Colleges love to send out feelers and information to students, those who have shown they are interested or not. At this point you’ve likely received hundreds of emails, and a significant volume of physical mail from colleges who want you to know just why you should apply to them. A constant part of this are invitations to webinars, presentations over Zoom by admissions officers where they discuss the admissions process in detail.
It is tempting to just delete all of these emails as spam (trust me, I get it, I did plenty of that when I was applying to colleges), but attending these webinars can be quite beneficial, for any number of reasons. They can also be a bit intimidating, especially the first time, but there’s nothing to worry about. In this article, we’re going to break down how webinars work, and exactly how you can use them to your benefit.
The Structure of a College Webinar
College webinars come in two formats:
- General: these are an introduction to the college and the admissions process as a whole, with a brief overview of many different topics. The goal fo these si to give students some advice on applying, and highlight features of the college that may appeal to them.
- Specific: These webinars cover one or a few topics within the college or admissions; looking at their essays, talking about testing requirements, or highlighting a particular college within a university. They do usually still contain some general application advice, but they are more focused on a single admissions area.
Admissions offices schedule these regularly through the Spring, Summer, and early Fall; once they actually start reviewing applications they’re far too busy, but until then, Webinars are a common way for them to reach out to students. These grew more popular during the pandemic, but have remained due to the flexibility they offer to both colleges and students.
These tend to be offered in the evenings, often late by Eastern Time standards, so students on the West coast can tune in as well. They’re usually around an hour in length, the first 45 minutes or so devoted to the actual subject of the presentation, with the remaining time allotted so that students can ask questions.
Admissions officers have a presentation prepared for these, and a list of talking points. These usually aren’t the most exciting presentations, but they do have a lot of useful information, and admissions officers try to keep them fun. The overall structure varies little between colleges, even if the information presented might.
The Benefits of Attending College Webinars
There are some obvious benefits to these things, but this is still worth going into, so you can weigh what’s on offer, and whether or not this is a good use of an evening or two for you. We’ll go through each potential benefit in turn, so we can discuss it in some detail.
Learning About the Admissions Process
Admissions officers are always going to be more vague in their discussion of the admissions process and how it works than students like, but this is still the best way to hear directly from admissions officers at a school what they’re looking for from applicants, and how they judge applications.
Now, they won’t tell you everything. These sessions won’t set out a list you can follow by points, “do this and get accepted.” That is, sadly enough, not how admissions works. You can, however, learn what they specifically don’t want or aren’t looking for, and clear up any confusion you do have through the questions section. We’ll return to that later, but the ability to ask questions is the most valuable part of these webinars.
Demonstrating Interest
Many (though not all) colleges factor in demonstrated interest when making admissions decisions. These schools prefer to admit students that they know want to be there. They measure this in various ways, but interacting with the school; visiting campus, signing up for admissions events, opening their emails; is one they use often. Simply going to a webinar won’t get you admitted, but it is a good way to begin indicating your interest to a particular school.
Learning About Colleges
These webinars are going to be a biased source of information; after all, the point is to convince you that you should apply. That said, they are still a convenient way to learn more about colleges you may be considering adding to your list. Attending a webinar is significantly easier than visiting, and more informative than reading a Wikipedia article or browsing a website. It won’t tell you everything, but it will let you know if it’s worth your time to dig deeper.
How to Make the Most From College Webinars
The benefits of attending are clear, so now the trick is making sure you maximize them. Here are the steps you should follow to find and prepare for these webinars, and how to follow up if need be.
Find the Right Webinars
There are too many colleges out there for you to attend webinars from all of them, it simply isn’t feasible. We advise attending webinars from two groups of colleges: those you are potentially interested in, and want to learn more about, and those you are definitely interested in, and want to demonstrate that interest to. Make a list of these schools before going looking for webinars; we advise not attending more than eight or so. A few are useful, more become repetitive and annoying.
Scheduling
You have to register for these webinars in advance so you can get the link to join. Colleges do offer many of these, but they are still limited in when they are offered. Make sure you schedule at times when you are sure to be free, and try not to schedule more than one of these per week. We advise front-loading these for your college application journey, doing most of them in the Spring or Summer before you start the real work of filling out your applications.
Preparing for a Webinar
In general, you don’t need to do that much prep work for a webinar, unlike a college visit. These are meant mostly as a palace for students to listen. They do offer a chance to ask questions however, and we recommend preparing a list of these ahead of time. Focus on questions you can’t find the answers to online or on a college’s website, things you can only get by asking an admissions officer directly. Some of these may be answered in the presentation itself, while others you can ask at the end.
You may only be able to ask one or two, but we have seen webinars where very few students showed up, especially for smaller liberal arts colleges. In these cases, you can ask any questions which come to mind. They won’t give you steps to how to get admitted, but they can tell you what kinds of students they’re looking for, and the qualities they like to see.
After a Webinar
After a webinar, in light of what you’ve heard, you should decide if a particular college and its offerings are a good fit for you and your interests. You may not have fully made up your mind, but if the best a college can offer (which is what they try to present in a webinar) doesn’t sway you, then it may not be the right choice for you. Conversely, if you did like the webinar, then you can try applying what you learned to your application.
These webinars won’t say: “do these activities and get these grades and we’ll admit you.” They will, however, give you clues as to how to approach a school’s essays, let you know what kind of values they look for in students, and offer a base on which you can build your application. As the essays are often the most challenging (and most impactful) part of an application, this can be a significant help to making sure you’re on the right track.
Final Thoughts
Colleges want to make it easy and not terribly stressful for students to apply. They’re not good at managing either of those things, but they do get points for trying. We hope that this article has given you insight into one of the ways they try to reach out to students, and given you actionable tips on how to make the best use of this valuable resource.
If you’re struggling with your college applications, or want your questions answered, then Ivy Scholars can help. Our mentors are experts in the admissions process, and are skilled at helping you understand what colleges are actually looking for from applicants. Schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can make your application journey smoother. We’re always happy to hear from you.
