Branding

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The Value Of Identifying Your VIPS

VIPS“What are you thinking about majoring in and why?”

This is a question I love asking students.  It appears to be a very simple question on the surface, but can get at something much deeper. While some students are very undecided and have no idea what they want to do (which is okay – really, it is), most are able to talk about one or more ideas they have. They want to major in engineering or nursing. They want to be a teacher or go into business. They have a feeling for something but they’re not entirely sure why.

And regardless of whether they have an idea or not, the table has been set to explore what I call their VIPS – Values, Interests, Personality-Style and Skills. These are the attributes students need to explore and understand better in order to have a successful college admission experience. Yet most students lack an awareness of their VIPS. This is never clearer than in conversation with current college freshmen who say, “I’m not happy.” When I start asking questions to get to the root of the matter, the same themes pop up:

They don’t know what really matters to them.

They haven’t thought about how their skills and abilities match with their major.

They don’t understand what careers or skills a particular major will afford them.

At the end of the day, so many students just don’t know what they want out of their lives. And while I don’t believe in the pressure of having to choose a course in life right away, students have to be encouraged to explore their VIPS.  They need to be pushed to reflect on their successes and failures in life, the moments they have enjoyed and the ones they have dreaded. They need to understand what makes them tick so that when it does come time to choose something, that choice is a well-informed one.

Why? Because I’m a firm believer that if you do more of what you love, if you invest your time in the things that matter the most to you, if you delve deep into the subjects you are both interested in and good at, you will find success in life.

High school students need to focus on identifying their VIPS and then use this information to launch their college search. Along the way, they can seek out job shadow opportunities so they can try something on before committing to it. They can identify individuals to interview so they can learn more about a professional field and what it takes to do well at it. And in the long run, they are essentially “branding” themselves by focusing on the things they love to do and creating opportunities to do more of them.

Your college experience should be the first leg on what is a life-long journey of being someone who is really awesome at what you do. Tap into the things you are good at, the things you love to do and the things that are most important to you and that journey will be even better.

If you would like some assistance with your college search, contact me today for a free 60-minute consultation.

Here’s what other families like yours are saying about how Dobler College Consulting made a difference for them.

 

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Eric Oct 08, 2015 , , , , , , , , , , No Comments
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Choosing Your Extracurricular Activities: It’s About Quality, Not Quantity

Quality Over QuantityThe other day I was working with a student who was talking about all of the clubs and activities he was involved in. After we had written everything down, the list was at 15! Fifteen different clubs and activities and when I asked him why he was involved in so many different things, he had a simple answer.

Because he thought he had to.

A situation like this is typical. High school students feel they have to be involved in so many different things so that they stand out in the college application process. The truth is, when you’re piling all these sports, activities, community service, club meetings, theatre performances, etc. onto your plate, you’re investing your time and energy for the wrong reasons. You’re spread thin and end up showing a college that you don’t have a commitment to anything.

Instead, students should be focused on making the most of their activities outside of class by doing things they enjoy and are good at. This is called building a brand.

What’s a brand you ask? Well, think about what you are interested in; how much do you really know about what it will take to do well in this program and, ultimately, in the profession? If you want to major in nursing, have you volunteered at a hospital? Have you considered taking a class to earn your EMT license? For mechanical engineering, have you been involved in robotics? Maybe looked at local community colleges to take a CAD course? For design, have you interned or worked part-time with a local designer? Do you have a portfolio? Journalism majors, have you written anything that has been published either on a blog or through the local newspaper?

The point here is that you can invest your time blindly and hope that a random combination of activities will stand out. You can operate on assumptions and hope that they will lead you to something. You can be ignorant of the fact that colleges are trying to build dynamic classes which are comprised of interesting students with unique talents, skillsets and backgrounds.

I think it makes more sense to dedicate time to building your brand by doing several things:

1.) Complete a job-shadow with someone who does what you want to do

2.) Volunteer your time to a cause or organization related to your field

3.) Find a part-time job that gets you in the door somewhere where you will learn more about your major or your intended field

4.) Join or create a club at your high school that allows you to participate in activities related to your intended major

5.) Join professional organizations or associations related to your field. They often have programs for high school students and opportunities to be mentored by a current professional.

6.) Check with your high school to identify any “school to career” programs or internships.

If I was still reading applications for an admissions office, I can tell you that a student who had compiled a handful of in-depth experiences that were related to their major would have stood out to me much more than the student who had gotten involved in a bunch of activities that had no connection to one another.

As I tell my students all the time, it’s about quality, not quantity.

If you would like some assistance with your college search, contact me today for a free 60-minute consultation.

Here’s what other families like yours are saying about how Dobler College Consulting made a difference for them.

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Eric Aug 17, 2015 , , , , , , , , No Comments
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Why College Applicants Should Brand Themselves

Why Students Should Brand ThemselvesAccording to the American Marketing Association (AMA), branding is defined as a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”

In other words, your brand is what makes you stand out against the competition.

And while I don’t necessarily like to use the word competition when we talk about the college admissions process, students are very much competing against one another for acceptance at the most selective schools in the country. Branding yourself in the process can very often play a significant role in whether or not your application is given that extra consideration.

When I was in admissions, I was always looking for evidence that a student truly had a grasp of what it would take to do well in their chosen field. I worked very closely with business majors and nursing majors and beyond challenging courses and strong test scores, students who had compiled some experiences through job shadows, informational interviews, research projects, part-time jobs or internships, clubs, activities and advanced coursework  which supported their interest most definitely had my attention. To me, they were vested in their future. They were taking the steps to learn more about their interests and their field of choice.

I’m a firm believer that if you do more of what you love, if you invest your time in the things that matter the most to you, if you delve deep into the subjects you are both interested in and good at, you will find success in life. Along the way you will also demonstrate to others what you are all about and what matters most to you. You will be demonstrating your brand as a person.

So, here’s how you get started.

Stop doing the things you think other people expect you to do and start doing things you are good at, the things you love to do and the things that are most important to you:

  1. Take the honors or AP option in the subjects at which you excel the most and where the subject is closely aligned to your major of interest.
  1. Reach out to someone in the local community who does what you think you might want to do in your future and ask to interview them or, even better, shadow them for part of a day.
  1. Volunteer your time to a cause or organization related to your interests.
  1. Join a club at your school and figure out a way to add something of value to it and the people involved.
  1. Find a part-time job that gets you in the door somewhere where you will learn more about your major or your intended field.

It’s never too late to start building a brand towards your future. Not only will you better yourself for it, but admission counselors will get a much deeper impression of who you are and why you should be part of their new class. Do that and you may just separate yourself a bit in the application process.

If you would like some assistance with your college search, contact me today for a free 60-minute consultation.

Here’s what other families like yours are saying about how Dobler College Consulting made a difference for them.

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Eric Feb 25, 2015 , , , , , , , , No Comments
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Finding The Right Fit

College consultant, Dobler College Consulting

This fall, I’m doing something different with my blog to spice it up a bit. I’ve invited several admission counselors from around the country to contribute posts about topics they feel high school students and their families should be paying more attention to as they go through the college search and application process. As much as I like to share tips and advice, why not get it straight from the horse’s mouth? 

Today’s post is the second in this series and it’s by Grant De Roo, Associate Director of Admissions from Elon University in Elon, North Carolina: 

As much as it pains me to make this comparison, the college search and application process can, at times, feel like speed-dating. You spend a relatively small amount of time with each prospect (college/university) in the hopes of getting to know a school’s “personality” and ultimately find a match (the “right fit”). It’s an embarrassing parallel, I know, but it highlights an important concept in the college search process: each college or university does indeed have its own personality, its own quirks and traits, the collection of which gives you a better idea of whether or not this particular institution is a good fit for you.

As such, it’s important to construct an application for a particular college or university that reflects that personality and suggests that you would be a good fit for the school. Fortunately, the application for any college or university provides ample opportunity for an applicant to do so. Certain extracurricular commitments are going to be better suited to certain schools’ personalities than others. Schools with a specific emphasis on community service (e.g. Jesuit schools) might look more closely at service completed throughout high school while other schools that place particular value on leadership roles such as my own institution, Elon University, might pay more attention to the leadership roles that you have taken on within your organizations. All this is to say that in much the same way that a resume and cover letter can (and should) be tailored to meet the needs of a particular job, so too should an application be designed to reflect the values or distinguishing characteristics of a college. And there is perhaps no better platform for you to tailor your application for a college’s personality than the essay you write for the application.

Even in the age of centralized application systems such as the Common App and the Universal College App, a school’s essays (or supplemental essays) provide applicants with the opportunity to show through their own words why they would be a good fit at a given college or university. It’s important because every college wants to enroll students who will fit well within the culture of the institution. And establishing “good fit” does not mean conforming to the personality of the institution – rather, it means that you genuinely feel like you belong there. When that happens, you’re more likely to be successful; something each college wants to ensure.

So as you set out to submit your applications – whether it’s 1 or 12 – I encourage you to design your application and your essay to reflect the individuality and the personality of the school(s) to which you’re applying. It will help you create a more competitive application and will give you a better chance of finding that golden ideal in the college search process: the right fit.

Grant De Roo is an Associate Director of Admissions at Elon University. A native of Exeter, New Hampshire, he now works for his alma mater and works with students applying to Elon from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

If you want some help and guidance on your college search and application process, contact me today to set up an appointment for a free 60-minute consultation. Here’s what other families like yours are saying about how Dobler College Consulting made a difference for them.

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Eric Oct 13, 2014 , , , , , , , , , No Comments
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How To Make The Most Of Your Summer

Dobler College ConsultingFirst, I’d like to wish all the hard-working women out there doing a wonderful job being moms a Happy Mother’s Day! It’s not an easy job and I hope you all get to spend some time today doing the things you enjoy and spending time with those you love!

Throughout the year the New York Times college section, The Choice, runs a checklist for high schools seniors and juniors on what they should be doing each month. The checklists, which are written by college counselors from around the country, genuinely contain helpful advice and I like to share them with my own students. On May’s checklist for juniors, there was one tip in particular that I wanted to talk about today and that’s how to make the most of your summer.

On the checklist it’s referred to as summer jobs and enrichment but I would expand that to include career exploration.

Why? Because it’s never too early to start exploring where your interests and skills may lead you.

Maybe you’re good with numbers but you have no idea what it would be like to be an accountant or an actuary. Maybe you don’t even know what an actuary is.

You’ve thought about physical therapy and athletic training but you really don’t know the difference between the two.

Perhaps, as a young child, you were always building things with your LEGOs but you’re not sure if that interest would translate into a career in engineering or construction management.

Maybe, just maybe, you’ve had a lot of ideas about what you might do with your life but you’ve never taken the time to tell anyone let alone spent time researching them.

Well, if any of this sounds familiar, then your upcoming summer is a great way to get off that proverbial horse and get to work figuring out just who you are going to be and why it’s going to matter.

The checklist talks about getting a part-time job or going away for a couple weeks to a college-sponsored summer program to help enhance your college applications. And while experiences like that can help solidify your profile in the eyes of college admission counselors, there’s also a lot of value in securing a job shadow or informational interview. While either would only last an a couple hours or even just a full day, spending time with someone who does what you think you may want to do is time well spent.

So how do you do this? Well, first start talking to your parents, friends, teachers, and your school counselor about what you’re interested in. Talk to them about some of these ideas you’ve had and that you’d like to explore them further. Find out who they know who might do something similar to what you’re describing. Then, arrange to be introduced to this person even if it’s just over the phone. Be prepared to talk some more about what you’re interested in and that you would appreciate learning more about what they do, how they got around to doing it and what they would recommend to a young, interested person like you.

You may not find what you’re looking for by doing a job shadow or informational interview, but you’ll NEVER find it if you don’t try.

Have questions about doing a job shadow or what to ask on an informational interview? Use the comment box below or email me at eric@doblercollegeconsulting.com.

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Eric May 12, 2013 , , , , , , , No Comments