The 2 Things All Top Colleges Look For

Summary: Elite universities are looking for two things on your college application: Academic Scholarship and Uncommon Extracurricular Achievement. Either one on its own isn’t enough. But if you’ve got both, you’re a contender for all the best schools.

If only…

If only there were a simple formula that told you exactly what top universities were looking for, whether it’s Harvard, Yale, or really any of schools in the Top 30. Well, there is. And in fact it’s not all that complicated. Admittedly, knowing what top universities want isn’t nearly as easy as actually giving it to them. You still have to put in the work and deliver the goods. But knowing what they want can give your high school career, and your college application, focus and clarity. And in the highly competitive college admissions game, that’s worth its weight in gold.

In a nutshell.

In the simplest terms, top universities are looking for two things: 1. Academic Scholarship, and 2. Uncommon Extracurricular Achievement. One has to do with your intellectual vitality as evidenced by your outstanding academic record. The other has to with your personal passion, as evidenced by your extracurricular accomplishments. Let’s explore both in more depth.

#1. Academic Scholarship

Leading universities are first and foremost learning institutions. Yes, they care about their sports teams, and their alumni donations, and all of their different clubs. But at the end of the day, their bread and butter is educating young minds, and they’re very proud of that fact. So they’re primarily looking for academically gifted students who’ve shown that they will take full advantage of a rigorous course load, excel in their studies, contribute to class discussions, and make the school a vivacious and engaging learning environment.

They’re not willing to guess which students will excel in the classroom and which will not. Since past performance is the best indicator of future success, all they have to do is look at your high school record. If you 1) signed up the hardest courses your high school had to offer, 2) did well in all of them, 3) earned stellar teacher recommendations, and 4) crushed your SATs or ACTs, these universities have no doubt you’ll do the same in college. (Currently a lot of colleges are test-optional, but a top score on standardized tests assures them that you excel above your peers.)

This is what a lot of universities refer to as “intellectual vitality.” Is this student someone who loves learning for the sake of learning, goes above and beyond what’s required to fulfill some natural curiosity, and seeks out additional challenges to broaden their understanding or test their knowledge? Elite colleges love students like this. They’re exciting to have on campus. On the other end of the spectrum are students who don’t challenge themselves, who don’t enroll in the hardest courses, who do only the bare minimum to get by, who seem like they’d much rather be anywhere else than class. Elite colleges are not interested in those students. They’re only interested in the best of the best.

#2. Uncommon Extracurricular Achievement

But intellectual vitality is not enough. Why? Because top colleges get far too many applicants with perfect GPAs and stellar recommendations. Harvard, for example, can only accept about 2,000 students for its freshman class. But practically every valedictorian in the country applies there, and there are 25,000 high schools in the U.S. alone, not to mention all of the incredibly gifted international students who apply from all over the world. How can Harvard possibly accept all of these model students with perfect GPAs? They can’t. So assuming your grades are up-to-snuff, they turn to something else to decide who gets in and who does not: fire in your belly.

When I say “fire in your belly,” I mean that you have a strong personal passion that has given your life focus and purpose. Maybe you’re training to be an Olympic skier. Or maybe your ceramic art has been featured in international exhibits. Or maybe you developed an app that has generated over $300,000. Or maybe you designed a pair of robotic legs for your disabled brother. Or maybe you helped pass a state law on gun control.

This isn’t just about doing something to pad your resume. Universities can sniff that stuff out a mile away. This is about tapping into some deep personal cause, and devoting yourself to it like a dog with a bone, because failure is not an option for you. Not only does this type of ambitious personal project demonstrate leadership and initiative, it also provides the essential building blocks for discipline, sacrifice, collaboration, grit, and growth.

And ultimately, it’s less important what you do than what it shows about you. People who do nothing don’t grow all that much. But people who put themselves out into the world, pushing the limits of what’s possible, picking themselves up after failure after failure — those people usually turn out to be the game-changers, thought-leaders, and industry disrupters of tomorrow. And that, my friends, is catnip to admissions officers.

Final thoughts.

Top universities are eagerly looking for candidates with two rare qualities: 1) academic scholarship, and 2) uncommon extracurricular achievement. Or as I like to think of it: brains in your head, and fire in your belly.

The “brains in your head part” is simple: make grades your top priority. Your #1 job in high school is to learn how to learn. It’s not how to be popular or how to fit in or how to date this or that person. That stuff is small potatoes and won’t matter five years from now. It’s to challenge yourself so that no matter what course load comes your way, you put in all the effort and energy that’s required to excel. Even if that means working twice as hard as everyone else, staying late after school, studying on weekends, going to your teacher for extra help, etc.

The coursework itself is important, sort of. But it’s even more important as a test-run for real life where you’ll constantly be challenged to rise to the occasion and master new tasks. If you learn how to excel in your high school classes, you’ll learn how to excel in life.

The “fire in your belly” part is a little more difficult, because the right passion project will be different for everybody. The trick is not to pursue something you hate, or something just because you think it will look good on your résumé. And the reason for that is that in order to excel at something, you’ve got to dedicate a ridiculous amount of time to it. And if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll quickly lose steam or become miserable.

Instead, explore something you enjoy, or find a cause that’s meaningful to do. Ask yourself: When I look back on my life, what’s something I’d be really proud of having accomplished while I was still young and had lots of time? Pick something like that, give it everything you’ve got, and take it as far as you can go. What you’ll discover about life is that you more you put it the something, the more you’ll get out.