Turn Your College Application Into a Showstopper
The Only Surefire Way to Stand Out in the New World of College Admissions
Today, It's Almost Four Times Harder to Get Into the Ivy League Compared to Twenty Years Ago
The college admissions process is more competitive than it has ever been in history. You’ve probably heard many stories of students who had good grades, plenty of clubs, volunteering, and did all of the other “right things”...
...and still got rejected from their dream college.
That's because top colleges are being flooded with applications. On average, students today apply to twice as many schools as they did twenty years ago. We’re also seeing a surge in applications from international students, many of whom hire expensive private consultants to improve their odds.
Despite the Overall Trend, Our Students Continue to Land Those "You're Accepted!" Letters
So What's the Secret? It's Simple.
It's Called the Showstopper Activity
Last year, 19 of 20 applicants to top-ranked colleges were rejected. Admissions officers find themselves sifting through mountains of cookie-cutter applications, trying their best to determine what makes each student special. For those 19 out of 20 students, they don't find enough. They see the same clubs, awards, and extracurriculars that they've already seen a hundred times that week.
So if you want to be the 1 of 20 who gets accepted, you need a way to stop admissions officers in their tracks and make them say "wow!" You need to give them the REASON to accept you over all the other candidates who might also appear qualified on paper.
That's the purpose of a Showstopper Activity!
What Makes an Ideal Showstopper Activity?
Put simply, a Showstopper Activity is a unique, personal project that's aligned with the student's passion, has a positive impact on others, and demonstrates key character traits that colleges are looking for, such as initiative, creativity, and intellectual curiosity.
There are three keys to an effective Showstopper Activity:
#1. Proven Medium, Personal Angle
Often, we see that students simply don’t know how to get started. Joining a club is easy. Attending a summer program is straightforward. But planning and creating your own project can be very open-ended, and thus very daunting.
Here’s the solution: Students should pick a proven medium, and then simply apply their unique personal angle to it.
Many students hesitate to start because they think they need to create something groundbreaking. But there's no need to reinvent the wheel.
Instead, start with a proven medium. The three that we’ve found work best are podcasts, email newsletters, or blogs. These are tried-and-true formats that are simple, easy to work with, yet still very impressive to admissions officers.
#2. Website That "Looks the Part"
How can you ensure your Showstopper Activity will actually pay off when it’s finally time to apply to colleges? How can you make sure it really helps you stand out?
The answer is that you need a website.
Even without a Showstopper Activity to display, we still recommend students to consider having a website. It’s the digital age. Admissions officers have literally admitted to Googling applicants or looking them up on social media. In fact, some top colleges are even starting to directly ask students for their online profiles. A student’s online presence matters.
So don’t be caught on the back foot. Have a website that showcases the Showstopper Activity—and the student—in the best light possible. Then, link to it directly on the application!
#3. How? ⟹ Who?
The most common hurdle for students is that they think they don’t have the time to start a Showstopper Activity. But the truth is that students do NOT need to do everything themselves.
If you wanted to build your dream house, you wouldn't start chopping down trees on your own. You would hire experienced builders, electricians, plumbers, etc... so that you could focus on the vision for your home.
Likewise, the key to a great Showstopper Activity is replacing the word “HOW” with “WHO.” Instead of getting stuck on “how to do this?” Think, “who can do this?”
By offloading the technical heavy lifting, students can focus on their big picture vision for the project. To admissions officers, this also shows resourcefulness, leadership, and the ability to collaborate with others.
How We Can Partner With Your Student to Launch Their Very Own Showstopper Activity
What if getting your own Showstopper Activity up and running could actually be as easy and painless as filling out a simple 5-minute form? That's exactly what we do through our Showstopper: Create service!
Combine our deep admissions expertise...
After already helping hundreds of students get into their dream schools, we have many data points in terms of what works and what doesn’t work as a Showstopper Activity given a student's profile and goals. Right from the start, our admissions expertise will ensure that your student is going in the right direction—especially picking the right topic and medium.
...with our one-stop custom Showstopper development team.
We’ve brought together a professional team of developers, designers, content researchers, plus all the appropriate technology, platforms, etc. needed to create an amazing Showstopper Activity. You can offload all of the heavy lifting to us as a one-stop solution.
How Does Showstopper: Create Work?
Getting started is as quick and easy as filling out a 5-minute onboarding form. On our end, we then mobilize a team of designers, developers, and researchers—combined with our admissions expertise—to bring you a one-of-a-kind Showstopper Activity that is sure to impress.
Onboarding Phase
During the onboarding phase, you’ll send us your profile, interests, existing activities, and other relevant information using a streamlined onboarding form that we’ve perfected through our past clients. We will then evaluate your profile and come up with a proposal for a Showstopper Activity idea that we believe best fits your profile.
Meanwhile, our design team will come up with design specs and a professional style guide based on your preferences. Remember, we want your project and your website to really “wow” the admissions officers, so it needs to look the part.
Once the student, who’s in the driver’s seat, has approved the proposal and style guide, we’ll begin the build phase.
Build Phase (Relax Phase for You)
Leave the rest in our hands.
Our developers will build out all of the technical aspects of your activity, from set up to website. In addition, our researchers will prepare well-researched content outlines and ideas for you to use in your showstopper activity, so that you can hit the ground running.
You’ll have a full-fledged Showstopper Activity that’s aligned with your profile and has our admissions expertise weaved into it from planning to execution. It will take your college application to the next level… and you will have saved up to hundreds of hours compared to trying to figure it all out on your own.
CASE STUDY: Stanford Acceptance
This student had a passion for Physics and Space, and his dream school was Stanford University. He checked all the typical boxes, but he knew it wasn’t enough to just have good grades, take AP physics, and be a member of his school’s Physics club. Stanford gets hundreds of applicants every year who fit that basic profile.
With our help, he created his own showstopper activity: the Space Knowledge Dome Podcast. Through this podcast, he was able to further explore his passion for space, covering fascinating topics like “How to Make the First Space Hotel A Reality.” This was a one-of-a-kind project that helped him stand out in a big way and ultimately receive one of those highly coveted acceptance letters from Stanford.
Through our Showstopper: Create service, we developed a beautiful website for him, set up his podcast page, created designs for the podcast, and kick-started him with a well-researched list of 10 ideas for his first episodes.
We also provided him with clear, step-by-step instructions on how to record, edit, and publish a podcast episode. From there, he was able to jump right in and hit “record” on his phone. It took him a grand total of 26 minutes to record his first episode and publish it on his new website.
Showstopper: Create
$3,497 USD $14,997 Value
One-Time Payment*
It can cost upwards of $5,000 - $10,000 to hire a development shop to build a website, depending on the features, designs, integrations, content, etc.
It costs another $5,000 - $10,000 minimum to hire expert college admissions guidance for every step of the way: picking the right topic, producing the right content, and presenting it the right way to admissions officers at the end.
We’ve brought everything together in-house, streamlined the entire process, and can deliver it to you for less than a quarter of that cost.
Getting started is as easy as filling out a 5-10 minute onboarding form. We then mobilize a team of designers, developers, and researchers—combined with our admissions expertise—to bring you a one-of-a-kind custom Showstopper Activity that is sure to impress.
As with all of our custom services, spots are very limited. Reserve yours today.
Simply Put, Your Showstopper Activity Will Help You Stand Out and Get Results Like These:
ABOUT ADMISSION SCIENCE
Our mission at Admission Science is to help 10,000 motivated students over the next 10 years get into their dream schools. Not only have we already helped thousands of students so far, but we’ve also walked the walk ourselves!
Jordan Tung, Co-Founder graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Applied Math. After a successful track record in college admissions consulting, Jordan has now made his expertise available to families all over the country, online. Jordan was accepted into every Ivy League school, plus Stanford.
David Ma, Co-Founder graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Statistics & C.S. After founding a leading online education company for data science & AI, David has now partnered with his long-time friend to demystify the college admissions process. David was accepted into every Ivy League school, plus Stanford.
