STANDING OUT, while fittin in, to college...

Who wants to go to college?

I hear this question about a MILLION times, especially working with teens. Most students that answer that question say, "YES, of course"!

Then what?

Although it's easy to say they desperately want to go to college, a lot of students have no clue how they're going to get there.

I think the secret to getting into college is a more complex BEAST than your transcripts. If it were just up to grades, there would be machines processing your applications. BUT here's the secret folks... THERE ARE REAL HUMAN BEINGS reading, evaluating, admitting, and denying you.

We MUST take this into consideration, no matter what institution you want to attend.

So here are some things you may not know, but definitely SHOULD!

1. Human, emotional, persuasive, beings read your application.

This is important to know because it makes you rethink how important your essay, recommendation letters, list of activities, personal statements, etc. can be in terms of personalizing your application experience.

Guess what?

The college admissions acceptance rate isn't getting better - in fact, it's getting worse. The more students that want to attend college + the number of applications a school receives + the number of available spots = CRAZY COMPETITION!

2. In the sea of applications YOU need to STAND OUT!

I worked at a university that received approximately 23,000 applications for undergraduate admission EACH year! Oh, and there were only about 3000 available spots!

WHAT?! How can you stand out with those odds?

3. Personalization is the key to the kingdom!

Most higher education institutions give you three main ways to stand out, outside of your transcripts.

a) The Essay
b) Letters of Recommendations
c) A Personal Interview


Essay

The essay is a BIG way to stand out. Don't get me wrong, this isn't an opportunity to make things up or write the "Gimmick" essay! (i.e. "I'm writing my college essay from the perspective of my dog") The objective here is originality... think of the sea of applications. What will make your essay stand out? I love essays they tell me something about who you are, that I wouldn't get from your grades. How would you explain to me who you are? Next, where do you "THINK" you want to go in life. AND finally, how can the institution you're applying to help you get there?

YES, how they can help YOU get to your final destinations?

I'm not sure where this went wrong... at one point colleges/universities wanted you to come to their school, ha. My parents tell me that schools actually used to call them and try to get them to attend! WHAT?! Now it seems like we're at the mercy of the institution!

What's up with that!

You should start to be pickier... these schools need you, START ACTING LIKE IT!

Letter of Rec.

Do you have a teacher that you can hug? Yes? Awesome! They should be writing your recommendation letter. Letters of recommendation can be unhelpful, especially when the teacher doesn't know who you are! AND make sure the teacher LIKES you! Sometimes students pick teacher recommendations based on their grade in that teachers class. I've seen recommendation letters that literally say "She comes to class on time." "He turns in his homework". BOOOOOOOOOO! How bout, "Her smile brightens the room each Monday when EVERYONE can't seem to get into a good mood" or "He's not the most out going student, but his consistency and work ethic inspire his classmates to work harder." Even this recommendation turned what could have been a negative into a positive. "Sometimes his humorous contributions are exactly what we need to get through 8th period Geometry!"

AND if you answered "NO" to the "hug" question, then there are other ways of going about the situation. Some of you attend a BIG high school. Now for some us 500 students is BIG. BUT I'm talking about 1000 to 3000 students! In this case I recommend you obtain a supplemental letter of recommendation. This can be a coach, counselor, or mentor. PREFERABLY an adult! YES, I've seen recommendation letters from YOUR HOMEBOY! (not interested) AND make sure the supplemental rec. isn't from your parents! "MY BABY IS AMAZING!" (No thanks!)

Ultimately, recommendation letters are an opportunity for a respected human being to give you praise. Just make sure it comes across that way.

Interview



In my experience not all colleges and universities require an interview. More and more, institutions, especially the bigger ones, are turning to an 'optional" interview. This means it's up to YOU, the student, to initiate the desire. Let me tell you what... interviews can be the BOMB, or they can be AWFUL and hurt you. Let me help you have a great interview.

Most interviews are about 30 to 40 minutes long. The admissions committee member is trying to get as much of your personality out of you as possible. Some interviewers do a bad job at this and at that point it's up to you to take control. An interview is only as good as YOU make it! Let me say that again. AN INTERVIEW IS ONLY AS GOOD AS YOU MAKE IT! This is an opportunity for the admissions committee to put a name/personality with YOUR FACE! This is crucial in our sea of applications scenario because it allows for depth. You are no longer a score, an essay, or any other piece of paper. You're a REAL person, with feelings, emotions, and desires.

Sometimes you may need that time to discuss various issues about your academic history. Let's say you got and "F" in a class. The admissions committee gets your transcript, and all they see is a BIG FAT "F"! On the other hand, you get an interview and the opportunity to inform them about the semester you had mono and you had to do your work from a hospital bed. Totally changes their attitude.

Interviews are a great opportunity to talk about your insecurities or at least explain them. Sometimes all a committee member has to go off of is your paperwork. AND that could be bad for you, especially if you don't feel that a certain grade or situation is the best representation of who you are as a student/individual.

Students always ask me what they should wear for an interview. Do I think that you should wear a suit? No. (you can, if that's what your comfortable in) Do I think you should wear a tank top and booty shorts? No. Let me put it this way. I have nothing against you having your own personal style, thats FLY, and part of who you are! BUT don't be a distraction. Don't let what you wear be a distraction for the interviewer. You only have a small window of time, make sure you're keeping the focus where it should be, ON YOUR BEAUTIFUL beaming self! The best thing you can wear to a college interview is CONFIDENCE!

4. Connecting with decision makers.

Guess what? You know those people you meet when you're visiting colleges? Yea, the admissions staff. The majority of the time THEY'RE THE ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE! AND who admits you into college? THE ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE!! Make sure YOU stay in touch with the people you meet. Get their business cards... believe me, they want to give them to you, it makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside. AND send them an email... now I know this might be a WEIRD concept because emails are typically over 140 characters, and most of them don't have an option built in where you can give the recipient a gift for their birthday! Yes, emails seem prehistoric, but I swear it's still an effective way to communicate.

After you send the email make sure you check the spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Most of the people I know that work in admissions are GRAMMAR SLAMMERS and they expect nothing but the best. (NO LOL'S, BRB'S, or TTYL's!)

This may sound silly... but make sure the communications come from you. NO one likes to just hear from parents ALL the time. Another opportunity for you to take control of your own situation... You make the phone calls, you ask the questions, you send the thank you emails/cards. IT MEANS SO MUCH MORE WHEN IT COMES FROM YOU!

Finally, you have much more control than you think. AND sometimes to STAND OUT, you have to fit in. AND now you know how to STAND OUT, while having the inside info to FIT IN to colleges secretive and sometime elusive expectations.

BEST OF LUCK with the new school year!

Keep It Real.

Murph

Update OVERLOAD!

"Solomon says to stay away from people who talk too much (PR20:19). I wonder if that's applicable to people who tweet too much?" (favorite)

"Your constant updates have you on the verge of getting de-friended."

"un follow!" (valley girl voice)

"I HATE YOU, stop updating your STATUS every five seconds!"



Recently, I felt the need to conduct a little market research. For the past two days I have been flooding my twitter and my facebook with NONSTOP updates. AND for the past month I have been posting pictures of almost EVERYTHING I have been doing, on a trip, not on a trip, etc. Some of which were good quotes/pictures, and some that were purposely pointless! Either way I was trying to prove a point.

Social media outlets are an awesome way of communicating to the world. BUT (huge but), are we really cognisant of what we're sharing?

(i.e. pictures of our food, "my cat rolled over", I hate traffic, and so on)

In my brief research I came to the conclusion that PEOPLE find your information USELESS and ANNOYING in general, and especially when you give them to much, and when it has little meaning, or no value.

At my own personal expense, I saw a significant decline in visitation to my blog and website. People LOST INTEREST in what I was saying and in turn felt NO desire to visit AN even longer version of my social media crap slinging on my blog!

We have to be careful...

If you are like me and you want people to find what you say to be of value to their lives, you must be purposeful with ALL of your social media, not just your detailed publications.

People are more inclined to follow you and be interested in your cause when you provide information they can use.

I see this a lot. I read A LOT of blogs, especially within my industry, AND I find that there is a HUGE disconnect between what people STAND for and what they put out via tweeting and status updates.

SERIOUSLY! ::yelling:: How am I supposed to take your blog post about "Global Warming" seriously when I just saw you tweet about your dogs bowel movement!

Social media and it's many different mediums are a world wide phenomena, and your information, if meaningful, has infinite potential of reaching people all over the world!



If that's not motivation then I don't know what is. For me... I have a haunting thought... what if my information slipped through multiple mediums and ended up in front of a teenager in Africa, and instead of him seeing that I spent my whole life trying to better the lives of youth... he saw a picture of what I had for dinner 2 years ago!

Don't believe this can happen? This is the way it works...




Or if you are just fed up with pointless tweets you can click HERE and see one frustrated guys fun solution!

Lastly, lets have a moment of silence for all those friends I lost during this experiment... ha.

AND thanks to those who stuck around long enough to read this :)

Keep It Real.

Murph

VS




“I need to lose some weight.”

“My boss says I need to get more motivated at work.”

“I know I should clean my room, but I don't feel like it.”

Sound familiar?

If only we could motivate ourselves to do the things we need to do! Then life would be a lot easier, wouldn’t it? An entire industry exists around the subject of motivation. The problem is that there are so many books, seminars and videos out there! How do you know which one is best for you? Well, if there was one technique or formula that really worked, we wouldn’t need all that stuff! There must be something fundamentally flawed with existing motivational procedures.

Governments, religions, and authority figures use fear to motivate. That works for a while, because when people get scared, their biological “fight or flight’ mechanism kicks in and there is a rush of adrenaline. The threat of physical punishment often works temporarily to keep people on the straight and narrow. But like an energy drink filled with sugar and caffeine, that high always wears off.

Motivation comes from the word "motivate," which is defined as "a stir to action." Granted, motivation gets us moving, but that's about it. It stirs us to action, but then what? I've watched highly motivated people pumped up and ready to fly, only to lose their wind and crash within a day or less of being motivated.

AND then there's inspiration.

Inspiration, on the other hand, is created from the word "inspire," which means "to fill with noble or reverent emotion."

Inspiration doesn't just "stir" you, as motivation does; rather, inspiration fills you with emotion.

Think about it. When was the last time you truly felt inspired to do or become something new? Was it a movie? A song? Perhaps it was another person. I can almost guarantee whatever inspired you induced some sort of deep emotion. Herein lies the secret to the power of inspiration.

I have been accused of being emotional my WHOLE life. Sometimes it was funny, like my friends giving me a hard time when I got upset about something. BUT mostly I'm really emotional. I'm the guy who wears ALL 432578423987 of his emotions on his sleeve, face, neck, eyebrow, etc.

Maybe this is what has "motivated" me to work with youth, or speak?

Have you ever met someone who was just SUPER lazy?

Now that you know the difference between inspiration and motivation, what kind of emotion can you evoke in that person? How can you inspire those around you?

So next time you feel like you need to get motivated, don't go out and buy a million books and CD's. All you are doing is paying for someone else to tell you the simple truth, to get motivated you need to find something inspirational enough to make you move! Motivation is like a New Year's resolution, "I've got to quit eating ice cream..." and two days later, you're pounding down Coldstone. You've got to be emotionally involved, and motivation and inspiration have to go together!

Keep It Real.

Murph