Taking a College Admissions Profile from Good to Great
Much has been written in the last four months about the ultra-competitive college admissions process. Applications have exploded - up 20-40% or more at many highly selective colleges - and admissions percentages have plummeted.
These days, almost everyone applying to top colleges has incredible grades and board scores. It is virtually impossible to compete on this basis alone. Many applicants also have the same school-based extracurriculars (think: sports, Model UN, student government) in their profiles. So how can an ambitious teen stand out?
Consider a comparison between two very similar candidates. Which one looks better, more memorable, and more unique, to you
Candidate A
Grades: Excellent
Board Scores: Excellent
Sports: Varsity Soccer
Extracurriculars: Model UN, Environmental, Entrepreneurship, Class Vice President
Awards: National Latin Gold Medalist
Awards: Living Oceans Art Competition
Community Service: Park clean up
Candidate B
Grades: Excellent
Board Scores: Excellent
Sports: Varsity Soccer
Extracurriculars: Environmental/Clean Water, Art
Awards: Living Oceans Art Competition
Community Impact Project: led partnership between school art department and community to sponsor a Storm Drain Art competition, the winners of which painted their designs on a local storm drain to draw attention to the issue of polluted stormwater run-off
Citizen Science Project: rallied a group of friends to take water samples for national Crowd the Tap water quality survey
Candidate A and Candidate B both have very good admissions profiles. Any college would be lucky to have them. But Candidate B is a lot more likely to stand out in the pile. Why?
Candidate A is, as they say in the Stanford Admissions Office, “Standard Positive”. What does this mean?
"At Stanford, when reading applications, we did use one acronym in particular: SP (standard positive), which indicated that the student was solid and had an overall positive application, but unfortunately was just standard." - Former Stanford Admissions Officer
Candidate A has done everything right, and yet looks a lot like other people applying to any given elite school. Candidate A also looks a lot like Candidate B, but with a few significant differences:
Both candidates are highly engaged at their school through sports and extracurriculars. Here’s the big difference: Candidate B does fewer clubs at school but has narrowed his choices to activities that better reflect his interests and strengths. How do we know this? In addition to being a member of the Environmental and Art clubs at school, Candidate B entered a clean ocean water-themed art competition (and received an award). He further demonstrated his interest in the two areas (and his ability to make a real impact on his community) through a self-led project that used art to draw attention to a water-related environmental issue in his community. He also participated in a citizen science project relating to clean drinking water. This profile really stands out as authentic, original and narratively linked. It also showcases a candidate who has real potential to make a positive impact on a college campus.
NOTE: it’s NOT hard to transform Candidate A into Candidate B. Try to narrow in on a theme, and then look for activities outside of school that relate to it. Not everything has to be difficult or time-consuming. Want to know more about where you can find exactly these kinds of activities? Watch our FREE webinar at: https://blue-blaze.com/webinar and join Blue Blaze at: https://blue-blaze.com/join and discover our amazing, curated collection of original extracurriculars, mind-blowing summer programs and impressive community-based projects.
High school goes fast. It’s time to start building a smarter resume for college admissions.
