"To be a successful candidate in elite college admission, you must build a profile that is strong and dense, like a bowling ball, rather than colorful and puffy, like a beach ball. Decisions should be cohesive and decisive, rather than hollow and disjointed."

First, let me acknowledge that the title of this article is perhaps the dumbest one I have ever written—which is really saying something, considering I’ve written close to 1,000 articles over the past 40 years. My intention was merely to get your attention because the subject matter of this article is so critically important to your college success. In truth, the bowling-ball metaphor holds up to scrutiny as long as you don’t extend it too far into the realm of cliché or tackiness by, for example, discussing knocking down pins on the bowling alley of life, or stressing the importance of being cool and smooth.

Now, before I answer the question posed in the title, let me first talk about its antithesis—the “beach-ball application.” What do you see when you picture a beach ball? Easy question, right? You see a puffy, round, light, colorful ball filled with air that floats like a feather when batted around. These qualities also describe the kind of college application submitted by most candidates. They are filled with empty activities and unimpressive details. A “beach-ball application,” if you will, results when you don’t plan ahead, or when you select activities, classes, or programs that lack significant value or cohesive structure. Often, the “colorful” part comes in the form of big-name programs such as Harvard’s Pre-College Program, Stanford’s Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes, Tufts’ College Experience, or Summer@Brown. There is nothing inherently wrong with these programs, except that they typically cost too much for what you get in return. Mainly, they demonstrate to elite colleges that your family has enough money to pay for these high-priced, overrated college-campus summer camps. Using the beach-ball metaphor, they are colorful but don’t add much weight. However, if they contribute to your narrative in a meaningful way, they can provide some value. They certainly don’t substitute for “weightier” experiences that could transform a beach-ball application into a bowling-ball application. To be clear, the inclusion of these kinds of activities is acceptable if they add meaningful density to your application.

Another quality of the beach-ball application is that it is filled with randomly scattered classes and activities that do not coalesce into a strong, meaningful core. Even though each of them individually may deserve some attention, they do not make sense in the larger context where creating a cohesive narrative is critically important. They may include a piano recital at Carnegie Hall (rented and accessed through a side entrance), four years of art lessons, three years of tennis lessons, an engineering class through a commercial education company, a research paper that does not connect to anything else in the application, or an internship, absent of purpose, that provides no validation such as a presentation, a paper, or even a recommendation.

The opposite of the beach-ball application is the bowling-ball application. As you might suspect, a bowling-ball application results from methodical planning and strategic decision-making. It has both weight and depth. It tells a consistent story about a candidate who has taken concrete steps to nurture a passion, develop skills needed both in college and career, and explore a subject in far greater depth than they would’ve been able to otherwise. Such an application will likely contain meaningful research, challenging classes, work done outside of school, and essays that tie everything together. It will provide evidence that the candidate is a person of high character who cares about others and about the world, who has grit, determination, empathy, honesty, integrity, and likability.

A bowling-ball application, like a bowling ball, is extremely dense, heavy, and has little fluff or decoration. It is a straight-down-the-middle validation of ability, demonstration of passion, and proof that this student is likely to plow through life with the strength and courage needed to excel. It does not require $10,000 summer programs, pay-for-play internships, or recommendations from Nobel-Prize-winning neighbors. It simply requires intelligent decision-making, a willingness to work hard, and a consistent vision of the future.

Finally, keep this in mind: junior year is your last chance to provide colleges with a full year’s worth of evidence that you are worthy of elite college consideration. Therefore, it is important that you don’t squander the opportunity by engaging in “ordinary” or “disconnected” activities and mundane academic performances, instead of providing evidence that you are truly worthy of elite status.