The Power of University Application Essays: A Gateway to Self-Discovery & Success

The past few months have been busy supporting young clients to complete university applications. Most applications require students to write essays that describe their lives, successes, failures, commitments and or learning. They are asked questions that many adults may not be able to answer. Yet, the young students persevere in completing the applications convinced that this is the path for them.
 
I can see the huge transformation in my young clients. The essay questions lead them to dig deep to uncover who they are and truly get to know themselves (beliefs, experiences, abilities, values, and interests or BEAVI© as I like to call them) and where they are headed. They evolve from having little self-awareness to gaining a deeper understanding of their true identity and how they fit in the world.

Too Difficult

Many parents criticize universities for mandating these essays as part of the application process. You have to agree that the process is very stressful. As a Career and Academic Coach, I find the reflection that goes into writing these essays very valuable. The reflection process takes them on a very unique yet challenging journey. As my young clients struggle and persevere, I find myself wondering, if we want to prepare students for the world of work, why were students not asked these career reflective questions in school?
 
The resistance is clear.

Too Early

Starting career conversations at 13 years old is too early, firmly stated a parent as I was getting ready to present at a parent event.
 
Statistics agree... “Among youth aged 25 who were asked about their career expectations on a regular basis from the age of 15, few held to the career expectations they had as teenagers” (Statistics Canada, 2015). So perhaps the parent knows something I don’t???

I agree, I replied, particularly if we are asking them, what do you want to be when you grow up? This is NOT a career conversation.
 
I encouraged the parent to listen first and engage after...

Too Late

"Career guidance should consist of offering sufficiently varied work experiences, and counselling when individuals experience conflicts that impede direction finding" (Luken, 2019). Great research and I also agree. I am big on encouraging exploration and planned experiences. However, if we wait until it is time to find direction, we may have waited too long.

“More than 13% of young adults were still undecided about a career at age 25, while almost 4 in 10 (38.3%) had decided to pursue a new career” (Statistics Canada, 2015).

Students hesitate to take action or commit to a decision because they are typically presented with structured weekly schedules. Real life is not so neatly packed. Some students experienced the chaos that life can be during COVID. Research is showing that this experience was almost a good one teaching students to adapt, a skill that is typically not taught in school.

Life Is Chaotic

Life is chaotic presenting us with new problems and tough decisions every single day. “The notion of traditional occupations that have provided vocational stability is vanishing, and university students are being trained for occupations that are yet to be discovered” (Livingstone, 2018). Imagine where your thoughts would be headed if you were in high school...

Career conversations at an early age (yes 13 and younger) focus on constructing identity, taking initiative and pursuing interests. Career initiatives at an early age centre on becoming socially active (yes, pick up the playground garbage with your child or volunteer in homeless shelters) or building an awareness of the work of others. Career guidance at an early age encourages understanding of stereotypes and employing creativity to solve problems.

Awareness and Education

“Awareness, and education were primarily identified as having been helpful and wished for” in a recent study that aimed to investigate career decision making among successful youth (Nordin & Mathew, 2024).

Most importantly, career development at an early age is about opening young minds to learn and experience a life typically lived in chaos so they are not hesitant when it is time to decide on what's next.

Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

Unprepared

University admission letters have trickled in adding new dilemmas to the young people I work with. The “reach” universities that have said, “we are pleased” bring with them financial cost, separation from home and adapting to a new lifestyle that my young clients did not have time to think about. The letters that started with, “we regret to” transport students to a state of utter dismay and uncertainty. How well do we prepare students for these situations?
 
More importantly, how well have we prepared students to transition from school to life after grade 12? So many choices (job, college, university, apprenticeship...) yet so little time if we wait till grade 11 or 12 to have career infused conversations.

A Sample Question

I would like to end with a sample question that I challenge every connection, young and old, to take on. If you were given the following quote and asked to write a 500-word essay reflecting on who you are and why would anyone hire you, how easy would it be for you to write it??

If you don’t know why you’d hire you, neither will they. F Sonnenberg.

Have fun! Reflect and share!

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Author

I am Hoda Kilani, Career and Academic Coach. I work with students, parents, teachers and community partners sharing the latest strategies to innovatively craft your career journey your way. - Follow me on social media for more career insights.