516: Inside the Application (Part 2): Developing the Personal Statement, Supplemental Essays, and College List with Cassidy, HS Senior

The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions

Today’s episode is part two of our series, Inside the Application. Ethan is joined by Cassidy, a current high school senior who is working on her college applications for the Fall 2025 term. Ethan and Cassidy will be walking step-by-step through the college application process as it unfolds this school year. In episode 2, they get into:

• How is Cassidy’s personal statement coming along?
• What does Cassidy want colleges to know about her?
• How is Cassidy approaching her supplemental essays?
• What is Cassidy looking for in a college and how did she develop her list?
• And more

Stay tuned for future episodes where Ethan and Cassidy continue the conversation! This series is a bit different in that, normally, we share episodes-in-a-series consecutively. For these, we’re releasing them pretty much as we record them, so you’ll notice them interspersed among other topics we’ll be covering. We’ll continue to check in with Cassidy to see how things are going, and you’ll find out how it turned out a few months from now.

Cassidy is a current high school student going through the college application process. She lives in the Bay Area, loves ballet, knows a lot about Biology, and identifies as a “yapper”—more on that in our conversation.

We hope you enjoy!

Play-by-play

• 1:36 - What has Cassidy been working on since last episode?
• 3:28 - Cassidy reads draft two of her personal statement
• 7:51 - Cassidy shares her thoughts on her draft
• 9:18 - Ethan gives feedback and shares suggestions for the next draft
• 12:57 - Ethan reviews Cassidy’s "Everything I Want Colleges to Know About Me" list
• 21:38 - Ethan reviews Cassidy’s CommonApp Activities List and Additional Info sections
• 26:09 - What is Cassidy looking for in a college and how did she develop her list?
• 25:00 - Ethan reads the supplemental prompts from Cassidy’s college list tracker
• 35:56 - What is a “super topic" and how might it help Cassidy?
• 50:50 - What is the Roles and Identities exercise?
• 58:55 - What are Cassidy’s next steps in her drafting process?

Resources

• Part 1 of this series, Inside the Application
• Cassidy’s brainstorming and second draft
• The "Everything I Want Colleges to Know About Me" List: A Brainstorm Exercise
• 8 First Choices: An Expert's Strategies for Getting into College by Joyce Slayton Mitchell
• How to Combine Your College Essay Prompts (To Save 20+ Writing Hours)
• College Essay Guy’s Personal Statement Resources
• Learn How to Write Great Supplemental College Essays
• College Essay Guy’s College Application Hub
• College Essay Guy’s Roles and Identities Exercise
• Funko Pops