How to impress admissions at top colleges
The more selective the college, the more demanding they will be in wanting applicants who stand out from the crowd. The selective colleges do not want well rounded applicants neither do they want applicants who have just ordinary achievements. They want to configure a well rounded class made up of successful applicants who are “superstars” in one special thing.
When there are 20 applicants vying for each available position in a freshman class, successful applicants must present that extra special factor, what we call the X Factor, that makes them stand out from amongst the smart, high achieving candidates competing against them for that spot in the freshman class.
As the number of applications have soared, colleges have ratcheted up the bar for who they consider to be sufficiently outstanding to earn an offer of acceptance. These increasingly stringent standards not only require applicants to engage in activities that demonstrate that they are genuinely unique, they also require applicants to write phenomenal essays that demonstrate that they possess the qualities desirable to the college.
These highly selective colleges not only want their applicants to have demonstrably challenged themselves academically, they want applicants who are willing to step out of their comfort zones and who have demonstrated creativity, passion and leadership in an area outside of academic life.
See: The 61 Colleges with Low Acceptance Rates
Strong academics and ordinary achievement is not enough
While strong academic performance is a pre-requisite for admission to a highly selective college, an applicant must present that special X factor to successfully gain admission.
See Academic Statistics at Top Colleges
For example, where students from the elite private schools could in the past rely on a mix of their school’s rigorous academic curriculum and a high level of participation in school related activities to gain them admission to the highly selective colleges, many of them were shocked and deeply disappointed to be rejected by these highly selective colleges in the last two admission cycles in 2021 and 2022.
Being the class valedictorian and elected President of your high school’s prestigious debate club is not enough even if you successfully lead the debate team to win the county championship or even state championship. There are simply too many applicants who have done the same thing for you to stand out. To stand out, an applicant needs to succeed at the national or regional debate championship level.
Remember that there are almost 24,000 public high schools and almost 3,000 private high schools in the United States. Every school will have a valedictorian, debate club president, best football player and so on. An applicant to an elite college has to stand out from this crowd to gain admission. In addition, applicants also compete with some of the best and brightest students from around the world applying for a coveted seat at an elite college.
If you participate in sports and spend many hours practicing every week, but you are just an average athlete, this activity is unlikely to get you recruited to an elite NCAA Division 1 college. Athlete recruits to the most elite colleges are expected to rank at the top of their peers nationally in their chosen sport. That said, there may be opportunities to gain an advantage in admission with other selective colleges in Division 1 and Division 3 through the Early Decision process even for an average athlete.
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Many students follow their passion and engage in activities outside of school activities or organized sports. Whether they have been bloggers, influencers, dancers, musicians, photographers, activists, instructors, independent researchers, activists or community leaders, those who can show passion, leadership and demonstrable and measurable impact on others through these activities raise their chances of admission to a selective school.
Remember that the magical number of eight (8) minutes! That is all the time an overwhelmed admissions officer has to initially review an application, they have no time to look for nuance or subtlety. An application stands out and stays “alive” or it goes into the “Reject” pile.
While all of this may sound very hard to achieve, it is doable with informed planning. Remember that every year the selective colleges issue thousands of letters of acceptance to successful applicants who have demonstrated that they possess an X Factor worthy of admission. You can be a successful applicant too.
See: Independent Activities that Help You Stand Out
An applicant can develop an X-Factor through one of the following paths:
School related activity like debate club, marching band, robotics club and many more - remember that you must stand out above the crowd of high schoolers across the country and potentially in the world, in your activity, whether it is through excellent performance or through taking initiative to create something impactful that was not there before.
School organized sports like soccer, football, basketball, rowing and many more - whether you participate in a school organized sport, or you undertake an independent sports activity, you must rise to the top of your sport nationally to be recruited to an elite NCAA Division 1 team at a highly selective college. There are also opportunities through the Early Decision process to gain an advantage in admission to an elite college, even if you do not meet the bar to be an athlete recruit to a Division 1 college.
Independent sports activity like fencing, sailing, skiing, ice hockey and sailing. What applies to school organized sports also applies to independent sports activities for athlete recruitment. If a college does not have an NCAA or varsity team for your sport, and you are a top performer with many championships and medals to your name, that excellence is still an incredible X Factor that gives you a big advantage in your college application. Think of Eileen Gu who will be attending Stanford in Fall 2022, she is a world champion and Olympic gold medalist in freestyle skiing, which is not an NCAA sport and she was not athlete recruited.
Structured non-school related activity like piano, violin or ballet. There are tens of thousands of students who engage in these activities in your peer group, standing out above the crowd will be extremely challenging. Attaining a Grade 8 level in piano will not make you stand out even though it is technically demanding as there are still too many applicants who share this accomplishment. You need to have won national or international competitions and performed at prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall to stand out.
Independent activity initiated by the student’s interests and passion like blogging, starting a small business, research etc. Colleges view applicants favorably when they follow their passion and engage in an independent activity that demonstrates passion, leadership, drive and willingness to step out of their comfort zone.
What age should you start developing your X Factor?
Except for certain sports and activities like piano and ballet, where a student starts at a relatively young age, most other pathways begin in high school when students have developed greater self-awareness and emotional maturity to choose what works for them.
Remember that these pathways are not mutually exclusive, and many students engage in several activities but choose to develop truly high performance in only one and at maximum two of them. Remember that the point is to stand out in the chosen activity and present a uniqueness and level of achievement that stands above the ordinary.
While parents are eager to start their child down the path to a top college early, the most effective way to guide success is to give your child as much exposure as possible to a wide variety of activities and to enrich their experience of the world around them. There is no single pathway to developing an X Factor, and exploration is critical.
It will be a fundamental mistake to settle on an activity when your child is too young and he/she is still not yet able to make an informed and independent choice that reflects who they are or who they want to become. Preferably, no choice should be made at all until freshman year in high school. All activities that come before that age should be for fun and for exploration only even if you can see a direction emerge for your child.
For those who pursue an independent activity, the awareness to make an informed choice is unlikely to come about until sophomore year in high school when the child will be sufficiently equipped to take independent steps towards pursuit of their activity.
For parents, it is important to remember that there is no such thing as a list accepted activities, other than athletics, that will propel your child’s acceptance to a top college. What someone else’s child did to get into a top college may not work for your child and it is the wise parent who will refrain from encouraging imitation. Every child has their unique set of strengths and passions, nurturing these will get you a far better result than following in someone else’s path.
The college’s search for uniqueness requires that your child develop as original of a profile as possible through activities and essay.
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Admitted students possess the qualities top colleges value!
Find out with examples what these top qualities are to get you admitted to the Ivy League and top colleges.
Get the FREE Guide