When filling out applications and doing entrance essays, you tend to want to downplay or simply ignore you weaknesses, any negative moments, or drawbacks in our past in the hopes that the college entrance executives will see what superstars you are and provide you with the ticket to join the educational establishment. However, I would like to challenge you not to leave those weaknesses behind but instead use them to your advantage. How you ask?
Think about it this way, there are millions of students applying to a lot of the same colleges every year. All of these students will give their SAT I and II scores, ACT scores, GPA’s, school rankings, AP scores, along with a list of extra curricular activities and awards earned during their lifetime. There is nothing wrong with that but at the same time, a person who can take something negative, overcome it and make it in to something positive shows great moral character and a will to succeed.
Here are some examples:
- A bad grade- no doubt this will be exposed so point it out in an essay or short answer and discuss why you got the bad grade (be honest) and what you did to turn it around, what you learned and how this helped you later on (improved study skills for example)
- Disciplinary action- this is no fun, but if this has happened to you in school, it will be on your record. So discuss the circumstances briefly and then focus the majority of your essay on how this affected your life and how it motivated you to strive to do better and the good things that came after this.
- Family / personal issues- if there was something really difficult that happened in your personal life during high school, discuss this in your essay (if you are comfortable) and how it was a setback at first but what you did to overcome this and move forward.
- General weakness- if you are horrible at math or grammar for example, point it out and show how you attacked this problem and were able to turn this around.
Not every person will be comfortable doing this tactic and it could be potentially risky. But depending on the circumstance if one focuses on the positive that came out of the negative this could set your application a part from others. A person who can admit that they made a mistake or that he/she has a weakness but who uses that to his/her advantage could end up being the winner of the race over a person who only boasts about their positive traits. No one is perfect; we are all human, so embrace it!
