Character and College Admissions

I’m a big believer that character counts. I’ve witnessed countless ways that character matters in our personal lives, professional lives, online presence- everywhere. Working with students, I often come across examples where character and college admissions intersect. I’ve even written about this intersection before. If you follow me on social media, you know I regularly call attention to character-related news on my social media platforms, too.

Recent Character Publications and Discussions

As character is an important concept for me personally and professionally, it’s great to see others speaking about it publicly. Specifically, it’s great to see a growing number of professionals researching and discussing the ways that character relates to college.

There have been a few publications and discussions on character in college admissions in recent weeks. I’ve gathered a few of the most interesting articles below.

• Survey: Colleges Consider Student Character Traits in Admissions Decisions: finds that 70 percent of admissions officers reported that character were either “considerably” or “moderately” important in the admissions decisions process. From the Character Collaborative and the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC).

• Brennan Barnard wrote a response to the survey results for Forbes, where he’s a regular education contributor. Brennan goes into more details about how non-academic factors, like character, are assessed in college admissions applications.

• Harvard Graduate School’s project, Making Caring Common (MCC), has a number of reports and initiatives detailing the value of character and sharing practical ways to help develop a caring character in today’s students. (It’s not recent, but it’s the gold standard, in my opinion, for starting and continuing the important conversation about character in college admissions.)
  • MCC has 2 groundbreaking reports on college admissions and character, Turning the Tide I and II.
  • For parents looking for ways to ethically lead students through the college admissions process, MCC has you covered. This guide for parents in the process is especially important in light of the poor examples of ethical guidance recently demonstrated by parents and consultants in the Varsity Blues scandal.

What? When? How? Why?

In sessions with students, I get a lot of questions when we start talking about character. What do you mean by ‘character’? When and how do I communicate my character in my college applications? I have good test scores, do I need to worry about sharing my character, too?

After all, how many students have had guidance speaking deeply about who they really are? This is new to most students. Once students have reflected and identified their core character traits, they need to determine how to authentically and clearly communicate them in applications. This is not an easy or intuitive task!

With graduate-level training in educational psychology, extensive experience navigating the college journey with hundreds of students, and a love for guiding students to successful futures, coaching the authentic reflection and articulation of character traits is right up my alley. Helping teenagers explore and present their genuine selves is a big part of my work. I find that students I work with come away from their college search and application journey with more confidence, a greater self-awareness, and an excitement to apply their personal values and strengths towards achieving their goals.

If you’d like to explore if you or your child could benefit from this type of guidance in college planning and admissions, let’s connect. You don’t need to navigate this journey alone!