Why thinking about thinking can help with university applications

As educators, we all encourage students to think. However, have you encouraged students to think about thinking?

Thinking about thinking is neatly captured in the term “metacognition” (meta = Greek preposition meaning “self-referential”; cognition = mental processes). This concept is already well known to teachers, as it is bolstered in the curriculum from the early years through to postgraduate study.

Metacognition is essential for counsellors to understand, too. The very act of deciding upon a university and putting together an application requires metacognitive skills. In addition, a university application with a writing element requires students to reflect on their own thinking patterns. Otherwise, how would you present a coherent picture of four years of high-school life in 650 words (Common App) or 4,000 characters (Ucas)?

Not only is metacognition crucial in the final year of high school, but it can help students from Years 9 to 11 make more effective decisions during their high-school years.

So how do we increase metacognition in students? We do so by asking questions, both formally through the curriculum and informally in our conversations.

Here are some questions that counsellors can ask, coupled with explanations of the metacognitive elements they probe at.

Questions to boost metacognition in the university-application process

Metacognitive knowledge

Metacognitive knowledge encompasses what we know about ourselves, the task and the strategies that have worked before.

Take a look at the following questions to see how metacognitive knowledge can be applied to students completing university applications.  

1. Knowledge about ourselves

• What strengths can you highlight in your application, such as academic achievements, community involvement or soft skills?
• What aspects of the application process do you find most challenging, and how might you address these?
• What draws you to a certain university or a region?
• Rank your universities (or regions) in order of preference.

2. Knowledge about the task

• What are the specific requirements for each application, such as essays or minimum requirements?
• How familiar are you with the application platforms and timelines, and what resources can help you navigate them?

3. Knowledge about strategies

• How can you highlight your strengths, given the differing requirements of each application?
• What writing strategies can you use to create compelling personal statements or essays?
• What tools or methods can help you track deadlines and manage application components efficiently? Think about what has worked with your school assignments.

Metacognitive regulation

Metacognitive regulation refers to actual activities engaged in to facilitate successful completion of the task. It can be further broken down into planning, monitoring and evaluating.

What sort of questions can we ask, as college counsellors, to help students plan, monitor and evaluate their applications?

1. Planning (goal-setting)

• What are your main goals for attending university, and how do they align with your long-term plans?
• What criteria are you using to decide which universities to apply to? In essence: what is a good university for you?
• What are the pros and cons of each university?
• Which activities or achievements are you choosing to incorporate and highlight? Why?

2. Monitoring

• What challenges are you facing during the application process, and how have you addressed them?
• Which is the most challenging element of the application? Which is the easiest element? What does that demonstrate about your own strengths?
• How do you plan to manage any upcoming deadlines or requirements alongside school assignments?
• If you’re applying to multiple universities, how do you plan to manage their deadlines?

3. Evaluating (self-reflection)

• What strategies worked and which didn’t? (This can be asked for each element of the application.)
• What will I do differently for the next application?
• What have you learned about yourself during this process?
• How can you apply what you’ve learned to future job application processes, beyond high school?

4. Evaluating (incorporating feedback)

• Who will you ask for feedback on your application? Why?
• Which feedback from external parties will you incorporate and which will you not? Why?
• What steps can you take to improve any weak areas in your application?

Emotional awareness

Finally, emotional awareness is a key part of metacognition as well. Understanding and managing emotions that naturally arise during any cognitive process is an integral element to success in this stressful process.

• How much anxiety or stress are you experiencing related to the application process?
• What resources do you have to manage your anxiety and stress?
• What strategies do you use to stay motivated throughout this journey?
• What coping strategies have worked before? What new coping strategies will you pick up?

Metacognition in the university application itself

The following questions from university applications are in essence giant practices in metacognition, requiring students to deeply reflect on their own thinking patterns and present them to universities in a coherent and comprehensive manner.

1. Common App

All Common App questions involve a great deal of metacognition. The following questions are exemplars of this.

• The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
• Discuss an accomplishment, event or realisation that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

2. UBC personal profile

• What is important to you? And why?
• Tell us more about one or two activities listed above that are most important to you. Please explain the role you played and what you learned in the process.

3. Ucas personal statement

There is no given prompt, but an effective personal statement requires a great deal of metacognitive skills to thread disparate academic experiences and achievements into a concise statement.

Bonus: metacognition in subject choice

Choosing an advanced subject is a task that requires students to reflect upon their own thinking. Here are some questions you can ask your students.

• What subjects did you excel in and enjoy the most in the past year?
• How do these subjects align with your future goals? Do they meet the minimum requirements of the university course you would like to study?
• What are the prerequisites and demands of the advanced course you’re considering? Do you meet them with your current performance?
• How do they fit with the rest of your predicted workload?
• How will you track your progress and adjust if you find the courses more challenging than expected? Will you have time to change the course, and what is the timeline provided by the school for that?
• What types of assessments are used, and how do they match your strengths in testing or projects?
• What skills do you want to develop, and which courses will help you achieve this?
• What resources will you need to succeed in these courses, and how can you access them?

Final note

If you are an experienced counsellor, you are already very likely already asking these questions naturally. Now you know what skill you’re leaning into: metacognition and its various elements.

Finally, as with most resources that benefit students, boosting metacognition can help us to be more effective at our own jobs. Try fashioning these questions for yourself and your own context, task and environment, in a self-coaching manner.

Aspiring to be a lifelong learner is a common professional and personal goal – and there’s so much to learn in our own thinking patterns. Metacognition can help us do just that.