Admissions Advice from a UC Berkeley Applications Reader

hi everyone I am Jessica from Magoosh and today we are gonna be doing an interview with Tony Lee who works for Magoosh but also does a ton of other stuff in education and also has worked in college admissions so before we get started just a reminder to if you found this video helpful please like and subscribe we are going to be doing a lot of videos over the next few months also leave a comment if you have an idea of topics that you want to explore so I wanted to introduce Tony hi Tony hello so you are you do so many things in education and I wanted to just learn a little bit more about your background and how did you get started with Admissions and kind of what are you doing now yeah of course so I grew up in Santa Ana in Orange County in Southern California and then so my parents didn't go to college so I was a first-generation college student kind of had to figure a lot of things on my own and eventually I applied for the forty-something schools they got into 30 30 of them and for me it was between UCI UCLA and Berkeley and then so you see I you say UCLA offered me four right Berkeley did not well then my parents kept me at home old all my whole life so I want to get away so that's why I chose Berkeley so I went to Berkeley for my undergraduate years and for me what made me kind of choose Berkeley is as a senior when you get accepted law schools have like flying programs where you come in visit the school they'll pay for your your flight your food your housing for over the weekend so for me this group called Reach they're the Asian Pacific Islander Recruitment and Retention Center they flew me out so then I came I met a bunch of awesome people and I think that weekend alone can I change my whole life because now that that made me commit to Berkeley so I went there I think the first idea that I had to find his reach group and I say thank you and give back so I came to meetings and so a guy involved I applied to eventually be the coordinator I ran their Retention and after that I applied to be the program's director of Bridges which is a bigger coalition it's a multicultural coalition so I did that and I ran a senior weekend so I kind of read the same event that kind of brought me there so we flew in for over 500 students that was amazing and then the entire the entire time I've always had a close relationship with the office of Undergraduate Admissions there as well too so we've been doing that and I stay in touch I know all the officers there still we still talk all the time we're still good for a lot I musta made really good friends so that's kind of how I got involved with admissions and when I graduated hey you want to be a reader so those who read applications I was like yeah so I guess ever since then so on I do a lot of other things but that Berkley side of me is always still there Wow Tony you apply to 40 schools that is incredible I mean just to think about the amount of time and effort involved that's absolutely amazing yeah so how long have you been a reader now for for UC Berkeley it's been a few years I can't remember exactly when it is but I know a few years and then it's really fun for me that's awesome so no questions that a lot of students and parents have are around college admissions right like admissions just seems to be kind of this black box like you apply go somewhere somebody reads it maybe it's you and and a decision gets made and it's a yes or a no or waitlist there's so much pressure and effort involved um so what are a few things that people don't know about what goes on in that black box sure I think the biggest thing to keep in mind and to like change of mindset about stuff I think a lot of students think like schools want to reject me so they're only weedy they're weeding me out laughing whereas if you actually know how the process works is actually the complete opposite is that every college wants to take as many soon as possible right the mindset is completely opposite we want we want you out our school but we only have so many spots so many space right so your job in your application is to demonstrate hey I deserve that spot one of those few thousand spots at your school so that's the logic and a lot of students think the opposite the school wants to get get reject me for whatever reason you know we try to look for reasons in your app to justify you coming into our school so that's why a lot there's no in terms of the application process there's also no negative points or bad things you can do right so how in the admissions field it's either added value or neutral value so nothing bad nothing is negative in a sense if it's not it doesn't help too much it's just neutral value and we know if we consider like neutral but if it's amazing it's added value for as a reader hmm so I'm sure a question that's on everyone's minds right now is around this pandemic everyone's living through this pandemic right now and it's it's not possible right now to take the SAT or ACT as many times as you might want to get the score you want everyone's under a tremendous amount of stress you know some high schools have gone to pass/fail instead of grades so I'm sure you know a lot of students are concerned about how this is going to look on your application on their applications um what are your thoughts around this kind of related to what you just said about neutral versus value-add sure um I think the biggest thing like in my opinion talking to a law students I've been working with a bunch of students this past few months I think the biggest thing is this time at home per se is a nice divide between those who are gonna stand out and those who are not gonna stand out right because a lot of students who you think about in terms of admissions is especially with the extracurriculars and the essays that's not play a lot bigger roles especially this upcoming year and the mindset you have for that is then you're in school from 8 o'clock to 2 o'clock you go sleep properly from let's say 8:00 p.m. - like 6 a.m. right but you still have that chunk in the middle and then so we had a few hours so as for my reader is how do you justify those hours between 2 o clock and 8 o clock before you go to bed so that's why the extra curriculars can come in the work experience extra things that you do right now you basically are home the entire day so you have more opportunity to go deeper in a certain subject or explore a new passion of yours kinda thing so that's for me personally that's what I'm looking forward to so I tell students like that this is the time now if you haven't done so already like take because I know like for example the Ivy Leagues are offering free classes right you can take one of those it's for a passion you can pursue it create a club now in a with technology now you can do zoom like like zoom club meetings now so back in our day we didn't have the hub that luxurious we had to go to school and meet with our friends to come and meet together but now like because a lot of people have access to technology now right like that limit the opportunity are limitless now also so I think right now is like how do you make the most out of the situation giving what is so instead of taking negative how can I make the best of the situation or that makes a lot of sense do you have any other advice for really the class of 2021 so juniors right now as they're thinking about kind of heading into summer the fall seems a bit unknown what what should juniors kind of be thinking um so juniors what if you're applying to college right application season's coming up again that didn't really change too much so application season coming up in October November or depending how what schools you apply through September October November December right those months also right so there's still time to create that they're added value right like for example one thing I know a bunch of schools went test optional I have still recommend to all my students that still still try take one more test if you have the opportunity to write because now there's test optional...optional; most students think I don't have to do it no more right over the years like I remember I applied to Berkeley the subject test was required so everyone did it but once now it's optional when as a reader I'm saying a lot of students aren't doing it and the students who are doing it they're showing me like hey I wanna this is how I'm maximizing in my opportunity I'm doing these extra tests that you don't need but I'm just doing it just to help out my application so same thing with the SAT in the ACT if you have the opportunity to take it in the fall time especially that they're offering it online and the fall time as well - right I definitely advantage of that and try to take is one more time because now that's there's it's optional any score is amazing now because any score is better than no score but that's that's another way of thinking about that also mm-hmm great and what about this summer I know typically students might be thinking about internship or volunteer opportunities or for our athletes I think it's a pretty interesting time without team sports being an opportunity what are some different ways to think about the summer sure like I think going back to the last point like how are you gonna maximize the opportunity you have a home is what it is also because again we're in an old ever-changing world like things are changing non-stop especially now students are like but you have to change if you don't change you're gonna fall behind right for example volunteering a lot of students ask me about like oh I always got some volunteer so-and-so this summer what do I do now right there are lots of virtual volunteering opportunities as well - so all the students have who's want to volunteer I'm like is Google virtual volunteering local or virtual volunteering opportunities virtual volunteering for high school students and and I just did a quick search as a bunch out there right so there's still opportunities for you to do whatever you want you just find a different avenue you're doing it like I know for example like that's a lot of the Summer Institutes (the summer programs) were cancelled because you're not flying there right actually like on thing on tik-tok--a representative from Harvard reached out to me and they're actually promoting a virtual summer program summer research program so there's opportunity there if you kind of go towards if you look for it kinda and now I highly recommend right yeah be very creative now and try and Google as your best friend the next few months right what can how can I convert what I did in person to an online opportunity to I guess maximize--so showing that I'm trying my best regardless of the situation yeah that's great advice so let's talk about tik-tok because I have seen several videos of you coach Tony and they're amazing I highly recommend them how did how did you get started there yeah so my for me I've always wanted to do college admissions work help students with like getting into college I've done it like unofficially the past few years and my friend my friend Kenny from college he told me hey Tony you're like perfect for tik-tok this was when tik-tok was young last year and I was like yeah I'll download it I'll see how it is I never did anything about it then my little sister and my girlfriend's little sister then they all like you should do it and then they start teaching me dances I'm and I was like nah I can't no no and then eventually I just fail under pressure I've made one and that kind of got a little big and I made two and that kind of got big and I made I think my fifth or sixth video I made a video about Stanford University giving free tuition and housing if you make under certain amount of money as a household income and that almost a million views also so I'm like so it things just blew up now huh let's take this a little more seriously kind of thing so then I've been going on there a lot more kind of just answering questions that students have like in the car I'm post a video about whatever it is and they're like oh can you talk about this next I'll in the next video was about the questions that yourself for me like I I love the instant feedback to the students zoomed and then I do a lot of dancing videos in there and I can't dance so that's what makes it super fun for me and I think for me that's one thing I regret most about College not joining a dance group that's like one my like low key like I want to do it but it tik-tok has allowed me to pursue that passion of mine oh my gosh I totally disagree you could totally dance I've seen it but I guess now with all our time at home a dance class is totally yes could be totally possible so Tony you are a person obviously with a ton of passion what advice do you have for folks who are kind of like looking for that passion for high schoolers who who maybe haven't haven't found that spark yet yeah for me it all came down to your Why I think and for me personally also like my story I never found out my Why until I actually went to college so I did the whole process kind of backwards but now I tell all my students especially like because college is hard right a lot the I'm really real with all my students are like we all these all your teachers or your counselors are trying to get you to college and it's hard right all your classes are hard there's nobody to help remind you to study so yes you're on your own a lot people don't have the study habits to do that so they might feel overwhelmed a lot of times also so there's you'll be a lot of sleepless nights late nights where you're like why am I still here and this and that and for me it hit me really hard in college because I think I again I got I want to get away from school from home but once I was away from home I was I got super homesick and I think I and then a thing it hit me the reason why I do the things I did was for my parents right so my parents day they left the country because the war they came here with nothing they know the language they didn't know anything and then so with me like and they couldn't really help with my homework they tried their best but a lot of times I was on my own I felt like why aren't you helping me because all my friends their parents are helping them like their parents are helping with the college process my parents can't help me it's not but I realized that they work so hard my entire life to make sure like I have a place to sleep have a food always for me to eat this and that too and then for me I just want to give back to them so I think once I realize that I'm here in college to succeed right because I want to provide a future for my parents I want to make sure they're taking care of anything they want kind of like I own my whole entire life I think being here so for me it's it's coming down to figuring out your Why like why you've been doing this because college is hard it's not easy right if you can ask any college student college is hard right and but but you need something kind of push you even though it's hard and for me that's figuring out your why and for me personally it's my parents so my parents is the reason why so for anyone not knowing what you wanted in college like why are you doing like why are you studying so hard for in high school law students this week are taking the AP test I'm like why you starting so harvest this this test right and because it comes down to they have a secret reason whatever it is that's pushing them to do really well in school so the biggest thing is figure out your why and everything else comes super simple after that awesome thank you for your words of wisdom and thanks for taking your time today just be honest and okay follow coach Tony on tik-tok leave a comment and if you have other questions and we'll make more videos and yeah thanks so much for joining us of course thank you thanks having all right

Channel: Magoosh SAT & ACT

Views: 8,239

Rating: 4.9162302 out of 5

Keywords: Admissions advice, UC Berkeley admissions, UC Berkeley application, UC Berkeley advice, college application 2020, college admissions advice, college admissions advice covid, applying to college, applying to college 2020, Magoosh test prep, Magoosh

Id: F4qtJG64RkU

Length: 16min 46sec (1006 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2020