Start Your Passion Project Early (Avoid Ivy College Rejections)
It is no secret that the college admission process has become, in recent years, increasingly competitive, as more and more parents work to set their children on a precocious path to academic and career success. Many, eager for an edge, cultivate their children into elite athletic talent, perhaps fencing or squash, sports with a recruiting pipeline without the staunch competition of mainstream sports. Meanwhile, the applicant pool is fraught with students that may have performed gene-editing research in a notable laboratory at the age of sixteen, worked on the product design for solar-powered cars, or built a mobile application for increasing students’ financial literacy. How do you plan to compete against these veritable beasts in the applicant pool?
These days, many experts herald the same idea: Start a passion project aligned with one of your interests or passions, that can set you apart form the students with laundry lists of activities that appear trite or repetitive. As admission officers are human, they view students’ activities in the context of what would seem achievable to them, making a project, that requires a student to be a proactive leader about a cause, a perfect recipe for admissions. In the past, we have helped students form non-profits, small businesses, public service announcements, awareness campaigns, newsletters, mobile applications, desktop applications, and even cryptocurrencies.
As we know, there are few other consulting firms out there that are so well-equipped to help a student with their extracurricular list. However, a flaw in many students’ planning is to save these projects for nearly the end of their high school career, in a time when they are busy vying for a slightly higher standardized test score, or putting the finishing touches on their essays.
How do you compete with the aforementioned, competitive applicants in the pool? The key is to get started early. Our professional recommendation is to start working on a passion project in freshman or sophomore year, especially one that can be later refined: Many projects can take a substantial amount of time, and, come junior or senior year, many students are overburdened between testing and essay writing. In our experience, it takes a student two to three months to complete a passion project, while we do provide a more expedited process for those without the luxury of time. However, having a project on one’s resume that stands out before starting junior year allows students’ activities to snowball, into bigger and better endeavors by the time that they are in their final year. For example, an initial, basic project to raise awareness, say, a public service announcement, might, a year later, add to a non-profit’s work in a meaningful way such that the organization gives a form of positive recognition, or allows a student to present their findings to a relevant group of stakeholders. Like compound interest, students’ extracurricular capital can grow upon itself, and for that reason, the earlier the student begins, the better.
I have personally seen students who attempt to pull a project together last minute. What is the result of such hasty last-minuteness? A project that appears, oftentimes, convoluted, and struggles to resonate with an admission officer’s tastes. Admission officers have a sixth sense for a student that is merely resume-padding, try as we might to mitigate this perception. It is better to slowly develop a project over time, with many related bells and whistles, that convey the idea of a cumulative, long-lasting passion that has manifested itself into different branches.
If you are reading this, and are a student, or the parent of a student, and just began high school, then we have caught your attention at the perfect time. Start on a project as soon as you can, and reach out with a consultation to see about how we can help you with a project from start to finish.
