Getting into college is a lot like dating. Confidence is generally an appealing trait.
Confidence is the genuine belief in your own powers or abilities. Confident students aren’t afraid to challenge themselves. They won’t hesitate to put their hand up and ask—or answer—a question. They’ll try out for the soccer team or write a column for the paper or accept the role as the costar in the school musical knowing that it might not work out well, but believing that they have a good chance of success.
Confident students are also totally unafraid to admit what they don’t know. They’ll acknowledge their weaknesses. They don’t claim to be perfect and are comfortable with their own flaws, even when trying to improve them. That’s why confident students tend to do so well in college. It’s the inherent belief in themselves combined with a genuine self-awareness that makes those students so appealing.
Arrogance, on the other hand, is confidence gone too far. It’s an offensive display of superiority of self-importance. This is the kid who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else and doesn’t think he has anything left to learn. It’s the teammate who cares only about her own stats and the columnist who refuses to take editing advice even though the quality of the overall paper will suffer.
Be proud of who you are and what you’ve achieved. Believe in yourself enough to take on challenges and go after things you want. Acknowledge what you don’t know and aren’t good at, and be willing to improve if possible.
That’s the confidence/arrogance balance to shoot for in life and on your college applications.