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Stanford Case Study - 7/30/24
Yale Case Study - August 6th, 2024
MIT Case Study - 8/6/2024
Each of us has a story. Behind our story are the stories of those who support us: our family, our friends, our teachers, people who have been kind to us and people who’ve challenged us. One of the key people behind my story is my grandma. If you don’t mind, I’d love to share a short summary of her story. Born in 1927, she survived Japanese occupation of her village and immigrated to the USA with nothing after World War II. She worked as a seamstress and raised five kids. Saved and invested every penny while supporting family in China and sponsoring their immigration when she could. Despite her lack of formal schooling, she instilled the value of education, hard work and fairness among her children and grandchildren, who went on to study at Harvard, Yale, and University of Chicago among other schools. She became the best investor of her highly educated family. She gave everything she had to her loved ones. Lived to the ripe age of 93 but in more ordinary times probably would’ve had many more years to give. She and grandpa also inspired me to strive for Harvard when everyone else in my immediate family gave up on me. Growing up, I was challenged with a video game addiction, bad habits, laziness, my parents’ divorce, people giving up on me. But my grandfather and grandmother never gave up on me. Despite all the difficulties they had growing up (my grandfather fought in World War II and worked all his life as a waiter and storeowner), they never made any excuses for their position. Through force of will, persistence, strategic thinking, they wrote their Book of Life in a way that changed their lives and the lives of everyone they supported. When we’re young, we might not appreciate enough the people who have come before us. The people who survived unimaginable challenges, trials and tribulations. It’s easy to just focus on our own world, on our own challenges. But we need to think about the bigger picture, which in this article I will call “The Book of Life.” The Book of Life is the most amazing, tragic, hopeful, inspiring, dispiriting, aggravating, humbling story -- filled with examples of people like my grandma. The lesson we can learn from those who came before us is that The Book of Life is never finished. It is constantly evolving and changing. For our part, we are responsible for how our section is written. Will it be a story of overcoming challenges, or succumbing to them? Will our stories be inspiring, or tragic? Will our stories lift up the people around us, or will we be a burden and drag people down? Your book of life is not over. In fact, for many of you, your Book of Life is still in the beginning. What you may not realize is how much power you have over how your own story unfolds. You may think that you are a passenger to greater forces. “My SAT score limits me.” or “I don’t have enough time to do everything.” Instead, what you need to realize is that you are a driver. You are choosing the course of your life right now . If your time is taken up by social media, video games, or other distractions, that is how your story will be written. But imagine the hero of our favorite stores. Despite long odds, and tough challenges, they persevere. The heroes in our greatest stories aren’t distracted by video games or small things in life. No, they are focused on saving the world! This doesn’t mean they can’t have fun -- but it also means that important things in life require sacrifice, and focus. I want to ask you, how will your story be written? What effect will your story have on other stories around you? Are you a hero that gives up with the slightest challenge, or will you persevere despite challenging circumstances? Our favorite stories would be really sad, if after having a hard time, the main character just gave up. One way to think of the college application is that it is simply sharing your Book of Life. Is it a story of triumph, collaboration, growth, and inspiration? Or is it one that is nice, but mostly conventional? Is it a story of you pushing yourself to the fullest potential, or of someone who might be wasting too much time? Whatever the truth is, it is never too late to change. In fact, many of the best stories are filled with twists and turns, because the world can be unpredictable and because our story is controlled by us and our decisions, which can also change at any moment. I sincerely encourage you, if you haven’t already, to take responsibility and control of your Book of Life. Learn from the stories around you, and work with people who can help you improve your Book of Life with lessons learned from theirs.
One of the first things we do at Endurable Education is get students started on building a professional resume. The resume helps each student summarize all their activities and accomplishments in an efficient document, and has multiple uses for college applications, interviews, and even career preparation. The idea is that each resume we help the students build can be updated and adapted for all of the student’s future career needs. My current professional resume is adapted and evolved from my high school resume, although my resume looks very different today then it did back then. This is because I’ve learned many things since I first started. Throughout this time my resume has helped me earn positions in investment banking, finance, technology, and government. I hope to help students similarly get a strong start to their careers as well. It’s interesting to me that many students don’t have a resume, and almost none have a high quality one. There are three main reasons why resumes are important: 1) they summarize your activities, 2) they help you communicate your activities, and 3) they are indicators of your work quality, effort, communication ability and personality. The first and section reasons are ultimately related. If you can’t track your own activities and accomplishments, how will you communicate it to others? If you don’t communicate your activities and accomplishments to others, how will you improve your chances to accomplish your educational and professional goals? Think about it this way. Whether you are applying for a job, or a spot on an elite college’s admission list, your hiring managers or admissions officers need to quickly learn about who you are and what you’ve done. They may consider and review more than a hundred applicants in a day. This means that they will likely only take 1 minute, maximum, before they make an initial decision. That initial decision is: do I read more? Or do I automatically reject this candidate. Once you make it past the “initial screen” then the hiring manager or admissions officer will spend more time getting to know who you are, reviewing your resume carefully, and trying to learn as much about you as possible. This is where the third point comes in: resumes are indicators of your work quality, effort, communication ability and personality. Work quality. Many resumes can be sloppy. Inconsistent formatting, spelling mistakes, and even ugly can be common mistakes. If your resume has poor work quality, that could be a sign of your future work quality too. This is the easiest way for a hiring manager to reject a candidate. If you can’t trust them to put together a resume of basic quality, then you cannot trust them to do their work at a basic quality either. If a college admissions officer sees a sloppy activities list, or a sloppy resume, then they may think similarly as a hiring manager. At the very least, they won’t be impressed. Effort. It’s easy to tell when a candidate doesn’t put much effort or energy into something. It shows up in work quality. If the work quality is poor, chances are the effort is also poor. If a student or job candidate won’t put effort into something that can help them stand out, how can you trust that they will put effort into their job or college opportunity as well? Honestly, for students that I’ve come to evaluate, I’ve noticed a correlation. Students who put lots of effort into self-improvement and challenging themselves will typically put lots of effort into their resumes and other activities as well. These are the students who we can expect more extraordinary results in college admissions (and life)! Students who don’t try hard in their resumes are typically the students that don’t seem to try very hard in school either. Just saying... Communication ability. In a future note I hope to talk more about leadership and teamwork. Suffice it to say, even if you think you won’t need teamwork and collaboration in the future trust me when I say you’re wrong. Nothing happens from a single person anymore. Even Taylor Swift, a famous solo singer, needs a team behind her to help her manage branding, legal affairs, partnerships, choreography, compositions, accounting, and more. Mathematicians need to communicate their thoughts or discoveries to other mathematicians. Need I say more? Communication ability is a basic requirement for collaboration, and everyone needs to collaborate whether they want to be an follower, leader, employee or founder. Personality. This is probably the hardest to describe, but yes, from a resume you can tell a student’s personality. Are they prone to arrogance or exaggeration? Or are they factual, honest, and sincere? Similar to why communication is important (so that people can collaborate), personality is important as well. Students or potential employees who don’t get along well with others will find that their opportunities in life will get reduced. I was motivated to write this article because I see students (and even professionals! After all, I’ve read thousands of resumes in order to help hire people for hundreds of roles) make the same mistakes over and over. I hope by outlining some of the most important points about resumes, and why even small things matter, students can learn from my experience and perform even stronger. Think about it this way, if your resume is so strong it can compete for a job at the best companies in the world, why wouldn’t a college admissions officer be impressed? Chances are, they will.
It may seem like the world is falling apart. This year, nearly everyone in the world faces a combination of political, economic, biological and social challenges. But I am writing to earnestly encourage all students to continue to push on despite challenging and changing circumstances. Whatever problems have arisen this year, and whatever problems continue to arise in 2020 and beyond, the crucial key to all of our salvation will be education. Through education, we can cure diseases. We can fight fake news. We can promote greater compassion, and understanding. Through education, we can build a better world that is more prosperous than the one that came before us. Despite how hard 2020 has seemed to be, 2020 isn’t the most challenging year in our history. The world has fought two world wars, overcome even deadlier pandemics, and defeated untold hardship to be where we are today. In spite of the challenges we’ve faced throughout human history, we’ve conquered those challenges to keep making our world better. And I sincerely believe that we will continue to improve society. Instead of the hardship and challenges, think of new opportunities. Remember that progress doesn’t come in a straight, upward sloping line. It’s a volatile chart, filled with give and take. There’s some progress, and there are some setbacks. But overall, the slope is upward, and potentially even exponentially so (but this is a topic for another day.) In addition to taking inspiration from human history and historical progress, we can also take lessons closer to home. Each of our family histories holds personal stories of perseverance and achievement. Wherever we come from, family situations have put us in a place today where we have the potential to make changes now and in the future that will make a difference. So let’s use this chance well. Don’t be deterred or distracted by turmoil. Instead, look for opportunities to improve and make a difference. It is often said that “the night is darkest before the dawn.” 2020 may feel like a really dark night, but with education we can bring about a brighter day sooner than ever if we try. Even during these difficult circumstances, there are inspirational heroes all around us. Instead of thinking about being stuck at home, or of having opportunities snuffed out by issues beyond our control, ask yourself, “What can I do? How can I adapt? How can I help others around me?” Don’t just get caught up in grades or test scores. Honestly, education is not about a score. Education is learning how to use what you’ve learned in the real world. Einstein famously had challenges as a high school student, yet many of his theories are still being proven correct to this day despite the fact that he didn’t have the technology or data or advantages that we have today. What do you think is more important, his performance in school or what he did with his education? Einstein wasn’t deterred by two world wars, his Jewish heritage and the rise of Nazism in his native country. Instead, he used his life as a literal light with which to bring about greater understanding for society, and his thoughts and conclusions are the basis of many of the technologies we take for granted today. So I challenge each of you, students, in three basic ways. One, don’t think of yourselves as students. You are as much a part of this world as any of us adults. You are just as capable as any of us adults. Don’t settle. Don’t think you are incapable. Try! You may succeed beyond your dreams, and if you don’t, you’ll learn invaluable lessons to make your next attempt at your dreams even better. Two, don’t wait. If you have ideas, inspiration, curiosities, pursue them! Don’t wait until after graduation, or until someone gives you a job to start. Honestly, I’ve heard from many adults who always tell me about pushing their dreams back, and back and back, until they feel too old to pursue them anymore. Don’t let your dream die from delays. Feed it and strive to achieve it as soon as possible and as quickly as possible. At many tech companies, we have a saying called: “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” Three, always be learning. Even if you cured cancer, or solved an important problem as a teenager, you still have 80+ years of life to live! A lot is changing and happening throughout the world. The world is moving faster and faster forward. If we are not moving fast with the world, then we are being left behind. In fact, if you can do something amazing even as just a high school student, think of what you can do with even more knowledge and experience in the future! Keep learning to grow even stronger and more capable in your future. If you can learn what education truly is, and use your opportunity well, then I have no doubt that no matter what the world looks like, you can be incredibly successful and make the world a better place. And even if you are afraid of the future, education is what will protect you. The most educated in society historically have always been among the most prepared to confront and overcome problems. The most educated in society often have the most choices, whether it is to be recruited by the best companies, start their own transformative companies, live wherever they want, and more. Any country, company, investor, or even friend would love to have someone like Elon Musk, who I believe is a real embodiment of what it means to be educated. So don’t just aim for good grades or scores. Aim higher. Aim for an education that isn’t limited by where you go to school, or what class you’re able to take. Aim for an education that gives you the most opportunities and choices in life, and aim for an education that allows you to change the world for the better. In closing, I hope to leave you with two more thoughts that each of us should hold dear: 1) challenges can be overcome, and 2) we are all responsible for creating a better world. It is harder to do either of these things if we don’t focus on what education truly is. I hope today’s difficult times and your real life experiences can give you a head start in truly understanding what it means to get an education and become educated.
To stay in touch with my friends, and push myself to read more books, I regularly attend book club meetings. On May 26, it was my turn to pick a book and the book I chose was Comaville. This book was personal to me because besides being an author, Kevin Bigley is a television star, and my former high school classmate.
Over the past few weeks, our lives have changed. Standardized tests have been cancelled or rescheduled, AP tests reformatted, students are taking classes online and everyone has to live under new safety standards. Amidst all this change it might be natural for some students to feel confused, worried, and more prone to distraction. Don't! Now it is more important than ever to stay focused on your main goal: living your best life and being your best, which at the same time I will always argue will help improve your college admission chances. Just because the world changes, doesn't mean that standards are getting easier. Just because major universities like the University of California system are temporarily making SAT scores optional doesn't mean that suddenly getting into a UC school will be easier. Instead, I would argue the opposite. Getting into top schools are going to be harder, particularly for students who are ill prepared for change. Top SAT scores will be even more impressive when many schools are moving to SAT-optional policies, at least temporarily. In fact, COVID-19 is actually an important lesson in life. As students, you are mostly protected from change by your parents and schools. You don't normally have to worry about rent or food costs or work. However, whether you acknowledge change or challenges or not, they are coming for all of us. Let's face it, COVID-19 is but one variable that is changing the world. Other variables include advances in technology, culture shifts, international politics, climate change and more. Getting an Elite Education is more important than ever, and harder than ever. If you hope to get into a top school, then you have to show that not only can you handle change, but you have the potential to be a leader or bring about positive change. The worst thing anyone can do right now is use COVID-19 to be unproductive or waste this opportunity to take your skills and education to the next level. What's great in these trying times is you have an opportunity. Because of online classes, learning can be arguably more efficient. At the very least, you save on commuting time. Use the time you are saving to knock out of requirements early, brainstorm creative new passion projects, and prepare to execute on your college admissions plan. Because you are stuck at home, now is the best time to knock out requirements so you can free up time later. When the world opens up, you don't want to be stuck at home preparing for the SAT or completing your summer reading. You want to be out there, working on something you love, whether it's sports or a film project, an academic paper or internship. What do you think sounds better? A student who was stuck at home like everyone else and just completes their online classes, or a student who was also able to also organize an international team to help get medical supplies to hospitals and emergency workers WHILE acing their online classes. What if the second student is able to do even more ? And that's not all. Now that SAT scores may be optional at several schools, that just makes the other components of your college application that much more important: your grades, your interview, your recommendations, and most importantly, your college essays. Make sure you have a plan to maximize all these components in order to give yourself the best chance at admission. Use this time now to create a plan and prioritize your checklist to get ahead. By doing so, you could be significantly improving your college admissions chances and learning more about the world at the same time. If you are stuck at home and uncertain about what to do, contact us! We have over 15 years of experience helping students apply to the best universities, and have the track record to show for it. We've cut our teeth on some of the hardest admissions cases in the industry. As educators, we are always eager to use our life experiences and Elite Education to help top students work smarter, get better, and in so doing, improve their chances at getting into a top school and living the life of their dreams.
Everyone knows community service looks good on a college application. But have you thought about why? If you haven’t thought about why community service is important in college admissions, how do you know if what you are doing means much in your college application, (or more importantly) life? The simple answer about why community service is important is that it shows compassion. But interestingly, community service is not the only way to show compassion. In the first paragraph I already tricked you into focusing on community service, when in reality, you should be focusing on compassion to improve your college admissions chances, and opportunities in life. Community service is just one way to show compassion. You can also show compassion by playing music, or researching a cure for a disease, or simply solving a problem someone has. See how easy it is to forget about other options to show compassion if you’re “just” focusing on community service? And even if you are performing community service, maybe you’re not doing it in a way that truly shows compassion. And believe me, a lot of people fall into this trap. According to Merriam-Webster, compassion is the “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” Notice two points here, the first point is the “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress.” The second is the “desire to alleviate it.” Both concepts are important in this post. The first point means that you are able to see important realities in what is happening in the world. And the truth is that the world is filled with problems! From environmental damage, to poverty, to political crises, the list goes on. There are millions of problems, big and small. If you cannot see the problems in front of you, how can you even have a chance at solving them? Another reason why the first point is important is because if you can recognize reality, and see problems, then you also have the opportunity to do something to fix it. With a simple flip of perspective, you are already more empowered to make the world better. Problems = opportunity to solve problems. It’s that simple. This is why the second concept also matters. You might be able to see problems, and recognize the opportunity, but what if you don’t do anything about it? Maybe you don’t care, don’t want to try, or something else. Now think from a college’s perspective. Why would they admit someone who either cannot recognize real problems or does nothing to solve problems? The world has too many problems. What colleges want, are people who have the compassion and ability to solve some of these problems and therefore make the world just a little bit better. If you can focus on building compassion in your life, I can almost guarantee that you’ll not only improve your college admission chances, but also improve your opportunities in life and make the world a bit better at the same time.
Today, I wanted to talk about a concept that I don’t hear many people talk about but is extremely important during the college application process, as well as in life: humility. The idea of leadership, extracurriculars, academic achievement, etc. is often discussed ad nauseum, but not the idea of humility. For this post, I will start by explaining the reason why the concept of humility is important in life, and then will give 3 reasons why it is important in college admissions. Finally, I will share the top 3 mistakes that I have seen in my over 10 years of helping top students apply to top colleges. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines humility as the “freedom from pride or arrogance” and the idea of humble as “not proud or haughty: not arrogant or assertive” and “reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission.” Why is the idea of humility important? Quite simply, humility and humbleness is a simple fact of life just like the sky is blue. Let me explain. You are who you are not only because of your own achievements, but also because of the support and resources you’ve received from your parents, your school, your mentors, your advisors and more. You are also partly the product of the country you were born in. Being born in the U.S.A. or South Korea or a coastal/wealthier city in China is very different from being born in Syria, or Libya. Your opportunities and resources in life are just on a different level. Being humble also means that your mind is open to the idea that luck also plays a part in accomplishments in life. Let me use an extreme example that applies even for Olympic gold medal winners. Even Olympic winners need humility. Yes, they’ve shown that they’re among the best in the world, but winning that medal also means: They had the resources to train and compete, either provided by their families or through public resources or private sponsors They had the advice and leadership of coaches who know how to teach, and how to train They had the good fortune of not being injured during that particular competition Sometimes, winning a medal means that a potentially better competitor might have suffered from some area of misfortune (like injury, or illness, or even just having a bad day) When I listen to great Olympic winners, they often acknowledge the support they’ve received to get to where they are. Yes, they are amazing, as proven by their Olympic medal, but it doesn’t take a genius to recognize that luck and many factors outside of one’s control also play a role in someone’s success. In life, having humility is important because it is expressed in how we treat others. Do we take them for granted? Do we overlook factors that were outside of our control that contributed to our own success or failure? Are we open minded to recognize opportunities and challenges? To me, having humility means being open to understanding more of the simple truths in life. Arrogance, the opposite of humility, to me means being close-minded to a lot of realities in life. So why is humility important in the college admissions process? Here are three reasons: This might be hard to hear, but even if you think you’re special you’re not exactly special. Even if you are a leader of a team, you need to be able to collaborate and empower a team, especially in this day and age where technologies and projects are so complicated that they require many people’s expertise and participation in order to be successful. The idea of humility ties directly to your ability to be a leader and to work on teams, which ties directly into your upside for success later in life. If you are not humble, and especially if you are arrogant, that means you may miss some critical truths in the future. You won’t have every amazing idea in the world. It’s simply not possible. If you are arrogant, you will close your mind off to ideas that will help you grow, or even worse, you might not listen when people are trying to tell you about your mistakes or unnecessary risks you might take. The idea of humility here means that you are open-minded for greater truths, and have more room to grow because you acknowledge that there is always some room for improvement. Humility is a sign of growth potential, and colleges know this. If you are not humble, that means that your future room for improvement is limited. This is not something that colleges like Harvard can change for you, they can’t change your perspective in life and they don’t want their limited resources and amazing opportunities to go to waste on someone who isn’t going to grow from those experiences. If you are not humble already, you have less room for growth and development. If I were a top school, I would focus on people with growth potential, rather than people who are likely to stay at the same level for years. Top colleges in the world have no shortage of qualified applicants. In fact, a previous Harvard study showed that 80% of applicants who applied to Harvard are qualified to graduate, but being qualified does not mean you should be admitted. First of all, there is not enough space to meet the demand. Second of all, admitting a student means that you necessarily aren’t admitting other people. When you choose someone to get into your school, you are investing your hope, resources, and opportunities in them. You don’t want to spend that opportunity on someone with limited upside, and who is not open-minded enough or cannot acknowledge basic truths in life. Now that I’ve hopefully convinced you on the importance of humility in life, and college admissions, I do want to share some general observations I’ve experienced in over 10 years advising students on how to win admission to the best colleges and universities in the world. This is the same advice that I would give them if mentoring them in life as well. Many students don’t think deeply about the concept of humility. A lot of students I meet have not thought about the idea of humility before. If they don’t think about it, how do they learn about it or improve? I will say that most students know that it’s important not to be arrogant, but they haven’t thought deeply about the idea of humility, why it’s important, and how to use humility to get better in life. If you don’t know what humility is, how do you show it in your application? Many students try to fake it. Humility is not something that can be easily faked. Even trying to fake humility shows the opposite… trying to fake something shows that you are arrogant in thinking you can get away with it. It will show up in your essay, or in your interview, or in a recommendation, or even in your application if you try to take sole credit for what is obviously a team effort. When you show arrogance in your application, you show the admissions officer that you don’t know what humility is, or at worse, show that you don’t have any humility. Many students think that the application process is about showing off. Actually, the admissions process is about getting to the truth. Are you the right fit for the college? Will you be successful with the college’s help? If you are aiming to impress colleges, without thinking about the underlying truth of whether or not you are a good fit, you are showing the colleges already that you are not a good fit (because you don’t have humility). Being humble means recognizing the truth, whether it’s your limits, your weaknesses, or your challenges… recognizing truths is how we grow. This bullet is actually somewhat complicated. Yes, you don’t want to show off too much, but you also need to take credit for your achievements. The important idea here is balance and reality. An experienced application reader can sniff out if something seems fake or worth further investigation if something seems too good to be true. At the same time, if you don’t share anything, then there’s also no reason for colleges to admit you. The key here is balance, truth, and tone. One other point to keep in mind during the college admissions process is cultural miscommunication. We all come from different cultures. Asian concepts of humility are very different from Americans, and Africans, and Latin Americans, and Europeans. However, there are universal truths that are generally applicable. I recommend trying to figure out the universal truths and focusing on examples that express those truths rather than going for a cultural ideal of humility — which can be open to misinterpretation. To close out this article, I’d like to summarize what we just discussed. First, the concept of humility is important to future success in life. Second, truly learning and understanding humility is the best way to show it to others. Third, showing humility indicates that you have greater growth potential than other students. If you can already accomplish amazing things, and are humble, we can’t wait to see even more amazing things that you might generate! Finally, humility is a complicated concept that can be susceptible to cultural interpretations. One way to avoid any mistakes is to try to focus on what is humility universally, rather than specific concepts of humility which can be cultural interpretations and open to miscommunication or misunderstandings. If I can summarize one area that I try to help students add value to their application, it is helping to appropriately communicate humility and reality throughout a student’s application.