3 Tips: Creating Your Application Theme

Take a moment to think about your favorite movie character or protagonist from a novel or short story. It's likely that this character comes to mind because the story they tell helps the audience understand the full scope of who they are. When considering your favorite book or movie, it's interesting to reflect on the depth of understanding and connection you feel towards your favorite character despite the limited space available in these media.

You may feel like you really “know” them – how they think, what motivates them, their good, and their bad qualities.

When it comes to creating your university application theme or persona, we're essentially doing the same thing – providing a depth of understanding and a feeling of real connection to you as the applicant within the limited space of the college application.

Choosing your application persona or theme is not easy, but without it, you will struggle to create a compelling story about who you are and why you should be admitted.

Here Are Some Important Tips

To start, it's important to acknowledge what the best application themes and personas have in common: they incorporate multiple elements of the student's personal and academic life throughout each piece of the application.

Here are some tips to help you tell your most compelling story:

Tip #1: A strong application must include information about the student's academic talents, interests, and goals for the future in their chosen field. However, we want to avoid simply listing the number of math and science courses you've taken, for example, as a student interested in engineering. We want to dig deeper into your personal feelings of excitement, engagement, or possibility when you are exploring these individual talents, interests, and goals.

Tip #2: Your extracurricular profile is very important. I encourage students to get involved in extracurricular activities that reflect their genuine interests. While these activities may seem unrelated to each other, identifying which of them support your application theme can strengthen your application profile. Be sure to order them on your resume and in the extracurricular section of the application accordingly. In other words, those activities most connected to your theme appear first in all listings.

Tip #3: Essays are crucial in strengthening your theme or persona. Use every essay to showcase your alignment with your chosen field, and identify significant extracurricular activities that further support your application theme. This helps the admissions officer understand who you are and why you should be admitted.

By identifying your application persona or theme and working hard to highlight it through the different pieces of your university application, you can create a compelling story about who you are and why you're the perfect candidate for admission.

4 Tips to Build a University List

When I first became a college counselor, the one thing that intimidated me most was the number of universities and colleges in the United States alone. How was I going to ensure that my students got the best advice on where they should be applying?

Over a decade later, I still feel like I am learning about different colleges and universities every year. As my practice has grown and my experiences deepened, I have expanded my knowledge to non-U.S. university list building as well. For students and families coming to this process for the first time (or first the first time in a long time), I have put together four tips for building a university list.

#1 Consider the ranking.

Before we move on, please read that again carefully. Consider the rankings. However, please leave your mind open to the idea that these rankings are not always a true reflection of a university’s greatness. More importantly, they might not be a reflection of a university’s greatness for you. So, consider them, and use what you learn from them as one of many data points that will drive your list creation.

Common ranking platforms students use: US News, QS TOP UNIVERSITIES, Time Higher Education

#2 Take time to reflect.

At Blue Admission, we ask students to reflect… a lot. We rarely take your first answer to a question as the only answer to the question. While that can be annoying, our goal is to ask our students to dig deeper and really know themselves. What is essential for you in the university that you choose?

A fun exercise to get you thinking about this topic is to write a short paragraph or two where you are imagining yourself at the perfect university on a perfect day. What is happening? What kind of conversations are you having? With whom?

Now, apply that to your university search. The “Qualities That Will Make A College Right For You” worksheet linked here is super amazing too!

#3 Go BIG.

When you create your first university list, don’t worry too much about how many names appear in version 1.0. Your list will get smaller. You will have to continue to research, self-reflect, visit some campuses, and consider your likelihood of admission. Each of these activities will shorten your list.

Remember: Building a university list is a process that occurs over time. Be patient.

#4 Use trusted resources.

I have been at this advising thing for a long time, and I can tell you that not all resources are created equal. Here are some of my favorite resources that other counselors use all the time as well!

Fiske Guide to Colleges

College That Change Lives

CollegeExpress.com

To Send or Not to Send?

The COVID-19 pandemic has unquestionably changed the standardized testing landscape in U.S. university admission. As SAT and ACT exam dates began to get canceled in March 2020, many universities made the decision to transition to test-optional admission.

However, it would be incorrect to assert that test-optional admission was a product of the COVID-19 pandemic because it had been around and in practice for years. In fact, 1,070 institutions were practicing test-optional admissions before the pandemic with an additional 660 temporarily moving to test-optional admission as a result of COVID-19. There is ample data that supports the inequities that have historically existed in SAT and ACT testing -- data that even executives at both ACT and the College Board have not been able to deny. So, the COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst for test-optional admissions decisions to be forced upon institutions of higher education who had long known, long recognized, but long ignored the impact of their testing requirements.

So, what does test-optional admission mean now as we wind down 2021 and head into 2022? And specifically, when should a student send their SAT or ACT scores to a test-optional university? Below are some insights into what the future looks like for standardized testing, as well as general advice for when a student should or should not send test scores with their application.

The Future is Test-Optional

While initial decisions to begin test-optional admission were temporary, the continued impact of COVID-19 on testing availability paired with the positive results universities are noting from test-optional application review point to the likelihood that test-optional admission is here to stay. Fair Test has determined that 60% of higher education institutions are test-optional into the fall of 2022.

Consider Your University List

While test-optional policies are largely here to stay, there are some hold-outs. Notably, the University of Florida system never dropped its testing requirement, and the University of Georgia system reinstated the requirement after the fall of 2020. As you work to build a university list, researching the institutions’ testing policies should be part of the process going forward.

When Should You Send Scores?

If you have taken the SAT or ACT and earned a great score, you should probably just go ahead and send it. Why not? What defines a great score is dependent on a number of factors -- where you are applying, the competitiveness of the programs you are targeting, and what your personal testing goals are. Here’s our general advice:

• SAT: 1550+ ACT: 35+ = send it every single time.

• Applying to universities that admit 20% or less of the applicants? Unless you have a very high test score, you are probably best served by letting your high GPA and other outstanding factors of your application shine through.

• Applying to universities that admit 30-50% of applicants? This is a little more complicated because factors like competitive programs and competitive state school admissions could alter advising. Generally, SAT: 1450+ ACT: 32+ is a comfortable range to send.

• Applying to universities that admit 50% or more of applicants? Check the admission office’s middle-50% for test scores. If your scores are on the higher end of this, you should probably send them. On the lower end? Consider test-optional admission.

There Are Always Exceptions

As noted in the advice above, there are always exceptions to general advising patterns. Of course, these exceptions will vary from student to student and the best way to learn more about your specific scenario is to work with an experienced college advisor.

Common exceptions include:

• Competitive state universities: In these scenarios, evaluating the mid-50% of admitted SAT and ACT scores should be done alongside expert advice on those universities. Admission to competitive state universities depends on a student’s residency, program of interest, diversity, socioeconomic status, and more.

• Scholarships: In some cases, qualifying for scholarships can still require a test score, even if general admission policies do not.

Still wondering what to do with your test scores? Click here.