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What's up everyone. I am going live. Hope everyone is Oops. Let me switch one more screen. Recording in progress. Recording stopped. Alrighty. What's up. What's up. I am going live on a few different platforms as well too. Uh, let me check. Go and ask coach anything. June 30th. People are flowing in right now. Hello. Hello everyone. Hope everyone is doing awesome so far. Let me tilt my angle. Tilt my angle. Tilt the camera down a little bit. All righty. Okay, I think we are good. Let's go live in three, two, one. All right. What's up. What's up, everyone. Hope everyone is doing awesome uh so far here today. I'm going to try to go a little live on a few different more platforms. How do I go live on this one over here. Can I go live. If you guys are joining me on Facebook, hello. Hello. Hope everyone's doing awesome so far here today. The final day of June. Uh we're going live. I'm just going to go on all the different platforms as well. Making sure things are good to go. Fantastic. Fantastic. Can everybody see me, hear me. Okay. Audio is good. We're going live on a few different platforms as well too. Going live on uh on uh Twitch, on YouTube, on uh Facebook, on Tik Tok, on Instagram as well, too. Welcome, welcome. Let's go ahead and get started in three, two, one. What's up everyone. Coach Tony here with Eagle Lock. Our goal is to help you guys. We kind of work backwards. Eagle lock is the word college backwards. We work backwards to get you guys to your top choice colleges. Uh if it's our very first time meeting, my name is Coach Tony, former UC Berkeley admissions uh reader, former UCLA director, actually still technically not former current founder of a high school uh as well. So pretty much um these calls I'm here, I'm live. If anyone has any questions, feel free to drop in, say hello. um as well. I did get a few questions uh ahead of time. So, I'm going to share my screen really quick uh so you guys can see what I see as well. So, we had a few kind of pre-recorded questions. Uh if anyone has any questions anywhere, feel free to chat it in the chat. But I found a few questions in case you guys want to join these. Uh we're probably making it a weekly thing. We do this our third, fourth, fourth week, I think, doing this. It's been a very very awesome uh reception so far. So we might keep doing this as well. So I am sharing my screen for those who are live on one. Can you guys see it. People say a little bigger. There you go. Fantastic. Cool. So let's go ahead and get started. Uh jump straight into the Q&A itself. All right. So again, in case you guys want to ask questions now in the future, just go to eagleock.comaskcony and we can help you guys um answer some questions as well too. All right. So first question we have here today is how many schools should I uh be applying to. So I'm assuming this is a question for like students applying to how many colleges right how many college you can apply to as well too. Uh so there's no so the question answer here is there's no set number right set number. Uh typically what we see typically we see students apply to 10 15 colleges is pretty much what it is. There's three types of schools you want to apply to. There's the reach schools, there's the target schools, and then there's the safety schools as well. You want to have like a mix of all three, right. Mix of one, mix of two, mix of three as well, too. That's pretty much a good pretty gay good gauge of how to do this. Um, so how do you know a school is a reach target safety score as well too. There's a few factors, but at a high level, if you want to go ahead and take your GPA number, right, and compare it with the school's average is kind of what you want to do, right. And a few things will happen here, right. If right, condition one, if your GPA is greater, right, than the school's average, then that's probably a safety score for you as well, too. So, if you look up, you have a 39, the school's average is a 32. Again, yours is higher mathematically, then then it's going to be a safety score for you guys there. If your GPA is equivalent to the school's average, uh, then that's t usually a target school for you. And if your GPA is less than the school's average or if the acceptance rate is 20% or less, that's going to be a reach school for you guys as well too, right. So that's got to be uh the general kind of framework to think about. Um again, do you do I would I recommend only applying to rechools. Probably not as well too. That's kind of little living life on uh on uh the edge right there, right. Have a good mix of all three. There's actually no limit though. You could apply to as many schools as you wanted to. Uh we had a student this past year. Uh here's a fun fact for everyone. Fun fact, we had a student who applied to 47 colleges with us um this past year. Class of 2025 as well too. I do not recommend applying to uh 20 to 47 schools as well too. You can imagine that many schools multiplied out is that many essays you have to write uh as well too. So again, that's that's pretty much the number. So again, no real set number uh is a thing. 1015 is usually what we see a lot. Okay, cool. One question down. So again, if you guys are joining me right now, we're just doing Q&A right now. If you have any questions, drop it in the chat. Wherever you guys are from, I'm going live on a few different platforms. We're live on Facebook, we're live on YouTube, we're live on Twitch, we're live on Instagram, we're live on Tik Tok. If you guys want to drop by a question, um I found a few, but feel free to drop questions. We can answer it live um as well, too. Okay. So, uh, next thing someone asks, what is the what are the best science classes to take as a junior if you want to have a career in the medical field as well too. So, this one's like maybe aspiring doctor, aspiring re researcher as well. So, in terms of the sciences for this, right, that basically you're entering uh you're looking to enter looking to enter the biological sciences. It sounds like the biological sciences. So, pretty much the classes that you're looking to do is like uh AP biology, AP chemistry, AP environmental sciences, environmental sciences, and that's pretty much a good um set there as well too. Could you take physics. You could, right. Could take physics, but physics is pretty much like a more of a physical sciences, more for like the engineering students. For those who are interested in engineering, that's a probably a better fit for you if you go in that direction. Um, but again, if you were a bio related student, medical related student, I would lean towards AP bio, AP Chem, AV, AP environmental sciences, um, is going to be the recommendations for you guys over here. Okay. So, be that's that's pretty straightforward, right. And as a junior, yes, take whatever you whatever class you're missing is a thing. The other thing to keep in mind also in addition to this, the plus is math. Math is going to be a really big component as well, too. For students who are interested in a medical field, you want to get to aim to get to at least right at least at least calculus BC uh if not higher. So if you can get to calc 3, that' be even better as well too, but at least to BC. So kind of work backwards and like how do I do it. And for those like, oh no, I can't make it in time. There's not enough classes, right. Uh don't forget, pro tip here is don't forget next summer, right. You still have one summer in between. So if like you're like two classes short, you can take one class now, take one class in the summer to take that class in the in the senior year itself um as well. So that that's going to be um another option for you guys over here. Okay, so that's going to be the second one. Best biological sciences. Uh moving on, next question here. Uh someone asks, should I play varsity basketball, which I don't want to do, or do the musical, which I do want to do. Uh which one will look better. uh we put quotes right which ones look better on my college application. So number one thing, number one tip to this student and anyone kind of um vibing with the same question, right. Number one tip, right. Do not do anything solely for the college application, right. It's kind the big rule, big rule of thumb. You're going to hate it as well. You're not going to enjoy your experience. And what if you go right what if you go to um you go to uh if you go to um to if you don't make it to college right then it's going to be super duper hard as well too. So I think so don't first off don't do anything for the sake of college applications. The the second one tip here is do things you like you like you things you like slash enjoy to do is going to be the key. Okay. So definitely do the things you like and enjoy to do uh is going to be the key because at the end of the day the college doesn't really care what you do right. Colleges focus on why you do it um is the key over here. Okay. So that's why they didn't go this student. I would say let's look into the musical route for you. For this student, it sounds like they clearly like that way more than the other thing as well. Right. And keep in mind this is not the only thing you should be doing when it comes to the um the only thing you do when it comes to the uh the activities, right. Activities should consist consists of two parts. The first part is going to be your uh the things you enjoy, right. And the second one is going to be uh tasting your major, right. So in addition to these two things, right, of these things, you also want to do things that you enjoy to do. Uh I'm sorry, tasting do things that you interested in your major. So if you're interesting in the medical field, doing things related in the medical field. If you're interested in the engineering, do things related to engineering. Whatever it ends up being, that's kind of what you want to focus on as well, too. Okay, those are the two things over here. We have a pretty cool comment. Uh Jada, if you are still here on Tik Tok, I'll take a screenshot of your thing really fast. Uh over on Tik Tok, we're going live for those who are watching here famous. We're going live on Tik Tok as well, too. One of the comments that came in was, "Oh my god, I remember watching your videos in high school and next year I graduate from my dream school." Jada, if you are here, let me know what school you are at uh as well. Okay, so that's be next question over here and next the next moving on as well. Again, we are going live. Those who are again on a lot of different platforms. We are live. We're live on Tik Tok, Instagram. Over here, I got Facebook group. Over here, I got YouTube. Over here, I got Twitch. So, I I got pretty much a lot of different platforms. If you guys have any questions, again, drop in the chat um as well, too. We're doing some live Q&A. Here's a fun live question in the chat. I I'll I'll throw in here as well. It's from Facebook, right. From Facebook as well, too. Um, uh, my child could have, um, scroll up so you guys can see what I'm seeing. All right. My child could have her AA cal the California Getsy, uh, done the summer after she graduate high school. She has two classes left if she passes all her APS. Will she be considered a transfer or a first year. This is a great question as well, too. So, basically, what this family is doing is they're doing dual enrollment, right. Dual enrollment is basically taking college level courses, right, as a high school student. And typically, it's like at the community college. That's what this person is doing. They're taking like they're getting their associates and their their I gety, the cowsy. They're rebranding it to the word cowgetsy, right. Um right now it's called I gety. Moving to cowgetsy very soon. Um the idea is you can take college level courses. So right um if she has two classes, if she passed her APs, will she be considered a transfer or a first year. Right. So you are a transfer if right if you graduate from high school take a college class then apply in that order specifically in that order you graduate from high school first you take a college class then you apply right you are a first year if you haven't graduated from high school yet or you haven't taken a college class after you graduated from high school. These are two conditions, right. So, first off, first one is your transfers. Let's say I'm a this I'm assuming incoming 12th grader right now. So, I'm going to go through this whole year in 2026, right. This a year from now, I'm going to go and take a class at my local community college that that that summer just to finish. I I didn't apply to college. I didn't do anything. I took a class. Then I'm going to apply afterwards. Then you are a transfer student. Okay. Uh but let's say I'm a I'm a high school senior upcoming right now. And then um I have a lot of college units, but I'm applying right now as well too, right. I'm going be applying as a first year. And the other condition is let's say you uh take a gap year. That's kind of what the number two is. You take a gap year. you take a classes and then you don't take any college classes in between this this year and next year and you reapply as a first year you apply as a first year and that will be uh the condition over here. That's kind of what the scenario is. By the way, for by the way, if you're taking uh you're getting your AA and doing APs, you're doing double work is what I will tell uh this family as well too. Uh if you're able to get the AA, you should to double dip most of your class, your APs into college. You kind of two birds, one stone kind of concept uh as well, too. Okay, great question, though. All right. Um, cool. Cool. All right, moving on. Next one. Good segue as well too. How does transferring work. What requirements do I need. Where do I need. Where do I start. Where do I start to look is the thing, right. So, how transferring works. So, let's look let's look at first um let's first consider the first year pathway, right. So, let's say for those the traditional pathway if you're going from high school straight to college, right. high school, then you go to college year 1, then you go to year two, then you go year three, then you go year four, then you graduate. Right. That's that's the traditional four-year kind of pathway from from post 12th grade all the way to four-year schools. If you're doing transfer, if transfer, right. if transfer right you are taking uh classes for example at a community college your first two years so the pathway is going to be high school actually let me be clarify this is a four-year college right but this one is going to be community college year 1 this would be community college year two and then you'd you'd applied that year and then you transfer to fouryear year three fouryear year four and and you graduate after that. Okay. So that's that's to be the the pathway if you go to the transfer route itself. You go from um high school, community college, community college, fouryear, fouryear, you're applying, right. You're applying as a transfer in your second year, right. Your second year of community college. And uh here the question is can you apply. Another fun question that usually comes up is can I apply as a uh can I apply as a fouryear to fouryear student right you could right you could transfer from fouryear to fouryear however it is very hard to do as well too so if you do four year to four year is doable but super super hard to do. The reason why is that the transfers all kind of read the same. So if you're going to be transferring as a two-year or four year one of them is going to get the spots. So again, fouryear, you could stay, you could graduate in four years at your same school. This two-year student can't go anywhere else. So basically, do I say no to them and say yes to you to transfer over. That's kind of the big question to think about uh when it comes to this here. Okay, so that's going to be um a that. Okay, next thing. Um next question, just check any new questions as well too in the YouTubes, in the Twitches. uh as well people on YouTube. Welcome people on YouTube. If you guys have a question, go ahead and drop in the chat uh as well too there. Um we had a followup to our previous question, follow up to our previous question as well too. So the follow-up question was uh if she uses APS to meet your uh your Calgetti I AA will you accept those uh even though scores are below what the school except for credit are not available for credit like research or seminar. Uh I'm trying to think what you're trying to ask in this question. So, playing it out, I'm assuming your schedule. So, I'm assuming a few things, right. Assuming you have some AP credits uh plus uh AA uh like college courses, right, is pretty much what I'm assuming you have on your on your thing here. So, your question is, can you use the AP like you got a high enough score like a four or five to meet the I gety or the cowgetti requirements as well too. um that's option one and then uh if that will be low what a school accepts for credit so I would double check so this this is definitely a thing is double check with the colleges uh to ensure this right so the reason why is that every school is going to treat a little different that's something this is why you realize that like some schools hey you get a three on this exam you're good to go some schools you need a four or even a five to actually get the college credit so it's different per school that's why like And in your case, not sure we double bit the double dip because I can your AP classes were a full year. So like a side lesson, right. Side lesson here, right. So if you took the if you did the APs, right, APs is a full year long class with an AP exam to get college credit if you have a high enough score. A college level course is half a year, half a year long with guaranteed college credits. So, usually when students do the the IAW Getsy AA degree, I tell them just go straight like if your school allows you to do that because to get AA that's 60 units, a lot of units, right. So, they'll let you go straight to the college and take as many as you can over there is the key. So, I'm not sure again probably some some interesting situation uh that you guys are going through. But again, the biggest question is double check, right. Double check because maybe your community college is okay with it, but the four-year may not be okay with that as well too. So, double check both uh is a thing. Either way, either way, that's not what admissions is kind of worry too much about. I focus on the rigor. You're taking the AP, you're doing the college level, the rigor is there. That's all I care about. And that's the big thing, right. And people focus too much on the wrong things. Uh that you're like, oh no, but it's like it's not too bad. Like you're doing both uh is uh both riggered courses. So that's a key for you guys here. Okay. So that's that. Uh moving on. Next one. When and should I be taking the SAT next year as well too. are does that mean I should start preparing. This is a class of 2028 student. So that mean they are an incoming sophomore, right. So an incoming sophomore uh right now. So in terms of should I take the SAT next year. Uh the question is not yet right. So if you're a sophomore timeline wise typically nth grade uh do nothing. And by the way keep in mind our strategy is based on getting a competitive score knowing that a lot of schools you apply to are going to be optional and some of them might be required. Right. So ninth grade nothing don't worry about there's other things that are more important such as your activities focus more on that in 10th grade right most schools offer a PSAT right or PSA at your school right I would recommend don't study and take right don't study for that exam just take it I want to know your raw score what your raw score would be if you took it live as well too right so you get a score based on this score a few kind of pathways right so first one if your PSAT is really high like like unnormally high abnormally high like a 1500 plus right I would study uh and take the SAT right away because in your brain you're smart get over with you're done right is the first one that's very very very very very rare most people are not this right the next batch which is still very small is if PSAT is high right so I would say 1450 plus right then I would say cool right let's study for the PSAT 11 the one you take in 11th grade as well too I'll explain why in a little bit and then if you're most people most people if PSAT is okay right not 1400 less than 1450 as well too cool we'll just take the PSAT as practice again is kind of the key right so basically you're not gonna focus too hard on the PST That'll be the plan here. Okay. Now, going over to 11th grade now, right. 11th grade. PSAT 11. This is important. If you do well, right, you could qualify for National Merit, which is potentially potentially full ride scholarship as well, too. But you need to be scoring like top 1% of the state. For those of you in like California, that's like 152 153 uber uber uber high score to to hit is is pretty much it. And every state is like roughly around the 15 high 140s, the 150 as well too, right. Keeping that in mind. So the only from a strategic point of view, the only reason why you want to study is if you're close to get there. Let's say you're at like 1,200. Could you get that high. Of course. It's a standardized test. There's no trick questions. It's all this like repetition, right. You doing a practice test, you're good. The issue though is that it takes time to get there, right. And in the world of college admissions, it's all about time. You got to figure out where to spend your time. And this is not worth your time if you're not scoring high enough already. Which means I just say again, if not, all right, just take it as a practice test and don't study. Treat and see how high you did without studying both times, right. Hopefully your score went up a little bit uh as well too, right. That's number one. If you did study, study hard. Do the best you can. It's like a one shot kind of thing as well. That being said, right, you will also uh SAT ACT um in 11th grade, that's when you take the actual ST and ACT. There's a few condition, there's a few if thens here as well too, right. For the SAT, ACT. First one is it depends what your school list is. Let's say you're applying to test required schools, right. meaning uh the Ivy's are test required. Most of them Colombia is test optional but most of the schools are test required. They need you to take a test score. Another one is like Stanford. Stanford is test required. Means they you need you must take it. Then you want to take it right and you take it at least twice I would say once in March or April and another one in May, June, right. Study. That's a good time. Take around eight weeks. We we typically have eight week study sessions for our students. Eight weeks, right. enough to cram to do the best you can. That's it. Don't feel like you have to spend months and months and months. It's not like the old days where we want students to get over like 50 and 50 for everything. No, no, no. It's important, but is it absolutely important. No. A lot of our we interviewed a bunch of our students on YouTube if you guys want to check that out after this call. A lot of our students uh didn't get uh over 1500. It's still made in to the Ivy's as well too. So, keep in mind, do you absolutely need it. No. Right. Okay, does it help. Sure, it helps, right. But again, it's all about time game. If you spend hours here, you can't spend hours on areas that are more important, which is the activities for you guys. Okay, that's option one. Second scenario is test blind schools, right. So, the most popular test blind school is the UC system. UCLA, UC Berkeley, the Cal State uh schools, they're all test blind. They do not care what score you have. Perfect score, zero score. They won't even let you submit it is how they So, they do not care. If you're applying test blind school, skip this alto together. Ignore it. Close that chapter. Move on. Focus on other things that are more important than this. Right. The UC's uh are going to be test blind at least into 2028 and then they'll make a decision if they want to continue it. My belief on the record is they are going to stay this way uh afterwards as well too. That's kind of my prediction is there. Um a lot of behind the scenes politics is why. So that's that right is this. And the last scenario which is the most like biggest group of of colleges is test optional right so when it comes to test optional here's kind of our strategy has been working for a lot of our students is if you are applying to a test optional school again go back right the reason why you had you no study is I want to see what your score is right depending on what your score is I would want to see right can we study and get within the 50th percentile of the college average as well too. So if you look up like um any school USC 50th percentile SAT, you want to see uh what that range is for them for the SAT. If right if you can get within that range, go for it, right. If you can get within that range, go for it. Study for increase your scores. If you know if you study hard for two months, three months and you probably won't make it to that point, skip it. It's not worth it either. Skip it. Focus on the other areas that are more important. Right. As a general rule of thumb, you can roughly cram and increase by 100 points per month. So, if you like maybe 200 points off for like two months, you can probably get there. Uh, as well, it does get harder at the higher you get. Like if you had a 1400, it is exponentially harder to get from a 14 to a 15 than it is from a 12 to a 14. Keep that in mind as well, too. But typically 100ish points per per month is what you want to do for and aim to be within that range and you should be fine. There's other areas that are more important. Okay. So that being said, I think that's the question. When should I when and should I. So that's the question there. And part prepping if you're 2028 incoming 10th grader. No, you're going to be taking the PSD in October. Um in October in October as well too. So be on the lookout for that exam. But again, nothing crazy uh from there. Okay. So that's gonna be the uh SAT. Cool, cool, cool. Um, all right. People who are joining me right now on all the platforms, we're going live on a bunch of different places. However you guys consume us as well, too. We're live on Facebook. We're live on YouTube right now. Uh, if people uh at YouTube Oh, someone had a question on YouTube. Let me go ahead and drop that in the chat. We'll do that next as well, too. Right. Uh, we're live on YouTube. We're live on Twitch, Twitchers. We're live on Twitch over there. We're live on the Tik Tok right here, on the Instagram over here. What's up, friends. As well, if you guys have questions, go ahead and drop in the chat as well, too. Uh, but question that came in through YouTube. Shout out to YouTube. Um, as well, uh, UC app in one club for four years, another club for three years, leadership positions in both at least one or more years. How can we utilize the two clubs for more than two activity slots. How. an example. Good, good question. So, basically what this student is referring to is that for the UC application, they give you 20 slots of activities to fill up, right. Our strategy, right. Strategy is uh aim to fill up fill up as much as you can. So, as much as 20 slots as you can, try to fill all up makes you look more full. It's kind of the the logic behind that. Which is why I tell students, hey, anything that's small, share it. Let the readers again don't don't think there's nothing that's too big, too small on the app. Include it. Let the readers decide. Right. Little little fun little fun fact as well. Here we have right everything is either going to add value to your application or neutral value. Nothing you can say can hurt you on the UC app. Just a heads up. Uh as can spell as well too, right. So if it's not that important, they're actually going to be like, "All right, cool. Thanks for letting me know." and then they're going to ignore it or not not include it in the whatever but if it is important they are going to go ahead and include it as well too. So keeping that in mind. Okay. So that's going to be the big one here. Uh so going back. So how do you share. So the question the person's asking, hey, I did one thing. How do I talk about it in two different like slots as well too. So keep in mind for the UC's, right. For the UC activity section, there's uh six categories. Six categories you classify every activity under. Zlam. There's extracurricular activities, the very big one. There's awards or honors. There is um educa educational prep programs. There are volunteer volunteering and community service. Uh there is a work experience. There's addition out outside coursework. C coursework. One, four, six. Those are the six, right. So these are the six things that you can class. You have to classify every activity you do under one of these six things. Okay. So that being said, so the question is how do I put something in two different categories. It needs to fit under two different categories over here. Okay. So for example, I make I want to not make one up but say something, right. So let's say for example you are part of key club. A lot of people will know what key club is as well. So key club is the is like a volunteering organization, right. So key club is number one. Let's say uh in addition to key club um uh I'm I'll try to do three right now, right. Key club is the club you you run you're the president of the key club itself, right. Is number one. Number two is the key club has something called decon district convention where they all come and they all have fun and all they all meet and stuff. So let's say they have a competition right at the decon that you went to and you won. you won first place in whatever that conference thing is, right, is number two. And because Key Club, you do a lot of volunteering work, you can talk about as a community service. So, I could put under key club, right. Key Club extracurriculars and talk about like running uh the club at the school as a president, right. As the president as well too. That's one thing. Then you can talk about key club in the sense of an award in the sense of winning something at decon right is number two and then number three move it up and last one key club you can talk about volunteering and talk about the service projects right that I worked on because these are different topics per se right is a thing so that's why it's different things one's about my club only the club lead the club imagine a club the other one is about uh the other one is about volunt unteering um and doing the service project itself. And that's one is about winning award that I did by myself as well too. So there are three separate things under the same bucket, the same umbrella of activities as well too. So something for you guys to consider. That's one way to do it. Again, you could have the different descriptions for each one as well too. Not to try not to double dip so much. So like, oh, that's the same thing. Um is the key here. Okay. So that's going to be the answer to that question over here. Let me see. Papa, any more questions that came in. No more. All right. back back on schedule again. Really quick yes enjoying these Q&A in the chat. Drop a yes in the chat wherever you're joining me from YouTube or Facebook or Twitch or Tik Tok or Instagram. Drop a quick yes if that is useful. Things are this call is useful for you guys. You guys are enjoying it. Coach Tony do more. If not um I can get my I can enjoy my Mondays again. Uh as well um a few a few yeses come in. I'm also I'm neglecting there Zoom here too. Zoom folks are here. Uh, let me let me let me say hi to the Zoom folks um as well. Zoom folks has questions. My bad. My bad. Zoom folks as well too. All right. So, um, here's here's a good question from Zoom. So over here, Zoom says, "Why do I need um essays if UC's use PIQ peak PIQ's PIQ's and Cal States use GPA and don't require?" Good question as well too. So let me clarify real fast for those who applying to UC's and Cal State schools, right. So for both schools, right. So UC's and uh UC's and CSU colleges, what they do is they're going to go ahead and both They're gonna try to unbold. There we go. They both look for personal information. So that's the first one. Hopefully you guys know who you are. That's the first part of the the app. The the app is just ask you about uh who you are, families and all that stuff as well too. That's the first one. Second one, they will ask you for academic information, right. What high school did you go to. What classes did you take. What grades did you get. Did you go to college. What college did you go to. What class did you take. What grades did you get. That's the same for both. Okay. Um, keep in mind they all take classes and grades, right, is is the next one. Keep in mind GPA is important to a certain extent. Not exactly. Focus more on the grades and the classes is the thing because again, you want to focus on the rigor, right. Rigor of the schedule, right. More AP level courses is the key, right. Uh, they both don't have test scores. So, both uh both do not ask for SAT, ACT, do not give it to them as well too. Uh, is the thing, right. And that's it for Cal States. By the way, for Cal States, that is it. Your app is very straightforward. Um, you plug all that in, click submit. There's no section uh for activities. They just ask you, did you do activities. You said yes. As well, too. No essays for the Cal States either. It's very straightforward application itself. Right now, right, this is a UC only. So, UC will have uh 20 activity section, right. The activity has 20 slots. I mentioned earlier there's 20 slots of activities that you can share as well to spread over six different categories, right. And the UC also asks for uh four personal insight questions, right. Personal insight questions. That's what the PIQ's are. PIQ's PIQ's as well, right. So, basically, these are the four UC essay questions. If you guys were here last week, little spoilers scrolling up to last week for those who were here last week. Last week, I actually did a breakdown of the entire UCPQ's. Where is it. exactly how to do them step by step. There you go. How to do the strategy, how to pick them, how to pick between the eight ones and everything and which ones to avoid, which are not to avoid. So, if you guys want that, let our team know in the chat. They'll grab it for you as well too for last week's replay. Um, but going back to here, where am I. Where am I at. Right. There's be four UCP questions as well, too. And there's also going to be uh additional comments, right. There's two of them. There's the academic one and then there's the additional one. The academics is 550 characters. Additional comments is 550 words, right. Those are the two differences of the two um as well. Okay. So that's that's the key over here. And that's kind of what the UC's look for. So from the UC's, that's what they're looking for. Spec UC's and this is both uh UC and CSU and CSU, right. So they both asked for this, they both asked for that. So that's kind of this the similar differences of the two apps. That's why when we prep students for the UC's and the calc, we do it together because the first few pages are identical to each other is the thing. Okay, hopefully that was helpful as well too. Um um let me see here's a fun question from the uh from Facebook. All right, question uh if the use if the student is not within the top 9% of their high school, can they still go to top UC's. And the answer is absolutely as well too. Right. Keep in mind top 9% what this family is probably referring to 9% 9% is the eligibility in the local context the ELC. Right. So California if you're a California resident this applies to you. If you're not close your ears for like two minutes, right. So basically what it says is California will guarantee me the correct wording. will find you a spot. If there are spots, if you are top 9% of your high school or top 9% of the states, the 9% of the states and algorithm is like based on your grades times a certain metric and you'll find out you did or did not get it, right. Number one. Or if you're top 9% of your high school, you'd qualify as well too. For people who say my school doesn't rank, they do. They have to to figure out this number out, right. So it just they they just don't tell you what it is because again people nowadays get all mad and all sad about numbers like that. But that's reality, right. People are ranked in system, right. Is it's pretty much that. Uh so that's pretty much what the the the ranking is. What does that mean if you get it. And by the way, how do you know you get it. Is some schools will tell you. They'll send you a letter. They'll let you know. But if you if no one told you, how you find out is when you submit your UC application, give it a week. When you come back, when you log in again to to view, you can't edit anymore, but when you view, there will be a box that says ELC checked audit. And if it's checked, you are ELC, right. It just means you are either top 9% of your high school or top 9% of the state. What does that mean from a tactical point of view. That means the UC's will find you a spot. If there are spots at the UC's, that does not mean you're guaranteed to LA, not guaranteed to Berkeley, not guaranteed UCI, not Santa Barbara, not Davis as well, too. The only school I've seen this happen at is Merced. And there's way less this past year than it was ever before. So that means as the years go on and on and on, this is kind of start to go away because every school is going to fill up and we don't there's no room left to take it anyone else is the key as well too. So keep that in mind. That's kind of what the ELC is. But if you don't hit it, you can definitely get into uh get into this as well too. Okay. Uh in over here on the uh Instagram uh is it Joie. Hosie has a really good question. Should you still take the SAT. Right. So I think I just answered you. You may have missed my previous question about this, but the the question is a few things, right. First off, ask yourself ask uh ask no what basically what colleges are you considering is is the first one, right. So if you're applying to a uh test required, there's three types of them out there. If you're going to test required school, yes, you have to. If you're going to test optional, maybe as well too. And then if you're doing test blind, right. No right is a thing. So test requires like think of the UC I think not IUC's think of Stanford think of some of the IV schools they are uh test required means you have to take it you have to submit to be part to have a complete application test blind means they don't care at all you get a perfect score of zero means nothing to them as well too right the most popular one's UC's UC's calcates are test blind optional is majority I think 80 90% of schools are actually optional schools what that means is that if you want to submit it and you have a high enough score, then they're going to go ahead and give you um they're going to go ahead and consider it into your application. However, if you don't have a high enough score, then it's not going to be cons it's not going to hurt you either. It's not going to hurt you if you have a bad score or no score. It's like cool. They move on to something else. The other factors to look at in your application itself. Okay, so that's going to be the yes good good and no good as well too. Hopefully that was um hopefully that was helpful for you over here. Um [Music] Q&A Q&A zoom we got a zoom right. All right. All right. So this one big question a lot of words. My son is a rising senior got an internship this summer which is turns out to be one to two hours per week for five weeks is only listening to company uh working meetings. So it doesn't look like he's getting a project. How does he make the most of this for application. Summer experience point not promise. He's trying to make the most of it. Great question as well too, right. So again, keep in mind it's how life works as well too, right. We we think one thing ends up being something else as well too. Doesn't mean we oh no, right. Keep in mind I tell students this all the time, right. It's not about having the exact resources, right. It's about being resourceful with what you can do as well. So what if I was this student, right. If I was this student, I would be like, "Cool, what can I do?" Right. I'm talking to people. Why don't I message everyone or email. These are ideas. These are Coach Tony ideas, by the way. Don't don't if I get in trouble. If you get in trouble, don't don't bring it back to me, right. But if it was me and I got the in, it sounds like a pretty cool opportunity as well, too, right. I'd reach out to the people I'm in the meetings with to learn more, right. I'm going to go ahead and be selfish and ask anything and everything I can. I'm gonna see how can I be useful to the members on this team as well too because again the hardest part is getting your foot in the door. You got your foot in the door already. Now leverage it, right. What's something you can do with this as well too, right. Ask ask, "Hey, I I want to do more, right. More. What can I do?" Right. As well too. But keep in mind that's hard because again they don't know you. You're a stranger. So you got to demonstrate this. Right. So instead, instead find something you can contribute on and just be proactive. Be proactive proactive with that as well too. If you guys have watched uh it's on Netflix now, the intern was a really good movie as well too. Is it Anne Hathaway is is the is the actress and the old guy. Don't know his name, right. Uh but really good movie. And then there's a scene where like she goes and then her table is full of like packages or full of things and she keeps looking at it. She's like, "Ah, I'll get to it one day. I'll get to it one day. I'll get to it one day." And one day it's cleared out and she's like, "Oh my goodness, thank you so much." Blah, blah, blah. And you find out it's the intern, which is like the the the funny part is it's the old man. The old man is the one who did it without being asked. He wasn't asked to do it. He went out of his way to do that as well, too. You want to reciprocate. I call be like the old man, right. Go and do something. What's something you can do. Because again, you're in the door. That's the hardest part is getting in the door. You're in the door now. What's something you can do to be uh proactive about the stuffing. Make it your own experience, right. Make it make it your experience because at the end of the day, right, Robin and there you go. At the end of the day, make it your experience because at the when you talk about this, when we talk about it in your applications, when your essays, right. In your essay, when you talk about this, right. What you did is not as important as what you learned, how it made you who you were, and who you have become as a result. That's the big like takeaway line right here is that what you end up doing at the intrip is not going to be that special, right. And other kids will do the same similar things as well too. It's how it made you who you are. That's the big takeaway uh right over here. Okay, that's the big stuff. So, make sure you focus on this. Okay, so hopefully that was answering your question um there. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Alrighty. Um [Music] All right, we got a question from uh YouTube. Thank you uh Cindy as well too. Uh Cindy's amazing. She's on our team. Uh so uh is mom or dad a parent asked uh last week my son got a 1490. I need to recalibrate my reach and target. What out what California and out of states would you give examples of target and reach. We just talked about this a little earlier as well too. The key here is that you right thank you for the thank you as well too. Uh so reach schools right are basically so the easy metric there's a bunch of more like our team does a very calculated thing that they run through um I'm not as fancy as our team they have a really cool algorithm um for me I use basic stuff right so basic stuff I look at your GPA plus test scores if you have it right and then what I look at is I compare this compare this with the colleges is the thing right number one if this with you is greater than right the college average, right. So, look up the 50th uh look at that school average. If you're greater than the average, this is a safe school for you. Like a safety safety score for you as well, too. If you look at numbers, you had a 4.0 and everything and the school's average of 3.0. That's really really you're pretty much solid to go there. Again, caveat little star next to all this now, right. Does not mean you're guaranteed. It just means a very very high likelihood of getting in, right. Is it number two. If U is equal to the college average, right, that's usually what targets are, right, as well too. So whatever your GPA plus your 1490, if that's kind of what the schools are doing, right, that's the target. And reach schools if you are less than the college average or or yeah or right the college is with is basically a top 20 like a 20% admin rate or less or less, right. Then these are all reach schools as well too. So no matter how strong your stats are, if the admin rate is less than 20%, it's an automatic reach to kind of think about that as well too. Okay. So that's going to be the excuse me, that's going to be the the kind of quick stats over here. Okay. Um, someone says in the chat, how do you take in consideration, this is from Zoom. Thank you, Zoom, for for jumping in. Uh, question here is, how do you take, by the way, I have like room for like two more questions. If you guys want to sneak your question in, feel free to sneak it in. Uh on Tik Tok, Tik Tok, Instagram, on Facebook, on YouTube, on Zoom, Twitch. I haven't seen a Twitch question yet. Oh, I lied. There's a Twitch question. I I will I lied. There's not not not a Twitch question as well, too. So, we we'll we'll do it later as well, too. Right. So, next one. Um, how do you take consider the average from our high school, which is different than the national average. This is a great question, right. The reason why is this is exactly how admission works. For those who don't know, I was actually a former UC Berkeley admissions reader myself. So, I'm sharing stuff behind the scenes, right. Uh don't rat me out. I might get in trouble, right. Kind of, right. But the big thing is that we're not comparing you against every single person applying. We kind of do, but it's not a huge factor because every area is uh different because of local context as well too. We have students for example if anyone here from the Bay Area if you're from the California Bay area right or if you're from like the New Jersey the New Jersey area fortunately unfortunately you are in the two of the most competitive regions in all of the United States right is the thing so how admission works admissions will compare you against your region that's how uh we had a we were divided into regions I read in the region for those who don't know I actually read at the Bay Area. So I saw I know really the these competitive schools really well is actually was a reader for these schools as well too. So um your region however your region is also too broad right so Bay Area story broad families and that said you can think like if I go like five minutes this way five minutes to two different high schools they might be a little some might be bigger than like more competitive than my school some might be less. So it's not even fair there. So, the fairest comparison we like to have our students think about is compare little little pro tip pro tip compare yourself against your high school, right. And here's why that's the best and fairest comparison is because your high school technically gives the same amount of opportunities to every student, right. So, it's it's fair that your if your school if there's a student taking four APs, you could have taken four APs if you wanted to, right. it's your choice to take it or not take care or do whatever it is you want to do. That's kind of why your high school is the fairest comparison to you. And that's kind of what we tell our families to make sure that you do. So if you're aiming So the strategy here is if you're aiming for top colleges, right. Compare yourself to the top student at your high school. So if you're at the the going to aim for top score, they're taking four APs. We want four APs. If they're taking six, we want six as well, too. Does that mean you have to literate six. No. There's lots of strategies we teach earlier. We talked about dual enrollment. That's how I would integrate that by the way to get the five or four or five or six without stressing yourself out. Um is the key. But that's kind of who you want to compare yourself against, right. Compare yourself against your high school is the fairest comparison. It's kind easier than knowing like every single person um applying as well too. Okay. Cool. Cool. All right. Let's have time for one more question. I have one more. We time for one more. Any good final questions before I have to bounce for today. Um, all right. This this this will be a fun one. This will be a fun one. Someone asked, "How do I know what classes I should sign up for for the next year?" This will be a fun one because this can apply to pretty much everyone. I will too, right. I'm going to run down really quick in three minutes what this is going to be because this answer depends on a few factors, right. So, what classes should you do. It depends on uh two things. Three things. two three things. Number one, uh the first thing is I want to know what colleges you're aiming for because if you're aiming for a top 25 college, it'll be different advice than if you're aiming for a local like state school for example, right. Something else I would want to know is your major or pathway. I call it pathway because again, as a high school student, you don't know what major you want to be yet officially. So, what pathway are you going down. And then that's pretty much it. Oh, and what grade. What grade you're in. because each grade has different things. So, running through each of these in all all the different forms, right. So, first one, let's say you're in ninth grade, right. If you're in ninth grade, right, typically just take um not not a lot not a lot of variation over here is the big one. When it comes to colleges, if you're aiming for a top school, you want to max out the rigger there. So, if let's say if you're if you're aiming for like a a Harvard, a UCLA, a Stanford, right. Then if your school offers an honors class for this, you want to take that honors class for that. Rigor is the main thing you want to optimize for. Okay. Major pathway, nothing officially yet. The only thing is if you're interested in engineering, computer science, right. Hopefully your math uh is uh is mo is going to move fast, meaning you're going to try to hit as many as you can in this journey itself. Okay. So that's the big thing for ninth grade. One of the pro tips, by the way, if anyone here is an incoming ninth grader, here's a hack to help you guys save some money, right. I mentioned this earlier. Dual enrollment, right. Dual enrollment, taking a college class as a high school student. If you start taking it now, now as a n in ninth grade, first semester classes are only one semester long. You take one class per semester, all of all the years, you'll be able to finish at least 30 college units by the time you graduate from high school. What that means is when you're applying to college, you apply as a first year. Apply uh apply as first year as well too, right. But once you get into that school, once you get into that school, your units kick in automatically. And once it kicks in automatically, your third unit moves in. You jump straight to sophomore year stand. You could graduate in three years if you wanted to. Uh there, right. So when it comes to that, parents, if they graduate in three years, I just save you one year of tuition. That's $40,000. Boom. Saved as well too, right. If you start n again in ninth grade and you be a little more aggressive with it, right. Take 60 units, right. It's like one class first year, then you start doubling up year 2, three, four, right. Then you can get 60 units. You apply as a first year still because again, you didn't graduate from high school yet. You're still a first year. You're guaranteed four years, but you have two years done. Jump straight to junior and you can jump in as a junior. you could graduate in two years, graduate before they turn 20. And I saved you guys two years of tuition. So if you guys want to donate 1% of that to me, feel free to do that as well, too. Right. So that's that's ninth graders. In 10th grade, right, in 10th grade as well, this is what the year when most people start having AP level courses in their school. Some schools, by the way, Bay Area, New Jersey, they start AP nth grade right away. But for a lot of other folks, you usually start in 10th grade, right. So you want to start again taking APs again if you're aiming for top schools, right. So top colleges, right. If you're not aiming for a top school, don't stress yourself out as well too, right. But if if you are aiming, this is kind of the strategy over here. Then uh in terms of the pathways, this is when you start introducing the classes that you want to do. There's three pathways out there. There's going to be the oop can't see my screen anymore. There you go. Right. There's the engineering, computer science is number one. Number two is sciences uh and business and number three is humanities, right. Every major you can think of fits under one of these three buckets. I can't think of any any other major that doesn't fit in these three buckets as well too. So every major you can think of will fit under one of these three. If you are interested in engineering, computer science, the goal for you by the time you graduate high school is to go past calculus BC, meaning we want to hit multivariable calculus, we want to hit uh linear algebra, we want to hit differential equations. All right, if engineering, right, we also want to have the AP physics series one, C, E, all that as well too, right. If you're in the sciences, right, you want to go to at least calc BC. If not one more multivariable is what it looks like, right. And uh if bio go to again the bio cam the thing I took I talked about earlier is kind of what you want to do, right. Is it and humanities max out rigger. That's pretty much it. No no specific uh things here, right. So you want to start taking your pathway classes to go down that path as well too. And and That's pretty much as as 10th grade as well too, right. And then in terms of 11th grade, same concept. 11th grade, right. Same as same as 10th. Keep in mind, oh, zooming in, right. Keep in mind that colleges will see all summer grades. So, use summer as an opportunity to kind of speed up and do more and add more to your plate as well, too. I do recommend I do recommend taking summer after 11th as well too because that's this last set of grades that the college will see. They'll see 12th grade classes. They won't see 12th grade grades. That's the thing, right. 12th grade, right. You want to keep the rigor high. The big mistake a lot of people do like, "Oh, I worked really hard. Time to relax my senior year." Do not relax your senior year. Again, if if you're aiming for top schools, right. Again, if you're not aiming top schools, ignore what I just said told you and you're fine, right. But if you are gonna uh aim for top schools, keep the rigger high. That's going to be the key for you guys over here. Um and then finish strongest, but then they won't see your grades as the key. Okay, cool, cool, cool. That is pretty much it for me today. Hope you guys enjoyed that. We spent another good hour together on this session. And um if you guys enjoyed this, uh let me know down below wherever you're joining me and I might see you guys again next Monday. Right. So for everyone here, uh, peace out Tik Tok, peace out Instagram, peace out Zoom, peace out Facebook group, peace out Twitch.