- My name is Koby Thurman
and I'm about to get my application reviewed
by real college administrations.
(intense music)
- His GPA is 3.5.
A lot of our candidates have 3.8 and higher.
- She may not have someone that reads her application.
Makes that connection.
Yeah, I'm a little worried about
if I tell him something he doesn't wanna hear
what his reaction's gonna be.
(intense music)
(heart beats rhythmically)
- He has taken some AP classes.
But knowing the district that he's from in his high school,
I would encourage more.
He is taking some Long Beach Community courses.
That's fantastic.
- The first thing that I noticed
is his sneaker head is what he calls himself.
I'm not familiar with all the new terms with the kids
but I assume it's a sneaker business online.
It's a start, but I think it has a lot of growth.
- [Admin 1] The PSAT score that I see is a 1090.
- [Admin 2] It is a solid score,
but there is room for improvement.
- I would encourage for him to look at taking a test prep.
- He does have time. He's only a junior.
I always suggest doing some community service.
- I'm not sure if community service might fit
where he might have more of an entrepreneurial spirit.
I know he's an athlete, which takes a lot of time.
If he is being pursued by different colleges
or universities, that's a whole nother level of commitment
that needs to be shown
because that doesn't reflect here.
(ominous music)
- I love the authenticity.
Starting off with being invited by
I believe it was his father, to consider law enforcement
and discovered that that wasn't for him.
- He took that advice from his father
but he listened to himself and he decided, "You know what?
I'm gonna go this way instead
of that way that my dad suggested".
(intense music)
- What was the most challenging buy or sell?
- For the sneaker heads out there.
A pair of Union 4 Guava Ice
and one of my best friends wanted them off of me
and I didn't want to sell them.
So it was hard to like debate a price with him
cuz like he's also my friend.
- [Announcer] Admissions officers,
Are you ready to make your final decision?
- We're ready.
- Yes.
- Accepted.
(ominous music)
- Waitlisted.
We wanna make sure that you strengthen the GPA.
- He's young. I know that he's gonna go places.
- I'm glad that I got to hear
what they were saying about me.
(intense music)
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
- And I wanted to know is there anything I could do
to make my application stand out?
- Just show who you are.
Try to show something unique about yourself.
- Give me a little bit more about what you've gained
and how you're gonna use it in the future.
- Hi, my name's Koda Bechen.
I think I'm here to get to have professors, judge my-
(ominous music)
(heart beats)
- He has a really good GPA 3.46.
He has a language course, Hawaiian language course.
I'm very pleased with his transcript.
- Semester one sometimes seems to be a little challenging.
In some classes we see that financial literacy
and the democracy course and then that
in the first semesters were a little challenging.
The score was 1220.
- 1220 is good.
Nationally, I think it's in the 78th percentile or so.
So, I think he did pretty well.
- The more competitive universities
might have that on the lower end of their profile.
- Like his resume.
He has a passion it seems for the arts.
Could provide a little bit more detail, I think.
But overall, I think he has the right idea.
He's on the right path.
- I think positive.
I can see that he's really interested
in the creative aspect of the field.
He has a different type of creativity
because not only is he modeling
but he's also doing a variety of things
where he he has to be present in terms of his mind
and his the way that he, what he wants
to kind of demonstrate.
(ominous music)
- [Announcer] I see you guys are smiling a little bit.
Could you tell me why you guys are smiling.
- Yeah, I'm a little worried about,
if I tell him something he doesn't wanna hear
what his reaction's gonna be.
So through his writing, I think he's does a great job
in giving us, you know, kind of a glimpse
to who he used to be as a child or as he was younger.
- [Announcer] Corey, could you read
the first line of the essay?
- Sure. It says, I punched the referee
who told me I was out.
It's about rejection and it's about being told no
and overcoming that.
He was seven years old when he punched the referee.
That's a long time ago.
It's not who he is now.
Well, Koda, my question is really simple.
How do you take rejection now?
- Now I see rejection not as an attack
not as something that's rude or demeaning to me
and I just accept it and I don't take it personally.
And I'm able to just keep smiling
and not beat myself up about it.
(eye gleam dings)
(intense music)
- Waitlisted.
I think he missed some opportunities
to be able to define himself
within the context of the region that he's from.
(music becomes more intense)
- Accepted. I think he's very likable.
Well, just seeing what he wrote on paper
I immediately liked him.
- I'm so surprised.
For some reason, I didn't think my grades were that good.
They really liked how I was just brutally honest
about myself and just like, Oh-
- Hi.
- Hi. Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- I did have a mama moment.
I was like, "Oh no, he didn't go there and talk about-"
- Yeah.
- Assaulting people.
- Oh yeah, but it quickly turned.
- Did you get in trouble when you-
- I remember it so vividly.
It's like a core memory for me.
It was my first time ever going to the principal's office.
I was so scared.
- Ooh, snap. That's big time.
- High school was hard.
Definitely towards like my junior and senior years
especially after COVID and everything.
Everything took a little downward spiral.
(lights click on)
- Higher level math courses.
She's in color guard, dance, drama.
GPA is 2.3, not the strongest at this point.
- Transition might be a little challenging for her.
I see in the ninth grade some dips in particular classes.
After COVID, there was some challenges academically
to become part again of the in person.
Pre ACT and she received a total score of 65.
- And this was the Pre ACT.
We don't look at that, but again it's a good way to prepare.
- Math is, also seems to be something
that is she's stronger in.
So again that's critical thinking analysis
in a different type of way.
- And I'm sure she understands where she's at
and where she has to go.
She can only go up from here.
She likes to write.
I think she likes to write.
She has a lot to say.
She likes to explain what her journey is.
I think she has a really colorful journey.
She might not even realize it's colorful
but I see it as colorful.
I think she just knows who she is.
- Did you get enough resources
when you went from in person instruction
to online instruction?
- In person to online completely changed the game for me
because I like to be able to see what I'm doing
and hear it from someone's mouth.
I kind of just stopped caring about school as a whole.
It's like, it's just not working out for me
how I expected it to.
(ominous music builds)
- Rejected.
- It's hard, but it was what I expected.
Right now I'm hoping to go to a community college
and then after that be able to go to law school.
- I believe I'm a strong applicant.
Now I've met people that have gone
to like fancy boarding schools
and they have lengthy resumes.
So I'm not sure if I'm at the same level as them.
- [Announcer] Are you ready to be in the hot seat today?
- I'm a little nervous, but yes.
(intense music)
(lights click on)
(heart beats)
- Quite a few AP classes.
I'm hoping that she took the AP exams.
Cumulative GPA that's weighted 4.6, which is impressive.
- She has an excellent GPA.
So she's an excellent student.
She has taken Spanish, which is really good.
It is a Christian school, so she,
I see the Bible as literature courses.
She has a really good score which is 1410
On the SAT did pretty well.
- She's been doing violin for 13 years.
- She interviewed representatives of Congress,
Kevin McCarthy, Marco Rubio, Shannon Grove.
Controversial figures you know, I don't know how that went,
but I don't think that would be an easy thing
to interview them.
(heart beats)
Seems to be really good at writing.
It's about her grandparents, her abuela and her abuelo.
She really emphasized family and her grandparents
which I really like because she told that story.
She's really proud.
- I think I would've liked to have seen
how the impact of her family has been on her.
What the resilience of her family and how she has shown it.
We wanna learn about you and your resilience
and how you are playing it forward here.
We don't, we can't have the admissions people
interpreting that in pieces of the application.
You need to take advantage
of the writing to talk about yourself.
I get what she's trying to connect me to
because of my background.
She may not have someone that reads her application
that gets, that makes that connection
or can make that connection.
If you had one more hour in a day
what do you think you would focus your time on?
- I really believe that I would really like to focus it
on spending more time with my family.
Especially like on FaceTime or even like WhatsApp calls.
(ominous music)
- Accepted
(music builds)
- Accepted.
- I mean, to have interviewed politicians
that's a big accomplishment.
So I think she's done herself very well.
(lights click on)
- What are things about like in my essay
so you guys would both like to see more, I think?
- Try not to list because you've done quite a bit
and making sure that you choose an example
of the experience based on the trait
that you wanna show someone.
- What is your passion?
Why are you so passionate about furthering your education?
- I think it was like very nerve-wracking
cuz when I tell my friends, I'll be like,
"Oh, can you read my essay?"
I feel like they may just sugar coat it a little bit.
- Mm-Hm. And I'm glad that you're not, you know
taking your bestie's advice.
You wanna also challenge yourself
and show it to individuals who may give you some feedback
that you probably know you need to get
and be open to that.
- I thought this was the hot seat.
I thought they were gonna come
and come and clown me about everything.
- [Announcer] Awesome. And you can go ahead
and press the button on the thing.
- Skadoosh.
- [Announcer] Oh, are you ready, koda?
- I'm ready.
- [Announcer] Awesome. Okay, Judges, you may now begin.
Let's start with the transcript.