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

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