<p>Or the Govt. could be on the lookout for you as a shady character! :)</p>
<p>(Went to visit my son last weekend; he hadn't shaved or bathed, it looked like).</p>
<p>Nevertheless, your app should be based on common sense and reality as mentioned in other posts. But you'll never know if you don't try.</p>
<p>A Direct steal from Jackson Browne. Don't dwell on past failures, move forward to future successes.</p>
<p>There are too many posts from kids who only learned about what their parents could or would afford after they had sent their applications and fallen in love with Best U. Talk about it over the summer before senior year so everyone is on the same page. If not sooner!</p>
<p>Things that you know arrived don't always make it to your file. Call early enough to rectify any mistakes/lost materials, especially if you are applying EA or ED.</p>
<p>Where you end up going to college is not as important as what you do once you get there.</p>
<p>** If you don't apply, you have a 100% chance of not getting in. **</p>
<p>--so you can percolate a bit on them, revise them a few times (putting them aside between revisions for perspective), and make them really good. If you wait till Fall of senior year, you will have competing homework and ECs and it will be stressfull!</p>
<p>If apps are due on the 1st of January, make your mental deadline the 24th of December. This way a printer explosion, formatting problem, postal strike, or massive snowstorm won't harpoon your chances to have the app in on time.</p>
<p>PART TWO: If you can get apps in very early, why not do this? If the school is rolling admission you could be admitted somewhere in October. If It is an Ivy, you could get a likely letter in October. How can they send you a likely letter when they don't know you are even applying?</p>
<p>Take ownership in the process.</p>
<p>Don't delegate tasks for the search and selection and application processes to your parents, friends, or teachers. Be a savvy consumer and research the schools out there, and then be on top of the application process.</p>
<p>Don't rule out colleges based on 9th and 10th grade interests, achievements or lack thereof. Some kids are dramatic bloomers that take parents by surprise. It's not an easy road to map, for sure.</p>
<p>An internship lets a student know if a field is right before they take the plunge into a field, and discovering something isn't right can be just as valuable.</p>
<p>Internships jump out of a resume, telling prospective employers know that you actually know something about what the field entails, rather than just trying to sell "I'm a hard worker and learn fast".</p>
<p>Do not worry about college, follow your heart and pursue your interest to a nth degree. Money, scholarship, fortune all will follow. Life is too short to waste. So plunge into lot of things just to find out what ticks you most. </p>
<p>One exception: do not have kids before college and indulge in drugs ever. One can be more thrilled by helping others and not doing drugs.</p>
<p>A puffed up application or a phoney interview is not going to tip you in anywhere. Be yourself. If they don't like you, you wouldn't be happy there anyway.</p>
<p>I find it astounding that there are so many people who automatically assume that an entire campus may be populated with weak academic students if the school happens to have a good athletic team with a few recruited athletes. The school that currently has the #2 Division 1 basketball team in the country has only 8 recruited athletes on that team. (That is out of a campus population of over 6,000.)</p>
<p>But my two favorites are:</p>
<p>Coureur: When you go away to college NEVER let anyone photograph you with no clothes on. (too funny!)</p>
<p>Carolyn: Where you end up going to college is not as important as what you do once you get there. (already spoken in this household a few times!)</p>
<p>Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines!!! Don't miss them.</p>
<p>Ok....I know that isn't a sentence. Question...how did you all get your sentences in boldface?</p>
<p>Thumper: [ b ] [ /b ] <<with text between and without spaces
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=bbcode%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=bbcode</a></p>
<p>I just learned all of these nifty tricks today!</p>
<p>or just do a blue "reply" instead of "post quick reply/go advanced"" and whip it into your title.</p>
<p>The best advice I ever got came from my father:</p>
<p>Arrive before your boss; don't leave until after he does.</p>
<p>The corollary to this is: if you're the boss, keep reasonable hours, so your employees can too.</p>
<p>I have no idea how to relate this to college applications.</p>