College Strategy & Leadership

Colleges are looking for tomorrow’s leaders.

If you want to get into the college of your dreams, you need to show them that YOU are a leader of the future, that you can come up with innovative ideas, effect change, and have powerful discussions surrounding a problem. Let’s boil that down.

First, good leaders make an impact on the world around them.

In my program, I have students combine at least one leadership position with their primary service activity. You want to show that you can take charge and lead a group of people into a better future and a better present.

It doesn’t matter where you want to have an impact. Everyone needs help: your local bakery or dog shelter, kids with cancer, the elderly, veterans, the hearing or visually impaired, foster kids, average people who live in your neighborhood… Anyone can use some help. You just need to find an area where you can make a difference and go for it.

If you’re stuck, I can help you find the best place in your area for you to make a difference that will be meaningful to you.

Second, leaders are not managers.

Many students who work with me start out with ideas like, “What if I take the lead on the trash pick up that my boy scouts troupe is already doing?” or “Can I use the lunches we already make through NHS as my service?”

What I always ask students in response is, “Will you be a Leader or just a manager?”

What’s the difference?

A leader sets the goal, maps out the plan, creates the calendar, and often does a lot of the smaller tasks like making important calls, fixing problems when things go wrong, etc.

A manager is usually not the person creating the goal or the plan. The manager usually makes sure that people are doing their assigned tasks correctly to ensure that the plan is executed correctly and the goal is achieved.

Can leaders also be managers? Yes.

Is a manager automatically a leader? No.

If the initial goal and plan are handed to you, you’re the manager, not the leader. For College Strategy, you need to be the leader. YOU need to be the one making decisions about where your “ship” is headed. You need to be the captain, not the first mate.

If you’re not sure whether you’re the leader or the manager in your current projects, come see me!

Do all leadership positions need to be so big?

No. You’re going to have your first tier leadership position(s) and your second tier. The first tier may have only one position. This is your big service project that you are personally leading as the captain.

In your second tier, you may have quite a few more positions. Things like team captain, club president, class president, club founder, band lead, drama president, etc. Whatever the activity, there’s a lead student position. This position is often more managerial which is why these positions are in the second tier.

Can you upgrade a position from tier 2 to tier 1?

Totally! You just need to find a way to lead instead of manage. Here are a few examples.

You’re a sports team captain, but right now that mostly just means texting people if they’re late for practice. Mostly managerial, not a big role. But…we brainstorm a few new programs or ideas you could implement with your team: new types of stretches based on new research, a team spirit get together at someone’s house, optional gym days to get teammates just working out together.

If you implement one of those, then you’re moving into Captain/Leader territory!

Let’s say you’re involved in Business DECA, and you’re currently the club’s president. Unfortunately, right now you’re mostly just setting a date for meetings and making sure people pay attention. Totally manager position. But…we brainstorm some ideas: you could expand DECA to your local middle school (people learn better when they have to teach), you could encourage your team to pursue new categories, you could organize extra training sessions for newbies to help them get up to speed faster.

Again, those can help you move into Leader territory.

What are some other examples?

My students have pursued so many things in my decade of loving this job. Here are a few vague ideas to get you started. I don’t disclose finer details for privacy’s sake, but I really don’t want you to get too attached to these ideas anyways. Most students find something personal to them, and that creates a better result in the end.

• Creating assistance devices for various groups.

• Putting together backpacks with clothes, school supplies, hygiene supplies, etc. for people in need.

• Offering support filling out important forms for non-native English speakers.

• Developing programs or games that solve a problem or help people with a challenge.

• Organizing an event to introduce people to something they wouldn’t otherwise experience.

Remember, everyone needs help sometimes. There are so many people you can try to help!

How do we know that colleges care about leadership?

Because they ask about it. Here are a few examples:

University of California: Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time.

Dartmouth: Labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta recommended a life of purpose. “We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things,” she said. “That is what we are put on the earth for.” In what ways do you hope to make—or are you already making—an impact? Why? How?

MIT: MIT brings people with diverse backgrounds together to collaborate, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to lending a helping hand. Describe one way you have collaborated with others to learn from them, with them, or contribute to your community together.

Not every college will ask directly about leadership, but many will ask about your extracurricular activities. If you can talk about an extracurricular in which you’re a tier 1 leader, that’s likely to be a solid essay.

We also know because of the fundamental nature of elite colleges in today’s landscape. Colleges live and die by their brands. They want successful people to go out and do amazing things, and they want the news to read “Harvard alumni John Smith has cured cancer”. That builds their brand.

If you want to go to Harvard, it’s at least a little bit because of their brand, fame, prestige. It’s the same if you want to go to any other Ivies, MIT, Stanford, etc. Even competitive state schools are building their brands to compete with those elite schools. UMich, UC, UNC, UT…so many schools are made or broken by the graduates they produce.

So, keep that in mind. In your essays, you need to tell these colleges what kind of graduate you’re going to be. No matter what it is they’re asking, your ultimate message is about the kind of graduate you intend to become.

Key Takeaways

• You need a few Leadership positions. One in tier 1 and three to five in tier 2 should be good.

• You need to be a Leader, not a manager.

• You need to show that you’re impacting the world and people around you.

• Combining your tier 1 leadership position with your big service project is the quickest way to do that.

If you want to get your child started on the path to success, check out my current packages and pricing and set up a free initial consultation today.