How I got into college: 5 students share their secrets: sometimes getting in takes more than just being a bright well-rounded kid – Achieving Your Goals
Nancy Fitzgerald
Are you a BWRK (the admission slang for bright well-rounded kid)? You’ve done everything right in high school–you have 1350 on your SATs, you’re in the top 10 percent of your class, you’re captain of volleyball, and president of debate?
For many schools, you’d be a prime candidate for acceptance. But in today’s competitive marker, even BWRKs somotimes need that extra something to tip the admission scales in their favor.
“One way to stand out is to have developed a passion that isn’t on the laundry list of what everyone else is doing,” says Rachel Toor, a former admission officer at Duke University in North Carolina, and the author of Admissions Confidential (St. Martins Press). Toor remembers one student who started a butterfly garden at her high school and another who had a fervent interest in The Federalist Papers, the series of essays used to gain popular support for the Constitution.
“Independent studies are impressive,” Toor says, adding that a strong transcript and good admission test scores are still at the foundation of any acceptance. While a family history with the school makes a difference (siblings or parents who are alumni of currently attending), so does being a first-generation college student.
Geography can weigh in an applicant’s favor as well. “If I had a great kid from North Dakota I’d jump for joy,” says Toor. She doesn’t give much value to the in-person interview, however, saying the essay gives a better personal picture of a candidate.
What are the pivotal factors that can win you a thumbs up? We asked five accepted students–and their admission counselors–to tell us how they got into college.
THE VOLUNTEER
NAME: MELISSA SIMON
AGE: 19
APPLICATION HIGHLIGHT: SOCIAL ACTIVISM
HOMETOWN: TIBURON, CA
COLLEGE: MOUNT HOLYOKE
LOCATION: SOUTH HADLEY, MA
MAJOR: WOMEN’S STUDIES
HIGH SCHOOL GPA: “A’S AND B’S”
SAT SCORE: “UNDER 1300”
ADMISSION COUNCELOR: GIULIETTA AQUINO
Melissa Simon is the daughter of an international business consultant, and she spent her childhood tagging along from one foreign shore to another–she was born in Virginia, but she’s lived everywhere from Boston to Beijing. But wherever she’s gone, she’s managed to look around, get to know the community, and pitch in to help. She started a religious school for expatriate Jewish children in China, cleaned up a community garden in the Czech Republic, and worked at an orphanage in Israel. And when she and her family landed back in California for her last two years of high school, Simon got right to work again, serving as president of a club that fights hate crimes and homophobia. When she applied to Mount Holyoke, her commitment to social causes really made an impression.
SIMON: I was very involved in high school and one of the things I focused on was social action and social change. I think my background in that work made my college application much more appealing, I helped start the Gay-Straight Alliance at our school after a hate crime at a nearby school, where a student was attacked and beaten just because he was gay. It was a pretty nasty attack, and people were really shocked, so we wanted to raise awareness of the issue. My high school was right near San Francisco, and the assumption is that if you live there, you’re tolerant of others, but that’s not always the case. I had experience working with a lot of different kinds of people, and I think that really helped when I applied to Mount Holyoke, where diversity is so important.
AQUINO: Melissa impressed me in so many ways–not just with the caliber of her academics but also with all the activities she was involved in, both in her high school and in the broader Bay Area community. And she’s a young woman who made transitions to different places and cultures so easily–that showed me she’d probably do well making the transition to college. Her experience helped show me that she would fit in here–she’s a go-getter in terms of meeting people and in terms of community service. I like to learn about what students are passionate about, and test scores just can’t measure that. (Editor’s note: Interestingly, on Mount Holyoke’s Web site, www.mtholyoke.edu, students can learn about the interests and passions of admission counselors.) Some students are really determined to change the world, and maybe their test scores don’t reflect that when they’re only 16 or 17. But over the next four years, they’ll go through a profound change and accomplish amazing things.
PERSONAL STRENGTH
NAME: MARGARET BULK
AGE: 19
APPLICATION HIGHLIGHT: LOGROLLING
HOMETOWN: LACROSSE, WI
COLLEGE: HARVEY MUDD
LOCATION: CLAREMONT, CA
MAJOR: COMPUTER SCIENCE
HIGHSCHOOL GPA: 3.86
SAT SCORE: 1360
ADMISSION COUNCELOR: DEREN FINKS
Everybody who applies to Harvey Mudd College is pretty smart–it’s one of the top schools in the country for math, science, and engineering. Margaret Bulk was no exception. In high school, she was a top student who excelled in math and planned to be a computer scientist.
But what really caught the eye of the admission staff was the fact that Bulk was a world-champion Lumber Jill–a female logroller. In logrolling, two people stand on either end of a floating log. The object is to stay upright longer than your opponent by doing a series of forward and backward moves and splashing the other person.
“You have to be ready to spring forward or backward, always keeping an eye on your opponent’s feet,” says Bulk. “It’s a control issue. It’s pretty intense; some matches last as long as 30 of 40 minutes. You have to be focused.”
She started out in the sport at the age of five, and by the time she was 16 she was competing as a semi-pro at ponds, lakes, and pools all over the U.S. She’s now a professional logroller and attends weekend tournaments throughout the year where she makes as much as $800 for the three-day week-end–a great way to help pay for her college expenses.
BULK: Just knowing that people who apply to Harvey Mudd are so qualified, it’s always really nice to have something that sets you apart–and being a logroller definitely sets you apart. I think logrolling really helps with academics, too. You try your hardest and have a good attitude, and if you don’t win you try harder next time. Sometimes, when I’m out there on a log, I realize that physics majors would really have a blast with this. Logrolling is all about physics, about the center of mass and the force you apply.
FINKS: Margaret’s application really stood out. I’ve been in admissions for 15 years and never met a logroller before. Are we going to benefit by adding a champion to our logrolling team? No–we don’t even have a logrolling team, although we’re letting her bring a log to practice in our pool. But it says a lot about a woman who does this–that she’s willing to be a pioneer, to try things that go off the beaten path. It shows a lot of personal strength.
A SPECIAL TALENT
NAME: ZACH CASEBOLT
AGE: 20
APPLICATION HIGHLIGHT: VIOLIN
HOMETOWN: CHESAPEAKE, VA
COLLEGE: GEORGE MASON
LOCATION: FAIRFAX, VA
MAJOR: MUSIC
HIGH SCHOOL GPA: 2.85
SAT SCORE: “ABOUT 1100”
ADMISSION COUNCELOR: EDDIE TALLENT
When Zach Casebolt was a fifth-grader, his music teacher handed him an old violin, beat-up and held together with Scotch tape. He spent that year learning his fingering and his scales, but by sixth grade he was playing intricate concertos. Throughout high school, he devoted six hours a day to violin practice but not much time to studying. “I kind of did enough to get by and that’s all,” Casebolt admits.
He ended up with an overall high school GPA of 2.85 and SAT scores that were nothing to write home about. Yet when he applied to the very competitive George Mason University, near Washington, DC, he was welcomed with open arms.
CASEBOLT: I attended a performing arts high school, and it got so extreme that by 12th grade I played 95 concerts. My teachers freaked out a little because my grades slipped–but I really didn’t have a lot of time to study. After studying violin in Montreal for a year after high school, I decided to apply to George Mason–I wanted a real education and not just to stare at black notes on a page for 20 hours a day. For my application essay, I talked about how being so involved in music can affect your grades. I got in touch with the violin teacher at the college and played for him. He contacted the admission office and said, “Let him in.” I love it here. I want to study philosophy, literatura, history–I think the only way to really understand a piece of music is to understand all the things that went into writing it.
TALLENT: When Zach applied, he was lacking one of the admission requirements–an Algebra II course. So things weren’t looking good for him. I’d read in his essay that he played the violin, but I had no idea of the caliber. It wasn’t until I had a call from the director of instrumental music that I began to under stand. He said to me, “You wouldn’t believe this kid–he’s a world-class violinist.” So we bent the rules a little and admitted Zach under the condition that he take Algebra II at a local community college during his first semester. I think that practically every school is looking our for students with special talents.
FAMILY MATTERS
NAME: MATT HOWELL
AGE: 19
APPLICATION HIGHLIGHT: FAMILY TIES
HOMETOWN: WINDHAM, NY
COLLEGE: INDIANA
LOCATION: BLOOMINGTON, IN
MAJOR: UNDECIDED
HIGH SCHOOL GPA: 3.76
SAT SCORE: 1090
ADMISSION COUNSELOR: LARRY GONZALEZ
Matt Howell grew up in a small town in New York’s Catskill Mountains, the youngest of four boys. “We’ve always been a close-knit family,” he says, “and when my brothers started going off to college, I really missed them. It was heartbreaking to see each one go, and the ride back home from Indiana was always kind of depressing.”
Although Howell’s older brothers had trekked halfway across the country to Indiana University, the phone calls and e-mails kept flying back and forth, and Howell liked what he heard. Howell’s oldest brother, Zac, 24, got hooked on Indiana because he is a classical guitarist and the school has a great music program with a well-known guitar teacher. The university is huge, and each of Howell’s brothers (including Tom, 21; and Dennis, 19) found his niche at the school. When it came time to apply to college himself, be was sure that he wanted to follow in the Family tradition.
HOWELL: I went out to Indiana a couple of times a year to drop off or pick up my brothers, and I really liked the campus. It was completely different from everything I’d ever seen at home. People seemed so happy and eager to please, and even random professors that we ran into talked about the school and encouraged me to apply. Tire summer before my senior year, I went to a reception for prospective students, and I got a warmer welcome because of my brothers. When I had my interview, that definitely came up. One of my brothers, Dennis, had a work-study job with the assistant director of admission and after I was accepted, he said they were proud to have another Howell as part of the Indiana family.
GONZALEZ: With Matt’s excellent record, and his brothers’ example, he was definitely a safe her for admission. We have a strong family tradition here, so if there’s a family member related to IU, we give the student a second look. It’s not a case of however terrible your record is, if you’ve got a family to connection to IU, you’re automatically in. You still have to meet the requirements. But it really says something to us that a student has been on campus, and knows a lot about it from relatives. In Matthew’s case, we knew that he’d have a nurturing foundation when he arrived–and a much better chance of success.
THE WRITE STUFF
NAME: MIKE KELLEY
AGE: 20
APPLICATION HIGHLIGHT: ESSAY
HOMETOWN: LAPLATA, MD
COLLEGE: SALISBURY STATE
LOCATION: SALISBURY STATE
MAJOR: ENGLISH
HIGH SCHOOL GPA: 3.25
SAT SCORE: 1400
ADMISSION COUNCELOR: LAURA THROPE
When Mike Kelley was in high school, he held down a couple of part-time jobs, packing boxes for a priming company and washing dishes in a restaurant. He put in a lot of hours, which turned homework into a major challenge but which also–surprisingly–helped him hone his writing skills.
“The jobs were so mind-numbing,” he explains, “that I could do my work and plan essays in my head at the same time.” This talent for multitasking helped Kelley turn our a superb college application essay–a piece of writing that impressed admission officers at Salisbury State and helped him become a member of the Class of 2003.
KELLEY: When I was applying to college, I was counting on my writing to speak for me–I wanted it to be original and for real. I sent them the literary analysis papers I’d written for English class to show them that I could actually do the academic work in college–those are the papers that you really sweat over. And even though I’d been thinking about my application essay for a while, it took me a long time to get it right. The first nine times, I just scrapped it. Probably the 10th time I got it right. The topic was to tell about your hometown and give an image of yourself, and I remember writing about the squirrels in my backyard, and how they get bolder as the year goes by, kind of like high school students. I just had the feeling that [the essay] came out right.
THORPE: Students may think that nobody really reads their essay, but we do. The essay is such a great place for them to shine. We’re always looking for essays that tell us more about the real student behind, the paper and ink on the application from–the kind of writing that comes from the heart and shows us a glimmer of something unique. Mike impressed us with his creative writing abilities and he became a scholar in our honors program. I look forward to the day when I will have the chance to read his published works!
COPYRIGHT 2003 EM Guild, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
