If you are a high school student in Taiwan and are considering applying to a western undergraduate program, there’s a few things you need to understand before you can be successful. Many high school students in Taiwan have been so focused on their GPAs, SAT scores, and TOEFL scores that it’s easy for them to lose sight of the big picture. Today, I’m going to cover the top three things that every single prospective undergraduate should, but doesn’t know about applying to undergrad programs in the west.
1. People Blend Together on Paper, No Matter How Impressive their Scores Are.
What does this mean? Imagine, for a second, that you are an admissions officer at Harvard or Yale. You are tasked with the insurmountable task of reading thousands and thousands of applications from students who are amazing, overqualified, and all have perfect GPAs and test scores. You wake up every morning knowing that you have to review x number of applications today, for hours and hours at a time. Regardless of how much coffee you drink, or music you play while you review, you are going to get tired. People simply cannot read applications, resumes, or factual information about people they’ve never met before without becoming tired.
When you do this day in and day out, over and over again every single year, all of the 4.0 GPAs and 2400 SATs start to feel quite ordinary. The aspects of an application which stand out to you are the personal aspects – the aspects of the application which communicate the story, background, and struggles of the human being behind the paper: you.
Keep your audience in mind when you write your application, and be sure to write it in a way which will be “sticky,” and “stick” in the minds of the people reading.
2. Your Values Matter as Much As Your Grades
What makes your story “stick” in someone’s mind? Any details which communicate the quality of person you are, and how you make your decisions. Admissions officers reading through hundreds or thousands of applications in a season love it when they get a genuine sense of the person they’re reading about, and they get that when they read about things like your personal motivations and passions.
Is your family important to you? How has that influenced your life and personal philosophy? Do you care about social justice and giving back to the community? Do you care about making the world a better place, and how?
If you can write your application in such a way that you can convey what truly motivates you as a person, the people reading your application will much more likely remember you.
Note though, that you have to be careful when writing about personal values and motivations not to come off as cliché or insincere.
3. It’s OK to be Proud of Your Achievements
Taiwanese culture dictates that people should be modest. While you don’t want to come off as bragging about your accomplishments in your application, it is important to emphasize your successes and not be shy about how outstanding you are. After all, you’ve already made it this far, right?
If you are too modest and understated in your application, admissions officers may not get a strong sense of what matters to you, and what you have been able to achieve in your area of expertise.
Write about your achievements in terms of the values behind them and how you have helped others, and you’ll have a great way to discuss your achievements without sounding like you’re bragging.
Conclusion
Many young students in Taiwan are heavily focused on their grades, and rightly so. What I want to drive home today is that you need to think about, and write persuasively about more than your grades in order to be admitted to a western undergraduate program. Your values, your extracurricular achievements, and how you communicate your personal story will all be factors which help your application “stick” in the head of the admissions officer reviewing your case.
If you would like help crafting your unique story into strongly persuasive writing, or thinking about the best way to communicate your personal values through your application, don’t hesitate to reach out to me, David, at transcendadmissions@gmail.com.