Friday, August 21, 2020
How To Turn Your Summer into an Ivy League Application TKG
How To Turn Your Summer into an Ivy League Application Applications are created, made, and broken with free time that students have (or donât have). Colleges look carefully at exactly how you spend your free time. And if they canât tell how you spend your free time while theyâre looking at your application, then theyâre betting you donât do much. Butâ¦we donât need to tell you that twice, right? Because youâre reading this blog post. Which means youâre interested in the Ivy League. Which means that youâre likely scheduled out for the next 2-4 weeks.If youâre contemplating applying to an Ivy League school, odds are youâve been described as one or more of the following: overachiever, motivated, intense, cutthroat, highly focused. We get itâ"weâve been described as those things, too. Thereâs not really such a thing as a âchill Ivy League applicant.â The barrier to entry for an Ivy League school is insurmountable for most on purpose. Itâs a place where the intense go to learn, play, and expand their horizon s.So here you are, about 1-2 years out from applying to an Ivy League school and wondering just how you can possibly optimize your summer to signal to Ivy League schools that you are, in fact, Ivy League material. You know that attending a summer program at a university doesnât increase your chances for admission into that particular school. And you know that thereâs a formula when youâre decidingâ"weâve written about the best possible summer ideas based on your interests, whether itâs STEM, teaching, cooking, sustainability, business, writing, medicine, math, politics, or something else.The thing is, weâve written most of these articles on the topic of summer for the average to high-achieving kid, but not necessarily for the Ivy League applicant, because to be honest, very few students actually have what it takes to put together an application that will be seriously reviewed by Yale, Harvard, or Columbia. Thatâs not to say that our students donât get into these pla ces, because they do, but oftentimes itâs because there is something unique about them beyond their application.So, how do you actively seek out, develop, and ultimately incorporate that **extra-special unique** Ivy League-worthy skill THIS LATE IN THE SUMMER? Itâs simple. You get a job. Why? Because it will make you a better person in every way possible. And it's your only real option.The kids who we work with who have had jobs (and by jobs we donât mean a fancy internship at your dadâs friendâs real estate office where you go and sit on Instagram all day waiting to shadow a meeting. We mean a job where you get up every morning and sometimes you have to put on that Rick Ross or Drake song to self-motivate) are truly just better people. And thatâs because they comprehend the importance of hard work. This only comes with experienceâ"when you actually grasp how the basics of customer service and hospitality, when paired with empathy and an understanding of the realities o f others, are essential to success.Ivy League schools want students who are, above all else, good human beings. They donât want robots who are non-stop, donât sleep, have applied to 83 internships, and spend 50 hours a week coding while waxing poetic about how they are going to save the world by bringing technology to developing countries. Ivy League schools want students who listen and ask questions before they launch into a monologue that you didnât ask for about Bitcoin vs. Ethereum. They want human beings who understand the complexities of the world in their truest form, which is best understood through seemingly mundane interactions at, for example, a retail store or a restaurant. Ivy League schools want students who are highly observant.Oftentimes, we find that the suggestion of âgetting a jobâ falls on deaf ears to our students, because they view it as âbelowâ them. First of all, it's not. They donât say it, but we know thatâs what theyâre thinking. And th at mentality is why they arenât accepted to Yale. Itâs not because they got a 35 on their ACT when they should have gotten a 36. Itâs because they donât quite grasp what it is these schools want, which is students who are actually going to change the world. But in order to do that, you have to understand the world first. And you need to show that in your application with a heavy dose of humility. What better way to understand the grievances and complications of the world than to directly participate in the capitalist system that runs our country? This late in the summer, your best bet is to get a job. We'll say it again: get a job. Trust us. The perspective that you gain will not only enrich your application, it will enrich your outlook.Let us know if you need ideas. We have lots of them.
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