How Will They Dub You? - College Admissions

Contributed by Joyce Mei, Hunter College HS (Class of 2015)

A crucial part of the college admissions process is the application essay. And we all want college admissions officers to read our application and totally understand who we are from these couple paragraphs that are supposed to capture our essence. One must consider, then, how will a college admissions officer dub you?

We must keep in mind that these admissions officers have over 1000 applications to look over and that they will only spend an average of eight minutes per application. Therefore, they will label each applicant with a couple of words that stand out. It is the applicant’s job to make sure that dub is a good one. Here are a few examples:

• If someone wrote about his passion for collecting knick knacks people didn’t want, he might be dubbed “the kid who collects junk.”
  
  
• If someone wrote about how he took up wrestling because he was short and picked on and wanted to prove himself, he’d be the kid who needed to prove himself wrestling.”
  
  

Notice how these dubs are all things that the admissions officer would probably find amusing or surprising. They don’t care if you had a meaningful breakthrough or became champion at some sports event. You need to be that kid who makes the officer ask, “Can you believe it?”


For more information and advice on writing college admissions essays, contact Lee Academia experts.