Successful applications in today’s ultra-competitive college admissions game tend to be as varied and unique as the students who write them. If you’re planning to have your favorite AI do the heavy lifting for you, I’m sorry to inform you there is no algorithm to generate ideal answers to any of the individual application questions, let alone a compelling overall application (for more on this topic, see How Telling the Truth Can Get You Into College). Nevertheless, underpinning this great diversity among applicaitons that work are three common features.
If you are a fan of the SNL skits in the early 90s, you probably remember Stuart Smalley (Al Franken) and his “Daily Affirmations” tag line: “I’m smart enough, I’m good enough, and doggone it, people like me.”
Hey, Dr. Yo, I thought this post was about the three most important application qualities, not 90’s television. Did you forget already? I did not, smart a..leck. I was about to say your goal is to convince the admissions committees that, like Stuarty Smalley, you’re smart enough, you’re good enough, and people like you.
The very structure of today’s college applications (including the CommonApp and just about every other application I’ve seen) suggests the primacy of these three keys, which often serve as three elimination rounds to help colleges manage today’s unprecedented number of applicants.
The first elimination round involves your ability and readiness to pursue your academic goals for college—in short, are you smart enough? If admissions officers had to take a Hippocratic oath analogous to physicians’ “First, do no harm,” it might well be, “First, admit no one who will flunk out.” This explains why GPA is so important. Committees also consider the specific courses you’ve taken, honors you may have won, test scores where appropriate, and recommendations from teachers and guidance counselors before passing judgment. Consequently, your top priority as an applicant is to build a case that whatever you choose to study as an undergraduate, you can handle the workload and can contribute to that part of the intellectual life of the school.
On the CommonApp, most of this information is captured immediately after the basic profile information (on the CommonApp it’s contained in the education and testing tabs. If admissions committees aren’t convinced you are “smart enough,” they will likely invest precious little time even reading your activities, personal essay, and answers to supplement questions.
If you survive the “smart enough” round, then admissions officers will very carefully consider your activities section, trying to assess whether and where you’re likely to contribute to their school community outside the classrooms. Along with letters of recommendation and sometimes interviews and relationships with school representatives, what you write about your most meaningful HS activities is primarily where they attempt to judge whether you are “good enough.”
When candidates appear to be both smart enough and good enough, admissions committees will read your personal essay with great interest, primarily to determine how likable you are. Not, and I say again, NOT to read about one more impressive achievement. This is the one place in your entire application where your goal isn’t to be impressive. In fact, trying to look impressive often strikes admissions officers, like guests at a party, as unlikable.
Remember, by this point, they know that you’re smart enough and good enough, so here they’re trying to assess your ability to play nicely in the college sandbox. Consequently, it’s better to tell a modest story where you look human or endearing than even a slightly immodest one or, at the risk of scuttling the whole mission, one where you’re the hero; no one will accuse you of sounding braggy at any point before the main essay, but it’s all too easy to come off as arrogant in your main essay.
So remember when it comes to writing your college applications, try to be like Stuart Smalley and you’ll go far. If you need help with any part of your apps, we are here to help! 🙂