1. Content Strategy Deep Dive•

2. Agenda Persona Quiz Brainstorming Topic Matching
Coming Soon – Activities List & Content Plan for Each Application
Outline Creator (if time) 7

3. Personas + + Personal Mindset Passions How you see yourself
Your background
How you spend your time
Altruist
Self-learner
Leader
Entrepreneur
Perseverant
Multi-cultural
One of the family
Alien
Religious
Specialist
Worker
Artist
Athlete 3

4. How the Persona Quiz works
Goal: Help students determine what is compelling about them from the perspective of colleges
Result: 3 personas that help them develop compelling content
3 to 5 minutes, questions (depending on how you answer each question)
Forces students to make tough decisions and think about themselves
The answers to each question tie to one or more personas to generate a score for each Persona. The Persona hierarchy and categories are used to break ties 7

5. Question 1 Do you know what you want to do in your life or career?
What type of thing do you want to do in your life or career?
Purpose: Goals for the future are a direct tie in with what colleges will find compelling
Altruist = Healthcare, Social Work, Teacher, Public Service
Artist = The Arts
Entrepreneur = Start my own business
Specialist = Engineer, Scientist, Law or Politics 7

6. Question 2 Which of the following would you rather have?
High annual salary, limited opportunity to make a difference in your community and world
Low annual salary, work on things that make a difference in your community and world
Purpose: Help students think through what motivates them
Altruist = Low annual salary, work on things that make a difference in your community and world 7

7. Question 3
Do you spend significant time outside of class learning one or more academic-related subjects just for fun?
Purpose: Self-learning and intellectual curiosity are some of the most important traits colleges look for in students, but many do not realize the subject should be at the core of their application (provided they are intellectually curious)
Self-learner = Yes 7

8. Question 4
Do you have one or two activities inside or outside of school that you feel define you?
Does this activity(s) clearly tie in with your future life/career goals?
Please select the category for the activity you most identify with.
Purpose: Help students understand what they are passionate about and how they spend their time. Students earn extra points if these relate to their future goals.
Specialist = Academics, School Community
Multi-cultural = Cultural
Religious = religious
Athlete = Athletics (provided they spend time free time outside of practice on it)
Artist = Art, Music, and Drama (provided they spend time outside of school on it) 7

9. Question 5 In a group setting, I am usually …
One of the group: I like to listen and chime in as I see fit
In charge: I run the discussion and inject my opinion as I see fit
The idea person: I always think of something new to do
If you surveyed your peers, would they say you are a leader?
Purpose: Help students understand how they perceive themselves when interacting with groups
Leader = In charge + peers would consider them a leader
Entrepreneur = Idea person (+ leader point if peers consider them a leader) 7

10. Question 6 Which of the following is most important to you?
Your family; your culture; your friends; your community; an interest, activity, or passion; your goals for the future; your earning potential; other
(if family, culture, or community) Do you feel your culture has a significant impact on what you plan to accomplish in the future?
Purpose: Help students think through what matters to them the most
One of the family = Your family
Multi-cultural = Your culture (+ point if it relates to future)
Specialist = An interest, activity, or passion
Altruist = Your community 7

11. Question 7 Do you feel alienated from your community or family?
Can you passionately describe what makes you feel like you do not belong and how it has affected what you've done to date and your plans for the future?
Purpose: Some students feel alienated from their community (e.g., LGBTQ) and feel it is an important part of their identity. It can be helpful to share their experiences within their application if they can relate it to their experiences and future plans.
Alien = Yes to both questions 7

12. Question 8
Do you find yourself frequently going out of your way to interact with people of other cultures and learn about other cultures? A 1-2 week vacation or service trip to another country is not sufficient to answer 'Yes.' You must be able to demonstrate a continued interest in other cultures.
Purpose: Students can get our multi-cultural persona even if they aren’t multi-cultural, provided they go out of their way to interact with people who are different than them. Please tell your students not to use the phrase “global citizen” if they answer “yes” to this question :)
Multi-cultural = Yes 7

13. Question 9
Have you faced a significant barrier in your life that has changed what you've done or how you perceive yourself and others?
Have you made changes to your life in an effort to overcome this barrier or as a result of this barrier?
Under which category does the biggest barrier fit?
Purpose: Overcoming a challenge can make for great content. The key is that students need to have made changes in their life to overcome the barrier
Perseverant = Yes to 1st 2 questions + modified based on response to type of barrier
Poverty: Extra points awarded
Depression and/or anxiety: Fewer points awarded as other content tends to be better
Academics: No points awarded 7

14. Question 10
Do you have a job that requires a significant time commitment?
What is the primary motivation for having your job?
Purpose: Some students spend a significant amount of time working at a particular job. The experiences related to working and the reasons for why the student works can make for great content.
Worker = Yes + bonus points for supporting their family or growing their skills 7

15. The Results
Students get 3 Personas. They can view more details about each of the Personas and can change the Personas as desired
We get 2 of the 3 they’d pick themselves more than 80% of the time
Personas make for a great conversation before brainstorming content
The top Personas are Self-Learner and Perseverant
Some Personas are quite rare (e.g., Athlete, Artist, Religious). It is especially helpful to have conversations with your students if they get one of these to make sure their content related to these Personas will be compelling 7

16. Brainstorming
Passions: The activities or interests where the student finds themselves spending the most time. Ideally, these should translate outside of the classroom
Personal Growth: Times when a student overcame a significant obstacle or found himself or herself getting much better at something over a short period of time
Personality Traits: The words that describe the student. All stories should ideally cement a student’s personality traits in the minds of the readers
Goals: Plans for the future both in college and throughout their life. It doesn’t need to be a specific career, but could rather be a type of thing they hope to accomplish 7

17. Activities List – Coming July 10th
Will be exactly like the Common App Activities List, including character limits
Will have space for a student to collect their thoughts for additional content that does not fit within the character limit. You can then help students optimize their descriptions or match the content with other parts of the application (e.g., additional info)
Additional versions for other applications will be released later this summer 7

18. Content Plan – Coming in August
A visualization to help students match their Content Strategy to each part of each application
Prioritized groups of content from brainstorming
Parts of the application
Group #1
Main Essay
Group #2
Supplement #1
Group #3
Group #4
Supplement #2
Additional content from activities list creation
Additional Info
Recommendation #1
Activity #1
Activity #2
Recommendation #2 7