For most students, the most important factor in college choice is really the cost constraints. This is important for both chance-me as well as match-me (in many cases, chance-me is about chances for the large-enough merit scholarship for affordability, not admission).
The most important aspects of “demographics” are really the following:
- Domestic (US citizen or permanent resident for US schools), international student (there may be other special statuses like DACA/Dreamer).
- State (or other location) of residency.
Putting gender and race/ethnicity first creates the implication that these are highly important for college admissions, even though there are colleges where they are not considered at all. Also, overemphasizing their importance can be another small push toward the ugly racial resentment politics that has been increasing in the US.
I would recommend changing the template as follows:
- Cost constraints / budget.
- US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student (or special status like DACA/dreamer), and state or location of residency
- Intended major(s)
- GPA and class rank. Please include unweighted GPA. If you include weighted GPA, describe the weighting system (weighted GPAs are mainly useful with college-standardized weighting systems, such as UC and CSU, rather than high school weighting systems that are unique to each high school). Transfer applicants should list college and high school GPAs separately.
- Course work and type of current high school (college for transfer applicants).
- ACT and SAT scores.
- Awards.
- Extracurriculars (including summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience).
- Essays, recommendations, other.
- Special factors like athletic recruiting.
- Demographic factors of possible interest (legacy, gender, race/ethnicity).
- Colleges to apply to, with your preliminary assessment (indicate whether you plan to apply ED or EA if available):
- Safety (where you expect certain admission and affordability, or you have already been admitted with affordability by EA or early rolling)
- Likely (where it would be surprising, but possible, not to get admitted or not to be able to afford)
- Match
- Reach