Practical Advice for Seniors Applying

<p>^Yeah. Don't apply to a school that you can't honestly see yourself
attending. Don't get hung up on any one school either.</p>

<p>When it came to extracurriculars, my notion was "list and describe any and all activities that help define me as a student and person"--for me that included the various clubs that I only did for a year (e.g. I quit fencing after a year to do cross country and track for my junior and senior year), piano lessons, independent photography in my leisure time, travel, etc." Don't just try to impress readers--try to let them know who you are.</p>

<p>somebodynew: did you send along some photography prints with your apps? if so, to which colleges?</p>

<p>here's my "advice":</p>

<p>-Start as early as you can; if you have the essay prompts for the schools you're applying to, start making drafts and edit, edit, and edit. I really wish i spent more time on this..pretty much, don't procrastinate.
-Apply to schools that you can picture yourself at..and don't apply to too many. After all, you're only gonna choose 1 school..out of maybe 10 schools you may be applying to. So, if you can't picture yourself at Harvard, don't apply there.
-Also apply to majors, not schools...i.e. if you're an engineer, you're probably not gonna wanna apply to more liberal arts-based colleges..i didn't really know this and i wasted some money applying to colleges i didn't even want to go to (kinda like the "bullet point" above)
-Keep up your senior grades. It's gonna be hard overcoming senioritis haha, but it's certainly doable. I know someone from my school who coulda went to UCLA but had to settle for UCI because his GPA was too low to keep his admission for LA...not that bad but that sucks cuz LA was his dream school.
-On your app, make sure you set yourself apart from everybody else in some way. I tried to make my piano accomplishments be worth something but I didn't bring them out the right way..mainly, show your passion and dedication to an activity/club whatever it may be, and just try to show your overall well-roundedness.</p>

<p>when you get decisions...
-Expect the unexpected...decisions are crazy random, sometimes you'll wonder how person x got into let's say...ucla, and he/she had lower sats/gpa than you did, while u didn't get in..well i guess it's part of the whole fun part of this process.
-Don't be dejected if you didn't get into your dream school, since you're gonna end up really liking where you end up. in my case, i didn't get into uc berkeley (my no1 choice by far) and i even appealed and i didn't get in. it definitely hurts, but i'm gonna be at ucsd, and after visits/and orientation, there really isn't anywhere else i'd wanna be..it's almost like a perfect fit. it may be a blessing in disguise.
-Visit the colleges you get accepted to, and make sure you weigh out all the pros/cons of the colleges you've been accepted to, and go with your gut instinct on where you should go.</p>

<p>lol that was a bit long, but i'm bored..</p>

<p>More for after decisions...</p>

<p>If you get rejected from a school, stop going to their website, stop reading about it, stop thinking about it. It's over. Look to the future and get excited about places you did get in. </p>

<p>If you get waitlisted and are desperate to get in, write to them, call them, send them updates, email them, and visit in person if you can. Tell them why you would be a great fit, and list SPECIFIC ec's you want to get involved in there. Tell them how you would enhance the school community instead of listing your accomplishments over and over. I got waitlisted and ended up being only 1 of 8 or so who got in from a list of 900. They have a lot harder time saying no if they know you as a person from your calls and letters. </p>

<p>If you can't make a decision about where to go and don't even feel like you have a gut feeling, don't be afraid to ask your parents and teachers.</p>

<p>Whatever you do, don't go where you friends/bf/gf are going just so you can be with them.</p>

<p>Pick your strength and stick with it all through your essays...
i.e. leadership, getting throug adversity, etc... make that your HOOK</p>

<p>boxesarefun, since it's more of a hobby than something I invest a lot of time in, I didn't. Also, I was applying as an engineering major to my schools, so art submissions probably wouldn't have made much difference.</p>

<p>so unweighted gpa:3.97 (one B), weighted: 5.125; took 8 APs through junior year, taking four next year; will have taken four semesters of math at college by the end of high school, won countless awards in Science Bowl, Sicence Olympiad, Math comp.s, and big-time member in french club; won an award for volunteering a lot (have done about 250 hrs); and I have worked two summers at a lab, and am planning on asking my lab post-doc to give me a recommendation...I have been dreaming of going to Harvard, to surround myself with intellectuals and fun people, for the alst couple of years; anybody want to tell my about my chances of getting in?</p>

<p>Umm I don't see why you would be so paranoid, from what you have shown thus far you seem to be an excellent candidate, though obviously there are more aspects to a candidate than EC's, awards, GPA, and rigor of courseload, but nonetheless very good stats all around. Though I'm not really good with chances both because I can't base it off my own experiences as well as I'm not good at analyzing what each school is looking for though hopefully I'll see you next fall :)</p>

<p>hey thanks for responding to my post; yeah i have another question actually; see my school is East CHapel Hill High, and our class is ridiculous with an IBO person and an IMO person; I havent really won anything nationally so next to these otehr guys i look like crap; how many people could harvard (or any otehr really selective school) feasibly take from the same high school??</p>

<p>I would figure if all applicants are equally attractive and qualified that as many as the school produces should probably get in, though it also depends on your school's records. You should ask how many students every year are accepted to top colleges to get an idea of what you should be expecting b/c college might change from accepting 2 to 4 but they aren't usually going to go from 2 to 20. Also, check if those that were accepted didn't matriculate b/c I know there's the one story of Tufts where they accepted around 40 [maybe Boston Latin or Exeter, I really don't remember] and I believe a very small number actually matriculated so they sort of retaliated and really dropped their acceptance rate for that school, though now that i think of it this could be complete farce. But anyway, just think that good schools want good applicants and generally where they come from is not a primary concern [though it is a secondary one]</p>

<p>well okay...lets see from the graduates of 2005, there were two princeton people and two yale people; from calss of 2006 there was 1 harvard, 1 princeton, 1 upenn</p>

<p>hmmm, then if all three of you were strong enough and all three of you coincidentally applied to the same college then there is a fair chance that they could accept you all but all of you would have to be at the top of your game</p>

<p>oh and i have anotehr question; throughout high school i made an effort to excel in many different subject areas...for example, i had exhausted the math curriculum at my school by sophmore year, i took (am taking) all the ap science courses available, i hvae excelled in us history (5 on exam and 800 on sat2) and i won my schools dartmouth book club award in english; in addition i got a perfect score on my ACT, one of 23 in the nation to get it during the february testing....do these credentials hold up against the people who have won national awards and have participated in successfully in interenational comp.s in specific areas</p>

<p>Hmmm, I couldn't really be the judge of that, as your stats independently stand they are impressive but I have no way of knowing what is considering a better app, granted you one of the few that have a perfect ACT award and you have obvioulsy taken the most rigorous courseload possible but when it comes to comparing applicants, different schools [though they often have similar criterias] have different views on different stats and so forth, though that's not to say anything about your achievements, which by the way are outstanding.</p>

<p>okay...well tonyt88 thanks for all your help</p>

<p>no problem</p>

<p>is it bad if i got no school book awards. my school admin really doesn't like me very much, so i won't be winning any school awards (except for top in 1 subject)...plus my school doesn't rank, will it reflect badly upon me if other applicants from my school are clearly more well-liked? i'm the only AP scholar with distinction in my class, but the admin actually looks down on me for taking "too many" APs. my teacher recommendations will be ok, but my college counselor doesn't really value my accomplishments (i kind of slip through the cracks because i'm not charismatic, and i'm not a leader of the most visible clubs, or in student council. plus the school looks down on standardized tests, so "the highest SAT score in my grade" means 0 to them)</p>

<p>You don't really need book awards only one kid in our school actually got one [and though he's going to good a school - Tufts] practically our whole class is going where they wanted to go and none of them had book awards. Also, you have the highest SAT score in your grade which it seems odd to me that they hold no weight in your school for it, but adcoms will see pass that pluss that you're the only AP Scholar with distinction which shows that you value your education and are eager to learn, so maybe you're not charismatic, but I don't think that prevents you from having a personality which is what you want colleges to see, so good luck with everything.</p>