Marketing Yourself Successfully

Making the Most of Your Credentials

• Though there are nuances between the schools, such as Columbia is a very different experience than Dartmouth, and each attracts a different student, by and large, elite colleges are looking for the same basic traits; academic excellence, success in a rigorous curriculum, impactful leadership, genuine service to humanity, special talents and unique gifts
• Examine yourself – reflect on your accomplishments, experiences and perspectives, and if you find deficiencies, strengthen your weaknesses and enhance your assets
• Keep in mind that you should treat yourself like a company, with assets to offer the colleges. Your goal is to brand yourself and market your assets to the colleges
• Never market yourself in a vacuum. You must know what the colleges want in a candidate and appeal to those institutional needs. Your primary objective is to stand out and fit it to give yourself the best chances at admission
• Never sacrifice quantity for quality. Colleges see immediately when you have “cut corners” in the quality of your work and your application