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If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.’
Arthur Quiller-Couch, British Literary Critic
Increase the font size, make the page margins bigger, or create an invisible header and footer, but never—NEVER—cut words. It’s the mantra that any high school student in the throes of their graphological education knows well, because at the high school level our essay goals are defined by quantity (“four pages, double-spaced”), not quality. Where quality is concerned, the most scrupulous high school teachers will require the submission of a rough draft to be marked up, liberated of orthographic and grammatical errors, and resubmitted as what is rather dubiously referred to as a final draft, but it is rare indeed for students to be asked to undertake a more meticulous process of revision. For these students, transitioning from a mentality of merely sufficing to one of excelling is one of the greatest challenges in the college application process.
There are two reasons for this. One is a difference of comparison; the other a difference of repercussions and returns. To receive the highest marks on a high school essay, a student’s work must equal or outshine that of the other 25 students in their class. In the college applications process, however, not only is the bar higher—your work may be compared to that of 80,000 other applicants—but so are the stakes. College essay writers vie not for grades, but rather, for their futures.
Both of these factors must have a massive influence on the attitude we take towards our personal statements and supplemental essays. My students are often surprised (and exasperated) when, fourteen or fifteen revisions in, I am continuing to push them to improve and polish their essays. I get it. My demands of them so far surpass the level of quality required by their scholastic experience that my insistence probably seems to crest a peak of absurdity. And yet successful applications depend on essays that cling to the memories of admissions officers as incessantly as the most cognitively indelible earworms.
One of the surest ways to arrive at such echelons of quality is to ruthlessly eliminate anything that is extraneous to your narrative. And sometimes even the best writing does not contribute substantively to the story you are trying to tell… which leads me (thank you for your patience) to the idea of “murdering your darlings,” as the phrase was originally coined but which has also been referred to more recently by Stephen King (in his marvelous memoir On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft) as “killing your darlings.” Simply put, killing your darlings means relinquishing what may seem like your best work in the service of your narrative. Incidentally, it’s an idea that inheres in other art forms as well. Filmmakers from Coppola to Kubrick have insisted on the idea that the first thing you must do after shooting a film is to throw out your best shot. Similarly, Alfred Hitchcock famously stated, “Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.”
Whatever form of the phrase you prefer, “killing your darlings” bespeaks the moral quandary of the action: how can we (and why would we) extinguish something we hold so dear?
Let’s start with why. Your best writing (or in the filmmaking world, your best shot) is very hard to let go of, and as such an unfailing allegiance to it can become a colossal distraction from the task of assembling a strong, cohesive narrative. By retaining these marvelously crafted (but irrelevant) baubles of writing, the rest of your narrative is inevitably siphoned off into the orbit of their gravitational pull. The resulting system may boast cosmic beauty, but that doesn’t mean that it is capable of supporting life.
Killing your darlings, destructive though it may seem, is therefore an essential act of affirmation: affirmation of the rest of your narrative. Mary Douglas, one of my favorite anthropologists, in her seminal work on the concept of dirt (or, as she puts it, “matter out of place”) calls eliminating the extraneous an act of “positively re-ordering our environment, making it conform to an idea […] a creative movement, an attempt to relate form to function, to make unity of experience.”
Hopefully you are with me so far on why killing your darlings is so important. Let’s explore how—and here we return to the world of filmmaking for an answer. In his marvelous monograph on the art of filmmaking, Making Movies, acclaimed director Sidney Lumet writes that every film must be about one thing, and one thing only:
For now, suffice it to say that the theme (the what of the movie) is going to determine the style (the how of the movie). The theme will decide the specifics of every selection made in all the following chapters. I work from the inside out. What the movie is about will determine how it will be cast, how it will look, how it will be edited, how it will be musically scored, how it will be mixed, how the titles will look, and, with a good studio, how it will be released. What it’s about will determine how it is to be made.
The same is true of writing, and especially the writing of college essays, with its requirement for such a tight, unerring narrative. What is your essay really about? Once you know that, every aspect of your essay must conform: from word choice to narrative, style to theme. Anything that doesn’t serve the purpose should be binned—even your best writing.
All of this amounts to a paradigm shift in the minds of most of my students. When I slate large swaths of their text (whether deserving of affection or aversion) for deletion, there is a conspicuous pain in their eyes. But remember, killing your darlings, violent though it may seem, is a sacrifice in the service of a higher purpose.
This post first appeared on the website of our colleagues at Distinctive College Consulting.
Napoleon was only 26 years old. The French Revolution had just occurred but France was still attempting to overcome a state of relative disarray. After having served its fledgling government by successfully leading the siege of Toulon and quashing a counterrevolution, he was, for the first time, given command of an army and charged with removing the Austrian armed forces from Italy. Imagine how terrifying it might be to your average 26-year-old, having scarcely surpassed adolescence, to be thrust into the command of an army with rank superiority over seasoned, sinewy veterans with decades more experience than you. And yet according to one eyewitness to the moment, here is how young Napoleon handled it:
Flinging his hat on a large table in the middle of the room, he went up to an old general named Krieg, a man with a wonderful knowledge of detail and the author of a very good soldiers’ manual. He made him take a seat beside him at the table, and began questioning him, pen in hand, about a host of facts connected with the service and discipline. Some of his questions showed such a complete ignorance of the most ordinary things that several of my comrades smiled. I was myself struck by the number of his questions, their order and their rapidity. But what struck me still more was the sight of a commander-in-chief perfectly indifferent about showing his subordinates how completely ignorant he was of various points of a business which the youngest of them was supposed to know perfectly, and this raised him a thousand cubits in my opinion.
(Wilson, “Napoleon Bonaparte”)
What can we learn about success in the world by studying its greatest leaders, past and present? This is the question that premises one of my favorite podcasts, How to Take Over the World. In each episode (or series of episodes), host Ben Wilson recounts the story of a world leader—some geniuses of military conquest and government like Napoleon, Julius Caesar, and Alexander the Great, and others of ideas and innovation, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, the Wright Brothers, and Steve Jobs—and analyzes the qualities that made them great. I cannot recommend this podcast highly enough to my students, not only because Ben is a consummate storyteller who brings history (never, I must admit, one of my favorite subjects in school) to life, but also because the lens of world domination, as it turns out, provides one fascinating case study after another about how to be spectacularly successful at what you do.
Take Napoleon, for example. Confidence, even at the risk of revealing his ignorance, was one of Napoleon’s defining qualities. And while this observer was struck by Napoleon’s ignorance, he was thunderstruck by his confidence. As a teaching fellow and later a lecturer at Harvard, I saw again and again how important this was. Harvard (and top institutions like it) suffer from epidemic levels of impostor syndrome. Many of its students (and yes, professors, administrators, and so on) are terrified of being perceived as fraudulent interlopers or the result of a late-night, bleary-eyed admissions error. Time and again, I was struck by the lengths my students would go to to demonstrate how much they knew: nevermind that it was the first day of class and presumably they had come to acquire knowledge, not demonstrate that they already had it. Such environments give rise to one of the greatest enemies of learning: fear of asking questions. Asking questions is how we learn (just ask Socrates!). What is more, it is how we set the stage to foster an environment of inquiry and trust. Napoleon’s complete disregard for others’ perceptions of his inexperience positioned him perfectly to learn everything he needed to successfully execute his first command—and he went on in short order to rout the Austrian army and eject them from Italy.
From Napoleon, How to Take Over the World soon turns to Steve Jobs, a conqueror of another sort who nonetheless shared many of Napoleon’s leadership qualities. In the episodes on Jobs, which draw heavily from the Walter Isaacson biography, we learn that Steve was famous for his “reality distortion field,” through which he managed to convince employees and collaborators that the impossible was, in fact, possible. While the examples abound, the following is one of my personal favorites:
One day Jobs came into the cubicle of Larry Kenyon, an engineer who was working on the Macintosh operating system, and complained that it was taking too long to boot up. Kenyon started to explain, but Jobs cut him off. “If it could save a person’s life, would you find a way to shave ten seconds off the boot time?” he asked. Kenyon allowed that he probably could. Jobs went to a whiteboard and showed that if there were five million people using the Mac, and it took ten seconds extra to turn it on every day, that added up to three hundred million or so hours per year that people would save, which was the equivalent of at least one hundred lifetimes saved per year. “Larry was suitably impressed, and a few weeks later he came back and it booted up twenty-eight seconds faster,” Atkinson recalled. “Steve had a way of motivating by looking at the bigger picture.”
(Isaacson)
While Steve’s approach did not always work, there are certainly lessons to be drawn from it. Few things are as valuable in life as believing in yourself, which, when done well can persuade others to believe in your ideas too. Many students who come to us at Hyll, for instance, dream of studying at an Ivy League university. They have perfect grades and near-perfect test scores but are discouraged to learn that that simply isn’t enough. Indeed, entrance to the world’s most selective universities also requires them to show a staggeringly steadfast commitment to a passion—the kind of commitment that, while it can be difficult to measure, typically leads to national (or even international) recognition. And while this may seem difficult, it is possible: we see it all the time. And it begins with an unwavering, unapologetic, reality-bending belief in oneself. If Steve Jobs, why not you?
How to Take Over the World host Ben Wilson is fond of saying that knowing what you want is a superpower. We couldn’t agree more, and Walt Disney (featured in a two-episode series) provides another excellent example. Similarly to Jobs and many other important leaders, Disney had a nearly maniacal focus on pursuing his own ideas (I am also reminded of James Dyson, subject of an episode of another favorite podcast, Founders). As a young man, in spite of numerous catastrophic setbacks, Disney was obsessed with producing the first animated feature film, and he accomplished it with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, which would go on to become the highest-grossing animated film for 55 years (Wikipedia contributors). Once successful, Disney began to lose interest in animation and developed a new obsession—trains—to which he devoted so much time that his friends and associates began wondering whether he had lost his mind. He began building enormous train sets in his house and soon developed the idea of opening a theme park. Renowned theme park experts whom he hired to help him realize the idea all told him not to, instead assuring him that he had a spectacular failure on his hands. But Disney was adamant, and it’s hard to exist in the modern world without being able to guess what happened next: Disneyland. From Disney (and others like him) we learn that it isn’t enough to have a great idea. One must also be willing to pursue them even in the face of dogged opposition. Indeed, it is this very characteristic of a great idea—others’ inability to recognize its genius—that lends it its greatest potential. In admissions circles, in fact, we often talk about how an applicant must not be well-rounded, but rather “pointy” or, like Disney, excellent in a few unique areas. Whether your passion is trains, crocheting, or writing electronic music soundtracks to classic films, pursue it with the indefatigable obstinacy of a world conqueror.
So what can we learn from studying how to take over the world? From Napoleon, we learn to be confident enough to always ask questions and never stop learning. From Steve Jobs, we learn the power of believing in ourselves even when others don’t. From Walt Disney, we learn the importance of focus. From Ben Wilson’s podcast How to Take Over the World, we have the opportunity to learn all of this and to be entertained and inspired while doing it.
Works Cited
Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. Abacus, 2015.
Wikipedia contributors. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film).” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Feb. 2024. Web. 29 Feb. 2024.
Wilson, Ben, host. “Napoleon Bonaparte.” How to Take Over the World, 28 December 2017, https://www.takeoverpod.com/episodes/napoleon-bonaparte.
Wilson, Ben, host. “Steve Jobs (Part 1).” How to Take Over the World, 28 December 2017, https://www.takeoverpod.com/episodes/steve-jobs.
Wilson, Ben, host. “Steve Jobs (Part 2).” How to Take Over the World, 28 December 2017, https://www.takeoverpod.com/episodes/steve-jobs-part-2.
Wilson, Ben, host. “Walt Disney (Part 1).” How to Take Over the World, 20 January 2022, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walt-disney-part-1/id1333158713?i=1000548521918.
Wilson, Ben, host. “Walt Disney (Part 2).” How to Take Over the World, 31 March 2022, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walt-disney-part-2/id1333158713?i=1000555860087.
Si has solicitado a una o varias universidades estadounidenses recientemente, es muy posible que en breve te contacten para ofrecerte una entrevista. Son una cosa común en el proceso de admisión de las universidades de USA, ya que al tratarse de evaluaciones globales basadas en distintos aspectos de la candidatura, estas entrevistas ayudan al personal de admisiones a conocer más de cerca a los candidatos (to get to know you a bit better).
Si hay algo que te podemos confirmar es que no hay dos entrevistas iguales. Unas son más informales, otras siguen un guión, unas son más cortas otras más largas, dependerá en gran medida de tu entrevistador y del feeling que tengáis. En cualquier caso, empecemos por una lección básica de repaso de los interrogativos qué, cómo, cuándo, dónde, quién, por qué. En mis años de profe en Harvard, así empezaba mis cursos de principiantes, la mejor manera de aprender algo es preguntado. ¡Lo pasaban súper bien dando vueltas por la clase preguntando lo que estudiaban a todos sus compañeros! A ti también te van a preguntar muchas cosas:
- ¿Cómo eres?¿Qué te gusta?
- ¿Qué haces en tu tiempo libre?
- ¿Quién es tu profesor favorito?
- ¿Háblame de un reto que hayas tenido?
- ¿En qué proyectos estás trabajando ahora mismo?
- ¿Por qué te interesa nuestra universidad?
- ¿Qué quieres estudiar?
- ¿Dónde te ves dentro de 10 años?
- ¿Has hecho voluntariado?
- ¿A qué comunidades perteneces?
Obviamente, responder a estas preguntas puede ser sencillo (juego al fútbol, quiero estudiar Física, soy española), pero esto no es la clase de Spanish A. Estamos en una advanced class, probablemente para una universidad en el top 50 y el reto es hacerlo de modo que tus mejores cualidades, tus valores y talentos se reflejan en las respuestas, que trascienden el mero ejercicio comunicativo. Recuerda, además, que este tipo de entrevistas se realizan (como si de un análisis gramatical se tratara) para ver si hay concordancia (entre el sujeto–tú–y el objeto–la universidad). Por ello, tus respuestas tienen que estar pensadas teniendo en cuenta quién es ese “objeto”, sus valores, misión y cultura, y cuáles son las acciones (o verbos) que os conectan. Responder a este nivel, requiere un gran ejercicio de preparación y no sólo gramatical. Así que, si en unos días tienes tu entrevista con Cornell, Stanford o Iowa State, aquí te dejamos unas tips que te pueden ser muy útiles si lo que quieres es “to ace your admissions interview”:
Ser y Estar. De cara a una entrevista, lo primero que se debe preparar es cómo describirse, ¿quién eres?¿qué te hace único? No importa lo brillante que seas y los muchos logros que hayas alcanzado es bastante común que, al describirse uno mismo se haga con cierta modestia, dejándose muchas cosas buenas en el tintero. Por eso, es muy importante comenzar esta sección preparando una lista del “Ser y Estar”. En mis años de profesora explicaba todos los años a mis estudiantes que en castellano se usa “ser” para describir cualidades inherentes e invariables y “estar” para describir estados y acciones. La sección “yo sé quién soy” trata un poco de eso. Una vez tengas esta lista repleta de buenos ejemplos, es el momento de cuestionarte el por qué/para qué (el por y para, otro punto gramatical que siempre se les complica a los estudiantes de español). Trata de escribir una pequeña nota a lado de cada una de esas cualidades/estado/acciones explicando por qué son buenos, por qué están en tu lista, o para qué te sirve. Una vez hayas hecho cuantas más conexiones mejor, relaciona todas tus cualidades y características con tus valores y principios. Este ejercicio es muy valioso, no tires tus notas y sigue trabajando en ellas toda tu vida, es importante saber quién eres, por qué y para qué. De hecho, es un ejercicio que recomiendo a cualquiera, una buena actividad para esas tardes de lluvia en familia. A lo largo del tiempo te servirá para entender tu crecimiento vital.
Una vez tienes listo el “quién eres”, es el momento de pasar al fit. Para más información sobre esto del fit lee este artículo! Y es que en Hyll creemos que a la hora de encontrar una institución en la que vas a pasar los próximo cuatro años, el fit es CRUCIAL. Esperamos que a estas alturas tengas muy claro por qué cada una de las universidades de tu lista es un buen fit, pero si no es así: manos a la obra (sí, sé que he repetido cinco veces la palabra fit, pero es que, ¡no sabes lo importante que es!).
El verbo Gustar. Es difícil saber qué es lo que te preguntarán en esa entrevista para Princeton que tienes en tres días. No tan difícil es adivinar que una de las cosas que quieren saber es por qué te interesa Princeton y no Harvard o UCLA…pregunta complicada, ¿verdad? No te preocupes, probablemente no te hagan una pregunta tan directa, y si lo hacen, estoy segura que sabrás contestar educadamente, que “las quieres a las tres”, pero eso lo tendrás que demostrar. ¿Y cómo se demuestra que lo tuyo por Princeton es “amor verdadero”? Pues muy sencillo: sabiéndolo TODO sobre Princeton y sabiendo que de Princeton te gusta TODO (vale, igual no todo te gusta and that’s OK!). Es un poco como esa canción de Manu Chao “Me gustas tú” que tanto usaba yo para enseñar los verbos afectivos (es decir en los que tú eres un objeto “afectado” por el sujeto, que no es otro que Princeton!). Así que, ¡a trabajar! Busca información relevante a tu “ser y estar” y haz una lista que conecta tus cualidades (me gustan las montañas, me gustas tú), estados (me gusta ser competitivo, me gustas tú) y acciones (me gusta trabajar duro, me gustas tú). ¿Te haces una idea, verdad? Recuerda dar buenos ejemplos, que se note que has hecho tus deberes: “me interesa la ingeniería y trabajar con Prof. McHill en su proyecto sobre mares sostenibles”, “he hablado con el club de robótica y estoy deseando formar parte del mismo porque me entusiasman los robos y me gustaría diseñar uno que me ayude a doblar la ropa”, “me encantan los residential colleges, me encantaría vivir en Yeh”. Lo bueno de este ejercicio (al igual que el anterior) es que si lo haces con cuidado, no sólo te servirá para hacer una excelente entrevista (y de paso repasar los afectivos), sino para entender si Princeton (or any given university) es verdaderamente un buen fit para ti o no.
Si no lo es, run away! Si te aceptan serás infeliz, te lo aseguro.
Sujeto activo: Tú. Pero el fit es como el amor verdadero, tiene que ser correspondido. Quizás este sea el aspecto más importante cuando se está buscando una universidad. Te diría que esta vez, tú eres el “sujeto”, es decir “la parte de la oración que realiza la acción” y el “predicado” es lo que tú vas a hacer en la universidad (ahh, qué bonita es la sintaxis, ¡mi amor verdadero!). Por ello, ahora te toca trazar una ruta que une tus cualidades, valores, intereses y objetivos con las acciones específicas que vas a llevar a cabo en la universidad en cuestión. Debes ser asertivo y tener claro que tú sí puedes make a difference in X College. Ante todo debes demostrar que tienes un claro plan de acción:
- ¿A qué iniciativas quieres unirte?
- ¿Qué tipo de student organizations te interesan?
- ¿Con qué profesores quieres trabajar?
- ¿Qué proyectos te interesan dentro de tu área de estudio?
- ¿Que ideas tienes para mejorar y enriquecer a la comunidad?
- ¿Qué vas a hacer para crear un buen ambiente con tus compañeros?
En esta parte necesitas seguridad y creer en ti mismo (además de hacer un buen research). Has llegado lejos, te has esforzado, escrito decenas de ensayos, trabajado en múltiples proyectos, este es tu momento para brillar y mostrar tus ambiciones y objetivos vitales. No tengas miedo, muéstrales por qué eres el mejor, es lo que están buscando.
Para terminar, recuerda que esta entrevista es un ejercicio de comunicación interpersonal, así que no te olvides de preparar una pequeña lista de preguntas para tu entrevistador (¡no sólo vas a hablar tú!. Desde la típica ¿qué es lo que más te gusta sobre ZXC University? hasta las más subjetivas relacionadas con tus intereses personales, siempre SIEMPRE hay que preguntar ya que es otra manera de mostrar que tu interés es genuino.
A este punto, lo único que te hará falta es un buen meeting set-up (buena iluminación y posición de la pantalla) y muchas ganas de disfrutar.
In bocca al lupo!
Break a leg!
Suerte!
Or, Reflections on Choosing a College Consultant
“Which schools have you gotten your students into?”
It’s a question that we’re frequently asked. Yet the question is misleading and belies what a college consultant actually does. We work hard—and often late at night, thanks to time differences—to help our students highlight to universities just how exceptional they are so that they receive offers of admission at universities where they will thrive.
But the fact is, we don’t get them in. We help them get themselves in. (And yes, we know you want to know where they got themselves in. We get it—here’s a list!)
Perhaps my misgivings about this phrase are nothing more than a bit of semantic nitpicking. Even if so, one of the first things a prospective client should understand about us is that our job is to mentor students.
Incidentally, this is perhaps one of the biggest differences between an IEC (independent educational consultant) and a recruiting agency. Agencies are compensated by universities for placements, and while (like IECs) agencies often assist students in the application process, their business model essentially requires them to prioritize profit over student growth. IECs like us, however, don’t just work with students and families: we work for them.
Yet there’s far more to it than that: we are educators. Hyll consultants boast many years working in mentorship roles at some of the world’s most prestigious universities, Harvard chief among them. And we bring all that professional experience to bear in working with students, because one of our principal concerns is fostering the growth of our students and helping them come into their own. And by doing so, not only is the process rewarding in its own right, students’ growth also makes them far more competitive in the application process.
Stated another way, we help students find themselves, to strive for excellence both within the classroom and elsewhere, and to demonstrate it to colleges and universities in the most compelling ways possible. We also help match them to the universities best suited to their unique strengths and talents—which are different for everyone. And this last point deserves further exploration.
Not all teenagers thrive in high school, and no one should be judged on the merits—or lack thereof—of their most fraught moments or their weakest subjects. We thus accept clients without regard for superficial measures—like grades and test scores—of their admissions potential. Indeed, if anything matters in this process, it is motivation.
We take great pride in recognizing all students’ potential to be extraordinary and helping them develop it in ways that are both personally enriching and increase their probability of being admitted to great schools. This leads me to another important point: there really are no great schools, only great schools for you. At Hyll, we recognize the potential in all our students to do great things but also work hard to meet students where they are and match them with universities that are a great fit for them. That means building a well-balanced college list—that is, one with a healthy balance of realism and aspiration—based on students’ unique profiles (including their goals, their talents, their geographical preferences, and dozens of other criteria) and historical admissions data.
Of all the qualities that most matter in a consultant, however, nothing could be more important than their mentoring experience. Any consultant should have substantial experience working with, understanding, and developing a rapport with students. Indeed, the success of the consulting relationship demands it. Like Virgil guiding Dante through the Inferno, our job as consultants is to chaperone students through one of the most arduous moments of their lives thus far. I’m not saying that the college application process is like a treacherous descent through the subterranean landscapes of Hell, but, well, let’s just say it has its moments!
The soul searching involved in preparing for college, making weighty decisions about the future, and writing application essays peppered with reflections of an intimately personal nature involves traversing unexplored, emotionally fraught territory. This can only occur when the relationship between student and consultant is properly nurtured—through empathy, compassion, and (let’s face it) plenty of friendly nudging—by a professional with experience understanding and supporting students’ lived experience.
A Reflection on Everything, Everywhere, All at Once and the College Essay
SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022), so if you haven’t yet seen it, see it (it’s a masterpiece!) and then come back.
In one of the alternate realities that Evelyn Quan (played by the always impressive Michelle Yeoh) experiences after a Matrix-style awakening to the existence of an infinitude of alternative timelines, humans have hotdogs instead of fingers. As it phantasmagorically explores hundreds of these would-be historical divergences, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (henceforth EEAAO) will revisit what I shall hereby dub “the weinerverse” numerous times. The scenes are nothing if not unique, memorable, and perhaps a little bit disturbing, though without ever being offensive. Indeed, while there is something viscerally off-putting about watching them, I’ve found them to be by far the film’s most indelible images.
So it is with this rather grotesque image of hotdog fingers that I want to share some thoughts: not on the film—though it will serve as an important touchpoint for this reflection—but on college essays. As I write this, college essay season has recently come to a close, undoubtedly to the great relief of students everywhere (incidentally, we college consultants are also relieved to bid farewell to essays for a while—much as we love them, like Christmas carols, they are delightful until they are not). One of the greatest challenges students face when writing college essays is that of embracing specificity, a subject I also address in this post. That’s no surprise, really, because writing down to the most minute detail is much harder than maintaining a comfortable, airy bird’s-eye view. The difficulty increases because in college essays, we are almost invariably writing about our own experiences, and doing so in detail depends on having an airtight memory that doesn’t come naturally to everyone (which is why we encourage our students to journal!).
Detail is what brings stories to life. It’s what makes the difference between eyes glazed with boredom and eyes glistening with tears of joy or despair. The genius of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once lies in the mind-boggling imagination that went into it (although as its many Oscar nominations will attest, the acting and direction are also first-rate!). I do not intend to dwell excessively on the image of hotdog fingers, but I do wish to point out that the very uniqueness of the idea, however odd, is what makes it so memorable, and making you—the candidate—memorable, is among the college essay’s most important tasks. This is why I often tell students to make room in the brainstorming process for their quirkiest idiosyncrasies, their most outlandish thoughts, and their most bizarre fantasies. While not all of these will be appropriate for inclusion in college essays, it is at the very fringes of our consciousness, identity, and lived reality that some of the best—that is, the most original—ideas are to be found. Indeed, it is important to remember that brainstorming, at its best, is a process of indiscriminate inclusion during which discernment, decision-making, and deletion have no place. During this process, you must have the courage to usher ideas as thoroughly ludicrous as hotdog fingers onto the page; that is, to accept absurdity as your most valuable form of capital. I can only imagine the brainstorming that went into EEAAO. Which ideas were left on the cutting room floor after it was decided that hotdog fingers unquestionably deserved inclusion? And yet it works.
Once you’ve engaged in a brainstorming process that is truly inclusive, only then can you start to winnow down to the most meritorious ideas. The first ideas to go should be the clichés. Because if the best ideas are often found at the fringes of our experience, it is equally true that ideas at the center of our lived experience tend to overlap with those of others and are thus least interesting. Recognizing cliché can be a particularly difficult operation for a seventeen-year-old, since knowing which ideas are categorically overused depends on the sort of abundant exposure that tends to come with age. So for those high schoolers reading, don’t be afraid to ask the trusted adults in your life (teachers, parents, school counselors or «ahem» college consultants) to share their honest opinions about which ideas should be dropped altogether because they’ve been done to death. But to give you an idea, here are some of the more cliché essay ideas that I’ve told students (many students!) to discard:
- I was getting a C in math, but then I worked really hard and brought my grade up to an A. Yawn! With all due respect to the doubtless considerable effort you had to put in, this sort of experience is highly common among high school students. Forget it.
- I broke my leg and had to quit the lacrosse (or hockey, or quidditch, etc.) team, but after months of iron-pumping physical therapy, I returned and won the big game. Nope. Not only do many high school students play sports, many athletes get injured. It’s certainly sad, and let’s face it—sometimes even traumatic—but that doesn’t make it interesting.
- My romantic partner broke up with me but now I’m stronger. Quite frankly, breakups are the worst… essay topics. It’s a story as old as time—and one that most people will experience more than once in their lives. A variation on this is the essay about parents’ divorce: an experience that can be highly traumatic for a teenager but one that is also quite commonplace.
You get the idea—but there is one caveat. As Willa Cather famously wrote: “There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.” That is to say, much as we must make every effort to avoid cliché, there is an extent to which it cannot be entirely avoided. The only time an essay about a cliché is ever appropriate is when you have an entirely unique take on the experience. EEAAO is, in fact, a case in point, because the premise of the film is anything but original. Indeed, the scene when Evelyn is told that she can either “turn left towards [her] scheduled audit appointment” or “turn right and go into the janitor’s closet” to determine her fate is highly reminiscent of the famous red-pill/blue-pill scene from the Matrix… which borrows from Alice in Wonderland… which is in turn inspired by Plato, who probably stole it from some long forgotten Sumerian poet. You get the picture. And yet, EEAAO’s take on the idea of multiple realities is so staggeringly original that none of that really matters. There are exceptions to every rule.
Speaking of exceptions, I’d like to share a word on the importance of honesty in the essay-writing process. Essay writing is creative nonfiction. That doesn’t mean you should lie—indeed lying anywhere on your application can have disastrous consequences (up to and including the rescission of admissions offers!). However there is a difference between lying and painting details that are true to the spirit of events. On the night you narrowly escaped death, you may not remember how the air smelled, the name of the song playing on the radio, or the exact words your best friend said to you the last time you saw her. Yet it is just these sorts of details that bring an essay to life for a reader, that allow them to live the experience alongside you as a passenger in the journey through your memory. It doesn’t matter if the air smelled like Douglas fir and you write that you remember the distinct fragrance of hibiscus, or if the song on the radio was Blinding Lights but you write that it was Save Your Tears, or that your best friend said, “See you tomorrow” and you write that she said “Au revoir!” Of course, if you say you narrowly escaped death and, in reality, you didn’t—that would certainly be a lie. But short of that, including details that you may not necessarily remember with accuracy makes your essay memorable, and memorable is what every good essay must be.
Returning to Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, there is a scene (around 1:39:04 for you cinephiles) in which we receive a rapid-fire barrage of images from dozens of Evelyn’s multiverses (one YouTuber captured them all here). Although in the original film, each of these shots lasts only a fraction of a second, they are each imbued with exquisite detail that helps the film make its point, and this brings me to my final point. Great details need not occupy substantial space. The number one complaint I hear from students when I insist that they give me more detail is that doing so will put them over the word count. Nonsense. Compelling details need not be wordy, but they can make all the difference. Like the difference between a story of a laundromat owner under tax audit, and one that gives way to multiverses where hotdog-fingered star-crossed lovers play piano duets with their toes.
Like I said: it’s weird, but unforgettable.
NOTE: This article first appeared on the website of our colleagues at Distinctive College Consulting.
Many students come to me with the intention of studying business as undergraduates. If that’s your dream, I will bend over backwards to help you make it a reality.
But it’s time for me to make a confession: I find the idea of studying business as an undergraduate a little uninspiring, and I’m not the only one. Indeed, not mincing words, bestselling author and admissions expert Jeff Selingo considers it a “waste of time and money.” The title of Selingo’s article is, in my opinion, more of a clickbait provocation than anything else, but the article itself does point to compelling factors that should give students pause before they launch into an undergraduate business degree, and in this post, I’d like to do the same.
Don’t get me wrong, though: I don’t find business uninspiring. On the contrary, being part of a thriving business or even founding and running one of your own can be one of the most personally fulfilling professional adventures one can have. It also isn’t my job (or ever my objective) to persuade students to study what I happen to find interesting—indeed my opinions are quite irrelevant to what my students study and entirely immaterial in my efforts to help them find a great university where they will thrive. If you want to major in business, don’t worry: I’ll help you do just that.
But before you do, hear me out.
Part of my job is to help ensure that students find their way to a college and a course of study that motivates and inspires them, and when they tell me they want to get an undergraduate business degree, it often appears to be for the wrong reasons.
I have the sense that these students tend to believe that an undergraduate degree in business equals a job in business which, in turn, equals wealth. There’s nothing wrong with aspiring to make money. Sure, perhaps as a society we go a little too far in equating net worth with success. The fact is, though, that whether or not money can buy happiness (and the jury is still out in psychology circles—perhaps the subject of a future blog post), we all need it. Yet the assumption that an undergraduate business degree will lead to high earnings merits examination.
Let us begin this examination by considering less scientific, more anecdotal evidence to support this idea.
For one, it’s interesting to note that only three colleges ranked in the US News and World Reports top twelve have undergraduate business majors, yet these are the schools where consulting firms and investment banks recruit. These firms are clearly not concerned that the students they are recruiting will lack the skills necessary to be successful employees.
For another, try this exercise: put together a list of business-people that inspire you, and look each one up on Wikipedia. What did they study in college? Here is a list that I put together of some of the United States’ most influential billionaires and what they studied:
- Steve Jobs, before dropping out of college, studied Shakespeare, Dance, and Calligraphy (the latter of which he has cited as inspirational in later design decisions for Mac computers).
- Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
- Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, studied Psychology and Computer Science.
- Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter) studied Physics and Economics.
- Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, studied Math and Pre-Law.
- Oprah Winfrey studied Communication.
- Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, studied Computer Science.
Perhaps you’ve already noticed that not a single person on this list majored in business as an undergraduate. You may have also noticed that there is a noticeable preponderance of STEM fields here, though as it turns out, while a STEM major likely means high earnings in your first job, down the line, STEM majors fall behind. It’s also worth noting that almost everyone on the list above rode the wave of the early internet to success by being among the first to offer a service of their kind. That wave is long over, but that does not mean that more will not arrive. And who will be best poised to catch the wave? (I’ll give you a hint: it’s not business majors.)
As the article above points out, more technical, career-focused skills that one has the opportunity to learn in college (say, coding in Python) can change—and become obsolete—quickly. Yet the skills one learns in a liberal arts degree—critical thinking, nuanced communication and analysis, and problem solving, among others—are not only highly valued by employers, they are also widely applicable to all sorts of professions. It’s true that you won’t find an in-depth, scholarly understanding of Melville in most corporate job descriptions, but the fact that you’ve taken on something as weighty, profound, and complex as Moby Dick is impressive, classy, and demonstrates a second-to-none analytical ability. While soft skills may be more difficult to map to required qualifications, the operation will be easy for any who have put in the work to develop them. And of course (again, as the article points out) they never expire.
There’s one additional point that I feel it is important to make. A liberal arts degree (whether in humanities, social sciences, or STEM; whether in the US, in the UK or in the Netherlands) will nourish your sensibilities like no other. The result of this sustained cognitive and spiritual nutrition will be an unmatched ability to see and connect in ways that others cannot. And it is this agility in tapping into inspiration that creates the kinds of visionaries whose insights (to borrow from Steve Jobs) are revolutionary and not just evolutionary. If you dream of being an entrepreneur, nothing could be more important.
Add to all of this the relative prestige and increased earnings potential that an MBA can confer (and in only a year or two), and you’ll have the best of both worlds.
Of course, studying business as an undergraduate may be the right call for you. If entering the workforce immediately after graduation and beginning to earn money is a priority for you, then it might be the right path for you. There’s nothing wrong with that. But before you commit, consider your long game.
NOTE: This article first appeared on the website of our colleagues at Distinctive College Consulting.
Unlike the rest of your application—which is about telling colleges what you’ve done—the personal statement for the Common App is about telling them who you are. That’s a daunting task for anyone, but often what it really comes down to is helping admissions officers understand your personal qualities. For many—dare I say most?—students, who as teenagers are in the throes of finding their identities to begin with, it is the first time they’ve been asked in any concrete sort of way to consciously consider those qualities. Far from being a mere writing exercise, it’s an introspective journey best approached with humility. In the midst of this operation, there is a certain (understandable) tendency to focus on the positive. Yet considering our alleged negative qualities, in addition to being a healthy step on the road to emotional maturity and self-improvement, is also an effective way to discover positive qualities we may be less aware of.
For much of my life, I was tagged as a quiet kid. I was much more comfortable losing myself in the luscious verbiage of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian explorations of human nature in The Martian Chronicles than I was kicking a ball across a soccer field (or even watching on the sidelines) like most other kids my age. Although I would later find gratification in pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone by joining my high school drama club and later, taking up squash, the quiet label stuck, at least in my mind. Fellow “quieteers” out there (current or past, recovering or unapologetic) will understand some of the repercussions that inevitably befall those who habitually play their proverbial cards close to the chest, as those around us fill the gaping information void with assumptions of aloofness, misanthropy, snobbery, or worse.
If, dear reader, you are a human being living in society, as I assume you must be, then I feel pretty safe in assuming that at one point or another, you’ve been pigeonholed and labeled unfairly for some negative quality you are perceived to possess. Perhaps you’ve even internalized this perception, believing it to be some incontrovertible facet of your identity. Well I am here to tell you that while you may be what you eat, none have more agency than you in forging your identity.
As you consider your personal qualities, it pays to consider the negative (or evidently negative ones), for two reasons. First, the journey to overcome a negative quality is often just the kind of compelling, intimate narrative that makes a great personal statement in the first place. Second, negative qualities are often just one side of the coin. Flip it over, and you realize that there’s a yin to its yang.
The quality of being quiet, shy, or reserved, for instance, while it inevitably travels in the company of common misconceptions, is also often an indicator of thoughtfulness. If you don’t believe me, try asking a quiet person their opinion in a group conversation. Just because they haven’t volunteered it, doesn’t mean they don’t have one. Indeed, their reluctance to share may be because they’ve been listening carefully to the opinions of their fellows as they work to formulate the most informed version of their own two-cent take. Quiet people also tend to possess, and evoke, a sense of calm coveted by their more loquacious counterparts.
Similarly, some of my favorite people are those who’ve spent their lives labeled as eccentric, weird, or peculiar. Yet eccentricity is a clear indicator of authenticity. To be eccentric, you have to march to the beat of your own bongos no matter how buffeted you may be by the bemusement of those around you. More often than not, eccentricity is also a sign of intelligence—or even genius. Just look at some of the world’s most famous artists, like Andy Warhol or Salvador Dalí, to whom the word eccentric doesn’t even begin to do justice. Consider influential film directors such as Federico Fellini or David Lynch. See what I mean?
Stubbornness is another quality that can be a source of immense frustration to others. Yet stubbornness is sticktoitiveness. Stubborn people, in other words, are also doggedly persistent go-getters who aren’t discouraged by obstacles—indeed, obstacles often just feed their indefatigable sense of determination. The overcoming of obstacles, moreover, is just the type of narrative that makes for an excellent personal statement. Indeed, the Common App’s second personal statement prompt asks a student to consider an instructive “challenge, setback, or failure.” If you are someone who has been accused of stubborness, you may find that your corresponding determination means that you have many such stories to tell.
Let us take a moment to consider the anxious or hyperactive person. Anxious people (unlike quiet people) tend to speak their minds freely. Yet anxiety (perhaps for lack of a better word) is often simply the flip side of high energy. High energy people are immensely fun to be around (especially for quiet people) and bring lightness, momentum, and humor to social situations.
These are just a few examples. Consider the common misconceptions of you. Write down a list and start looking at those so-called ‘flaws’ from a different perspective. As you approach the always imposing task of understanding yourself, and then explaining it to colleges, remember that the negative qualities that others detect (or that perhaps you perceive in yourself) can be a fertile source of inspiration and even self-realization.
NOTE: This article first appeared on the website of our colleagues at Distinctive College Consulting.
By Celeste Moreno Palmero Ph.D.
The first university college in the Netherlands was established in Utrecht in 1998. Since then, many important research universities have implemented these honors colleges. Their goal is to provide programs inspired by the philosophy of the US Liberal Arts education. This approach is rather innovative considering the educational systems that we traditionally find in Europe, yet it is becoming more and more popular and last year UC Utrecht received 1,000 applications for only 250 spots.
The appeal and advantages of such programs is undeniable. Much like their small liberal arts college counterparts in the States, students at the Dutch University Colleges live on campus and benefit from a very particular type of curriculum both academically and extracurricularly. Courses span the spectrum of the Arts, Sciences, Humanities, and Social Sciences. More importantly, and unlike on US campuses, where international students are generally a minority, the Dutch UCs prioritize creating a multicultural, international community in which English is the language of instruction.
And while these institutions tend to be small, they offer the advantage of belonging to larger research universities that grant them access to all the facilities and resources one might find in a larger school, while enjoying sufficient independence to admit their own distinct pool of candidates and forge their own curricula and personalities. Many of these institutions are located in the same cities as the universities of which they are part, such as Amsterdam University College or University College Groningen, while a few are in different locations, such as Leiden University, whose UC is located in The Hague.
Although all of the UCs are based on the same idea of a liberal arts education, each has its own approach, and choosing one over the other is just a matter of finding the right fit. Here a brief description of each with an outline of their programs and particularities:
- Amsterdam University College. Located within the main campus of the University of Amsterdam, in the southern part of the city, this college has about 900 students (300 per year) with fields of study within the Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities. The entire liberal arts curriculum at AUC revolves around six themes: Energy, Climate and Sustainability; Life, Evolution, Universe; Health and Well-being; Information, Communication, Cognition; Social Systems; Cities and Cultures. In their first year, students pick a theme that will ultimately become the guiding principle behind their course of study. AUC is structured according to a tutoring system, which allows students to establish and maintain an individual connection with a member of the AUC teaching community. In addition, all students at AUC are expected to be part of at least one Community Project or Internship, the goal being to grant students the ability to develop their professional and interpersonal skills through real-world experiences.
- Erasmus University College. Located in Rotterdam, a 20-minute tram ride from the Erasmus University main campus, EUC enjoys the atmosphere of a bustling city, but with relative independence from the main campus. Their extracurricular program includes: engaged citizens programs, language learning, and students associations. Students are required to live on campus the first year, which—given the housing crisis in the Netherlands—is a real blessing. After that, however, students must find their own accommodations, which is much easier after a year of getting to know the city. EUC offers a multidisciplinary education in which students are encouraged to choose among a wide variety of majors from different interconnected fields (philosophy, economics, politics, humanities, sustainability, business, cultural studies, neuroscience, biomedicine or public health) in combination with a minor, which makes their degrees completely unique and tailored to their own interests and motivations. EUC defines their learning environment as “small-scale, interactive and intensive.” Small groups of 12-15 students will work with a tutor to guide them through a remarkably independent and self-directed learning process. Indeed, the learning experience at EUC is often flipped, with students asked by their tutors to develop the guiding questions that will allow them to work toward the most comprehensive understanding of the subject at hand. And if you are an artist and willing to pursue a career in the arts, EUC offers the unique opportunity to earn a Dual Degree with Arts in five years in which you study both the theoretical and the applied sides of your art form (for example, you might study Popular Music Culture from an anthropological perspective and Performance).
- University College Fryslan (University of Groningen). Located in Leeuwarden in one of the satellite campuses of the University of Groningen, this University College focuses on one degree: Global Responsibility and Leadership, which it approaches through the interdisciplinary study of Political Science, Behavioral Economics, Global Health, Earth and Environment, Psychology or Data Science. Students can opt to orient their degree based on three different areas of focus: Responsible Planet (with tracks in Environment or Energy), Responsible Humanity (with tracks in Psychology or Global Health), and Responsible Governance (with tracks in Business or Economics). UCF is unique in its approach to the Liberal Arts education and organizes its academic curriculum around the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development. As with the other UCs, first-year students are expected to live on campus, where they have the opportunity to engage in a diverse array of extracurricular activities, such as their open mic or debate club.
- University College Groningen. More in line with the philosophy of the Liberal Arts than its little sister in Fryslan, UCG offers a Bachelor’s degree in the Liberal Arts and Sciences with the idea of letting students create their own paths and identities. UCG is located in the quaint college town of Groningen, the largest city in the north of the Netherlands. UCG offers four majors: Sciences (with specializations in Health and Life Sciences; Smart Technologies; or Mind, Machines and Morality), Social Sciences (with specializations in Mind and Behavior; Philosophy, Politics and Economics; International Relations & International law; or International Business & Entrepreneurship) Humanities (with specializations in Social and Cultural Change or Truth, Meaning and Rationality), and finally, a Free Major in which students can create their own programs. At UCG students are part of a vibrant, multicultural community, and if you are international you can opt to spend your first year living in Frascati International Student Housing.
- Leiden University College The Hague. Although part of the larger research university with its main campus in Leiden (a short train ride away), this college is located in The Hague, a dynamic city famously known for hosting the International Court of Justice. Less than an hour away from Amsterdam by train, and 30 minutes from Rotterdam, LUC’s location right next to The Hague Central train station is ideal for anyone who wants a great education in a great city (with a beach!) and easy access to travel. LUC’s curriculum, while based on the liberal arts like its counterparts, has a distinctly social justice bent (which makes sense considering the institution’s motto, “Building Knowledge for a Better World” and its strategic location in The Hague). Indeed all LUC students study in a program addressing Global Challenges while focusing on one of six areas of specialization (or majors): Culture, History, and Society; International Justice; World Politics; Earth, Energy and Sustainability; Global Public Health; Governance, Economics and Development. Unlike other University Colleges, students live on campus during their first and second year, which allows them to create a close-knit community in a neighborhood that hosts the International Criminal Court, the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and the Royal Conservatory.
- University College Maastricht. With an innovative problem-based approach to learning, this University College is probably the most unique of all, allowing students to build their own curriculum within three main concentrations: Social Sciences, Humanities, and Sciences; and with more of 150 courses to choose from. The curriculum is organized around six blocs: Core Courses (such as Contemporary World History or Policial Philosophy), Concentration (with subject highly specialized in the field of study), Skills (with more hands-on labs such as Genetics or Gaining Racial Literacy), Projects (in which students carry out more in-depth/practical studies), and Capstone (the equivalent to a senior thesis). Like other University Colleges, UCM enrolls only 250-275 students per year and has its own campus in a cozy, beautiful building in the center of Maastricht.
- University College Roosevelt. This University College named after the Roosevelt family is part of the University of Utrecht, yet probably the only institution to boast the flavor of a rural US liberal arts college. Located in the charming little town of Middelburg, UCR allows you to combine courses from Arts and Humanities, Engineering, Science, and Social Sciences, to create your own personalized career path that consists of a core share of required courses, such as Introductory Methods & Statistics or Introductory Academic Writing & Presenting, a Senior Project and up to 12 courses within the major of your choice. With more than 200 courses to choose from, UCR offers the opportunity to pursue a degree as unique as you. With guaranteed housing for all its students during the first two years of study, the goal at UCR is to create a solid academic and social community around a set of shared core values.
- University College Tilburg. Located in the city of Tilburg, the seventh largest city in the country, this University college is, perhaps, the one most attached to its parent university. With no distinct campus, studying liberal arts at UCT is more similar to a large university experience, with access to great facilities and a lot of extracurricular activities. Yet the academic offering makes UCT a great destination given the variety of choices within its program. During the first year, all students take core courses, and it is only during the second and third years that they specialize in one of these five majors: Business and Economics, Law in an International Context, Social Sciences: Human Behavior, Arts and Humanities: Past – Present – Future, Cognitive Neuroscience: Brain and Cognition.
- University College Twente. If you want to have an impact on society, while imagining responsible and creative solutions to today’s most pressing problems, this is your place. UCT offers an innovative Bachelors’ degree in Technology and Liberal Arts and Sciences (ATLAS) that allows students to delve into the study of the liberal arts while still taking into account the critical role of technology in society. The goal of UCT’s program is to turn students into “multi-skilled, open-minded, innovative and tech-savvy problem-solvers.” During its three-year program, students explore blocs from different academic perspectives in what they hail as “not your regular bachelors’ program”. Thus, during the first two semesters students cover two main concepts (through elective and compulsory courses): Humans and Movement and Sustainable Systems. The third semester is devoted to Living Under Extreme Conditions, and the fourth to Wicked Problems. During the final year, students craft their own paths choosing their courses and projects. UCT offers accommodation for all first years students in their own dorm: the Drienerburght, a modern facility in the heart of campus.
- University College Utrecht. A unique college experience in which students live on campus (all first- and second-year, and most third-year students) and take part in a wide array of cultural and social activities, UCU proposes a traditional liberal arts experience in the heart of a thriving city: Utrecht. As with many other university colleges, multidisciplinarity is central. However, their academic offering is rather unique. While choosing from a large pool of courses and academic disciplines, UCU arranges each of the three years around a different focus: explore, expand your knowledge, and focus on thesis. With more than 20 disciplines, students can create their own paths studying Performance, Cognitive Neuroscience, or Economy. They can even link different disciplines assembling a study program by combining courses from at least two of these disciplines: Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science.
In short, the Dutch University Colleges are an outstanding choice for students who want to transcend the walls of a US education while maintaining the core spirit of the Liberal Arts. Add to the mix their affordable tuitions, the European charm, and of course, a bicycle, and you’ll have the experience of a lifetime and a degree that gives you access to the entire world!
US college application deadlines vary but are usually between the Fall of a student’s senior year of high school and the Spring. Students may apply to multiple colleges and universities and should research each school’s specific requirements and application process.
Most US universities have different types of deadlines for their applications, including early decision, early action, regular decision, and rolling admissions. Early decision and early action deadlines are typically in November (though some may come even earlier), while regular decision deadlines are usually in January, with some as late as March. Rolling admissions deadlines vary by school, but typically last through the spring semester. It’s important to check with each individual school for their specific deadlines and application requirements.
This article explains the differences between each application deadline and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Early Decision
Early decision is a college application process that allows students to apply to their top-choice school early and receive an admission decision before the regular application deadline. If accepted, the student is required to attend the school and withdraw all other applications. It is a binding agreement and should only be used if the student is absolutely certain that they want to attend that particular school.
Early decision applications can benefit students who have a clear top choice for their college or university and are ready to commit to attending that institution if accepted. Additionally, early decision can increase a student’s chances of acceptance, as acceptance rates are often higher for early decision applicants. However, it’s important to carefully consider all options and make sure early decision is the right choice for your individual circumstances.
One of the cons of applying early decision is that it is a binding agreement, meaning that if you get accepted, you are obligated to attend that school and withdraw all other applications. This can be a disadvantage if you are still unsure about which school you want to attend or if you want to compare financial aid offers from multiple schools. Indeed, schools have little incentive to provide financial aid to a student who has already committed to attending at the time of application.
Some top schools that offer early decision programs include:
- Dartmouth College
- University of Pennsylvania
- Duke University
- Northwestern University
- Brown University
- Columbia University
- Cornell University
- Williams College
- Amherst College
- Swarthmore College
Early Action
Early action is a type of college application process in which students apply earlier than the regular deadline, typically in November, and receive an admissions decision earlier, most typically in January or February. It is non-binding, meaning students are not required to attend the institution if accepted, but it allows them to receive an answer sooner, thus limiting the anxiety that comes with uncertainty and giving more time to consider options.
Here are some top schools with early action applications:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
- Duke University
- University of Chicago
- Johns Hopkins University
Applying early action signals substantial interest to universities, and thus provides a small advantage in terms of admission probability compared to regular decision.
Restrictive Early Action
Restrictive Early Action is an early application deadline that allows students to apply to a college early and receive an admissions decision before the regular deadline. Unlike Early Decision, students are not required to commit to attending the college if accepted, however, they are prohibited from applying to early action or early decision programs of any kind at other private institutions (early application to public institutions is permitted).
Restrictive early action applications can benefit high school seniors who have a strong interest in a particular college or university and want to increase their chances of acceptance by applying early. This type of application is particularly useful for students who have completed their college research and are confident that the school is their top choice. Additionally, students who have strong academic records and test scores may benefit from a restrictive early action application as they will have a better chance of being accepted before the regular decision pool becomes more competitive. However, these students also sacrifice the advantages they might otherwise have received by applying early to other private institutions on their list.
Here are some universities in the United States with restrictive early action:
- Harvard University
- Stanford University
- Princeton University
- Yale University
Regular Decision
Regular decision is a type of college application deadline that falls after the early decision and early action deadlines. It allows applicants more time to submit their applications and usually has a later notification date.
Regular decision is typically recommended for students who are not ready to submit their college applications by the early decision or early action deadlines. Regular decision deadlines are usually in the later part of the school year, giving students more time to finalize their college applications. Some potential drawbacks of applying under regular decision to college include receiving a decision later in the admissions cycle (in some cases as late as April), potentially missing out on early decision or early action opportunities, and facing more competition for spots as regular decision pools tend to be larger. Additionally, waiting until regular decision to apply could limit your ability to compare and negotiate financial aid offers across different colleges.
Rolling Admissions
Rolling admissions is a type of college application process where applications are reviewed as they are received, rather than waiting for a specific deadline to review all applications at once. Many schools offer rolling admissions, including Arizona State University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Alabama, among others.
In short, applicants should consider all these strategies and plan their application strategy accordingly.
Having read the title of this post, you probably believe that it will give you all of the information you need to ensure your extracurricular activities will impress even the most jaded Ivy-league application reader. You would be wrong. If you believe that a blog post can give you that, I’d like to sell you this bottle of magic oil that can cure any ailment. That’s because pursuing extracurricular activities that set you apart from the rest requires—above all other things—uniqueness, not just from others, but to you. What I can do, however, is put you on a path that will help you come up with a plan—by yourself or with the help of parents, friends, or trusted confidants—to unlock your achievements and reach the upper echelons of awesomeness.
Activity Awesomeness Level 1: Unique Activity
Let’s start with an example of an interest and talk about ways to turn it into an activity that will impress: crocheting. I like this activity because it’s not exactly common among seventeen-year-olds, so already it wins points for originality. That’s great. You could stop here, add it to the Common App’s activity list, and be done with it, and you’d still have an activity that helps you stand out—at least a little. But it could be so much more, and if your activity is more commonplace than crocheting, then you definitely need to read on.
Activity Awesomeness Level 2: Leadership and Recognized Achievements
I’m assuming, for everyone’s sake, that you really, truly love crocheting (or whatever your activity happens to be). You should. Don’t do activities just to impress admissions officers, because you won’t do them well and your plan will thus backfire. And in order to succeed at higher levels of awesomeness, you need to have passion. That’s not to say that you should not step outside your comfort zone a little—you definitely should, and I’ll have more to say on that later. There are a couple of ways to reach AAL2, and by no means are they mutually exclusive. The first is to bring others into the fold of your activity by (continuing with our example) starting a crocheting club where you share and teach your activity. The second is entering crocheting contests where others will recognize the high quality of your work. The key here is outside recognition that underscores the unique skill or creativity you bring to your activity. Getting recognized with a prestigious prize or even with money, as in The Paradigm Challenge, makes that recognition even more valuable by quantifying the dedication with which you pursue crocheting (the scholarship doesn’t hurt either!). In the case of starting a club, it also demonstrates leadership qualities. But true leadership is about more than just taking others along for the ride. It’s also about enriching their lives, growth, and passion for the activity or cause at hand.
Activity Awesomeness Level 3: Lifting People Up
Your nascent crocheting club could just be that: an hour a week when you and a few peers get together and crochet. Many clubs are little more than that, and admissions officers have seen thousands like them. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but why not take it further? Bring your group to the World Famous Crochet Museum in Joshua Tree, California (it exists!). Write to the country’s foremost expert on crocheting and invite them to join one of your meetings, demonstrate techniques, and share stories. Don’t think they’ll come? You might be surprised—the more niche the activity, the less likely it is that the expert in question will have an agenda overflowing with university speaking engagements and invitations to the Oval Office. But even if the activity is more mainstream, you never know, and there’s no harm in asking. When they agree (or perhaps refer you to someone else who can take you up on your offer), speak to local businesses about sponsoring their travel expenses. Later you can brag about how you raised money for your cause. (Did someone say “cause?”)
Activity Awesomeness Level 4: Making the World a Better Place
Speaking of causes, reaching AAL4 requires that you use your activity in the service of one (consider the “Circles of Influence” referenced in the above-linked post, or this post about Impact Projects). Conveniently, you recently heard about the plight of your local Domestic Yak farmers, who despite generations of providing sustainable wool products, are being driven out of business by the advent of synthetic materials and increasing property taxes. As an aside, no one expects you to solve systemic problems, but that doesn’t mean you cannot do your part. Now is the time to drive your band of merry crocheters into action. Raise awareness for the plight of the farmers by leading a crochet drive to make blankets for the local homeless population. Bring your group to a home for at-risk children and teach them to crochet. Call the local newspapers (really!) and tell them about what you are doing and how they can help. Now you are not only crocheting, you are also helping a cause. Did I say one cause? I meant three: the farmers, the homeless, the at-risk children. And perhaps this may sound far-fetched, but the more far-fetched, the better. Look at where you started—with a simple hobby—and where you landed—making a difference for your peers, your community, and the world.
Some Notes for the High Achiever
I often work with students who have few activities to show for themselves and need help finding productive ways to spend and maximize their non-academic time. Other students, however, have an extraordinarily full extracurricular life. Even for them, though, there is always room for improvement. Let’s say, for example, that you are an aspiring doctor. You’ve shadowed physicians, volunteered at an emergency trauma center, interned at a cancer research facility, helped discover a novel molecule with promise in treating Zika virus, and co-published a paper on the potential of CRISPR in cloning artificial pancreases with a professor at John Hopkins. Yes, I really have students like this, and I know it sounds impressive. It is. But it’s also exceedingly one-sided, and it does little to set you apart from the 50,000 or so other qualified pre-med applicants to college this year, many of whom boast similar achievements.
If this is you, you may be thinking, “You can’t possibly be serious! With everything I do, it’s not enough?” I get it. But as with all things in the admissions game, success isn’t always about being great at what you do. It’s also about setting yourself apart.
And how can you do that? Well, have you considered crocheting?
NOTE: This article first appeared on the website of our colleagues at Distinctive College Consulting.