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Applying to college is a lot like going out on a first date.  You are tying to make a favorable first impression, and at the same time you aren’t sure if the person sitting across the dinner table from you is really relationship material.  Still, if you want there to be a possible future you need to signal to this person that you are worth getting to know.  How do you do that successfully?  Well, there is no sure thing in love or college admissions, but there are some basic guidelines that will serve you well:

1. Be real.  Don’t pretend to be someone you aren’t just to get a second date because if he or she isn’t attracted to who you really are there is no point in having a longer term relationship.
2. Be genuinely enthusiastic about your date.  When your date tells you something about him or her that you think is exciting or impressive then say so.  When your date does something particularly thoughtful say thank you.  If your date is dressed to the nines and you like to result pay a compliment.  Let your date know what it is about him or her that appeals to you.
3. Let your date know some of your best features, but don’t talk too much or you will come off as bragging.  In fact the best way to advertise your best features is by telling a story about yourself that illustrates that feature.  If you are a very caring and supportive person you might bring up something that really touched you while you were volunteering at the orphanage.  If you are a great outdoor enthusiast you might tell a couple stories about hikes you’ve taken and how you felt waking up at the base of some spectacular waterfall. 
4. Let your date know some of your great passions in life, but not more than two or three on the first date.  By following this strategy you will give the other person a clear picture of what inspires you and if they have the same passion they will probably be excited to share it with you.  If they don’t share that passion you will both know that a second date may not be the best choice, and you can both move on to look for a better match.

When you are “dating” a college the same basic rules apply.  You won’t be well served by faking your way into a college that really isn’t a good fit for you. 

The college may be telling you whether or not they want a long term relationship with you, but they are also aware that you can say no.  So pointing out what it is about the college that appeals to you gives the admissions officer greater confidence that offering you admission will pay off. 

Furthermore, if you are trying to impress a college so that it will want to consider a long term relationship you need to let it know about a few of your most attractive features and biggest passions, but you don’t want to over do it or you will confuse the message.  And telling the admissions office about your best features directly is likely to be less convincing that telling them stories that illustrate those traits you want to highlight. 

This article is about going through the process of presenting yourself in such a way that when the right college comes along you will be able to go from first date to an offer of a long term relationship.  There is no simple formula for crafting this message because the message has to reflect who you really are in order to give you the best possible result.  So instead of following a step-by-step process I am recommending you take some time to reflect on what it is colleges want, what you want, what you have to offer and why you are attracted to the colleges on your application list.  Then see if you can settle on a very small number of key points you want to present and craft your college admissions pitch.

Understand what colleges want/need from students and what you have to offer

Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the anxiety of hoping you will be accepted to one of your top choice colleges, and to not realize that the colleges are feeling at least as much anxiety hoping the students they want to enroll will choose to accept those offers of admission.  Colleges need students just to stay in business.  Most private colleges rely heavily on tuition revenue to fund their operations.  Even State colleges, which may receive much of their operating revenue from the taxpayers, need to attract students if they hope to continue receiving taxpayer support.  And the few heavily endowed colleges and universities that don’t depend very much on tuition revenue in the short term still need to attract quality students to carry out their mission and keep the trust of their financial supporters.

As you read through this section, look at yourself from the perspective of the colleges on your list.  What can you offer them that will meet any of the needs identified below? 

Show them the money!

For example, if you read the previous paragraph and asked yourself how much potential tuition revenue you would bring to the college then you were thinking about yourself from the prospective of the colleges’ hopes and needs.  If you are able to pay full tuition without any trouble that may actually make you more attractive to a college that can use that additional revenue to hire and retain excellent faculty, improve facilities or provide aid to the students who aren’t so lucky.  If you are bringing in outside scholarship money or state and federal grants you also represent revenue to the college. 

Show them the love!

Can you imagine the anxiety generated each year as colleges send out letters of admission and then wait to see who accepts?  They are running a business where they have a limited number of seats to sell, and the way they sell those seats is to sign one half of a large number of contracts, send those signed contracts out, and wait to see who signs and returns them.  If everyone accepts the offer they will be flooded with students and may not have enough class space, dorm space or parking spaces to deal with the flood of soon to be unhappy customers.  If very few admitted applicants accept then they will be scrambling to take people off the wait lists or to admit late applicants, and they still will probably end up with half filled classes and drastic budget cuts.  So if you are feeling anxious waiting to hear whether Please Let Me In College is going to accept you, know that the college admissions office shares your sense of anxiety and then some.  If you are extremely interested in attending a particular college you will do yourself and the college a favor by letting them know how interested you are and why you are that interested.

In addition to needing the right number of students colleges also need to admit the right type of student.  Colleges are judged on the academic quality of their entering students, on how many students are applying to go to the college compared to the number of offers of admission made and on what percentage of admitted applicants accept an offer of admission.  When you see the college rankings from US New & World Report fifteen percent of the score that determines the ranking is based on the academic quality of entering freshmen and how competitive the school is in terms of the percentage of applicants they admit.  (Sklaroff 2005)

Like it or not, colleges that are striving to be elite pay a great deal of attention to these factors when they set out a strategy for recruiting the next freshman class.  If your SAT or ACT scores and high school grades would raise the average for a college they will be quite interested in having you enroll.  However, if your test scores and high school grades are significantly above those of the students who typically enroll the admissions office may wonder why you are applying and may hesitate to admit you if they are 99% sure you will turn them down.  So before you fill out the application see what you will be doing for or against the academic profile and selectivity ranking of each college on your list.  If you will boost their profile and can convince them that you are seriously interested they are very likely to admit you.

Although it is important to colleges to keep students and their tuition dollars coming in, most colleges are not simply bottom line businesses.  They have a sense of social mission which can only be carried out if they have the opportunity to impact students who will go out in the world after graduation and make a positive difference. 

Take a look at what each college says about its mission, and see if you are likely to be the type of graduate who will embody that mission.  If you can make the case that you are exactly the type of student who is going to go out and live their mission after graduation then you may be just what that college is looking for in an applicant. 

If a college talks about community service and you are committed to giving something back to your community you are a good fit and should say so.  If a college talks about educating the next generation of leaders and you aspire to leadership let them know.  Of course the best way to make that case is to show that you are already doing things in the world to make the type of difference they want their graduates to make, and then let them know that you plan to continue such work but with more knowledge and skill after receiving a college education.

In addition to wondering what type of alumna/e you will make, colleges wonder what type of student you will be both inside and outside the classroom.  Most colleges recognize that students learn from one another as well as from faculty, and they seek to provide a mix of students which will maximize that learning. 

What do you have to offer the college in terms of enhancing the student body?  Perhaps you can contribute to diversity.  This can mean you are a member of an ethnic minority group under represented at the college.  It could mean you come from a different part of the country than most of the students.  Maybe you are from a working class background while most of the students at Very Preppy College are the children of professionals.  It may even mean you hold unusual political opinions. 

If you do represent an opportunity for adding diversity to the colleges on your list you might want to also advertise your ability to engage in dialog with people of different backgrounds.  The point of diversity on a college campus is not to meet some quota, but to enhance the education of all students through the exchange of ideas, experiences and perspectives.  Being a libertarian who is unwilling to consider any other political philosophies is of less value than being a libertarian who likes to engage in open debate with social conservatives, environmentalists and mainstream partisan democrats and republicans.

If you can’t lay claim to the mantle of diversity, you can still support the college in their desire to create an active and engaged student body.  Colleges are always looking for students who will be contributors to the collective life of the campus.  If you have a history of being involved in social activities in high school and are likely to continue this in college you have special appeal.  If you have special talents in the arts and will be sharing your talents in shows while a student that’s a plus.  If you are a star athlete who can play at a varsity intercollegiate level, that will add appeal to your application if the college fields that sport and believes you can make the team.

Another thing that many colleges are seeking is students interested in programs they offer which are currently undersubscribed.  At the moment there may be a high level of competition nationally for students interested in going into electrical engineering and computer science.  If this is your area of interest and you have the math grades and scores to convince the college you can make it in this area you may move to the head of the admission line. 

At the level of an individual college there may be a program that interests you but has recently fallen out of fashion.  If a college has developed a focus on the study of art history, for example, and this is the program that you believe will take you where you want to go after college you might ask questions about the number of majors over the last few years.  If the department tells you enrollments have been declining then you might be just the type of student they need.

Colleges are also interested in keeping up existing relationships.  If your family has several alumni from Our Alma Matter University this is a plus in the application process.  If your family has a building named after one of its distinguished ancestors this is a big plus in the admissions process.  If neither of these factors works in your favor, don’t worry too much.  There aren’t enough relatives to fill out the class even at Rampant Nepotism College, so there will be plenty of space after all the special friends and relations are accommodated, and you will still be considered for admission on your merits.  But if you have family ties be sure to mention them on the application.

Share your bright future!

Finally, every college is looking for successful graduates.  If you have a clear vision of where you want to go, and demonstrate the energy and long term thinking that is likely to take you there you will stand out in most applicant pools.  Colleges are hoping to prepare students for a bright future that will shine back on the reputation of their school.  But despite all our best efforts those of us who work in colleges see that not all of our graduates fare equally well. 

And we sometimes suspect that ultimately that bright future depends more on the student’s willingness to take charge of her or his own life, to meet challenges and persevere, and to have the vision as well as the drive necessary to succeed than on SAT scores, high school grades or a well laid out college curriculum.  We can encourage hard work, vision and perseverance in all our students, but when we see a student anxious to be challenged and driven to accomplish something big with her or his life we get excited.  If you know you are up to big things, and know that really throwing yourself into getting the most value out of a college education will help you get where you want to go, by all means communicate this vision to the admissions office.

Present yourself clearly – Your one minute story

Okay, now you’ve had the opportunity to reflect on why you might be a valuable student for each of the colleges on your list.  If you have a short list of key benefits you will bring to each college you are ready to start crafting your application message.  If you have a long list of benefits you bring to each college you still have one more step to take before you start filling out applications – shorten your list.

Keep in mind that colleges are reviewing thousands of applications, so the amount of time they can spend debating the merits of your application is extremely small.  Also keep in mind that not everyone in a typical admissions committee can read every application.  So you may have one or two reviewers read your application, and then summarize their impressions for the rest of the admissions committee. 

If you try to communicate a laundry list of strengths you bring as an applicant, the readers will have trouble summarizing their impression in a quick pitch to the rest of the committee.  In fact, your twenty item list of activities may get summarized as, “Seems to have been involved in a lot of activities, but not particularly focused on any one thing.” That is not the impression you are hoping to make. 

Make the job easy for whoever reads your application.  Identify your top one, two or three strengths and then craft an application message to communicate those strengths clearly and convincingly.

Identifying your top strengths

How do you choose your top strengths out of a longer list of pluses?  Use three criteria. 

But don’t write of your performance art interest completely.  It is probably quite rare for students applying to civil engineering to also have a passion for performing, and you can make the case that you will add something valuable to the student mix because of your ability to relate to both engineers and artists.  There is a design aspect to public works projects that often doesn’t appeal to typical civil engineers.  So if you made the case that your interest in civil engineering is genuine and that you have the ability to succeed in the program, you could then give them a simple explanation of why your other interest compliments your goal rather than competing with it. 

That is an interesting and compelling story which can be told in a minute or less, and that should be your goal with your application.  You need to know that someone reading your application will have a clear impression of you as a worthy applicant and will be able to communicate that impression to the admissions committee quickly and clearly.

Write your one minute story

So take some time now to try out variations on your own one minute story.  What are the two or three things about you as an applicant that you would want communicated to the admissions committee.  Are these things that would appeal to the college(s) to which you are applying?  Can you put together an application that shows that you really do possess and have demonstrated these things about yourself? 

Finally, is the resulting story interesting?  Does it reflect you and your personality?  This message is going to be the first impression you make as a college applicant, so take the time to make sure you are presenting yourself honestly and in the most positive light possible.

Now, take this one minute story and use it to make choices about what to say in your application essay, which activities and interests to list in the application form, and what to say if you have an interview.  Communicate this one minute story to the people you ask to provide letters of recommendation and ask them to say what they can to support the story.  Make sure that everything in your application gives the admissions office a clear view of your best case for admission.

Selling your true self in the college application

Don’t sell yourself short in a college application.  This is a time to present yourself at your best. 

But don’t commit fraud either.  If you can’t demonstrate from your actual activities that you really are capable of succeeding in a math intensive program then claiming that you can is unlikely to fool the admissions office, and if you do manage to fool them you will have set yourself up for college failure by getting into a program where you aren’t prepared to succeed.  If you try to convince a college that you are a committed member of their faith tradition when in reality you skip church to hang out with your friends drinking beer and gambling on Sunday morning you may successfully pull off this fraud, but why would you want to trick your way into a college that doesn’t really reflect your values.  If you have a really poor academic record and poor test scores you may need to be honest about your prospects for being admitted directly into a good four year college.  You may be better off simply admitting that you need to prove yourself at a junior college first, and once you’ve demonstrated that you really have what it takes to do college work you can apply as a transfer student. 

In general you are better off being honest about your limitations as well as your strengths.  If a college doesn’t admit you due to those limitations there is a very good chance that they are doing you a favor by not putting you into a situation where you are not yet ready to succeed.  If you know you want to go to a better college than you can currently get into or afford, then set as a goal doing whatever it takes to prepare yourself so that you will be successful.  Many colleges are thrilled to participate in a good turn around story, and your honesty about why you had to take the remedial path together with your demonstrated commitment to making that path a success will open doors in the future.  More importantly, your willingness to work hard to improve yourself is a skill that will help you succeed in whatever you want to do in your life. 

So play the college admissions game the best you can to get into a college that will help you live the life you want to live after college, and if you don’t get admitted to any of your choices don’t despair.  Plan B may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you.