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Junior Year College Admission Strategy

Application Strategy - General
Application Strategy - 12 Steps to Success

Admission Strategy – 12 Steps to Success

1.    Prepare early and act promptly on all tasks and college preparation steps presented in the MyCollegeCalendar college admission system.

2.    Develop a student theme for next year’s college applications.  A student theme is a clear, consistent and compelling picture of your personality and character.  It is a portrait of who you are and what interests you.  Your theme should show how your interests, strengths and character relate to your goals and achievements; it should clearly link your interests, activities and college/career goals.

Your student theme will be a common thread used in every part of next year’s college applications.  Incorporating your student theme into all application materials will help college admissions officers focus on your key characteristics and strong points, what makes you unique, and what assets you will bring to their college community. 

For example, a college-bound student may be planning to major in biology with a pre-med emphasis.  Ideally, this student’s theme should paint a picture of an enthusiastic student with high achievements/honors in biology and other sciences, involvement with science organizations, volunteer service at a local hospital, and personal gratification from working with others.  This student’s personality and character should be included (to the extent possible) in every part of the application including:

Student Résumé.
Essays.
Recommendations from adults.
-  Application itself (work the most important aspects of your student theme into the list of extracurricular activities, short answer questions, and leadership questions on the application).

College admissions officers try to create campus communities diverse in talents and interests.  Your student theme should show officers where you will fit in and how their college community will benefit from you being part of the incoming freshman class. Your student theme must demonstrate your individuality, best qualities, and spirit to college admission officers reading your application. 

Your student theme must clearly demonstrate your real passions and ambitions, not what you think admissions officers want to hear.  If your theme portrays someone who is not you, it will come across as not genuine and admissions officers will know your information is artificial and insincere.

Work with your parents to help select and develop the most important aspects of your personality you would like to convey to admission officers next year.  Think about your best academic subjects and academic accomplishments, your favorite or most accomplished extracurricular activities, and future college and career plans.  To create a student theme, begin brainstorming key words that identify your strengths.  Jot down words such as scientist, leader, athlete, writer, politics, communication, community service, etc. that indicate your interests and strengths.
 
In summary, your student theme should be a clear and consistent picture of your personality and character; it should be included in every part of next year’s college application materials.  Develop a theme that shows your interests, educational goals, supporting activities, and uniqueness.  This year (and next) work to complete activities and earn achievements to support a long track record of success that supports your student theme.

3.    Study hard to earn top grades.  Junior year grades are the most important grades for getting into college.  They show college admission officers how well you are able to handle advanced, upper-level courses.  Furthermore, grades are used by colleges and organizations to determine which students deserve merit based scholarships and grants.  Earn top grades this year.  Even if your grades haven’t been the best, try hard to improve; college admission officers like to see upward trends in grades.  

4.    Develop adult advocates.  Create and develop courteous, respectful relationships with high school teachers, counselors, coaches (if you play sports), and other adult community members.  Building and maintaining excellent relationships with adults will lead to greater support from them during your senior year and to stronger letters of recommendation. 

In addition, develop advocates during college campus visits; meet and discuss academic programs with professor(s) and demonstrate the personal qualities college representatives are seeking – be engaging, enthusiastic and caring.

5.    Maximize the value of extracurricular activities.  Extracurriculars should reflect meaningful and long-term involvement in the activities you are passionate about (and ideally have been involved with during freshman and sophomore years).  Colleges want students who demonstrate in-depth, consistent involvement in activities.  Activities can be of any type; colleges and universities need committed students and leaders in every field of interest.  Develop and demonstrate uniqueness as an individual to increase your value to college communities.

To maximize the value of extracurricular activities in the eyes of college admission officers, be a leader in a few activities – lead a team, be an officer in a club or organization, start a project, or run for class office.  Demonstrate initiative, commitment and leadership.  College admission officers love students with leadership skills and determination; including such qualities on college applications will be very impressive. 

6.    Be professional in all interactions with college and university representatives.  This includes telephone and face-to-face conversations, written and E-mail correspondence, message boards and blogs.  Parents should be courteous and respectful in all interactions with college and university representatives as well.

7.    Organization is a must.  During your junior year, you may receive and gather numerous college brochures, pamphlets, and other reference materials.  Create folders for both paper and electronic documents to enable you and your parents to easily file and retrieve information.

8.    In the spring of your junior year, research and select seven colleges and universities to apply to next year.  Select two “Safety Schools”, three “Best Match Schools”, and two “Dream Schools.”  Select colleges and universities based on factors you would like offered by your “ideal” college (such as geographic location, size of school, majors offered, available social activities, etc.).  Evaluate your potential for getting accepted to colleges and universities by comparing your grade point average, test scores, extracurricular activities and accomplishments to last year’s college freshman class at each college and university.

9.    Choose a college major to help with selection of preferred colleges and universities.  Deciding on a college major is not absolutely necessary, but doing so will allow you to eliminate colleges and universities from consideration if they do not offer your major.  This will make college search efforts easier and will speed up the entire college selection process.

10.  Students and parents – take actions to maximize your potential for receiving scholarship and grant money.

STUDENTS – Earn top grades during your junior year; the better your cumulative grade point average, the greater potential for winning top dollar scholarships.  Excellent grades demonstrate to colleges and private scholarship sponsors you deserve to receive scholarship and grant awards.  If your grades are not good, colleges will look at you as a disinterested high school student who will be an underachieving college student undeserving of scholarship and grant money.

Apply to all local and regional private scholarships you are eligible for and to only national scholarships in which your qualifications match well with scholarship guidelines and the intent of scholarship sponsors.

PARENTS – beware of your family’s financial situation and maximize your son or daughter’s eligibility for need-based scholarships.  Defer income from 2009 to 2010 and reduce cash reserves.  The greater your income and cash reserves are in calendar year 2009, the less opportunity for your son or daughter to receive significant need-based scholarships and grants. 

11.  Prepare for and complete standardized admission tests (SAT® and ACT®).  It is important to maximize your test scores to increase the opportunities for college admission and to receive significant scholarships.  Learn how to take tests, the types of questions to expect, and how to best use your time during the tests.  Build your confidence by taking practice tests and learning strategies.

It is recommended to enroll in classes given by expert instructor(s) who teach test-taking strategies and approaches for the SAT® and ACT®.  The hands-on instruction you receive will serve you well on test day.

12.  Review and be prepared to implement the senior year application and enrollment strategy beginning June 2009.  The senior year application and enrollment strategy ties directly to the junior year approach for preparing students and parents for the college admission and financial aid processes.  Familiarizing yourself with the senior year strategy in June 2009 will prepare you and your parents for using time-proven strategies for maximizing opportunities for college admission and receiving significant scholarship and grant awards.

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