What do Parents Get Wrong?
America’s best colleges want to harness the education that naturally arises from human interaction outside the classroom. When students share diverse ideas and experiences, they teach and learn from each other. To achieve the goal of robust interaction, the colleges select students who interact well with each other.
In admissions, personality matters. Of all the factors used by top colleges to grade applicants in the holistic system, who you are as a human being is the most important determinant.
College applications are evaluated in two stages. The first pieces are primarily objective: grades, test scores, and performance in extracurricular activities. The second pieces are exclusively subjective: essays, recommendation letters, school reports, and interview reports. Subjective information overrides objective numbers.
When admissions officers read your application, just “stay in the game” for the first part. Just be qualified. For the second part of the application – the essays – charm them. It’s a concept often called “reader love,” and it’s universal. When humans read written materials, human nature becomes involved. Admissions is emotional.
What do parents get wrong about admissions? We hear it all time: “How do we prove that our child is better than the other applicants?”
It’s not about numbers. It’s not about proof. It’s not about “better.” It’s about “more desirable.”
Nice people tend to write endearing essays. Nice people tend to excite and energize teachers to write better recommendation letters. Nice people get stronger support from their high schools. Nice people enchant interviewers.
The colleges are trying to create communities. Make a relationship with them through your application. But how? To help our students get into the heads and hearts of admissions readers, UCA teaches techniques based upon the soft sciences, like psychology and memory, utilizing the Serial Position Effect, Borrowed Imagery, and many other effective methodologies.