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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. |
