Drawing out college-ready maturity

Good grades and strong extracurriculars do not make a strong application essay by themselves–it takes mature reflection to transform those ingredients into a top admit.

The Challenge

Gabriella worked with our team for a little over a year before applying to college. Throughout this period, she pursued unique projects and accomplished many of the goals established at the start of her work with Admissionado. When it came time to apply to Gabriella’s top choice of Middlebury College, however, she struggled to reflect on the impressive experiences she had pursued throughout high school, meaningfully connect them, and then communicate her thoughts in her essays.

Possible Approaches

We could have handled the situation in a few ways. Gabriella had pursued varied interests and activities, including creating and leading her Mock Trial Club; living with and conducting research on a matriarchal society in Yunnan, China; and attending Kenyon and Iowa creative writing summer programs. Gabriella could have written about any one of these pursuits, from many different perspectives! Her instinct, however, was to write an essay that simply listed out all of them. We challenged her to reflect and identify the common theme that connected these seemingly disparate activities.

The Admissionado Approach

Gabriella considered what her experiences meant to her, creating timelines and logic maps along the way to help her visualize her growth. Through this process, she learned that she was drawn to narratives. She had also discovered the power stories have in developing culture, like the one she had researched in Yunnan, and in shaping individuals like herself. This was what connected many of her experiences and provided the context for her application. Ultimately, after realizing this connection and seeing it throughout her growth map, she put pen to paper and shared her story in a very compelling personal statement.

The Result

Gabriella was accepted ED to her dream school, Middlebury College.

Personal Shoutout

“I just wanted to reach out and express my gratitude for all your help. I learned a lot about how to write personalized essays and will use those lessons in college and beyond.”