You’ve worked hard. Your grades are excellent. Surely that’s enough to get into a top university?
Not necessarily.
At highly competitive universities, many applicants will meet-and sometimes exceed-the academic requirements. So how do you become a stronger applicant? One of the biggest clues is surprisingly simple:
Be curious.
Your application starts before you write it
A common mistake is thinking that university applications begin when you open the application form. They don’t.
Your application is being built every time you choose to learn something about your subject that nobody has asked you to learn:
- Perhaps you watch a lecture about artificial intelligence
- Read an economics book
- Follow a court case because you’re interested in law
- Complete a coding project
- Listen to a medical podcast
- Research a question from class because you can’t stop thinking about it
These are examples of supercurricular activity: learning that extends your academic interests beyond your normal school curriculum.
Extracurricular vs supercurricular: what’s the difference?
Extracurricular activities happen outside your academic studies. Sport, music, volunteering, leadership positions and clubs can all help you develop valuable skills.
Supercurricular activities are different. They take you deeper into the subject you want to study.
If you’re applying for Economics, for example, being captain of the football team demonstrates leadership – but reading about inflation and then investigating how monetary policy has affected your country’s economy demonstrates academic curiosity about Economics.
For academically selective courses, that distinction matters.
Don’t collect activities. Think about them.
Here’s another mistake. Students sometimes approach supercurricular activities like a shopping list:
- I read this book
- I listened to this podcast
- I completed this course
- I attended this lecture
That’s not particularly interesting. Instead, ask yourself:
What did I think?
Maybe you disagreed with the author. Perhaps a podcast introduced an idea you’d never considered. Maybe one lecture caused you to research something completely different.
That’s where your intellectual personality begins to appear. A useful formula is:
I explored → I learned → I questioned → I explored further
That tells us far more than a list of achievements ever could.
Don’t try to sound like someone else
Students often believe university applications need to sound incredibly sophisticated, so they add complicated vocabulary or famous quotes. They might add dramatic statements about having wanted to become a lawyer, engineer or economist since childhood.
You don’t need to do this. Your own thinking is much more interesting. Instead of trying to sound impressive, concentrate on having something interesting to say.
Start an Application Journal
Here’s something you can do today. Create a document or notebook called:
My University Application Journal
Every time you do something relevant, record four things:
- What did I do?
- What did I learn?
- What interested or surprised me?
- What could I explore next?
Do this consistently and something brilliant happens. When the time comes to prepare your university application, your aren’t staring at a blank screen trying to remember what you’ve done for the last two years. You’ve already captured your best material.
And finally: Don’t reject yourself
Students sometimes look at prestigious universities and decide: “people like me don’t get into places like that.”
So they don’t apply. Don’t make the admissions decision on the university’s behalf. Research the requirements. Prepare properly. Build your academic interests. Ask for guidance.
And if an opportunity is genuinely right for you, put yourself forward.
You might receive a no. But you might also receive a yes.
Don’t say no to yourself before anyone else gets the chance to say yes
At Highfliers Academy, we help ambitious African students develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to explore global university opportunities – and become stronger applicants along the way.
