517: Inside the Application (Part 3): Supplemental Essay Deep Dive + Developing the College List w/ Special Guest Renee Ferrerio

Today’s episode is part three 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.  This episode is a deep dive into the supplemental essays — specific essays that many selective colleges and universities require. In particular, Cassidy and Ethan get into: 

• How to write the “What would you bring to our campus” essay
• How to write an essay that focuses on “intellectual vitality” 
• How to write the “roommate” essay
• Tips on the short answer questions (50 words or less)
• And more

Finally, we close the episode out with a special guest appearance from Renee Ferrerio to review Cassidy’s college list. Renee has been working in college admission for three decades. She has a Masters in school counseling, has worked as both a public and independent school counselor, and serves on numerous college advisory boards and committees, including the Common Application Outreach Advisory Board, and many others. 

Stay tuned for future episodes where Ethan and Cassidy continue the conversation. 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

• 1:55 - How’s Cassidy doing on her supplemental essays so far?
• 4:00 - Ethan reads Cassidy’s “what would you bring to our campus” essay draft
• 8:48 - Ethan’s feedback on the essay
• 15:38 - Additional supplemental essay prompts + Ethan’s impressions
• 19:28 - Using the Roles and Identities Exercise to brainstorm ideas
• 24:48 - Ethan reads & reviews Cassidy’s draft of her “community” essay
• 35:41 - Ethan reads and reviews Cassidy’s draft of her “roommate” essay
• 44:42 - Reviewing Cassiday’s “short answer” prompts (and why they’re like an advent calendar)
• 53:45 - Introducing Renee Ferrerio  (CEG college counselor with 25+ years experience)
• 59:28 - Discussing impacted majors, Colleges That Change Lives, and suggestions for Cassidy’s college list

Resources

• Part 1 of this series, Inside the Application 
• Part 2 of this series, Inside the Application
• Cassidy’s Supplemental Essay Doc
• The Roles and Identities Exercise
• How to Write the Stanford Roommate Essay + Examples
• A How-To Guide for the Short Answer Questions for Highly-Selective Colleges
• How to Choose a College: A Step-By-Step Guide