We’ve had lots of discussions about what top schools are looking for in applicants–we know that they want excellent grades, a challenging high school curriculum, top scores, impressive extracurriculars, etc., and we know that there are hooks that can help.
I am convinced that it also helps, a lot, if you have what I call the “AND.” In other words, when the admissions committee is sitting around discussing your file, the advocate says, “This kid is from Idaho, interested in history, top grades and scores AND she is a nationally-ranked rodeo competitor.” These can be big (AND he started his own million-dollar business) or small (AND he plays the musical saw). But it is the fascinating (and/or impressive) detail that stands out.
I suspect that effective college admissions counselors help students identify what this AND might be. Some of them might manufacture it, too.
My advice is for students to think about this when writing your applications. Parents might think that the application should focus only on academic awards, music achievements, etc., and not on “silly” hobbies. I strongly suspect that the opposite is true. If you raise chinchillas, you really need to mention that.
When I saw the subject line, it made me think of the fact that, for most applicants, top level achievement in several things is necessary, but none is sufficient by itself, to gain admission to a super-selective school. I.e. an applicant typically needs:
top end course rigor
AND
top end grades
AND
top end test scores
AND
top end extracurricular achievements
AND
top end recommendations
The students who naively post “what is better, an A in a regular course OR a B in an honors course?” or “should I focus on my grades OR extracurriculars?” may be dreaming of super-selective schools, but are unlikely to gain admission to such, since they do not realize that it is not one or the other that they need; it is both.
You make a very good point. This was one of my takeaways from “The Gatekeepers.” One of the counselors made a comment that if an applicant ends up having a nickname bestowed by the Admissions Committee - like “Rodeo Rider” or “6-Language Speaker” or “Opera Composer” - it is a very good indicator that they are going to be accepted. Obviously this nickname has to be an “AND” because an applicant has to be under active consideration based on scores, GPA, etc., to merit enough of the Committee’s attention to earn a nickname. It seems if you earn a nickname, you have made a convincing case that you have a passion/personality that sets you apart from all the other 4.0, 2300 applicants.
Form personal experience, I think Hunt’s “AND’s” can be more important than the top scores and grades and course rigor etc, as long a certain benchmark is met or ability to do okay academically is clear.
Not sure of the line between a “hook” and an “AND” though
I think Hunt’s point speaks to the oft repeated idea that colleges want to assemble an interesting class and it is really about what an individual can contribute to the mix rather than about the individual in isolation.
I understand where all this is coming from. I struggled with anxiety this past year myself. I am going to be a senior in high school this coming year. I took 5 APs this year, played two varsity sports, was in multiple clubs, math team, 4 choral groups, theater troupe, middle school mentor, and a bunch of other stuff and eventually I just shut down. I started refusing to go to school and not completing my homework. I was sent straight to the ER from school one day because I visited the school psychologist about self-harm. I felt like if I wasn’t the perfect, ivy-bound student, then I was trash. I had to miss 26 days of school.
I think the "AND"s are causing a lot of problems where some students do not know where to draw the line that there are just too many activities.
The AND isn’t doing a bunch of things–it’s doing one thing that’s interesting, or different, or memorable, or (perhaps) unusually impressive. It could be that “quirky” detail we used to talk about here.
Let me just add that not everybody who gets into top colleges has something like this, and not everybody needs something like this. But I’ve got to say that when I consider my kids’ classmates at Yale, a bunch of them have something like this–circus performer, animation voice actor, musical saw player. One year my son had three roommates who had been on “From the Top.”
It’s a little like Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story.” “And did I mention that when he climbed Mount Everest, he was totally blind? That’s the rest of the story.”
ucbalumnus, I still think that the high(est) end academics are not needed if the AND is truly interesting. The students I am thinking of may be outliers, but they are admitted. They meet benchmarks for scores (though one score could be off) and GPA, yes, but are not top of the class and may not have taken the expected required courses (all the better if this was because of that rodeo schedule).
The reason I keep saying this is that one of my kids applied to her eventual school because a young woman who did musical theater outside of school and played the organ was waitlisted there. The young woman did not get great grades. It was kind of an eye-opener.
We know kids who got their pilot’s license, collected butterflies, did aerial dance on silks, designed lighting for a dance company, etc.
I know one really wonderful young man who spent years working with a funky magical little kids theater troupe, first as a student and then much later, he ended up directing. I observed him at work and his sensitivity and talent were so evident. But he did not have the savvy to mention much about this on his application, or to have the theater director write him a letter.
So I think Hunt’s message, while fun and even amusing, is actually really important. Not to motivate people to take up Tai Chi or climb the Appalachian Trail or become an expert at origami, but to worry a little less about those stressful academics and tests and pursue things that they enjoy, regardless of where they end up. And they need to give a full picture of their interests when applying
@compmom, that’s exactly what I hoped to convey. I think it’s probably not unusual for a kid (perhaps at the urging of parents) to fail to mention just the sort of unusual detail that might capture the interest of admissions people.
This was pretty much my takeaway from the Cal Newport book, “How to Be a High School Superstar: A Revolutionary Plan to Get into College by Standing Out (Without Burning Out)” and the MIT “apply sideways” thing.
Though, the way I think of it, the “AND” substitutes to some extent for “AND top end extracurricular achievements” of the more usual kind that students do.
I see this as almost the exact opposite of the “AND” that Hunt is talking about. This is just a laundry list that even the poster concludes by describing as “a bunch of other stuff.” Guess what? If the “stuff” isn’t ultimately even interesting to the kid doing it, it’s certainly not going to be interesting in an application.
If the student had spent less time doing everything under the sun and focused in one or two things they found genuinely interesting, they would have ended up a more interesting (and less stressed) applicant
I think it could also be a typical activity done at atypical depth – the cellist who plays in the school orchestra, the state orchestra, competes and gets awards/high ratings in competitions, and performs in a jazz ensemble at festivals.
Another big “AND” would be “Type of high School” , perhaps?
Looking at the Yale freshmen profile ( http://admissions.yale.edu/node/2040/attachment ), one sees that about 40% of the enrolled freshmen come from private schools (US Students only) Add 11% international, and that’s already 51% of the student body that is not from a US public high school.
I am guessing their application pool does not consist of 40% private school kids…
I am aware that a lot of kids at Ivy’s are from private high schools, and I know of those schools’ cozy relationships with the Ivies (The Gatekeeper book was a real eye-opener) but, frankly, my jaw dropped at the 40% figure. It’s roughly the same for Princeton.
It looks like kids from public schools have a disproportionately smaller allocation than represented by their actual numbers. Small wonder that many of the high achieving kids in our competitive public high school don’t even bother with apps to HYP.
