How I Went to Harvard for Free

많은 대학 지원자들 사이에서 눈에 띄는 방법

당신을 독특하게 만드는 것은 무엇입니까?

대학 지원을 준비할 때 사람으로서 당신을 독특하게 만드는 것이 무엇인지 알아내려고 노력합니까? 군중 속에서 당신을 돋보이게 할 수 있는 것이 있습니까?

문자 그대로 수만 명의 사람들이 단지 몇 자리를 놓고 경쟁할 수 있는 오늘날의 혼잡한 대학 지원 세계에서 자신을 돋보이게 할 방법을 찾기가 어려울 수 있습니다. 한 사람과 지원자로서 당신을 독특하게 만드는 것들을 알아내는 것이 도움이 될 수 있습니다.

당신은 세계적으로 유명한 음악가입니까? 입소문을 타게 된 앱을 만드셨나요? 비영리단체를 시작하셨나요? 인정받기 위해 반드시 이러한 일을 할 필요는 없지만, 있었다면 그러한 고유한 강점을 반드시 강조해야 합니다.

하지만 아직 국제적으로 인정받는 과학자가 아니라면 어떻게 해야 할까요? 걱정 하지마! 군중과 당신을 구별하는 요소를 생각해 보십시오. 아마도 당신은 좋은 일을 돕기 위해 자원 봉사자를 조직한 클럽을 결성했을 것입니다. 아마도 당신은 모든 종류의 공룡 화석을 알고 있는 매우 열정적인 고고학자 지망생일 것입니다.

일류 학교에 지원하는 거의 모든 사람들은 학업 성적이 우수합니다. 하지만 좋은 점수를 받는 것 외에 무엇이 당신을 특별하게 만드는가? 그 질문에 답할 수 있다면 대학 지원에 있어 군중들로부터 자신을 돋보이게 하는 데 도움이 될 수 있습니다.

Standing Out in a Crowded College Application Field

What makes you unique?

When preparing for your college applications, try to figure out what makes you unique as a person? Is there anything that might make you stand out from the crowd?

In today’s crowded world of college applications where literally tens of thousands of people can be competing for just a few spots, it can be hard to find ways to make yourself stand out. It might be helpful to figure out things that make you unique as a person and applicant.

Are you a world-famous musician? Have you created an app that has gone viral? Have you started a non-profit? You don’t need to have done these things to get accepted, but if you have, definitely be sure to emphasize such unique strengths.

But what if you aren’t an internationally-recognized scientist yet? Don’t worry! Try to think of things that set you apart from the crowd. Maybe you formed a club that has organized volunteers to help a good cause. Maybe you are an extremely passionate aspiring archaeologist who knows every type of dinosaur fossil ever.

Almost everyone who applies to top-tier schools does well academically. But aside from getting good grades, what makes you unique? If you can answer that question, it can help you make yourself stand out from the crowd when it comes to college applications.

Get accepted.

So You Come From A "Not-So-Great" High School?

You hear a lot about families moving homes so that their kids can attend a better school (oftentimes, high school). The reasoning is likely that parents feel that a better school will have better teachers and facilities, more students being accepted to “good” colleges from there, etc.

While this may be true, it may not necessarily mean that it will be easier for the student to get accepted to a good college from a “good” high school than from a “not-so-great” one.

Good colleges don’t accept based solely on stats.

One thing that most people acknowledge is that top colleges don’t accept students based solely on their academic stats. There’s a whole lot that goes into what they consider, including grades, extracurriculars, passion and drive, their backgrounds, etc.

The best high schools in the country do not send 100% of their graduates to the Ivy League. While they may send a student or two or even a few per year to a college like Harvard, what about the rest of the graduating high school class?

A hypothetical:

Let’s say a top-tier high school sent 2 students to Harvard out of a class of 500. What about the other 298 students? They may have gotten in somewhere else, but likely not all into an Ivy League (assuming the top students at the school probably applied to most if not all of the Ivies). What about a really good candidate for admission, but one that might have a slightly imperfect GPA (let’s call him/her student #10). They were rejected from Harvard, but let’s say they really wanted to go. The high school was really competitive and it was probably hard to “stand out” among his/her peers, especially since the “difference” between Student #1 and #10 was miniscule.

What if he/she had instead attended a school that rarely (if ever) sends a student to the Ivy League? Student #10 could have easily been Student #1 at that not-so-great school. Since the school wasn’t competitive, he/she was probably heads and shoulders above the rest of the student body in terms of academics, extracurriculars, passion and drive, etc.

So here’s the question:

So the question is: Would this hypothetical student have a better chance of getting into a good college like Harvard if she was by far the best at a not-so-great school, or a good-but-not-best student at a really good high school? There is no easy or definite answer to this, and it likely comes down to a case-by-case basis.

Of course, there are many things that go into determining how good a high school is

Maybe a student learns more material at a good high school. Maybe more APs/extracurriculars/etc. are offered at a better high school. Maybe the student body and/or friends a student makes at a better high school are “better.” Those types of things may or may not be true (and might depend on a case-by-case basis), but can factor into parents’ decisions about where to send their children (if they are fortunate enough to be able to move or send their children to a private school, if they so desire).

You don’t have to go to a great high school to go to a great college.

The bottom line is this: you do not have to be go to a great high school to go to a great college. Students from all over the world (many from lousy high schools) get accepted to the best universities in the world. Would they have had an easier time getting accepted had they gone to a great high school? Maybe…maybe not. But just because a student goes to a not-so-great high school does not eliminate their chances of going to one of the best colleges in the world.