Hubert Ho (Co-Founder & CEO)
Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash
As a counselor and profile builder, I have read quite a few profiles for more than 10 years. Due to the advancement of internet and social media, it isn’t surprising to see that almost 85% of the students have the same types of activities and experiences in their profile. A lot of parents believe that it is already good enough for their child to use that half-finished profile to apply prestigious universities in the world. Mistake starts here as it is definitely not enough and lack of uniqueness. Try to think again, what prestigious universities are looking for? An ordinary high achiever or a unique high achiever? Let me reveal the myths of student’s profile and introduce what a “sure win” capstone to you.
What components should a student’s profile include?
(1) Academic Performance
There are several pointers that students need to fulfil during their high school. Universities consider mainly the school reports, most importantly the predicted grade in the final year of the last year of high school. If there are public exams in between the high school, it will be considered in the admissions process too. Besides the school reports, standardized tests are also required for some prestigious universities, e.g., SAT, IELTS, LNAT, BMAT, etc. And students need to be aware of the exam period and validity of those tests.
Parents and students have a misconception on the correlation between the school reports and those standardized tests in common. They always believe getting a super high score in standardized tests will increase the admissions chance. In fact, it is not a norm for the happening! Since the standardized tests are a common ruler to help the admissions team to measure the true academic capability of the applicants, both school reports and standardized tests are required to demonstrate the academic excellence.
(2) Personal Growth through Extra-curricular
Parents and students usually have a wrong focus on why extracurricular activities are needed. They believe those ECAs are used to demonstrate the leadership ability of the students and it can already help them to secure the placement from elite universities. The answer is a definite NO!!
In fact, how the admissions team looks at student’s ECAs is far beyond you can imagine. They usually consider the level of student’s personal growth over the years instead of his/her leadership quality. There are several determinants to categorize an ECA a good one or not, namely time commitment, identity, level of inclusion, depth of experience and degree of impact. When a student has a good ECA record this year, s/he is required to have a more successful one next year. We called it “demonstration of career advancement”.
(3) Social Aspect
When a student tries to apply elite universities, s/he is also showing his/her capability as an elite. Universities are looking for future leaders and world changers. Both interpersonal and intrapersonal communication skills are quite essential to prove that. I always receive questions on how it can be accomplished and it’s not an easy one.
It’s very common to know that application form cannot cater the students to showcase all things to the admissions team. It is always necessary to borrow the power of social media. It is quite important for students or youngsters to maintain their social media accounts to let potential audiences understand more about their untold passion, interests as well as history. All those are regarded as the student’s digital footprint showing their social life. There are still numerous techniques on how to maintain good social media accounts and I won’t be able to tell you all at once.
(4) Ultimate Testing to Challenge Oneself
Congratulations if you are already on the right track! However, don’t be happy so soon! As mentioned before, elite universities are looking for global leaders and world changers. You will need to put all your skills and thoughts into an ultimate testing that shows your awareness and initiative to your surroundings (i.e., your belonging community) and understand your role and level of contribution to it. When you can prove it, that’s not just beneficial to your university application but also to your future career advancement or search for your first job.
That ultimate testing is basically called “the level of civic engagement”, which is the newest trend for elite university admissions started 2 years ago. According to stages of youth development, high school is the right time and last chance for youngsters to build up their own dream and initiative(s) for their career and lifestyle in the future. It’s hard for the youngsters to make a dream afterwards as there will be too many distractions and opinions from peers, family, and internet. We usually use a term, “Capstone Project” to describe such ultimate challenge for students since it is used to conclude all the skills, they have learnt so far and it must be able to mention in their CV.
Building an Excellent Student Profile Needs Time and Efforts
As you can see, a profile isn’t a simple CV but a detailed planning for life. It requires not only activities and academic results but also high level of self-awareness and understanding as well as well consistency. A lot of youngsters will not try to figure out what they would like to do in the next 3 years, 5 years, and 10 years. It will not be a disaster, but they will not be able to gather resources and preparation for the future changes. Keep thinking or ad-hoc thinking isn’t ideal since you will not be able to figure out the answer in a rush or with pressure. Starting early for the process of building the profile can help you have a better understanding of life and future and what you will need during the journey.
The Aspirers Capstones Help You to Fill the Missing Piece in Your Profile
What is The Aspirers Capstones? It is series of programs that combine problem-based learning (PBL) and civic engagement experience together specializing in different university majors and career options. The PBL module will equip students with the innovative concept on identifying problems, analysing data, creating solutions, making prototypes, and evaluating results. The most attractive part of this module is that you will be exposed to the most innovative and newest idea or theories used by the elite universities all around the world. The module will be concluded by real case studies to ensure students be able to grasp the thinking model.
The second module of civic engagement will help students to adapt the environment of team-based learning. Starting with the formation of team, setting team norms, and identifying their own roles within the team, all teammates will then start to target a problem that is happening in their community or surrounding. And our Aspirers’ facilitator will guide the team to set goals and milestones for their designed interventions and execute the solutions. The scale can be as small as creating a solution for an in-school problem to as big as solving a problem in a society. The Aspirers team will help in coordinating the necessary resources for the execution of the solution. At last, we will help students in doing the self-reflection process for them to understand what goes right and wrong during the whole journey.
In conclusion, The Aspirers Capstones will be able to help students to (1) build a stunning capstone project in their profile; (2) demonstrate the qualities and attributes that elite universities are looking for; (3) get a solid idea on their university application theme and story; and (4) certificates that prove their completion.
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE A JUMP IN YOUR PROFILE? It’s time for you to look for a beacon and need I say, look no further; meet THE ASPIRERS and we will be your newest beacon!!
We Dream. We Create. We Aspire.
We are waiting for you! Contact Us NOW