Your profile is your best chance when it comes to admissions at coveted international schools. And if you’re wondering how to get a top institution to choose you, here are 5 tips you can follow to build a winning profile.
Stand out from the other bricks in the wall
What’s your USP? For an admissions officer, you are just another candidate, unless you showcase your unique self. It doesn’t always have to be a laudable professional milestone. Perhaps you finished the Goecha La Trek in Sikkim. Or maybe the time you got off your vehicle and played traffic cop at the small crossroads that is always jammed in the evenings. A personal interest or quality can help distinguish you from your peer group.
Be a socially aware citizen
Maybe you help out with an animal help foundation. Or volunteer to pick groceries for the aged couple who lives next door. Whether you participated in a cyclathon to raise awareness about girl child education or cleaned the local beach with your friends, let these qualities come to the fore. Just remember to show consistent and growing engagement with society: this tells the admissions team that you’re an empathetic and grounded individual with a value system that matches the school’s core values too.
Turn roadblocks into roadways
This isn’t the place for a sob story: if you’re planning to lament about the failed opportunities, the lack of facilities, your destiny, and other such, steer clear from the interview. Admissions department are not interested in students who complain about their struggles: they are looking for someone who made incredible lemonade from the lemons life handed to them.
Act like a Team Leader
Leadership experience is the fundamental cornerstone of a strong business school application. To build leadership experience, start taking more initiative and responsibility in your current professional role, and provide critical support to your teammates when they are project leads. Work towards employee awards. Make sure to keep track of all appreciation emails and commendations from clients, team members and senior management. These can add immense value to your application.
Know where you’re headed
Schools love an informed candidate. They prefer those who have done their research about the school, going above and beyond rankings to scour the college website. Maybe you can connect with students and alumni, take a summer course, talk to faculty members and researchers, and stay updated on the college’s various activities through their newsletters. Your efforts at getting to know the college well will show that you are a serious candidate.
To sum it up, international schools are looking for right fit candidates who, through their background and experiences, will add value to classroom dynamics, enrich the campus environment and strengthen the college brand. If you scan through your dream college’s website, you will find many hints about what they want in their candidates. Build on these qualities to make the school you want, want you.
