“It’s not about being the best or having the most superlatives. It’s about [showing] us a side of them that we can be excited about. It’s about who they are and whether they are a good fit.” – Dean of Admissions at a top 10 school.
You are way more than your grades, your extracurricular involvement, your accolades. As the Dean of Admissions at Duke said just this past week, “We have the luxury of choosing the interesting students from among the smart ones.”
What makes you tick? What kind of school community member would you be? What kinds of contributions would you make and why?
Essentially, what makes you you? The college application process is an opportunity to showcase your genuine self rather than showcasing that which makes you on par with every other smart applicant.
Admissions officers read thousands upon thousands of applications each year. And trust us, they have seen it all. The admissions process is only growing more competitive, and the students who are genuine, interesting, and compelling are the ones who stand out.
In our work with private clients, this is what we focus on: discovering who the applicant really is and what makes them tick. Then we help them translate that into a stellar, stand apart application; not an application that showcases their robotic likeness to the “smart” applicant whose file will blend in with the thousands of others who think that perfection is the golden ticket.