*!@# is a 4-Letter Word in College Admissions 🤭

If you want to give your application a fighting chance, you should be aware of the 4-letter word that college application reviewers put up there with the best of them. It's a word so insidious that the under-breath whispers as it's uttered embarrass even the most seasoned college admissions officer. That word is S-A-M-E.

There are so many applications to be reviewed. The piles are tall, the queue is long. For many, reviewing as many as 100 applications per day is a common occurrence. Most of the applications are boring. I guess it's to be expected. I mean, how exciting of a life can a person of 17 years have? What exactly could it possibly look like that differentiates it from the next, and the next, and the next?

It's about finding your authentic voice and using it in your applications! YOU ARE UNIQUE - in the way you talk, in the way you act, in the way you view your world and those in it. The "do" may be derivative, but not the "who." No, never the WHO!!! So, display it, share it, speak how you speak, be who you are, think how you think. But, warning, when I say be yourself in college applications, what I mean is be your BEST self. Show the best version of who you truly are.

And don't be afraid to show your unique side. A little weird? Great! Have an unusual hobby? Colleges revel in that stuff! When you begin to strategize your applications, there's no reason to be nervous about what others will think because it's just between you and the application reader. Providing a glimpse of what makes you unique, different, and beautifully unusual is exactly what wakes up the admissions rep from their stupor of applications prior to reading yours. Be kind to them. Don't be the S-A-M-E 🤭 (pardon my French).

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