Curtis WestbayActivities should be quantifiable and verifiable, when possible...
which is why we recommend academic competitions above all else for students looking to show colleges that they are more of a specialist, thereby standing out among a pool of applicants that is full of generalists. But what if your child isn't the competitive type? What if they prefer to build, to code, to write, to engineer, to... create? This blog post is for you.
Competition and creativity are not mutually exclusive.
First, it's important to note that not every academic competition is some variation on a test. There are many competitions which are primarily creative in nature.
- If your student likes history, but doesn't like writing papers, try National History Day (for exhibits, websites, documentaries, performances).
- If your student is interested in electrical engineering, try Vex Robotics or FTC.
- If your student is a scientist, try Regeneron ISEF.
- If your student is a writer, try a creative writing competition.
- If your student is an artist, there are many art competitions, especially for digital artists.
- If your student is a computer programmer, try USACO or "hackathons."
I find that students who prefer to create aren't necessarily averse to competition, but they often believe that competitions don't support their creative process. Not all competitions are like this, however, and the competitions listed above may still provide the space and time for students to develop a project over the long term before bringing it to an event.
The activity list provides an opening for students to describe creative pursuits.
If your student would rather spend 100 hours working on a creative project than in preparation for an academic competition, make no mistake— this places them in an initially-disadvantageous position. Competitions carry context (i.e. the student's achievement is relative to others) and verifiability (i.e. the student's achievement cannot be falsified). If a student insists upon going their own way and eschewing organized activities of any kind, they will need to find ways to document their efforts.
This can be achieved through many means— e.g. blogs, vlogs, social media accounts, photo diaries, etc. The problem with relying on these means alone instead of some combination of these methods and organized activities is the application review: the initial read of a college application will receive maybe 10 minutes of attention. It's therefore very unlikely that a student's project blog will get a thorough review in addition to the online application, even if a link to it is provided.
Still, these achievements may be notable enough to warrant inclusion in the activity list on the basis of a short description alone. Recently I saw how creatively excellent our students can be at the science fair we had on campus. Especially in addition to some collection of competitive excellence, ASA participation, community service and leadership, a student's research achievement can round out their activity list nicely. After all, not just anyone can build a Tesla coil at home like one of our Grade 11 students did.
Some colleges provide additional descriptive space in their supplemental essay(s).
Maybe the activity list doesn't provide adequate space for students to express the full extent of their creative side. Many colleges acknowledge this and afford students some more space to do so via their supplemental essays.
A few examples—
- the University of California system asks students to complete four essays from eight prompts, and prompt #2 addresses the matter of creativity directly: "Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side."
- (Vanderbilt University) Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (200-400 words).
- (University of Illinois— Urbana-Champaign) Explain your interest in the major you selected and describe how you have recently explored or developed this interest inside and/or outside the classroom. You may also explain how this major relates to your future career goals (300-400 words).
In the daily college essay writing workshop that your child will have in Grade 12, our counseling team will help students leverage these opportunities for maximal strategic effect. If a student is self-motivated and enjoys creative pursuits, we will help them put forward that picture of themselves through supplemental essays.
General and research portfolios
On occasion, a student may feel that the Common App (the most widely-used college application platform) doesn't provide ample opportunities for them to show who they are. In that case, there is an alternative to consider— the Coalition Application. This application is not available for every college, but it covers a great many. The Coalition App also features a student "locker"— a storage space for work samples, document files, etc. that a student can make available to college application readers. If your student feels constrained by the more streamlined Common App platform or misrepresented by exam scores and brief activity descriptions, they can entertain the notion of using the Coalition App.
Beyond this, some colleges (including some of the most selective universities) welcome students to submit additional materials if the materials aren't already addressed elsewhere in the application. This is key— the general/research portfolio is not filler to pad out an application. This type of portfolio should explore an unaddressed perspective of the student, especially if the student's portfolio covers a creative endeavor that didn't involve a formal activity.