The press often covers teens doing some remarkable things, like winning medals at the Olympics, playing violin at Carnegie Hall, or inventing technology to lower pollution. But for students who aren’t securing patents or waiting in line for the Nobel Prize, it’s important to remember that impact takes many forms. Just because yours may not reach the front page of the newspaper doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be proud or that colleges won’t be impressed.
Maybe you helped refurbish a local shelter for battered women. Maybe you ran a fundraiser to replace the softball team’s uniforms. Maybe you organized a graffiti cleanup task force, ran a 10k to raise money for breast cancer, or helped a student raise his grade from a D to a B+ in algebra.
Yes, if you want to go to MIT, Stanford, Cornell, or one of the other colleges that rejects most of their applicants, your impact will need to be substantial. In fact, making headlines still doesn’t guarantee an admission to one of those schools.
But remember that the vast majority of colleges will happily admit a student who cares enough to dedicate yourself to something you care about. They know students with that passion and commitment will bring those traits with them to college, whether or not you made headlines while you were in high school.