Values Alignment

I was listening to a podcast recently that was about how students can show their intellectual curiosity in their application. It was a College Essay Guy podcast, and he was interviewing an admissions dean from Colorado College. The admissions rep was talking about the values of the school. She mentioned that in about 80% of their courses, there is some aspect of the class about sustainability. It is a main value of the school. She suggested that if students are interested in attending Colorado College, they should learn about the school and see if their own values align with those of the college. Many colleges and universities ask a “why us” question as a supplemental essay. They are looking to see how the student and the college will be the right fit for each other. When students are building their college lists, they should be researching each school to see if it looks like a place where they would be happy. If they are starting to see values that do not align with their own, it is a good sign that they should take that school off their list and find other ones where the school’s values more closely align with their own. I find that many students haven’t taken the time to really see what makes schools unique from each other. It is such an important part of the process!

(To find the picture below, all I did was google “Colorado College values.”)