College Admissions: Engineered or Lucky?

I have been seeing quite a number of college admission essay Instagram shorts lately. It is that time of the year for seniors in high school.

Some are by graduates from colleges and they claim they know what they did to get in. Others are by college admissions staff who describe what they are looking for. These IG shorts are both interesting & informative. But remember that these are their personal stories (ironic that they need to make their IG posts interesting and personal just like they generally advise about college admission essays) & are not engineered solutions. In one respect, these are stories of good luck. Good luck that the essays worked (apparently) for an applicant. Good luck that the college admissions staff got a good essay to read.

I compare this to how I go to a bookstore (yes, there are still good ones around) and browse the stacks. Out of the hundreds of books I may set my eyes on, just a segment gets me curious based on the title and cover design (see Chip Kidd TED Talk for more on this). A handful have enough grab to have me lift the book off the shelf and take a look inside. Circling around, I do assume that all the book authors are capable writers with a compelling storyline (screened by the publisher, I would assume)…enough to justify the effort & economics. It’s just that the match with me is not absolute…it takes luck. Luck that I would even pick it up and take a close look. Luck that I would flip open a particular page and glance at a passage that holds intense interest for me.

The best YCISL-based advice I have with regards to college admissions essays & using design thinking includes:

1. Be authentic. Exaggeration or false pretense is a risk to the perception as well as outcome. A staff reader would be lucky to have more than a few exceptionally perfectly well-written professional-level essays. If you write at that exceptionally high level, that’s great. Impressive. Fortunate. But if you are an average compositional writer, create your draft then do what you can to improve on it. Know that even imperfections can be effective – if authentic.
2. Be positive. You should feel positive about yourself. You should make the reader feel intrinsically positive…glad they read your essay, want to recommend you, & feel they can trust you. Check your essays for positivity. Manage the positivity level.
3. Write about yourself as creatively as you would paint a portrait of yourself. Think art appreciation. Think how you would represent yourself in artistic imagery. Show self-awareness & self-management. Use details wisely.

So do check out these IG short videos if you think you need inspiration. Just understand these are not formulas. They are stories. The people are not engineers. They are storytellers telling you about their good luck. Enjoy the experience.

PS. You may find Richard St John’s 8 Secrets of Success a better source of inspiration than IG for your college admission essays.