In today’s college admissions landscape, many students and parents put so much emphasis on the “tangibles” when applying to college and have a lack of appreciation or unawareness for the “intangibles”. First, let me say that the “tangibles” are very important and you must still do well in all of them if you are going to be considered admissible at a highly competitive university or for a top scholarship. However, it’s the “intangibles” that college admission counselors recognize and take note of when making final decisions on being admitted to their school or being awarded a significant amount of merit aid.
When defining the words “tangible” and “intangible”, I find definitions like the ones below from Websters Dictionary:
Tangible– “Capable of being perceived; substantially real; capable of being precisely identified or realized by the mind; capable of being appraised at an actual or approximate value”
Intangible– “An asset that is not corporeal; an abstract quality or attribute”
When a senior applies to college, there are many different steps or tasks they must complete and submit to a college admissions office. Let’s first distinguish what I think are the “tangible” parts of the college application process:
- Application
- Grades in courses in 9th-11th grade
- Courses taken in 9th-12th grade
- Test scores (if submitted)
- GPA
- Reasonable extra-curricular activities
- Letters of recommendation (these can highlight intangible qualities a senior had, but colleges will want to see more “evidence”)
While these parts of the college application are extremely important, I do want to emphasize that with a significant amount of money, these aspects can be “controlled” with tutors, test prep coaches and even college coaches. They are also “controlled” by high schools by the way they calculate GPA/rank, encourage grade inflation and are really ambiguous in how they manipulate class rank, offer certain courses and can embellish letters of recommendation. However, this isn’t true for many. Many students are on their own to do as well as they can on the parts of the college application mentioned above. College admission counselors will notice this.
What are the “intangibles” when it comes to the college application process? What will college counselors like to see in senior applicants to know they can be a good “fit” at their school and they will contribute to their campus? Below are the “intangibles” that I think are most important.
- “Personal” Essays– Notice that I didn’t say “well-written”, “great” or “detailed”. If your essays are going to stand out, you better have the above characteristics. What I mean by “personal” is that your essays better be specific to you, what makes you tick, contributions you currently are making in your community and ones you would like to make to your “future” community. TThey also must exhibit “vulnerability” on your part. This means they need to go “deeper” into who you are. You need to provide your positive and sometimes negative attributes, what you do when nobody is watching, unique interests and quirks and how you have interacted with others, your goals and ambitions, what you are curious about, just to name a few. If you work with a college essay coach (because I am one), they can do their best to get the “personal” out of you, but you must be the one to make it happen.
- Gratitude and Positivity– Whether students come from the most privileged backgrounds or from the most impoverished situations, showing gratitude for the good things of life demonstrates maturity. No one in the world is completely free from disappointment and heartbreak. Each person faces her own set of challenges. College can be stressful with its many demands. If you are someone who remains thankful and upbeat even in less-than-ideal situations, then you will be a bright light to your peers when they feel pessimistic. As you sit down to write your personal essays, especially if it the prompt is about overcoming challenges, be sure to frame your story with a tone of gratitude rather than complaint. Practice ways to be thankful in your daily life. In the end, these habits you build will help you to tell engaging stories for your college applications.
- Servant Leadership and Humility– It’s not hard to find college applicants who have held some type of leadership position. Most serious students have run a club, founded a project, and had an influential voice in some way in their school or community. Rarer are the types of students who pour themselves into serving and uplifting others. Their goal revolves not so much around dictating what happens but around meeting the needs of people. Find opportunities to empower others—including any of those you serve and classmates you work with. In college applications, you will have plenty of space to toot your own horn through the activities list or your resume. Feel free to list all of your awards and accomplishments there, but approach your essays with humility, focusing on the impact you made on others as well as people’s influence on your development.
- Collaborative and Team Oriented– Along the same lines, admissions officers seek students who can work well in a team. In college, there will be many opportunities to collaborate with classmates—whether it is planning a campus event for a club or studying for an upcoming math final. Being able to overcome differences in opinions, listen to others, and contribute your strengths and ideas to a group encourages your learning and the learning of your peers. Don’t shy away from the messiness of teamwork. See club or class projects as moments to sharpen your collaboration skills. It’ll help prepare you for the many team-oriented projects you will take on during college, summer jobs or internships, and throughout your career.
- Socially Engaged and Compassionate– Admissions officers seek students who demonstrate community engagement and compassion because it is evidence that they will contribute positively to the student body experience. It has become popular to do volunteer work for the sake of college applications or to meet community service requirements, but admissions readers can tell from a mile away if a student had genuine, committed interest in something. Be truly socially engaged. Identify something that you care deeply about, and then find ways to address it. It does not have to be volunteer work per say, but you should be committed to using your passions to benefit others. Bake sales, supply drives, and other fundraisers can be a great way start but remember to take it a step further by learning about those you are serving with and forging connections that leave a lasting change on you. These small steps will build in you the character traits that move admissions officers, setting you up to succeed not only through the application process but also through college and life.
- Initiative and Independence- You should not shy away from taking the initiative to start something, help someone and show compassion towards each other even when it may be awkward or unpopular. The more that you show you can take initiative and be independent, the more trust adults will have in you and you will be given more responsibility. You can be with and have fun with your friends, but when there is an opportunity to fill a need, help someone, show compassion or sometimes just do the right thing although it may be the unpopular choice, it’s the ones who have shown that they can take initiative and be independent that stand out. The college application process is YOUR process…not your parents, friends, relatives or counselor’s. If you don’t show initiative in communicating with admission officers, go to the college that is the best fit for you academically, emotionally and spiritually, you only have yourself to blame.
