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Archive for: Talented College Applicants

Talent and College Admission

With the Early Action / Early Decision round at a close, we’ve been receiving those exciting phone calls from our students and their parents. Oh, how we love this time of year! One student just showed up at our office dressed as a Brown bear, bearing a gift of a Brown University hoodie. When such a small percentage of applicants are accepted at their dream school, it’s no wonder that these students are very special.

Talented Students and College Admission, College and Talent, Talent and University Admissions

See what the Tufts Dean of Admission has to say about his talented admitted students.

Yes, of course applicants must have taken the most rigorous courses and have excelled in those courses. Of course applicants must have SAT or ACT scores that are in line with the college’s mean. But courses, grades, and standardized test scores are just the basics. The applicant’s personality, one that shines through essays, extracurricular involvements, and letters of recommendation, reveals the rest of the story.

A few years ago, we wrote a blog about Talent and College Admissions in which we highlighted the accomplishments of Barnard College’s accepted class. Today, Lee Coffin, Dean of Admissions at Tufts University, was kind enough to let the world know about the unique talents of Tufts’ Early Decision accepted students for the Class of 2016. He calls these talents his “Sweet Sixteen” and we’d like to share some of what he wrote with you.

“To highlight a few of the personalities heading our way next September, the ED class features a nationally-ranked Scrabble player from suburban Boston, a professional guitarist from New Haven, New Mexico’s ‘We the People’ state champ, the founder and president of the lumberjack club at a high school in Northern Virginia, a participant in Occupy Louisville, an equestrian from LA who competes in extreme cowboy racing and a blogger for Huffington Post. That’s quite a bunch!”

Coffin goes on in his blog post on the topic of his talented admitted students to write, “We’ll watch out for the Singaporean who’s been trained as a field medic as well as ‘counter-improvised explosive services’ techniques (he just finished his compulsory military service) as well as the community health student from Westchester County who reported ‘I am a ferocious, fearless and phenomenal skinny dipper.’ Indeed.”

Are you starting to get a sense of what it means to be a “talented” college applicant?

College Admissions and Talent

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In a previous post on talented college applicants, we wrote about how college admissions counselors are in search of talented students to form a well rounded class. They’re not in search of well rounded students to form a somewhat talented class of students who are fairly decent at a number of things. How would that sit with the basketball coach? Or the swim coach? Do you think the swim coach wants a male 100 breaststroker who can swim a :55 or a 100 breaststroker who can swim a 1:15 but also sings somewhat like Ben Harper (minus any ability whatsoever to carry a tune). So, yeah, he’s not such a good singer or swimmer. Do you think the bball coach would want to play the girl who can’t make an unguarded layup but who can play a mean piano (though she struggles with differentiating a C from a C Sharp) or the girl who can come close to jamming and averages 24 points a game? The basketball coach wants the latter student and thus that’s the student college admissions officers will want as well.

So what if you’re only mediocre at, say, water polo and you’ve tried playing other sports but you’re even worse? And what if you really love water polo and you want to keep playing but now you’ve read that you need to be talented in a particular area to really succeed in the college admissions process? That’s ridiculous! Do what you love and you’ll find you get better at it. Don’t believe us? Will you take Malcolm Gladwell’s word? He’s the author of “Outliers” in which he argued that to be exceptional at anything, to be an outlier (think of a great water polo player like Tony Azevedo as compared to the typical water polo players), you need to practice for 10,000 hours. Yes, you read that right — 10,000 hours during your lifetime.

Bill Gates programmed at the computer for 10,000 hours and he founded Microsoft in his garage. Michael Phelps swam for 10,000 hours and he won eight Olympic golds in the last Olympic Games (not to mention six the previous Olympics). Larry Bird shot a basketball for 10,000 hours on his Indiana farm and developed one of the greatest shots in the history of the game. Does Larry Bird look athletic to you? Did he ever? He trained. He shot ball after ball through a hoop and he excelled. Larry Legend was not born a basketball sensation. He became one through hard work. And you can excel in your talent area as well!

Check out our article on talented students and college admissions and watch the Charlie Rose interview clip with Malcolm Gladwell!

Talented College Applicants

Recently, we were at an alumni event for Dartmouth College where Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim addressed a packed hall. During the question and answer session that followed Kim’s speech about Dartmouth, an alumnus questioned why so many wonderful students who attended the high school at which he taught didn’t get admitted to his alma mater. He spoke of how well rounded these students were, how they were Renaissance young men and women in that they excelled in multiple sports, music, and community service. In this alum’s words, these students are just like he was as a high schooler and he was admitted to Dartmouth. President Kim had a very eloquent and simple answer. He said that the student they were looking for years ago is not necessarily — and often most certainly is not — the student they are looking for today. He went on to explain how Dartmouth College admissions counselors are instead in search of talented college applicants to form a well rounded student body.

Talented High School Students, College Applicants with Talents, College Applicant Recruited Athletes

If you're good at squash, try to become great at squash. While it may be easier said than done, becoming very strong in a particular area will greatly enhance the chances for college applicants.

What President Kim didn’t specify but he absolutely meant is that they are looking for talented students to form a well rounded class. And that means they’re not looking for “Renaissance” young men and women who play 5 hours of the violin each week combined with 3 hours of swimming, 2 hours of volunteering at a homeless shelter, and an hour at the piano. The talented college applicants that Dartmouth admits are already intellectually curious and wildly successful in academics. That’s usually a prerequisite for admission (though there are most certainly exceptions on, say, sports teams we won’t begin to name). Contrary to the time in which the alumnus applied to college, college admissions counselors like students who excel in a specific area. Can you be an excellent squash player who is on the recruiting radar of college coaches and volunteer as well? Of course! The point is…better to be talented in one area than mediocre in five areas.

Read our article originally published by Peterson’s on Talented College Applicants. We can help you develop a strategy for your extracurricular pursuits so that you can stand out to college admissions counselors. Contact us today by signing up for a free 30-minute consultation.

Science Research and College Admissions

For talented students whose passion is science research, a new competition has been announced to add to the list of the Intel Science Talent Search and the Siemens Competition. The new competition has been created by…you guessed it…Google. It’s called the Google Global Science Fair. According to Google, “There will be 3 finalist winners, one in each age category 13-14, 15-16, 17-18. One of of the 3 finalist winners will be selected as the Grand Prize winner.”

According to Google’s Global Science Fair site, “The Grand Prize winner(s) plus one parent or guardian per winner will win an amazing 10 day trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions. Traveling aboard the National Geographic Endeavour the winner(s) will visit Darwin’s living laboratory and experience up-close encounters with unique species such as flightless cormorants, marine iguanas, and domed giant tortoises.”

Oh and  the winner also receives $50,000 to use towards their education (it would be split if it’s a team project). The winner also can get a virtual one-year internship through The LEGO Group and get their name on new LEGO designs! How cool. Finalists will receive a $25,000 scholarship to be used towards their further education.

Check out the Google Global Science Fair 2011 page.

And check out our related blog: The Grand Prize of Caltech Admissions or our Peterson’s article on Talented Students.

What is Considered a Talent?

Dear The Ivy Coach,

I’m a junior from Tennessee and would love to attend Vanderbilt University. I know it’s a really competitive school, but I have the grades and the scores, and I’ll have the recs. The only thing I don’t know about is the recs. I read your “Peterson’s” article on “Talented Students Winning at the College Admissions Game” and was wondering what other talents besides the ones you discuss would be important to a school like Vanderbilt?

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Rachel

Good question Rachel! It can be difficult to imagine what sorts of activities are valued and considered different enough for a highly selective college but maybe this excerpt giving examples of the unique talents of the students in Barnard College’s most recently admitted class will help.

“Beyond their strength in academics, the admitted students are accomplished and talented in many areas; notable examples include the following: two Junior Olympic Tae Kwon Do medalists (twin sisters); a New York State champion golfer who has played on PGA Junior Tour Tournaments; a state champion fencer; a top-level high school figure skater from China; a winner of the “Leaders of Tomorrow” Scholarship sponsored by the New York State Lottery; a winner of the New York City Shakespeare Oratory Competition; a world finalist in the Odyssey of the Mind competition; a Massachusetts State speech finalist two years in a row; a semi-finalist in the National Biology Olympiad; and two trapeze circus performers. With its excellent dance and theatre programs, Barnard admitted several accomplished actresses, dancers, and musicians, including three professional actresses (credits include the films Lords of Dogtown and Spanglish and three Broadway productions); a student who founded a community Shakespeare troupe; a world champion Irish dancer; a dancer with the Boston Conservatory; a violinist with the New Hampshire philharmonic orchestra; and an accomplished bag-pipe player. Other students who applied to Barnard have led lives distinctly different from the urban experience encountered in New York City, including a student who helps birth lambs on her family’s farm; the winner of an outstanding dairy goat exhibition, and a student who works on the family ranch from Colorado.”

“Class of 2010: Admit Rate of 24 Percent Sets New Benchmark at Barnard.” Retreived January 24, 2006, from Barnard College News Center Website: http://www.barnard.edu/newnews/news033106.html