If you’re looking for the smoking gun that will make filling out your college applications easier, here it is: get to know yourself better before you start. In fact, the whole college apps process is intended to build a portrait of who you are. Do you know who that is?
For many, this isn’t a fun, or even answerable, question. Nevertheless, it merits a good dose of introspection.
Advantages of analyzing what makes you tick?
- It will help you decide where you want to go to college.
- If you don’t already know, it could help you decide what you want to major in.
- Introspection is the beginning of figuring out what you want to write about in your admissions essay.
So, how do you get to know yourself better? Follow these steps:
STEP 1: WRITE A CHARACTER SKETCH
When I write fiction, I put together a character sketch for each of my characters, which involves answering 10 questions about them. It’s a way to see what kind of “people” they are and get a handle on what I want them to do. These questions range from “Did she have a happy childhood?” to “What is the best thing that ever happened to him?” to “What is the one word you would use to define her?”
In turn, I recommend you compose a character sketch of yourself, likewise answering a series of questions.
Here is a list of questions that will be useful. Break out a notebook and write down your answers.
STEP 2: IDENTIFY YOUR PERSONALITY
Several months ago, each member in our family went to 16personalities.com and took the (free!) Myers-Briggs personality test. The test, as the name implies, “diagnoses” your personality, based on four main preferences or attitudes: if you’re Extraverted (E) or Introverted (I); if you prefer Sensing (S) or Intuition (N); if you prefer Thinking (T) or Feeling (F); if you’re Judging (J) or Perceiving (P) .
The results of the test were varied. The personality type I was assigned didn’t necessarily sum me up to a T, but when it came to my husband, William, it absolutely did. Same thing for my step-daughter Gabrielle. Turns out, William and Gabrielle were opposite in every way possible, which explained why there can sometimes be misfires in communication between the two of them. William’s personality type is the least sensitive, while Gabrielle’s is the most.
We had a very informative after-dinner discussion that night reading (and laughing) about our personality type’s strengths & weaknesses; romantic relationships; friendships; parenthood; career paths; and workplace habits.
For your purposes, it’s reading about these career paths and workplace habits that could really help you. Take what they said about career paths for my husband’s personality type, the Executive:
“Executives’ sense of loyalty results in them staying with a single employer as long as possible, and their reverence for established institutions often leads them to work with well-respected organizations. Law enforcement, military service, hospitals and prominent legal firms are all able to recognize Executives’ long years of service.”
Turns out, William is a physician who has been at the same hospital for 19 years. He has no plans to leave.
While 16personalities.com really does give you a generous amount of free information about each personality, you have to answer 100 questions on the test for it to arrive at your personality type.
If you hate quizzes and touchy-feely stuff, go to personalitytype.com, where you’ll take a test with just four questions. This test assigned me the same personality as 16personalities did.
The goal of this website, though, is to have you buy the book Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type — or download the piece of it that is specific to your personality type. You can download that piece for $27. Not a bad investment and something you might want to consider.
STEP 3: FIND OUT WHAT KIND OF LEARNER YOU ARE
One of the most common questions when considering what kind of college you want to attend is how big you want it to be. There is an argument that the number of students on campus doesn’t really matter, but, depending on what kind of learner you are, the size of the classroom does.
In public institutions, it’s not uncommon to have up to 150 students in Intro to Biology, say, and maybe you don’t want to drown among the masses. At the same time, some smaller colleges have classes with just four students in them. It’s very possible that you don’t want to be exposed that much.
So it’s helpful to know how you learn and what your preferred environment is. VARK, a guide to learning styles, helps you figure that out.
What is VARK? It stands for Visual, Aural, Read/write, and Kinesthetic. You take a little test with interesting questions and you’ll find out how you learn best. Simple.
For another set of interesting questions, and to see if it arrives at the same answers, try the test at www.educationplanner.org. It’s equally useful.
STEP 4: CONSIDER YOUR MAJOR
Before we proceed, let’s be clear: Knowing what you want to major in before college starts is great. Not knowing what you want to study is just fine. Switching your major is absolutely acceptable, too (one in three do, one in 10 do twice, and students in STEM switch the most). But let’s agree that at least thinking about what you want to major in is helpful. Some colleges, after all, are stronger in some areas of study than others.
For this, we go to mymajors.com. As with the other resources, you answer a bunch of questions and it will come up with suggestions for you on the other end.
I filled it in for myself and my recommended majors were psychology; international relations; foreign language and literature; human development; and nutrition — not bad suggestions given my hate for math and my love for analysis and writing. Gabrielle was recommended biology and bio-engineering, both of which she is actually considering.
You then click on each recommendation and it will explain the major and what strengths it requires. Kind of neat.
For another in-depth look at choosing a major, I am proud to send you to this goldmine of information by bestcolleges.com. Here you’ll find out stuff like what majors have the highest employment; what majors are happiest; what majors have the most earning potential, etc. It truly is a treasure trove and, if you’re really feeling like you’re at the beginning of your search, it can be useful just to see what kind of majors are out there.
STEP 5: NOW THAT YOU KNOW YOURSELF, WHAT SHOULD YOU DO ABOUT IT?
For this section, I’m going to send you to this article I read this week, which I found helpful. Essentially, it’s a way to figure out how you can live with purpose. It sounds new-agey, but actually, this is exactly what colleges are looking for these days, especially with acceptance rates at all-time lows at the most selective institutions.
So go here to access the Fostering Purpose Project toolkit. It contains activities that make you focus on things like gratitude and goals. You know, the big stuff.
STEP 6: THINK ABOUT YOUR ESSAY
As you’re going through this process, know that, in addition to getting to know yourself a bit better, seeds are being planted about what to write your admissions essay about — so even if it sometimes feels like it, this isn’t just theoretical self-help hooha.
Be mindful when ideas come to you about challenges you’ve experienced, how you contribute to your community, what experiences helped define you, what purpose you contribute.
In the meantime, try to enjoy this process. You are doing useful work.