<p>
</p>
<p>I agree with this completely.</p>
<p>Once you have chosen your schools to apply to, based on your decision that any and all of them would be a place where you feel like you’d “fit,” you then put together an application to convince the admissions committees:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>That you are qualified to attend. Selective schools will get applications from many, many more qualified applicants than they can possibly accept, but the first thing you have to establish is that you are qualified academically. Are you within range for grades, test scores, etc?</p></li>
<li><p>There are parts A and B here.
A. What will you bring to the school that they want/need? Will you contribute to the ethnic, socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural diversity of the school? Will you be a firecracker on the newspaper reporting staff? Will you replace the graduating marching glockenspiel player? Will you be likely to lead a campus group? Or are you a generally sparkly and fascinating person who will go on to become a famous graduate, and everyone can tell already you are totally going places? You don’t have to be all or any of these things but they really are asking themselves “What will this person add to our community?”</p></li>
</ol>
<p>B. Do you really want to be THERE? If they admit you, will you come? Do you understand what they are about, what they take pride in, what they do well? Did you choose them for good reasons? Some schools are pre-professional oriented, some are very learning-for-learning’s sake. They want to know you know what they are about and what you are getting into.</p>
<p>For schools where yield is not a concern (just about everyone who gets in will go there, e.g., Harvard), you don’t have to bother with this part. But for many schools who are looking to build a class that genuinely gets what the values and philosophies of the school are–and are hoping to get a good yield–this is important.</p>