Avoid making these 5 common mistakes on your university application

By Kevin Keller, University and Career Advising, edited by Angel Jin, ISB Communications 

Published on Thursday, May 8, 2025

The process of applying to universities can be intimidating to any high school student and their family. The essays, transcripts, recommendation letters and activities make up part of a long list of factors considered when universities decide who to admit.   

The mystery surrounding the admission process certainly adds to the stress, but luckily, the International School of Beijing (ISB) has a team of experienced University and Career Advisors (UCAs) who have nearly 50 years of combined experience in international high schools and US university admission offices to support each of our students.   

To help alleviate some of the pressure around university applications, I’ve developed a list of five common mistakes on university applications and how to avoid them.  

Simply having a high GPA, high SAT score, or a summer program on an application usually isn’t enough to achieve admission to the most selective universities. When universities are reviewing applications, they are looking for positive character traits and skills which will contribute to your success as a student.  

How do your activities, engagement, and essays reflect your academic strengths along with resilience, creativity, critical thinking, leadership and communications? Did you engage in a long-term passion project? Were you an executive of a high school club? Have you taught yourself how to play multiple instruments?  Exhibiting one or more of these areas across your application will surely catch the admission officer’s attention.   

2. Lack of research: Not being able to answer “why?”  

With few exceptions, the most selective universities will ask students a variation on “Why do you want to attend this university?”  Highly selective universities don’t want to admit students who haven’t done their research.  

Applicants should have done a deep dive into a university’s website and social media, met with them at a university fair or even visited their campus. Answers to this question should be as unique as the universities themselves. So unique, in fact, that the answers cannot be applied to any other institution. Find studies that interest you, professors who engage in research related to your subject of choice, a club that matches your interests.  

If your only reason for applying is because the university is high ranking or has prestige, it’s time to start digging deeper. Universities are looking for students with genuine interests who know that their unique skills and characteristics will be served best by that university.

No application is perfect.  Whether it’s a dip in grades, hopping around activities without demonstrating much commitment, or a lack of all-around engagement, it’s important not to ignore potential challenges to your application’s success.   

University admission officers aren’t looking for reasons to deny your application, they’re looking for reasons to admit you! Provide context to your decisions in your essay writing or by asking your UCA or teacher to include more detailed information in their letter of recommendation.  

Giving the additional context gives you more control of the story you’re telling and prevents the admission officer from having to fill in the blanks with their own imagination, which could potentially harm your chances of admission.   

Unique. Adjective. Being only one of its kind; unlike anything else.  

Most students and their parents believe that university admission officers are looking for the most “unique” students. Based on this definition, it sounds too hard to achieve, right? In fact, many students get too stressed trying to find ways where they are unlike anybody else. Instead, think about how you are standing out by maximizing your combination of skills and interests.    

Learning a programming language can develop into programming an educational game that helps other students learn a difficult topic in your favorite subject in a fun way. Diving into engineering could lead to building something that solves a problem for yourself, your family, or your community.  

These activities shouldn’t feel forced or feel like work; they should be a fun way for you to spend your time! Standing out is much less daunting than trying to be unique - be yourself!  

ISB is lucky enough to have four highly qualified university and career advisors to help each student on their journey to life after high school, wherever that may lead.  Over four years, UCAs will spend time getting to know each student via 1:1 meetings, group sessions, analyzing assessments, and finally putting together each piece and part of their university application to make sure we’re telling the best story possible.   

UCAs will write a detailed letter supporting each student’s application, help build a list of universities based on personal and academic fit and curate each student’s application to make sure their best and brightest points are highlighted in all the right places. We have direct contact with the university admission officers who review our applications, visit campuses throughout the year and regularly attend professional conferences to make sure we have the most up-to-date information to share with our community.  

For your university advisor to best support you, students should engage as much as they can. The better we know you: the things you’re proud of, and the challenges you’ve overcome, the better we can support you. 

The most successful students are the most engaged with their UCA. We are here to help!