If You Don’t Know Your Strengths, You’ll Have A Tough Time With Your Applications

Your strengths are the heart and soul of your applications. They can help you refine your goals. I want to make sure that the possible careers you are aiming for are in alignment with your strengths.

Throughout the entire process – through the application, the essays, interviews, even seemingly casual conversations — College admissions officers are asking about your strengths and goals to figure out if you’re a match for their college, specific programs and what the college has to offer.

If you’re trying to “sell” goals that aren’t really matched with your strengths, those admissions officers will pick up on that and pass you by.

Identifying your strengths and setting goals that play to those strengths will provide you clarity–not only for college, but also for the rest of your life.

Spending the time now to get this clarity will make the rest of the college selection and application process run much more smoothly.

“How?” you ask. Well, if you’re unclear about your strengths, your message won’t be clear, if you don’t have a clear message, you’ll struggle with what to say when it comes to your essays.

Why? Because the essay questions typically ask you to elaborate on your strengths or goals and the unique qualities that you’ll bring to campus. If you’re unclear about your message, you’ll be easily tongue-tied in an interview.

But, when you know your strengths and have a clear message about your goals, when you have to talk to the colleges, you’ll have the confidence that comes from being ready.

Your Smart Plan For College Assignment:
Think back to a time when you were in a “flow state”–a time when you were thrilled by an experience or activity you were doing. Maybe it was playing a sport, dancing, playing music, or working on a project with a friend.

Picture in your mind what it was like. What it FELT like.

Now look at the elements that made you so happy at that particular moment. You were doing something you were good at and you were stretching yourself. You were striving for a specific goal.

That’s the feeling when you’re playing to your strengths.

You may already have a good idea of the things you are good at. We just have to shift perspective a bit to be able to communicate those things better to the colleges so that they can see the value you bring to campus. Then you’ll have a message.

That message – delivered repeatedly throughout the entire college process — is what will help set you apart from everyone else in the applicant pile on the college admissions officer’s desk.

Hey, if you’re not sure where to start or what steps are necessary to get your student in to colleges he or she loves and , then it’s time to take action and invest in a step-by-step college planning system that will feel easy and authentic to you.