Application Season: A Time of Deadlines and Discovery

It is mid-November, the depths of the college application season.  With several deadlines behind us, W+H seniors have submitted 225 applications collectively.  They will send hundreds more in the coming weeks.  College admissions sometimes feels like a harrowing process, and it is easy to lose sight of the big picture when a tremendous amount of energy is spent on details. Application season is not just about creating balanced college lists consisting of good-fit options, finalizing essay drafts, prioritizing activities in order of importance for the Common Application, and meeting deadlines.  Ideally, for those who apply to college, and 100% of W+Hers do, this time should be a rite-of-passage marked by self-discovery. 

How can we support our seniors in developing greater awareness?  Above all, we must show them that they matter for reasons beyond grades, curriculum rigor, scores, leadership roles, and athletic achievements.  Sure, applications contain lots of numbers and titles.  The compelling ones go deeper, though: they capture a student’s essence.  

Therefore, we have a responsibility to help the young people whom we care deeply about uncover what inherently makes them special. They have so much to contribute to the world because of who they are as a whole: the countless traits, inherent talents, acquired skills, and growth experiences that ultimately will allow them to make a difference in this world in the exact manner that only they can.  Life is about finding and carrying out one’s purpose, and all of us occasionally need assistance in doing so.

This is the lesson beautifully conveyed in Anna Kang’s children's book Eraser. Eraser worries that she does not have a ton to offer compared to other school supplies, since her sole purpose is to clean up.  She tries to be creative like Pencil and Paintbrush, but her efforts to make something never work out.  Discouraged, she packs her suitcase and leaves.  She eventually finds herself in a trash can full of crumpled First Drafts. The pieces of paper express their admiration, pointing out, “Without us and you, there’d be nothing to hang on the fridge door!”  Eraser realizes, “I DO create.  I create second chances.”  Accompanied by her friends, Eraser returns home.  Pencil then acknowledges that she has struggled without Eraser, upon whom she relies to correct mistakes.  Pencil and Eraser, along with the other supplies, work together to create an A+ science project.

Ask any college counselor, and he or she will tell you that students often feel like Eraser.  They worry that they are “less than,” focusing on what everyone else supposedly has and what they supposedly lack.  This happens when seniors become overly preoccupied with quantitative data that is somewhat indicative of how they might fare in relation to fellow applicants.  Since numbers are objective, fixating on them brings anxious twelfth graders – and their equally anxious parents – some semblance of control during a process incorporating numerous elements that are out of their hands.  Such elements include ever-changing institutional priorities that are dictated by senior leadership and guide admissions committees in shaping an incoming class.  As important a part as these factors also play in college admissions, they rarely get mentioned.  It is much simpler to focus on the numbers.

Numbers, however, don’t tell the whole story about who an applicant is.  In addition, seniors feel stuck when they place an unhealthy emphasis on comparison. They also tend to fear that they will not measure up … whether today, or tomorrow, or the day after that.  Like Eraser before other supplies helped her to gain perspective, seniors who fall into this trap will not know the happiness that comes with recognizing one’s self-worth. 

That is where family, friends, counselors, and teachers come in.  They can serve as First Drafts, reminding seniors of their many reasons to be proud.  When seniors appreciate their own amazing characteristics and abilities, they better grasp their true potential as students, roommates, community members, friends, and future professionals; these all are things that are not quantifiable but that Admissions Committees try their best to determine through holistic review of candidates.  In short, with encouragement during the long and arduous application cycle, seniors will remember that an exciting new chapter lies ahead – one that hopefully will lead them that much closer to identifying their purpose.