Texture

One of my favorite admins talked about herself as a precocious furball compared to her
Rhodes Scholar brother who kept his teachers up all night double-checking their textbooks
just to prepare for him for class. Another put down her favorite website as
[Link]. And a third wrote his essay on his interest in
neuroscience and how a homeless riddle wizard in Santa Monica had stumped him on his
way to the beach by asking him to read a sentence on a triangle. Check it out. Read that
sentence for me. Did you just read I love Paris in the springtime or did you read I love Paris
in the the springtime? As this student pointed out to me, he couldn't avoid the neurological
behavior of his eyes and he tripped up by reading the repeated words on the margins. And in
his final sentence, he asked me if I had fallen for the same trap in his essay. Sure enough,
when I reread it, he had intentionally written repeated words like the on the margins of his
essay. Why does a comment about being a precocious furball with a Rhodes Scholar brother,
a funny website name, or an essay that proves the psychological point it's making matter? To
solve your final puzzle, here's your hint. We've talked about college professors and college
presidents, but what's an admission officer like? Again, take a few seconds. I want you to
think about it. Who are these people? What are they like? What do they do? As an
admissions reader, we get paid to read thousands of applications year after year and try to
find a few amazing students to bring to our colleges to work with our professors and to make
our schools exceptional. Every day during reading season, we're reviewing like 20 to 50
applications. And guess what? All those applications, they start to sound the same. We'll talk
about this more in class too. But the key trait I want us to focus on here is this. Admission
officers are bored, speed readers. We need to get them interested and force them to slow
down and read your application with care and a budding sense of warmth because you've
introduced some originality, creativity, and humor into their day. So now we can solve the
Paris triangle riddle. Why am I talking to you 10 years later about that essay, a comment
about a Rhodes Scholar and a made up website? Because these were all quirky, interesting,
different ways of engaging with the application that stood out and had what we call texture.
They highlighted personal qualities like creativity, thoughtfulness, a sense of humor,
humility. Those are important for two reasons. First, because again, admission readers are
bored, speed readers. When we come across those moves, we slow down. We appreciate that
you've taken the time to be original and creative and we really start to like you. Second,
because readers, they don't want to admit jerks, right? We want to do our best to ensure we
select students who will be interesting, humble, positive roommates, classmates, and
community members. Stanford asked you to write a letter to a future roommate for that
reason. At Harvard's ratings, talk about whether you're the type who will have conversations
in the dining hall or in study groups, and your effect on the world after leaving. Okay, so let's
get a definition on the board. Texture. Texture means that when I read your application, your
personality pops off the page. Texture is what makes me fall in love with you as an applicant,
right? It's the secret sauce that transforms a reader from gatekeeper to advocate. Texture
means suggesting that you're humble, authentic, and you have moxie. That is, you're
resilient, you're not afraid to take chances, and you have a sense of humor in the face of
adversity. Now, the opposite trait is called flat. A flat application, that could be a
valedictorian with perfect test scores and impressive activities, but an application with no
sizzle. It's boring, it's generic, it's safe. Now, to anchor our discussion again, let's turn to
those Harvard ratings. This is what they provide to their admission officers to use in
evaluating many of your personal qualities, and this is a big part of texture. Courage,
compassion, maturity, genuineness, humility, resiliency. Now, it's dangerous to
misunderstand this rating. It's definitely more important to focus on ideas you care about
than personal attributes, to come off as smart rather than brave, because remember, you're
applying to a school to engage in scholarship. But how should you show texture in your
applications? First, show texture in your writing. Remember, admission readers are bored,
so you win them over by being not boring. How do you do that? We'll dive into this more in
the writing classes, but let's hit some of the high notes now. First, be funny. Nothing can help
you more than making your reader laugh. We're on our third cup of coffee. We're trudging
through another story about how Joe Student realized he wants to attend college to help
others. Then, you hit me with your favorite website as
[Link]. I can't help but find that sort of levity endearing.
Second, be self-deprecating and humble. Think about the Santa Monica homeless puzzle
wizard story. In telling me a story about stopping on his way to the beach to give a homeless
person the time of day, and then this applicant showed that he had learned something from
the guy, that conveys a level of humility and openness to learning from anyone, right? That's
admirable. I like someone like that. Third, create colorful, original descriptions. Precocious
furball? I've never heard that before in my life. It was fresh, smart, and original. You'll have
to feel out the right moment in your writing to deploy texture, but here's two specific pieces
of advice. First, go for it on your smaller supplemental essays and your popcorn questions.
For example, Stanford asked you to write a letter to a future roommate and your favorite
historical moment. Those are ideal spots to work in something that's funny, self-deprecating,
quirky, but remember, it's got to still be smart. Second, add texture when you put down a
description for your activities. We'll talk about this in class four. It's one of my favorite
moves, but here's an example. Most students who worked as the yearbook editor, they would
say something boring when describing that position, but here's what a compelling applicant
does. Editor, yearbook, description, memory preservatrix, and fairy godmother
extraordinaire, satisfying overwhelming requests for Photoshop facial edits since 2014.
You're starting to see it, right? This is what colleges mean when they tell you to be yourself.
Okay, so the writing, that's really the place you need to convey texture, but sometimes an
activity itself is so unusual or cool that it creates texture. Again, the helpful guide word here
is unusual. Think of something most high schoolers don't do, and it's probably full of texture.
For example, you were a line cook at Applebee's. You have a pilot's license. You're a big wave
surfer. Now, look, activities like these won't help your IV and point of excellence, but by
opting to bring them up, you give yourself dimension, and these types of quirky or gritty
activities, they provide relief. A straight-A student who loves reading Viking sagas and Etta
Hubbard's book is a perfect example. You're going to be able to do this. You're going to be
able to do this. A straight-A student who loves reading Viking sagas and Etta poetry but also
holds a blue-collar job working the line at Applebee's, that's just a delight to find in your
stack of applications. Another example, I was a one-time hand model in middle school, one
time, for the board game Stratego. Now, I was nuts not to put that down in my application
and hum a few bars about it because, remember, admission officers are people.
Conversations like this happen all the time. Hey, you have any one interesting so far? Yeah, I
have this one kid. He's a football captain, and he was a hand model for Stratego. You
remember that game? All of a sudden, your application has floated to the surface from the
50,000 rejected applications anchored below. That quirky Stratego hand model identifier, it
becomes like a small buoy with a red flag on it. A board speed reader perks up and takes
interest in your application. When they detect some IV and they see you have a point of
excellence, now you're in the running. But it's texture, it's texture that wins them over, that
transforms them into someone who doesn't just think you deserve admission but wants to
advocate for you to get admitted. Okay, lots more on this later, but now you're starting to
understand how to be yourself in your college applications by showing texture. So once
again, if you only take away three points, here's what I want you to remember. First, you
need to demonstrate texture. That means your personality pops off the page. Texture means
novel interests and endearing personal qualities that show you're humble, authentic, and
have moxie. Second, how do you do it in your writing? Be funny, self-deprecating, and craft
creative, original images. Third, do it in your activities. Find a way to mention those unusual,
quirky, or gritty activities that you do. That's class one. You now know our three key concepts
for college admission. They'll come up over and over again throughout the course. But let's
review what we've learned. First, you need to show intellectual vitality because you're
applying to be a student, working with smart, curious college professors who want scholars
just like them in their classes. Second, you need to have points of excellence to stand out in a
huge pool of accomplished applicants. Unless you have a blue chip or a leadership point of
excellence, you should build one or two academic points of excellence by doing academic
activities and writing about them with specificity, authenticity, and command. Third, you
need to have texture to win over a bored, speed-reading admission officer to advocate for
you. Be positive, humble, funny, and show moxie. If you ever get jammed up on what to write
about or how to write about it or what activity to do, return to this class and think through
how to apply these concepts. That's it. Great work. Now, I mean, you know more than most
other college applicants, but we have more work to do. In class two, it's time to learn about
the admission process from an admission officer's point of view. We're not going to belabor
it, but I think it's really helpful as an exercise for you to feel confident that you know exactly
what's going on. But really, most important, for us to pull out some strategic insights that we
can use to make your applications even more compelling.