byline Jonathan Pizzutti
In an increasingly competitive college admissions landscape, high school students are looking for better ways to stand out from the crowd to get into their target schools.
Many are finding that the best way to maximize your chances of acceptance is through a passion project. A passion project lets you take a passion that you have and turn it into something impactful that you can showcase on your college application to demonstrate your interests, your initiative, and your ability to make a difference.
A passion project can be anything that you want it to be, but here are a few of your best options.
Start a Business
College admission officers love students who are entrepreneurial. Starting a business shows that you are a leader and have the practical skills to create something that other people value. Your business can be in any area (tutoring, marketing, etc.), but it is often recommended that you find a way to run your venture online to have more opportunities to scale. And once you start your business, you will find yourself learning a lot of knowledge and skills that will give you a better idea of what you want to study and what career path you want to pursue.
Develop an App
Technology is powerful, which makes those who can use it very powerful. Developing an app demonstrates that you are the type of person who can come up with an idea and create a piece of technology that improves people’s lives. And if you are worried that you are not a tech savvy enough to build an app, there are plenty of “no code” development platforms that allow you to build highly sophisticated apps without as high of a learning curve, and no one will know the difference. Plus, creating an app opens you up to a whole new world of technology which can lead to plenty of great professional opportunities as well.
Create a Social Campaign
Who doesn’t want to accept a student who will make the world a better place? If you have a cause or an issue that you care about, creating a social campaign might be the right choice for you. Whether you want to enter the nonprofit world or not, launching a campaign teaches you about organizational operations, advocacy tactics, and social issues. And again, if you are able to run your campaign using technology, you will have the chance to have a much greater impact and even touch the lives of people around the world.
How to Build a Passion Project
Knowing that you should do a passion project and actually doing one successfully are two entirely different things.
Thankfully, there is a solution here.
PrepX is a college prep company that offers online bootcamps and advising specifically on how to build a passion project that you can leverage for college and career success. They work with students on creating all the passion project ideas above in their various bootcamps and can help you build any other idea that you can think of through one-on-one coaching.
You can check out what PrepX has to offer here.