It’s always difficult trying to pin down exactly which skills to highlight in your university application essays. While there’s no perfect list, this week we’ve been discussing six skills you can integrate into your essays to help you showcase your readiness for university. If you missed part one, check it out here; otherwise, dive into part two below!
Curiosity and Openmindedness
Curiosity and an openness to new experiences are highly sought-after skills not only by university programs but by employers. Programs from engineering to fine arts often explicitly seek out students who can demonstrate their curiosity and open-mindedness in their applications.
Think about times when you’ve gone above and beyond in your classes just because you were interested in the material. Or consider the subjects that you could talk about late into the evening with friends. How have you challenged yourself by trying something new? These can all make for a great story to demonstrate your curiosity and open-mindedness.
Compassion and Kindness
Universities want to ensure that you’re going to play well with others once you get to campus. Beyond wanting you to be academically successful, they want to make sure that you’ll be a nice human to all the other humans at their school. This is where compassion and kindness come in.
Often these skills (and we truly believe they’re skills) get overlooked in our essays but showing that you genuinely care about others is essential. Demonstrating these skills is not limited to volunteering or community involvement. Think about all the times you helped a friend or family member — small acts of kindness and compassion can be just as meaningful and can make for great stories.
Creativity
Creativity doesn’t have to be expressed through the arts. Many of our students have never danced, played music, or painted. Universities look for creative thinkers, problem solvers, innovators and entrepreneurs. To demonstrate creative thinking, you might include an experience in which you came up with a creative solution to a problem or took a unique approach to a homework assignment.
Our writing coaches are here to help you make the most of your skills and experiences for your university application essays. Contact our office to make an appointment with a writing coach.
