Put The “YOU” In Uniqueness
For the College and Scholarship Application Process

Among other things, in this article you will discover:

• How to play the “unique” trump card.
• Why it may be time to actually listen to the stories of your family elders.
• How to piggyback on the uniqueness of others.

Let me begin by reminding you of something: Always remember, you are unique, just like everyone else. This has some bearing here. Who is your competition? How can you stand out from them? In their essay, or on their application, they’ll probably include some of the same stuff you do. Why should the scholarship judge or admissions officer pick you? What else can you put that other students may not?

In a competitive situation, there are often more qualified candidates than there is room to accommodate them. It then follows that if there are more than enough qualified candidates, you have to make yourself stand out, while at the same time not look like a sore thumb. Putting the “YOU” in uniqueness is part of the answer.

The interesting thing about showing how you are unique is that other students may have many of the same qualities that you possess, but they may not show and explain those qualities when it counts. If you do, you win. The issue here isn’t just about being unique, it’s about communicating that you are unique. For the purposes of application packages, it doesn’t matter how many others have the same uniqueness. It matters who communicates it in their application package, and who doesn’t.

Grades are not the only consideration. Being unique is so important that in some cases you can be chosen over an otherwise more qualified candidate. Without being too weird, how can you show you are intriguing?

If you have a skill—any skill at all—make sure it is cleverly communicated somewhere in the application package. Include anything for which you have a love or a passion. Are you a champion logroller? Love to make origami? Better let them know, these things show talent and uniqueness. Don’t fake anything, but if something is truly you, don’t discount it or think that it is insignificant. It’s all part of what makes you unique and the admissions officers or scholarship judges need to know about it. Are you exceptional at Ping-Pong? You’d better put that because it matters. Chess? Some colleges are now giving tuition grants to those who are exceptional at chess. Nevertheless even if you are only good at chess, include that somewhere in your application package.

You may be versatile in some of your talents. That could work to your advantage from an admissions and merit financial aid viewpoint if you don’t mind mentioning the more unique side of those talents, and you can live with the consequences. For instance, some people can play the violin, and the viola. The viola is pretty much just a violin on steroids, so it plays in a lower key. So what? So viola players are less common than violin players and therefore more unique. Thus, if you are okay with getting assigned to play the viola in the college’s concert band instead of being a violinist, it becomes a plus for you to mention this in your application package. They might need a viola player more than a violin player, and at a competitive university, that could be one more point in your favor. If not this, do you have anything in your quiver that could similarly work for you?

Perhaps you’d like to see some real life examples of unique little things that students put in their college application packages. There is a college website that has a page listing interesting facts about its incoming freshmen class. Here are some of the facts of the different students featured: “Plays the didgeridoo, is a Balkan dancer, a Chinese Lion dancer, a fire twirler, did research on moose behavior, Ping-Pong master, member of the national championship Ultimate Frisbee team, received the Arrow of Light award in Cub Scouts.” Again, realize that each of those talents or achievements was featuring a different student, those were not all talents of the same person. Now consider this: If the college is listing those things as interesting facts, then one supposes it is because it found those facts interesting; or more to the point, it found those students interesting.

Let’s look at an oversimplified scenario because it will represent what goes on sometimes at a larger level. Imagine just two application packages from two different students, of which only one will be chosen. What if the GPA and SAT scores are nearly identical? That means things like the essays and Letters Of Recommendation are crucial. But what if both students even wrote equally good essays and had equally good Letters Of Recommendation? What factor(s) puts it over the top and entices the decision maker to choose one over the other? What if one of the students from this scenario mentioned one little extra something—that he got the Arrow of Light award? This is the highest award possible in Cub Scouts and it is usually received at the age of 11, but it really isn’t all that hard to get. However, it is worth mentioning. And guess what? It could even be possible that the other applicant had also received that award at age 11 but didn’t mention it anywhere in his application package.

There are so many unique interests people have. If I was applying to college right now, I would use something very unique that I have done. I actually did it long after applying for college, but it is another example of uniqueness. Have you ever heard of palindromes? They are numbers, words, or sentences that read the same forward or backward. Punctuation and spacing are not important when reading words backward; all the letters just need to be in the right order. So I would explain that I have a passion for words and in fact know them backwards and forwards. Then to illustrate I would put forth my best palindrome.

Here it is: “Reviled? I repel evil dogma. I am God, live leper I deliver!” Read that sentence backwards, forgetting punctuation and spaces and you will find that it reads the same as it does forward. Reviled is not a common word, but it’s in the King James Version of the Bible. Revile means to speak abusively towards someone, and that was most likely done to lepers back then. A common dogma that people believed at the time was that anyone who had a disease was a sinner, which Jesus taught was an incorrect, or evil belief. Furthermore Jesus delivered some lepers from that unfortunate disease by healing them. Thus, the palindrome is logical.

Writing palindromes is not a major accomplishment, but it is creative, unique, and took some skill to do so it would help me to stand out.

Whatever your uniqueness is, make sure it shows up everywhere possible in your application package. If you only have room on the application to put your best strengths, at least you could still put some supporting cast unique things on your résumé. As you may have heard once upon a time, in essence: “A decision, a defining moment, a point where something is put over the top, is often achieved by little things.”

These things might not seem like the glory stuff, as being a football quarterback would be, but are nevertheless important and should be included. The exception would be things that are illegal, freakish, bizarre, disgusting, weird, or too stupid to be included. I may be wrong, but I don’t think you need to mention your collection of famous actors’ nose hair clippings; it’s probably just too weird.

Merit Financial Aid Money and Uniqueness

I discussed that uniqueness may not only help you get admitted to college, but it also may help you get merit financial aid money. That would be a huge plus. Accomplishing that huge plus depends on how needed your unique skills are.

Here’s a little inside tip. Colleges often have no applicants that can throw the javelin or hammer for the track team. If you have something like that that you can do well, and you are otherwise a decent candidate academically, you may have no competition among other applicants to that college, and you may be offered free tuition to boot.

Thus, if you would even be remotely interested and have potential ability in something like this, it is worth your consideration to develop the skill. As part of your research for which colleges you may attend, you might want to ask their respective sports, music, or other such departments, what they often have a dire need for, and what being able to fulfill their need might be worth.

If you do this sufficiently in advance it could give you enough time to develop the needed skill. For something like the javelin or hammer throw, don’t practice by throwing your little brother though, mom won’t like it.

Something To Remember You By

Another way of showing your uniqueness is to give the scholarship judge or admissions officer something to remember you by. A big kiss is probably not the best idea, although they would certainly remember you for that. Instead, somewhere in the application process you might say something like “I’m known by my teacher, family or friends, other students,teammates etc. as the ___________.” Or, “They call me the __________.” Or, “I’ve been referred to as ___________.” You fill in the blanks with whatever the truth is. You may be the student who puts the “tick” in mathematics; or the one who puts the sizzle in the band; or the heart and soul of the team. Whatever you put ought be a reasonable representation of the truth that you can back up if need be. Be careful with this because if it seems gimmicky it could backfire.

If your uniqueness is mentioned in a Letter Of Recommendation, it will reinforce what you say, add credibility, and help you be remembered by the scholarship judge or admissions officer. Even one of your major skills could show uniqueness.

Out Of The Same Mold

Another way you may be able to show uniqueness is by describing how you have been molded by your unique heritage. Your parents, or other ancestors may come from different backgrounds. Perhaps because of the ethnic and/or religious backgrounds of any of them, you can point out some important qualities that you have acquired. If you are foreign born or have an ethnicity not well represented at a certain college you apply to, you may want to let the admissions officer know.

Interview your parents, and your grandparents if possible. You will gain some valuable insight that will help your perspective. Most importantly this will help you have more love for your family and the ties that bind you together. But secondly, to the point being discussed here, these insights will help you show your unique side. There may even be stories that your grandparents tell you about their parents or grandparents. Now, what was passed on to them will be passed on to you and perhaps give you something interesting and unique to write about.The more you can personalize your essay or application—the more you come alive on paper! Put details about your unique heritage, background, and situation; and details about your unique perspective and goals for the future.

Here are some questions to jog their memory. Did anyone in the family line achieve prominence? Did any suffer religious or racial persecution? Did any have to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps? Did they go through the Great Depression? Did they survive some other catastrophe? Think up some of your own questions to ask. How did these things mold their character in a positive way? How have, or how can they now mold your character? There may actually be some valuable information in those “When I was a kid” stories they are always trying to tell you. In describing such things in an essay or on an application, you help the reader see you in a personal and positive light, as the unique individual that you are.

That Is So "You"

You can also ask people who know you well to describe incidences that they think would really nail down “you” and your uniqueness. If your name was Buford, what would they say is just “so Buford!” Fortunately for you, your name is not Buford, so you can insert your much better name and perform the same exercise.

You could also go on a tour of your mind. Look at how it processes information, deals with situations, or views life. It’s okay; I know that even the thought of such an exercise might be scary. So you may need to do some cerebral scrubbing, dusting, vacuuming, and clutter or trash removal from inside your head before you begin—that’s all to the good. Once you have your mind ready for the tour, go on it and then write out the details. You might get some excellent material to work with later on. Believe me, you’ve got a powerful mind. When you use it correctly, it can work magic.

Take these ideas and practice writing a brief statement, a short essay, and a long essay, all about the same thing. You may even be asked to describe yourself in three words, or in only one word. You may have to do all of the above and you’ll need to know how to take advantage of the sometimes-limited space you are given to convey a lot of important information. You’ll need to know ahead of time what to leave in and what to leave out.

Another way to show your uniqueness is to submit some evidence of your best work: such as a portfolio of your artwork, photography, or poetry, along with your college application.

Idiosyncrasies

Sometimes, even after looking at all those ideas, a student will think, “I just don’t have unique things in my life. I haven’t done anything interesting, and I can’t think of any unique things. Uniqueness doesn’t have to be about impressive things. It’s all in how you view it. Take the average stand-up comedian, please. Does he have a funnier life than everyone else? Aucontraire mon frère (to the contrary my brother)! A comedian sees humor where no one else does. Then he gets his audience to see the humor in it through his delivery, and the way he words things. You can do the same thing with uniqueness. It’s there in your everyday life.

You aren’t limited to yourself, there is family too. You or they have idiosyncrasies: those peculiar habits or mannerisms. I have seen a successful essay where a student played up his own idiosyncrasies in a clever way. I have seen a successful essay where a student played up his parents’ idiosyncrasies. According to him, he was “normal” but his parents were comically neurotic. He creatively wrote and quoted from an experience he had in public involving his parents, and how he dealt with it and what he learned from his parents. So in this case the uniqueness wasn’t totally about him, but how he dealt with the crazy uniqueness of his parents. He was piggybacking on their uniqueness.

You can even expand the concept to your friends, neighbors, neighborhood, or hometown. What happens in your neighborhood or hometown that doesn’t happen everywhere? Have you dealt with any of it? Regions have differences. Some people live in a rural setting, while others live in a big city. Some live in earthquake country while others live in tornado or hurricane country. Some people come from a small family while others grew up in a big family. These things shape a person’s perspective, depending on which of them were experienced.

Yes sir, just like a comedian can find humor in anything, you can find your personal uniqueness in anything. Remember, what may be commonplace to you could be unique to your target audience. In fact if you are as boring and regular as a Tuesday afternoon, then that makes you unique, and gives you something to play up on, because not everyone is as boring and regular as a Tuesday afternoon. You just need to write about it in a creative manner.

It’s up to you. Be yourself in unique and intriguing detail.