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How Can You Impress College Admissions Officers With Your Application? Here are 10 Things You Need to Know

Writer's picture: Stephen TurbanStephen Turban

Universities receive tens of thousands of applications each year for spots in a much smaller class. As acceptance rates drop to single or low-double digits at an increasing number of schools, it’s more important than ever that your application stands out from the crowd. While in past decades strong grades, test scores, and extracurriculars made students likely candidates for admission, it now only gets your foot in the door. 

The question arises — how can you prime yourself for success in this environment? In this article, we’ll run through ten essential things to know for impressing admissions officers (AOs) with your application. From how to market yourself as a candidate to essay writing strategies, these tips will help position you strategically as you submit your applications. 


1. Craft a compelling Personal Statement


The Personal Statement is one of the most important elements of your college application, as it is sent to all schools to which you apply and is read before most other elements of your application. So, the purpose of the personal statement is to introduce yourself and show your most essential qualities that will make you a compelling candidate. 


As such, make sure you choose an engaging topic. The essay should be memorable and engaging — playing it safe can easily cause your application to be overlooked. Another key element is demonstrating growth and development; AOs want to admit students who are mature and self-aware, showing an ability to take on the challenges of advanced study and add a positive impact to the school community. To nail the personal statement, it must be entertaining and informative, showing you’re both an interesting and insightful person. 


2. Emphasize quality over quantity in extracurriculars


An essential fact to know as you plan extracurriculars: the Common App allows you to list exactly 10 activities and 5 awards. If you’ve done more than that, you’ll have to choose your favorites and simply leave out the rest. So, while it's perfectly fine to do extra activities for fun, it’s simply not worth putting in multiple hours a week to activities that will never show up on your application. 


As you develop your extracurricular activities: there are three top-priority goals to pursue: long-term involvement, high-impact achievements, and building a narrative. Extended involvement in an EC shows commitment and persistence, achievements and leadership roles make your resume memorable and impressive, and multiple activities on a similar theme (i.e. engineering) show how you’ve worked hard to develop your planned field of study.  


3. Write engaging and well-structured supplemental essays


The vast majority of colleges require applicants to write one or more school-specific supplemental essays. Focusing on topics from why you want to attend the school to how you’ll add diverse viewpoints to the community, supplements must be just as high-quality as your Personal Statement. While your essays would be read meticulously in an ideal world, the truth is that AOs typically read an entire application in ten to fifteen minutes. Your task becomes to keep the reader interested and engaged. Is the message of your essay clear in even a one minute skim? Can the reader remember any of your anecdotes and examples after they’ve finished reviewing your application? If not, you need to keep working. Make sure it’s impossible to miss the “point” of your essay, or to get bored or disengaged, even if it’s read quickly!


4. Demonstrate intellectual curiosity


An under-discussed major flaw of otherwise perfect applications is showing a lack of passion or curiosity. Many high-achieving students spend their high school years trying to “do it all”, from winning prestigious awards to completing impressive research to launching their own successful clubs or organizations. While none of this is necessarily negative, it can sometimes be easy to see a student’s motivation. Was it just to impress admissions officers, or was it out of genuine interest? Ideally, you can strike a balance between working to succeed and pursuing your true passions. Don’t try to stick to a formula or script for “impressive” extracurriculars, pursue what makes you excited about learning! It’ll pay off in the long run — it’s far easier to write engaging essays when you’re genuinely passionate about the topic, plus you’ll be more fulfilled in college and your future career, 


5. Highlight your uniqueness as an applicant


Colleges will see a lot of repetitive elements in impressive applications, from popular activities like robotics and debate to common intended majors like computer science and engineering. Don’t let your application start blending together with others — highlight what you do differently. Focus less on the main accomplishments or interests associated with these interests, and show a unique perspective on why you pursue them and how they’ve shaped your goals for the future. 


On the other hand, if you’re interested in less-popular majors or activities, take advantage of this uniqueness. Provide a narrative to how you arrived at this discipline, indicate novel research approaches you’d like to take, and how your experiences have shaped your intended program of study and future goals. 


 And for any applicant, emphasizing things most other people won’t have done in your field is similarly effective. Did you win a highly prestigious award, start a truly original initiative, or gain recognition at a level uncommon for high schoolers? Even if others may have similar interests or goals, show how you are uniquely qualified and prepared.


6. Tailor your application to each school


A common — and reasonable — question that many students have is how colleges decide between equally-qualified applicants. While there always is an element of chance, the decisive factor is your degree of “fit” with the school. Whether this be the school’s academic programs or their mission and values, you want to show that you have a clear motivation to apply and that you’ll be a positive addition to the community. 


This will require careful research. Look into your intended major, and see if there are courses or opportunities that clearly connect to your high school experiences or future goals. Read the school’s mission statement and values, and emphasize these traits — such as creativity, teamwork, or leadership — in your application. This way, you can prove you won’t just meet the school’s criteria, but that you’ll thrive there, 


7. Obtain strategic letters of recommendation


Letters of recommendation are more important than you might think — they’re the only qualitative information about you that you did not write yourself! While test scores and grades may be objective evaluations, they don’t speak directly to your work ethic or personality in the classroom. Similarly, while your essays demonstrate personal qualities, it’s impossible for you to have total objectivity when speaking about yourself. Letters of recommendation provide external feedback from an educator, positive and/or negative, and show AOs whether you’d be a good addition to the classroom. 


So, you want these letters to be as positive and detailed as possible. Choose recommenders who know you well, and can provide specific examples about you. While a complementary but vague letter won’t necessarily hurt you, it’ll pale in comparison to one full of glowing, detailed anecdotes. To maximize letters of this nature, ask teachers who know you well — those with whom you’ve taken multiple courses are an ideal choice. Additionally, to show your proficiency across the academic spectrum, it’s strongly advised to choose one recommender from a humanities subject and one from STEM. 


8. Show consistency across your application


If you make it past the first round of review, AOs will then pass your application on to a broader committee. In this context, they’ll be “pitching” you as an applicant, which includes summarizing your profile and why they’re recommending you for admission. Your job? Making this as easy as possible. 


Think about the most common interview question: “Tell me about yourself.” In your response, you need to give a concise but informative description of who you are — your background, interests, goals, and how they relate to the position. Your application should make an AO able to answer this question for you. So, make sure everything flows together. Show how your extracurriculars connect to your academic interests, add personality with the activities you do on the side, and show how your passion has developed over the course of high school. 



9. Be authentic and interesting


Circling back to the importance of compelling essays to make an impact from a quick read, showing your authentic personality is crucial to success. Here’s an example of what this looks like. Imagine you’re listening to two speeches. The first speaker sounds overly professional, trying so hard to impress the audience that the content feels unconvincing or uninteresting. The second speaker is more lighthearted, adding humorous elements to a speech that still contains meaningful information. Which of the two speakers would you most like to spend time with? 


You can think of your application in a similar way. Don’t be afraid to add humor or fun stories to your essays, as long as they communicate the essential information. Remember, AOs aren’t just trying to identify talented applicants, but ones that they’d like to have on campus. 


10. Do meticulous application review


With so many moving parts and complex strategies to follow, it’s easy for mistakes to fall through the cracks, whether it be grammatical errors or poorly articulated messages in an essay. As such, meticulous application review is an invaluable step before submitting your work. Finding avenues for professional review such as Early Bird will provide you with an Admissions Officer perspective, showing exactly how colleges will respond to your application materials. Other external readers, such as peers or teachers, can also gauge whether your application is an authentic picture of who you are as both a student and an individual. 


Within such a wildly competitive admissions landscape, these steps can help you stand out from other applicants. From showing your true personality to writing exciting essays to framing yourself strategically, you can confidently put your best foot forward as you submit your applications.


One other option – Lumiere Research Scholar Program

If you are interested in doing university-level research, then you could also consider applying to the Lumiere Research Scholar Program, a selective online high school program for students that I founded with researchers at Harvard and Oxford. Last year, we had over 4000 students apply for 500 spots in the program! You can find the application form here.


Also check out the Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation, a non-profit research program for talented, low-income students.


Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.


 

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