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Health & Fitness

What's Your Story?

What’s Your Story?  What’s the Best Way to Tell it?

The Common Application may have changed.  Your high school may have tweaked its counseling process.  But…one thing hasn’t changed.  Your personal statement must be compelling: it should tell your story!  Remember, though, that this can’t be a gentle bedtime story that puts overworked, possibly bleary-eyed admissions counselosr to sleep! It has to wake them up – and make him take notice!  

 

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Tell them something new! 

 

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They’ve seen your grades, scores, and letters of recommendation, and brag sheet.

 

How do you decide what story to tell?

 

Try this four-step process.

 

1.Personality assessment

a. Jot down your

 

·      characteristics

·      quirks

·      interests

·      strengths

 

Uncomfortable? Ask your parents, friends or siblings to list a few. You may be surprised! 

 

b. Review the lists

Which traits are not yet revealed in your application? Perhaps your list indicates that you are a great math student and a loyal friend who often goes out of his way for peers.  Well, if you are president of the Math Club and scored a 5 on your Calculus AP, the reader already knows about your math prowess. But, she doesn’t know that you babysat for your friend’s annoying five-year-old twin siblings so that he wouldn’t miss basketball practice and convinced four friends to shave their heads a week before a classmate was coming back to school after two rounds of chemo. Don’t write about Math, unless you’ve channeled this passion in a very unusual, creative or altruistic fashion.)

 

2. University Assessment

Review the admissions sites of those colleges that interest you and think about the traits they seem to value. List them.

 

3.Find the overlap.

 

That’s your story. If you have not yet revealed that you are an

out-of-the box thinker who has channeled her creativity through creating two businesses, tell that story. If you haven’t shared the fact that you have great conflict resolution skills and can therefore be an asset to dorm life, that might be your story. Your passion for whales, art, or your grandmother might also be great stories if they reveal traits about you along the way.

 

4. Review the questions with your story in mind. As you do, it will be easy to eliminate at least two of the suggested questions. Start brainstorming and writing. As you progress, one option will emerge as the clear winner, and… if you stick to your story, you too, will emerge as a winning applicant!

 

 

The Common Application questions:

 

Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

 

Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?

 

Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?

 

Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?

 

Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

To learn more about crafting a compelling narrative, visit, www.UncommonApplication.com

 

 

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