Universities' Message to Applicants: "Show, Don't Tell"

While in Philadelphia last week with a group of Model UN students attending ILMUNC, or the Ivy League Model United Nations Conference, I took a day to visit three very different schools in the Philadelphia area. I began at U Penn, then headed to Drexel, and finished the day on the beautiful, snow-covered campus of Bryn Mawr. As I did when I visited the University of Chicago in December, I spent time in the Admissions Office of each of the three schools. I wanted to hear first hand a number of things. Just as I did with the University of Chicago, I asked what the schools are looking for in high school grads, what makes applicants stand out in the applicant pool and what makes an incoming freshman successful over his or her career?

While I won't tackle all three questions and their answers in this post, much of what the three Philadelphia schools told me echoed what I heard in Chicago. A theme that surfaced in all three meetings was the importance of applicants having developed an interest or passion in something and having pursued it. However, the three Philadelphia schools went a step farther and really emphasized the importance of the college essay. Anyone who knows anything about college admissions understands the gravity of the essay. For these three schools, though, the essay must do more than show off an applicant's writing ability. The essay must (not should, but must) demonstrate not only what the applicant's interest or passion is but also how the applicant has pursued and developed it.

The message for the college essay was loud and clear: Show, don't tell. Here's what that looks like:

• Not "I like science," but rather, "I volunteered at the science museum after freshman year, volunteered to save sea turtles after my sophomore year, returned after my junior year to the sea turtle rescue center, took all available science courses in high school, and plan to intern with BP in their environmental department after graduation."
• Not "I'm passionate about service," but rather, "I've spent the last four years working twice a month for Meals on Wheels cooking and cleaning, three weekends each month during the summers cooking and serving food, organized two fundraisers to support the organization, driven the food truck and served from its window more than thirty times, and I will volunteer full-time for two months after graduation."
• Not "I'm interested in the music industry," but rather, "I have taken guitar and voice lessons for ten years, written 200 songs and recorded them with Garage Band on my laptop, uploaded a dozen of my best songs to YouTube,  interned at a local music studio, taught guitar lessons for three years, run the sound board for all the concerts at my church, and currently perform in my church praise band."

Knowing what colleges and universities expect to see from truly distinguished and exceptional applicants, those of us in educational leadership must ask ourselves a few questions. First, what is my school doing to foster creativity and exploration that leads to the development of an interest or passion for each student? Second, what is my school doing to promote and support the pursuit of each student's passion? Finally, what is my school doing to communicate to students and parents the importance of finding, developing and pursuing an interest or passion, not just for college but for life?

With college admissions now such a high-stakes business, shouldn't we ask and answer these questions? Absolutely. However, we should ask and answer these questions anyway because it's what our kids need now more than ever.

An Enlightening Conversation at The University of Chicago

Last week I had the opportunity to visit some schools in the Chicago area while accompanying a group of students to a Model U.N. conference there. Since I had never been to The University of Chicago, I decided to drop by the Office of Admissions and ask a few questions. Anyone in the field of education knows the reputation of The University of Chicago and the level of excellence of its educational program. In order to better prepare my students not only for acceptance to but also for success in such a university, I wanted to find out exactly what the Office of Admissions looks for when culling through the mountains of applications each year.

In my meeting with the two admissions counselors, who gladly shared their time with me, I asked them directly, "What makes those students you accept different from those you do not? What, exactly, do you look for that differentiates top candidates from everyone else? What things in an applicant's background and application prove to be the biggest predictors of success in the University of Chicago program?" Interestingly, the admissions counselors gave the same answer for all three questions.

Here's what they said: "Clearly, academic success in terms of exceptional grades and test scores separate legitimate candidates from all others. From that pool, which always is much too large for our freshman class, we look for students who are exceptional independent learners with an intrinsic drive to learn. What we want to see is that a student has pursued learning independently in some way. It could be that a student has a passion for science and has persuaded his school to rearrange his schedule each year so he can take all science courses offered at his school. Additionally, this same student has found some interesting and unique way outside of school to pursue and explore that passion - perhaps through internships, summer experiential learning opportunities, family vacations centered on this passion, or maybe even through research of his own on his own time. It could be that a student has shown an interest in entrepreneurship and has started his own company. The bottom line is that we want to see that a student has developed a passion for something and has pursued that passion independently in a unique, interesting and innovative way. It goes without saying that all the student's transcripts, essays, recommendation letters and other application information should document not only the student's passion but also how he pursued it independently. These characteristics also are the common denominator for most of the students who are successful at The University of Chicago."

As the educational leader of a college prep school, I've been asking myself constantly since that meeting, "Is my school doing everything possible to promote and foster that kind of independent learning and curiosity?" I'm still working on the answer.