As college application season moves into full-swing (yes, you should be in full swing on your college applications), I wanted to take a moment and talk about the “fundamentals” of your college application: the narrative.

What is the college application?  It’s a package of materials that you send to a college that is meant to show them what kind of person you are so that they can decide whether you’ll be a happy and productive member of their class.  To accomplish this most effectively, you must tell a story about yourself, a narrative.  When I say “story,” I don’t mean something that’s make-believe, as many students think.  There’s no use in puffing yourself up and telling a college something that’s not true.  Any admissions officer worth their keep will be able to smell that kind of nonsense from a mile away.  And, even if you do get through, they’ll find you out in the interview.  Most importantly, however, it’s nearly impossible to make something up about yourself that will be more effective than actually telling them your own story.  So, don’t make anything up.

Instead, focus on telling your own story.  What does this mean?  It means that you’re not a pile of facts and figures or titles and accomplishments.  You’re a real person with reasons and motivations for doing what you’ve done.  You have feelings (hopefully) and have put thought into your decisions.  You have had rich, transformative experiences.  You are passionate about something, even if it’s not school, and you’re willing to work for it.  In our history of advising students, almost every student objects at first and says, “I’m not that interesting.”  However, the richness of experience that a college is asking for is simply part of being human and simply needs to be thought about and exposed.

Let me give you one example.  A student recently approached me and said, “I love studying history, how can I communicate that on my application?”  His idea was to proceed by listing off papers he had read and competitions he had won.  I told him that he needed more than just that.  Sure, it signified that he worked hard, but it didn’t make him interesting or unique.  Hard work, though necessary, isn’t a sufficient reason for a college to accept you.  He protested, saying that there wasn’t anything.

However, not content, I dug a bit deeper into why he liked history.  Then it came out: history began as a personal pursuit for him.  Though he was born and raised in America, his parents grew up in Bejing, China, and his grandparents were from the countryside of China.  Both grandparents died before he had met them, and he was curious to know about them.  He began, at a young age, asking his parents what his grandparents were like and what they did, where they lived, and how they lived.  That led him to begin searching for books written about the region, which then led to a broader interest in a certain area and time-period.  As he dug deeper and deeper, his passion for history grew.

Now, that’s a story.  That tells the college that he has a passion, he’s interested in something, he has devoted himself to a pursuit, and he will likely use the resources he has in college to be successful.  That is eminently more powerful than a list of facts and figures and will make an incredible college essay.

In conclusion, make a list of everything you’ve done, be aware of the facts, figures, titles, accomplishments, clubs, etc…  But, look deeper than that to uncover your real story, the narrative of who you are.  If you do that, you’ll have a better chance of getting into the school that’s right for you.