<ol>
<li>Apply to a real financial/admissions safety ASAP. You will feel a lot better if you have a guaranteed acceptance in your back pocket! This is especially true if you’re applying to a reach EA/ED, because if you don’t get in, there’s nothing to cushion the blow.</li>
<li>Lower your family and friends’ expectations of you. Don’t let people see you stressing and obsessing over applications and standardized tests. Otherwise, they will just be disappointed if you don’t get in.</li>
<li>Spend your high school years searching for your big passion and purpose in life. When you find it, everything from your career to your major to your college choice will be perfectly clear. I had this epiphany in junior year. Suddenly, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. You WILL eventually find it, even if it’s not until college or even later!</li>
<li>Once you know what you want, find a college that will offer YOU the best opportunities. The Ivies really aren’t for everyone! It’s okay to go to a state school, or a community college, or a school far away no one you know has heard of. No one who matters will think any less of you.</li>
<li>Visit schools! If you can’t make the trip to visit your first choice, at least look at some schools in your area that are significantly different, like one big state school and one small LAC. This will help you figure out what you want in a college.</li>
</ol>
Scholarship, scholarship, scholarship. Don’t forget the scholarships.
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<ol>
<li>Make sure you actually have enough time to write your essays. I ended up not applying to several schools or messing up the applications because I got too tired to write them at the end.</li>
<li>Check the policy for each school’s interview ASAP (preferably as soon as you submit the application). I didn’t until I started getting requests for interviews, and I found that I had already missed the deadline for UChicago (where you must request an interview instead of the interview request being sent to you - it’s not “mandatory” but the college will definitely think you’re not interested if you don’t request one!).</li>
</ol>
Okay, here’s my big list…
Safety schools need to be not only admissions safeties but also financial safeties.
After reading CC for a while, I’m a huge believer in ED/EA. And of course, with early programs comes this: you need to start doing research earlier than you think. I didn’t start stressing about college until the end of October, when I finally started visiting schools. At that point, all the early deadlines were OMGRIGHTNOW. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have started the process earlier and applied EA somewhere.
Now that you’ve done your research early, you can be absolutely certain what you’re looking for when you do apply to schools. I really wonder if I might have gotten into Brown had I not splashed pre-med/PLME all over my supplement. See, that’s not at all who I am - and it’s not what Brown is about - and I only wish I’d realized that at the time. I also wish I’d applied to MIT. I didn’t give myself enough time to really look into the schools I knew nothing about.
You need to visit schools. I thought Northwestern was my first choice for a few months, until I visited it and realized I didn’t like it at all. (I proceeded to waste $75 on submitting the application anyway and got waitlisted. Just goes to show ya.)
Corollary to the Northwestern story: don’t waste an application on a school you don’t like. I didn’t apply to Stanford or Berkeley, even though a lot of people suggested it, and I have zero regrets. They’re not for me.
Don’t be lazy. Do what you love and go places with it. I’ve quit so many activities over the years because I’m too tired to go to practice or motivate myself or whatever. High school should be a time for you to explore, find what you love, and stick with it.
On the flip side, don’t feel compelled to stick with doing something you hate in hopes that it’ll boost your resume. If it’s fake, it’ll show. When you’re in tenth grade, your thought process should never be anything like “hey, maybe doing ____ will help get me into Harvard.” The amount of underclassmen I see here worrying about college and posting preliminary chance threads sickens me. Worry about passing your AP tests or something first.
My perspective is different, as I’m not a member of the “HS Class of 2013,” but I am the father of a daughter of the “HS Class of 2013,” a young lady who applied to nine colleges and was accepted to nine colleges and received substantial merit aid offers from all nine colleges.
My advice as a parent to other parents who are helping/steering their child through the process is this: toss out the concept of “reach, match and safety” schools when applying. Ban the use of the terms, ignore the concepts they represent, and instead be realistic and forward-thinking.
I mean really, why bother with such silliness as a “reach” school? “Reach” schools are just that, <em>out of reach</em> for most high school students; applications submitted to those schools result in time, money and effort wasted. And why create (or let your child create in his/her mind) the thought that they will be one of the very few to get into Harvard or Stanford? Be honest, once you mail off that application to Elite U., the anticipation will continue to build in the kid’s mind until the “no” is received. Then what? Be realistic. Kids with perfect GPAs, perfect test scores, almost unbelievable ECs and altruistic work are routinely rejected by the Ivies and others frequently. Is your child an exception?
“Safety” is another term that should be shown the door. As you know, “safety” is generally defined to mean a school your child would be happy to go to, has the major he/she wants to study and is affordable. Believe me, “safety” to your kid means “well, I couldn’t get in anywhere else, so here I am.” That’s not exactly the way you want your off-spring to begin their college career, even though they are likely to get just as good an education at Safety U. as they could anyplace else. But when you set up a college as a “fallback” or “default” position, by referring to it as a “safety,” well, how do you think your child is going to view it?
“Match.” Ah. <em>Every college your child applies to should be a match for his/her grades, test scores, talents and desires.</em> Every single one. Why waste time with reaches? Why was time applying to schools with rolling admissions and no entry requirements?
For what it’s worth, our procedure to get where my daughter is today was this. We began identifying colleges my daughter would like to attend in her freshman year of high school. She made the initial choices based upon geography (she wanted someplace warm; we live in Alaska, go figure), major(s) offered (she’s settled on marine biology), school size (not too big, not too small; you know the drill), no religious affiliation, urban vs. suburban vs. rural setting, school colors (yes). From that list–well over 100 schools–we began narrowing things down. Summer vacations over the recent two summers were spent touring college campuses; not all 100, certainly, but we visited well over 40 (with a drawer-full of tee shirts to prove it). The list was becoming manageable.
By the time she began her senior year of high school in August, 2012, we knew approximately what her GPA would be, test scores (she took both the ACT and SAT in the spring of 2012; scored well enough to not test again), awards/honors and other accomplishments. Then we turned to our good friend, the NCES’ “College Navigator.”
I cannot recommend this site highly enough. In one place you can find all the information you need to make informed decisions about a college/university, from acceptance rates to graduation rates to safety issues to default rates on student loans. I feel the biggest information tool it contains is the 25th/75th percentile ranking of the most recent incoming freshman class’ SAT and ACT scores. We used these test figures the most, selecting schools where our daughter was at or well above the 75th percentile for the ACT and all three test categories of the SAT; we did this both for assessing her academic “fit” at the school, and her chances of winning merit scholarships.
From this list we narrowed the choices to nine. Where these “matches?” In a way, yes, but to our way of thinking they were schools where our daughter would be accepted, would like to attend and, oh yeah, that we could afford. Late November/early December was spent sending off applications and documentation. Acceptances came in beginning in late December, with the last one (Univ. of Washington) arriving in mid-March.
Where’s the list currently? Following campus visits/re-visits in mid-February, two schools were dropped from further consideration (“too urban, the buildings are too tall!” remember, we live in Alaska). Two other schools have since been eliminated, well, because; daughter’s decision. Five remain. May 1st seems a long way off, and yet in other ways it seems like tomorrow.
I apologize for the length of this post. The tl;dr bottom line: my advice is to stay away from categorizing college choices as “reach, match, safety,” as it colors the school. “Reach” out for the schools where your kid “matches” or exceeds the qualifications.
Forget a “dream school.” Have many choices that you love.
Do what you love in hs.
No chance threads. I tried and it sucks.
Don’t be on CC a lot. This place can be poisonous. I was here so long that I became nearly crazed and was angry/bitter at the school I’ll be attending come fall simply because I wanted my “dream school(s).”
Just don’t.
Don’t become an HYPSMCYTSVZKDLDN hivemind. I applied to Ivies I didn’t like for the name. Don’t.
If you’re URM know that, despite what EVERYONE says, it doesn’t cover up a crap app (rhyming ftw).
Don’t pad your app. It’s pathetic. Be genuine. If you get rejected, so be it.
@ alexisssss. As a parent, I noticed how much time you spent here on CC. And asked myself why??? While taking a gap year would you be frittering away such valuable time on a site like this…there are some wonderful/amazing things to learn from a site like this. But one has to put those things into action.
I also noticed your posts about people at your school… I would scratch my head & often ask myself how you would come across in your essays. If they would see in you what i saw. Adults with life experience can pick up on things. I guess it’s all that we have seen and witnessed over the years. I wish you luck and I hope you stay away from CC for awhile. Go live your life. It’s a big interesting world and you are far too young and intelligent to be sitting around wasting your life on the Internet.
Idk why you’re always trying to insult me on this site, but it’s getting rather old.
Thanks.
<ol>
<li>Internationals asking for financial aid: You might be rejected by schools like TRINITY with a 2250 SAT/ 800 + 770 SAT IIs/ 4.0 GPA. Yes, money matters. Apply to need-blind schools (but only a couple, as these are crazy reaches) and then to true safeties, with a few 15-30% in the middle (but these will be VERY hard to get into)</li>
<li>Go ED NOW! I applied ED to Dartmouth over Amherst or Middlebury or Bowdoin, which I now realize I should have done, just because I didn’t visit or do my research and decided to go for name recognition… DON’T!</li>
<li>Forget the Ivies and Stanford and UChicago for a moment and look at some liberal arts… They actually come in all sizes, are insanely cool, and ONLY UNDERGRAD!</li>
<li>Whether you’re from Europe or China, forget about what people back home will think. “I go to Skidmore” might not mean anything to my friends and family back in Rome, but it can mean a lot to you. Also, the Ivies are not for everyone… As an international, you would probably benefit from a tight-knit community where you can actually meet all sorts of people instead of just clique up with people from your country.</li>
</ol>
@alexissss just ignore. Lol.
My hindsight for everyone: don’t listen to most people on CC. Just don’t and think for yourselves.
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I would like to continue on what inaweoflacs just said. My prospective is based on international student asking for huge aid.
<ol>
<li>Apply as many colleges as possible. </li>
<li>Apply early. When you do so, you will still have time to improve on your application later for Regular Decision.Most importantly you will learn more things by then,</li>
<li>DO NOT EVER judge a college by its acceptances rate.</li>
<li>You can never make up your academics credentials and standardized test score, when you lose them. YOU WILL HAVE TO EARN THEM FOR SURE. So, keep a good track of your academics. In the mean time, make sure that you are preparing well for standardized tests as well. Standardized tests are as important or even more important than GPA. </li>
</ol>
5.Apply to some safety colleges, no matter how good a candidate you are. You can never tell what US colleges are looking in their prospective students.
<ol>
<li>When you need a lot of aid, you do not have much of the options left in applying. Therefore, do not be very selective in choosing colleges . That can cost you heavy.</li>
<li>Do not be compromise with your application. Give whole lot of time to complete your application. Do everything thing that can strengthen your application. Send them arts , sports or music supplements if they accept any.</li>
</ol>
@descuff
Truuuuuueee.
<ol>
<li>Apply to fewer than 10 schools. I mean it. And if you can, ~5. I applied to 13, but by the time my 3rd semester rolled around I knew I wouldn’t really be happy at half of them. </li>
<li>Applying to college is ****ing expensive. Let’s say you’re applying to 10 schools. Half of then have fees (conservatively) and those fees average around 50 bucks (also conservatively). You’re already looking at $250. Now you have to send your SAT/ACT scores at ~$16 a pop. 250+160= $410. And that’s assuming that you won’t send more scores later. Now factor in the costs of the tests themselves. At $50 per test, with most folks taking it around 3 times, that’s $150. Now you’re at $560. Want to visit any of those colleges? The costs only increase exponentially from there. </li>
<li>Resources: this site is good for venting and camaraderie, but you should probably look elsewhere for real information. Bigfuture.collegeboard.com is excellent as is the Princeton Review site. I would go ahead and splurge on the $20 Princeton Review college book, as well. </li>
<li>Don’t feel pressured. You will soon grow VERY tired of people asking you where you’re going to school. Don’t feel rushed. You have until May 1st. </li>
<li>Be realistic. The biggest lie that is told to young, bright, high school students is that everything will magically “work out” and that they’ll get school paid for. What they don’t tell you (and probably don’t know) is that, in this day and age of competitive college admissions, that only really applies if you’re applying to non-competitive state schools. The statistics are online. Look at their middle fifty percent SAT/ACT, GPA, etc. if you don’t fall within or above that range, don’t set your heart on that school. Which leads me to the next point.</li>
<li>Learn what to expect monetarily. Use the EFCs. I have friends who were always told they they could go to school for free just because they’re bright minority students. This is untrue and now they’re royally ****ed because of it. Look at schools that meet upwards of 80% of need or that would probably give you gobs of merit-based aid. </li>
</ol>
There’s probably more, but these are the most urgent things that come to mind.
<ol>
<li>If there’s a school you really want to go to, apply EA/ED. Recently, privates have been accepting nearly 30% - 40% of their entire class through ED, making admission through ED easier and through RD harder.</li>
<li>Write your Common App essay during the summer between 11th and 12th grade. Also, if you’re applying to UCs or similar schools, write those essays over that summer too. </li>
<li>Spend your summers wisely. Get internships, prepare for competitions, or work at a useful (i.e. major-related) job.</li>
<li>Get a high GPA and SAT. These set the boundaries for your potential admissions. Of course there are outliers and instances of ECs covering up for GPA, but don’t count on it. </li>
<li>Almost every school people want to get into on CC typically pick from the top 10% of the HS class. Ivy League will typically pick from the top 5%, with the most selective ones like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia picking from the top 1 -2%. If you’re not within these brackets, you’re most likely out of the running. </li>
<li>Look over the admission results thread for the college you want to get into. These are admitted people posting their (hopefully) real profiles so you can see the competition and calibrate your expectations. I’ve found this to be the best way to measure myself against the typical admit. Things like parchment just use a calculation and chance forums are, as many have said, useless. </li>
<li>If you’re a Ivy League/Stanford/MIT/etc. hopeful student, apply to good schools with rolling admission or earlier notification dates (like UMich, or something). You need to have admissions that you’re happy with lined up before you get hit with the decision storm from 3/27 - 4/1. </li>
<li>Don’t loose hope in your college admissions but don’t get too enamored by any one college either. Try your best to push it out of your mind and enjoy senior year. Stay away from the college forums during the weeks leading up to decision day. It’ll give you panic attacks.</li>
</ol>
If I could go back in time and tell myself something, I would say to study/take science SAT subject tests so I could’ve applied to MIT & Caltech. Maybe take some AP tests (my school didn’t offer any) so I could’ve applied to Cambridge/Oxford. Otherwise just relax and you’ll get in somewhere good for you. For example, at the start of applying I thought I was a really good fit for UChicago, but I ended up finding out about Pomona by chance. I applied there, got in there and Brown as my top 2 and I think I’ll end up going to Pomona as a great fit for me.
Press on fellow seniors! We are almost out! I swear we will make it. It’s been a rough year filled with lots of anticipation, agony, and some triumph, really, it’s almost over. My school gets out in less than a month! I’m so excited and can’t wait to make the next step in life! Thanks for being here for me CC!
if you’re a fellow senior then why haven’t I seen you in the high school life 2013 thread???
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1.) To agree with other posters, definitely do not base a college’s success on its acceptance rate. A girl (not a very academically talented one) at my school got into a college with an acceptance rate around 30%, but the test scores are significantly lower than at schools with higher acceptance rates.
2.) Don’t focus on ranking unless your career goals and financial status require or allow a top 20 school. A good GPA and internship/leadership experience at a good school is better for your resume than a decent GPA and no time for experience at a top college or university.
3.) Make sure that you won’t be too much in debt after graduation, particularly if you plan on pursuing graduate, law, or medical school, but balance that with happiness. You’ll be at the school for four or five years and you’re definitely going to want to love it there. I thought I would be happy at all of my safety schools, but when the time came to make decisions and my first choice was ruled out because of finances, I realized that all the scholarships and financial aid in the world would not make me be happy at some of those schools. I’ll be taking out private loans, but I will be happy at TCNJ.
4.) If you have an extracurricular interest that you don’t want to major in, look into a minor. I’m minoring in music solely because it’s a lot of fun for me. I think sometimes people think that college is the “real deal” but it’s actually your last chance to have fun before being thrust out into the real world, so do what you love and make it work.
5.) Don’t let your grades slip! A lot of seniors in my school are starting to ignore stupid things like homework and easy classwork because of senioritis. Colleges really do rescind acceptances for things like B’s slipping to D’s or F’s. Even if you can bomb the last quarter and still graduate, don’t.
Be wary of relatives who insist that you apply to their alma mater because they’ve “got pull”, and consider whether it’s really their ego speaking.
Remember that admissions officers are people too, and be nice, be sincere, and be sure to talk to your designated rep several times - preferably in person - until your name sticks and they remember your face. Try to interview at your preferred schools, if those schools aren’t huge universities that do admissions strictly “by-the-numbers” anyways.
Remember that “unusual interests” make you stand out more than a passel of middling extracurriculars.
Thanks for the advice. The early admission/action/regular applications are terribly confusing.