What’s Your Why?
Motivational speakers and authors talk a lot about “finding your WHY.” If you’re really clear on why you’re doing what you’re doing, they tell audiences, you’re more likely to get it done and do it well. This is true for mundane things you might need a little boost to complete, as well as really important things that you avoid out of fear or feeling overwhelmed.
In other words, you need a WHY for your college applications. Applications are long and often tedious. In order to keep going, not procrastinate, and do your best, you need to be really clear on why you are doing them. And I don’t just mean, “So I can get into college.” I mean, you need to know with complete clarity why you are spending time on every individual application you will submit.
I’ve worked with high-schoolers on college applications for years, so I know exactly how incredulous you are at that suggestion.
The thing is, you can climb Everest just because it’s there, but it doesn’t have an Admissions Committee. You’ll either make it to the top, or you won’t. It doesn’t particularly care either way. The mountain will always be large enough for the number of climbers who want to try.
The same obviously cannot be said of most institutions of higher learning in this country. There are, in fact, thousands more students applying to the most popular schools than they can accommodate. According to an April Harvard Gazette report, Harvard rejected more than 55,000 applicants last fall.
If you know your WHY, you might beat those odds. Or you might not. But you might have some other great schools on your list that meet your needs—that fulfill that same WHY—because you were able to identify it. And that means the WHY that’s going to sustain you, not the WHY that every high-schooler is carrying around (“So that people will be impressed by me.”)
If you’re dead-set on a big-name school, what is it really about that school that calls to you? What are they offering that no one else can? A significant number of schools ask you directly, “Why do you want to come to our school?” You must at the very least persuade them that you know why you want to be there above all other places.
Read curated college guides, not just the giant catalogs of every college ever. Talk to your school guidance or college counselors. Figure out what you’re looking for in a school and then find schools that match it—don’t just choose some schools because they sound good and then try to figure out why you want to go there.
You’re about to dedicate four years of your life and pay countless thousands of dollars to this school. Find your WHY.
Applications Pre-Flight Checklist
- Start your warm-up writing.
- If you haven’t yet, make summer plans.
- Meet with your guidance or college counselor before school gets out.
- End junior year strong (these grades count, people!).
- Finalize your college list.
(Photo by Holly Mandarich on Unsplash)
