For those of you freaking out about college apps--don’t worry, I’ve been there. Here’s a list of five tips that I hope will help you as you navigate this terribly stressful time. I’m rooting for you!
1. When they say “write an essay,” they don’t usually mean the type of essay you write for English class.
I was working on a college application essay one day when a friend a year younger than me leaned over and read what I was writing. “Wow,” she said, “I didn’t know you could write essays like that.” She’d thought that colleges wanted your typical essay with three to five paragraphs--an introduction, body paragraphs, a conclusion--maybe even interspersed with quotes. To that, I say:
Look, you can totally write a typical five-paragraph essay if you want, but what’s more important is that you realize they're looking less for an essay and more for a story. If the best way for you to tell your story is through your English class essay format, then go for it. But otherwise, don’t be afraid to dive into some novels for inspiration on how to write an engaging short story.
2. You don’t have to be perfect at something to make it a supplement.
Many colleges allow applicants to send supplemental material. This could mean a portfolio of art pieces you’ve done, or maybe a music recording, or even slam poetry. Some schools, especially for technical tracks like architecture, may actually require a supplemental portfolio.
A common misconception is that you have to be perfect at something to submit a supplement. Of course, you shouldn’t be submitting something if you just started learning/working on it or if you’re well aware that maybe you don’t match up to your peers in that field. Still, don’t be afraid to submit something just because you haven’t won an international award for it, or because you aren't B.B. King. I recommend looking up the policies regarding supplements for the colleges you’re applying to. Many times, they don’t let supplements negatively impact your application! So if you have decent reasons to think you’re relatively skilled, then you might as well send one (or more!) supplements along.
3. Creative, outstanding essays don’t have to be about extraordinary experiences.
I’ve heard people lament that they don’t have any “interesting” life experiences to write about. I think they’re not looking at things from the right angle. A U.S. Presidential Scholar friend told me that he wrote his essay for the scholarship on the color orange. Sounds boring, doesn’t it? Turns out, he explained orange through creative analogies like the color a flashlight makes when it’s pressed against your skin. Just like that, he turned something ordinary into something extraordinary. By changing your perspective/angle, you can make your essays interesting.
4. Take time to self-reflect before interviews.
It’s tempting to think that you just have to memorize the x number of facts about the college and y number of questions for the interviewer before a college interview. As far as I can tell, though, both from personal experience and from what my friends have told me, interviewers are much more interested in who you are than in what you’ve done/what you know about the college. Mainly, you need to remember that they are looking to see if you’d be a good fit at their college. So ask yourself questions about what you want in life, how you want to get there, what paths you want to venture onto, etc., because those answers will help you figure out the type of person you are. That’s going to be far more valuable for an interviewer than your resume, which you’ve already listed on your college app and which the admissions counselors will have already read.
5. Try to get others to confirm your extracurricular activities.
Tom Stagliano, a popular Quora user and MIT interviewer, often says that your extracurricular activities don’t matter unless they’re confirmed by either a recommendation letter or the interviewer. This is the one time I’d say you should bring up your resume in an interview: when you want to highlight an activity/achievement that you believe could be overlooked by admissions officers. However, the most weight will come from your letters of recommendation. I’m not saying you should have every sports coach in your life write you a letter of rec just to prove your athletic abilities--that’d only annoy admissions officers who already have heavy workloads. What I am saying, however, is to be thoughtful when you decide on who to ask for letters of recommendation. A teacher who has supervised many of your extracurricular activities will be far more impactful than a teacher who has only seen you in the classroom. A teacher who wants to talk with you to get to know you better before they write your letter of rec can also be incredibly helpful, even if they’ve never worked with you outside the classroom, because they can bring up those extracurriculars in the letter--provided that you mentioned such activities in the pre-letter discussion. In the end, if you can get your biggest activities accounted for by someone besides yourself, then logically that should make your smaller activities more believable and valuable even if you miss the opportunity to get them confirmed by someone else.
I hope these help. Remember, college admissions is a game where luck is often more important than skill, so keep your head up no matter what happens. I believe in you!
P.S. If you want more tips, not just for college but for life, I highly recommend combing through Quora. As I've seen one Quora user say, Quora is "Reddit for nerds." It's basically a permanent part of my daily routine.
