How the Resume I Built at the Bridge Improved My College Acceptances and Earned Me More Scholarships Than I Ever Imagined!

Daniel applied to 5 colleges before deciding to take a gap year at the Bridge Costa Rica.

​Here were his results: 

• Goucher: waitlisted
• Augsburg: accepted, $10,000/year scholarship
• Johnson St: accepted
• Hartford U: accepted
• Castletown St.: accepted

While at The Bridge he worked with us on college apps and added to his applications the experiences he’d lived with us and the resume he had built. Without any changes to his GPA or SAT scores, here’s how he did with his 5 new applications (including the two he applied to again):: 

• Goucher: accepted, $10,000/year scholarship
• Augsburg: accepted, $20,000/year scholarship
• Lynn: accepted, $2,000/year scholarship
• Curry: accepted, $18,000/year scholarship
• Whittier: accepted, $10,000/year scholarship

He explains the change in this way: “I kept on hearing I would get so much experience for resume building, and I said to myself, yeah whatever, what difference can that make? But I’ve gotten a crazy amount of experience that I don’t think I would have gotten anywhere else, and the difference clearly shows”.

So What Made the Difference?

College admissions say the following about the profile they are looking for:
“What is it that makes you unique, and how will you contribute to the life of our campus?” That’s what admission officers want to know, according to Earl Johnson, dean of admission at the University of Tulsa. To gauge what students can bring to their campus, they look for these types of qualities:

• Leadership
• A willingness to take risks
• Initiative
• A sense of social responsibility
• A commitment to service
• Special talents or abilities

Retrieved from: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-in/applying-101/character-counts-what-are-colleges-looking-for

Daniel's experiences at the Bridge surely meet these criteria. With his hours of community service, his internship with nonprofits in Costa Rica, his positive contributions to and leadership in our gap community, his initiative to willingly take a risk by attending a gap year to do something meaningful to prepare him for college, and his unique talents and abilities, his resume shows exactly the kind of applicant that any college admissions team would want in their community. Congratulations, Daniel!