College Waitlists and Case Study: Jack for Michigan Ross – College Bound Mentor Podcast #2

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This is Episode #2 and you’ll hear the ins and outs of college waitlists and our first Case Study: Jack for The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast spots – follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re enjoying the show!

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College Bound Mentor Podcast Episode #2: College Waitlists and Case Study: Jack for Michigan Ross

Waitlists are one of the most unpredictable parts of the college application process – and an area we get questions on all the time. In the first half of this episode, you’ll hear the ins and outs of waitlists, including how waitlists work, how schools differ by their waitlists, and how to write a letter of continued interest. In the second half of this episode, you’ll hear our first Case Study: Jack for The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. There, you’ll learn the most unique aspects of the Michigan application and how to paint an appealing picture with your extracurricular activities and charity work. Note: starting for 2025, students applying to Ross must apply as a direct admit rather than a preferred admit. This episode covers everything from letters of continued interest to applying to Ross. Here’s a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:

  • How do college waitlists work?
  • What is the Common Data Set?
  • How can you move up a waitlist?
  • Can you lose your spot on a waitlist by responding too late?
  • What does it take to get into Michigan Ross?
  • How hard is it to get into Michigan Ross?
  • What made Jack’s application stand out?
  • How do you nail the Personal Statement?

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Check out the episode and show notes below for much more detail.

Show Notes

What is the College Bound Mentor podcast?

Lisa, Abby, and Stefanie know college. They also know students. With over 30 years combined experience mentoring young people, they’ll show you why understanding yourself is the key to finding the right college. Each episode, hear trends, case studies, and interviews with students who have gone through it all – giving you valuable insight to survive the college application process and beyond. Hosted by Lisa Bleich, Abby Power, and Stefanie Forman, Partners of College Bound Mentor.

Transcript

Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

Lisa Bleich 0:02
He consistently show that he was going to get stuff done throughout everything that he did.

Hey CBMers, Welcome back to College Bound Mentor, where we help you survive the college application process and beyond. Were your co-hosts, Lisa, Abby, and Stefanie. And today we’re talking about waitlists. So how’s everyone doing today? What’s going on? How was your weekend?

Stefanie Forman 0:36
So I I’m the one with the young child, I have a five and a half year old. So it was all Cory related activities.

Lisa Bleich 0:43
Yeah, well, I was in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, half marathon, and boy was at a scene, it was a lovely day, it was really fun. And it was interesting to talk to my daughter and her friends who have who graduated college and 21. But one of the things that always comes up is weightless. And I know a lot of people are ready to matriculate by May 1 or may 15. But what happens if you’re on the waitlist? So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. And before we get going, why don’t you just tell us a little bit Abby about the waitlist? How do they work? What are they used for?

Abby Power 1:19
I think it’s fair to say that different schools use the waitlist in different ways. Some schools use them strategically to manage the class size. And some schools really don’t use their waitlist very much. And they tried to get the right class size through the normal admissions process. So actually, if you look on Have we ever talked about the common data set? We don’t think they

Lisa Bleich 1:43
have. Tell us about that now.

Abby Power 1:44
Well, what is that common data set is a dataset of information that each of the colleges submits to the federal government every year. And it’s got some really good data in it about admissions about test scores about demographics, stuff like that. And on there, you can see how many people were waitlisted how many students were or applicants were waitlisted, how many were agreed to stay on the waitlist, and then how many were admitted. And in my experience, it really, really varies year to year. So I remember at Michigan one year was 450, kids got off the waitlist, and then the next year, it was three. One thing about waitlist is you just I think it’s fair to say, let me know if you guys would disagree that you never know.

Lisa Bleich 2:33
That’s totally true. That’s totally true. A lot of times people will say, Well, who do they? Where am I on the waitlist? Now? Where is my spot? And how do you how do they know who to go first? Or whom to go to first?

Abby Power 2:46
Yeah, I think that also is different at different schools. Some schools have what they call a ranked waitlist, they actually have to indicate that on that common data set. Also, you can find any common data set by googling it just if you Google Emory common data set, you’ll see you can find it easily. I don’t know. I’ve talked to admissions officers. And everybody’s got a different answer. Sometimes they’ll say, Well, if we lose a female tuba player, we want to replace a female tuba player. And sometimes, it seems like the kids with the highest academic records get in off weightless. That’s that’s who I personally have seen from my clients, get in kids who were really, very well qualified for the school and legacy. Actually also just

Stefanie Forman 3:30
gonna say that, yeah, I’ve seen Yes, the student has to be very qualified. But I feel like a lot of my students who have legacy, especially with their parents, or siblings, or at the school do very well with the weightless.

Abby Power 3:43
So what do you recommend somebody does if they’ve been waitlisted? How can they move them up to the top of the list? Well,

Stefanie Forman 3:52
they don’t have certain qualifications. Or if they’re not the tuba player that they’re looking for, we always recommend our students to start with something called Letter of continued interest. And a letter of continued interest is a chance for the student to one convey their passion for the school. But most importantly, it’s to give an update of everything they have accomplished in and out of the classroom since applying. So we usually tell them to be short, sweet, concise, and also tell them why they’re a great fit for the school, why they’re going to make impact in their community, how they’re going to make an impact. And usually, if a school that year, is using the waitlist, we’ve noticed students have success when they when they reached on letters.

Lisa Bleich 4:44
I think that’s really true. But what happens when a school says hey, put everything in this forum and don’t write a letter? How much do you advise students to stick to that plan? I

Abby Power 4:56
read the instructions really carefully. If the school says Please do not submit any additional emails or information except for through the portal. I mean, I don’t think it’s a great look to sort of break the rules. Although

Lisa Bleich 5:15
sometimes it works, that it works. If it’s a regional if it’s a regional admissions director, or someone that you’ve had some interaction with in the past, and you could make that connection again. But it has to be a specific reason, it can’t just be a reach out and say, I really, really want your school or to send cookies or something like that. But if you can make a really compelling reason why you want to be at that school, that I think it’s a good thing to do, I read one somewhere what the waitlist is similar to finding a $20 bill in a jacket that you haven’t worn for the season, and you pick it up, and then all of a sudden, you get find a $20 bill, you’re like, wow, because you can’t expect to get an off the waitlist, you have to really love where you’re going to go next year, or at least be happy to go there. And then if you do get it off the waitlist, then it’s this bonus, it’s this extra surprise.

Stefanie Forman 6:18
I like that analogy a lot. I have a question for both of you. So have you ever so to our listeners, a lot of times parents will come to us and they’ll say is this true that if you’re not on your computer, or if you don’t answer your phone, or however, the college decides to communicate about getting off the waitlist, if you don’t answer that immediately, or within 24 hours, is that true that you won’t get a spot? Have you ever had a student that didn’t act immediately and then impacted their weightless decision, or they were just too excited? So So you never really experienced that?

Abby Power 6:53
I’ve had a couple of kids who asked for more time. And it worked. But it was honestly really stressful. One at Vassar and one at Cornell. And the one at Cornell, they call this poor young woman at 245 will never forget at 2:45pm in her calculus class, and they said we need to, we need to know right now. And she’d actually talked to her parents about it. But regardless, even though she was prepared for the call, that’s just so you know, it’s like an exploding offer for a job. It’s just really stressful. So she said that this was terrible. She said it was a Friday. And she said, Can I call you? Right back? I just need to talk to my parents, which is fair, right? Sure. No, they didn’t say sure. They said we’d rather have an an answer now. But okay, you have to call back by the end of the day. But when she tried calling back, she couldn’t get anyone on the phone. Oh. And then she had to go to whole weekend not knowing if she’d lost her spot. And they literally said to her, if you you know, we will give your spot to someone else if we don’t hear from you. So I think again, case by case, right? But other waitlisted kid kids, I had a kid waitlisted at Chicago and the rep called her high school counselor and said Will she accept our offer? So that happens too. Right?

Lisa Bleich 8:18
And they also want to know, they’re not actually giving you a spa, they’re asking you Would you accept a spa off of our waitlist, because they want to know that you’re going to come before they give you an actual offer. So it does get tricky. And it also gets tricky. If it happens really late. Like I had a student last year, who didn’t find out she was waitlisted at Georgetown, a school that she really wanted to go to and she had, and she had matriculated another school and she was very excited to go to that school. And then mid June, maybe even end of June, she got a call from the School of Foreign Service and was in and she was freaking out because she had already put it aside, she had bought all of her stuff. We had even gotten her a little gift that had the name of the University where she was gonna go. And then she had to make a decision. And it was hard for her because she wrapped her head around going somewhere else, because it was so far down the line. And ultimately she ended up going to Georgetown, but it was just an interesting thing. So the waitlist can happen at any time. Sometimes, by the end of August, which is unusual. It’s usually around May 1 May 15 through June, but depending on summer melt depending on all different things where that can happen. You just have to be open to it.

Abby Power 9:39
You have to keep an open mind and think through all the scenarios and just be open is the best thing you can do to prepare yourself. Right.

Stefanie Forman 9:47
Conversely to your story, we said before I joined on, I was just helping and doing essay work. I had someone who got off the waitlist in the beginning of August and it was Originally their first choice, it was Emory. And they ended up saying no, because they got so they ended up going to Michigan and said, but yeah, but they thought that Emory was the dream school, they applied there early. And then they got off the waitlist at the very end. But then they decided to go to Michigan,

Lisa Bleich 10:16
right. And I had that happen to someone else he had gotten, he was all set to go to Wisconsin, and he got into Georgia. And Georgia arguably has a lower acceptance rate than Wisconsin, not necessarily that it’s a better school for whatever that’s worth. They’re both very strong, very strong schools. And when he got in, he just felt like, oh, well, shouldn’t I go to the school that has the lowest acceptance rate? And I said, Well, we’re where do you know, where do you feel more comfortable? And he ultimately decided to stay with Wisconsin. And he asked me, Well, why does it have a lower acceptance rate? And I said, football, he said, Oh, okay, that makes sense. It’s got a better football team. So that was not a reason enough, even though he was a mascot in his high school, it wasn’t reason enough to pass up a school that he was really happy about. So the weightless can be a great thing. Or it could be something that just gives you more time to really decide if that’s where you want it to be or not. And so that’s one thing to be at the weight in terms of how to manage the wait lists. Anything else you want to say about that?

Abby Power 11:13
Yeah, one thing that people ask me a lot is when you get deferred from either early decision or early action, what are the chances that you are accepted and regular decision? Or am I more likely to be waitlisted? And generally speaking, it’s not the hugest data set of information. But I would say, Yeah, usually my kids who are deferred are also waitlisted. Have you seen that too?

Stefanie Forman 11:39
Yeah. A majority of my students, I think, get deferred. If they apply early, and they get deferred, yeah, if they apply early,

Lisa Bleich 11:53
I’ve hired one on the waitlist. I’ve had kids who have gotten in after being deferred. But I feel like if you get deferred, and then you get wait listed, it’s likely you’re not going to get in, because they’ve had enough chances to determine whether or not they want you in the school.

Abby Power 12:09
Yeah, another question that I’ve been asked that I think I work to solve twice was once your deferred, which is similar to being waitlisted. You know, that’s the early version, you know, what can you do to make yourself a stronger candidate. And I did this, this time with a kid who was deferred from early decision, super highly qualified candidate, and then was accepted regular decision, actually. But we really went through his application and tried to figure out what could have possibly been in the gaps. It was not his grades, it was not his his classes, it was not his test scores, perfect, perfect AC T and perfect fit. It was not his abilities. He was he had an internship, a research internship, he was, you know, really talented engineering student. So we figured out that he didn’t really have many examples of collaboration and working with others. I mean, that was literally the only hole we could find. In December, we decided to try to remedy it. And I don’t know, he was able to slip into something really easily, which was great, just based on some other stuff he’d done. But I don’t know, I wonder if that’s something that’s worth thinking about is why was I deferred? Why was I wait listed and, and trying to bring some new news to the school to make yourself a more compelling candidate? Not easy to do? Because you’re also trying to do well in school and all that. But sure. So

Stefanie Forman 13:36
did you write a letter and convey that the new collaboration and the letter, yeah,

Abby Power 13:42
we made his continuing interest all about this amazing opportunity. He just got the collaboration, because he really didn’t have you know, there were a lot of community essays and diversity, diverse experience essays and talking essays, especially for engineering kids this year working across diverse groups to find to solve problems, he really did not have that experience, not of his own fault, but just that’s not that was the nature of the things that he did. He basically got involved through his existing research internship in this sort of collaborative problem solving Engineering II thing that existed, he just jumped right in and made a splash. And so we got a little bit lucky with that, because it’s hard. It’s hard to create opportunities for yourself.

Lisa Bleich 14:25
Yeah, that was really smart. So I guess bottom line is if you’re deferred, or you’re waitlisted, the key is to identify how you’re going to contribute to that community and to make a much more compelling connection between your experiences, your interests, and how you can show up on campus and make an impact. And I think that is the best thing you can do if you’ve been waitlisted. And to be really specific about those interactions, because that’s going to be the thing that will set you apart so that they understand why you want to be at that school. So let’s move onto our case study. And every time every episode we will be doing we’ll be trying to feature or every other episode, we will be trying to feature a case study. And today we’re going to talk about Jack. And Jack is the well rounded leader with a high IQ. And we picked Jack because he is an example of someone who is applied to mostly large state universities with the firt. His first choice was Ross, which is Michigan’s Business School. Starting for the class of 2025, if you were applying to University of Michigan’s Business School, which is called Ross, you will now be able to apply as a direct admit to the Ross Business School. Whereas before you applied as a preferred admit, and you still had a chance of getting into LSA, or letters, science and the arts, that is no longer the case. Now students for the class of 25 and beyond, will apply directly to Ross. And if they don’t get into Ross, they will not get into Michigan at all.

Stefanie Forman 16:02
So Lisa, what does it take to get into Ross, the business school at Michigan? What does it take?

Lisa Bleich 16:07
That’s a really good question, because I’ve been trying to find that answer for a long time. And I think Jack had the answer. I think Ross really wants students that have a have a consistent demonstration of leadership and understanding of business. Throughout their profile, they don’t have to be necessarily the top student, even though Jack was a top student. They don’t have to have perfect test scores. But they have to show have shown consistent leadership, consistent understanding of business principles and how that would apply to any of the things that they’re doing. And they also have to be able to answer and be portfolio question which we’ll go over and I can talk to you about what Jack did within that. But having that thread of looking at the world through a business lens. I think that’s the best way to look at it for somebody to get into Ross.

Stefanie Forman 16:59
And would you say and I know we’ll talk about Jack specifically. But if you can’t get a business internship, per se, or if you’re not involved in DECA or business type club at your school, do you think there are other ways to show that you look at everything through this business lens? Absolutely.

Lisa Bleich 17:20
I think that was actually what was really key to Jack’s profile and what he was because most of the things that he did with with the exception of taking a summer business class, were not business related. So let’s talk a little bit about that. So Jack was academically he was a strong student. He was the top 10% of his class, he took a lot of honors and AP classes yet 13 honors APS, his test scores were not great. They were 1340. So that’s solid, but for Michigan, their mid 50 percentile. It’s below that. But what was really impressive about Jack was that he his activities, were all focused on leadership. He was the commissioner of his town Flag Football League. He was a coach for two special needs hockey teams. He was a cashier at a gourmet Italian deli. He had raised a lot of money for Special Olympics, he was a transition leader for his high school. So all of those were very strong leadership. On top of that, he was the captain of his hockey team. He also had this strong interest in business, which he demonstrated through doing a summer program at Wake Forest. He was also a good writer. So we had this other side of it. And he became the business manager of his high school newspaper. And we’ll talk a little bit about that. And then he was part of Model UN. So we had a lot of things that arguably with the exception of this class that he took at this over the summer, they weren’t business oriented, but everything that he did within his activities, he thought about them as a business person through a marketing or a business lens. And I think that’s really what made the difference. And then he also had a very difficult family situation, his parents were going through a difficult divorce, he was the middle child. So he was often seen as or often served as the facilitator, somebody who would be the go between and be the protector within his own family. And he’s just a really kind, young man and a lot of empathy. And that also I felt led to his profile that made him a really unique person, because he had overcome a lot of resilience. He was very resilient, and he’d overcome a lot of adversity within his own family. So all those things, if you look at them together, and I was going back and I was rereading his essays. And the interesting thing is that, I don’t know if Jack knows this. Now, and I don’t know if this will come true, but I predict that Jack is going to be a turnaround expert. Because if you look at all of the things that he’s done in his essays that are arguably not necessarily business oriented. All of them were turning around difficult situations. So his personal statement was about his family situation, being from a difficult, you know, a divorced family that was challenging, but how he and he used to think that that was a negative thing. But he had the opportunity to write this essay for his high school about The Things They Carried, which is a book about the things they cared for the Vietnam War. And he, I think that’s what that book is about, you know, that book itself. Yeah, teach it. Yeah, I never have to read it. Yeah. And so he started after he wrote that essay, and he talked about all the things that he was carrying, that he used to see as a burden, things that were challenging. His teacher said, you know, what, these are all the things that have made you who you are. So without having all of these things that you had to overcome and learn and grow from, you would be a very different person. So He twisted his or changed the way he saw himself and saw his experiences. And he realized that because of that, he was able to interact with people at the store where he was working. Because of that he was able to be empathetic to other people that were going through difficult challenges. Because of all the things that he carried. He learned resiliency, he learned empathy, he learned to be strong. And so he saw himself as somebody who could grow in the face of adversity. So that was the first thing which was, you know, moving from there. Then for Michigan, you have to write a community essay, and the community essay app, you do remember what the question is for the community essay.

Abby Power 21:30
Talk about one of the communities that you’re a part of and your role in that community. Exactly.

Lisa Bleich 21:35
So he talked about being part of the hockey community, and he broadened it to not just being part of his high school hockey team, but also being part of this special. He worked with kids with, or people with disabilities and taught them ice skating. So we had that part. And he saw himself as a role model. And he really brought in this idea, I mean, just some of the words he said, every Saturday morning for the past six years, I’ve driven a half hour to coach the daredevils, especially to hockey team, it would be an incomplete Saturday morning without seeing Jason practices, celebrations are hiding, not asking me to re tie her skates every 10 minutes. During each drill practice and game, the ice is filled with smiles and laughter. So we see that he’s part of this larger community. It’s something that he’s he’s ingrained not just on the high school team, but bringing it into the community. And then he also talks about teaching hockey lessons, and also within his school hockey community, where they have an outreach. So he talks about all the different ways that he’s made an impact within the larger hockey community. So that’s the first way we get a glimpse into what he’s like in that one. And then what’s the next? What’s the next question that they need for Michigan that you have to be able to do well? How

Abby Power 22:48
do the unique offerings at the college that you’re applying to? How do you see yourself taking advantage of them? And how will they forward your goals?

Stefanie Forman 22:58
How much harder? Is it to get into Ross versus LSA? And then once you are at Michigan, is it easy to transfer to Ross?

Lisa Bleich 23:08
Yeah, great question. No, it’s really, it’s hard to get into Ra. It’s harder to get into Ross and LSA. If you don’t have a very strong case for Ross, from an academic profile. I don’t know that it’s that different. But I think the part that makes it harder, you obviously have to have, you know, have something that supports your interest in business. But you also have to be able to show that you are going to jump right in and dive deep into the business world and you’re gonna and you have superior, you have some experience that supports that major, just like you would for LSA. So it’s the same idea, you have to have the support for if you want to do English, or you want to do political science, something that’s a fit to major, that’s really what they’re looking for. And I think that a lot of times with Ross, students don’t have the full piece of it, because it’s a very complex application, you have to take the main Michigan essays, which is the community essay, and the why school, why major, but then you have the portfolio piece of it as well. And I think that’s where a lot of kids have a harder time coming up with it. So for his essay for the why school, why major, he talked about very in depth about the summer program that he did at Wake Forest, which was on investing. And he talked about the way that he learned about investing, and it was interesting to him. But then he brought in this idea there was a professor there, Jim Dunn, and he said, something that stuck out with him was that to make an investment, it is essential not to only look at the statistics, but to understand the motives and ideas behind the people in charge. And that really resonated with Jack because he realized that to make and be a good investor, you have to look at the broader picture. So now let’s get into the portfolio. I don’t know have you guys worked on the portfolio a lot because I find that part can be challenging for students.

Abby Power 24:56
A few times yes, that is challenging and

Lisa Bleich 24:59
and it is challenging. Did you have success? And

Abby Power 25:04
for me just once,

but the truth is, a lot of kids,

I feel like say they’re interesting, interested in business but don’t have the compelling case that Jack had. And if you don’t have a compelling case than the portfolio, which is, you know, you can’t do a good job of

Lisa Bleich 25:20
it. Right. And the portfolio is really important. And the question for that, so they have two pieces to it. The first is the artifact question, which is to upload a document or artifact that represents something significant about your life, to show your Learning in Action. So this is very important for business school. And then it asked to describe how your artifact demonstrates your learning and action, please limit this response to 250 words and then you upload it. For Jack, he talked about and this is where I talked about the resiliency and also the turnaround. He had been involved and had been the commissioner for the flag League, which was a pretty big actually one of my former clients that started this probably eight years ago. And he had started this he had taken over as the Commissioner of this. And this was a student run Flag Football League. Very popular, there were tons of students in it. And he took it over during COVID, maybe the year after COVID. So he talks about how the league was faltering, right. But the other piece that was super important to him was that the league was bringing together all these people that want to play the game, but all the proceeds went to the Special Olympics. So that was a big part of it. 100% of the proceeds went that. So his question was, if I take over as a commissioner, Commissioner, I not only have to revive a lead for the community to have a place to do it. But I also need to make sure that I raise enough money so that we have something significant to donate to the Special Olympics, so he positions it like a business person. He writes the initial task selling the idea, broadcasting the league to fellow classmates, teammates, co workers, even the barista at Starbucks, I promised upcoming enhancements and it worked. After successfully recruiting 100 players I sustained momentum by hosting a virtual draft night where coaches announced their selections and draft participants joined in official drafted and music was played suits were worn. During the season, I awarded offensive and defensive players of the week and organize a social media team that created an Instagram filled with action shots and players. So we see that he’s a marketer. He understands that he’s got to sell it, he’s got to bring engagement, he’s got to get people involved. As interest in the league grow grew, new players wanted to join midseason inciting disputes as coaches and players fought for newly added recruits. I saw this uproar by creating a free agent draft board and fairly divides the new players giving teams that receive later picks in the initial draft priority in the selection of the new players. So he created this sense of demand, right, and he modeled what would happen in a regular and regular thing. And then for making game calls as refereed, or creating weekly schedules, being the league’s commissioner has been given the gift of responsibility and alerting and action experience that allows me to be involved with a sport I love while giving back to my community. So you see that he was able to show very effectively how he could be a leader, how he would engage a community, how he could take a negative situation and turn it around and be really creative in the way that he was doing things.

Stefanie Forman 28:17
All of this is incredibly impressive. But what do you think at the end of the day, because Ross at Michigan is so competitive to get into as an undergrad? What made them unique? Like what do you think is the one thing that that really stood out? I mean, there are multiple but But what do you think?

Lisa Bleich 28:36
I think what made him unique was that in every situation that he was in and everything, if you again, look at the the theme that goes through it, is that he was he is a resilient young man. He’s a creative young man. He’s got empathy, and really wants to make a difference in his community. And everything that he does is around that. And I think that’s what stood up for him and Ross, and he was also applying right after COVID couple years after COVID. Well, it’s not been that far, right. So this was a time when a lot of kids couldn’t do a lot of things because of COVID. And for him, he actually found ways to thrive in adversity. I think of Mulan. That’s my favorite statement. The favorite line in the movie, movie, like kids used to watch when they’re younger, was that but is it a flower that blooms that adversity is the best flower of all, I don’t know if that’s and that’s Jack Jack is a flower that blooms in adversity and he. So if you can bloom in adversity, he’s going to he’s going to be resilient. He’s going to make an impact wherever he goes. And he also really approached it in the way he wrote about it as someone who thinks like a business person. And the final piece that he had to do was that case study and that’s the part I don’t know about you guys, but I find that really hard for students. So, which is when you have to choose a current event in your community, and discuss the business implications of you guys. Yeah, that part is really hard. So for easy, that is a doozy because most kids don’t have that experience. But Jack had that experience. He, our high school, or his high school, I should say, has a weekly newspaper, which is unusual. It’s all student run. And he took on the role as business manager. And again, it was a sinking ship. You know, he had a net loss of $2,300, following the school year, and he’s the business manager, and he has to fix it. So in each one of his essays, it’s this idea, we have this problem. Everything is at the bottom, and I have to come in and turn it around, I’ve got to fix it. And so he brought in language that was very businessy, which I believe he learned during his summer program, he talks about how the newspaper has a serviceable addressable market. So an SEM as the papers biggest asset, and then he goes in and he breaks down, what’s the market size? What’s the available market size? How much of that markets? Could he penetrate? How could he get that, what would be some of the ways that he could go through and he just really puts it in like a case study, like this is the this is the problem. This is our market. This is our target audience. This is the amount of money that we can charge. This is how we can get them. And then he also brings in the community. And he talks about how he could you know, how can we nearly quadruple our subscriber count. And he talks about doing cost free students on marketing by having them flood things with TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. So we get a sense of him as a marketer, again, similar to what he did for the league. And he also talks about bringing in student loan publications, because right now at the school, you could only write for the newspaper, if you are part of the class. But he said, let’s, let’s bring a club, we get more people involved, more people buy the paper. And then he goes through. And he identifies all of these different ways that you could bring in revenue. And that’s exactly what you’d have to do as a business person, you have to think about what’s your serviceable market? What percentage of that market Can you can you get? How would you reach them? What would be the ways that you can increase potential sales, and then he talks about all of the ways that he could keep the tradition alive by doing it from a business standpoint. And I believe that that is really what made him stand out was that at every turn, he saw things through a business lens, and he saw a way to attack a problem from a business perspective.

Abby Power 32:35
In terms of his writing, what really stands out, is his level of specificity. Because he actually did these things. Seriously, instead of saying, Oh, I’m interested in business, because I’m analytical. I mean, he literally is very specific about the things that he has analyzed, and he has tried to solve so in his personal statement, and in that the level of specificity is just for me off the charts. And also, probably because he’s a good writer, and because he’s really passionate about all of this. And because, you know, you’re reading it with such such verb, but, I mean, you can just feel his enthusiasm and his energy, I think about his essays, and I take away this is a kid who’s gonna get stuff done, you put something in front of him. She’s getting done, you know?

Lisa Bleich 33:27
And you got a lot of things that he did. I mean, it wasn’t just one thing that he did. He consistently show that he was going to get stuff done throughout everything that he did in every situation. And he had so many examples. And I think that’s also what’s hard with Ross is because some kids have maybe they’ve done two great things, but he did three or four great things. And so he had a lot of specificity, as Abby said, and he was able to show that.

Abby Power 33:52
And the amount of initiative that he took, he did not sit back. No, he did. He didn’t. He didn’t wait for someone to tell him what to do. He didn’t get discouraged by the problems. He just took initiative and said, Okay, I am the person who can solve this. I’m going to try without fear. So when you think about us wanting leaders, he wasn’t president of his class, but he did. So much substantive leading in his community.

Lisa Bleich 34:21
Right. No, I agree. And interestingly, it all draws back to that initial personal statement, which is, you know, fastline at the statement is that my shoulders just grew stronger. And I think that’s really what it is that he he was just able to take on more things. And I think that’s what was demonstrated in his application. All right, well, thank you, CBMers for joining us, and we look forward to our next episode.

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