By Krista, IvyWise College Admissions Counselor
Do you have many different interests but struggle to see how they overlap? Is it hard to see the path forward? You’re not alone! Narrowing down your interests involves self-reflection. Taking the time to understand what truly excites and motivates you will help you make informed decisions that set the foundation for a fulfilling academic and career journey.
3 Steps to Translate Your Interests into Something Meaningful
Let me be clear: It’s perfectly ok to have a variety of interests! However, colleges want to admit well-rounded classes made up of specialists, which is why it’s important to narrow your focus to one or two interests and develop your expertise in those areas.
If you’re passionate about a lot of things, this can be difficult — especially when choosing a major. When working with my students who are struggling to narrow down their interests, I advise them to take the following three steps.
Step 1: Find Your “Why”
Identify a specific issue in the world that you want to solve or an opportunity you see. This should truly move you — a mission you can work toward day in and day out. For instance, maybe your aunt has Alzheimer’s, and you see the opportunity to make a specific type of advancement in this area of research. Whatever it is, be specific.
Many students give broad statements such as “I want to be a pediatrician because I want to help kids.” While admirable, that’s quite vague. I’m left wondering why a pediatrician specifically — why not a teacher, child psychologist, or children’s book author?
Instead of focusing on an end goal like a job title, use the more specific “why” as your compass and everything else will fall into place (even if you’re ultimately interested in B.S./MD programs!). If I were your counselor, I’d push you to determine what specific aspect of child health you deeply care about and take it from there.
Pro Tip: Stay Focused on Your “Why”
It’s easy to fall in the trap that all your interests must somehow overlap. You might love musical theater, for example, but if your main goal is to create more energy-efficient semi-conductors, don’t feel pressured to tie every passion to your main mission. Let your “why” be your guiding star as you build your profile. Activities like theater will surely have transferable skills and lessons even if not directly connected.
Step 2: Assess Your Skills
We each have our own unique set of wonderful skills, and we can strategically use them to increase our impact on the world. So, take some time to determine what skills you naturally gravitate toward. This can be broken down into two main categories:
- Hard skills: Technical abilities such as coding, learning foreign languages, or data analysis.
- Soft skills: Attributes like time management, organization, adaptability, and more.
Both hard and soft skills can be learned and practiced. However, we all have natural tendencies and differing levels of comfort with each skill.
A great starting point to discover your skills are self-assessments. There are a lot of free assessments online. For example, the O*Net Interest Profiler is a fantastic free resource to help pinpoint your natural tendencies, albeit this specific assessment leans more toward hard skills.
You can also think of what compliments or feedback you have gotten from teachers, coaches, peers, and loved ones. Try spending a week jotting down what you enjoyed doing the most of each day — no matter how big or how small it may seem. You may begin to notice patterns in what you write.
Step 3: Find the Overlap
The final step is to find the overlap between the results of the first and second steps. Think of it like a Venn diagram: One side is the “why” and the other is your skills. The intersection of the two is truly the golden nugget here.
For instance, if you’re against fast fashion due to its impact on the environment and you are skilled in sewing, you could create and sell a fashion line of sustainable clothing or accessories with profits going to a related charity.
Embrace the Discovery Process
Self-discovery will take time — and that’s okay — but it’s important to devote the effort necessary! Over time, you will form a clearer picture for your future direction. Once you’ve taken these first steps, you’re on your way to a much more intentional high school experience.
It’s worth noting that even students who have reached this level of self-discovery often want more individualized support to determine how to map the center of their Venn diagram to well-suited course selections, extracurriculars, potential majors, summer programs, college admissions essays, and more.
At IvyWise, we can work together to set you up for success for the high school journey, college admissions process, and beyond. All IvyWise counselors have admissions experience at some of the top colleges and universities in the U.S., so they are experts at helping high school students become the best version of themselves so they can submit exceptional college applications and gain admission to their top-choice schools. Get started with us today.