If there is one pattern that consistently appears in standout college applications, it is not perfection or even conventional achievement but originality, because admissions officers read thousands of applications filled with similar activities, and what truly captures their attention are students who take an unusual idea and develop it deeply, creatively, and authentically, turning something unexpected into a meaningful intellectual or social contribution.
Adults often struggle with technology, consider started a program where teenagers teach seniors how to use smartphones and the internet. But the twist is in the format. Each session requires the senior participant to teach the student something in return.
Through this activitier students will learn:
knitting
carpentry
gardening
cooking
historical stories from older generations
The program will become an intergenerational learning exchange (and admissions officers will love the creativity).
If you are a political science applicant, consider inventing a country. Not just a name — an entire system.
Create:
a constitution
economic policies
electoral systems
diplomatic relationships
a national budget
And then write essays analyzing how the country would survive real-world global politics. Turn this project into a 300-page political simulation.
While most students focus on finding answers, take a completely different approach by collecting questions from philosophical dilemmas and scientific mysteries to strange everyday observations that most people would simply ignore.
Over time, grow this collection into a massive archive titled “10,000 Questions Humans Ask,” and organize it into categories such as physics, psychology, ethics, and economics, creating a structured exploration of human curiosity itself.
If you are interested in psychology choose to focus on a topic that most people would consider too ordinary to study: waiting, but instead of dismissing it as trivial, explore how humans behave in moments of delay and uncertainty, conducting informal observations in environments such as airports, hospitals, government offices, and theme parks.
Then, carefully document patterns in behavior, including phone usage, body language, and triggers of impatience, and then used these observations to write an insightful analysis proposing ways to improve waiting-room design and overall user experience.
In a refreshingly honest and unconventional move choose not to hide your tendency to procrastinate but instead embraced it as the foundation for a long-term research project, designing experiments on yourselves to study productivity patterns, sleep cycles, and the effectiveness of different work styles, including last-minute bursts versus steady progress.
Aim to complete this project over the course of two years, collecting and analyzing data, eventually producing a report titled “The Science of Last-Minute Work,” which combines your personal insight with analytical rigor, and while the topic itself might seem counterintuitive, it will ultimately demonstrate strong self-awareness, discipline in data collection, and the ability to turn a personal weakness into an intellectual strength, making it both relatable and academically compelling.
What connects all of these examples is not just their uniqueness but the depth with which each student pursued their idea, because being “weird” for the sake of being different is not what impresses colleges, but rather the ability to take an unusual concept and develop it thoughtfully, rigorously, and authentically over time, showing curiosity, initiative, and a willingness to explore beyond conventional boundaries.
In the end, the “Make It Weird” strategy is not about trying to stand out artificially but about leaning into your natural curiosities, asking questions that others overlook, and building something meaningful from them, because those are the kinds of stories that admissions officers remember long after they have finished reading thousands of applications.
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