By building a solid personal brand, high school student can demonstrate their potential as future college students and contribute to the diverse and dynamic community of their chosen college or university. Additionally, having a clear brand can help high schoolers identify the schools and programs that best match their interests and goals, helping to ensure a successful and fulfilling college experience. 

In this session, you will learn the factors that impact personal branding and ways of strengthening your brand. Two experts on the panel, Shreya Kochar and Tosca Langbert, have studied at noted Ivy League institutions such as Columbia, Harvard University, and Wellesley College. They will each discuss how they crafted their brand and examples of their peers, the distinguishing characteristics that landed them at the top schools. 

Creating a brand requires upfront planning across the four years of high school. The work involves first making an inventory of personal strengths, passions, and values. Students then meticulously build on those dimensions through tangible experiences inside and outside the classroom. In the college application, the work involved effectively communicating the experiences through your college essay, extracurricular activities, and teacher references. 

Tosca Langbert (panel speaker)

Tosca is a junior at Harvard University majoring in Social Studies and minoring in Art, Film, and Visual Studies. She has a broad range of experiences, including a semester away in D.C. during high school, a gap year in AmeriCorps NCCC, an internship at a public defender’s office, a teaching fellowship in Greece, and a summer on an animal preserve in Costa Rica. At Harvard, Tosca spends most of her time studying political theory & filmmaking and doing graphic design for The Harvard Advocate, an art magazine. She’s no stranger to the college application process (and the stress that comes with it!) and is passionate about helping high school students find their unique stories. 

Shreya Kochar (panel speaker)

Shreya Kochar is pursuing her master’s degree at Columbia University, studying computer science while working full-time as a software engineer at Microsoft. Shreya graduated from Wellesley College in May 2022, receiving her bachelor’s degree in computer science. While at Wellesley, Shreya had many opportunities, such as leading the campus’s Girls Who Code Club, taking classes and doing research at MIT, and being a TA for various CS courses. 

Harpal Kochar (moderator)

Harpal is a certified Independent Education Consultant with credentials from UC San Diego and Stanford University. He is a member of the IECA governing body of education counselors. 

You can reach out to Harpal here (Login/Registration is required)

The college application journey is incredibly stressful for first-timers dealing with the number of moving parts, overwhelming deadlines, and uncertainty. Harpal founded a college admissions guidance service, Success Koach (www.successkoach.com ), to help high school students with structured guidance plans with milestones, KPIs, proven admissions strategies, and periodic check-ins. Harpal has done similar webinars stressing the importance of brand management to his students, including this video to MIT headed students last year https://youtu.be/qCdobVvpTuU 

Date: 26th Mar 2023 (Sunday)

Where: Zoom

Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT

Missed the podcast, dont worry , we got you covered, Recording will be available at : https://www.gradachiever.com/podcasts/ (Registration is required to view recording which will be available on podcast page)

If you have any questions that you would like our expert to address, submit your questions/responses on this page.