How Your Application Can Avoid The “LMO” Pile!
College Admissions are looking for "UAO" - Unlike Any Other.
Recently, US News had an article on the role College Priorities play in College Admissions. The article talks about something called the “LMO”Pile, which stands for Like Many Others! It is where College Applications that don’t stand out, end up!
On our Podcast with Shveta Bagade, a College Counselor based in the San Francisco Bay Area, shared Tips for a High School student to make their College Application “UAO” (Unlike Any Other)!
Here goes:
1.Obviously, High School Grades are important.
2.Rigor: In addition to grades, you need rigor. Are you challenging yourself with the courses that are available?
If you're getting straight A's in standard level classes, you're not really challenging yourself.
It's really important for students to show that kind of rigor, that they're trying to take honors college prep classes, advanced placement, things like that dual enrollment, whatever is available to them.
Colleges do know that from school reports. So if they see that AP courses available at your school, and you haven't even tried to take one but you have straight A's? Probably not good.
3.Extracurriculars that mean something to you. You need to be engaged in some form or fashion, inside and outside of school. Your community, whether it's your neighborhood, your religious group, community service, hospitals, that those kinds of things, any kind of service centers.
4.Out of the Box Essays. This can be a great way to avoid the LMO pile! The challenge for the students is to find an aspect of their life that is different from maybe the people they know, the people that they are surrounded by.
So, dig deep inside to find something unique out of your experience, your background.
It may not always be about something as obvious or flashy as being Captain of a Sports team. It has to be about something that's meaningful to you.
It's not something that's going to pop out of your head. Sometimes it's a conversation with somebody else, and you realize, “Oh, I should talk about that”.
The ones that tend to stand out are the ones that are meaningful to the student where it just made such an impact on them, maybe academically or personally.
Talking about your most unique qualities in those essays is your best & last chance to really show the Admissions Officers how unique you are.
5.”Demonstrated Interest”. This shows up in college applications in some form or fashion in their essays.
Some are very specific, you know, they'll say, “Why ABC college?”. But some will just say “Why this Major?”. And what they're really asking is “Why this Major at our college?”
So it's important for students to do at least one interesting, deep level thing that they found about that college. It can't be something that's easy to find, it's got to be something that's a little bit deeper thought or more invested by the student.
Maybe it's a specific course. And you are really excited about the professor who teaches that curriculum or some research they're doing or internship, internship opportunities that are unique at the university things along those lines.
Listen to College Admissions Priorities and Other News Stories. August 29, 2022. (13-Minute Listen)
Hope you find these tips useful and All the Best with your applications.
Have a Great Week.
Venkat