Are you curious about why the Common Application added the new question about failure--the
one that asks you to "recount an incident or time when you experienced failure" and
to describe how it affected you and the lessons that you learned from it?
Want to understand why colleges want to know how potential students handle situations that
involve failure?
Then stay tuned.
Hi.
It's Dr. Bernstein, the president of Get Yourself Into College, and today I want to give you
the inside scoop on the significance of this new question, which you might find surprising.
After all, given the highly competitive nature of undergraduate college admissions who wants
to reveal any time or situation when you weren't successful?
It seems counterintuitive, right?
You just want to show only the very best parts of yourself.
And I understand that.
You should do as much as possible to reveal to admissions officers your special qualities,
skills, and accomplishments.
If you have access to the complete online version of the Get Yourself Into College program,
then you know from module one, which focuses on recommendations, that there are specific
ways you can reach out to teachers and thereby turn what seem to be your weaknesses--or your
failures--into strengths.
Why do I mention this here?
Well, the teachers writing your recommendations are actually asked to rank you in terms of
your ability to respond to setbacks, so they need to know how you handle them!
The Common App essay question about failure is sort of inviting you to write about how
you've transformed a failure into something positive.
That is, you're not just being asked to write about a time when you failed, although you
do need to provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into that failure.
You're also being asked for your perspective on it.
Colleges want to know how the experience influenced and what lessons you've learned from it.
So if you choose this option, you really do need to show that even though you failed in
a specific situation, you also grew from the experience.
. .and you have to do this in a sophisticated, nuanced kind of way.
What seems on the surface or in the moment to be a failure can actually
be a source of strength and convey something very positive about you--and serve as an indicator
that actually likely to excel in college.
Interesting, eh?
Look.
Don't just take it from me.
Listen to what the MIT admissions team has to say in "The Match Between You and MIT":
"MIT wants to admit people who are not only planning to succeed, but who are not afraid
to fail.
When people take risks in life, they learn resilience as a result--because risk leads
to failure as often as it leads to success.
The most creative and successful people--and MIT is loaded with them--know that failure
is part of life and that if you stay focused and don't give, goals are ultimately realized."
When you go to college--whatever college you go to--you're going to be faced with new,
complex and challenging situations that are designed to stimulate you. . .that are intended
to raise the bar for you. . .and if you're not capable of handling setbacks--whether
they're minor or major ones--you are going to have a really hard time succeeding in college.
You need to be resilient--you need to have strategies for bouncing back from things that
don't go exactly as planned.
. .You need to know how to fine-tune your course of action.
. .your ways of thinking.
As a professor who's worked with thousands of college freshmen and as someone who served
as an academic honors advisor, I can tell you that one of the reasons why some students
really struggle during their first year is because they haven't learned these underlying
life skills.
It's not just that college is harder. . .or that there's more work.
. . It's that you need to these underlying skills that help you navigate your way in
a new setting that's full of challenges.
And, as the quote from the MIT team reveals, success often involves taking risks.
But hey, don't just take it from MIT.
. .
Listen to what JK Rowling--the incredibly successful author of the Harry Potter series,
had to say in her 2008 Harvard Commencement Address, which she titled: "The Fringe Benefits
of Failure, and The Importance of Imagination": "It is impossible," she declared, "to live
without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have
lived at all--in which case, you fail by default."
Think about that.
Now. . .the next set of things we have to consider are what constitutes failure.
. .what kinds of failure might you want to write about in your essay?
So make sure you check out the next video in this series because that's where I'm getting
into these issues.