What are some tips/pieces of advice you wish you knew when applying to college? What are some little-known, must-know things in the college applications process?
I am new to the college application process, and was wondering if I could get some advice. Thanks!
Most successful people didn’t attend an elite school. THERE IS NO PERFECT/BEST COLLEGE! It is great to dream but, be realistic with at least some of your aps. You can find avg GPA/SAT data on any school with just a few clicks - use that info to understand your chances before you hit submit. Also, attending a CSU or, God forbid, a CC is not a sentence to a life of strife or mediocrity.
If you’re new to the college application, you might want to read the following book for the overall introduction to the process:
“College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step,” by Robin Mamlet and Christine VandeVelde.
Something that isn’t discussed often enough here is that you’d have a greater chance of success if you know what you want in a college and line up those colleges that are best fit for you and develop your application centered on that fit. Be realistic when creating a mixture of reach/match/safety schools, since that has a huge impact as to whether the college application process will be successful or disappointing.
That’s what we discovered after the admission results were in. We noticed how all the college that offered the admission to my son were remarkably the ones we had placed as ideal choices based on fit, while those ones that we considered as second choices and as backups were the ones that waitlisted or rejected his application.
Having a good list of admitted colleges to select from is very important. Some folks frown on applying to more than 10 colleges, but I believe you should apply to as many as you see fit in the framework of reach/match/safety schools and can handle the time, money, effort and the stress of dealing with the process. Not all colleges offer the same FA, meaning you may not necessarily be able to afford your top choice college. So, unless you’re a full-pay able, then think of the college application process to be that of finding the financial affordable colleges, as well. Run the NPC (Net Price Calculator) as an integral part of creating the list of the colleges that you plan on applying to. In our case, we had 2 in-state and 7 out of state admitted colleges to choose from, and we chose the college that had the ideal balance of my son’s fit and the best FA offer.