"What I wish I had known"

Applying to College Admission Stories
1

Hey!

I think that the most valuable advice comes from those who have had more experience–especially in things like college admissions. College Confidential is chock full of people with incredible advice and interesting stories, and I think it would be great if we started to kind of compile a single thread upon which applicants, high school and college graduates, and parents alike could answer the simple (but ever-helpful) question, “I wish I had known…”

The class of 2014 has applied and heard back from their respective schools–kids all over the country are now slowly sorting out their futures. With that comes the joy of success–or the pain of regret–but no matter what, we all have something to share about what we’ve learned about high school experiences or college admissions. I realize that this is very similar to some other threads out there, but this one should not be purely limited to admissions lessons–I think that one of the most important side effects of the admissions process is self-growth, and advice concerning that is often the most helpful.

I suppose it’s only fair if I go first!

This is going to sound really cliche, but truly: follow your heart, and take advantage of any and all opportunities that speak to you and never look back. I went to a large public high school, and sometimes running away from the pack to chase something no one else was going after was a little scary. The fact of the matter is, though, that open doors generally have nothing but good hidden behind them. Take the leap! In the end, your heart and mind will benefit–no matter what school you apply to or get in to.

Please, please share!

2

I’m sure none of the future applicants on CC will make this mistake, since it seems like a pretty obvious one. But never assume one college is the absolute perfect fit for you. And always visit before applying.
I didn’t visit what i thought was my number one choice until after I got accepted. I was so sure it was where I would be come fall, I basically applied to seven other schools I liked okay, but wasn’t really considering. When I visited my #1, I was so disappointed. It was not what I thought, and not only did I not have that “gut feeling” but I felt so uncomfortable there. I came back from the visit panicked. I couldn’t see myself at any of the other schools I applied to either. Now I’m screwed. I will have to attend a school I’m less than excited about this fall.

Never assume anything and always visit.

3

^^^

You know, you could have just had a bad visit. I never believed in the whole “gut feeling” thing. I’ve known people in my school that loved the school while visiting and were miserable during the actual school year, while other people had it as their 4th or 5th choice (AFTER visiting) and loved it. And I’ve known many who never bothered to visit (like me) and are perfectly content. I think it’s very dangerous to extrapolate too much from a day or two spent experiencing a very limited portion of a campus.

4

that the course catalog listings are not the same as what courses are actually offered each year. My S has a somewhat obscure interest that we thought would be reasonably met at the schools he applied to, so we are now realizing that perhaps the experience will be more limited than what we had thought.

5

Get a very high GPA and be in the top 10 or 5 %.

Reading SAT score is very, very important, but GPA triumphs SAT almost always.

Essays will not save you, but they must be strong and decent. Make sure you have leadership roles in your extracurriculars.

Make sure you have two teachers from different subjects that really like you. Make sure you stand out.

Do all the above, make friends and be happy.

6

Yep. You can’t float along through high school on grades alone. You have to be mentally present in your classes; impress your teachers.

Also, SAT is incredibly important. I think CCers tend to use the holistic admissions process at top colleges as a reason to discount SAT scores. High SAT scores are incredibly important.

7

Stay off of CC. There is way too much misinformation on this board.

8

^Truth (nevermind the irony of that statement, coming from an active CC member). The best resources on CC are tucked away in the SAT/AP forums, methinks.

9

Plan ahead!!!

10

For those of you who are financially needy when applying to college, make sure that you apply to several more than your peers. When my guidance told me NOT to apply to Boston University, Northeastern University, and NYU because of their “terrible aid packages,” I almost dropped most of them off at the spot. Instead, I kept BU because I it was a great school and NYU to see if I had a chance. I ended up getting rejected NYU, but accepted to BU with an awesome financial aid package. My BU aid triumphs all of my other packages and will actually allow me to graduate with very minimal debt. If I had listened to my guidance, I would have ended up elsewhere and especially not Boston. Follow your heart and your instinct. If you MUST apply, apply just to settle your conscience. It might end up being the correct one.

11

I wish I had known exactly what UCSD’s six colleges were for.

Research is your key for everything.

12

I recommend not applying to a school for a silly reason like liking the name! Be sure you actually want to go to the schools you apply to, and consider what you might want in the future and what you’ve always been wanting consistently. I’m thinking of things like your personality and interests (arts/humanities versus science/tech, although you could enjoy both and that’s another thing to look for in schools). Remember the things that have always been reliable and constant in your life before getting swept away by the new things that pop up!

Definitely apply to some sort of reach school, even just for fun, because you may be surprised by what you can attain. I’m not saying apply to all the Ivy’s for the heck of it, but apply to that place that’s just out of reach if you’re not sure about it. I’m glad I did. :slight_smile: On the same note, please please please please apply to real financial safeties. Make sure you have some guaranteed/near-guaranteed financial aid coming your way. This also means to apply for those scholarships you said you’d do last week… do them now! (This will be much more relevant in April when you’ve gotten your financial aid offers… I know I had regrets!)

Get as much information out of people as you can! Ask where they went to school (ie: your parents’ friends, your family members, friends’ older siblings) and find out what they liked/didn’t like about those schools. Also try to talk to your counselor more and establish a relationship. I definitely wish I had that source of information, but, I never really got to know my counselor.

Also, re: standardized tests, I suggest studying realistically for them. This means not too little or too much. Do you really need that class? Think about it before shelling out the cash. A work book and good hours of studying can be just as good.

These are a jumble of things I wish I knew a few years ago. I’d read most of it, but didn’t have it ingrained in me yet. Enjoy the college process and don’t let yourself have any regrets or what ifs, but always be realistic :slight_smile: Be careful of expectations (ie: don’t have any) and always be open to things. But when you know something isn’t right for you, it probably isn’t right for you!

13

Wow, you know looking back I have so much I wish I had known.

Here it goes:

<ol>
<li>DON"T FREAK OUT- it is so not worth it. There were so many times that I just flipped out wondering if I would get in to college. I got into all of the schools I applied to but one that I didn’t even consider going to any way, and my biggest fear was ending up in a college I didn’t want to go to, and felt that I deserved better.</li>
<li>stop with the SAT score obsession. seriously. SAT scores are very very important, but looking through CC freaked me out. Thank god, I actually found this after I was accepted to a few colleges, but if I had seen this before that I know that I would have been just way too discouraged. Still, looking now at these acceptance threads, I wonder how I got in to some great schools with lower SAT scores. Colleges, or most of them, do look at you as a person and everything you have accomplished.
Don’t compare yourself to other people on this site, everyone is different,and every year is different!</li>
<li>get involved in high school. One super strong attribute of my high school record was i did so much at my school, to the point where I basically run it. Granted, you don’t have to get THAT involved, but only brains and no ECs are not good. I have a good friend that I thought for sure would get into my top college and I didn’t think I would, she had a higher SAT, higher GPA, and everything, and she got rejected, when I got in. It was a shock and I felt terrible for her, but it really shows that brains is not everything, but instead there needs to be a balance. </li>
<li>Apply to reach schools! The worst that can happen is you’re rejected. that’s the worst. I regret only not applying to one school, because I really am just curious on whether I would have got in or not. But you never know, so apply apply apply! Rejection sucks, as it does with anything, but it’s not the end of the world, and you always miss 100% of the shots you never take. basketball metaphor haha.</li>
<li>enjoy senior year & high school in general. don’t stress too much, you want to be happy going into college. Some classmates of mine are so burnt out I feel bad for them. Life’s too short, don’t worry so much! </li>
</ol>

That’s all I can really think of for now. The major thing to remember is just RELAX,and I wish I would have known that. and listen to your college advisors, they know what they’re talking about. I know its hard with big public high schools, but the small prviate school ones are really cheesy and “you can do it” but they’re right!

Just, take an optimistic look to college admissions, and you will be fine and in the end you will end up where you are meant to be.

life is unpredictable, so stop trying to predict it and just go with the flow. :))

14

Get a copy of your transcript and review it for errors. Also, chat with and get to know your GC to learn how they will answer the questions on the required forms. (did this student take the most difficult classes offered, is he a natural leader, is he respected by his teachers, etc)

15

Don’t wait until you are accepted to visit schools. I wish we had visited schools during junior year or first half of senior year. It’s crazy for my son, trying to finish up senior year, yet missing advanced classes to see college campuses.

16

Don’t apply to safeties you don’t plan/want to go to at all. It’s a waste of money, and you’d probably be better off going to a local CC(then maybe transferring).

17

Something that has already been mentioned but… apply! Apply! Apply!

Being from Texas, I knew I had a great back-up at UT (with the hope of getting into a couple of its honor programs) and applied to, really, three “reach” schools. Despite my mother’s protests to reach higher, I said no thinking that number 1, I may not get into the schools I had so far and number 2, I wanted to put my energies into the applications I already had in front of me and fine hone them.

Now, looking back, I regret that. I got into my reach schools, but still wonder what if I tried for HYP or Stanford?? It’s a crapshoot, but you might as well throw the ball you have up and see where it lands.

Of course, only do so many apps before it becomes ridiculous.

18

I wish I had known this subcategory of the forum existed.

I wish I had known how hard it was to put heart and soul into an essay. Not to mention, the fact that I had procrastinated thinking it would be easier than an analytical essay - it’s not.

I wish I had known that you could fax SAT/ACT/SATII scores, I could’ve saved a good 200 dollars.

I wish I had known to put three stamps (instead of two) on my IDOC envelope so that it wouldn’t have been returned and put me in a panic.

In the end though, all this wishing doesn’t matter. I’m practically going full ride to a college that was already on the top of my list.

19

I wish i had known that I was actually coming to the USA and graduate high school here. I came here in ending of my sophomore year. God for sake, all i had known in english was very general, like I could introduce myself.I’d try to memorize as much as words I could when people spoke so i could look them up on the dictionary when I got home.

Well, in two and a half years; I have learnt sooo much, even though I still struggle.
I am glad that I came here; otherwise, I would not learn these much. But still, all this moving to the USA thing was such a surprise that I just freaked out when I heard about the college admission process in my junior year. (And of course, SAT… ) How it works is just complete different in my country. So, I was like a first grader who was about to skip 10 grade levels. Well, i did my best. I got accepted into Boston u, Syracuse u, St. John’s U, Stony Brook and some other suny’s and CUNY’s. But, I haven’t decided which college to go yet. I just hope that I’ll make a wise decision. College will be very tough, my family is going back to my country in less than a half-year and my life journey in this country will still be continuing …

20

If you don’t qualify for financial aid don’t decide to go to one school over another just because it is ~$6k cheaper after merit money, especially if the more expensive school has tuition lock. I did and the school I ended up at is now the same price as the school I wish I had went to, that keeps the tuition the same for all 4 years.