Ever wonder what you should include in an appeal letter? This week, Jodi and I cover:

• Who should make the call to a financial aid office: the student or parent?
• What to literally say to a financial aid officer when you call them to appeal
• Why you maybe shouldn’t start off the conversation by mentioning a financial aid offer from another school
• Jodi’s five points to cover in an appeal letter
• What tone to take and how long the letter should be
• The one thing students and parents should do but don’t

I chat with Dr. Aliza Gilbert about how to support undocumented students. We chat about:

• What terms to use (and not use) when working with undocumented students
• What the Dream Act is and why not all students love the term “Dreamers”
• What percent of kids born right now are born to undocumented parents
• Whether or not students should reveal their undocumented status in their personal statement
• How incorrect assumptions can sometimes make a student feel horrible
• How to know if a school (or a state, for that matter) is/isn’t supportive of undocumented students
• What teachers/mentors/counselors can do to help undocumented youth

Normally on the podcast I’ll be interviewing admissions professionals, but I wanted to begin with a student named Daishi for a few reasons:

He is an inspiring human being with an incredible story, as you’ll hear on this podcast.

He happens to be undocumented, and under the new administration a lot of questions have come up for students and parents and even teachers/counselors--big things like What’s changing in general? To more specifics like “Should students reveal themselves as undocumented in their personal statements?” I wanted to interview Daishi to get his perspective on this, since he’s on the front lines of this debate. And just, on a human level,

I wanted to find out from Daishi what it’s like living as an undocumented college student under a Trump administration while attending Harvard University.

Quick side note: there are many wonderful colleges out there (Harvard is just one of them) and one of my goals with this podcast is to introduce you to some of the non-Ivy-League schools, but, I elected to kick off the podcast with Daishi and, well, he happens to attend Harvard.  

In today's episode, we get into: 

• What a typical day is like for a Harvard student
• What it might mean for him and 700,000+ other undocumented students if the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy is repealed
• What Daishi wrote his college essay about and why
• What he felt like he did well in the college application process
• How he stays calm/centered

What the show’s about [0:57] One thing that makes Daishi amazing [3:05] What a typical day at Harvard is like, including how the food is [4:05] The class Daishi feels lucky to take [8:20] Whether Harvard was easier or harder than he thought it was going to be [9:15] What surprised Daishi about college life [10:25] What helped Daishi most in his transition to college [11:45] What it’s like being an undocumented student at Harvard [13:15] How things have changed for him since the election [17:30] When and how he began to embrace his undocumented status [19:15] What happens to him and 700,000+ other undocumented students if the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy is repealed [23:40] What election night was like for Daishi and the members of his organization, Act on a Dream [26:05] What makes Daishi so brave [28:20] Daishi shares the personal statement he submitted to Harvard [31:05] The perfect line in the essay that explodes in my mind and takes it to the next level [35:11] What it was like writing his essay and how many drafts he wrote [35:50] When Daishi knew he was done with the essay [36:30] Why he chose to open the essay with three repeated Japanese words and what resonated with me personally [37:23] What it’s like looking back on the essay years later [39:24] What Daishi felt he rocked in the application process and advice to students applying to college [40:27] What was crucial for you in the college application process? [42:06] The crazy thing he did in high school that led to a topic for his second essay[44:30] Why he chose the topics he chose and why he chose to reveal his undocumented status in the essay [47:38] Daishi’s advice to other undocumented students debating whether or not to reveal their status in their college essays [42:07] What it was like the day he was accepted to Harvard [53:40] When he began to feel he was woven into the fabric of Harvard history [56:49] What the future looks like for Daishi [58:35] The new role Daishi’s organization is playing on the Harvard campus since Trump’s election [60:35] The advice Daishi would give to any student going through this process [1:02:57] Show and tell [1:04:58] Guided Meditation to the Most Relaxing Song Ever [1:05:00]

• Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

• Daishi’s main Common App personal statement and supplemental essay

• Guided Meditation to the Most Relaxing Song Ever (Ethan’s “Show & Tell”)

• Should I Come Out As Undocumented in My Personal Statement? Part 1 of 2

• How to Come Out As Undocumented in a Personal Statement Part 2 of 2

• How to Advocate for Undocumented Students

• Toolkit for applying for DACA (Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals)

• An interview with Daishi for Business Insider -- late January, 2017