Zen and the Art of Applying to University

“Could you write a letter of recommendation for me?” The other day, I opened my phone and found this text coming from Luisa, the little girl I used to tutor years ago when I was in high school. Well, I keep forgetting, she is no longer a little girl: senior year has come for her, too, in the end. And, with it, so have college applications. 

I remember the feeling all too well. I mean, it got so daunting that it contributed to my decision to take a gap year between school and university. Even with more time and help from my family, writing personal statements, crafting cover letters and asking for recommendations was demanding. Three years later, applying for Master’s degrees still proves to be a stressful task, even now that I have all the support from Forward College and everything I’ve learned in my Personal Development classes. 

Thinking back to when it was my time to apply for undergrad, I can’t help but remember how different the application processes were, depending on the institution.

In certain cases, with quantitative evaluation criteria, you know you’re just a number, and that’s fine. Take Bocconi, for example, a university I grew up knowing quite well, with the campus only three metro stops away from my home. Bocconi takes a traditional approach: what counts, principally, is the student’s performance in the admissions test – either the Bocconi Online Test, or the SAT or ACT if you come from the US. Without a valid test score, you cannot even submit the application. Additionally, transcripts from the last two years of high school are required, though subordinated to the test result. No interview, no personal statement. While this might be the perfect formula for a certain kind of student, I knew deep down that, in my case, I would want to spend my years at an institution where my ideas and personality would be considered alongside my test scores. 

I also explored IE University in Spain, which felt like a different world in its own way. There, the process was highly holistic: tests, transcripts, essays, short-answer questions, and recommendation letters. There was even a video component, a Kira assessment, where you had to speak to the admissions team about yourself and your motivations. I appreciated how much they valued communication skills and personal insight, but the number of moving parts, between essays, videos, and letters, made the process feel somewhat fragmented. I was being asked to tell a story, yes, but I wasn’t sure it was really my story. 

Similarly, I had my fair share of value and mission declarations to write when applying to Liberal Arts Colleges in the Netherlands: AUC, EUC and UCM. The applications were very open and holistic—the schools clearly wanted to understand the whole person, not just grades or test scores. And yet, each of them had a very specific profile and community, an institutional identity that was felt like it was not shaped by the individualities of the students that made up the college but rather naturally acted as a filter for those who would fit in it and those who would not. 

At one point, it felt like I was running in circles. It was not necessarily the standardised tests  – although studying all that math for the Bocconi admission test made me realise I did not want to do Business – that frustrated me. Rather, it was the continuous tweaking of my personal image and who I was to cater to an admissions team. I vividly recall the feeling of saturation I experienced at the end of the process, with all the statements of purpose blurred in my mind, each carefully crafted to match the profile I thought would give me the best chance to get in. In which one did I mention the film club I lead at school? Did I attach my final year Italian Literature classwork in the end? Will my professor remember to write different things in the different recommendation letters, and will he address the university by the right name?

Forward College felt immediately different. From the beginning, I had a sense that I wasn’t just moulding myself into what seemed to be the ‘right fit’ for the school, but that the application process was about having an opportunity to see if it was the right place for me. There really was no single “type” of student they were pushing; rather, it was a two-way conversation, where both sides were trying to find out if there was a good match. Before my interview, I had a Student Conversation with a girl from two cohorts above me, who was eager to answer all my questions and was honest about the challenges. Forward College is a unique experience that can push you out of your comfort zone and also require you to make difficult choices at times. She remarked that it was challenging from multiple perspectives, not just academically, but in terms of personal life, adaptability and life path. After all, going against the grain and picking a less conventional path will always require giving up some certainty. “But,” she said, “if you’re willing to take the chance, the rewards will be irreplaceable.” I was hooked.

In the Forward Interview itself, which focuses on personal accomplishments, motivations, and extracurricular involvement, I spoke about the volunteering experience I was undertaking at the time: a four-month project of the European Solidarity Corps where I worked at a youth centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The interviewers listened and asked insightful questions, and most of all, encouraged me to reflect rather than simply recite a resume. It was challenging, but it left me feeling inspired. It gave me a sense that this was a place that would push me academically and personally, rather than just academically.

Looking back, I can see how the different approaches shaped not only the application experience but also the expectations of the institutions themselves. Ultimately, the decision was clear. I wanted a place that would see me as more than a set of numbers or a collection of achievements. Forward College felt like, and indeed turned out to be, an environment where my ideas, experiences, and individuality mattered just as much as my academic readiness. After three years and many challenges, I can confidently say that the gut feeling of that interview day served me as the right north star to follow when I made my decision.