How to Be a Compelling College Applicant, Not Just a Qualified One

At selective colleges, the majority of applicants are qualified—they’re meeting the minimum expectations and often approximating the averages of the prior year’s accepted students. Admissions is unpredictable because meeting the published standards of last year’s class doesn’t guarantee an acceptance letter. If a college has more than enough qualified candidates, they have to choose among them. Does this mean admissions is merely a guessing game for seniors? Not entirely. While you can’t know all of a school’s priorities in a given year, you can still create a compelling application that showcases your strengths and the ways you’ll contribute to your future campus community.

How to Become a Compelling Applicant

Savvy students who stand out as compelling college applicants are those who take initiative beyond traditional extracurricular activities. Admissions officers notice applicants who create their own opportunities in addition to joining what’s available at school and in the local community. That might mean finding a meaningful community service role, pursuing a leadership position, or exploring an experience that aligns closely with your interests.

Often, it’s the activities that need explanation on an application that make the strongest impression. For instance, being captain of the track team is impressive because it shows commitment, leadership, and athletic skill, but it’s also common and an easily understood activity. Contrast that with a College Spy student who secured a research position at a neuroscience lab in Chicago. Her experience required a detailed explanation—and that’s exactly what made it memorable.

Another way to be a compelling applicant is to seek professional mentorship. This doesn’t mean that a student has to find a paid internship or work for a Fortune 500 company! Instead, they can interview professionals in related fields, find a mentor in a role that interests them or arrange a job shadow with a family friend or neighbor to gain insight into a specific career. Colleges will be impressed with any of these experiences because they demonstrate initiative and will inform your college search and college experience.

Embracing Opportunities at Your High School

Another tip to keep in mind, especially for younger high school students, is to simply take advantage of all the opportunities offered in high school. Are you challenging yourself with your school’s rigorous classes? Have you explored the clubs and organizations offered at school? Does the high school partner with a local community college for advanced credit or summer academic opportunities? Ask your school counselor about opportunities available to you.

How Being a “Pointy” Student Can Help You Get Accepted

When Generation X applied to college, being a “well-rounded student”was the key to admissions success. Things have changed! These days, colleges want well-rounded classes; they seek to enroll a group of first-year students who have a variety of interests and strengths, but they don’t necessarily expect each individual student to be well-rounded themselves. If you happen to have several academic interests or extracurricular passions, that’s great! Colleges are often excited to meet students like you. However, most schools also appreciate a specialist—sometimes called a “pointy” student—who takes one main passion and pursues it in lots of different ways. The teen who plays first trumpet in the school orchestra, performs in a jazz ensemble, mentors younger students in music, and plans to study math while continuing music in college is impressive.

Words Matter: How to Share Your Unique Perspective in Your College Essay 

If you’re applying through the Common Application or the Coalition Application, you’ll write a personal essay that’s sent to every college on your list. This is your chance (often through storytelling) to share something meaningful about yourself that isn’t fully captured elsewhere in your application. You might choose to tell a story about something ordinary or a single moment in time, but the theme of your essay should reveal something deeper about who you are, what you value and what you hope to pursue in the future. Admissions officers care less about the topic itself and more about the personal qualities it reveals.
As you write, focus on yourself. Be specific, and make sure every example and reflection could only come from you. It’s intuitive to think that speaking in generalities is universal, and to assume that other people will be able to relate to what you wrote. But in practice, it’s actually the specific details that tend to be more relatable and memorable. Consider a generic statement like, “I want to become a doctor because I want to help people,” which is probably true, but something a lot of people could say. Imagine instead providing an example of a time when a specific interaction with a medical professional inspired you to want to emulate them in your future work. Even when your reader hasn’t experienced exactly the same scenario, they’re likely to relate to the feeling of having a personal connection shape their own goals.

Understanding and Prioritizing Supplemental Essays

Colleges often customize their applications by including supplemental essay questions. Since they choose to ask for this information and invest time and resources in reading the responses, it’s clear they’re genuinely interested in your responses. Yet, because these questions are usually shorter than the main essay and often tackled last, students (especially those feeling burned out at the end of the process) sometimes treat them as afterthoughts. Here are some tips to help you write strong supplemental essays:

Optional Supplemental Essays

Sometimes supplemental essays are optional. However, it’s rare that we would encourage a student not to answer these questions because they are an opportunity to share more about yourself. If the question does not apply to you, skip it. However, if you can provide an answer that enhances your application, do so!

Answering the “Why Us?” Question

Many colleges will ask you why you want to attend their school. This will give you the opportunity to speak directly to what’s available at each college: talk about their programs, their faculty, their courses, anything that’s unique to them and has stood out to you. Name-drop the people you met and what was notable during your visit too. The “Why us?” question requires a lot of research to do well. Colleges aren’t looking for you to just reflect back to them what’s in their brochures or shower them with compliments. They want to understand how you fit into their community, bring something they can be excited about, and plan to take advantage of the unique opportunities they’re proud to offer. 

Using the Interview Strategically

A final opportunity for some students to add personality to their application is the interview. While it’s rare for interviews to be required, many colleges offer them as an optional or recommended component of the application. Some schools pair applicants with local alumni, others schedule virtual conversations with admissions staff or trained student interviewers and a few still host traditional on-campus interviews.

An interview is your chance to talk about the why behind your choices. Instead of simply listing your classes and grades, you can share which course or teacher has been your favorite and why, or describe a class so inspiring that it sparked your interest in pursuing the subject further in college. It’s also a great opportunity to mention activities you hope to continue on campus and why they are important to you.

Most interviews are conversational, giving you space not only to share your experiences and interests but also to learn more about the college community. You’ll often be able to ask a few questions about what life is really like as a student there. This experience will allow you to showcase your strengths and confirm if the college is a good fit for you.

As you decide whether you want to pursue an optional interview, keep in mind that applications are read in ten or twelve minutes on average, and essays themselves are read in one to two minutes. That’s not a lot of time for an admissions officer to get to know you and make an admission recommendation. If you do have the chance to interview, you’ll often spend twenty or thirty minutes one-on-one with an interviewer who later has a voice in making that decision. We recommend that most students say “yes” to interviews and prepare for them. Students who arrive knowing who they are and what they want to share about themselves are much more likely to make a lasting impression on their interviewer. That person can then become an advocate in the decision-making process.

The Bottom Line on Becoming a Compelling Applicant
Think about who you are now and who you want to become in college. Throughout high school, take every opportunity to explore your interests and clearly express what makes you unique in each of your applications. If your teen needs assistance with self-reflection, seeking meaningful opportunities during high school, finding “best fit” colleges and crafting and submitting applications, The College Spy can help! Check out our individual and group options.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why is it important to be a compelling applicant? Won’t I be admitted as long as I meet the admissions standards?

  Most selective colleges receive more applications from qualified candidates than they have room for in their admitted classes. Keep in mind that this applies to selective colleges (those admitting some students, but turning away a significant portion as well.) There are some colleges who admit anyone who is qualified—who meet certain minimum criteria—but they are not considered selective in their admissions practices, and the results tend to be very predictable. 

  At an institution receiving more than enough qualified candidates, standing out among your peers becomes important. If most of the applicants are similarly qualified academically, you’ll need to find other ways to stand out in your admissions application.

• What’s the single most effective way to become a compelling college applicant?

  That’s a tough question because we have so much advice! Overall, take advantage of every opportunity you can during high school, and don’t hesitate to create new ones for yourself. Also, carefully curate your applications to highlight your experiences leading up to college.

• Should I focus more on my main application essay or the supplemental questions?

  This isn’t an either/or situation; you need to put time and effort into both components. The good news is that once you’ve written your main essay (or personal statement), it will be sent to the majority of your colleges. You’ll draft responses to each institution’s supplemental questions or essays individually, but you will occasionally be able to reuse some of what you’ve written because colleges often ask similar supplemental questions like how you’ve contributed to your community or why you’ve chosen a particular major.