College Application
Strategy for Seniors
Application Strategy – 12 Steps to Success
1. Prepare early and act promptly on all college admission
and financial aid steps presented in the MyCollegeCalendar guide. It
is strongly recommended to apply for admission to college using early
action application deadlines (commonly November 15, 2008).
2. Your college applications should clearly express
a student theme. 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.
If you have a unique talent or achievement that makes you stand out
from other student applicants, it should be included in your student
theme. For example, if you have earned a medal as part of the student Congressional
Award program, play a difficult and unusual musical instrument, have
a unique athletic ability, or have started a student club that has made
a huge impact on your community, try to incorporate your talent or achievement
into your student theme.
Your student theme should be a common thread used in every part of college
applications. Incorporating your student theme into all application
materials will help college admission officers focus on your key characteristics,
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 (if possible).
- 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 as a student
and person 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 choose the most important aspects of
your personality and character to convey to admission officers. 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 a college application. Remember to tell adult recommenders to
include important aspects of your student theme in their letters of recommendation.
3. 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.
4. Organization is a must. During their senior
year, many students receive and mail hundreds of pages of documents and
forms, both paper and electronic. Use a filing system that enables
you and your parents to easily locate and retrieve correspondence and
other documents associated with college admission, financial aid applications,
standardized test results, campus visits, interviews, essays, etc.
5. Create and 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.
6. 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, sophomore, and junior 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 during your senior
year – 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.
7. Research and select seven colleges and universities
to apply to. Apply to 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, student 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.
Applying to more than seven schools is possible if the Common
Application is accepted by several of your colleges and universities. The
Common Application allows you to submit the same application and essays
to multiple schools (each school may have an additional one-page supplement). The
same is true for schools accepting the Universal
Application.
8. Students and parents – take actions to maximize
your potential for receiving scholarship and grant money.
Students – Earn top grades during your senior year; the better
your grades, the greater potential for winning top dollar scholarships. Keeping
up your grades will demonstrate to colleges and private scholarship sponsors
you deserve to receive scholarships and grants when they are awarded
in March-April 2009. If your grades drop in your senior year, colleges
will look at you as a disinterested high school student who will be an
underachieving college student undeserving of scholarship and grant money.
Be sure to submit all financial aid applications early. Campus-based
scholarships and grants (from the colleges themselves) are given on a
first come, first served basis. If you apply just before application
deadlines, the pools of financial aid money may be empty or you may receive
far less than if you applied early.
Apply to all local and regional private scholarships you are eligible
for and to only national scholarships in which your qualifications match
well with the scholarship guidelines and the intent of scholarship sponsors.
Parents – be aware of your family’s financial situation
and maximize your son or daughter’s eligibility for need-based
scholarships. Defer income from 2008 to 2009 and reduce cash reserves. The
higher your income and cash reserves, the less opportunity for your son
or daughter to receive significant need-based scholarships and grants. Be
sure to file your 2008 federal income tax returns as soon as possible
after February 1, 2009; this way required government financial aid forms
can be finalized well before their deadline.
9. Correctly analyze and compare financial aid awards. Analyze
college and university financial aid award letters for offers of free
money (scholarships and grants) vs. money you must repay (loans). Determine
which college or university is the most affordable for all four years
of attendance.
10. Properly analyze all college factors to select
the best college or university to attend. Review and evaluate all
data collected from online research, campus visits, and discussions with
college admissions officers, professors, high school teachers and counselors. Consider
college factors such as academic characteristics, affordability, campus
and student-body character, etc., along with your all-important personal “gut” feeling.
11. Complete college pre-enrollment steps as early
as possible in the summer of 2009. This includes submitting all
enrollment, financial aid, housing and course pre-registration documents
and forms, receiving required medical vaccinations, meeting insurance
needs, pre-ordering textbooks, etc.
12. Arrive at college in fall 2009 prepared and
ready to move in. Have all dorm room and personal items packed,
forms for on-campus jobs prepared and ready for submittal, travel arrangements
made for trips home during fall semester/fall quarter breaks, local banking
needs arranged, etc. |
