Personal branding

Not self-promotion, being findable, credible and reachable by people who could help you. The single biggest predictor of whether a student lands research, an internship or a real leadership role is whether they asked.

Six-step checklist

1. Create a LinkedIn profile: the only professional profile most adults will look for.
2. Get one decent headshot: outdoors, shade, plain background, no filters. Thirty photos, pick one.
3. Add every real experience: jobs, volunteering, research, the club you actually ran. The grocery store job shows reliability nothing else does.
4. Put numbers in every bullet: how many people, how many times, over how long.
5. Clean up your digital footprint: search your own name in a private window, including images.
6. Use it to reach out: twenty messages, expect eighteen to be ignored. You need one yes.

Progress is stored in your browser's local storage, not the database. It is a personal reading checklist and shouldn't sync to counselors or contributors.

Bullet auditor

Paste any bullet, from your activities or LinkedIn, and it checks four things:

It also enforces the 150-character Common App limit.

The page also flags every activity description you've already written that contains no digits, linking back to Activities & honors to fix them.

Outreach templates

Three, all written to be edited:

• Cold email to a professor: names their specific work, offers to do the unglamorous parts, gives them an easy out.
• LinkedIn message to an alum: asks for fifteen minutes, not a job.
• Asking a local nonprofit for a real role: proposes a specific job and offers a trial month.

One rule: never send the same message to two people without changing the specific detail. The detail is the entire reason anyone replies.