Why Being Good at Everything is No Longer Good Enough for Colleges
Colleges are bored with talented, well-rounded students who study hard, earn good grades, and are involved in nearly every club that their high school offers. In fact, colleges are even bored with those who started nearly every club that their high school offers. College admissions officers are now looking to break away from students who seem to have been manufactured and engineered specifically to become "admirable applicants"; colleges now want students who have a little something different to bring to the table.
The admissions office receives hundreds to thousands of applicants during admissions season. Often, out of this huge pile, admissions officers must select only a few hundred to accept as students. The task can be daunting. Many student applications can sound too similar after leafing through hundreds every week. Student essays may be well-written but lack originality, personality, and pizzazz, or the student’s answers to application questions may be too humdrum and dry. Even reading through recommendation letters from fawning high school instructors gets old, as most of them say the same things – this student is hard-working, and this student is studious. That is why it is crucial for college applicants to dig deep to find out-of-the-ordinary stories to tell on their college essays and inject vibrant personality into their writing in order to stand out from the sea of monotony.
In addition, many schools are looking to diversify their student population as well as bring in students who display a real passion for something unique, according to Rachel Toor, a former admissions officer at Duke and author of Admissions Confidential: an Insider’s Account of the Elite College Selection Process. It makes sense, as no school would want their entire student population to be comprised of football playing, classical piano-trained former members of the 4-H Club. They are searching for individuals and not just a list of qualifications. Admissions officers seek out applicants who display a real passion for something, whether it is theatre, sky-diving, or Greek mythology. These applicants typically show signs of being passionate by listing activities related to that interest and not just a long, seemingly disjointed list that implies that the applicant is only trying to pad his or her academic resume.
All in all, colleges are looking to break away from the stereotypical "perfect" college applicant. This is not necessarily a bad change, as now high school students and future college applicants will not have to worry about joining as many clubs as possible or volunteering at a hundred different places. Now, they can just focus on participating in activities they truly love and let that passion shine through in their admissions essays.
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