- Re: Knowing your GC. It obviously depends on the school. At some schools (private, really wealthy publics) your GC is going to make damn sure he or she knows you; that's the job. At others, as someone said, if your GC knows you well it's because you are headed to prison or suicidal. But if you plan on applying to top 20-30-40 colleges, you had better make certain you know -- well in advance of your college application process -- what curriculum the GCs consider "most demanding." With my first child, we ran into a wall when we found out that the GC wouldn't check that box for a kid who hadn't taken AP Calculus BC, and it was too late to do anything about that.
- My other absolute-absolute, besides looking finances in the eyes: Do nothing to get into a better college. Do everything to make yourself a better person.
OK, maybe not “nothing.” Taking AP Calculus BC to have a “most demanding” tick is acceptable.
But given the lottery-ticket aspects of hyperselective college admissions, the low value of institutional prestige to any individual student, and the high quality of the colleges where motivated students end up, it doesn’t make sense to sacrifice anything major to get some marginal admissions advantage. What does make sense – and what, in the end, is best for your admissions chances as well – is to make yourself into the smartest, ablest, happiest, most engaged person you can. That way, no matter what happens with the admissions lottery, you will be smart, able, happy, and engaged, and those qualities are going to make you successful in life – much more so than Stanford graduates who lack them. No admissions officer will be able to deny you access to them. And what admissions officers want to find in their applicant pool, much more than perfect GPAs or test scores, is people who are smart, able, happy, and engaged. Be that kind of person, and good things will happen.