3.5-4.5 1740-1969 These are the two numbers that narrow down three years of high school classes and help present your academic background. About 50 percent of Elon’s applicants fall within this range. You’re unique, more than a number, and we want to know that – but how do you convey it in an application?
It’s all about how you present yourself in each section. These three tips will help your application have the most impact on the admissions committee and help tell your story beyond GPA and test scores.
1. Don’t sell yourself short! We read each application that comes into the office – more than 9,000 per year. Have you played soccer for the past three years? Great! Let us know more about it: Were you the captain? Did your team go to a state competition? Were you ever MVP? You say you were involved in a service club. Awesome! Were you an officer? Did you start a new program? How often did you volunteer? These are the details we are looking for and hope to find in your application.
2. Personal Statement (optional). With that one word – optional – many students will move right on to the next section. Yet this is your chance to say anything you want to the admissions committee. We have no expectations and no criteria (like the essay). This is the forum to let us know about an obstacle you faced, a story of happiness or sadness you need to share, or maybe you took the AP English class against all advice and not only did well, but loved it. Your grade only shows us one side of that story. The personal statement is a way to tell us something new or continue a story from another section. That being said, it is OK to leave it blank if you feel you have told us everything we need to know through the other sections.
3. The résumé. Many students have such a long list of activities and interests that a résumé is a more suitable format to relay all of the information to the committee. That’s great! Keep it simple, bullet-point style and make it relevant to the admissions application. If you have an athletics résumé for coaches, adjust it a little bit for us. We really aren’t concerned with your height and weight like the football coach might be. Make sure you still answer the questions we already asked: If you were in an activity, how long? Did you hold a leadership role? Did you win any awards? If the name of the organization is very unique to your high school, let us know what the club is all about. We know Habitat for Humanity, but we may not know the Alpha Club (though we know the Beta Club).
Jonathan Aleshire, Assistant Director of Admissions