How a Deep-Fit College Search Builds Student Confidence and Agency for a Bright Future
When a student walks into my dean’s office, I can often tell what year they are before we’ve even spoken. The first-year students are bubbling with excitement, optimism, and tend to come with many anxious questions about how they will achieve all they hope to achieve in college. Time is on their side, and everything is possible! Sophomores, with one of their college years already behind them, typically feel the weight of the big decisions they face, such as identifying and declaring a major, finding an internship for the following summer, and studying abroad. Juniors are usually in a good place, settling into their major and the plans they’ve laid for themselves (perhaps in an exotic location while studying abroad!) And then there are the seniors. Although they may have questions about their looming life after college, those who have thrived carry themselves with a confidence and a sense of optimistic agency developed through their college years. They may not know what lies ahead, but they know they can and will find their way. It is always so good to see!
Confidence and Agency: The Keys To College Success
I’ve learned the critical role of confidence and agency* in a student’s success in college and beyond through my three decades of supporting and educating college students. I recently saw these themes echoed when reading New York Times Journalist and Writer Frank Bruni's 2016 best seller, Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania, as relevant today as when it was published. In the book, he advocates against the rankings-driven mania of college admissions and for students to navigate their college search and "their years of higher education and what they demand from that chapter of their life" intentionally. The thriving individuals Bruni interviewed mention confidence repeatedly: "I learned that surviving and prospering- with a small p - was something that I could do," "Confidence... was an essential part of the equation of success," "I came out of college with a level of confidence and self-understanding," "I almost didn't recognize him because of the confidence that he'd gained," and "He developed an assertiveness, academically speaking." Likewise, student agency is a common thread: "I left with the knowledge it was all up to me," "Emerson (College) had cast her as the captain of her fate," "Great educations aren't passive experiences; they're active ones," and "he set about making William and Mary its own adventure."
*Agency refers to “a student’s desire, ability, and power to determine their own course of action.” Vaughn (2018)
The Deep-Fit™ College Search: Empowering Students With Confidence And Agency
I recently shared a new paradigm for the college search and application process centered on thriving as a foundation for lifelong success and based on the concept of Deep-Fit, developed through my decades of experience supporting college students. A Deep-Fit college search is one where a student is engaged in the process of identifying Deep-Fit colleges where they will have the opportunity to have positive, impactful experiences, meet their specific academic and personal goals, thrive, and lay the foundation for a successful life.
Lantern’s Deep-Fit college search process empowers students by centering their perspective and supporting them to have an active voice and role. We guide students to research their schools among those we recommend, build their short college list, write their essays and applications, and choose their college. At each stage of their search, we ask our students questions about what THEY think, and they are the ones to make the important decisions. As Lantern parent Beth says, “What results is a beautifully unique application package that reflects the student.”
We challenge our students to dream big, envision their future, see what they can create for themselves, and then, most importantly, equip them with the tools to do so. Through this experience, students gain confidence and learn to be active agents in building their college future. As Lantern student Henry shares, “I have found a very good choice for myself.” Lantern student Abigail says, “I can’t thank you enough for taking me on. I was feeling defeated and a bit aimless … and your support made all the difference in my confidence. … I am so so proud of myself and feel confident in my choice!” And Sonakshi writes,“Lantern's approach to college applications made me feel confident and proud of my applications.”
Create Your Future With Confidence At A Deep-Fit College
After creating their college future through our Deep-Fit process, students are strongly positioned to keep creating their future while in college because they take the skills, confidence, and sense of agency - the steps and practices we’ve helped them develop through our work - to college. Further, when students make their college choice, they are positioned to keep creating their future in college because they choose a Deep-Fit school that will empower them.
Bruni's book affirms Lantern’s Deep-Fit approach. The college search process should not be about chasing rankings or superficial factors. It isn't all about getting in - it is about what happens during college. At a Deep-Fit college, students can achieve their personal and academic goals, have impactful experiences, thrive, develop confidence and agency, and lay the foundation for a successful life. As one of Bruni's interviewees powerfully articulated, at a Deep-Fit school, a student is "the captain of (their) fate."
Case Study 1: The CalTech Dropout Who Gained Confidence At Deep-Fit Brown
As I’ve shared Deep-Fit with others, I’ve received so much affirming feedback that my ideas deeply resonate with parents and fellow educators. After a recent presentation to a school community, one mother wrote me a heartfelt email the next day inquiring about my working with her engineering-interested daughter and sharing her own college experience*:
I would love to share my own story about the importance of fit. I excelled in math and science in high school and was accepted to Brown, Cornell, and Caltech, and chose Caltech because of its “prestige” and its reputation as a leader in science. I was also heavily recruited as a woman. At that time, I believe Caltech’s percentage of women was mid-teens. I realized the horrible mistake I made within two weeks and the significance of the note I sent to Brown - “please keep my application on file in case of transfer.” I did not do well at Caltech. I failed freshman physics and barely passed the other classes. I only did well in computer science, which had been a passion of mine in high school. I was lost and frozen (my immigrant parents were not able to help advise me), and the deadline to transfer came and went. I received the re-enrollment form from Caltech’s registrar and could not check the box to stay enrolled. I called my parents and told them I dropped out of college.
That next year, I lived at home and questioned whether I was good enough to stay in STEM, something that had been my identity ever since I could remember. I took marine biology, archaeology, creative writing, and computer science at the local community college and the local branch of my state university system. Yes, computer science (CS) was what made me tick. I applied as a transfer student to one school - Brown. I called and made an appointment with the dean of the CS dept and the head of the Graphics department. I told him I wanted to study computer science with him and asked if he would make a phone call to admissions to ensure my dream would happen. I am not sure if he did or not, but I was accepted. Most of my credits transferred, and I entered Brown as a junior. I stayed for three years and got my combined BA/MSc in the department of computer graphics, graduating magna cum laude. I worked in the graphics lab and as a head TA and I published a paper in the Journal of Graph Drawing. I had some wonderful mentors; as you mentioned, they are critical to success.
Feel free to share my story if it helps anyone, especially women in STEM. I think the “lesson learned” in this case was the element of listening to your heart. Subconsciously, I always knew I’d thrive at Brown, but the prestige of Caltech led me astray.
* small edits to protect the writer’s privacy and for clarity
I am so glad that this woman found her way to a school that was a Deep-Fit for her, where she gained confidence and thrived. She says the lesson learned in her case was the element of listening to your heart. Yes, though I see other lessons too. Namely, rankings and prestige do not determine fit and thriving. Also, the story highlights factors that contribute to challenges or success for women in STEM. But those are other articles! Here, I want to focus on the lesson that students gain confidence through a Deep-Fit college experience and that confidence and agency are essential elements of thriving. Clearly, this woman did not thrive at Caltech; her confidence suffered, causing her to drop out and question whether she was good enough to stay in STEM. However, she thrived at Brown, where she regained confidence and stayed in STEM. She created a thriving college experience for herself and the successful life she has now through her own intentional actions - her agency.
Case Study 2: The Student Who Gained Confidence in Math And Found Engineering Through Deep-Fit
In high school, my daughter was good at and enjoyed math and science and approached problems as an engineer. She could attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is top-ranked in engineering, for free because of faculty affiliation. So, early in my daughter’s college search process, I thought MIT would be a Deep-Fit for her. But this isn’t what she thought. She didn’t think she was particularly strong at math due to her high school and our community, where many families choose to send their children to supplemental math instruction after school and during the summer throughout their childhood, a choice my family did not make. She also didn’t see herself as an engineer. She had a lot of academic interests that she wanted to explore and didn’t see other students wanting to study engineering - notably MIT - who looked like her and she identified with. So, she wasn’t ready to commit to engineering and didn’t see herself at MIT.
As her mother, I worried that she didn’t have more confidence in math, was unsure of her academic direction, and didn’t want to commit to engineering or any one school. I also worried that she might be losing an opportunity to gain acceptance somewhere through ED that she might later not gain acceptance to. However, I knew that it was important to center my daughter’s perspective and support her to be in charge of her college search process. She chose to apply to about a dozen schools through non-binding early action and regular decision plans. All the schools offered a flexible curriculum where a range of majors, including engineering, were accessible and where there were resources to support her academic exploration. The schools had accessible extracurricular activities that she was seeking and offered study abroad programs that matched her academic interests and potential majors. Lastly, the schools provided the educational and social culture she sought. Ultimately, my daughter chose to attend Tufts University, a Deep-Fit school for her.
My daughter took what she learned about being the captain of her college search process and college future to college. At Tufts, she enrolled in the School of Arts and Sciences, explored her academic interests, saw students she identified with studying engineering, earned multiple A and A+ grades in her math courses and learned that she was “really good at math,” discovered for herself that she wanted to be an engineer, and internally transferred into the School of Engineering to major in biomedical engineering. I saw her gain confidence, direction, and develop agency through her Deep-Fit college experience.
My daughter graduated with a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts in 2019 and accepted a position as a researcher at MIT. After working for a few years at MIT, she enrolled in an MS in Biomedical Informatics degree program at Harvard Medical School, funded by MIT. She recently graduated and is now back at MIT, applying what she learned. My daughter’s achievements stem from her Deep-Fit college search process, which encouraged her to be the one to create her college future. She learned agency and gained confidence, so she was prepared to take on new challenges and accomplishments in college, and beyond. She was empowered to create her future herself—the one she has now.
Case Study 3: The Liberal Arts Student Who Discovered Computer Science Through Deep-Fit
Five years ago, my heart leaped when I saw a LinkedIn post by one of my former Wellesley College students. As a first-year student, Eve had no intention of majoring in CS. She took my introductory course for non-majors, designed as a gentle introduction to CS ideas for students who wanted to have some basic literacy in the field. Since it was not sufficiently rigorous, the course could not be applied to the CS major. Eve devoured the concepts and material and excelled in the course. She then took the introductory programming course for majors and loved that, too. She declared a CS major and asked me to be her major advisor. I was thrilled to guide and mentor her through the CS major and during her time at the College. Many years later, the LinkedIn post that made my heart leap announced her appointment as a tenure-track faculty member in the CS department at Wellesley (after having earned an MS and Ph.D. in CS from a top-ranked CS program.) When I congratulated her by commenting on her post, she replied, "It all started with you in CS110!" In a sense, yes. But it actually all started with her choice of Wellesley College, for her a Deep-Fit school that afforded her impactful experiences and through its liberal arts curriculum, empowered her to gain confidence in a technical discipline she knew nothing about.
Case Study 4: The Undecided Student Who Learned To Be Captain Of Her Uncharted Creative Path Due To Deep-Fit
In high school, Stephanie had many academic interests, including art and photography. She enrolled in the Tufts BFA+BA/BS combined degree program, which enabled her to pursue visual arts and numerous other academic subjects within the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA)’s uniquely flexible curriculum. A powerful feature of the SMFA experience is review boards, where students present a semester’s worth of work to a group of faculty and student peers. They receive valuable feedback on their work and ideas and have the opportunity to better articulate and refine their ideas and direction. This experience of being supported and challenged to intentionally navigate her education reinforced the lessons of agency Stephanie had learned through our Deep-Fit college search work together. Ultimately, Stephanie chose to focus her studies on the power and purpose of image through the BA/BS degree, graduating in 2022 with majors in Sociology and Film and Media Studies. During her Tufts education, her favorite class was Food Media, and her professor for that class became an extraordinary mentor to her. While an undergraduate, Stephanie had a positive internship experience at a major market research company and could have pursued the clear path of a full-time position there upon graduation. She instead chose to take a riskier path of seeing if she could create a role for herself in the food industry that combines her diverse talents and interests. She attended culinary school and is now in the early stages of building a rewarding and unique career.
I dug up her college personal statement when writing this article. In it, she wrote: I don't know where my love of art and photography will take me––that’s a question I’m asked a lot. And one I ask myself. But I do know that my intellectual curiosity, creativity, and interdisciplinary mindset transcend the straight practice of photography and will be valuable no matter what I choose to do. I also know that continuing to follow what I know to be true of myself will lead me to the most interesting places possible.
It makes me smile to see her taking the lessons of agency she learned through her Deep-Fit college search process and Deep-Fit experiences at Tufts forward with such strength as she builds a meaningful, authentic career.
The Deep-Fit Approach: Empowering Students With Confidence And Agency
Through a Deep-Fit college search, students will gain confidence and learn to be active agents in their college search, while in college, and beyond college. They learn that they can create their future and gain skills and experiences to do so powerfully. When we work with high school students through our Deep-Fit college search process, we constantly challenge them to see what they can create for themselves and equip them to do so. When we help students make their college choice, we know they are positioned to keep creating their future in college because they choose a Deep-Fit school that will empower them. We send them off with our College Success Roadmap, which includes specific action items in five main areas, one of which is "Create Your Future."
The key to success in college and life is knowing and believing in your power to achieve your dreams. Lantern’s Deep-Fit college search process is the first step on that journey.
