HIGHER EDUCATION


As part of her coaching and mentoring work at BLP,


Ms Gottlieb has learned that pursuing genuine passions allows students to present themselves as authentic, fully rounded young people ready to take on the challenges of university or work. “It’s not something you can force,” she says. “At interview, whether it is in the US, at Oxbridge or for a future career, they [young people] have to have an impact, have presence, and demonstrate how they collaborate with other people. It is important to consider how their personality comes across. They have to go far beyond ‘ballet Grade 8’ in order to develop into the best authentic version of themselves.”


SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES


This is particularly true of young people who have had advantages in life, says Daniel de Witt, who specialises in the admissions process for the US as part of his role as MD of education consultant Nemecek Bonas MacFarlane. The university admissions process in both the UK and the US now takes contextualised information into account, Mr de Witt explains. Applications are subject to an in-depth analysis of the opportunities that have been available to prospective students during their schooling, such as the chance to learn a musical instrument, attend external lectures, or take part in a debating society. “Students need to show that they have not only seized those opportunities but developed skills and qualities as a result of that exposure,” he says. “And if the school has nothing to offer, then students need to step outside the school boundaries to show their own initiative; it can make a university application look very strong.”


EVIDENCE OF COMMITMENT Julie Gottlieb believes that the most important element of the application is a student’s ability to demonstrate alignment with both the course and the institution. “It’s about fit,” she says. “I have found that the most successful personal statements show clearly why the student wants to do a particular course, at a particular university, and why that university should pick them.


“Students need to demonstrate that they have thought about that, and that they have done something to prove it. For example,


if the student is passionate about history,


universities are looking to see that he or she has gone beyond the curriculum, that they have attended talks organised externally, and that they have made an effort to read around the subject.” “Students need to demonstrate their passion for a subject without saying the word ‘passion’,” laughs Daniel de Witt. But he makes a serious point: students must realise very early on that they need to show, and not tell, universities why they should be awarded a place on a course, based on solid evidence of a commitment to their subject.


THE GLOBAL APPEAL OF A US COLLEGE EDUCATION


In the US, the university application need not be quite so specific or rigid, Mr de Witt says. While students in the UK are required to have developed a subject specialism, often at A Level, higher-education institutions in the US understand that someone aged 17 or 18 has not necessarily decided what they want to do.


Above: UC Berkeley campus Keep Informed | relocateglobal.com | 243


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