Are My Activities and Interests Unique Enough?
Are My Activities and Interests Unique Enough?
Colleges look favorably upon uniqueness, but not because they look for students with the most outlandish personality traits and activities. Imagine reading hundreds (thousands in many cases) of applications each year with similar stories. Admissions officers may have a hard time differentiating between applicants with common narratives. For example: Sandra volunteers at the local hospital because she hopes to study biology in college and become a doctor who helps people. Does this sound familiar to you? Though Sandra’s goals are just and noble, how she pursues her interest is common, making it hard to tell what sets her apart from others. Having similar interests as others is not inherently a setback; pursuing those interests in the same way as everyone else, however, is. We have seen students participate in clubs because many of their classmates did so, and then they end up following in the footsteps of everyone else, rather than exploring what makes them tick. Ultimately your personal investment in an activity or intellectual passion is what will determine how that activity is viewed by an admissions officer. The good news is you don’t have to manufacture uniqueness. You are already unique because no one can be an exact replica of you, so as simple as it may sound, the best way to stand out is to be downright honest with yourself about who you are and what you are interested in. Let’s explore some of the ways that you can push yourself to take inventory of your interests and discover (or begin to develop) the unique core within.
Be Real with Yourself
First and foremost, take inventory with yourself about your likes and dislikes. Do you truly enjoy each activity you are in right now, and why? There’s a difference between something being hard and something being uninteresting. You should not quit an activity simply because roadblocks have made it hard to progress. Instead, brainstorm ways to overcome such obstacles. Rally people together, try out creative solutions, and get advice from teachers. Fruitful things often do not come easily in life so you will likely come up against resistance even if you’re pursuing your passions. Don’t drown in discouragement and instead use these roadblocks as inspiration for developing a unique spin on an activity.But if you are truly disinterested in the activity and are only doing it because you think it would look good for college applications, then consider how you can spend your time doing something you genuinely enjoy. Take time to reflect on moments when you most come alive, topics that best pique your attention, and activities that put you to sleep. Be as honest as possible to get raw data on yourself and let that be your North Star as you navigate forward.
Walk Off the Beaten Path
Many students may share interests, but there is more than one path to explore them. Let’s take the example from above and say you plan to major in biology in college and go on to become a doctor. Common paths to approach this interest include hospitals internships, joining clubs like the Red Cross Club, and tutoring classmates in biology. Many students partake in these activities because they are easily accessible (and at times designed) for high school students. These are great opportunities to enrich your understanding of the medical field and gain valuable experience, but you likely won’t have the chance to explore your specific interests. Maybe you want to be a pediatrician. While you could volunteer your time at a children’s hospital, you may also join the efforts of organizations like Miracles for Kids or start a workshop series on how older siblings can contribute to preventing sudden infant death syndrome. Or maybe you have an interest in Alzheimer’s disease. You can give the local senior center a call and ask about opportunities to play memory games with the residents. This could evolve into a research project where you evaluate how well different games help senior citizens recall recent events. You can take the common route at first. As you gain more insight into what particular aspect of your interests most compels you, look for niche ways to explore them.
Make Something Common Uncommon
You can make a common activity into something unique. What are ways you can renovate an after-school program to better serve students? How can you implement new initiatives to your club that can make for greater impact? If you are president of a student organization, you don’t have to follow in the footsteps of your predecessors. Innovate and build on what they did. See what things are no longer working and find a fresh initiative to take its place. You can approach this through many ways. Allow yourself to go wild in the brainstorming phase for what direction you want to take an activity, how it can be improved, what ways you want to impact people, and then narrow down the ideas to the ones that are feasible.Then—this is the most important step—implement those ideas! Students get stuck at the execution phase. They freeze because they have big ideas and don’t know how to make it all happen at once. Don’t let yourself get stuck. Roll things out slowly, refine the initiative if it doesn’t work well at first, ignore the naysayers, and keep trying.
Explain What Makes an Activity Unique
It is easy for admissions officers to identify the uniqueness of activities that are off the beaten path. You can imagine that most other students did not conduct an independent research project on the water quality of the lake in your hometown. Activities like Model UN or Student Body Government, however, need to be spiced up if you added uncommon components to them. Maybe you organized a local MUN conference among all the high schools in your city, both public and private, and discussed poignant issues affecting the region. When you write the descriptions of common activities, highlight what you did that made it unique. Do not rehash responsibilities one could assume from your position or the organization and focus more on the particular achievements that you made. Use verbs like “invented,” “implemented,” and “created” if you executed any new projects.
Do Everything with Excellence
If you are passionate about a common activity or academic subject, pursue it with excellence. This means developing soft skills like communication, time management, and collaboration.It’s easy to skimp on the details, especially when the demands of high school pile up and no one else seems to care whether you start your club meeting on time or if you swam an extra lap training for the upcoming meet.Your effort will speak for itself. Even if others participate in the same activities as you do, you could set yourself apart through the high level of care and detail with which you approach them. Doing things with excellence can earn you the trust of your peers and advisers, opening doors for you to make greater future impact and engendering strong recommendation letters.
Be Yourself and Shine Bright
We hear all the time that we should just be ourselves. Sometimes, it’s not easy to do that because social pressure herds you in a certain direction. It can be scary to venture out on your own and try something no one ever has before. It’s much easier to color within the lines. Still, the risk is worth it. Students that step out of the box and embrace fully their true passions develop an X factor that colleges love. Be uncommon, be unique, be you!
The expert admissions consultants at Wise World Prep have helped hundreds of students maximize their potential of being admitted to their top choice colleges and universities. Over 20 years, we have successfully guided students through each stage of the application process – from choosing competitive high school courses to building an appropriate college list to drafting winning essays to writing persuasive update and appeals letters. We would be happy to answer your questions and partner with you to create a successful admissions roadmap.
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