary. Now I know once trust is broken, it takes an eternity of hugs and validation to build it back up. I am responsible not only for their tears, but also their smiles. It’s so simple yet rewarding to elicit a child’s laugh by giving high-fives, fist bumps, stickers, homemade cupcakes, and praise. Every giggle is like winning an Oscar for my silly puppet shows of Zacchaeus climbing the tree or the whale swallowing Jonah whole. It’s an honor to play a role in their happy-go-lucky lives, acting out essential Bible stories they will encounter again and again as they grow up. When James and Dora give each other a reconciliatory hug, when Edith learns the value and freedom of forgiveness, I am not just the teacher, but I am also learning from my students’ willingness to change. And when shy Ariel puts her arms around my waist and whispers, “I luf you,” I know I’ll never stop being their jie jie, their big sister." (350) I think I do a really good job with laying out the challenge of teaching kids. Something that I advise my students is that whenever they're talking about working with other people, whether it is their peers or students that are younger than them, or a teacher or someone in their family, it really helps the reader to namedrop them in your essay, to emotionally anchor us. This essay of mine would be really different if I said, for example, in the second line, "My kids fight a lot. One girl steals one boy's toys and he pulls her hair." That just removes the emotional closeness that I really want to feel as a reader. Something to aim for in every essay is setting up that struggle, and with struggle comes an element of growth. So for me, the lesson that I'm learning through this experience is that my needs don't come first. Theirs do, and I'm honest about it--it's not easy. It's a skillset that I had to build up over time. So when you read this, you understand that, oh, she put blood, sweat, and tears into becoming this big sister for these little kids. Of course the essay ends in a positive place. What is so rewarding and why do I do it? That's the best part of the essay to me--I'm making a difference in the lives of these children, whether by cheering them up or teaching them Bible stories. I wanted to end this essay in that human connection. 2. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side. (350 words) "When your first play is about a boy who eats so much junk food that he turns into a literal couch potato, you know you’re on the right path to winning a Tony Award. After all, a potato is like a play. It begins underground. The roots reach for nutrients and a strong grip on the earth. I am alone in my room with the seed of an idea. Lights up on news articles and personal histories collected from hours of research. I dig until I can curl my fingers around what feels like a story: conflict, check. Biting dialogue, check. Characters I want to simultaneously hug and slap, check. Because my perspective shifts, sprouts spring from the seed’s eyes and the plant breaks the surface, announcing its presence to the world. I grasp opportunities to collaborate with artists and bring it to life. My play no longer flourishes through willpower alone—the countdown to opening night begins. Life as a potato isn’t easy. There are powerful forces of nature to deal with and the struggle to grow, to emerge stronger than before. Every meeting with an artistic team of visionaries reshapes the play, discovers another layer, or goes off on a tangent--and those are the best conversations. Conversations that deeply move me when an actor shares his own experience about losing a parent, that reaffirm me in my moments of soul-crushing doubt, that validate the reason why I write, in hopes that my stories may resonate with even one person in the audience. The potato is now ready to be presented to the public eye. Cue gasps, wet cheeks, and laughter. Just as the potato spreads across the globe, whether my plays are performed in a school’s church-turned-theater, a white box in New York, the Stella Adler theatre in Hollywood, or the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, we clap because we believe. After experiencing imagination in action, I don’t think I’ll be turning into a couch potato anytime soon. After all, a potato is like a play, not a playwright, and one potato can yield an entire harvest more." (340) If you've been following me, this is familiar to you. It's my potato-play essay, the longer version, which I used for Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton. When you take an essay that's a longer form from somewhere else and you're cutting it down for your UC schools, you're playing a game with yourself: what are the most important parts of this essay to keep? It was very important for me to keep the creative element of it, which is the tongue in cheek metaphor of how my play is like a potato. That, to me, was key to keep because this question is all about creativity. When I was going through my longer version, it was a matter of what can go and yet the essay at its heart remains the same. Something that was really important to me to keep in this essay is, again, this element of struggle. I kept that paragraph of how my life as a potato isn't easy. I want to show the reader that through this process, through this metaphor, I'm constantly growing and changing and learning. Another thing too that I think was important to preserve is actually that last sentence. It is the most resume-y thing within this essay. I'm listing the places where my place have been presented, but I think that was important to to preserve because it connects solidly to the things on my awards/honors/activities list without managing to sound too braggy--the evidence is there and it's up to the reader to make those connections between what's on my resume to what's in my essay. And the reason it's important to include is to back up--with tangible "facts"--the passion and the creativity that I'm presenting in this essay. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement? (350 words) "In our house, English is not English. Not in the phonetic sense, like short a is for apple, but rather in the pronunciation — in our house, snake is snack. Words do not roll off our tongues correctly — I was pulled out of class to meet with language specialists, and my Malaysian mother pronounces film as flim. In our house, there is no difference between cast and cash, which was why at a church retreat, people made fun of me for “cashing out demons.” Classmates laughed because I pronounced accept as except, success as sussess. I was in the Creative Writing conservatory, and yet words failed me when I needed them most. When my mother asked me to teach her proper English so old white ladies at Target wouldn't laugh at her pronunciation, I cried. It has not been easy. There is a measure of guilt when I sew her letters together. Long vowels, double consonants — I am still learning myself. Sometimes I let the brokenness slide to spare her pride but perhaps I have hurt her more to spare mine. As my mother’s vocabulary began to grow, I mended my own English. Through performing poetry in front of 3000, interviewing people from all walks of life, and writing stories for the stage, I stand against ignorance and become a voice for the homeless, the refugees, the ignored. With my words I fight against jeers pelted at an old Asian street performer on a New York subway. My mother’s eyes are reflected in underprivileged ESL children who have so many stories to tell but do not know how. I fill them with words as they take needle and thread to make a tapestry. In our house, there is beauty in the way we speak to each other. In our house, language is not broken but rather bursting with emotion. We have built a house out of words. There are friendly snakes in the cupboard and snacks in the tank. It is a crooked house. It is a little messy. But this is where we have made our home." (350) This is where I used my common app. Let's go through what I chose to cut. I chose to cut the majority of my mom's story. In my common app, I have the room and I have the emotional space in the essay to go deeper into my mom's story. For my UC's, I was forced to almost cut that out and just really focus on me. Because at the end of the day, they're not admitting my mom, they're admitting me. She only shows up twice really, in the third and fourth paragraphs. The rest of this essay is about how I overcame the struggle and worked doubly hard to make up for my lack. So in the struggle essay, obviously you want to lay out the obstacles that you have been facing, and then of course, how you managed to push through or persevere and overcome those elements of adversity. Something that I don't want you to get totally caught up in is whenever you are tackling a most significant challenge essay, keep in mind that everybody's challenges looks different and feels different. My challenge to you might not be a big deal, but to me it felt like something that I really had to overcome. It's asking for the most significant in your life, not the most significant challenge to exist on Earth ever. It's all in relation to yourself and your journey. So don't press yourself to find a massive life altering challenge. If it matters to you, if it was a big roadblock for you, I want to hear about it. As long as it matters to you, that's going to give it the heart and the emotion that this essay needs. 8. What is the one thing that you think sets you apart from other candidates applying to the University of California? (350 words) "If I describe to you my life, you’d assume I’m a spy. After all, I was recruited when I was 11. I receive assignments via email, text, or phone and liaise with PR’s, determining time and location. My assignments require significant travel to infiltrate red carpets and junkets, relaying intel to bosses who sit atop skyscrapers. Instead of X-Ray sunglasses, I’m equipped only with a mic and a notepad. I pore over my feature stories and rewrite movie reviews in the dead of night. Like a secret agent studying files, I spend hours researching the targets and brainstorming unique questions that will yield priceless insight. On the job, I work erratic hours and endure weather of all kinds--come stinging rain or blustery ice-cold nights, I face the camera with my objective in mind. Competition with other agencies can get tough--I stay calm under pressure, fight to hold my ground on the carpet, and leap at opportunities to ask questions at junkets. When I get condescending looks from adults on the job, I hold up the badge around my neck to gain access to behind-the-scene areas, grit my teeth and gear up to prove that age is just a number. Though I’m not setting traps for villains, I do talk with green monsters like the Hulk, Kermit, and Mike Wazowski. I undergo intense training to enter the Scorch Trials, study How to Train Your Dragon, and venture Into The Woods. I conduct intelligence operations with other Divergents, learn the mystical arts under the guidance of Doctor Strange, and sail across Sea of Monsters and Stranger Tides to accomplish my missions. My content celebrates work by women, about women, and for women. The assets I pursue are those who push for diversity in Hollywood—my mission is to defeat ignorance, the biggest evil of all. It all pays off when I acquire exclusive insight into artists’ lives, revealing another facet of depth. I connect with another human, gain invaluable perspective, and widen my understanding of people. Real spy or not--I’m happy with this job. It’s just as cool." (345) This is my spy-journalism activity essay I used for Harvard, USC, Yale, and Amherst. On most of those applications, the limit was 150 words. So I had to expand for this UC essay. I was able to have more fun with it and go a little bit more in depth to why I do it. I played up the struggle aspect. I talk about how it's hard to compete with other agencies. It's also difficult to be the youngest on the carpet and it's truly an unglamorous experience. I was able to expand on why I do it and what's my angle. Every journalist's M.O. is different. I realized that I really wanted to uplift women with my work. That's why I wrote, "my content celebrates work by women about women and for women." I love journalism because of the ability to increase diversity in Hollywood, and to bring the stars a little bit closer to earth. In expanding, I wanted to give this essay a deeper meaning. I don't just do journalism for fun, I wanted to show that I actually have a mission and I care about this societally.

Many of you guys know Devi Vishwakumar from the Netflix series, "Never Have I Ever." Devi is an overachiever. She's very high strung, and since she was a little kid, it was her dream to go to Princeton. So today we're gonna talk about her college admissions journey. SPOILERS AHEAD for Season 4 of "Never Have I Ever"! The show follows Devi and her friends through four years of high school. So this fourth season is their senior year, and of course, that means college admissions. A major plot point of season four is that Devi only applies to the Ivy League colleges. Obviously, not a good idea. And this bites her in the butt because she gets rejected from every single school and gets waitlisted by her dream school, Princeton. But regardless of the outcome, whether it's good, or in her case, bad, I want to tell you as your friendly neighborhood college essay coach, DO NOT DO THIS. Applying only to the Ivy Leagues is a terrible, terrible idea. Even only applying to schools that are your reach schools is also a bad idea because even if you were the most awesome student at your school, even if you're number one, even if you think you're basically a shoe-in because your dad went there, even if you were 10 years old and you made it to Forbes 10 under 10 list—it doesn't matter how awesome and excellent you are because there is no guarantee that you'll get in. Devi's school counselor says to her in the series, "You are an excellent student, but those schools have tens of thousands of applications from excellent students." At this point, it's a numbers game. Devi's counselor is correct. Luck and timing also factor into your admissions. Who's to explain why you got into one school over another? We will never truly know. Maybe, for example, you are a dancer, and this year they had enough dancers and they were actually looking for a microbiologist to fill your spot. Or maybe your admissions officer had a terrible, terrible day while reading your application. Obviously we hope that the process is more holistic than that, but you really never know. So it's just extremely risky to apply only to your reach schools, especially if your reach schools are the Ivy Leagues, no matter how cool you are. They're called reach schools for a reason. Okay, so back to Devi. She gets waitlisted at Princeton. She is having a meltdown. She calls up her rep at Princeton, the one that she's been in touch with, and asks, is there anything that I can do? And her rep tells her that her best shot is to fill out a supplemental essay. Chances are very slim of getting off the wait list indeed. If you look at the numbers for these kind of schools, they're crazy small. But you still have a shot. Here is the essay that Devi ended up writing for this supplement essay. Breakdown will follow: "A long time ago, someone told me to write my college essay about my father, but I didn't want to because it felt exploitative and wrong. However, I don't think there's a way to really know me without knowing him. I should back up and tell you that my father died my freshman year of high school. He died right in front of me at an orchestra concert. I was 15 years old and I watched a person I loved most in the world disappear right before my eyes, but I don't wanna focus on his death. It was how he lived that really shaped me. He was a person who had unending joy and optimism about the world. Princeton was actually a dream he and I came up with together. I think I've so fiercely held onto Princeton, so I could keep holding onto him, but if you don't accept me, I'll be okay because I can't lose him. He's always with me. But if you do happen to find a spot for me, I promise I won't take it a second of it for granted because I'd be living that dream, not just for me alone." So spoiler alert: in the show, she ends up getting off the waitlist and into Princeton. Now, is it because of this essay? It might not just be because of this essay. As we all know, Devi is an excellent student. It could be that plus her demonstrating her continued interest in the school, her grades, her extracurriculars, etc... but certainly this essay played a part in it. Now some schools do offer this chance to write supplemental essays or letters of interests if you are waitlisted. And it varies case by case in terms of how you're supposed to format these. I would look into that schools, what they usually require, what are they looking for, because some schools might want more achievement based, like scholarly/academic updates. Other schools might want more of like a story driven answer to the question, why are you still interested in our school? It varies case by case. I have a friend whose sister got waitlisted and she wrote her letter of interest actually expressing her desire to be with her sister at that same school. So really, it can be many different things, but today, I want to approach Devi's supplemental essay as if it was the original common app essay that she wrote. Her Princeton rep tells her that her comp app essay was very well written, very academic, had multiple uses of the word dichotomy, but didn't show who she was. And she tells Devi, I want to know why you are who you are. And she pushes Devi to like dig a little bit deeper. I would say this is really good advice if your essay does include the word dichotomy or plethora or juxtapose or multifaceted or myriad. Almost like immediate red flag and, and let me explain why. It's not to say that you can't use these words, but unless they're in your normal vocabulary, I would probably advise you to avoid these words because they're often overused, especially in the college essay context. It may signal to the admissions officers that you're trying to make yourself sound really smart and impress them with big words. It might also make the essay come across as more formal and not personal enough. And because of its formality, it doesn't feel alive, it doesn't feel specific to you. Your story just might not jump off the page because it doesn't have the X factor, which is you. So Devi's rep also mentions that her essay is too academic. Now there is a space for academic language in essays, but probably not your common app essay. It's better suited for the supplement essay, maybe where a school asks you to elaborate on something you're curious in academically. They want to test your intellectual curiosity. Now, that's a place where you can get really academic, especially as you dive deeper into the jargon of whatever area you're interested in pursuing. Your comm app is really to show who you are. Maybe you are, at your core, an extremely academic person, and you use these big words all the time, but if that's not you, I would avoid them. So why is Devi's additional supplement essay effective? It gets to the heart of who she is. She writes about her dad and displays honesty and vulnerability about like why she actually didn't want to write about him in the first place. This is a pretty good place to begin. You could maybe bait the reader into thinking, oh, this is another sob story essay about a family tragedy, but then actually surprise your reader with this reluctance to write this exact story. I think that's there's some element of surprise in the way you could open up this essay. Then Devi gives us some context about how her dad died, which was right in front of her eyes at an orchestra concert. I would want her to add that this is an orchestra concert that she was performing at. I think that's a really key detail because it just underscores how much this affected her life, her playing abilities, her performance in school, her social performance at school as it does in the series. It affects everything she does. I think her instinct to not dwell too much on this moment is correct, because at the end of the day, her dad's death is not the focus of the essay. It's actually more about how he lived that shaped her. She writes that he was a person who had unending joy and optimism about the world. So if this were her common app essay, I would ask her to write that in action. Like, I want to see him be this person full of joy and optimism. I wanna get anecdotes, personal stories that I can immerse myself in. And I can see how was he this incredibly optimistic person. For example, maybe she tells the story of how he bought the motorcycle, which, you know, played a big part in the series. Maybe she tells us about his tennis obsession and why John McEnroe is the person who is narrating Devi's life in her head. Like, that would be a fun anecdote. At the end of the day, I want her to show and not tell about her dad. We also need to understand why she's telling us these stories about her dad. How do her dad's anecdotes and stories relate to her? How have they shaped her into the person who she is today? Basically, why do we need to hear these stories to understand Devi as a person? It's really important to not get lost in describing another person because at the end of the day, colleges are admitting you and not, in this case, her dad. Devi explains that Princeton is a dream that they came up with together. This part obviously wouldn't belong in a common app essay. This part would belong in like a Why Us, why Princeton essay. Let's say she does talk about this in that essay. I would actually love for her to include the story of how they came up with this dream together. On the show, there's a flashback. They show young Devi asking her father, Dad, is there a school for princesses? And he laughs and says, no, but there is a school called Princeton, and that's how they came up with the dream together. And I think that's a lovely, sweet anecdote that she can put into her essay. However, I do wonder, and this is a genuine question, if that's a popular thing to write about. Princeton doesn't have a Why Us essay. But if there was a question like that, I wonder if writing about the misconception that Princeton is a college for princes would be popular, because that's what I genuinely thought when I was a kid. I actually took a similar approach in an essay that I ended up not submitting for Rice University, here it is: "As a girl who thought the carpool lane was meant only for cars with pools in the back. When I first heard of Rice University from my friend's older sister, I immediately pictured a school composed of rice fields and students analyzing rice. As I did more and more research, I realized my vision wasn't far from the truth. Granted, while there aren't rice factories at Rice, The spirit remains the same. Collaboration, research, advance d technology innovation to determine the best way of growing a plant and beyond telling stories, discovering a diverse America, learning a new language, studying quirks..." And that's as far as I got. Not the greatest, but there is something here. I wonder how original or unoriginal opening that essay like that would be, especially in Rice's case and in Princeton's case and maybe in Brown's case. So to celebrate Devi getting into Princeton I will be releasing a video where I reveal my own essays that got me into Princeton. So hit subscribe on my YouTube channel!

In my last post, I broke down a college essay that was generated by Chat-GPT. This time I got Chat-GPT to generate me a common app essay, but from the voice of Wednesday Addams. I asked the bot to showcase her sort of dry sense of humor, her personality. The bot generated its own prompt: reflect on a time when you challenged societal norms or expectations. How did it impact you? "It was prom season. That dreaded time when my fellow students were obsessing over dresses, dances, and popularity. The idea of conforming to such trivialities made my bones ache. So I hashed a plan, an alternative event to disrupt the status quo, the 'Goth gala.' I assembled a motley crew of misfits, the kindred spirits who embrace their darkness without apologies. We transformed the school gymnasium into a gothic paradise, complete with cobwebs, black roses, and haunting melodies. Our unconventional attire defied the norm, with lace, velvet and accessories fit for Creatures of the Night." I love this opening. I love the level of detail, this idea of misfits kindred spirits. Cherry on top with the description of the cobwebs, the black roses, the haunting melodies.It really brings me in. I think my one critique is that we actually start with those tangible items. So instead of telling us that it was prom season, I would've preferred if Wednesday sort of describe what a typical prom season looked like and then juxtapose it immediately in the next paragraph with what her ideal prom season looked like. I would bring that level of sensory detail up to the front to faster get our attention. I think I would also like to see a little bit more analysis or some deeper academic thought of why Wednesday wants to reject the typical prom season. Like are there certain feminist or anti-feminist aspects about prom? What exactly is it that she is going against and standing so strongly in her beliefs that will really define her character and show the admissions officer that this girl represents X, Y and Z? "Of course our endeavor faced opposition from those who couldn't fathom the beauty in our macabre celebration, but we persisted, fueled by the authenticity that radiated from our non-con confirming conforming souls." Okay. Interesting. So Wednesday mentions that she faces opposition. But I would push Wednesday as my student to tell me a little bit more about that opposition. Did something happen? Did a teacher come in to shut it down? Was she laughed at by her classmates who were going to the traditional prom? Like I want to know specifically what went down—what challenges did she face? Now remember, your common app essay is really like telling a story which has a beginning, middle, and end. If you think about it like a movie, if you think about it like a hero's journey, the hero always faces obstacles and it's like one obstacle after another. That's how the hero grows. So in this essay, to see Wednesday grow, I really need to understand the challenges that she faced, or the backlash that she faced, maybe during or after this event. "The impact of the Goth gala was glorious chaos. It attracted a diverse collection of individuals who had been invisible amidst the sea of conformity. In our embrace of the peculiar and the unusual, connections were forged that transcended shallow social constructs." I have a pitch for Wednesday. She mentions that she made new connections. What if she started off actually with maybe a friend or an outcast that was rejected by popular society in, at the beginning of this essay? We could paint a picture of someone that she knows, maybe a loner classmate. And then here at this portion of the essay, we would get a picture of that classmate fully enjoying themselves at this alternative prom.I would pitch this to Wednesday because I want to see how those connections are made. I don't want Wednesday to tell me. Rather, I want to experience it. I want to feel like I'm there a part of the story. So name dropping that classmate would be super helpful in this instance, just giving us a little bit of flavor, a little bit of color, about this special bond that Wednesday formed with. "As for me, the Goth Gala reminded me of the power of being true to oneself. It taught me to question societal norms and find fulfillment in embracing my individuality no matter how unsettling it may be for the masses." Quick note there, I would want also a picture of how it was unsettling for everybody else. "Since that fateful night, I've continued to challenge expectations in my own delightfully twisted ways, whether it's my morbid humor, my rejection of beauty standards, or my unwavering expression of opinions. I am the embodiment of defiance." Okay, big terms. I actually do not think that Wednesday would write her essay like this; I think she would have a more subversive take on it. I am all for these grand statements if you are making them with a sense of irony. For example, in one of my own essays, I said something along the lines of, maybe one day I will like win a Tony Award. Of course that is so grand and grandiose and you're not promising the admissions committee that you're gonna go out and actually do these things, but you do have the opportunity to vision cast into the future: Here's who I am now, here's who I could possibly be. The gap between that is major, but you know what? I'm gonna write it down anyway. So the trick is when you make these sort of grandiose statements, you don't want to come across as arrogant or stuck up or entitled. You do have to be aware of that, and that's a really subtle thing to capture. I think the real Wednesday would write something like this, but in a subversive, more subtle, nuanced way. "In my pursuit of higher education, I seek an environment that cherishes authenticity and values the unorthodox. I will contribute my uniquely dark perspective to a community that appreciates the beauty in deviating from the norm. Together we will unravel the tapestry of conformity and create a new paradigm." I think that I would move this portion of the essay into a different supplement. This type of content shouldn't be a part of your common app essay because this is more about like the school and what you're going to do there. So it's more suitable for a "Why Us" essay or "What are you gonna contribute to our campus?" kind of essay. On that note, if Wednesday does move this to the other supplement, I would tell her, you have to be really specific. For example, if Wednesday was applying to Cornell, I would ask her, what about Cornell states that they are a campus that cherishes authenticity and values the unorthodox? Is it a particular theater group? Is it a particular club? Is it a particular major or a specific professor? What about the community? How do you know that the Cornell community appreciates beauty in deviating from the norm? Is there a sculpture that kind of represents that idea? Is it stated in their motto? Is it restated and chanted at their games? These are questions to consider for the "Why Us" essay. So for Wednesday to finish off this common app essay, I would like for her somehow to go to reference the beginning sequence. Let's say she did open up with an image of cobwebs, black roses, haunting melodies and juxtaposed it with typical prom imagery: flowery dresses, pop music, limousines. I would want her to return to that juxtaposition at the end. That's what we mean by full circle is referencing something at the beginning, at the end. Parallel structure is always nice. It's very satisfying. So I would encourage her to look for ways to end the essay in a more visual place rather than summarizing what she learned because we already know what she learned through the story she's telling us. So overall, I would rate Wednesday's essay a five out of 10, because I think it's a really unique topic. You can tell that she's a really unique person. When I read it, I want to know her more. I do like that there is a lot of special imagery unique to her that really brings us into the scene. Not bad Wednesday Addams. I hope Wednesday gets into her dream college.

Today, instead of breaking down one of my own essays, I'm going to break down chat GT's essay. And this is what it generated. All I put into the machine was generate me a common app essay under 500 words. It chose the topic of music. So let's take a look. "The final notes of the piano piece resonated through the concert hall, leaving me with a profound sense of fulfillment." As an opening hook, I like that it starts with something image based, something sensory based. I don't know if I like the second half of the sentence, "leaving me with a profound sense of fulfillment." Why? Because I think when you start off the essay, you shouldn't already be in a place of fulfillment. There needs to be growth and change throughout the essay. So if there is this sense of fulfillment in music, it really should come off at the end. I think I would have preferred this writer to start off with a sense of challenge, instead of dwelling with on the fullness and the beauty of music, which we'll get to of course. We want to earn that sense of fulfillment. "Music had always been an integral part of my life, but that particular performance marked a turning point, a moment when I realized the profound impact music had on my personal growth and development." This part is so general that it doesn't really point us to anything specific. I would ask ChatGPT to show and not tell. What about this particular performance defined that change and made music that much more meaningful in this writer's life? I want to be a part of this performance. I want to feel it, I want to smell it. I want to hear it. I want to experience all the sensations that you, as the writer, experienced as a performer, I want to be brought into your world. And there's no better place to do this in the essay than in the beginning. You really want to hook your reader in. You want to bring them in using the five senses. So what ChatGPT has written here is a really good goal to strive towards; basically when your reader reads this intro part, you understand that yes, this is a profound turning point in this musician's career, and that this has made a big impact on their personal growth. That's what we want the reader to implicitly understand, but not explicitly say. I always tell my students, it's good to write out sentences like these, because it basically acts as a guiding light for you to write towards. You want the audience to come to their own conclusion. I would hope that whatever story that you're telling would implicitly demonstrate your personal growth. "My journey with music began in my early childhood when my parents introduced me. Me to the piano. Initially, it was just another extracurricular activity, but as I continued my lessons and discovered the joy of creating melodies, it became much more, the piano became my sanctuary, a place where I could express myself without uttering a single word. However, my connection with music extended far beyond personal enjoyment in high school. I joined the school orchestra where I learned the power of collaboration and the beauty of harmonizing with others. Music became a universal language that transcended cultural and linguistic barriers, evoking emotions, uniting communities, conveying messages beyond words." I like that we go back in time a little bit to show the genesis of this passion. Um, I wonder. I would ask this student what about that first memory that you remember experiencing the joys of the piano? Can you bring us into that memory and why it's so important to you? So first encounters, first impressions are always a great place to begin a story. I do like this sentence that "the piano became my sanctuary, a place where I could express myself without uttering a single word." I do like that because it demonstrates like why this person is so passionate about piano. I wish it was juxtaposed with what this person felt like away from the piano in the social world. Like what? Does this person need sanctuary from? That's what I feel like it's missing. ChatGPT goes on to say that he joined the school orchestra, learned the power of collaboration and the beauty of harmonizing with others. I would ask this writer: how did you learn the power of collaboration? In this case, you're talking about your actual orchestra team members. I would always encourage my students to name drop their fellow players or fellow classmates. When you drop a name and then you connect it to someone real, suddenly the story becomes much, much, much more specific to you and your experience in that orchestra. Tell me about the times that you had difficulty collaborating with others, or tell me about a time where all these different instruments came together and created a glorious harmony. What piece were you playing? I really want to push students to get specific. There's, there's so much more depth you can go into in these details that will serve the overall reading experience. I would also encourage students to actually use jargon. So let's say your essay is about a passion, a hobby that you have. Use the jargon from that field, and don't be afraid that your reader won't understand it. We probably won't understand it, but, the purpose of having jargon in there is to show that you are truly a master of your passion. "My involvement in the orchestra taught me the value of discipline and perseverance as the demands of rehearsals and performances increased, so did my commitment to honing my skills. Countless hours were dedicated to practice, often at the expense of leisure time and social outings." What ChatGPT is striving for is great. However, I would ask this student to revise it, to really show us and bring to life the struggles, in order to make the ending worth it. You want to bring us through an emotional journey with a beginning, middle, and end. And in like a movie, when you have the rising action, there's a lot of struggle and challenges that your protagonists face, right? So that's this portion of this essay. I wanna hear about the sleepless nights, the blood sweat and tears, the cramp that you had in your piano fingers, the sadness on your face when you told your friends you couldn't hang out with them because you had to prepare for an upcoming concert. These are the details that'll make it more specific to you, and we can really feel your pain, your anguish, this thing that challenged you and made you grow. "The determination I developed through music spilled over into other aspects of my life, feeling my academic pursuits and inspired me to take on leadership roles in various student school organizations beyond school. I saw opportunities to share my passion for music with others. Volunteering at local nursing homes exposed me to the transformative power of melodies on the residents, witnessing their faces light up with joy and their spirits uplifted by the familiar tunes solidified my belief in therapeutic capacity of music." Here's where I would caution students not to turn your common app essay into a resume. I think that's a really major trap! Remember that your admissions officers are receiving the rest of your application. They're looking at you holistically. So that includes all of your school activities and clubs and awards and honors and volunteer stuff. So, why regurgitate that to us when we'll have it in list form, unless you're gonna do something different with it? In this case, ChatGPT does attempt this a little bit in bringing us into the story of this volunteer opportunity, talking about a local nursing home. I would get even more specific. Is there a particular senior resident who you established a connection to through music, and how did that person's life change? Or even if it was just their demeanor that changed? By name dropping that person, we understand the specificity of your situation, and it feels more real. "Moreover, my involvement in music has shaped my understanding of empathy and compassion through performances. I learned to listen attentively and respond sensitively to the emotions conveyed by each piece. This skill translated into my interactions with others, enabling me to empathize with their struggles and provide support when needed." I do not love any of this paragraph because it is so vague, and I don't understand really how music enables this person to empathize with their struggles. So if this was you, I would ask you for a very specific example. "Looking ahead to college, I'm confident that music will continue to be an integral part of my life. I eagerly anticipate exploring new avenues of musical expression and contributing to the vibrant artistic community on campus. Whether through participating in ensembles or engaging with the local community, I aspire to leverage the power of music to foster connection, bridge divides and inspire positive change." Not bad what this machine is going for. However, this paragraph does not belong in your common essay. This paragraph is more suitable for an essay question that's asking, why us? How are you going to contribute as a student onto this campus? This part of ChatGPT's essay interrupts the flow of the story of who you are. Yes, we want to paint a picture of who you are going to be, but I would move this section to a different essay because it's so college-specific. "In conclusion, my background in music has profoundly shaped my identity and played a pivotal role in my personal growth. From the transformative power of melodies to the cultivation of discipline and empathy, music has taught me invaluable life lessons. I'm enthusiastic about bringing my passion for music to college and contributing to a community that values artistic expression and embraces the transformative power of the arts." The best way to end an essay is not by summarizing what the essay is about, because that tells your reader you don't trust them to make their own conclusions, so you're spelling it out. And this is a habit that a lot of us are taught in school with the five paragraph essay structure, but for your common app essay and other essays, you do not need this conclusion. If I do not understand that this is what you're going for through your essay, then something is wrong. But if I'm able to read your essay, which is mostly story and narrative driven, and I have an firm understanding of who you were, who you are, and who you want to be, without you having to lay it out for us so explicitly, I consider that essay a success. So overall, I would rate ChatGPT's essay a 2 out of 10. The biggest reason why ChatGPT won't serve you in your essay writing journey is because anyone could have written it, right? That's the point. It made it so vague and general because it doesn't know you, it doesn't know your specific struggles. If you were to drop any part of your essay, like let's say you dropped the first paragraph on the floor at school and it doesn't have your name on it, anyone who picks it up and reads it should be able to know that you wrote it. That means every sentence, every paragraph has to be so carefully crafted that there's no way that someone else wrote it. It's so specific to your experience, your personality, your point of view that we'll immediately know that it's you. That's how I evaluate students' essays—when I see a sentence and feel that anyone have written that, I cut it. So that is why I'm ranking this essay so low. DISCLAIMER: Do not use ChatGPT to generate any school-related essays. This could jeopardize your admissions and integrity. This video is for educational uses only.

Struggling to write your college "why us" essay? I gotchu! I go over essential tips and tricks for crafting a compelling "why us" essay that showcases your passion and fit with the college of your dreams. From researching the school's academics to figuring out their culture, we'll cover everything you need to know to stand out and impress the admission officers.

Summer internships, resumes, cover letters… oh my! A key component of getting into every university I applied to including Yale + Ivy Leagues was likely my summer internships/programs. In today’s video, I go over types of internships (including untraditional) and give examples from my own journey, and share how I format my resume and write that cover letter. Click here for FREE templates!