Some students try to improve their chances of admission to their chosen colleges by emulating what their fellow students at school are doing. If someone else takes a summer class in calculus, they enroll in one, too. If someone else breaks 2000 on the SAT, they sign up for another round of test prep and try to match the score. If someone else does a hundred community service hours, they set a goal to break triple digits in number-of-hours-volunteered, too.
Continuously focusing on what other people are doing and then trying to one-up them is a Cold War approach to college admissions, and it’s not effective for a couple of reasons.
First, copying someone else is no way to stand out. Someone’s already done it. And if you can copy it, there’s nothing to stop others from copying, too.
When you’re following other people, it’s hard to keep up. You’re chasing instead of leading, and you’ll almost always be behind.
But the worst part of the Cold War approach is that it’s not rewarding. Spending your time chasing other peoples’ accomplishments is a lot less fulfilling than chasing your own goals and ambitions.
If you’ve fallen into the Cold War approach, stop focusing on what the competition is doing. Instead of one-upping the competition, set your own goals and work to achieve them. You might get copied, but that’s a lot better than being a copier.