The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, says it recorded eight new COVID-19 infections in two states, Aqaibom 4 and Rivas 4, as of June 12. The NCDC, in an update posted on its website on Sunday morning, said that the infection figure raised the country's total infection totality 167,059. No Nigerian has died from the disease in the past week, a state with over 20 million people were the most affected in the country with a total of nearly 60,000 cases and more than 300 fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic in the country.


by jail on a given Thursday. And this is the military in Hawaii, you should already know that. And we're talking about diversifying Hawaii's economy. Very important subject, because as you may know, the federal government does spend a lot of money, and we want them to spend a year with local companies. So we have Alma Grucky, retired admiral, Ian Calliado, and Ian Wood, both defense contractors. Did I get it right about the admiral, or did you get to be a different rank or rate since I spoke to you last? Oh, no, that's good. Okay. So once you scope out the show for us, Alma, tell us what we're going to talk about, and tell us who these fine young gentlemen are. Okay, so Ian Calliado is the president of Calliado and Sun Services, and he's in the industry, private industry, shipyard business, ship repair business. As is Ian Wood, he's the CEO of Pacific Shipyards Industries International. And we're all here to talk about a ship repair in Hawaii and how that can be a more increased business here in Hawaii. We talked about doing COVID-19, the pandemic, we talked about how we should diversify our economy. And this is a business that has been around for a long time, perhaps in a smaller scale. But we'd like to grow that. And we have a charter to do that because there's a need, a definite national security need for the local civilian industry, shipyards, to fix surface ships here in Hawaii. And so we're here to talk about that today. Yeah, okay. Well, just some thoughts, you know, before we get into it. Is that Hawaii is more strategic now than it was because of the emerging contention with China? So we are strategically important. And of course, our Navy is strategically important. And it's largely focused here.  And the shipyard was not as big as to handle some of our larger ships. Is that true? And what can be done about it? And where else can they go? Well, it's true that it's not physically as large. And we don't have as many personnel as some of the big yards in Puget Sound, Burlington, Washington, or Norfolk, Virginia. That's true. And they handle all different kinds of ships, including the bigger ones like the carriers and the amphib ships. But we do have a very robust business of submarines here. And we have 17 that are home ported here. And we do all the repair, maintenance, and modernization. We also have 10 surface ships that are part of the Pacific Fleet that are essential to our national security. And the shipyard used to, at one time, do both. And as the number of submarines and their overhauls, the number came up, we had to turn the surface ships over to the private sector. A few years ago, there was a restructuring of the contracts. And so there was some scrambling about how we're going to get this done. There was talk about moving the surface ships over to a lot of people for operations or the families and crews, because when the ships home ported here, it's a big deal to move them for six to 18 months over to the West Coast. And the West Coast doesn't have a lot of ability to take on more work either. So we really do need to find a way to keep those surface ships here and their overhauls, not just financially, but also because it's socially and economically, it's better for Hawaii, and it's actually better for the fleet and for the crew of the ship. Yeah, it's a win-win-win.  I think it was eight. You did engineering like the rest of them at the academy? Yes. And your whole career has been involved in shipbuilding, ship repair, places like the shipyard here in Hawaii. So you're the perfect person for it. And then there's a perfect thing to do right now. And so I guess the last question I want to ask you before we go to these guys is, it wasn't always thus. In other words, a civilian contractors weren't doing this kind of ship repair work, say 20 years ago. And we got into the civilian companies relatively recently. Can you say what the track was? When we did that? It was probably about maybe 10 years ago that we started pushing more the surface ship work out to the community. And at that time, we had a contract structure such that one large company, even from the mainland, could come in and take all that business and all our local industry were subcontractors. And that's kind of the way it was for a long time. And then when this contract here got restructured for surface ships to match what they're doing on the mainland and they're doing coastwide bidding, well, we can't have coastwide bidding here. That doesn't apply. They weren't really thinking about Hawaii as being different. But when that happened, we had to ask our private industry partners to step up. They had to be able to do availabilities that the shipyard could not do and that we did not want to send those ships to the mainland. And as a last count, we have four availabilities or overhauls that we've done here that have been very, very successful. And so we're trying to grow that. Yeah, well, and we should. Absolutely. I mean, this is, I was telling you before the show that I remember back in the day, a local ship contractors who might do this work were stumped by all the regulations and the bureaucracy and they didn't want to read all the rules and they didn't make bids. And one of the pioneers of that was Pat Sullivan and Ocean, as a federal defense contractor. And you're associated with them now. So it's the perfect connection. So let's talk to Ian Caliado. Can you tell me what your defense contractor work is like? What work do you do in your company for the Navy or, well, any other defense organization? Primarily, we're a subcontractor to the larger firms out there, but we're experienced with, you know, the surface combat to work. Primarily, our backlog has been non-combatting services in the Navy. Of course, we do commercial work when that comes along. And that's in South Brothers, Young Brother. So is this your only area of business or who other business as well? Yeah, yeah. I'm a second generation business owner. My father started this company in 1990. He came up to the shipyards, the private shipyards, and I've been doing it ever since. So I almost got me beat. You know, I only started. But, yeah. How big are you?  Yeah, we're tiny. We're tiny in comparison to the other private yards, but what 40, 50, what kind of employees right now? So what kind of special skills do you have to do, have to have, have to train your staff with in order to work for the Navy on ships? You have to be able to work on, you know, all systems, mechanical systems, all kind of electrical systems on ships. So we primarily focus on the welding and preservation, painting trades, and a little bit of mechanical. We don't touch the electrical stuff. But what we call, I guess, general contractors in our industry are AVRs and MSRs. And they kind of have internal capabilities to do all trades. But for the most part, they also handle project management, resource management, you know, the overall project. Yeah. Are you busy? Are you working in the middle of the night? Do you want to? Always, always. Oh, let's go to you again, so we can, I mean, Ian number two, may I say that? We're debating which one would be number one, which one would be number two. Makes no difference. We're an equal Ian opportunity company here. So what's your company like and what does it do for the Navy? So our company is Pacific Shipyard International and we've been in business for, you know, dating back to the 40s. It's a family-owned company, a locally-owned company, local roots here in Hawaii. And much like Ian, we're doing very similar work on the waterfront fix in the Navy, surface combatant ships. And also the non-combatant ships. And then both of us in our industry also get involved with the commercial maritime and other branches of our government's military Coast Guard and military CF men and other folks. And so we're quite diverse and part of the state's industrial base, really. Okay. You know, Alma, I was in the Coast Guard. Did I tell you that last time? No, I didn't know that. Yeah. I hope you're giving fair treatment to the Coast Guard and all this. We need their ships to be up the snuff also. That's true. Absolutely. Does it come within the alliance, the Coast Guard? It's all the maritime services. Yes. Okay. So how do you organize this? The contracts, I'm just taking a guess here, the contracts are generated through your office. And you're going to be supervising the bidding process and the like and the actual work and the completion of the work. I assume you do that, but if not, tell me who does. It will actually go through the contracting department at the shipyard, Pearl Harbor Shipyard. And the hardest part of any contract, of course, is determining what work needs to be done to the detail that you know that it'll be done the way you want it to, but not so much detail that it's prohibitive for anybody bidding on it. And so we had a lot of churn, a lot of trouble figuring that part out, how to do that contracting in that detail. But like I said, we've had four major availabilities now that our private industry shipyards here in Hawaii have completed. And I have to tell you that it was a bit of a surprise because up until now they had just done very small onesies and 2Z jobs. And this time they took on the entire overhaul and they completed it on time, which was, which is always huge because then that ship gets back to the fleet on time. So it goes through the, the contracting department. And once all the requirements are out there, the work package, then other companies bid on it and including subcontractors. Of course, to be made for their personnel. And we have to verify that their training and skills are, can follow the Navy requirements. And that's one of the issues that we have to be careful about that the Navy doesn't do things the way a private industry does necessarily. Like you said, all those regulations, the folks doing the work have to follow those regulations. They have to have, if we have a specific detail about how something has to get tested or how work processes have to be done, they have to follow that. And so it's not easy and it's not open to everybody who just wants to throw their hand in. It has to be somebody who can have the right workforce that's certified in training to perform corrected. I was thinking that if I was a Navy, I would want to actually offer a lot of training. One way or the other, get the employees and the management of these repair companies trained either here or on the mainland. I think here is a good place because you have so much talent. Is that happening? How does that work? Well, the ProLibrary Shipyard, as you know, has an apprenticeship program and that's a four year long program. But after the first year, they actually start that out of the classroom training. So we're talking to the Navy about how can we use that program that's already in place and train up our local civilian workforce to be able to do it the Navy way. And that's something that they're very interested in because the bottom line is ProLibrary Shipyard does not have the resources and capacity to perform these overhauls on the surface ships, but they have to be done. So the alternative is find somebody locally that can do it and do it well or send it to the mainland. And that's really, like you said, that would be a lose for everybody all the way around. It's more costly. It's disruptive to families. And then you have to bring the ship all the way back. And so that's not what we want to do. We want to keep the ships here. And the best way to do that is to train our local workforce. So we're talking to the Navy about how we can do that and share in the apprenticeship program. Of course, it would be structured a little different for surface ships. It might be a subset of the current program that's geared for submarines, which have a lot more controls. But certainly something we're working with the Navy. And then you talked about the state being involved, because we get these, this workforce interested early on. And Ian Collieto had talked about how we can get into the schools. A lot of the schools now have a technical or an engineering college, if you will, or a program, and how we can how we can get the kids early to even be interested in this and to make sure they understand this is not just a, you know, another job. This is a national security job, just like the shipwork, chickyard tar. Before I go back to these guys, let me ask you one more question. It strikes me from what you say is Navy ships have classified here on them. Let somebody on, you know, you have to control that classified information, especially when we're talking about nuclear and so forth. So how do you handle that? Does everybody get a clearance or what? They would have to get a clearance, but there's no nuclear surface ships that we have home ported here. So the only nuclear stuff that we have to worry about is on the submarines. And yes, they would have to get a clearance, but it would be easier to obtain, not easy, but easier than the workers that work in the submarines. But yes, they would still have to go through background checks and clearance to do that, because you're right. Those plans are critical. It's how our ships work. It's all the systems, it's all the components. It's critical for really national security and safety. Okay, so the U.S. alliance is doing is trying to build a sector here. I guess, you know, this is also related to dual use. In other words, they're developing technology for the sector, talk about best practices and equipment and so forth. It would not be beyond the realm of imagination that these companies would be something and make a suggestion and suggestion box or even develop technology for you. That would qualify for dual use. Does that happen? Well, we're always looking for better ways to do things, better processes, better materials. And we recognize, we, the Navy, recognize that there's all kinds of wonderful things out there in industry. How do we innovate faster so that we can use some of these processes and these materials in the Navy repair of our ships or the modernization? Right. And that's been slow. It's been a long acquisition process, but it's recognized up in the chain of command that this is something we have to do faster. We're going to keep up with some of the other countries that are threatening our status. So how does it feel, you know, in, in number one, to be working for the federal government? You know, I remember when I was in the Coast Guard, we did Navy, or I was a lawyer there, we did Navy court models. And whenever I stood up in court, I would always say, as we all said, I would say, may it please the court, my name is Jay Fidel, and I represent the United States of America. Even now, it sends a shiver down my spine, just to say that to you guys. How does it feel to represent and to work with the United States of America? Oh, it's, it's, it's a huge, huge responsibility. And, and there is a lot of pride in our work and pride in the effort we put forth, you know, to contribute, you know, to our national security, but more so also to contribute to our local community, giving, giving local people more greater opportunities with high demand, high compensation, job opportunities, you know, that's, that's one of my biggest things.  Hawaii, Hawaii has done great things and I, I believe we can do more. Yeah. And how about you Ian number two, strikes me that you guys are part of a growing sector. And if the Navy and Alma have anything to do about it, it'll keep on growing. There'll be more companies like yours, more work, more contracts, more jobs, more training, more expertise, and it'll be, what do you want to call it, a sector of the economy. So when we call the show, diversifying Hawaii's economy real serious, this is a sector, a growing sector of the economy requiring special skill. How is the sector doing, Ian number two? I think we're doing well.  And, and, and you, and you got a lot of, you know, folks that have roots in the, in the maritime sector. And you look at some of the ships we've worked on, you know, Alma mentioned that four ships have completed availabilities recently. You know, the first ship out of the gates was the USS Michael Murphy. And, you know, that's got some, some roots with Navy SEAL, you know, and we're working on the ship. And I had the opportunity to talk to his father, Dan Murphy, and it really builds a connection.   And then we got the USS Daniel Inouye coming up a post shakedown new construction ship coming to Hawaii. So you get a sense of tremendous pride work on these ships and in all the ship, but especially those that have no connections to the state. And you mentioned the sector and it is a, it's a growing sector. And, you know, last year when the pandemic was just starting and we were in the midst of the USS Michael Murphy. And we all became part of the critical infrastructure workforce and we all stayed working. And it really was a kind of a buoying force and keeping a lot of people in our state working at state employed.  So I think there's a lot to be said for that. Then fast forwarding, we, you know, we've got to keep getting the ships fixed, getting them, you know, back out to the fight. And then that's what we want to keep building on is, you know, we've got 10 ships, as Alma said, in Hawaii's 10 surface ships. But keep doing the work we're doing, building that confidence. And that will allow us to keep investing. And I think an important segment is you touched on it was the state's educational, you know, kind of branch or sector and getting them energized to invest into this industry to train our kids starting in the case and, you know, K through 12, get them energized in a careers pathway. I think they were trying to do those kinds of things through the Economic Alliance. Alma mentioned partnering with the Naval Shipyard and Apprentice Program and trying to help tail that into training programs for the private sectors. A lot of good things we're doing and trying to keep the sector, not just energized, but growing and doing more for the state. And one last nickel back to the Coast Guard, you know, we've private sector, we've invested in two new dry docks here in Hawaii, and both of the new dry docks, we're looking at the new national security cutters and make sure that we can maintain them. So we're not just doing today's work, we're planning for the future and make sure we can support what's out here and, you know, shout out to the Coast Guard there. Well, thank you. Thank you. I always appreciate those in the best years of my life. So, you know, E and number one, E and number two, refer to new ships. Okay, and I'll post this to you also, Alma. You don't have new ships, new practices, new physical structures, new manuals.  It's all new, new technology all around you. What are you going to do when that happens? Are you going to have the same kind of experience under a contract to repair a new ship as the ship you've been working on already? Does that create a, what do you want to call it, a challenge for the company when you have to retrain and reorient your people? I think a lot of the technology might be new, but Valsval pumps pump and, you know, the system works the same way, and there might be some little twist to it that's different or new, but the basic shop skills, the basic repair work that they have to do is going to be the same. So, we're looking forward to these new ships and new technology, because we can't stay where we were even a decade ago. We have to keep moving forward. We have to keep getting better as technology gets better, as the processes get more efficient. We have to move with that, whether it's on the government side at Pearl Harbor Shipyard or on the civilian side with our local industry, we have to keep advancing and moving forward. You know, does Ian 1 or Ian 2, does the state of Hawaii recognize how important this is? I mean, for example, you know, we have a legislature that likes to encourage industries that it feels are critical industries. Have there been any bills? Have there been any moves by the Department of Business and so forth, even, to help you out, help you develop your new sector, your industry? The Hawaii Defense Alliance, you know, you're going to, this isn't going to be the first time or the last time you're going to hear about it, but it's basically a DODB grant established in May of this year, and the Hawaii Defense Alliance brings together industry, government, educational institutions, and community resource partners to work together, to help increase local business opportunities while also identifying the challenges to the local industrial base and offering solutions for those. It's pretty exciting, and I'm actually the co-chair for the workforce development working group, and my co-chair is UH Community College Dean Keala Chah. So we've got a lot of things tabled and ready to go soon. So it's exciting to have everyone at the table, you know, both state, federal, government, education, as well as industry, and we're all not necessarily reinventing any wheels, we're actually leveraging each other's existing initiatives as well as ideas and best practices.  So Ian number two, if I'm watching this show and I say, gee, that sounds so interesting to me, I would love to work on Navy ships. I would love to do what you guys do, not only, you know, for the engineering aspect of it, but for the camaraderie, to be close to the Navy, I like the Navy, and to do something for the country because it is doing something for the country. My name is Ian Wood, and I do work for the United States of America, you know me? That's good. So the question I put to you is, how can people out of school who watch this show or hear about the Alliance, how can they get involved? How can they get a job? How can they join? How can they become part of this new sector? Yeah, I think that's a good question. I think through the community college, as Ian mentioned, that they've been working with us on developing programs. We've had some outreach recently to some of the high schools, Campbell High School, Waipahu Academy, trying to encourage kids to see our industry to help us market our industry to them. Yeah, I think we've got to do more of that. I think we've traditionally over the years have not done a lot of marketing about our industry, and we've got some work to do in that area. I think through the Alliance, it's going to help us energize those efforts. You mentioned, I just go back to technology a little bit. As Alma said, a lot hasn't changed. It's a very, you know, a lot of hands-on wrench turning, you know, things don't change as far as corrosion and steel work involves. But the newer ships are definitely challenging us to continue to expand our capabilities. You know, with engineering investment, with investing in CNC, computer-eated machining and manufacturing techniques, we make an investment in that area. And I think as we diversify into those areas, we're also starting to lean out towards the university and places where these kids are coming more fresh out of school these technologies in their back pocket. Some of us have never had it in our pocket. So I think those are areas that we can naturally attract people coming out of school. So, you know, we've been trying to hire more interns to come work for us out of some of the maritime schools and through UH. And I think those are the ways that we can continue to attract people to our business. It's a tough business. It's not for the faint-hearted. It's definitely a very hands-on, a lot of grit. You've got to have to do the work we do. And the government, as you mentioned, kicking this off, there's a lot of paperwork I'll call it doing the military work. So it's got a special drive to get through all that as well. And I bet when Alba talks about turning a wrench, this is not a distant experience for you, but you're both down there turning a wrench once in a while. Absolutely. It's also a job where you can wipe your hands on your clothes and it doesn't matter. It's not in my work. It's not necessarily sitting behind a desk. So for folks who want to be out on the field, be out on the ships doing work, this is the thing to do. And a lot of it's very technical, so you have to understand that. But you don't have to be an engineer either. You just have to have a technical aptitude, really. But ultimately, you learn about a lot of engineering. Absolutely. I know why you picked these two eons. It's not just because the name was similar, but because it's based on good looks. You could have picked somebody else. We know what you did. The other thing is, it seems to me, just from this discussion, that you're building the alliances building an industry and an expertise, a skilled workforce, if you will, that can service these companies and through these companies, the Navy, and become part of them. Tell me if I'm right about this part of a hub, a strategic ship repair hub here in Hawaii, attached as civilians through the naval shipyard and so forth, and doing critical work for the United States Navy. And so that being the case, it's very important for diversification. But assuming it is, assuming I'm right about that, isn't there a value in having a ship repair person who will travel? In other words, you have ships that go elsewhere. And the Pacific could be anywhere. And sometimes they need to turn a wrench on those ships in Guam or in ports in Asia. Is this industry part of an initiative like that? Well, I would say right now it is not, but it can be. I mean, I know that we've sent contractors out for LCS in Singapore, and we've sent people to Guam for tough jobs that the Navy either didn't have the resources for or didn't have the right workforce. But so this would be, we would try to develop the workforce that can handle our surface ships here. But absolutely, if the surface ships don't really care where they break down and if they do. So it might be in Guam, it might be in Yakuza, Japan, or it might be in Singapore where we'd have to go. And if we are the best people to do that, we have the ability, we have the training, we have the credentials to do it. It might be easier, faster and better to send a contractor than it would be to manufacture orders for a Navy entity to go do that. So yes, absolutely. If we get the workforce together here that can, that has the ability to work on these ships, we can work on them anywhere. Yeah. Oh, that sounds great. That really sounds great. A hub of expertise right here, just like the Navy is a hub here and will be more in the future. So this diversified industry. Okay, we're almost out of time. So let me ask you for last comments. Ian number one, what would you like to leave, what message would you like to leave to our viewers? That workforce development is the lifeblood of our industry. That's going to make or break us, whether we'll be the best in the world it is, whether or not we'll be this technical hub in the Pacific, the strategic advantage for the Navy. And whether we can grow this to actually rival or even surpass tourism's contribution to our GDP. So it all starts with getting local people trained up and giving them those opportunities for these high skilled high pay jobs. Well put, well too. Ian number two, that is Ian Wood number two. What are your thoughts, what do you want to leave with our listeners, yours? Yeah, I think we have a real opportunity here to continue to strengthen our industry. And you mentioned the diversification of the workforce to go other places and I think there's an opportunity there to grow that. And the other thing is bringing ships here from other places. And I think back to the legislature, they recognize that you could appreciate that in this last year, with tourism down and maybe the tax base down, they recognize to continue a GET exemption for industry because they recognize that the ships can leave Hawaii. And so we're at an economic disadvantage competing with other places. But keeping that tax exemption in place allows us to draw ships to Hawaii for repair. So being a hub of repair hub in the middle of the Pacific. And we're actively looking at ships now that would traditionally maybe be overseas for maintenance work. But there's some due to COVID, there's some hot spots in Asian countries and those ships are looking to come here to Hawaii because we've got the capability. I think that's a real testament to what we can do in the state. And so it's kind of this, there's a critical mass growing. The Navy sent their demand signal that they want us to do surface ship maintenance for them. And we're responding to that. The Coast Guard wants us to do the maintenance here for and we're responding to that. So I think as we do more and more, it's going to help drive that machine with the state behind it, with the educational system behind it. Again, closing looks like it started a real opportunity here for our state and our industry. Alma, I think my heart is beating a little faster now. What about yours? What would you leave with our viewers? I would say that this is a real viable opportunity to divert, not just diversify our economy, but to keep our kids home. We talk about that a whole lot about what do we have to do to have jobs here that kids don't have to go to the mainland and then not return until they retire and can finally afford to come home. But to be able to keep our kids at home and teach them a trade and a skill. These are trades people. These are craftsmen. And they're doing something that's going to help the national security of our country and the Navy in particular. And we really need them. But this is a viable opportunity. This is something not just we're talking about. We've proven we can do it. Now we have to prove that we can do it on a larger scale. So we don't have to send our ships and our crews and their families to the West Coast. Like Ian was saying, maybe we can bring those guys over. But we really need to take this opportunity. And it's a generation upon generation of people in one family that have worked at the shipyard because it's not just pride. They're doing something for their country. But it's also a good trade skill that they know and learn and really can go anywhere. But they would like to be here. They want to be here at home. And I think that's opportunity for our kids to stay home and learn a great trade. And we've got to start them early. Like Ian was saying, starting with schools, there are some programs we're already talking to. And with the state and the government working together in private industry, I don't think we could fail. Thank you, Admiral Alma Groke. Contractor Ian Calliado. Contractor Ian Wood. Thank you all so much. This was really important, really good discussion. I learned a lot. And I wish you well in these efforts. I think this is so important for Hawaii. Aloha. Aloha, Jay. Thank you for the opportunity.


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When we applied, we had great success. That's partly why we started this firm. I got into Dartmouth College, an amazing Ivy League university. Shariah and Gotham got into these small liberal arts colleges like Amherst College and Williams College. And together we also got into really large state universities. So we developed this expertise of success across all colleges in the American college spectrum. But frankly, that success is not the reason why we started this firm. You see, a lot of our friends, including many international students with great personalities, great accomplishments, great stories, despite all of that, they could not get into the same schools that we did simply because they lacked the knowledge of how to present themselves in the college applications process. They didn't know what admissions officers looked for. And so they didn't know how to put their best foot forward. They didn't know how to maximize their chances at these life-changing opportunities. We think that's horrible. We think that's a worldwide issue. It affects international students from any country, but most especially from a country like India. And we started assured global consulting to address that issue and make sure that any student, especially international students who want to study in the United States can accomplish that opportunity by putting their best foot forward. So how do we accomplish our success in the college admissions process? Well, as the slide says, it wasn't just luck. Today, we're going to explain to you step-by-step how we made sure that our chances at getting into Harvard or Yale or any of the schools on that list were maximized. So first things first, let's do a little thought experiment. The picture on the left, does anyone know what those mountains are? Feel free to answer in the chat, sort of a rhetorical question. Probably not. On the other side, we have another picture. I'm guessing you probably know the name of that mountain or you probably know that it's one of the tallest in the world. That is, of course, Mount Everest. So my question to y'all, I want y'all to think about this, take a second or two. Why do we know the name of that mountain? Why do we know what it looks like? Why do we know that it's spectacular? Why is it in our heads while those other mountains could be anywhere in the world? Why do we know Everest but not those other mountains? Well, quite frankly, because Everest is extraordinary. Everest stands at 29,032 feet. It's the tallest mountain in the world. Meanwhile, those other mountains, which are known as the Blue Ridge Mountains, I happen to live 100 miles or so away from them. They're a pretty average mountain range. There's over 125 peaks in the Blue Ridge Mountain Range that are over 5,000 feet. And the tallest one is only 6,684 feet. As you could tell from that photo, all the peaks are pretty similar. You can't really identify them. There's nothing really setting them apart. Guys, that's the core of this college application process. Everest is extraordinary. It stands apart. The other mountains don't. You want to stand out. You have to be Everest. And that leads us to a very simple truth. Colleges want good students, but they don't seek out just ordinary good students. As the statistics show, in 2020, Brown, 96% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their high school class. At Dartmouth, the average test score for my class was 1,501 for the SAT. At UChicago, the average was a 1518. That's one of the highest averages in the country. And the average ACT was 34. What I want to stress here is that excellent test scores, excellent grades, excellent quantitative academic achievements, those are not things that get you into American schools. They are the basic requirement to be considered by American schools. So any student with those test scores is not guaranteed admission to a Brown, to a Dartmouth, to UChicago. But those with incredible extraordinary accomplishments attached to their name, like those two Jeopardy winners, like that NASA-presenting researcher, they have more than a good shot at getting into those schools because they're not just ordinary good students. They're good students who combine their academic profile with something that makes them extraordinary like Everest. And that brings us to the idea of your application narrative.  When an admissions officer reads your application, they should, in a way, be reading you. They should know you after they read every page. And they want to answer three essential questions when you submit your application and they take a look at it. One, what is your passion? We call this the spike. You can think of it as your Everest. What is that thing that's gonna make you the tallest in the world at something, the best in the world at something?  Second, they wanna know how have you pursued that passion in high school? They're not gonna take it just on the basis of your word that you love particle physics or you love studying Asian history. They wanna know that this is something that you have already accomplished stuff in, that you have a track record in this, and that that track record might serve as evidence of major contributions that you can make to that field in college, which leads into the third question, with that spike, with that passion, how would you continue pursuing it in college? More generally, they wanna know what will you contribute to that class? But I stress, do not fall into the trap of repetition while you build this cohesive picture. Minimal space in the application is a thing. Can't get around it. There's going to be word limits. There's going to be limits on how many pages you can submit, what you can submit as supplementary material. Remember, admissions officers are busy. They don't wanna get 15 pages of extra details about what activities you do, what your passion is. So you have to maximize the amount of detail that you express within the limited format of a common application with maybe a couple supplement questions. Each component of your application must reveal a new side of who you are to the reader.  That's what you wanna study at Caltech or Stanford. Feel free to make your common application personal statement solely about how you fell in love with physics and how physics is the essence of who you are. But don't spend another supplement talking about that in the same terms. Maybe talk about how you applied particle physics to an extracurricular activity, like building a nonprofit.  Maybe you have a very interesting philosophy on human interaction, whatever. All that matters is that you're adding different pieces to that puzzle that the entire application forms. They don't wanna read about how you are a particle physicist doing research at a local university or you read this textbook 50 times. They wanna learn about how you're a budding particle physicist who also loves this genre of music and also loves to read this type of book. And you can't wait to share that book with your roommate at Harvard or Stanford. Let's make it very clear, students. In the application process, you're not just competing against yourselves, against people in your city, against people at your school, people in your country, but you're competing against people in the world. Every year, Harvard College receives more than 40,000 applications. When you sit down to start writing your applications, hopefully with our help, you have to ask yourself a question. How can you be that one in 40,000 applicants that the Harvard admissions officer tells to the admissions committee, we need him? This student is someone that Harvard College needs. How are you gonna stand out? How can you maximize your memorability and your luck at getting remembered? I'm gonna be very clear. Luck plays a role in this process. If an admissions officer had a bad day, he reads your application. No matter how much you contribute, it just might not get through because he had a bad day and he's not in the mood to accept anyone. But if you can write a stellar, personal, inspiring application, then it might even have the ability to get through bad days and bad luck. And when your admissions officer is not in the mood to accept anyone. And that's where we can talk, right? This process is all about maximization. And ending really quickly, I wanna make clear. The best application narratives are not three pages long. They're not five pages long. The best application narratives are simple, just a collection of ideas about who you are and how you wanna express that to the college admissions officers. They can be summarized in just one sentence, which brings me to my own application narrative. As you may have guessed, I love government. So my narrative was having worked at the highest levels of American government that I sought to restore America's civic engagement, our democratic culture, which has taken quite a hit over the last several decades. In every single part of my application, I tried to take an experience, an award, an activity I did to evidence that narrative as best I could. So I used my Capitol Hill internship, working for a former leader of Congress. That gave me a credibility. I worked literally in the heart of America's democracy for a leader of American democracy. In a YMCA program, I also had the opportunity to serve as an elected representative of the youth in my state of Maryland. I served as youth governor. That gave me even more credentials, but also an amazing experience actually building up voting capabilities and voter registration for students in my state. It gave me a way to talk about how I've actually helped restore America's civic engagement even at 17 years old. I'd also won several awards. I actually won second place in an international contest with more than 5,300 competitors for a documentary I produced called Democracy Must Be Learned about the importance of civics education in building a healthy and strong voting youth. I'd also won a national award, and this is something that I was most proud of. I was selected as one of 106 students nationwide for the United States Senate Youth Program. This was something that I had my eye on from freshman year, and by golly, it just happened to fall into my lap when I just started applying in my senior year. This is something that I also wanna stress. Over the course of your high school experience, some of you might be freshmen, sophomore, juniors, seniors, over the course of your high school experience, you're probably gonna fall into this trap of being anxious, thinking you need to have this award. You need to join this club. You need to have this grade, that test score. But I promise you students, as long as you stick to one passion and pour yourself into that passion, the awards, the extracurriculars, everything will come naturally. The key to this process is specialization while also maintaining a good academic base. That's what I did. That made me academically qualified. My activities, my awards, they made me memorable and they made me accomplished. So the effect I had on admissions officers was this. I became the civics kid. When they went up to the admissions committee, they didn't have to say my name. They didn't even have to hear it. They just knew that there was the civics kid who could contribute to campus on voter registration, on democracy, on whatever, and they knew that the college had to have them.  And now Shahghar and Gautam are going to talk about their personal narratives. Winning multiple national and international programming competitions, I hope to use my experience to work on disruptive startups. This was the narrative that I wanted to get across. And at first it's a very grandiose claim. If you look at the evidence, you might be able to take away some idea that this would be possible for me, but it was still lacking something. As Lintar mentioned earlier, part of me, even though I had all of these competitions, we're still anxious about the other awards I didn't have, but that wasn't what was important. And this plays on specialization. Within my experiences, I needed to find a better narrative, a better story, something that highlights the fact that I actually wanted to work on these disruptive startups. Something that to my very core has motivated me. It's what I've learned through all of my experiences. And throughout my entire application, I wanted to create the effect that I was an innovative disruptor. And I would be the prime fit for this prestigious program or this school. And so with my evidence and with all my experience, the story I was able to convey to all of the schools that I got into, and a lot of them were very competitive STEM programs, was that by bringing the student who has all this great experience in CS, but also this drive in computer science and experience to actually make change, I would be able to do something. I would be able to bring new ideas to the school. And with these ideas, I bring new conversations and conversations that the school actually wants to have. It's this effect and this idea of actually bringing change to the school that led my application be very selective and very appealing to these top schools. So personally, my application process centered a lot around a different group of activities. I had done multiple things. And although it's best to specialize in one thing, if you do a lot of different things and find a way to thread all of those things together, you can be in a prime position to succeed. For example, in addition to doing public speaking, I was also a musician and I had started a very large organization within my school that had led me to statewide leadership. But the thing that brought all those things together wasn't the fact that I did all these activities. It was my approach to them. Cause I was always the one who did things differently from other people. I took a separate avenue on every single project they took. And that's what I illustrated in my common application essay. Not by speaking about any of my particular extracurricular activities, but actually about speaking about a recess that I had when I was in elementary school that illustrated my personality. And then every other essay, I talked about how I approach an activity within my instead of change. For example, I co-founded an organization for teaching debate as a way of learning English fluency. That's not something everybody does. A lot of people started debate organizations. None of them with that specific mission. I also designed new methods for personal improvement in both music performance and public speaking. I did many different forms of public speaking and tied them together. I played multiple instruments and tied those together. See, when I brought my application for the schools like Duke and Berkeley and UCLA, I showed them that I was a leader in the world of change. That was enough to get through. Now on this next slide, we're gonna have a low down on the interview. Okay, thank you. So yeah, we're gonna talk about the interview now. It's nothing more than a 30 to 60 minute conversation with a college alumnus. A college alumnus is somebody who recently graduated from the school and is now trying to give back to the school by doing a few interviews here and there. A bad interview can really hurt your application. More so than a good interview can help it. But if you really have an excellent interview and you really come across to the interviewer, then they can put in a good word for you. Because remember, that's actually how the interview works. The interviewer, the college alumnus, writes up a one-page summary of their conversation with you and their beliefs about your personality and sends that over to the admissions officer who will say something along the lines of, oh, it's a good interview, oh, it's a bad interview. Oh, we learned this from the interview. Oh, we didn't really learn about this. But they really wanna gain in your demonstrated interest from the interview as well. You wanna know that you really wanna go there, which is why you should be ready to ask your interviewer questions at the interview. Don't ask something that you can ask to Google, all right? Don't ask how many students attend your school or what's the acceptance rate. Ask something personal, you know? What kind of experience did you have with this club? What's something you could have done or what's something you wish you had done if you could go through the whole process again? Every college has different guidelines as to how the interview works and how you contact them. Usually it starts out with the interviewer reaching out to you via email, and then you responding with the time that you're available to talk, then the interview taking place, and then here's the key part. You really have to send them a thank you note after the interview is over, 24 to 36 hours later, just something along the lines of, hey, thank you for speaking with me. I know you have a lot going on in your life working at McKinsey or Facebook or Goldman Sachs, but the fact that you took 20 to 30 minutes or 30 to 60 minutes to speak with me really ended up helping me learn about the school and now I'm more excited to go there. Let's look at this next slide with the purpose of the interview. Now college is due as the interview to do, I think four different things. First is to pinpoint your reasons for clients in school. Why are you a student at Elpro International School interested in attending Brown University? It's very far from you who have to go to another country, like a 14 hour flight. What exactly is it? Now the wrong answer is to say something like, oh, the school that I would be going to in India isn't really good enough for me or doesn't really meet my needs. There are great schools in India and your admissions officer knows that. They want to know specifically the good things about US colleges that drag you there. Maybe it's the fact that Brown has one of the best computer science programs in the country and you really want to do that. Maybe it's because of the open curriculum, which is an unrivaled experience to choose your own academic pathway. Explain why you want to go to this school and also why you want to leave your home country to go to the US. What brings you there? What attracts you? And they want to identify the specific contribution that you're going to make to the school, all right? I was asked multiple times in my interviews, what are you adding here? And I answered it differently every time because I truly felt that for every school that had a different set of opportunities, I could add something new. Sometimes it provided a concrete answer. I'm going to establish this social action organization for educational policy reform. Other times, I told them that I was going to add a sense of humor that's really lacking when students talk about difficult issues because that's something that my teachers had told me that I was skilled at. Then they want to evaluate your English, let's see. This is something that didn't really apply to us but that applies to you. They want to know that you speak English well enough, not just to explain your life but to also have a deep, meaningful conversation that could eventually be taking place in a coffee shop with your roommates or in a classroom with your teacher. Then finally, they want to gain insights about your personality and intellectual attitude. This is the part that could really hurt you. If you don't ask good questions or if you have your camera off during the entire interview or if you don't really respond well to the questions that the interviewer asks, they're going to feel like your personality isn't worth having on campus and that can really hurt you. Instead, show why you have a good personality. Talk about the things you're really excited about and that'll get you there. Instead of talking about a field of science that you're not interested in, talk about the thing that interests you most. When I spoke about public policy during my interviews, I was really energized. I was really excited. My true personality came out. That's what helps me illustrate myself to the reader. Let's take a look at some of the questions on the next slide that you might see in the interview. Here's the first one. What attracts you to Intended Major? Don't just say I like it because I can make a lot of money off it even though they may be true of your computer science major. Instead, say something like, From the first time I built a computer, I really was attracted to the idea of building things. I like the idea of taking something from a bunch of scraps of metal and then turning it into something functional. Talk about it personally too. Add an extra level of dimension. Maybe you never had a computer growing up. Maybe ever since you started playing with Legos as a kid, you knew that you wanted to do something like this. Make it personal to you. Would you add to our campus? I think I already talked about this. So I'll move on to the next question, which is how would your friends describe you? They ask this a lot. How would your friends describe you? How would your parents describe you? How would your teachers describe you? Provide adjectives and provide an anecdote exactly like how that is illustrated. What is the biggest problem facing the world? That's a more broader question. They kind of want to get your perspective on life. Don't answer something really political, right? Like over taxation. Instead, answer with a problem that's universal. Maybe healthcare isn't as good as it used to be. Or maybe the democracy in the U.S. isn't as strong as it should be. Then if you could spend an afternoon with any person in the world, who would it be? Just be ready to be answered. Just be ready to be asked questions that you couldn't possibly prepare for. Those other questions, like what attracts you to this major? What do you add to our campus? Those are the ones you prepare for by writing them down on a document and then writing down the answers and then practicing the answers. But for some of these questions, you literally just can't practice them because they're so uncommon. You really can't predict them. In this case, in that case, just be ready to be overwhelmed. Be ready to be surprised and be ready to thrive in that environment. Now let's take a look at some of the essays that we've seen it assured because we believe that essays are the most important part of this process. Here's example essay number one. We have a prospective computer science major who had done all the Olympiad, so had done all the IT stuff and the revised essay is this. Spanish, French, Hindi, Python, Java, JavaScript. Languages are the love of my life. While other boys and girls pick up baseball bats, flutes, and essays, I spend my time learning the intricacies of syntax. Growing up in a multilingual family, I learned the value of language fluency from a young age. As a high school student, I applied that principle to life using computer science, which is almost important as real-life languages. Let me just move my phone so I can see it. When I was in the third grade, I picked up my language Italian, bristled me with excitement. All right, so you might think this is essays good, you might think it's bad, but on the next slide, we're gonna highlight exactly some of the things that didn't go well in this essay. First of all, their opening hook, the thing that drags in the reader's attention, didn't really serve to do that. It was just a list of six languages, three of them are real, three of them were computer languages. That doesn't draw me in, it makes me confused, especially if I don't know that those three last languages are computer languages. I think it's a snake, and I think it's an island in Indonesia. I think, what even is JavaScript? Then we go on to, while other boys and girls pick up baseball, bats, boots, and essays, you really wanna show your exceptional, like when Taro said, but you don't wanna do it by downplaying everybody else's accomplishments, or saying that they all mold into the same person. That's not the way to do it, it makes you look kind of, what's the best word for it? Makes you look kind of disdainful, right? Then, word choice is really important. This student said, I apply the principle of life to computer languages. Principle of life is a little bit broad, right? We don't wanna be using that kind of a word. If you're with an essay editor, you're gonna let you know that. And then lastly, I guess, it bristles me with excitement. Another example of word choice. Overall, this essay really lacks a cohesive structure. I don't know where it's going, I don't know where it's coming from, I don't know what to expect to come next. The student talks about their love of languages, and then they talk about how as high school students, as a high school student, they adopted computer languages, and then for some reason, they go back in the last paragraph and talk about how they learned Italian in third grade. Hey, this is just an excerpt from a common app, but it just goes to show that structure, as well as word choice, a good hook, and important details will get you there, but abandoning all those things and just being reckless with your use of language won't. Let's look at how this essay became a good one through a shirt. Spanish was the hardest for me, not because I couldn't project my mother's brisk Cuban accent onto my own lips, but because I never felt the efficiencies and contractions I'd previously seen in English, Chinese, and Russian. Honestly, I said looking down on my copy of Don Quillo, maybe it's time for Spanish to grow. There needs to be updates to the language. My mother smiled from across the room. I was 14 years old at the time, and I'd been collecting languages for as long as I could utter words. Every day, she saw these magazines cutouts from Juventus Revede, Leops, and Muzurka. International magazines from across the world. Each one displayed a novel concatenation of syntax components and vocabulary terms. Whenever I encountered a new style of literary linguistic design, a light went off in my head. A high school of my ability to judge and compare dialects made me gravitate towards programming languages. See, another excerpt from the same comment app, but this one is really good. This one really tells a narrative. It really draws my attention in by omitting detail rather than keeping it. Spanish was the hardest award for you, right?  That's interesting to know.  Oh, you already learned three languages. Oh, wow, this was all by the time you're 14. The sequential progression of details here is really masterful, and that's what really gets it across to the reader. For this next essay, we're not gonna look at the before and after. I'm gonna show the before, I'm gonna show some of the problems, and then I'm gonna encourage you to, when you get the PowerPoint sent to you, which is what we're gonna do, we're gonna be setting the PowerPoint to you. Take a look at yourself. Take a look at it yourself. Make sure that you can understand how it became better with our edits, and then the same thing for the third essay. So let's look at this last essay. International Relations major. Every day we come closer to the end of humanity. They have the climate change. Climate change may as well be the fifth worth note. The apocalypse, this team, nothing can truly stop us. In fact, millions have already died as a result of its consequences. This is why I decided to join the Youth Climate Strike. I use my skills as the climate coordinator for my SGAs, organized rallies, I earn recognition in local newspapers, and I use that motivation to keep going. Okay, see, this one isn't bad. There's a lot of good details here. I learned a lot of things, but it's really formatted like a Wikipedia pages. I wanna hear story. I wanna hear what these activities means to the person. I wanna hear why their approach to this protest was different than the approaches of all the other climate protests in New York and Los Angeles and Bogota in Delhi, right? So let's look at specifically some of the problems on this next slide. First of all, this entire first paragraph doesn't even mention the writer at all. It's entirely impersonal, and that's the problem with this essay. You need to make sure that every sentence is so good and is so personal that literally no other person in the world would be able to write it because it didn't apply to them. It's not the case with this first paragraph. It's about a world problem, not about how this world problem affected the reader. That's a serious problem. This is why I decided to join. This is sort of the second paragraph. That's not a strong way to start a paragraph. It doesn't really draw on the reader. It doesn't really have a good transition. It's kind of basic, right? That's something that a sherd knows and not a lot of people do. I used my skills as a climate coordinator for my SGA to organize rallies and recognition, and then I used that as a commitment to keep going. That recognition isn't what should be keeping you going. You're love for protesting and you're love for the world is what should keep you going, not recognition. That's called over-justification and it's a psychological problem. What the admissions reader might realize that you wouldn't if you hadn't had a friend or an expert look at your essay ahead of time. All right, so on this next slide, we just have the better version of the essay and then the slides after that, the next three slides are the same thing for our third essay, which is an IB student applying as a woman studies major. This one's a passion essay. I really, really, really encourage you to take a look at it. Now, Lantaro, I believe, is going to be talking about our mission. Go ahead, Lantaro. Definitely. So now you're probably thinking, what do I do with all this information? How can I apply this to my own admissions journey? Well, at Assured, we can help you do just that because our mission at Assured is to assure student success in the college admissions process, most especially for international students from India. How do we do that? Well, we provide accessible, affordable and a la carte college consulting services. We provide personal statement edits for $99.99. These cover one full round of edits per purchase, but they're not just going to be any edits. We're going to edit that essay quantitatively. We're going to look at the impressions that we get for each little thing, each little trait and admissions officer is going to want to evaluate you for. Are you humble? Are you kind? Does this essay make you seem intellectually vital and curious? We're going to be ranking that essay based on other essays we've seen according to those criteria. With our edits, we'll also be providing a plethora of comments. These comments are not just going to be, oh, this word could be changed. This line might be a little bit bad. We're going to ask you those hard questions that the admissions officers themselves will want to ask you. Why did you like this activity? What did it mean to start this new organization? What did it mean to take this class with that teacher at Elpro? We want you to get depth out of every single essay edit that you accomplish with us. We offer a one week turnaround time for those essay edits. However, we also have a three day express option. We also offer supplemental edits. So these are those supplemental essays. Some schools require them, some don't, but most schools do want you to fill these out because they add to what your application narrative can be. We charge 14 cents per word for each of those essays and your total price is going to be based on the length of your submission. So if you have a thousand words that you want us to edit, that's going to be pricier than if you just have 100 words. Like with the personal statement, each purchase covers one full round of deep edits. Your essay can answer any prompt from any school and we offer the same turnaround times there. However, we are also super excited to mention this next product to you and this is our mock interview product. We have a limited supply of these, only 30 signups available and we are making this product which we normally do not offer exclusively, exclusively open to the attendees of this webinar. Our normal price for such a product would be $299.99, but for those attendees of this webinar, we are offering a limited 50% discount to $149.99. This is an unparalleled opportunity to get real admissions interview experience with actual Ivy League plus students who will use actual Ivy League plus questions that they themselves were asked in this college process. It's gonna be a 45 minute interview with a 15 minute debrief and we really hope you take advantage. So how do you purchase our products? Well, to purchase our products, you have two options and both of these are going to be linked in the chat. First, if you're not ready to purchase our products but are still interested and want to be on our mailing list, please fill out the following form, tinyurl.com slash assured-for. However, if you're ready to purchase our products and you want to get into priority contact with us, please go to www.assuredglobalconsulting.com slash services. That's assured-globalconsulting.com slash services. To access the mock interview 50% discount, you can just put in the promo code limited30. That's all caps. However, for our other admissions products, specifically the essay edits, you can just enter the promo code ELPRO for 20% discount on essays. And we're going to put that up at the end and we'll make sure that y'all, when we ask questions, will have access to that information. So very quickly, what did y'all learn here today? Rather, what did we all learn here today? First, to succeed in the American College admissions process, you're going to have to build that Everest-like spike. You have to be extraordinary. But being extraordinary doesn't mean you have to be mean to other people. It doesn't mean you have to stay up at night and it doesn't mean you have to stay up every single night trying to win as many awards as you can. Everyone in this world is different. By extraordinary, we just mean showcase what differences you already have, what any normal human being would have as part of his individuality. The thing is, not a lot of people can do that. So if you can do that, if you can showcase your individualness just by being yourself, you can stand out. And of course, combine that passion, that spike, that uniqueness with good academics. If you don't have the basics, the fundamentals, why would any college accept you? They'd be taking a risk, an expensive one at that too. Once you have your spike, your passion set, generate a narrative, make it one sentence.  Next, you have to evidence that narrative. They're not gonna just take you out of your word. Each piece of your application should support your narrative. It should add something new to that foundation. However, remember, repetition in college admissions essays is only good if you're using it for a very specific rhetorical effect. And even I can't do that. I'm not even that good of a writer. Don't repeat ideas unless that repetition can provide some new value. It is always good in college admissions to provide something new. Something new that the admissions reader can sort of gnaw when they're thinking about accepting you. Next, and this is the most important step, you have to execute that evidence well. Conquer your essays, conquer your interview. A shirt can help with that. Finally, and this goes for the entire application process from every email you're sending to the college to every single interaction you have with your interviewer. Know the effect that you want to create in the mind of the college admissions office and create it. Make it as clear as possible. Ponder it every single time you think of college admissions. How is that college admissions officer going to see me? And how can I make that effect as good and as beneficial as possible for my application chances? Remember, getting into American schools is hard. Getting into any school is hard. Let's be honest. The name of the game is maximizing your chances of getting into an American school. And maximizing your chances means maximizing your individuality, your ability to be remembered, and most simply your extraordinary abilities. So are there any questions?  I know y'all have been waiting patiently. So please feel free to raise your hand. We'll just go through those questions right away. Or if you want to ask in the chat, feel free. Okay, we have a question from Amé to everyone. My top college at my list is Dartmouth. What personal tips would you recommend for enhancing my application? I say a narrative. Also, I'm a senior and will be applying to Dartmouth Early Decision in five months. What could you recommend for that too? Amé, I hope I'm pronouncing that right. I'll be very frank with you. I don't know anything about you, so I can't give you personal tips. But the best thing that I can tell you is Dartmouth loves people who love Dartmouth, if that makes sense. In the why Dartmouth essay, which is going to be your most important essay, stress that you have very clear ideas of what you'll do on campus. Stress that you've done your research. I'd say research a couple of classes that you want to take specifically at Dartmouth. Mention those professors, mention those classes. Also, I'd research one or two of Dartmouth specific institutes. We have a lot of different public policy research centers and just disciplinary research centers. Research what opportunities they have. Talk about how you might like to take advantage of one of them. And Dartmouth people love the outdoors. So make sure you mention the outdoors. And don't say that you hate the cold because I promise you then Dartmouth will not be your top college anymore because Dartmouth is very cold during the winter. And for early decision, Dartmouth loves people who love Dartmouth. Early decision means you love Dartmouth. If you apply early decision, it does not guarantee your admission, but it raises your chances of admission considerably. Okay. Let me take the next three questions. All right, the first one is how did you find gigs or opportunities in public speaking that would actually make an impact on your application? It's a great question. First of all, I made some of those gigs myself. I started a debate company that taught debates to middle school students. That was an entrepreneurial endeavor that showed how much public speaking mattered to me. Another thing was I was a member of the international public policy form debate tournaments. This is an international tournament that you guys can do too with approval from your teachers. I was second place in the world out of 180 teams. So I really showed the fact that my success was global. I was also nationally awarded in the national speech and debate tournaments, which has local levels of competition. And I just did a lot of debate tournaments on the circuits. All right, the next one is, sir, if I want to be a historian, can I get admissions in Stanford University? Yes, you can. If you mean Stanford. If you mean another school, yes too. All these schools want a diverse amount of students, right? Just because Stanford is known for computer science doesn't mean it doesn't also want to have some of the world's best historians graduate from there. I want to show why you want to be a historian in your application. Stanford has a particular question that is, what is meaningful to you and why? In that essay, you can talk about why history is meaningful to you or maybe why another field is also meaningful to you and why you want to combine it with history. Stanford also has another question that says, if you could go back in time and witness one moment in history, what would it be? And then why do you explain that in 50 words? I explained when Marco Polo first met I believe it was Kublai Khan. It was a couple hundred years ago, close to a millennia ago. Montoro in his essay talked about, I think, a riots that had taken place in 20th century in the US and why it was really important to him. So really you leverage those essays to talk about all of your experiences with history and why it's important. As a 10th grader, what can I do to be extraordinary? Well, I would say that comes down to what you're interested in. Take something that you're really interested in. Maybe it's computer science, right? And then make an activity out of that that not a lot of other people are doing, right? It's always better to create something that you really like, that is to join another club or to join a, even a debate circuit, right? So these things do matter, right? Those things like clubs, those things like being on a sports team or whatever, those things can really help you. But you can also really differentiate yourself by taking your own path, right? Take an interest, create kind of your own endeavor with it. All these colleges will tell you, especially Harvard, I think. It's always better for our graduates to create a job and to find a job. They want the same thing with their applicants, right? In addition, you can also work on getting to that point by establishing a strong connection with your teachers. So they can write you really good letters of recommendation. And then that'll help make sure that you're in a prime position to succeed. Do we consult for- One quick thing on that. Oh, sorry, Shariah. Oh, go ahead. One quick thing for Durga-Durja. I'm sorry if I'm pronouncing that wrong. But one of the things that I mentioned on my personal narrative, my getting the congressional internship along with my youth governor of Maryland job, I had no, no government related activities on my resume until the end of my sophomore year of high school.  If you have a passion and you devote 10 hours a week to it, I can almost guarantee that if you do it truly from the heart, you put yourself into it, you work your darnedest to get people behind your idea, awards, recognition, projects to pursue, they will come to you. I encourage you more than anything. Spend the summer just thinking about yourself. What do you like to do? And how can you leverage that? How can you help people around you? Colleges especially love that sort of introspection when it comes to activities. And then we also have a question from Enaga. Can you shine some light on the financial aid aspect for international students? This is gonna be a lot of detail. I don't wanna take away from anyone else's questions, but very simply, many colleges recommend two things. One, fill out the FAFSA. This is the federal application for student aid. For federal, this is the application for federal student aid. Most of you will not be eligible for federal student aid. Most of that goes to United States citizens, but colleges use this FAFSA to determine financial aid eligibility, even for internationals. So you're gonna have to fill that out. It asks for yearly income, what assets your family owns, things like that. There's also gonna be something called the CSS profile. Some colleges require it, some don't. It's much more in detail. It asks very similar financial questions. The goal of these two things is just to find out how much your family can pay for college. As in how much can it be affordable for your family to pay for college? It will come up with a so-called estimated cost of attendance. Many need-based institutions like Yale, Harvard, they try to match their student's financial aid need. They'll use that number to calculate their financial aid packages. We also have a question from Srinikesh. He says that I'm interested in automobiles. If you're interested in that, you could definitely go to a United States trade school. However, if you're more interested in engineering, we can definitely help on that front. Gautam and Sharjah both have tons of experience with engineering schools. And then I got another question from Seymar Sharjah Gautam. Feel free to jump in here. He says, I just had a general question about SATs in our batch. I'm not happy with my scores and I'm debating whether I should give them a second time. I'm worried how big of a difference a few extra months of preparation can make. Especially considering I don't have to submit. Yeah. Okay. So how important are the SATs in a college application? So they're actually really not that important, but you can use them as a way to show your academic strengths. I took the SAT twice. The first time I got a 1530 out of 1600. It's a really good score. It's 99th percentile. But I felt that I could do better. And just the fact that I felt that I could do better with a few months of small but really targeted training was enough for me to decide to take it again. And the second time I got a perfect score of 1600. Honestly though, if you just get above, I think if you just find your school's average SAT score range on Google, just search up, maybe you want to go to USC. Search up USC middle 50% SAT. It'll show you on average what the students get, right? And then try to make your way into that range, right? Don't try to, don't overdo it, right? Don't try to get to a 1600. If you think that you can't get there or you think it's going to take too much time, really there are better ways to spend your time than in doing that. I'm going to try to answer these questions a little bit more rapidly. So do you consult for master's programs? Not really one of our targets, but if you have an essay you want to submit to a master's program, feel free to send it our way. We'll take a look at it. We'll do the whole charging process and then we'll send it back to you because overall essays matter, no matter which part of the process you're in. I'm looking to send my daughter. Sorry, could I take one quick question? Sure, yeah, go ahead. Okay, so Prakar asked if you could, what would you say is the single most important factor in college admissions? Two things, if you don't have the best grades or at least the grades that qualify you for a school, you will not get seriously considered. So to get your foot in the door, so to speak, you need to have good SAT scores, good grades. After that, by far, the most important thing is personality. They want to know that you have a passion that you can contribute to college. Even if you have sort of middling grades, middling scores, having an amazing ability to talk to people, be compassionate, having amazing academic abilities. And these can definitely be the abilities that you might develop in an IB program, specifically in an extended essay project or in other research projects where you're doing real academic work, something that can make you stand out like that can outweigh any impacts of bad grades, truly bad grades or even a middling SAT score. So keep that in mind. After you have the grades, personality matters most, but if personality can be strong enough, it can outweigh many weaknesses in your application. Okay, I agree with all of that. And it's just true. Let's look at Anki this question. I am looking at sending my daughter to USA for undergrad. She's in class eights. I'm assuming that means grade eights similar to what we have in the U.S. What would you recommend as the immediate action as immediate action for her to build her profile? Find her interests, set goals for those interests. So if she wants to debate, set goals for what she would constantly accomplish in debates, find some other people who are doing the same things who are older than her, right? That would really help her. I had some, I had a Quintaro and Gautam or both older than me. They both mentored me through the debate process. And that really helped me get it across, right? Essays are mandated in a lot of the most successful schools, actually all of them, in a lot of the most selective schools. There are some schools that don't require essays. Maybe we'll be able to find them, but yeah, most of them do. I want to be in medical. So which college university would you recommend it? What experience do you think it would be helpful to get into medical college? I will tell you this about medical schools. The exact college you go to in the U.S. isn't the most important thing. You want to be going to a U.S. colleges, a U.S. college where you can get a 4.0 because that really matters for medical school admissions, where you can do volunteering at a hospital and where you can make sure to get good recommendations and have a good experience overall.  Overall, just try to take a look at that, right? Some schools are kind of disguised as really good pre-med schools, when in reality it's really hard to get good grades and a lot of their students don't get it. Most schools that are really good at pre-med will publish their pre-med accepted, their medical school acceptance rates. If you're in eighth grade, you don't need to worry about getting into middle school school right now. You need to be worried about trying to build up that extracurricular profile, getting good grades, so you can get into undergrad. One student asked a great question, can sports help you in applying to international colleges? Most definitely. If you're great at sports in India, there is a whole process of athletic recruiting for American schools. Now, some sports are very competitive, like football. I highly doubt that there are any Indian football leagues, especially at the school level. And by football, I mean American gridiron football, not soccer, just making that clear. However, there are also some very niche sports. If you're good at cricket, if you're good at tennis, if you're good at swimming, horseback riding, let us know. There are some schools that have those teams and they are desperate for athletes to join, especially athletes who have actually had long-term experience in it. So sports can definitely help you in applying to international colleges. I have another question. Can you get in without any extracurriculars? Yes, you can, but not to Harvard, not to Stanford, not to schools like that, unless you have an amazing background. And by amazing background, I mean you have to have survived the war and regain the use of your legs after being paralyzed. You have to have a truly outrageous, world-inspiring story without extracurriculars, or at least without a sincere passion and accomplishments to back it up. A school like Harvard is, very sadly, not going to give you a second look. Okay, can I just say something right now? We're not gonna be able to get to all these questions by seven o'clock. We might stay a little bit after, but for some of these schools, like for some of these questions, like how much percentage, what's like Stanford's acceptance percentage, please find those answers on Google. They're available for you. Yuvraj, do you have a quick question? I see your hand is raised, just letting you know that your hand is up. If you don't have a question. By the way, a reminder for everybody, please fill out the form that we put in the chat recently. If you're interested in learning more about our products, please buy our products. If you're interested, really, if you wanna get an advantage, better make sure you're having somebody look at the Ss. Just like me, when I was in 12th grade, I can see a lot of little typos here in the chats. Those typos can really go a long way when they show maybe that you're not as good of an English speaker as you really are to these admissions readers. Or should I keep in mind while applying to MIT, to STEM school? They're a very meritorious school, which means luck actually plays less of a role than it does for a school like at Stanford. But yeah, just make sure your essays are good. They don't require the common application essay. They have their own essay process. The MIT application portal is where you wanna look. It's completely different than every other school. I'm interested in doing a BBA, any suggestions for what I can do. So that business undergrad is a good choice. Try to focus on business-related events or tech-related events during high school. And then look at the specific colleges that you wanna go to and find profiles of those schools. University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell and USC are some options off the top of my head that can help you get there. I have a question from you, Raj. Oh, sorry, Ghana. Sorry, yeah, could I just interrupt real quick? So a lot of these questions, if you do the sign up form, which I just liked in the chat, tinyurall.com slash should form, we'll send that weekly emails or bi-weekly emails that might actually reveal a lot of the information that you have questions on. So please make sure to sign up because we might actually help answer your questions later on and we might also help answer your questions you didn't know you had on different American topics. So that's the URL link there. It's also in our presentation. But yeah, please find in the chat and sign up so you can have your questions answered. So a question from you, Raj. What are the main criteria I should look upon when I fill out the application? He does say that he might specifically look for schools like Stanford. Stanford's a hard one. We don't even know how many applications they get each year because the number grew so much and the acceptance rate is so low, they were scared of scaring people away. With the amount of applications that Stanford gets and the competitiveness of the pool, I'm gonna say it. It's your chance to be risky. Be as memorable as possible in your essays, in your extracurriculars. Each admissions officer probably reads upwards of 100 to 200 applications a day or in a couple of days. You have to stand out, make everything as personal, as funny, whatever you need to do to be memorable as long as it's not bad as possible. Okay, so we're at 703 right now and I wanna make sure that everybody has time to go on to, if you have classes or homework today. So if you wanna see some answers to these remaining questions, if that's okay with Ms. Sugandha, we can continue answering them. If not though, please fill out our form and get in contact with us. So let's see. I'm sure the students can use the form as well. Why? I mean, of course, there is always a positive of time but I think we can look at answering two or three questions more. You know, the questions which you guys feel that fit and require to be addressed on this platform and post that. Of course, we will encourage our students to get in touch to fill up the form and students make the most of this opportunity because here you have experts who are going to give you the absolute right insights who are going to help you with this entire process. So do make use of this opportunity and Shariad, if there are any other questions, I think we have time to address three or four more questions. Okay. If this question hasn't been answered yet, I really wanna hammer this one down. It's from Monica, I believe, saying which grade does the students start preparing for undergrad admissions? I would say, and forgive me if it's already been answered, I would say it's ninth grade. In ninth grade, you have to start getting the good grades that are necessary or the first year of high school if you're going to a specific high school that has a different system. But that's the grade that you start exploring your interests, identifying what kind of activities do you wanna do and that's the grade where you start fostering relationships with teachers and building up your academic resume. Oh, another really good question. Is there any particular limit to the essay that will be submitted? Yes, the essay that you submit is gonna have a word limit on it. The common application is 250 to 650 words. If it's less than 250 words or greater than 650 words, they're literally not gonna submit the essay for you through the portal. Other schools, every essay that you write for these schools has a word limit. The exception being UChicago and Harvard who have no word limits, but really they do. They just want you to figure it out on your own and that's another thing. You kind of need help with that. What would you recommend about letters of recommendation and what about a great letter LOR should I have and talk about? Excellent question. Your great letter of recommendation should give us insights into who you are as a person and what you contribute to the classroom environments. And specifically, a lot of schools ask for two letters. One of them can come from a teacher who's in your field of interest.  You can have a bio or chem teacher write that and talk about how great of a biology you are. And then the other one, you could have a teacher from an entirely different subject talk about that. I see a great question. Are languages considered as extracurricular activities? Most definitely. I don't know. It might be bilingual, trilingual, maybe even quadrilingual. Bring that up in your application. There will actually be a space in the application form itself, not even in the essays where you can bring that up. Being multilingual, it's an amazing skill. Far too many Americans are not multilingual. If you have many languages that you speak, that is one way to stand out in the application process. And to be very clear, colleges love to see independent study. If you've taught yourself a language, milk that for all that it is worth. Teaching yourself a language is harder than starting any organization in my book. I take Russian at Dartmouth right now. So I'm sort of going through the struggle of learning a language. Most definitely languages can be considered extracurricular activities. Okay, so I guess with that, those are the last questions. There are a few more. Some of these you can answer yourselves on Google. Like I mentioned, for example, which schools facilitate cricket teams. So yeah, if you want to get in contact with us, we really encourage you to do. We really encourage you to try to get as much help as you can in this process, especially with experienced people. Go ahead and do that through our form or go to our website and book an appointment or book a essay edits. Really right now, if you're a 12th grader and you're trying to apply to US college, right now is the time to get started or a few months ago actually. So get started with those essays, make sure that they're perfect and pristine and use the promo codes Elpro and the mock interview promo code, limited 30. Thank you guys so, so much for being here and listening to us today. And I really wish you all the best of luck in the admissions process because you can really transform your life once you do get it. It was a pleasure, guys. Thank you so much for being an attentive audience.


Well, everybody, we had a good run, but unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. And right now, we're in the precipice of Bitcoin having a down month for the first time in six months. I know this seems a little bit alarming to people, but if you're new to the game of investing, just realize that this is a natural progression. Nothing can go up to the right forever. These pullbacks are a little bit healthy, but I think there's a little bit more pain on the horizon, especially for August and September.