52 Weeks to College: Week 4 - Outlining Your Story

Your application has to do lots of things in very few words -- it has to the tell the story of your life, make you come alive in the imagination of the admissions officer, and persuade the admissions officer that you are a must-have in the class. 

You have to make the most of every part of the application and create a coherent, robust portrait of yourself.  The best way to do that is to outline your story FIRST and then align it with the application.  Many applicants make the mistake of using the application itself as the outline and simply respond to the questions as they present themselves:  the result is often an incomplete, boring, repetitive or incoherent presentation of the applicant.  This week you are going to avoid those mistakes by outlining your story.  Next week and in the weeks that follow, we'll take that outline and translate it into application form.

Step 1.  Outline the key parts of the story of your life.

You've probably been on the planet about 17 years, give or take.  What are the most important things that have happened to you in that time?  Don't panic if you think you've had the most ordinary run-of-the mill life ever -- it is still worthy of a story and there are still nuggets that will be interesting to others.  You're looking for things that happened during that time that have had an impact on your life.  Examples:  siblings were born and you've been the big brother extraordinaire, took your first dance class and now you're a committed ballerina, family immigrated/moved and so you're bicultural, lost a parent to death/divorce so had a struggle.   Make it easy on yourself and just review your life in chunks. 

• 0-5 Years.  Infant through Pre-School.  Sure, in this period, things mostly happened TO you, but they could have been really important.
• Elementary/Lower School.  Suffered endless teasing because you had a weird haircut or star of the 4th grade musical or went on your first overnight camping trip?  You get the drift.  Don't worry, you aren't necessarily going to tell all these stories, but you want a big list to choose from.
• Junior High/Middle School.  Ah, the awkward adolescent transition.  Easy or hard for you? Discovered your passion for soccer?  Had your first paying job?
• High School.  Lots of experiences here.  Just list them all.  You can edit later.  Don't forget the things that happened in the larger world but had an impact on you -- Did your home get damaged by Hurricane Katrina?  Did someone in your family serve in the military and get sent to Iraq/Afghanistan?  Did one of your parents work at Lehman Brothers or somewhere that closed or suffered hard times during recent economic downturn?

Step 2.  Write 3-5 one paragraph vignettes that illustrate important characteristics about yourself and that will make you come alive in the imagination of the admissions officer.

An application is a 2-D version of a 3-D person, so you need to use your words to capture the imagination of the admissions officer -- that officer should have a fully developed picture of you to the point that the officer could say, "I bet I could name some of the songs on this applicant's i-Pod, guess what this applicant's favorite books are, fix this applicant up on a successful blind date."  You get the idea.

The only way to stimulate that kind of holographic image of you in the mind of the admissions officer is to share some of your personality -- the combination of characteristics, quirks, and attributes that make you you.  Start with a list of 7-10 adjectives that you think make you you -- if you aren't sure, do this exercise with a couple of friends, your parents, and siblings.  Certain adjectives will repeat.  Those are the adjectives that you want.

Then pick 3-5 of those adjectives that can be illustrated with stories.  Here's one about me:  Alison will not back down when she thinks she is right -- also could be described as relentlessly stubborn.  When she was 3, she and her dad had a disagreement.  He sent her to her room and told her to sit in her rocking chair until she was ready to acknowledge he was right and apologize.  She sat and rocked in her chair for several hours.  Her dad finally came in and told her that he was wrong and she could come out!  Now, this might not be the story I want to share with admissions officers, but you get the idea.

Step 3.  Outline your case for convincing the officer that you are a must-have in the class and overcoming any objections. 

This is not as complicated or mysterious as it may seem.  You must persuade the admissions officer of only two things: 

• You are academically qualified.
• You will have a positive impact on the school while there.

To outline your case, simply write each of these points at the top of a single page of paper and list as many pieces of evidence you can think of that support each point.  Here are a few things under each point to give you an idea of what I mean by evidence:

• Suzy is academically qualified because:

1. She has a 3.75 GPA and has taken tough courses/been at a tough school.
2. She won the Latin award at a state competition.
3. She is in the National Honor Society.

• Ben will have a positive impact on the school while there because:

1. He has had a positive impact at his high school:  while Student Council President, he started a peer tutoring program that has involved 10% of the class.
2. He has had a positive impact in his community:  he's a part of a garage band that plays at the annual neighborhood block party.
3. He has had a positive impact in the classroom:  he contributes positively to the discussion.

Once you've completed these lists, you have one more task to this outlining exercise: you must develop your arguments and supporting evidence to overcome any objections.  What would be the objections?  Anything that would refute the argument you have made.  Here are some of the common ones:

• Emma is not academically qualified because her test scores are low.
• Alexis is not academically qualified because she has high grades only because she has taken an easy load.
• Lucy is not academically qualified because she has not performed well in high school.
• Josh will not have any impact -- positive or negative -- he's just hung out in high school and done well enough but not left a mark anywhere.
• Tom will have a negative impact -- he's had a disciplinary problem, he's been a troublemaker in class, he's a ball hog on the sports team.

Look critically at your own argument and see what the objections might be.  Then develop a counter-argument and evidence to overcome them.  Again, examples are easiest to understand.  Let's take poor Emma.

• Emma's test scores are not predictive of how she will perform at college. 

1. She had low test scores for entry to prep school and she's done great there.
2. Her teacher recs will say she is an academic star in the most competitive classes and that the test scores aren't representative of her abilities.

That's it.  Your story outline is complete.  We'll start compiling the specific parts of your application next week and you'll refer to this outline often, so keep it handy and add to it as you think of things.

Comments or Questions? 

Having trouble getting your story outlined?  Don't know how to overcome an objection to your case for admissions?   Please post a comment!

 

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.