When determining where on the spectrum your softs exist, try to put yourself in the shoes of an adcom and think about how you would react to learning about such softs:
If you’d react with a, “omfg, I need this student in my school. Must. Fight. For. Them,” the soft may very well be a unicorn soft or something right below on the spectrum.
If you’d react with a, “wow, I really want this student in my school. They seem really awesome,” it’s probably a great soft and the next level below the elite and unicorn softs.
If you’d react with a, “I’d love to have this student in my school. Let me convince some other adcoms to agree,” it’s probably a good soft, but not great.
If you’d react with a, “Hmm, this student would probably do well here. I’d vote in their favor,” it’s probably an above average soft, but nothing to write home about.
If you’d react with a, “Well, I guess that’s pretty cool. That must have been an interesting experience,” it’s probably just an average soft.
If you’d react with a, “Eh, that’s cool, I guess,” you’re entering below-average-soft territory.
I have some thoughts about what softs would fall into each category, but my point is that I’m pretty sure adcoms don’t have sheets next to them with lists of softs and how valuable they are (well, maybe for the unicorn softs). In the end, it’s how you frame your softs and describe your experiences that will really sell them. What for one person may be a great soft could be just above average for someone else because of how they were described.
And what one person thinks is just “eh” softs may actually be pretty great and they don’t even know it. Plenty of people on this sub are genuinely humble.
What are your thoughts? What softs do you think fall under each category? Do you have another category you’d like to add?
