Practical Advice

Applying to College
1

<p>I went through the admissions process last year and did quite well and want to give practical advice.</p>

<p>-Do not apply to more than 6-8 schools unless looking for financial aid seriously, 3 reach, 3 match, 2 safety. (I did 5.)</p>

<p>-DO NOT apply to a school because of prestige.</p>

<p>-Asking chances is only useful for determining whether a college is safety/match/reach, but THERE IS ALWAYS a chance to get in, with reasonable stats/EC's/etc.</p>

<p>-If you are a freshman/sophomore, do not come on CC. Study what you like, do EC's that you like and not for prestige. Junior year should be the earliest one consults CC for admissions except for specific info.</p>

<p>-Essays, for most top schools, are essential. They DO NOT have to be grammatically perfect, have flawless structure, but THEY must convey something about you, your passions (you can tie EC's in), character, and should make you interesting. Write what you want to get across first--clean it up later.</p>

<p>-Interviews, for top schools, might be very important (MIT for one) but DO NOT stress. The best way to interview is be relaxed, do not appear desperate and obsessed to get into said school (do appear interested obviously and have some good reasoning why you want to go but there is a limit). They are there to learn about you. If your conversation were put on paper, would anyone want to read it basically. I talked to my MIT interviewer about martial arts for 2 hours (I love it and he was a boxer) for one and it worked. Formal wear works if you want, but I did mine in a tshirt and pants because that is my style.</p>

<p>-DO NOT EXPECT TO GET INTO ANY SCHOOL except for safeties. Anticipate and accept the possibility of rejection; it is not the end of the world. </p>

<p>-Get good recs obviously, grades, ranking, etc, but you don't need perfect stats to get into schools like Princeton (and don't bring up that URM crap.)</p>

<p>-Don't rely on race to get in. (i.e. I'm hispanic and since I get AA I can work less and get in over another person with higher stats who is not URM) BTW, I am hispanic. </p>

<p>-Get things to teachers in on time. Have friends proofread essays for style (screw grammar, form, flow, etc till after you have the style as you like it)</p>

<p>-Be yourself above all. If you do this one of the colleges you love will certainly pick you provided you have enough 'intelligence' and 'dedication' (GPA and SAT are not flawless indicators of these).</p>

<p>If you want comparison:</p>

<p>SAT I: 2150 (760M, 670V, 710 W (12/12)) *I got into Rice with my score of 1980 but I was sick that time too and got a 500W 4/12 on the essay.
SATII: 780mathiic, 780chem, 610 (all at once, and I left halfway through US Hist (610) cause I was sick.)
GPA: 89.5 UW, 101.5 W
Rank: 15/458
AP classes: chem 5, govt 2, econ 2, comp sci 4 (I didn't give a damn about econ/govt since I was forced to test and I just finished IB exams)
IB: Math HL 6, Phys HL 6, English HL 6, History HL 6, Spanish SL 5, Bio SL 5, Art SL (not examined)
(34 overall with 0 from tok and EE)</p>

<p>awards:
1st dan TKD, assistant instructor
some math/science district competitions
AIME 6, AMC 12 103.5 (first/only time was senior year.. I heard about it 2 days before the AMC12 was scheduled)
photoshop photo restore 1st state
sparring/form stuff for TKD
1st state constitution team
4th nationals for constitution team (not on applications since it was in may)
and some other stuff</p>

<p>EC's:
Tae kwon do
NHS (blah)
math/science competition
kung fu
computer building
tai chi
tutoring (lots)
column writer for monthly school article</p>

<p>I was far from perfect and I got into 4 out of 5 schools I applied (Cornell, MIT, Rice*, UT, not Princeton)</p>

<p>Why did I get in when some URM applicants that were just as qualified as me did not? I believe it's because I'm weird, honest, and do what I love not what looks good. My Rice essay dealt with my love for cooking and how my friends related to that, MIT was basically talking about how I wanted to be everything and couldn't decide ( I love too much) using my changing interesting from childhood, Cornell showed my love of physics/math.</p>

<p>Add if you want and have ideas.</p>

2

<p>Awesome... thanks Sephiroth!</p>

3

<p>Very nice advice, although I have to say I'm already breaking a rule by being on here as a freshman. Oh well, a little too late now.</p>

<p>.-_-.</p>

4

<p>haha i broke a rule too, i'm applying to around 15 colleges b/c i'm anticipating getting rejected by most of em.</p>

5

<p>Tofu: as long as you can complete all the apps and you are applying to colleges you want to go to, its fine. i know because i definitely did what you are doing now. and you never know where you might end up so just apply to where you want to go ... but please dont apply just for the sake of applying or because theres no application fee for a certain college.</p>

6

<p>Heh, I am applying to 13, because I can't chose between the top 5 or the middle 5 (3 safeties). But my list is still preliminary and I'm looking for better matches than those I have.</p>

7

<p>My reasoning behind 8 schools or less is the quality of the application goes down if you do more I would guess. Essays for many schools differ and getting 2 good essays if far better than 10 crappy ones.</p>

8

<p>great advice!</p>

9

<p>Is it a good idea to apply to a bunch of schools using the common app? I mean we just add the school, make sure we have the college specific stuff and fire away right?</p>

10

<p>Wow, sephiroth, you sound amazingly like me. I'm also a martial art 1st dan TKD math/science with a similar admissions profile (Rice Cornell UT MIT) :P</p>

<p>I find it amazingly cool that you'd take the time to write up the article. I also agree completely with all that you said. Props.</p>

11

<p>Cool! Thanks a lot for the advice, I am hispanic to, so i'm having some trouble in applying as international student!!, lol thanks a lot!</p>

12

<p>Me too. I applied to 19, and I already knew deep in my heart that I'd get rejected by most. I was just hung up on that sliver of hope. I regret wasting money on applying to that many.
Lesson: Give it up. Like he said, expect to get rejected by most, if not all, and accepted by only your safeties.</p>

<p>I was accepted to only one match, and all my safeties. Needless to say, I am now attending that match school.</p>

<p>I remember looking up to you, Sephiroth. :)</p>

13

<p>"Do not apply to more than 6-8 schools unless looking for financial aid seriously, 3 reach, 3 match, 2 safety."</p>

<p>unless most of them are comm app</p>

14

<p>Sephiroth226--</p>

<p>Fantastic advice, and this is coming from an Admissions counselor with nearly 10 years of experience. I say many of your comments when I talk with prospective students, but unfortunately most do not heed the advice. Especially CC addicts. Hopefully, students will read your "practical advice" and strongly consider following some or all of your points.</p>

<p>I especially agree with your comment on Essays (THEY DO MATTER - and adcoms do read them) and your last point about being yourself. Sanity in the college admissions process can go along way.</p>

<p>I hope you are having a fantastic freshman year of experience, and good luck in the coming years.</p>

15

<p>Rice has been amazing thus far. The environment is great and the attention to students is unmatched. I don't think there are many colleges that allow anyone start research freshman year by simply asking. I was lucky to essentially guess the admissions process because I didn't have a guidance counsler worth talking to throughout highschool (my last one spelled princeton with a z...... and never heard of SAT II's). I'm off to class.</p>

16

<p>Don't rely on race to get in, as Sephiroth advised, but race does matter. My opinion is that if you are not an URM, then there is a total different ball game for you. We are Asians from a comperative district, and my child got into 5 out of 10 schools he applied. Among them, 1 for 1 safety, 1 for 1 match, 2 for 2 lower reaches (Berkeley and Middleburry), and 1 for 6 high reaches (2 waiting lists). He has almost perfect GPA and SATs, a national merit scholar semi-finalist, and good activities too. If he didn't pick more high reach schools at the time, he would have to settle for a lower reach school.</p>

17

<p>You were on Constitution team Sephiroth? Ha I'm at Rice too and I went down for nationals as well. I guess I shouldn't be surprised though since the team is mostly smart people.</p>

18

<p>definitely true guys...but i'm applying for the 7 year med programs, which are ridiculously competitive, so i have no real safeties....most of them are common app and most of the supplemental essays are of the same mold.</p>

19

<p>and all of the ones i'm applying to, i've seen and i've liked...its not really applying for applying's sake...haha, and no free application fees for me....i'm dropping at least $1200 just to apply. insane.</p>

20

<p>if you have money, why not apply to alot of schools</p>