Are College Admissions Oversaturated With Passion Projects?
When every student applying to an Ivy League university has perfect grades, SAT scores, leadership positions in clubs at schools, and research experience, how can a student make their application stand out? We often recommend passion projects to students—a self-directed initiative that aligns with the student’s identity and genuine interest.
This strategy isn’t new—most college consultants will recommend students develop a passion project to make their college application stand out. However, we don’t recommend that students develop these projects last minute. Because so many students have received the same advice, the validity of a student’s passion project comes under scrutiny in the college application review process. If a student’s project is not supported by other activities on a student’s college application, it comes across as random, or dispassionate—in other words: admissions officers see what you’re trying to do by shoving a random, half-hearted project into your application and are not impressed.
So, then, how can a student make their passion project appear authentic?
To start, it should be authentic. If a student doesn’t care about the community issue their project is meant to impact, then it will be incredibly difficult to both execute and develop. When working with students, we spend a lot of time building mutual trust and getting to know their genuine interests for a reason. The more we understand about a student, the better we can make recommendations for books to read, podcasts to follow, and keywords to set up news alerts for. Why? Because a student isn’t going to develop genuine curiosity and passion without exploring.
As students start to build their understanding of topics and read current work by experts, they begin to gain a sense of what the most pressing issues in the field are. As they continue their own self-directed research, we encourage them to articulate why are drawn to their passions. How does it align with their values? Their identity? This takes a lot of reflection and discussion. For example, a student who is interested in working with unhouse populations might have grown up in a neighborhood with high levels of housing insecurity. A student who is invested in environmental conservation might have spent their summers fishing with a family member only to see dead zones limit their ability to come away with a good catch. We encourage students to actually care because their genuine passion does come across in the conception and execution of their projects.
The formula for an effective passion project is simple, but it isn’t easy. First, a student needs to identify a pressing issue that aligns with their genuine interests. Second, they need to explore viable solutions to the problem—this is why it’s important to select an issue on a small enough scale that an ambitious high school student can address or impact it substantially. Third, the student needs to develop action items and—crucially—follow through on them in a timely manner. Fourth, the student should assess the project at each stage to ensure they are reaching their goals and having the impact they hoped. What is the end goal? Who will it help? What communities will value the project’s mission? Why is it important to you, and what is the lasting impact it will have?
Why We Won’t Just List Passion Project Ideas in This Post
A lot of blogs and college admissions websites will often list project ideas for students. While many of these ideas are great, they are generalized to be useful for a wide audience. The reason this won’t be effective for your college application is that if any student can pick up this project, it is not unique or specific to your story or your identity. For example, hosting a blood drive is always a nice thing to do, but if your local community is experiencing a blood shortage and your drive is so effective that the affiliated hospital rewards you with a scholarship for your efforts, suddenly it’s had an impact that counts. Our lessons on supplemental essay writing in our College Application Crash Course explore the importance of reflecting on your project in-depth on your applications because this is one way to demonstrate authenticity.
Launching an effective project that will stand out in a sea of applications suffering from passion project inflation requires real investment in your community and awareness of pressing issues. Every student is capable of developing a project like this—one that aligns with their unique story and passions—but not every student is willing to put in the hours and dedication required. As with everything in college admissions for selective schools, there is no easy path.
