I’m going to be blunt - not to be hurtful, but as an attempt to help you realize how others may be perceiving you. #5 and #6 are the first things I’d advise you to consider omitting because they have the most risk of making you appear to be a conceited, know-it-all type. There are many ways a 15 or 16 year old can help people or make an impact, but “consulting” is generally not one of them, especially when referring to adult businesspeople in underdeveloped countries. What type of consulting expertise would you bring to businesspeople?
You may be passionate about something, but it won’t be helpful to you if it alienates people or makes them question your motives.
This is the internet and we’re all responding to very small snippets of information, so this could be off-base. You could be a humble humanitarian who adults in foreign countries seek out for business consulting. But if this is the case, think about why your writing is causing this misimpression in others so that you can use that when you write your apps. Good luck.
@milee30 Wow, that is incredible insight! I never thought about it in that perspective. I think it’s more in the way I word it. Rather than showing how much earning potential my business has, I can highlight what we actually aim to do and how can impact people. The business model actually utilizes teens/college students’ ability to work at far lower costs to offer essential services like website development/online integration/marketing in other countries.
Personally, I am not trying to show superiority over these businesspeople I am working with, I am trying to bridge resource and opportunity gaps between the US and other regions.
I honestly don’t think this is something that involves being conceited because even the businesses I work with don’t see us as a group of conceited teens who think we are better than them. They actually are quite enthusiastic to work with entrepreneurial and socially impactful youth. I am sorry if I came across that way in this post.
That is a great thing to keep in mind when writing my application though. I am definitely not going to get “rid” of these things, but the way I portray them can be different. thank you!
OP is a rising junior. Far too soon to omit anything. But this discussion keeps turning to passions and “enjoy” and tippy top adcoms are not rating you on gloss and certainly not on self-satisfaction. Getting into a tippy top in NO way mirrors applying for a full time job at a think tank.
If one is a great humanitarian, where are the local efforts? The only ordinary/get along with peers activities are MUN (but see how he turns this into how he’s a conference organizer?) S/NHS (no tip,) and FBLA (no tip, but again, see how he throws in looking for a title.)
Aggressive. Later, he can combine ECs into categories or whatever. Right now, he neds to understand what those colleges want to see. And a real kid with perspective and appropriate humility, some openness to and developent beyond his “passions” and personal future professional goals is a big part of that. Huge, in many cases.
It’s not even, “highlight what we actually aim to do and how can impact people.” They aren’t evaluating you for funding.
Again, you can word this next year. Meanwhile, try to understand what matters to the colleges.
Even Harvard says, “Would other students want to room with you, share a meal, be in a seminar together, be teammates, or collaborate in a closely knit extracurricular group?” That is the polar opposite of “do you take over everything you get involved with?”
As well, you’ll need to understand the point of the Stanford roommate letter. Or other questions on colleges’ supps.
You really have no factual basis for making that statement. You have no idea or understanding of my skills or lack thereof in health care management . If you make statements like that in the application process it will stand out like a red herring.
I think you would be well to heed the great advice from milee30 and lookingforward. Instead of working on deals in West Africa I think since you are from STL you would be better off working on projects in Ferguson or coming up with ways to reduce the number of police deaths or murders or simply improving the access to health care in east STL . Why arent you bridging resources within the US. That would be very impressive indeed.
thank you!