When putting together an incoming first-year class, college admissions officers spend a significant amount of time evaluating hundreds of factors to determine an applicant’s competitiveness for their institution. While many of these factors are important, it’s hard to overstate the value of leadership in college admissions. Their holistic evaluation process can be quite hard to identify from the applicant’s perspective, but because all of us at Solomon Admissions have worked in admissions posts at top institutions before, we are keenly aware of the determining factors that establish competitiveness in a student’s overall application. Schedule a call today to begin working with one of our expert admissions consultants!
The first profile that demonstrates competitiveness is the student’s academic profile. Grades, course load rigor, and standardized test scores are all important components to show colleges that you can handle their rigorous academics. If your scores don’t align with the school’s general profile, they will feel you’re not ready for their demanding environment. Therefore, it’s important that you take the most difficult courses available at your high school, earn all As, and score in the competitive range for all standardized tests.
Once you show colleges that you are competitive academically, though, you must distinguish yourself in other ways. There are two other profiles that we help students build at Solomon Admissions – the extracurricular profile and the intellectual vitality profile. The former shows colleges are involved you are in your local and school communities, whereas the latter provides insight into how you deepen your learning beyond the classroom.
The cornerstone of strong intellectual vitality and extracurricular profiles is leadership. Top colleges and universities are looking for students who will make the most of the resources provided, engage the community, and ultimately make the world a better place. This type of impact reflects well on the college/university, building their prestige. Leadership also indicates a strong interpersonal skill set that is attractive to top institutions. Therefore, admissions officers look for instances of leadership throughout a student’s application, as these demonstrate the student’s aptitude and readiness to positively impact their campus and beyond.
Leadership Demonstrates Commitment and Passion
When admissions officers read an application, they’re actively evaluating the authenticity and depth of a student’s intellectual voice, academic drive, and extracurricular interests. These extracurricular interests often include academic collectives, clubs, and affinity groups, and frequently feature activities like social justice activism and community service work. But admissions officers are always asking – is this extracurricular activity something the student truly cares about, or are they just doing it for the volunteering hours and because they think it looks good on the application?
Therefore, it’s essential that, as an applicant, you build extracurricular and intellectual vitality profiles rooted in issues and activities about which you’re deeply passionate. Don’t just do something for the application – it will be a transparent move to admissions officers! Instead, engage in activities and organizations that you care about.
Students who care deeply about something will also find ways to engage in that community or activity, and if nothing exists yet, they will create a space to pursue it. So, if your school does not have an Amnesty International organization, and you care about human rights, true leaders will petition to start that club at their school. If their school is resistant, then they will create an Amnesty group outside of school and partner with other social justice groups in the area to cross-promote and deepen their programming.
True leaders take a “no” as an opportunity to create something new. Rather than just accept no and stop engaging with that idea or activity, instead they pivot. They think creatively, recruit others to help, and get the word out about their new group. They lead others to engage, rather than follow the status quo. Therefore, starting a club at your school or in your community is a great way to show admissions officers that you are a leader while concurrently demonstrating depth and authentic passion for your application.
Leadership Comes in Many Forms
When one thinks about leadership, they usually imagine the captain of a sports team, the president of the student body, the lead competitor on the debate team, etc. These are valid and powerful forms of leadership; however, there are many other ways to show leadership beyond the usual conventions.
Leading a peer study group, spearheading an independent project (like a tutoring program or art show), organizing a community clean-up to protect the local environment, championing a letter-writing campaign to local politicians, helping register young voters for upcoming local and national elections, writing/editing/producing online PSAs about important topics – these are all valid and powerful forms of leadership! They may not have as flashy a title as “Student Body President,” but they demonstrate initiative, a passion for a specific topic/activity, and a desire to help others and make the world a better place. They are absolutely valid – for example, cleaning up a dirty creek and helping local flora and fauna flourish in the wake directly impacts the lives of people living in that community in a positive way.
Additionally, there can be other leadership roles in clubs/activities that may suit your character better. If you’re someone who prefers to be more “behind-the-scenes” but still help out, you can seek opportunities that play to these strengths, like being the one writing practice briefs and training regimens for your Mock Trial or Debate teams. Maybe you’re the one who can lead all the team-building exercises on your sports team. Or perhaps you’re particularly adept at managing many different opinions and being your organization’s mediator. All of these are valid and meaningful forms of leadership.
Again, many believe that there is only one form of leadership, which is usually expressed with bubbly extroverted enthusiasm. This can make many who are not naturally extroverted feel like they cannot be leaders. However, remember that leadership comes in many forms. Colleges are interested in seeing how you pivot to the challenges in your life, so if you can, as a more introverted person, show leadership in a different form, that will still be impressive to colleges.
Leadership Honors/Accolades
Academic honors are very helpful for admissions officers to determine the academic competitiveness of a student; however, recognitions gained for leadership work outside of the classroom are also very powerful to admissions officers. If your school, team, or community feels your work is meaningful and wants to celebrate your contributions with an honor/award, admissions officers will see a tangible response to your leadership while gaining insight into the type of qualities that are often difficult to substantiate in an application (beyond letters of recommendation), like initiative, resilience, empathy, community-mindedness, organization, and capacity to achieve goals. Awards for leadership underline the authenticity of your extracurricular passions while also creating stronger cohesion for your application’s narrative.
Awards like the President’s Volunteer Service Award, Congressional Awards, the Coca-Cola Scholars Program, the Prudential Spirit of Community Award, and many more, are prime examples of recognition from well-known organizations that signal that your leadership abilities have been acknowledged and celebrated by authoritative bodies outside your immediate school environment. Therefore, you should work with your Solomon Admissions consultant to help you determine some key accolades or awards worth pursuing to strengthen your leadership profile.
Cultivating Global Citizens
In today’s hyper-globalized world, top colleges and universities are particularly aware of the importance of cultivating global citizens who actively seek to make the world a better place. A razor-sharp focus on leadership throughout high school will underline how well you fit this mold while also demonstrating your alignment with that college/university’s values. By being an empowered global citizen working to make the world better, you will contribute to the college/university’s legacy, reaffirm its ethos, and inspire others to apply to their institution.
In conclusion, pursuing meaningful leadership opportunities that are authentically tied to your passions is essential to be competitive at the Ivy League and Top 50 colleges and universities in the United States. Leadership demonstrates your ability to handle responsibility, your capacity for caring deeply about an activity or issue, your strength in galvanizing community support, and your focus on helping others. Leadership showcases your empathy and passion and reassures admissions officers that you would benefit their class by working well with others and reflecting the values of their institution.
Former Admissions Reader at Stanford University,
3 Years in Stanford University Admissions,
2,500+ Applications Read and Evaluated,
Peter Zimmerman is a Senior Admissions Consultant with Solomon. Peter earned his Bachelor’s Degree from The College of William and Mary in Art/Art History, with minors in Anthropology and Japanese Studies.
He graduated summa cum laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa – the United States’ oldest honor society for liberal arts colleges. Mr. Zimmerman was one of the first students ever to receive W&M’s prestigious 1693 Scholarship — one of the most distinguished scholarship programs in the country, emphasizing student-led research and academic excellence. In addition, he was awarded W&M’s Martha Wren Briggs Scholarship for academic distinction in Art History. He also attended the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
