413: Intellectual Curiosity + College Admissions: What It Is, Why It Matters to Colleges, and How to Show It

The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions

In today’s episode, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) and Susan Tree (a college counseling and admissions legend with 40+ years of experience) chat about “intellectual curiosity”: a quality that many colleges actively look for in students, yet is a little more ambiguous and nuanced compared to mapping out a high school course plan.

This is part 2 of a series about students’ academic background and interests and how they factor into the admissions process. Part 1 is about all things related to the academic part of a student’s college application— which, at many selective colleges, is seen as the “foot in the door” of their selection process.

On the episode you’ll hear Susan and Tom discuss:

• Identifying an academic superpower and framing it in that way in your college application
• How coming across as "too complete" to colleges (as in, you have no bigger questions you'd like to solve) can actually make your application less competitive
• How to infuse intellectual curiosity into your supplemental essays
• Showing academic and nonacademic alignment for particularly popular majors

Hope you enjoy.

Play-by-Play

• 1:38 - Reframing your accomplishments as superpowers
• 7:12 - Identifying your learning style among Architects, Gardeners, and Explorers
• 10:22 - Why colleges want different types of learners
• 13:52 - Why communicating what you’re curious about to admissions officers is a good idea
• 15:07 - Staying in touch with who you are on your application
• 19:17 - Understanding the pressure to present a complete version of yourself
• 22:55 - An example of showing intellectual curiosity through supplemental essays
• 26:44 - The value of curiosity in non-academic spaces
• 32:52 - How highly-selective colleges evaluate quality vs. quantity in their applicants
• 38:51 - What is academic alignment vs. non-academic alignment? How does this impact the way colleges read applications?
• 43:34 - What if your high school doesn’t offer specialized programs to help you explore your intellectual curiosity?
• 46:49 - Final thoughts

Resources

• Episode 403: AP, IB, Honors, Oh My!: How Admissions Officers View Your High School Courses, Rigor, and School Context (with Susan Tree)
• How to Choose a College Major (Step-by-step)
• How to Write the "Why this Major" College Essay
• What the Heck are "Hooks" and "Institutional Priorities"?