<p>Many students think of "what if" scenarios in the college admissions game. What if I would have applied to Harvard? What if I applied to that school that I qualified for the full ride? What would you have done differently if you could do the college admissions process all over again?</p>
<p>Here's my list, keep it going with your advice to future applicants:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Assess your financial situation beforehand and know where you stand in terms of getting money at each school. Only the top 25 or so institutions in the country promise to fill 100% of all applicants demonstrated need. The rest of the institutions will gap. Publics will have nearly all their money devoted towards scholarships, Privates will have need based grants and scholarships available. Look through the resources available and judge how much you could potentially get, and what the cost will be.</p></li>
<li><p>Discuss with your parents your college list. I did not personally do this. My parents had the hands off approach, and just wanted to know how much they were paying. Then I told them that I had applied to the University of Miami, over 1,000 miles away from home, and they insisted that I wouldn't be going there, even after I got the admission packet in the mail.</p></li>
<li><p>Research more schools that you can afford. There's nothing worse than getting an acceptance letter in the mail, and then realizing that they gave you all loans in financial aid. Look down a tier, look in-state for schools. Check exchange programs out, the WUE, MSEP, and ACS are popular programs. </p></li>
<li><p>Apply to the schools you want to apply to. If everyone on this website says you can't get in, your stats are below the 25% mark, and you don't fit the typical accepted applicant, apply even if you have the slightest chance. If you want to truly go to a school, it will show on your application. You don't want to be sitting here a year later thinking "I may have gotten in there, but I never applied". </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Though I couldn't be happier with the school I now attend (which was my first choice), I now realize that my reaches and matches would have made a terrible fit for me. I was a top student in a top high school, and as a result I only thought about top schools and was heavily influenced by my peers in thinking about match schools. My match schools, when I was applying to colleges, were Cornell, JHU, Northwestern, and Tufts. I think I would have been much better off applying to schools like Bryn Mawr, Reed, Oberlin, and Smith.</p>
<p>The USNWR is not all that helpful. First, the differences between the top 15 or top 20 schools are marginal at best; and even so, go with fit and feel over average SAT score and admitted students rate. You'll find smart, interesting, driven students no matter where you end up. Think about it this way: you will never, ever say to yourself in a clasroom, "Gee, if only these kids had scored 100 points higher on critical reading, THEN we'd have a good discussion!" but you might say, "I wish these kids didn't care so much about the way they dress," or "I wish these kids weren't so intense about school," or "I wish these kids cared more about social activism."</p>
<p>Have fun with your college essays. Have fun in general. Applying to colleges stinks, but it doesn't mean it should take over your life. Learn how to be happy; it's a much better thing to learn than how to boost your ACT composite score.</p>
<p>Great advice (not sure why this thread died out last year with only 1 reply).</p>
<p>Take my own son’s situation. With a 3.4 GPA, he thought he had absolutely no chance at a transfer to USC (average transfer GPA of 3.7), but he decided to apply anyway. As it was, he was in the final group all the way until just a few days ago, and was sent a spring grade request (normally sent only to those in the final group of acceptees/rejectees)–and I’m convinced that if he hadn’t done so poorly in two of his spring classes (all because of one poor test score in each one), he would have been accepted.</p>
<p>So, don’t give up on your dreams. It’s like Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon said, “The barriers are there to keep out the ones who don’t want it enough”. So just be the one who does want it, and make your dreams happen.</p>
<p>I think most people I’ve observed personally would have been better served having researched schools more in terms of qualitative and less tangible characteristics, and never having seen the U.S. News useless rankings for morons report.</p>
<p>Ditto on the financial advice: public schools are fantastic and increasingly underrated. They have much more to offer in terms of choices and top-notch facilities, all at a low cost. Small private schools may create an automatic community feel more quickly, but you can create a community (with more options!) at an enormous public school. The sheer number of opportunities, variety, and cost benefits make public schools the best choice for the majority of applicants, especially if you’re not a brilliant member of a favored minority group who will have money thrown at you by private schools seeking a properly mixed batch of students.</p>
<p>One costly mistake I see more often than I should is focusing on what some students call “HYPER-reaches.” Focus on REAL reaches: odds are, you won’t get in, but there’s still a possibility. If you have no business applying to Harvard, don’t. You won’t get in, but if by some odd mistake at the admissions office one frantic day you do accidentally get accepted, you won’t get as much out of a school where you are the dumbest person there and finishing last in your class if you manage to finish at all. The college experience is enriched by your peers, so look for schools that actually have your peers in attendance.</p>
Honestly, I don’t really think this is worthwhile advice. If your stats are going to be in the bottom 25% of a school’s enrolled group, and the school has a fairly low acceptance rate, you’re almost definitely going to need to be an athlete, legacy, URM, or some other wild hook to get in. It would be a far better idea to spend your time applying to a school you might actually get into. </p>
<p>Also, I think the USNWR rankings are a good tool when used properly. Just to give you an example, I came from a high school where the guidance counselors knew almost nothing about out-of-state schools that would suit me. They had their heart set on having everyone go to one of the Florida public schools on the Bright Futures Scholarship, which, for most people in my graduating class, was a fantastic option. Honestly, my family didn’t know too much about colleges either. So when I bought the USNWR rankings and could finally see all the colleges I might be interested in on one page, it was almost like starting the whole application process all over again.</p>
<p>But you could have gotten the same info–more detailed info, in fact–from lots of other publications without supporting that useless “rankings” scam.</p>
<p>I didn’t know about the rankings after I had already applied. The only applicable use of the rankings is that it gives you a list of schools for you to research. Of course, the point is not to just focus on top 10 schools but go over several diligently and note which ones you like, their financial aid opportunities, etc. </p>
<p>“Honestly, I don’t really think this is worthwhile advice. If your stats are going to be in the bottom 25% of a school’s enrolled group, and the school has a fairly low acceptance rate, you’re almost definitely going to need to be an athlete, legacy, URM, or some other wild hook to get in. It would be a far better idea to spend your time applying to a school you might actually get into.”</p>
<p>Well, you won’t know unless you apply. It’s better to do it than wonder.</p>
<p>It’s been many, many years since I was a college applicant… but the main thing I’d do differently is take a much closer look at the good liberal arts colleges, where I think smart kids can get an undergraduate education that rivals that of the best universities.</p>
I’m really not sure I could’ve. When I first got the rankings, I looked to see where University of Florida ranked because that was going to be one of my cheapest options and I knew I was going to get in. And it barely cracked the top 50. So from that point on, I knew that all I really had to do was look at the 50 schools that beat it since the schools below it were actually more expensive. There really is no other publication that could give me such a quick summary of what schools would be worth considering despite their higher price tag.</p>
<p>Fair enough. I’m guessing that’s why a lot of people use it. It does have neat little columns of data at least, but I still oppose their ridiculous ranking system and refuse to support it.</p>
<p>I feel sort of compelled to write on this post. I think the biggest advice I can give and something I wish I could do over again is not to force it. Just because a school seems more prestigious does not mean that you are going to be satisfied there. I visited the school I currently attend several times hoping that eventually I would like it. I cannot say that I’m unhappy with the college experience thus far, but I still walk around campus from time to time and cringe at the architecture and the noise and the general feel of the school. I had other options that I liked much more when I visited and were only moderately less prestigious, but I turned them down because of the prestige factor. This is the worst way to pick a school and trust me this is not a good lesson to learn for yourself.</p>
<p>at jgd661, but maybe the prestige will pay off in the future as you earn more than your peers at those schools you felt like you turned down because of less prestige? i mean, all things come with the good and the bad.</p>
<p>jgd, I went to a school that is much more prestigious than my current school (top 60, as opposed to third tier–which is a joke, it’s much better than that), and left even before the first semester was over. I visited my former school, and thought it was the perfect fit and all that, but it wasn’t. I hated it, I hated the people, the school was not worth the money, and allowing for my parents to name-drop a more prestigious school simply because, was a mistake. Even though my school, now, doesn’t have the cache that the previous one did, I’m much happier. Forget about US News and all of that garbage.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to imply that I hate my current school because I really don’t. I do like it and I’ve had a lot of fun. All I meant was that sometimes I step back and think that I am really not suited for this school and that sometimes it can take a good amount of effort to enjoy myself or look past certain things that I dislike.</p>
<p>But I definitely think that prestige and the rankings are a joke. They should not be completely disregarded, but there is really no difference with regards to the quality of the academic experience between two schools that are ranked five or ten spots apart. That is a complete myth that I bought into.</p>