Putting together a great college application means selecting what to share and how to share it. And to do that well, you have to be a curator.
While an art curator maintains a museum’s collection, her objective isn’t to show visitors every piece of that art. That would be like charging people to view a giant storage locker. Instead, she creates a specific shape and feel to the exhibit by choosing which pieces will be displayed, and more importantly, which pieces will be left out. Curating means creating the most impactful combination of items from a large selection. What’s left out has just as much influence on the visitors’ experience as what’s left in.
Many college applicants try to jam as much information as possible into their applications. They’ll include activities they haven’t engaged with since freshman year. They’ll attach a resume, send additional letters of rec, and include press clippings or portfolios, all without concern for whether or not the college invites those items to be included. They assume that more stuff makes their application more compelling. They don’t want to leave anything out.
But letting everything in makes it difficult for admissions officers to get a sense of the shape and feel of your high school career. Those applications are like storage lockers of information instead of compelling displays.
You’ve likely amassed quite a collection of interests, achievements, and experiences during your three years of high school. Now, you have to select from those items and create a compelling application display.
The best way to do this is to stop thinking of your application as a marketing vehicle that can be reverse engineered and then polished to create what you think admissions officers want to read. Instead, it just has to represent the real you.
If you could only share five things from your high school career (assume that your transcript and test scores are required and, therefore, don’t take up spots on the list), what would you share?
Chances are, those five things would represent what has defined your high school career. The activity you couldn’t live without. The volunteer work that changed how you saw the world. The part-time job where you’ve been successful, the circumstance that impacted your college trajectory, the mentor who changed your path, the achievement that makes you proud—if other items in your collection just can’t compete with these five, why not leave them out?
Five isn’t a magic number—your application may include information about more or fewer things. But it shouldn’t include everything. Compelling applications are curated collections. Choose what gets in. And more importantly, choose what gets left out.