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Applying to College
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<p>Greetings everyone. I have seen a few threads lately trying to give tips or even sell information to college applicants in order to help them get into the college of their choice. I am currently a freshman at college and at the moment I have a fun part-time job in the admissions commitee filing papers and the like. I have talked with admissions and my friend at Cornell (who is also quite knowledgable on what it takes to get in). I will try to convey in this thread how to best get into the college of your choice.</p>

<p>I recently hosted a "sleeping bagger" here. Basically this program allows prospective students to spend a night here (in our dorms) and go to our classes and eat food and basically be our shadow for 24 hours. Anyways, this kid was very nice and friendly and seemed very very reserved. Later on, my friends and I got him to open up and he told us what other schools he was applying to. This guy had amazing stats (valedictorian, 2220, interns at prestigious firms), and was rejected EA and was deferred ED from Notre Dame and Carnegie Mellon (Tepper), respectively. He had near perfect math and verbal scores (his lowest/weakest was his Writing and essay). He also showed me his essays and I could tell he did not know what he was doing. He was writing based on what he THOUGHT admissions wanted to see and came out fake.</p>

<p>With college applicants on the rise (until 2009), college applicants are having a harder time at top schools. First, I will give you some information about me,</p>

<p>3.8 gpa out of 4.0 (Top 5% of class) </p>

<p>3 AP courses </p>

<p>800 Math 720 Verbal = 1520 SAT I (out of 1600) </p>

<p>800 US. History, 800 Math IIC, 800 Math IC, 800 Writing </p>

<p>My High school in NY is no Stuyvesvant but it does graduate 97% and sends about 5-10 people to Ivy Leagues each year out of a class of 400. The average SAT is probably around 1200 or above. </p>

<p>Here is where I got into. </p>

<p>Cornell-CAS (Accepted) </p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon-Tepper (Accepted) </p>

<p>NYU-Stern (Accepted) </p>

<p>University of Virginia-CAS (Accepted) </p>

<p>Columbia University (Accepted) </p>

<p>Vanderbilt for Econ (Accepted) </p>

<p>University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (Accepted) </p>

<p>Out of these colleges, only a few gave me enough money. I could've went to just about half price at a few of them (I got about 15k a year in grants and had about 5k in scholarships) but I decided to go to Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) for free. My family is not very well off and I would've had to take about 100k (80k school + 20k in living expenses) overall in loans + interest. Now I am graduating debt free and am really enjoying my experience here at Carnegie Mellon.</p>

<p>Anyways, enough of that. We all know the first thing to getting into the college of your choice is a high GPA and SAT. Unfortunately most of my tips for the SAT (I tutored for 2 years) are unable to be conveyed through this an online post. However, there is a way I can guarantee a perfect essay on the SAT writing.</p>

<p>Step 1: Get yourself an amazing college essay. Either it is written by yourself or you read it from a college essays book. Memorize two or three of these essays and practice reading practice prompts and adapting these essays to fit the prompt. This may take a bit of effort and thinking to get done but it is very easy as all the prompts can be adapted easily. </p>

<p>Example? I'll summarize one of my favorite stories as an essay example. The essay was about me visiting my grandfather and his amazing garden. I ask him the meaning of life and he tells me to walk around in a circle around his garden with a spoonful of water (and to not spill the water). I do so and manage not to spill the water but when my grandfather asks me what I have observed from his garden, I say nothing since I was too focused on not spilling the water. This time, my grandfather sent me around the garden again and told me to observe the sights. I did and saw (enter full page and a half of imagery and metaphor). However when I came back, I realized that I had spilled the water in the spoon. That was when my grandfather told me that the meaning of life was to observe all the things the garden offered while not spilling the water in the spoon. </p>

<p>Now pretend the prompt is "Every cloud has a silver lining, do you agree or disagree?". How would one adapt such an essay to such a different prompt? Easily. You can change the first part of the essay to include something like this (note I wrote this hastily so please just make sure you comprehend the general idea of what I'm doing): </p>

<p>"I was bummed. My friends had left for the summer to go to camp and my parents were unable to send me with them. Instead, I had to spend the summer with my grandfather who I have not met in years." From a quite adaptation of a paragraph or two like this, you can easily integrate the rest of the grandfather essay while fitting the prompt. Your summary can be something like, "Though I was initially depressed about the thought of spending my time with my grandfather instead of having fun with my friends, I learned something infinitely more valuable and etc.... blah blah blah).</p>

<p>Get it? This process has worked for almost all of my peers and has been one of my best kept secrets when I was a SAT tutor. It is about guaranteed to get you a 12/12 AND you will not study more than 3-4 hours. Just be smart and mostly memorize or understand the concept of 2-3 GOOD essays.
This will help you out more then you think as you will be rushing through the essay portion and not stressing about it, allowing you to study or concentrate more on SAT math and verbal.</p>

<p>Next we will cover "Working with what you have."
Do you have a bad GPA but high SAT? How about the opposite? You can still be JUST as qualified (though not at a state university) at top Universities and LACs! How?
1. Focusing your personal statement and essays on that weakness. Example: If you have a 2.5, 3.0, 3.6, and 3.6 in gpa, you can turn this into a huge advantage that gets you accepted into top schools. Even though your overall gpa is only a 3.1 or so, a good test score and a focus in your essays about how hard you worked in other areas can turn your weakness into a strength. Your personal statement can also reflect amazing change and the obstacles you have fought through. Focus on the depth of other activities (such as jobs) in order to prove that you are now better at juggling and managing your time. A high test score is VERY VERY important here, as admissions will switch their focus to your test scores to see if you are BSing them. If this is the case with you, please get a SAT tutor IMMEDIATELY and implement my policies with the SAT writing. Scoring highly + essays + Ec's correlating with essays is 99.999% what will get you in. How may this actually be a strength? Easy. Colleges do not want perfect 4.0 and 2400 applicants. They want diversity. If you have that 3.1 rising trend and a 2400 and have shown that you have worked hard and have struggled (and maybe even had an epiphany), you might get in over that 4.0 and 2400 with bland EC's. How do I know? I've seen it here and have had friends who have played this game and won.</p>

<p>----------------Break time-----------</p>

<p>If people are still interested in these tips, I will post more concerning what to do if you have a high gpa/low sat and other information on what you can call a reach/match/safety. Picking the right essay topic and choosing the right college for your intended field might be subsequent topics of discussion.</p>

<p>I have to go and finish up my Sunday work (I have an essay and a quiz on financial accounting) so please give me some feedback and what I need to improve on (do you not understand something?) This thread is here to help you so don't be shy.</p>

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<p>Lol, I did the focusing on my weakness and making it a strength. Got into Rice and UT Honors so far.</p>

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<p>wow i wish i could go to just one of that schols.....struggling for UCs...</p>

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<p>haha...dude, this is great...</p>

<p>i still recommend that you look into air'n's teleseminar!</p>

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<p><em>curious</em>
How hard was it for you to get a job in admissions at your school? I've inquired about it, but I got the distinct impression we're not really encouraged to work in admissions. :p</p>

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<p>wut do you focus your essay on if you have high GPA and high SAT</p>

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<p>this is a GREAT tip! :)</p>

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<p>I work in admissions as basic grunt work. I can see who gets accepted or rejected and their stats but I do not make any decisions. I basically file papers and things.
I have however talked with certain admissions officers concerning policies and information. It was not very hard at all to get such a job when all you are doing basically is filing some papers.</p>

<p>Reeze: I will cover that later. A short answer will be to DEFINITELY focus on each individual program of the school. Why? Every admissions officer knows that EVERY TIDBIT of information you know about a school INCREASES your chances of attending that school.</p>

<p>Therefore, you can totally play the game and "trick" them into accepting you when you have a high gpa and high sat. For example, if you are applying to a business program, take 20 min out of your time and research about it. Find OBSCURE articles and point them out as reasons why you want to go. College admissions officers will be VERY impressed that you know their business students won last year's overseas business competition and will be EVEN MORE impressed that it has been your lifelong dream to work alongside such peers.</p>

<p>A successful essay focusing on the program you want to go into will help you out as much as THE BEST extra curricular (such as winning a state award). </p>

<p>These days, colleges are very worried about yield and rankings. This is why ED applicants have a much easier time getting in since they guarantee a college that they will attend. Also, this is why interviews are recommended. You think they are for you so you can "learn about the university and find if its a good match for you?" </p>

<p>That is mostly BS. Interviews are there to see whether you are interested and whether you would matriculate if accepted. It has been shown that those who interview, call the campus, and visit are more likely to attend. This is why GWU tracks EVERY SINGLE attempt you make and have a "point" system to give preference to applicants with more "points" in interest. </p>

<p>Why do you think so many colleges have a "why do you want to come here" essay now? </p>

<p>I'm very glad you asked this question because a 20 minute research and finding an obscure article to talk about can increase your chances of admission by A LOT.</p>

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<p>What if you have a 3.9 declining trend? Should I even attempt to attribute this to my rising dedication to extracurriculars?</p>

<p>And that advice might get someone into a good school like NYU, Columbia, Vanderbilt, or UVA, but schools like HYP require a bit more.</p>

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<p>Any tips on how I can try to hide my weak EC's? Thanks</p>

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<p>I do agree that HYP applicants require more than just interest in the school. I'm afraid no one can really increase your chances at HYP and if someone says they can, they are lying to you. Get high GPAs, write great essays, get great SAT scores, and have great EC's. There is NO other formula that can consistently get you into HYP than this (besides recruited athletes and perhaps a million dollar donation by your father).</p>

<p>However this advice does apply for lower Ivies and the rest of the top 25. </p>

<p>For your 3.9 declining trend, I would definitely suggest you mention why this is the case. The important thing to do here though is not LIST why but pick one of the most demanding extracurriculars and focus on that. </p>

<p>If you basically list "Hey i was working, tutoring, volunteering, and playin basketball", that will sound very very fake and will be perceived as an excuse. </p>

<p>However if you carefully choose your diction and can focus on one very important dedication such as "My mom lost her job and I have been working at a local IHOP for the past year", or etc. </p>

<p>Please refrain from posting sports as your "profound" E.C. as it is very hard to write "sports" essays. They are a dime a dozen and its very hard to get across your individual feelings and situation.</p>

<p>Edit: FreshElephant: There is no such thing as a weak E.C. Anything that you feel you can write passionately about is an E.C. </p>

<p>For example, an essay about visiting a grandfather can turn into a 5,000 dollar scholarship winner. Likewise, spending a few days to help out at an old folks home can have the same effect and may be more beneficial to you than a state award.</p>

<p>I would suggest you pick something you can write passionately about and GO AND DO it. For example, go sign up at a local volunteer society (let's say a soup kitchen for the homeless) and then go home and write about it. Take down notes on the most instrinsic human feelings and let's say nothing interesting happened. Who cares?</p>

<p>Write about the experience and then add in the rest. Pretend a homeless guy went up to you and you two started talking. What would you say? Adapt the situation and allow your essays to show how a simple volunteer at a soup kitchen may have changed your whole outlook on life and is why you want to pursue a degree in.. let's say.. political science so you can one day be a Politician and implement some welfare policies or maybe this experience has shown why you want to apply to Pre-Med and Med school because you want to one day help the unfortunate and cure the sick.</p>

<p>A good E.C is what you make of it, and it is definitely true that a few E.C.'s with profound support is more valuable than a list of state awards and science fair medals (unless it was a big science thing and you are applying to MIT).</p>

<p>As a Harvard adcom once said, a good writer can make any topic interesting while a poor writer can make the most exciting topics bland.</p>

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<p>Err, well, my mom did lose her job, but I didn't pick up a part-time job afterward. I guess my major EC is Amnesty International, and I acquired leadership at the state level this year, so outreach and keeping up with all my groups took up a lot of time. Also, I've been attending 6-8 MUN conferences a year since sophomore year, so that might have something to do with it, although I think writing about Amnesty would be more effective. </p>

<p>I've also volunteered at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which was a powerful experience...</p>

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<p>Acceptedtocollegealready, Thanks for such a helpful post.</p>

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<p>Is English your native language? I'm surprised you were accepted at any of these schools given that your grasp of the English language is atrocious. Would love to edit this little self agrandizing piece of fiction, but it isn't worth the trouble.</p>

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<p>"Aggrandizing" has two g's. Make sure your own post is correct before criticizing others. ;)</p>

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<p>I've read very similar tips/advice in college admissions books so even if you're not for real, the advice seems to be! Would you have any advice for a transfer? These applications are a lot more focused so you can't really write a creative writing piece or anything like that. The basic 2 questions are "talk about your most important activities" and "why this school." I don't want to make it sound like I'm listing my activities but there's no other space for them so I have to include them all in about 200-400 words! Why this school seems easier, as I have done the research, visited etc. But any advice would be so great, thanks.</p>

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<p>Accepted, you use a lot of words (too many for me). I can't believe that your personal essays are this lengthy. Anyway, I do agree that well-written essays separate winning candidates from others, and may e why someone with stellar stats might be denied admission while others might be successful. </p>

<p>The essays are where an applicant proves that there is a human being behind all of the stats.</p>

<p>Is there anywhere on the net where someone can read (not steal or purchase) examples of winning essays?</p>

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<p>gsp, get a copy of On Writing the College Application Essay by Harry Bauld. He was an admissions officer at Brown, and it includes thorough examples of good and bad essays.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
"Aggrandizing" has two g's. Make sure your own post is correct before criticizing others.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Ohh, pwned.</p>

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<p>this is totally irrelevant, but I can't find any apparent mistakes in the OP's writing; they all seem to flow perfectly find for me :(</p>