Practical Advice for Seniors Applying

Applying to College
1

<p>I've noticed that a lot of people have been asking what their chances of admission is (in both this forum and the proper forum) etc, and a lack of people asking for practical advice that applies to everyone.</p>

<p>So I'd like to see some useful advice compiled in one accessible thread. That way one doesn't have to search all over the forum for the rare nuggets of wisdom.</p>

<p>Examples of practical advice:</p>

<p>-What is the 'ideal student' that most universities are looking for
-How to get as close to being the 'ideal student' as possible throughout each year (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior)
-Advice on applications
-How to tell when a school is a 'good fit'
-The approximate number of schools one should apply to</p>

<p>I think you get the point. If you have any advice, I'm sure everyone (or at least me :P ) would love to hear (see?) it.</p>

2

<p>Lol, its been probably a month and a half since I visited this board (since i've been done with the hellacious admissions process), but here's my two cents of advice for you, and anyone else who cares to read this thread. You should definitely put a lot of effort into the college admissions process, but from my personal experience, this forum made me WAY to paranoid about the process in general. This forum is a great resource, yet after I became addicted to the site (it happens to alot of us, hehe) I started having doubts whether or not I would even get into my saftey schools. Turned out, though, that I ended up getting into 3 schools ppl told me were "super reaches." Now some advice on this board is sound, but it seems when a person on this board starts comparing stats and reading advice, generally they become more skeptical about what schools they can get into. Personally, I think its a side effect of advice-givers wanting to be cautionary and telling someone who has a great shot somewhere that it might be risky to get in, or not wanting to give someone false hopes. Just don't become to paranoid or nervous.</p>

<p>Now as to some real advice about the admissions process, as someone who has just finished the entire process this previous year with great results, here's some tips:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Most important thing is grades. No argument from anyone. Ever. Senior year first semester grades count very much also. GET GOOD GRADES, STUPID!! <---general comment not referring to you personally</p></li>
<li><p>Visiting is a very good, if not the best way to get a feel for the school. Sometimes traveling can be expensive, I know, but that's what helped me tremendously. Personally, to save time and money I waited to visit the schools after I got accepted. And no, I didn't visit to determine which schools to apply to. That would take way too much time and money. To determine which schools to apply to, you're simply going to visit the website, get the viewbooks, look at the collegeboard.com or princetonreview.com profiles, etc, see what majors the college has, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>I had to make this its own point. Do NOT use the USNews and World Report Rankings. If you do not understand this point, then you are ranked 5,454,342,980 on Spiderman-reborn's World Personal Worth Ranking.</p></li>
<li><p>Apply to as many schools as you want, but it does take a lot out of you, energy and time wise, although the commonapp is a huge timesaver. Money is not so much a factor when you consider how much you're going to be paying for college next year anyway. And I'm certainly not rich, I promise you that.</p></li>
<li><p>The ideal student? That question has probably been asked thousands upon thousands of times. I'm sure you've heard the answers before. I'm not the expert on that, I'm not an admissions officer, but basically each of the following is taken into consideration and weighed differently at different schools:
gpa and rank(grades)
sat/sat2/act (test scores)
extra curriculars-- bonus if its unique, shows passion, or you're a pro
--minus if its common (piano?)or it appears you join every dumb club
essays-- the old phrase "can heal the sick, but can't raise the dead"
Essay advice would take too much space for me to cover here, just search for it. Basically, make your essay unique and reveal your personality. And I mean VERY UNIQUE. Don't make it a gimmick, though, either.
geographic residence--helps if you instate or from weird state Wy,Alask
recommendations-- pick a teacher that knows and likes you. If only one of these is possible with you, go with likes you. Then its out of your hands, buddy!
legacy/URM --> helps, unless you applied to Caltech
recruited athlete ----> you certainly wouldnt be on this board, LOL</p></li>
</ol>

<p>If you remember anything from this post, just remember: Don't get too paranoid from this board, trust me people still get into colleges these days. Not just Connie Cheung, or whatever her name is.</p>

<p>Start quickly, as in NOW!! I ended up do most of the apps/essays over Christmas Break, and OMFG MERRY F##KING CHRISTMAS!!! you don't want to do that. pressure = insane and you can definitely write better essays with time and revisions. I basically didnt have a break last year.
Now, stop reading this post, and start making/refining your college list, or better yet, go to commonapp.org right now and start filling it out right now. Don't worry you can change it a million times. Go to the site now!</p>

3

<p>Um... i don't understand everything you are trying to say, but I'll give it my best shot
I'm also a rising senior, but I have many friends who are seniors and who have gotten into very prestigious schools (Stanford, MIT, Wellesley, Harvard, UCB, Columbia, UChicago, the like)
their advice...
1. Don't procrastinate. Start early on Apps on everything(no brainer)
2. The process is incredibly random. So just because you didn't get into Northwestern, does not mean you will not get into Stanford. etc, etc
3. Start your essays early and have "essay editing groups" throughout the year. have a group of friends meet every wednesday night at Starbucks or something and just edit and revise and give advice on essays
4. As for how many colleges, I've heard different things. A friend of mine only applied to 4 schools (state university, Dartmouth, NU, Rice, and Williams). She was accepted to all, but eventually, chose State Univeresity because the other schools didn't give her enough financial aid and because she didn't think spending an extra 30,000 a yr/ would be worth it. She had wished she applied to 10 schools including some major reaches because now she thinks "what if". I've heard 10, but i've also heard that 5 is enough and that 10 is too overboard. So I guess apply to up to 10, but no more, and only apply to 10 and you would go to those schools versus your safety.</p>

4

<p>Keep in mind these are all my opinions.. I'm a rising freshman for college.</p>

<p>I'd say the ideal student is a BWRK - a bright well rounded kid. Good grades, or grades with upward trends, caring (community service), school spirit (cheerleading/sports), interested in other areas (extra-curriculars). And then something special, a burning passion in some area.</p>

<p>Basically max out your grades each year. Don't be dumb and fit in with the crowd when the crowd wants you to smoke weed 24/7. Sure it's fun and cool now to party, but is it still fun and cool in 20 years when you're working a job at McDonalds and the class nerd you used to pick on is a millionaire? Same goes for doing dumb stuff like stealing, cheating, plagiarizing, etc.</p>

<p>Definitely don't plagiarize. Especially for your apps, those essays. Some colleges are big on the honor code.</p>

<p>Do a lot, a lot, a lot of campus tours. You'll know if you like a school when you visit it. Usually the first few moments you set foot on campus are the most telling. I remember well the first time I set foot on X University. I absolutely hated the place, dunno why, just hated it. Obviously it wouldn't have been a good fit for me even though it was oh so prestigious and oh so high on rankings.</p>

<p>Ignore rankings. They're dumb, stupid, and composed of factors entirely unrelated to you. They're just something to brag about. </p>

<p>I'd say cap your applications at seven to eight. This includes your ED. Use the common app as often as possible!</p>

<p>I agree with basically everything twinkletoes said. You are beyond idiotic if you leave your apps to December 30. You are ruining your own future if you leave your essays to November 29. You might as well go jump out the building if you procrastinate. Cause in the end, all that pressure to get apps done before deadlines will make you wish you did. Plus last minute revisions makes an app look sloppy. Unpolished app = bad candidate.</p>

<p>Um. This is all I can think of atm.</p>

<p>And truly, don't take decisions personally. The process seems to get more random each year and applicant numbers are increasing every time. And IGNORE THOSE RANKINGS!</p>

5

<p>Hmmm, looking back, there's advice I wish I had followed and I realize that I lucked out overall. So basically I'll talk about college application standards that I should have followed.</p>

<p>Firstly, visits. This is perhaps the dumbest thing I have ever done. I did I think three visits and only applied to two of those. I never really got an ideal setting for where I wanted to live for the next four years, and I never made any other college visits until about the week before the May 1st deadline, and though I think I made the best choice, all and all I wish I had given myself more time to think about such an important decision.</p>

<p>Secondly, being such a horrible procrastinator, I left just about everything until the last minute. Visits, as said before, are non-existent. My essay, well hmmm, I have to thank my English teacher for making a college essay an assignment in October or else I don't think I would have ever made as decent an essay, though I didn't really sit down and work on my main essay and fix it up completely until about post-thanksgiving. Finally, working on the grunt work of the applications themselves. I mean I did the basic personal stuff earlier, like early October, but the personal blurb on the common app, and all the supplemental essays I pretty much didn't touch until December. Some I only did in mere hours but oh well. So I ended up sending my applications in three waves: The first on December 12th were the easy apps, you know, ones with just the one essay and easy supplements. Then December 16th I sent a second wave of a little bit more complex apps with just one or two supplemental essays. Then there were the toughies, (which I sent on December 21st) with like three supplemental essays (though I opted out of every supplemental essay). so yeah, basically to sum it up, all the tireless nights I spent in December balled up so much that the stress of it all had me lashing out constantly. So yeah, to sum it up don't wait to send out the apps. </p>

<p>Also, basically there's no other way of saying it, but I wish the responsibility of doing fin aid fell on me, b/c: A) i didn't know what I was doing and b) everything was more than a month late, so I didn't get fin aid packages from like five schools (but at least I never really considered any of them). So yeah, I mean at least I know every nook of the FAFSA and CSS Profile, but it's not worth it.</p>

<p>One thing I did do correctly, I feel, was the right number of apps: 12. It was def a comfortable number, though I also erred on this. Basically my breakdown was this:2 safeties, 2 matches, and yeah, a whopping 8 reaches. So hmmm, I mean it worked out in the end, but yeah I would def recommend a nicer amount like: 3 safeties, 5 matches, 4 reaches. </p>

<p>thus, I close off with basically saying, things work out sometimes, and sometimes they don't. The college application process is tricky, and it def doesn't always fall in your favor, but just try to roll with the punches. I know first-hand what a stressful time period senior year is. So just take the time every now and then to just chill, and be happy. And to those seniors, good luck :)</p>

6

<p>I have to agree with writing your essay early, definitely procrastinated on that, and that really sucked.</p>

<p>Make sure you're careful with college apps, I'd apply to 7 schools max, but be very careful about those schools, make sure you want to go there. </p>

<p>Visitations are extremely important, you want to make sure the place is a good place to live. Vibes are important.</p>

<p>Oh, and having a life for the sake of having a life is awesome. Good activities that you can talk about help a lot, plus having fun just plain owns. </p>

<p>Oh, my friend with a 3.9/2100 got into UPenn simply by knowing stuff about the school, like them having one of the world's biggest pianos. This is definitely a cheap and easy way to get a hook when or if you need it. </p>

<p>The thing you should realize most is that most of the actual application process is just organizing your resume and busy work. There is very, very little you can do besides writing a kick-ass essay, and actually practicing the ACT/SAT that will make a difference on whether or not colleges will accept you. </p>

<p>I think you should also take the SAT/ACT once in the fall of senior year. I seemed to get a bit smarter and more proficient at math and reading (my writing still sucks) when I got back to school in the fall.</p>

7

<p>I have a question: how do you know if schools are matches or reaches for you?
Because the schools I'm looking at, NU, JHU, Duke, Dartmouth, UChicago, UCLA, UCB (out of state) are not matches for most people. And even if your SAT scores are above the 75%, that doesn't mean it's a "match". AHHH!! stress</p>

8

<p>how do we know the prompt for the essays. Are they posted somewhere on the college websites? or we can write about anything we want?</p>

9

<p>fit is something you'll know after you've visited a few colleges of various types (large, small, urban, rural, etc). People can try to fine-tune the idea too much, but even kids who at the start say "I could fit in anywhere" usually find they love one or 2 types and couldn't possibly attend others. I went to a public U where a lot of people applied/enrolled without ever visiting, and there were a few I knew who realized within hours of actually showing up frosh year it wasn't right for them. So you can get a good idea of what types are right for you by visiting examples that are in your region. On the finer level I'm not sure "fit" is a good idea because so much of it is random; you end up on a great dorm floor or with a prof that ends up taking an interest in you and becoming a mentor, you may have a totally different experience than someone else and yet someone might say they found the school a great "fit" because of those experiences.</p>

<p>As for year-to-year HS advice, doing well in school is of course important. Remember that someday you'll need recs from teachers, so don't alienate all of them ;) I disagree with the earlier poster who says colleges want well-rounded kids. They don't. They build a well-rounded CLASS out of kids who excelled in various areas. Go to Stanford's admission FAQ, for example, and you'll see
[quote]
We do not favor one type of activity over another; nor is it necessary to participate in a large number of activities. An exceptional experience in one or two activities demonstrates your passion more than minimal participation in five or six clubs. We want to see the impact your participation has had on that club, in your school, or in the larger community. With extracurricular activities, a sustained depth of commitment is more important than a long list of clubs you have joined.

[/quote]
</p>

10

<p>In terms of essays, either a) check with the common app (which I hear is currently down till the 1st of July) which has six choices where one is topic of your choice so if you want to take that route. Also, check the supplements for each college if you choose to do common app (also apparently available on the 1st) or c) check the school's personal application (either they don't have the common app, you would rather do their personal application, or you don't like the common app) on their website, though you should make sure it's not last year's app.</p>

11

<p>Here's some advice from me, which I've probably repeated in other threads.</p>

<p>I wholeheartedly agree with the no procrastinating thing. Although, I heard that when I was going through the process and payed no attention to it.</p>

<p>Visit as many schools as you can. While it can sometimes be impossible to visit every college to which you're applying, at least try to visit different TYPES of schools (a rural school, a city school, a small LAC, a large state school). Every school has it's own "character" but you're more likely to get a sense of what Williams is like by visiting schools like Amherst and Swathmore than by visiting schools like NYU. (Of course I know the top LACs have their many, many differences, but there's also a similarity amongst all of them that can tell you where you'd fit best.)</p>

<p>My biggest piece of advice: DON'T SET YOUR HEART ON ONE SCHOOL! I tried to keep an open mind throughout the whole process, but I had friends who ended up REALLY jaded and disappointed when their dream school fell through. I've said it many times, but-- the college application process is a crapshoot. Sometimes you'll be a stellar applicant and just not be what the school is looking for. It happens. Deal with it. If you tell yourself you won't be happy at anywhere but your dream school, you won't be. </p>

<p>So to avoid that disappointment, do a LOT of research on the schools you're applying to. Make sure you really like all of them, and have enough safeties and matches that you'll have quite a few viable options when you come out of the whole thing. I applied to 12 schools, but too many of them were reaches. To a point, I did get transfixed by name and prestige, and that's definitely a trap a lot of people fall into. I'm ecstatic with where I'm ending up (Wellesley), but I just got lucky. </p>

<p>It's okay to pay attention to rankings TO A POINT, but the problem comes in when people seem to forget, for example, that the difference between #1 and #10 is very, VERY small. If you look at the actual numbers of top 25 schools, they're strikingly similar.</p>

12

<p>Is there a cost when you come to visit a school? Then I don't know what school to visit, may be I should ask my friends to go with me because I certainly don't want to go alone. Is there some school in California that you recommend me visiting?</p>

13

<p>There is no cost, in fact, the school encourages you to visit so more people will apply and their selectivity goes up.
But you will need to pay for transportation, hotel, food, etc.</p>

14

<p>@Tony
"One thing I did do correctly, I feel, was the right number of apps: 12. It was def a comfortable number, though I also erred on this. Basically my breakdown was this:2 safeties, 2 matches, and yeah, a whopping 8 reaches. So hmmm, I mean it worked out in the end, but yeah I would def recommend a nicer amount like: 3 safeties, 5 matches, 4 reaches."</p>

<p>howd it work out for you in the end? because my thinking was since these reach schools are so random... applying to more of them means you have a greater chance... and also if you wouldnt mind going to any school from you list in the end then not having as many options in the end makes your life a lot easier doesnt it?</p>

15

<p>It just worked out in the end b/c I liked the options I had to choose from, that's all.</p>

16

<p>if you really like those 12 schools then it's okay but otherwise it would be a waste of money because the application fee for each school is at least $50 right? So does that mean you have to write 12 essays?</p>

17

<p>well i mean if a lot of those are on common app, that really reduces the number of essay you have to write.</p>

18

<p>i applied to 11 schools, and I varied my essays and combinations for each, cause I feel that there might be some part of your application that could turn off some particular adcoms, and since we wouldn't know what they were, i felt variation would help prevent one such problematic entry in my app from ruining my chances.</p>

19

<p>High School
-Keep up your grades. They open up a lot of doors when applying.
-Participate in ECs. Have a variety, but make sure you are enjoying them. Do not do something just to make your resume look better. Being committed to a few is better than just attending many clubs.
-Take both the SAT and ACT. You may do better on one of them.</p>

<p>Research/apps.
-Start early
-Research! Make sure you like the school and its majors.
-Visit the school. I visited UIUC and was not very impressed. Whereas, when I visited IIT in Chicago, I felt like I fit in. Then, I visited USAFA and was amazed.
-Talk to current students and alumni. They know the schools in a way that no tour or catalogue can.
-Apply early. Yes, I'm beating that dead horse, but it needs to be said.
-Edit your essays multiple times and have others check it. Just do not let them rewrite it.</p>

<p>As for the number of applications, apply to the schools you want to go to. This is where your research pays off...literally. I applied to three schools, was accepted to all, and will attend my top choice without regret.</p>

20

<p>Don't apply to a school just because you don't have a reach or a match. Apply where you will be comfortable If you're okay with just applying to a few safeties, then do it. My college decision came down to 2 safeties. </p>

<p>Make sure you do financial research on these schools, and what merit aid as well as need aid you can expect out of them. It stinks getting that admit letter then later in April realizing that you can't consider it because of financial reasons. </p>

<p>Honestly, just try at some of these schools. Even if your stats aren't in the mid 50 range, all you have to do is have one person read your application at one time and if they like it enough, then you could be admitted. </p>

<p>I'll speak to the thousand of people who post asking for Ivy chances and other top 25 schools. Look at full ride oppurtunities. I don't care if it means going to a dreaded "state school", if you don't have to pay for college, do it. I cringe knowing that all the work i've done at my job this year (over 250 hours already) is only paying for my books and travel. If you have to take out loans because you can't afford a school, don't go there.</p>

<p>Prestige is stupid. If you let a ranking decide where you should be the next 4 years, you don't belong in college. Rankings should only be used to go off lists. A school ranked 40 isn't going to make the world of a difference when it comes to employment vs. a school ranked 70. Same for a school in the top 10 vs. a school in the 20s. It's not the school on the degree that gets you the job, it's the person behind the degree.</p>

<p>The only trend i've seen out of the top schools is that they don't want nerds. They don't want to see "Chess Club", "Math Club", "Science Olympiad", 4.0 1600. I've been shocked at the people from my school that have gotten into Ivies. They are well rounded people with lots of friends. I should mention that only 1 of the 8 kids I know that's going to an Ivy-caliber school next year has a GPA above 3.9. However, I know of 2 kids that aren't well rounded, and got rejected from every Ivy they applied to! I even know one that had a 3.6 and a 28. Be well rounded, play sports (and please, they don't want to see Tennis, Track, Golf, Badminton), get involved socially, make the most out of HS. That's what colleges want to see.</p>