How to Market Yourself to Colleges

Having the right grades and test scores only make up one part of the college application process. Colleges are interested in getting to know the person applying to their school and determine if they are the right fit for the campus.

Where can you market yourself?

Throughout the application process, there are a few opportunities to truly market yourself. This is through the short essays, your common app essay, college resume, or via a school interview. Not every school requires an interview, but most students utilize the essays to showcase who they are. Specific programs might have portfolios or audition submissions that allow you to showcase a specific talent or skill. If you are submitting a college resume, you can create a stationary 1 pager; you can take it a step further and create a digital resume by making your own personal website.

What should you highlight?

From all of your life experiences, colleges mainly care about the different skills, projects, clubs you participated in primarily during your secondary education. What you wish to highlight does depend on your end goal and why you are applying to that specific school. That being said, how you market yourself can vary from school to school. What colleges are looking for are well-rounded open-minded young minds that are driven. They want to know you will take initiative and will be able to take care of yourself on your own. Hobbies, extracurriculars, projects, and clubs are usually the kinds of experiences colleges expect you to highlight. If you had the opportunity to have an internship or research fellowship, even better.

If you are applying to a specific school, for example, a business school, you want to highlight experiences you may have had that would be useful to someone in the business field. This could be public speaking skills, small entrepreneurship projects, any internships, and the like. If you are interested in applying for a pre-med program, it could be useful to highlight any experiences you've had in healthcare, science fair projects, any doctor shadowing, etc. Similarly, if you are applying to art school, create a digital portfolio you can share with the admissions board. Marketing yourself differently to different schools may take a little more time, but making the personal effort does make a difference. It ensures your full self is visible on each application no matter the school or program.

Showcase the different organizations you were a part of and what you did within those organizations. Showcasing leadership skills is always a plus! This can be seen through participating in student council, taking the lead in a project, or starting your own club at school.

When you are young, it can be hard to share any real experiences because chances are you have not worked. Even if you did not participate in many extracurricular activities, talking about your hobbies and interests can be a great way to showcase your interests and skills. Do you code in your free time? Do you knit? Maybe you enjoy scuba diving. Find a way to link your interests to marketable skills (communication, leadership, project management, programming, etc). It is important to be authentic. Colleges can tell if you are being fake or saying what you think they want to hear. Just be yourself.

If you haven't taken up any hobbies or joined any clubs, it's ok. Start a new project today. Colleges are interested in people that practice a growth-mindset and are willing to get outside of their comfort zones. Explore what brings you joy and use those experiences to amplify your application.