What are some things you wish you learned about college/college admission process?

Applying to College Admission Stories
101

As a parent with one in college and one applying to top schools, I went to one top school and one grad school, and also served as admissions officer for one school, as well as student scholarship interviewer for another .

1- Try to get the best scores you can on SAT , ACT, and others.
2- Try to improve., but realize that you may hit plateau.

3- Try to get the best grades you can, and concentrate and focus on your homework.
Top colleges like higher GPA, though I have admitted some with 3,5 or lower , due to excellent EC (extracurricular)

4- Essays need to tell us what kind of person you are, what passion, what made you realize or matured at this point.

Worst essays are the ones which rehash your wanting to go to college or rehashing lots of extracurricular work, unless that EC made you suddenly aware of a life lesson .

5- Student leadership, attitude, motivation, and self starters or people who showed creativity in one area , is definitely good.

GOOD luck.

102

Some advice…

1.) Don’t set your heart on a single “Dream” school, try and find a few schools that you could enjoy spending 4 years at. I found that, a.) sometimes dream schools don’t work out financially and b.) you may get rejected! (Imagine that!)

2.) As others have said, study for standardized tests and take them enough to give yourself a shot at reaching your full potential.

3.) Apply to a diverse pool of colleges, ranging in total cost of attendance, location, provided opportunities, size, etc. As you begin visiting them, it’s amazing how you’ll find different aspects of schools appealing.

4.) Visit schools early! As soon as you have some idea as to what you want to do with your life (which you probably won’t lol), make a list and start visiting.

5.) During the admissions process, DO NOT compare yourself to others. You are alone and nobody else can alter the decisions that you receive from colleges. It is important to understand how large the world is, and that, no matter your standing in your HS, there are inevitably many others just like you. My favorite statistic is as follows: If you are 1 in a million, there are 7,000 others in this world JUST like you. That’s reality, accept it.

6.) In finally choosing a school, consider cost. Remember who is paying for your education, and understand what can be afforded. If a school will leave you with a ton of debt, you may have to throw it out the window. Student debt will loom over you for a VERY long time if it accumulates.

7.) DO NOT STRESS! No matter where you end up, if you are surfing this forum you must have some hope of succeeding in the future. Don’t let others set you back, keep your goals in mind and pursue success no matter what happens.

Good luck!

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@BPearlman97‌ Your math is a little bit off for that statistic, I think it needs to be billion instead of million.

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  1. Do not underestimate yourself. If there is a school that seems a little bit "out of your league" but that you would really like to attend if they accepted you, give it a shot. Take the risk. It's always worth it.
  2. Give yourself plenty of time. Know all the deadlines and application requirements for each of the schools you apply to. Do not save anything to the last minute. This is your future on the line.
  3. Do not follow friends or boyfriends/girlfriends. Make the decision that is best for you and for your career.
  4. Know what you want. Start visiting colleges before senior year so that you can experience different campus sizes, different types of schools, and different atmospheres. You don't want to end up with a wide variety of very different schools and no clear direction.
  5. Narrow your list to fewer schools. You are most likely going to want to apply to too many schools. In reality, if you know what you are looking for (and hopefully you do -- try your best to figure this out as soon as possible), then you don't need to apply to more than five or six schools.
  6. Have a safety school so that you know you will be going somewhere. Make sure you would actually be able to be happy at this safety school.
  7. In the end, it's all a crap shoot and sometimes it makes absolutely no sense why certain people get in or don't get in to different schools. Try to just be accepting of whatever outcome may occur.
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I’m replying a little late but I definitely have learned a lot so here you go!:

  1. Accept that everything probably won’t turn out how you want / expect. I am attending a school that I had never thought I would’ve been accepted to in a million years, while I got denied from several schools that I truly thought I would be accepted to - and I’m completely fine. Basically, expect for everything to be changed up!

  2. If you have reservations about applying to a school just because you think that you won’t get in, APPLY ANYWAYS! I wasn’t going to apply to my school of choice originally because I was completely sure that I would be denied and didn’t want to waste my time and money - but look where I am now. You truly never know.

  3. Don’t put your business in the streets. I know that from mid junior year to senior year, pretty much 95% of all conversations you will have with your peers will be about college (well, I’m assuming that if you’re reading this website). Be careful with who you tell where you’re applying, because not only can it get really competitive and you will go mentally insane from worrying about others applying to the same schools as you, but it will also be really awkward when decisions come out even if you were accepted to your schools.

  4. Get a sense of what your family can afford after applying for financial aid, scholarships and your school. I’ve witnessed so many of my friends get into schools they love but not be able to afford it. Save yourself the devastation and have a serious talk with your parents about how much aid you would need to attend your dream schools.

  5. Write your essays passionately, not passively. When I originally wrote my common app essay, I approached it with a preconceived idea. It took me about a month to write it, and when I finally got it proofread, okayed and produced a final edit, I realized that I hated it. After all that work I ended up scrapping it, but produced one that I absolutely loved on a completely different topic. If you don’t feel good about your essay, re write it!!

  6. A) You aren’t obligated to do interviews and B) If you don’t get an interview, it’s not the end of the world. If you don’t feel good about doing an interview, follow your gut! Don’t give them a reason not to admit you, and only do interviews if you truly feel like you will do well and it will help your chances. Also, some more selective schools RANDOMLY choose people for interviews - so if you don’t get one it’s not that big of a deal! I have friends who would become upset because other people got interviews randomly while they didn’t, and lets just say those friendships didn’t make it through the end of the year.

Good luck class of 2016, and I hope this helps :slight_smile:

106

Don’t get overly attached to your ‘top’ school. I tried to do a top ‘tier’ and although I didn’t get into any of them, I did get into several schools I really liked. Don’t let rejections or waitlists get you down, but when you get an acceptance let yourself fall in love with that school. The school I’m going to was not my first choice, but that doesn’t matter because I love the school.

As far as getting in, I suggest choosing a rolling admissions or early college that you have a good chance at getting into. If your first admissions decision is an acceptance, it takes the edge off of almost all of the subsequent decisions (though losing my top school hurt pretty badly) because at least you know you’ve got somewhere to go. Even if you don’t like it or have any real wish to go there you’re to be going to college next year one way or another! If the rest doesn’t pan out, there is always the transfer process.

DON’T apply to too many! It just makes the end of the process harder.

And be prepared for interviews. some questions are odd, but many aren’t. There will always be a few about the school so read up on what’s important to them and know it inside an out. I had an 1hr 30min alumni interview where we discussed the oddest things about the school.

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Great thread. My D will be applying this year, but I do have some advice because we got started with this process a year ago.

That’s my first piece of advice. Tip 1, There is so much to learn in this process, so don’t wait until the summer before your last year of HS. Parents, you can help by learning about the process. Your kid will be very busy in junior year, and if it makes your kid’s life easier, and you have time, read up on everything you can. CC is the single most helpful site out there. Just to be nice, I will save you a month’s worth of research and tell you the best sites IMO for learning about colleges and the application process: this site, college niche, college data, college measures, unigo, and the website of every college you are interested in. There are many many others, but those come to mind first.

Tip 2, get all your college visits done before the end of junior year. We are all done, and now my D can devote her time to the essays and the app. If possible, try to visit colleges when kids are on campus. It really does make a difference.

Tip 3, which my stubborn kid wouldn’t heed and I hope she doesn’t regret it, make sure your kid spends non-academic time doing something they are actually interested in, and if possible, have them “do” something with that interest. Enter a competition, or write about it, or use it for a good cause. (I tried, honest.)

Tip 4, take those hard classes, but be sure you have a balance so that you can have a life too. My D’s way of coping is to take all honors or AP, except one regular math or science per year. Or maybe do two regular and the rest honors, etc… Doing the one regular class for her means she doesn’t get so stressed that she can’t cope. Every kid is different of course, but she has a transcript filled with tough classes and good grades. Her counselor doesn’t think the regular classes will be an issue. She also was able to do an AP at home that our school didn’t offer, and got a 5. That is an option many people aren’t aware of.

Tip 5, when your kid is finalizing the list, try to keep your parental opinion out of it, unless you have a very strong feeling about a college, for or against, and good reasons for it. My D finally said she just didn’t see herself at a college I thought was great. At the same time, the student does need to take the parents request into consideration. We insisted she apply to at least one state school, and because of that she is applying to one she would be happy to go to.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your advice, it is very helpful.

108

-Not quote the Beibs here but, Never say never. I applied on whim to Dartmouth bound thinking I would never get in, accepted. Applied to Questbridge College prep scholars thinking I wouldn’t get in, Accepted. Applied to Ayn Rand international essay contest thinking I would be lucky to get into semifinals, Second place with 2,000 dollar cash prize. Point being, you won’t have to worry about rejections if you don’t apply but I can guarantee you won’t have to worry about being accepted either…

  • Having said that, be honest with yourself! Accept no excuses and don’t sugarcoat things for yourself. If you haven’t applied yourself start now and move forward from there!
    -Be HONEST on your college apps. This is no joke. At Dartmouth we were told a story about a very competitive applicant who was by an act of fate exposed for lying about a club she started. Guess what? Not only did she go from a near admit to an auto-reject at Dartmouth, they called the rest of the Ivy league and she was auto-denied there too. Sad thing is, it really would not have mattered all that much, unless of course, you lied about it. Remember also, that as your Mother may have said, “BS may get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there”
    -You are more than your race/ethnicity/GPA/test score/class rank. Any attempt to validate yourself to a college based on these things alone is not likely to get you very far. Not in admissions and not in your personal life.
    -No one thinks it’s cute when you say “I got an 1850 BUT I didn’t study at all” Why the f wouldn’t you study? No I don’t think you’re super smart because you got a decent score out of laziness. In fact I think you’re pretty stupid for not applying yourself and wasting time and money.
    -Develop study habits in high school, even if you don’t really have to study to do well. Getting into an elite University is pointless if you can’t hack it past the first year and guess what? If you don’t know how to study, you won’t do very well.
    -Be in the know! Scholarship money is everywhere, college fly ins are common, app fees can be waved and when in doubt ASK! If finances are a problem for you LOOK FOR OPTIONS!!! You will be surprised at how many resources there may be.
    -Know when every App is due. Scholarship apps, college apps, grant apps. It does not matter, lateness is a sin.
    -DO NOT BLOW OFF SAT SUBJECT TESTS! They are real. They are hard and when they say that one year of a history or science course is enough THEY ARE LYING! You need to study for each test specifically, end of story.

-Do not think that low income means your elite dream school will be free. There are still thing such as summer study contribution and a student contribution that will apply at nearly every school.

LASTLY>>>>
Harvard is not happiness. Yale does not guarantee a great experience and Dartmouth cannot assure you of a fulfilled life. Harvard has an attempted suicide rate of over 2 times the national average. Over 30% of Princeton students said they developed mental health issues AFTER starting school at Princeton. Don’t be part of those statistics. Do the activities you want to do, take the classes you want to take, go to the college you want to go to and the live the life YOU want to live.

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I agree that you should only apply to schools you like and that you should have safety schools. However, I do think it’s OK to fall in love with a school. But if you do fall in love with a school, then apply early decision.

We were told at a highly selective school that ED provides only a slight advantage in admissions, but learned when it was too late that at least at that school, a much higher percentage of ED applicants are accepted—and it’s not because they are better qualified (they are not).

I know it can be scary to apply ED because of finances, but at highly selective schools, you are likely not even to have the option of trying to afford it if you apply regular decision—because you won’t get in. ED is about admission, not financials. If your child is accepted ED but the financials don’t work for you, tell the school you can’t afford it and you will be off the hook. Tell your child when they apply ED what you consider affordable and be prepared to stick with it.

We were also told that if you are worried about finances, go regular decision because that will give you time to apply for merit scholarships. But most highly selective schools have lots of applicants with high merit, and very few merit-based scholarships, so that is a red herring for most families. Your child is probably not going to get that scholarship anyway.

Don’t put yourself in the position of regretting what you didn’t do. If your child wants to go to a certain school or certain kind of school, let them apply ED and also have an ED2 school they can apply to if they are not accepted, and follow up with regular decision options too. Then if you child is accepted ED and it’s affordable, you don’t have to spend any more money on applications, sending AP scores to more schools, etc.

Early decision is one of those situations where you have to think like a rich person to get what you want.

110

Never trust a school that deliberately chooses to ignore an entire section of the SAT. Never.

111

Have not been through college app but have 3+ friends going through it last year.
Rule #1: DO NOT PUT YOUR ENTIRE MEANING OF EXISTENCE ON ONE SINGLE COLLEGE! make yourself flexible and open-minded and not desperately in love with one univ.

112

Also, although every reinstated that do not get fixated on one top ranking school, but be ambitious and absolutely shoot for the stars, and there is nothing to lose (maybe that 80$ app fee)

113

Oh and also do not make up generic things in the why this school essay. 1. it is a giant red flag to the admission officer 2. it is more of a giant RED FLAG to the fact that you are actually not that interested/ knowledgeable about that college and you have a good chance of being miserable there even if you get accepted.

114

Applying Early Action. I’ve been done since August 31st but didn’t make one application that.

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Before anything else, you should know that there are hundreds of schools that could challenge you and bring you into contact with fascinating people with whom you can make wonderful memories. There is no perfect match, and you can find most of what you’re looking for in many more places than you might expect. Be open to names you haven’t heard, places you haven’t been and don’t settle for famous brands.

1 Visit in Jr year to help figure out what you like,dislike or don’t care about: rural or urban, huge or small, private or public, modern or mossy and traditional. That list you made during math class is probably completely wrong. Also, don’t make your first visits to schools you love. Start out where ever so you can learn the ropes of visiting, interviewing, and what to be impressed about (“the dryer will txt you?!? wow…”). It will free you to be able to focus on important things when you are visiting places you care about. And knock out three or four sentences about your impressions right afterwards, while it’s fresh in your mind. If you went with someone else have them make some notes about what you said or felt so you can crosscheck later. I saw far earlier than my daughter that she was liking the smaller schools far more than her criteria indicated.

2 As flattering as reaches are, try to look at true match schools that will be thrilled to have you. You fit in better, it’s more fun to be near the top of the class, the financial aid is better and you usually find more of what you want because you have a broader selection. It’s cool to dream about being from Harvard, but four years of desperately battling to stay near the middle of a herd of superstars can hold way more stress, work, cost and failure than most kids want. Drop down a tier and you may find that instead of throwing darts at a thousand identical apps, Admissions might be throwing money and honors invitations at yours. Get past the daydreams and find a place where you can thrive.

3 I know I said there are a lot of places you could go, but be just as honest when admitting that some places are just a bad fit. It may be beautiful or in a great city or really cheap or near kids from school or have an awesome football team, but really ask if you will ever go outside, or be challenged academically, or overwhelmed academically, or can afford it, or actually want to be part of Greek world or whatever other great aspect you were raving about. Talk to someone you respect about why you’re in love with a school and listen to your words for any sign you’re talking about someone else’s life.

4 Cost matters. Send the parents out separately to run some Net Price Calculators at a variety of types of schools so they have a realistic understanding of what the costs are going to be. (Parents might prefer to suffer the sticker shock in private with a bottle of wine rather than letting the kids know how deep the water is right off the bat.) Then provide the student with some real guidelines on resources and walk through a couple NPC examples that will illustrate the possibilities and boundaries. Best to show how these are arrived at early to avoid unnecessary drama later.

BTW, the NPC is a wonderful thing that made our selection process go much easier. They are frequently very accurate, and even if you only round to the nearest $25k you can hand over enough family finance info to allow your child to police herself and knock schools off well before you even hear about them.

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Probably already been mentioned, but don’t apply to too many colleges.

  1. If you make a balanced list, you will get in somewhere. YOU MUST APPLY TO SEVERAL SAFETY AND MATCH SCHOOLS.
  2. Doing the applications is a lot of work. Be more discriminating in your selection process so that you don't have to complete applications for colleges you actually are not that interested in.
  3. In regards to match and safeties, you should be good as long as you have 3-5. Even less might be fine as long as you do your work and know how you fit into a college's stats.
  4. Even though there are a lot of people submitting silly amounts of applications, those people are in the minority. Don't allow yourself to panic when you read about kids who have submitted 15-20 applications. Guess what? You ARE going to be accepted to colleges (see 1 again) and then you are going to be faced with this problem: "Oh man, I have been accepted to 7 of the 12 colleges I applied to, and now I have about one month between April 1- May 1 to decide where to spend the next four years of my life." That sounds appealing, but in fact, it is quite possibly going to be very difficult to make the final choice, depending on all kids of factors. Things such as, you are no longer really interested in a college, but they offered you a lot of money. Or, how will you revisit the ones that are far away? Or, your family has had a change in circumstances. Or college X is suddenly more interesting, but it's a plane ride away. How are you going to feel about being far from home, now that it is a real possibility? Make things easier down the road, and don't apply to too many.
  5. You are young, and you will change your mind. If you apply to too many colleges, especially ones you aren't that interested in, you will waste time and money on a "maybe" that you will, most likely, lose interest in. Once you get accepted, you really want to do more research so you can make the best decision. Research means more work, and you will be busy with homework, life, etc... Anyway, if you really don't feel excited about the prospect of a particular college, leave it off your list.

Personally, I think the ideal number of colleges is anywhere from 6-9. Trust me, it is very hard to feel that you really belong at 12 or 15 colleges. It is hard to write your “Why our college?” essay about a college you aren’t actually that intereted in. My child applied to 12, and she is completely uninterested in three of them now. In retrospect, it seems obvious that she was never that interested in those three, but she thought “I had better apply to these, just in case.” Plan your list well to begin with, and you won’t need to apply “just in case.”

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  1. Don't fall in love with a school.
  2. Apply for scholarships. There are so many opportunities to get free money senior year - TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM.
  3. Don't apply to too many schools. It's fine to apply to more reaches (up to a certain point), but you don't need that many targets/safeties.
  4. There are schools that you can apply to for free! (If you're interested in one of them)
  5. Do what you love, not what others want to see from you.
  6. If you want to enter a competition, enter it. There's honestly nothing stopping you.
  7. If something's missing from your school, start it.
  8. Talk to kids outside of your school. There's so many smart, interesting people in the world and so many opportunities to meet them.
  9. Volunteer. You'll be happier if you helped out others, even if it's just tutoring.
  10. Don't get hung over high school drama. It's so not worth it.
  11. Don't take a hard class just to have it on your transcript. The bad grade is not worth it.
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1.Work hard on you essays(supplements included.And try not to rush through them the day of the application deadline at 10pm.

  1. If your scores from the PSAT/PLAN/a practice test are not within range(or at least within the schools bottom 25%) STUDY! Believe me it pays off,but don't study too much,have fun.
  2. Be yourself during your college interviews.seriously. This is an opportunity for you to either learn more about the school or add more depth to your application and make you appear more human and less like a piece of paper to ADCOMs.And do your research.

3.Don’t let the stress of college applications/senioritis get in the way of your grades. They are still important.

4.Go through the process with an open mind,ready to accept any decision that you get from a college,so,like the poster a above me said,try not to fall in love with a school,especially if it is a reach. Instead,really try to find aspects that you love about each and everyone of the schools you’re applying to.
5. Don’t let the stress from applying to college and waiting on decisions affect your senior year and how you treat others.

6.RESEARCH your colleges thoroughly.

  1. Realize that there are various factors of this process that are out of your control. However,there are also factors you CAN control(essays,test scores,interview).
  2. Be happy and remember,that no matter what,you have accomplished a lot. :)
  3. Don't rely on result/chance me threads too much,or perhaps ignore them all together. I'm sure if I had, I would have been less stressed/obsessive.
  4. But,also know that this site has helpful threads too(e.g. On writing why this college essay,interview tips,test preparation tips(which helped me increase my score greatly and without which I probably wouldn't have all these colleges to choose from),etc.)
  5. If you really like a school,consider applying EA/ED(I wish I had).
  6. Have fun with your essays(which isn't something that I necessarily wish I'd known since I did choose to have fun with my essays,but I highly recommend it). There were several times when I would catch myself editing my essays not necessarily for ADCOMs,but for myself. Even after submitting my applications I would still read and contemplate things to add to my essays(mainly the ones that allowed me to write in narrative form) that would make it better and more enjoyable to read. In fact, writing my essays helped me realize how much I enjoy writing. Also,if your a musician,writer,or some other artist feel free to submit any of your work to a college,if they give you the option of course.
  7. Some SAT II exams go more in depth than what you learn in your classes for that specific subject. For example, the SAT US history is MUCH more difficult than the NYS us history regents,in fact the regents is a joke in comparison to the subject test.(I got a 98/100 on the us history regents,but a 540/800 on the us history subject test). So, you will most likely have to do some studying for these tests.
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Merit aid, if you are eligible for financial aid, may not be that big of a whoop. Example: Case Western: $25,500 a year merit aid. Woohoo! Northeastern, no merit aid. Boohoo! But wait, $32,000 a year grant. NEU is the better deal. Case just replaced what we would have received in financial aid with merit.

Pick more than one safety. Then, if all you can both get into and afford are your safeties, you can at least enjoy the feeling of choice.

If you think you will need loans, really, really understand how that will effect your future lifestyle. Figure out the monthly payments, then create a mock budget for your first gig out of college. Will those loans make your grown-up life a pit of misery? This calculator will help you figure that out: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml

If you can see reasons why a specific college might not pick you, that college can see it too, and the very real possibility exists that someone enough like you but without those reasons applied too. They win. We all love a Cinderella story, but what makes it such a great story is that it is rare.

Good luck & aloha!

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Oh and for the why this college essay, I think it’s good to incorporate yourself into it too. For example, I talked about being a part of my schools orchestra and all the weird traditions we have(stuff like putting up the hunger games three fingered salute backstage before a concert) and how that makes my orchestra like a second family to me.Then said how that school’s community,based on what I researched and how they organize housing, would be similar(I ended up getting wait listed,but I think perhaps including this in my essay added more depthand life to it,which kept me from being rejected. Even though some say that a wait list is a "soft rejection,I’m still happy they would still consider me if they have any spots left,especially because this school was a reach(perhaps even a big reach) for me.).Basically,don’t just talk about the school in the “why this college essay”,the ADCOMs already know these things,talk about yourself too. Still include aspects about the college that you like though, so they know you’re serious about their school and have genuinely researched it.