My Advice for Applicants to Selective Colleges

Applying to College Admission Stories
1

After a pretty crazy year, I’ve finally finished the college application process and selected a college. I applied to many selective colleges and was accepted by some, waitlisted by some, and rejected by some. I am very happy that I will be attending the college I chose in the fall, and I think the whole process worked out very well for me. Here is my advice to people who will be in my shoes in the future.

Please note: These are just my opinions. I know many will disagree. I’m not saying this is the only right way to do things, I’m just saying this is how I feel after having gone through the process.

  1. Don’t pick one highly selective school as the “only school I could ever be happy at.”

So many kids do this every year and get their hearts broken. While I’m sure you’re all extremely talented, there just isn’t enough room at those schools for everyone who is extremely talented. Don’t set yourself up for disappointment. Do enough research to know whether or not the school would be a good fit for you, but don’t obsess over one school. I went into the process without a favorite among the schools I applied to. After I got my decisions, I just took the schools that had rejected me out of my mind and focused on learning about the ones I had been accepted at. I found that I really loved all of them, and I felt so excited that those schools had accepted me. I don’t feel too bummed about any of the schools I was rejected at because I didn’t let myself get close enough to fall in love. The fact is that there are thousands of awesome colleges out there, and chances are most of us would be happy at many of them. I don’t think there is any kid who could only fit at one school.

  1. Do what you love, not what you think will get you into college.

Sure, you should take rigorous classes and be involved in your community, but don’t let the application process rule your life. Don’t start a club that you have no interest in just because you think it will help your chances of getting into a college. You can’t get your high school years back, so enjoy them. Make choices that will be good for your future, but don’t let the application process take away the things you love.

  1. Relax about that one thing on your application that’s not quite perfect.

We all have one thing (or more than one thing) on our application that we wish was a little different, but that we can’t change. Don’t stress over it. It’s water under the bridge. I have one on my application, and I still got into some really amazing colleges. It will be okay. These colleges aren’t looking for perfect people.

  1. Make sure your essay is about you and not your accomplishments.

There are plenty of places on your application to brag about all of your awesome grades, test scores, awards, etc. Your essay is not one of them. Right about who you are, not what you’ve done.

  1. When the decisions come about, don’t obsess about why you were rejected to School X.

It doesn’t matter why you were rejected, the fact of the matter is that you were and you will not be attending that college (not trying to be a jerk, just realistic). You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to figure out why you didn’t get in. You’ll probably never know, but that’s okay. It doesn’t matter. There’s nothing you can do about it, so focus on things in your life that you can do something about.

  1. Once you’ve submitted your applications, relax.

There’s nothing more you can do at that point. It will be tempting to stare at countless statistics and try to figure out your odds of getting in, but doing so won’t change anything. You can’t predict whether or not you will get in, so just try to relax and enjoy other parts of your life while you’re waiting to hear.

  1. Don’t let the college application process ruin your senior year.

This one is the most important point. It’s your last year of high school, so don’t spend the entire year stressing about the application process. Everything will work out. Work hard, but enjoy the last year of your childhood.

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I’ll give my 2 cents as well, having gone through the whole application process. I agree with sasbar, especially #4. Your essay shouldn’t be a rehash of your resume. Really pour your heart into your essays and above all, show that you are a likeable person with a life and a story outside of your endless list of awards and accomplishments. Your essays can really, really make or break your applications. Trust me, you don’t need to win any major awards to get into a selective school (but they do help). A heartfelt and memorable essay beats a perfect score or a major award any day.

Also, you should really keep your options open and not be fixated on one or two schools. Only apply to schools that you are truly willing to attend…it also saves $$$ too! (But don’t forget to have at least one safety)

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Also, best advice I’ve ever heard - “Aim high, but keep your expectations low.”

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I’m a class 2013 and reading this was helpful! Thanks guys!

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You’re welcome, Lanayru. Best of luck with the application process! And I hope you really enjoy your last year of high school!

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My son just went through the process. My advice is to apply to a lot of schools, because admission rates are so low at the top schools.

And even if you are a top student, to be sure that you apply to schools ranked 20-50, and not just the top 20.

Also, if you have the money, applying to the top OOS state universities, such as Virginia, UCLA, Berkeley, UNC, and Michigan is a good idea, because they are in financial need, and are likely to covet the OOS tuition.

Also, if you have good standardized test scores, but not so good ECs or gpa, consider the UK and Canada, which seem to go much more by test scores, and seem to have less of a “holistic” approach.

And to at least listen to what your parents have to say. You don’t have to wind up actually attending the schools they recommend for you, but there is no harm at least applying to them. One, you will keep them happy (after all, they are paying the bills) and two, they just might know what they are talking about, having many years more lifetime experience than you do, and knowing your strengths and weaknesses perhaps better than you know them yourself.

7

Very insightful and well thought through! Thanks for the advice… Phew, this Fall is gonna be crazy…

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@floridadad55 I totally agree about the parents thing. The school I am going to attend next year was one that initially wasn’t one of the ones I liked most, but it was definitely my mom’s favorite. Now I am turning in my housing forms to the school, and I could not be more excited to be going there in the fall.

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@sasbmar, you sound quite thoughtful and mature, I congratulate you on you excellent outlook and trying to pass this on. :slight_smile: Your advice seems “spot on” from all I have gathered in having a son who is a hs junior and 2 best friends whose sons are seniors…and all applied/appying to highly selective schools.

We refer to your #1 as “Don’t marry any one school.” There are more than enough qualified applicants to fill all the spots in a freshman class several times over and it is a matter of the “building a class” factor as to whether Student A is accepted at University Z. One of my son’s best friends is only focused on Penn and plans to apply ED with no other plans. He has the classes, grades, ECs, test scores to make this a reasonable aspiration, but there is no sure thing in the admissions game…

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Wow, thank you so all so much for all this input, I still have another year before I start preparing applications, but its given me a lot of insight. I’ve really taken it to heart.

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@cececole Thank you for your wonderful compliments! People like your son’s friend are the people I worry about. It’s not that these students aren’t good enough, it’s just that admissions at highly selective colleges are extremely unpredictable. I got accepted at a school that I was absolutely certain would reject me and waitlisted at a school that I thought would accept me. You truly never know how things will pan out.

@julieannab Good luck with your applications! I’m glad you have found my insight to be useful.

12

Thanks for your advice. The perfect mix of pessimism and optimism, unlike those “you’ll never get in” and those “you’ll definitely get in” people.

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Thanks! My goal for the entire process was to be as realistic as possible about everything, and to remember not to spend too much time thinking about things that were out of my control.

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Never listen to people’s opinions on whether “you’ll get in for sure” or whether “it’s a long shot.” Honestly, no one is more qualified to judge your application than the admissions officer.

Also, if you start writing those college essays, I actually thought it was helpful to NOT read model/example essays at first. It’s important to at least have the draft of your essay sound like you and be about you. I find that if I’ve read an essay out of those, say, “100 Essays that Got Them In,” I have a tendency to “fit” my essay to sound more like them instead of writing in my true voice. Just remember that you only have to meet your own standards.

15

I totally agree with ambition44. After writing my essay, I looked at one website that had sample Common App essays that were supposedly great, but the shortest one was 750 words. There was even one that was supposedly an awesome essay that was 1,250 words. I don’t think any school wants to see an essay that’s two and half times as long as the maximum length.

And as for other people giving opinions about whether or not you’ll get in, I feel like a lot of students get false hope from people on CC saying, “You’ll get in for sure!” There is NO ONE who is going to get into any selective college for sure. Really the only thing that a person who is not an admissions counselor could tell you with any sort of certainty is that you aren’t going to get in, and that’s only when it’s painfully obvious (i.e. you have been getting D’s all through high school, you have a very low SAT score, and you have had multiple serious disciplinary actions taken against you).

16

Great advice.

Best way to do this? Start (and finish) your essays/apps this summer.

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I am in the class of 2013 and just started on my college applications. All I want to say here is thank you for all these splendid tips I would have never known without going on CC!

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I’d recommend starting to think about college applications in summer, but never finishing them! So many things changed for me during my senior year, that my apps would not have been the same if I had finished them in the summer. This was the same for most of my friends as well, we all discovered what we wanted during our senior year, even without knowing we still had to discover it. In many ways the application process, for me at least, did not ruin my senior year, but made it! :smiley:

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^^the above is definitely true. I started a lot of my essays over the summer, but ended up changing some at the last minute. Looking back, I don’t regret anything!

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Thanks a bunch! I’m getting emotionally ready for August, when the madness will begin. :slight_smile:

Best of luck to all Cof2013’s out there!