Universities looking for a well-rounded student body, not well-rounded students?
Right on the heels of my “Spend LESS time on Academics” advice for creating an outstanding university applicant, I came across Naomi Schaefer Riley’s review of Michele Hernández’s Acing the College Application. From WSJ.com:
What colleges are looking for these days, according to Ms. Hernández, is passion. “Since the late 1990s,” she writes, “the focus has shifted away from well-rounded students to the idea of a well-rounded freshman class.” A high-school student who gets good grades, serves as student body president and plays varsity football may be a remarkable person, but to an admissions officer his excellence may look rather conventional and diffuse. Better to cultivate a particular skill or enthusiasm. The ideal admissions-candidate is thus a prize-winning gymnast, a fluent reader of both Greek and Latin, a math champion, a successful entrepreneur or a violin virtuoso.
Granted, this is again advice for US colleges from an American author, so take it in that context. But, for Ontario homeschoolers, this perspective bears repeating: if you’re attempting an alternate-entry mode into university, then you have to give them a good reason to want to admit you.
For some students, that will be a solid, well-rounded academic portfolio, but it should still stand out in some way. My own personal “top six” which included 90′s in English, Mathematics, Science, Foreign Language and Music would have been evidence of my fit for Glendon (a liberal arts, bilingual school) and my (then) desire to be a teacher.
But, if your child isn’t on the path to showing consistent top academics across the board, then simply being “a stellar student” won’t be his or her “thing.” So, find that hook that is on its own impressive, and then even more so because dedication to that passion didn’t compromise general academic achievement. Notice that “average” academics will seem perfectly reasonable and acceptable in this context.
I hope this doesn’t come across as “playing the system.” Rather, I intend for this advice to give all parents, not just those of budding prodigies, the permission to think of their children first, and universities second. I can’t promise everything will work out in exactly the way you’d hoped. But, I can say with certainty that doing what’s in the best interest of your child’s development will be in the best interest of the university application, too.
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