Surviving the College Application Process

Case Studies to Help You Find Your Unique Angle for Success

Lisa Bleich

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781614487234
• Topic: Studienhilfen
• Subtopic: Studienführer

Does the college application process overwhelm you? Are you unsure about the topic for your main essay or what part of your experience is most compelling? How about which school is the right fit, or how you are going to pay for college? Imagine following eleven students' journeys in-depth, getting into their heads when they made a decision about which extracurricular activities to pursue, which schools to apply to, and which topics to choose for their main essay and supplemental essays. Imagine having a tool that will help you think about your own process in a more strategic way. Surviving the College Application Process: Case Studies to Help You Find Your Unique Angle for Success utilizes the College Application Wheel to showcase the successful journeys of eleven different students. You can read all the case studies or just those that resonate with your own circumstances. With the strategies outlined in this book, you will be well on your way to Surviving the College Application Process.

PART 1

WHAT’S AN ANGULAR STUDENT AND WHY SHOULD YOU WANT TO BE ONE?

CHAPTER 1

THE ANGULAR STUDENT

An angular student is a student who possesses a well-demonstrated depth or degree of excellence in one or two areas—leadership, intellectual curiosity, athletics, or community service—or who has a special talent or exhibits unusual personal character. Parents might recognize this focus on the angle a student brings to the application process as something new when compared with the relevant emphasis that was touted when they applied to college. And they would be right.

In the early eighties, when I myself applied, the buzzword for college acceptance was “well-rounded,” which referred to a student who participated in many different activities. That is no longer what colleges are looking for from applicants. Now they want to build a well-rounded class made up of students who will each fill one or two slices of their total round pie: in other words, students who are unique, focused, and angular (or express excellence or uniqueness) in their interests. In fact, according to a recent New York Times article, “Such students are known in college admissions circles as ‘pointy’—being well-rounded doesn’t cut it anymore. You need to have a spike in your achievement chart.”

To respond to what colleges are looking for now, I developed what I call the College Application Wheel. It acts as a framework and a tool that helps students feel in control of this sometimes confusing process. It will not only assist you in identifying your strengths and “gaps”—areas that you may need to fill in such as community service or higher standardized test scores—it will also help you identify where your energy may best be spent in making yourself shine or stand out from the crowd. It will help you understand what makes you unique, how to find a college that values you for who you are, and help you see where there is a match between you and a specific college.

The College Application Wheel

The key components of the College Application Wheel are:

• Academics/test scores

• Extracurricular activities

• Leadership

• Intellectual curiosity

• Athletics

• Special talents

• Financial

• Other

Colleges don’t expect you to excel in all eight of these categories, but they do look at these areas to determine if you will be a good academic, cultural, emotional, financial, and character-based “fit” with their institution.

Let’s look a little more specifically at what colleges want to see from their applicants. While academics and test scores get you into the game, they are no longer enough to ensure that you will be a successful player. However, as you’ll soon learn, the wheel, and the traits within it, can tip the scales in your favor. Colleges want to create a community of learners and assemble a group of students who will collectively make up a well-rounded class. Knowing what pieces of the college’s wheel you fill out and what your angle is will help you find the right fit between them and you.

Okay, so how do you decide which pieces apply to you? Each of the eight parts or spokes of the wheel deserves your attention, because, taken together, they will help you understand where to focus your energy. For instance, if you are not athletic, that segment of the wheel will not apply to you, and that is okay. However, the wheel has two parts. The first part is to understand which segments are your strengths, and the second part is to know how to link these assets to the needs of the college. In other words, you want to help the college you choose see how you will positively contribute to its campus life given your strengths according to the wheel. Taking this one step further, it is only through a thorough examination of your alignment with the wheel and the college’s alignment with the wheel that you will be able to select the right college for you.

This book will walk you through the process of developing a strategic plan for high school and, later on, for applying to college. It will also provide case studies of real students who used this approach to develop their own plans and successfully apply to colleges that valued their strengths.

You will meet the following angular students in the case studies included in part 2:

• Noah, a gifted actor from suburban New Jersey with strong intellectual curiosity, used the summer between junior and senior year to explore his interest in politics and Judaism; this experience helped him stand out. He also used his special talent in theater as a complementary angle. He had above-average grades, curriculum, and SAT scores. Noah was accepted early decision to the College of William and Mary.

• Feydi, a highly competitive first-generation Nigerian American student from a large suburban high school, used her multicultural background, hard work, athletics, and interest in science to secure a scholarship at multiple schools. She had solid SAT scores and needed financial assistance so she would have enough money for medical school. She was accepted to multiple schools, including an Ivy League school, with need-based and merit-based financial aid.

• Kyle, an athlete turned actor, lacked confidence to accept a position on the varsity soccer team during his sophomore year, so he remained on the junior varsity team. That year, the varsity soccer team won the state tournament. He used his regret to fuel his newly developed special talent for acting. Whereas he let his fears control him in soccer, in acting, he was determined to push through his fears and take risks. He also realized that he needed to push himself further academically and personally to achieve his goals. He had above-average grades, but needed a more rigorous curriculum. His SAT scores did not match his grades. He needed financial assistance, which we factored into his overall strategy. Kyle was accepted to multiple schools with merit aid.

• Hayley found her angle by tying her committee work in Model UN on the environment to her interest in math and science. Hayley had above-average grades with a challenging curriculum and excellent SATs. Hayley was unsure of what she wanted to study in college, vacillating between business, pre-med, and possibly engineering. She attended a six-week pre-college summer program designed to prepare students for majors in engineering, pre-med, or technology called PAVE at Vanderbilt University to explore all three areas. After the summer, she was leaning toward business because she did not really see an area of engineering that interested her. However, after researching programs at her schools of interest, she hit on environmental engineering, something to which she could relate based on her experience with Model UN. She used this combination of interests to create her angle and gain admission into several select universities.

• Dan, a devoted jazz musician, top student, and leader, found his angle through his special talent and leadership within music and the Junior Statesmen of America club. He had high grades and test scores, but he also wanted to major in music, so he needed to impress the music professors as well. He applied early action to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia, but got deferred to both and then waitlisted. He used his connections with a music professor to secure a spot off of the waitlist.

• Kaden, a transgender social activist filmmaker with a few academic bumps and average test scores, found his angle through switching focus from politics to film and narrating his own transformation on YouTube. He also started a series of student run meet-ups for other LBGTQ students in the area. His angles were leadership, special talent, and other. He started at community college and then transferred to film school at SUNY Purchase after the first year.

• Jenny, a talented, multisport athlete who overcame some personal adversity, used her athletic talent to get recruited at a small liberal arts college. She had above-average grades, curriculum, and test scores, but needed financial assistance to attend college. She was accepted early decision to Ursinus College with merit aid.

• Adam, a super science nerd who was super strong in math and science but weak in language, stood out by finding his place within the scientific community in a lab in Greece. He highlighted his intellectual curiosity by describing how he finally fit in. He also overcame an illness and learning difference, which he highlighted in his additional information. He was accepted to multiple schools.

• Francesca, a closet computer science nerd and popular athlete, used her intellectual curiosity in a typically male-dominated field to find her angle. She had outstanding grades and test scores in a highly competitive curriculum. She initially feared that her friends would make fun of her for enjoying computer science, but ultimately she found a way to show them how cool computer science and coding can be. She was accepted early decision to an Ivy League college.

• Hugh, a scientist by day and theater aficionado by night from a stereotypical Asian family, used his dual interests to separate himself from the pack and convince his parents that there were multiple roads to success. He applied to accelerated medical (BAMD) programs as well as numerous colleges with liberal arts curriculums. He had a highly rigorous schedule with good grades and strong test scores, but they were not strong enough for the BAMD programs. Although he got an interview for an accelerated program, his heart was elsewhere. He was accepted to numerous colleges, including a highly selective top-ten liberal arts college.

• Veema, a sensitive multicultural writer and social activist, found her angle by using her special talent in writing as a vehicle to overcome adversity. She had below-average grades with an above-average curriculum and test scores. She had a learning difference and needed financial assistance. She used her special talent, leadership, and “other” category on the College Application Wheel by documenting the many changes in her life during the early part of high school to show how she had grown personally and academically. She was accepted to multiple schools with merit aid.

CHAPTER 2

POWERING UP YOUR COLLEGE APPLICATION WHEEL

Here is how you can use the College Application Wheel at every stage of your application process.

As a freshman or sophomore in high school, you can use the wheel to develop your own strategic plan based on your strengths. You can read through what other students have done and get some ideas for designing your own path. (Parents, you can use this tool to help your student think through a strategic plan for high school.)

As a junior, you can begin to identify some schools that are a good fit for you academically, socially, and emotionally. You can see how and why other students created their college lists based on their wheel, and these can provide a roadmap for your own journey. (Parents, you can help your student think through his needs and find a college that is a great fit.)

As a senior, you can figure out how best to present yourself to colleges and communicate the match between you and each school. You can find similarities between you and the case study students to see how best to communicate your unique strengths to your chosen colleges. (Parents, you can look objectively at your student’s talents and help her present her unique strengths.)

The case studies in this book describe students with varied backgrounds, interests, and aspirations. You will most likely find aspects of yourself in one or more of these case studies, and you can use those similarities to help you plan your own application strategy.

Now, let’s look more closely at the eight segments of the College Application Wheel.

Academics/Test Scores

Your grades, the degree of challenge present in your high school curriculum (known as “rigor”), and your SAT/ACT scores form the most important section of the College Application Wheel. The reason is simple: These numbers are the best way to reveal your capability and progress. Ultimately, academic rigor and achievement, test scores, and grades provide you with the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• A Note to Parents: Why I Can Help Your Kid Get into College
• A Note to Students: How This Book Will Help You Get into College
• Part 1: What’s an Angular Student and Why Should You Want to Be One?
• Part 2: Case Studies: Student Success Stories You Can Learn a Lot From
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments