3 reasons why a top college or university abroad could reject you - Hindustan Times
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3 reasons why a top college or university abroad could reject you

ByJatin Bhandari
Nov 16, 2017 02:07 PM IST

Many youngsters undermine themselves and lose confidence - by telling strangers and even yourselves that their candidature for a college or university is not worth it

As a higher education consultant, I’ve had a number of young people coming up to me and asking:“Why do I have an average profile?” To me, this is how most of you undermine yourselves and lose confidence - by telling strangers and even yourselves that your candidature is not worth it.

Before you make big plans for college or university, assess yourself - are you constantly undermining yourself?(Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Before you make big plans for college or university, assess yourself - are you constantly undermining yourself?(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

I get emails from many of you asking me to assess your profiles.

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You ask me to analyse and tell you if you belong to a “below average/excellent/or amazing category.” You want me to tag you on the basis of your mindset.

Well, let me share three reasons why you might not make it to any top college or university abroad.

Reason 1: There are times when I am very impressed with your resume and your personality. However, when I sit with you, most of you take a good 20 minutes to convince me that you have an average candidature and that you are nothing. Think about it this way - For me, you are a stranger and I do not know anything about you apart from what I have read on your resume - and chances are that your resume has been impressive.

You take the ownership of telling me “I have a horrible profile- let me explain why...”

You take 20 minutes and I am convinced that you are not worth a top 40 school or I start feeling that you will not be an easy story for a top school. The positive impression I had of you after going through your resume has dissipated.

Despite your self criticism I still feel your resume is better than your interpretation of yourself.

Reason 2: You go out everywhere in the world and start talking about your average profile. If you have had a strong gap in your work experience or if you have a GPA that stinks, I can understand that. But other than that, some of you with above average profiles actually have a story in your mind that makes you really think that you do not belong to a great category.

You should also understand - when you are telling others that your profile is nothing, someone else - someone important - could be listening in. That person could be you - you are listening to yourself continuously. You are carving it in stone for yourself.

Reason 3: You could be comparing yourself with a product. For example, the capacity of a 1.5 tonne air conditioner is limited to its tonnage. It cannot change, and it will behave in the exact same way throughout its life. Unfortunately, you also think of yourself in the same way. You think you are a product with fixed characteristics that cannot change. You tag yourself just as we tag products in our lives( Apple versus Dell/Samsung etc ).

I also meet people who come with average profiles from the past but are keen to change themselves. But this category is in minority( I am guessing less than 5%).

Take a look at yourself again if you think you have an average profile.Ask yourself why.

And then change things - work on your pluses and eliminate the negatives.

You’ll be surprised at the changes.

The author is founder and CEO of PythaGURUS Education Pvt Ltd ( www.pythagurus.com), a higher education consulting service.

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