There are some important factors for you and your parents to consider when doing a college search during the college admissions process. Where you apply influences where you get in, and where you go to college can have a big impact on your career and future in general. One of the most important things to consider as you start the college admissions process by doing a college search is: What is the Average Class Size?

Class size as in ratio of students to faculty, can really influence access to faculty and your experience as an undergraduate student. For the most part, private schools have smaller class sizes. My friends who went to public colleges for their undergraduate studies shared horror stories with me about having “video professors” – what?!

That’s right, they attended lectures in large auditoriums with a video recording of their professor lecturing – unbelievable. You might as well do distance learning. I personally found this outrageous, but for some anonymity is a plus. If you are just a number, though, it can be more challenging to petition to get into a competitive major OR to request a letter of recommendation, when and if, you apply to graduate programs.

As you may know, conducting a college search is only the first step in the college admissions process. To help those who are serious about getting into an Ivy League college or other top college, I outline insider information based on my experience as a recruiter and alumni interviewer for Yale University. My recommendations, tips, and insight are available at http://www.collegesearchtips.com as part of the Keys to the CASTLE program.

If you want to increase the odds of getting into a top college or your child getting into an Ivy League college, then you need to immediately go to http://www.collegeadmissionstips.com Everyday that goes by that you don’t access this information, the odds of getting in decreases. High school graduation is right around the corner, don’t you want your child to have big plans for the following fall. I hope this was helpful to you. Here’s to making your dreams, your reality. – Kamala Appel, Exec. Producer

Author: Kamala Appel
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Since your child’s official high school transcript begins with the first day of ninth grade, it’s a sound strategy to initiate college discussions with your child in the eighth grade and set goals before the first day of high school.

Reams of information have been published about the college application process during the junior and senior years. I’d like to introduce you to some ideas that you and your child can implement during the middle school and early high school years. View them as a foundation; start with them and build incrementally until junior year when the process needs to become more rigorous.

Let me be clear. Starting the college admissions process early is not intended to bulk up your child’s application with meaningless accomplishments. The goal is to have calm and instructive discussions about college that lead to a strategic action plan that supports and illustrates your teen’s interests and passions.

Middle School Years/Eighth Grade

If available, your child should take Algebra I in the 8th grade to ensure that he or she is on track for senior year Calculus. Strive for the highest level of math your teen can attain.
Meet with your child’s school counselor to develop a 4-year college preparatory plan. Use this plan as a baseline guide that is revised as your child learns more about his or her interests.

Freshman Year
Encourage your child to:

Develop sound study habits
Set academic and extracurricular goals
Take challenging courses

Sophomore Year
Learn the college-bound calendar. Highlights include:

October: Take the PSAT. Note that the PSAT should be retaken during Junior year to qualify for National Merit Scholarships.
April: register for SAT IIs (if applicable). Visit colleges during spring break
May: revisit academic and extracurricular goals. Plan for Junior year.

In the next issue we will introduce strategies for college-bound juniors and seniors.

P.S. Seniors should continue to study hard and not give in to senioritis. Colleges will rescind offers if grades dip significantly.

Want to use this article on your website or your own ezine? No problem! But here’s what you MUST include:

Geanine Thompson is CEO and Founder of The College Guru, Inc., a college admissions counseling firm that helps parents and students leap over the rising college admissions bar. Get your FREE Special Report “The 5 Fatal Mistakes That Will Keep Your Child From Getting Into a Competitive College (…and how to avoid them!)” and FREE online winning college admissions tips at http://www.TheCollegeGuru.com

Author: Geanine Thompson
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It has stuck with me because they illustrated the common mistakes students and parents are making that ultimately cost students their opportunity for admission or cause them to pay more for their college degree than is absolutely necessary.

Here’s what happened:

It was the beginning of the workshop and I asked the audience if anyone had a strategic plan for the college admissions and financial aid process and if so, what was that plan.

Two brave people raised their hands, one a student and one the mother of a student. Both of their plans sounded eerily similar.

“Wonderful. What is your plan?” I asked the mom first.

“Well,” she replied confidently, “we’re currently looking at different colleges trying to decide which ones we’ll apply to. Then, we’ll apply. My son plans on interviewing, as well.”

The minute she started outlining her plan, I recognized the mistakes she was making already.

“Okay, you’re looking at colleges. What is it that your son wants to be, career-wise?”

“He’s undecided.”

“How do you know the schools you’re currently looking at will be the best place for him once he decides what he wants to do?”

Silence.

The student with a plan, on the other hand, had zeroed in on a career goal. But, she admitted that money was a huge consideration for her. She, too, was looking at colleges.

“Do you know your Expected Family Contribution? What the schools will expect you to pay?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know if the colleges you’re considering actually have money to help you pay the bill?”

Again, silence.

Both were making the mistake of looking at colleges as the first step of their plan — and they were completely WRONG!

They were confusing the steps in the process for an actual plan. A plan guides your actions when taking the steps of choosing colleges, creating your application strategy, and so on. The steps of the college admissions process are not a plan of action. They are simply the things you must do to complete the task.

If you’re serious about winning at the college game, you need to create a master plan that will guide your actions. Your plan will ensure you have a purpose behind the steps you must take to complete the college admissions and financial aid process.

Your first steps to creating a plan should be:
1. Set Some Goals: College is not the end game. It is a stepping stone that helps you get to a larger goal – such as a particular job or career. If you don’t have some idea of what your goals are, how do you know if a particular college is going to be the place to help you achieve them?

2. Know Your EFC: Your expected family contribution (EFC) is the minimum amount of money the schools and the federal government will expect you to pay. If you don’t know what you’ll be expected to pay, how on earth can you be selecting colleges?

3. Know the Rules: Like any other game, Admissions and Financial Aid operate under their own sets of rules. If you don’t know the rules, how do you expect to win?

Stop right now and evaluate your current college plan. Do you actually have one or are you mistaking the STEPS you need to take for the plan itself? If so, you need to fix that and FAST!

Failing to do so will cause you to make costly mistakes when it comes to choosing colleges. Choosing the wrong college can cost you or your student:

• Loss of Self-esteem if you don’t get in OR you get in but it’s not the place for you.
• Loss of Time: Transferring or changing majors cost you more time AND more money.
• Loss of Money if you end up paying more than is absolutely necessary for the college degree.

Seniors, you’re almost out of time to get your college plan together.
Juniors, it’s time you start creating your plan.

Don’t wait, because lack of a plan or the wrong plan will cost you – cost you opportunities for admission and opportunities for financial aid to help pay the bill!

Jeanmarie Keller, is an Admissions and Financial Aid Strategist who has advised hundreds of students and their families on how to get NOTICED, get IN and get MONEY to help pay the college bill. She publishes the weekly email newsletter, ‘The College Oracle’. If you’re ready to jump-start your college search, get money to help pay the bill, and have more fun while planning your future success, get your FREE tips now at http://www.kellercollegeservices.com

Author: Jeanmarie Keller
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That’s often the most difficult part for parents to understand. Just because your child has great grades and good SAT scores, doesn’t necessarily mean he or she is Ivy League material or a shoo-in at every college. So, when strong grades, solid SAT scores and tons of activities are the norm, your problem still remains: how to stand out from the crowd.

The solution is to have a compelling message to deliver to the schools and a plan to communicate it consistently to the right people. It’s going to help you stand apart from the rest of the crowd! And, the key to a good college admissions strategy is your message.

College admissions folks love anything that can help them identify your strengths and communicate them quickly and easily. Your message should make you more “memorable” to the college admissions representative who reads your application. If you have really zeroed in on the right message, it will likely be supported by others — such as your teachers who will be writing your recommendations!

Done well, your message and the strategy you use to deliver it can be powerful tools to get you noticed and in at a particular college, as it did for one of my students, Anita.

Anita’s dad asked me to work with his daughter because she wanted to get in to a highly selective school that had a top-notch reputation in the medical sciences. Exactly the kind of place that fit in with her career goals of following in her physician-father’s footsteps. Anita was a strong candidate for for the school, but she and her dad didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

Anita and I worked together to develop her message to the schools so she would stand out as much as possible from the thousands of others in the admissions office. Together, we developed her strategy to reinforce her two unique qualities — her love of and desire to study math and science plus her extraordinary accomplishments in classical Indian dance.

Her message boiled down to how she was equally at home on the stage and in front of a Bunsen burner. It was concise and, most of all, it was memorable.

She was able to incorporate this message into every part of the college admissions process — as part of her main essay; she was able to integrate it into her interviews. The clarity and consistency of her message made a great impression, as evidenced by comments made by the admissions officer after she was accepted!

Having a comprehensive plan and a strong admissions strategy kept Anita in control of the admissions process rather than letting the admissions process control her. Isn’t that more appealing than “throwing together your applications’ and “hoping for the best”? So, get started taking control…

Your Get NOTICED, Get IN, Get MONEY Assignment:

1. Create your message.

2. Identify who you will communicate your message to.

3. Start communicating that message — consistency is the key!

Jeanmarie Keller, is a college admissions and financial aid expert and creator of the Get NOTICED, Get IN, Get MONEY System, the proven step-by- step program that shows you exactly how to get NOTICED in the college admissions office, get IN at the colleges right for you, and get MONEY to help pay the college bill. To claim your F.R.E.E. audio CD: “Finding Cash For College” and receive weekly admissions and financial aid tips and strategies, go to http://www.JeanKeller.com

Author: Jeanmarie Keller
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Below, I’ll demystify college admissions offices and describe a few inside secrets about them.

1) They are not a bunch of old, white-haired people with tweed jackets sitting in a room smoking cigars while reading your Common Application. In fact, most college admissions offices are comprised of relatively young college graduates who went through the admissions process themselves not too long ago

2) College admissions committees do not throw a dart on the wall to determine who gets into Stanford, who goes on the waitlist, and who is rejected. The deliberation process is long, arduous, and can seem arbitrary, but is actually fairly technical and numbers-based

3) Each school has a different deliberation process. Most colleges have regional review cycles (the case for most Ivy League schools) – which means that there are specific people assigned to regions of the U.S. and foreign countries to review all applications coming from that region. This helps application readers build location-specific knowledge

4) Borderline candidate decisions are usually made by committee – which means that on certain days, you may get into Yale, but on others, you’ll be waitlisted. This may worry you – but instead of focusing on things out of your control, focus on what you CAN control – your essays, your teacher recommendations, your extracurricular activities. If you have a strong enough application – and I provide a lot of last-minute college application tips on my blog – you will maximize your chances of going to your dream school

Hope that helps!

Hopeless To Harvard is a former Admissions Officer’s account of how to get into Harvard, Princeton, and any other Ivy League schools. Click here to learn about the Ivy League admissions, and break into the school of your dreams! Discover how to get into Princeton now.

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From my knowledge and previous experience, a topic or general prompt will be usually provided. It is much more difficult for college admissions staff to compare and judge completely dissimilar essays than it is similar essays. Therefore, prompts are given to make the lives of college admissions staff easier!

If a prompt is not specific, write about something you feel comfortable and knowledgeable about. Also, think of what admissions personnel is looking for. This often includes leadership demonstration, work or volunteer experience, and/or an activity relating to your field of study. I would not recommend writing on the subject of academia, as your GPA, class rank, and test scores fill that area.

Where Do I Start?

Anywhere! The most difficult portions of essays is often the introduction and conclusion. Once you have your ideas on paper (or your screen), it is much easier to manipulate your existing ideas to form a solid, logical paper.

I often have 10 to 20 “mini” paragraphs, which I then form into larger portions and, finally, a cohesive essay.

Writing Tips

Don’t Be Boring!
1.The college admissions staff reads thousands of papers per day. Your admissions essay is not the place to be mundane and typical. Especially if you are on the border (GPA, class rank, and test score wise), your essay must be extremely effective and exciting.


2.If you can write about an emotional experience, may it be saddening, frightening, or action-packed , please do so! It will capture the readers attention and give your paper longer than the average minuet or two.


3.Convey your feelings to the reader! If you were crying tears of joy, your goal should be to have the admissions reader excited and jumping out of their chair!

Style

1.As stated in my previous post, have your own style. You have been writing for about 10 years now, and you should have a definitive, catchy style to your writing. Vary sentence structure and word choice.


2.On the note of word choice: Your essay should not be the annual gathering of large words! Don’t hear me wrong, whenever I am writing an essay, I always have thesaurus up. They are great to find the word on the tip of your tongue or just to add some variety.

*On a side note, my favorite are MSN Thesaurus and Thesaurus.com. They both offer a different variety of word choices.

3.More is not always better. Be concise and to the point. Wordiness can cause boredom and lose attention of your reader.

Follow The Prompt

1.Answer the darn question! Don’t ramble on and write an autobiography if the question is “How will ___ College help fulfill your dreams?”

Get Assistance

1.t is highly encouraged that you ask for a read over from, at minimum, your parents and siblings. Having a teacher or other mentor give their input can also be quite helpful.


2.Although I have not personally used an essay service, many applicants are using them to receive (what some argue) is an unfair advantage. Personally, I had three high school teachers and my mother read my essays. I was accepted to the University of Illinois, so I must have done something right…

*If you insist on having a professional opinion, or want that extra advantage. I have heard EssayEdge does a bang-up job. The founder, Geoffrey Cook, also wrote Yahoo’s article on admissions essays.

3.You can never have too many opinions! If you don’t agree with what someone suggests, even after an explanation, just smile, nod, and ditch their suggestion!

Don’t Panic

1.Take your time, and get ideas on paper. Like I stated earlier, it does not matter what order or way the information is lied out. Just get it on paper, and your life will become much easier!

2.Walk away from your essay and come back in a couple hours or a couple days, depending on your time constraint.


3.Don’t wait till the last minute! Get a jump start and work on your essays longer than your competition (other applicants!).

Be an AppliCAN, Not an AppliCAN’T!

*As cheesy as this sounds, I know many peers of mine didn’t apply themselves, get good grades, apply to top schools, and write solid essays. All because they where not confidant and saw themselves as appliCAN’Ts! You are reading this blog, and by doing so, you are becoming an appliCAN!

My name is Parker Jendrycki and my goal is to provide prospective students with knowledge they will use in the time leading up to, and throughout their college experience. I am currently a freshman attending the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign studying under the Division of General Studies.

Visit The College Student Blog for more practical tips and tricks relating to college admissions!

Author: Parker Jendrycki
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In fact, many students believe that their grade-point average is given more emphasis in the admissions process than it actually is. While most applicants to selective universities are academically qualified, there are simply not enough spots available. Accordingly, students seek to distinguish themselves through their extracurricular activities. These activities provide another set of criteria by which admissions committees make their decisions. An ability to demonstrate lasting dedication to a few meaningful extracurriculars, rather than mere membership in many, can make a significant difference. Students should aim to show a meaningful contribution to their school or community and how that participation or leadership has influenced them.

Arsean Maqami, who grew up on Washington St. in the Village, agrees. This recent graduate of NYC Lab School, on W. 17th St., will attend Swarthmore College in the fall. Maqami’s high school passion was soccer, so he ultimately chose Swarthmore over the University of Chicago, where he was accepted early action, because he preferred the soccer coach at the former. Maqami feels that students really need to promote themselves.

“College admissions is a pretty strenuous process for most people, and sports were only a little bump for me,” he says. “It’s all about why are you better than anybody else? I played soccer and a lot of people don’t do anything.”

Randy Subramany recently graduated from Xavier High School, on W. 16th St., and will be starting this fall at Columbia University. Subramany believes that in his admission, “Test scores by far were most important thing, but…demonstrating the ability to balance everything was also important. I was on cross-country and track. I was also a tutor for three years and a Big Brother, and I was in the math club and the medical science club. Colleges saw my ability to challenge myself. I didn’t just do one different activity per year. I always kept that level of challenge on my plate and never really backed down from it, while I made sure that my work didn’t slip at all.”

Subramany’s appetite for maximizing the opportunities available to him was not limited to his high school activities.

“I applied to 16 colleges, and my list was originally 10,” he says. “This was my one chance to apply to my dream schools, so I was very aggressive. I would say, ‘Don’t be scared to apply to your reach schools.’ I didn’t think I’d get into Columbia, so don’t let the statistics scare you. Believe in yourself. The only thing it’ll cost you is maybe the $60 application fee.”

While being elected to an important-sounding club position is a goal of many ambitious high school students, it is a misguided one. An explanation of why the student was involved in a club, and of the contributions that he or she made, will impress admissions committees more than simply obtaining a fancy title. At top high schools, it can be difficult to gain leadership positions in school clubs where there are many other qualified candidates.

Meanwhile, an abundance of opportunities exist in the “adult world” through community organizations, nonprofits and internships. Many students launch fundraising campaigns for worthy causes or mobilize peers to tackle a problem head on. Teachers, parents, friends and college counselors can help to plan and advise these endeavors.

Joining several clubs is a great way to learn where one’s interests lie and ascertain which groups will allow the student to accept meaningful responsibility. Yet, one should not list every club on the college application. If the student wants to write about extracurriculars, pick one that was meaningful and explain its impact. In the college essay, discuss a specific experience or activity, and concentrate on the details that draw a picture of the experience.

As Maqami puts it, “You basically have to be full of yourself in your college essay. There are so many colleges out there for you, especially if you do something with yourself. You need to accentuate what’s better about you than anybody else. Also, use spell check. There was one word I spelled wrong in my opening paragraph. I freaked out and called the college to ask if I could resend my application, but they said not to worry about it.”

Maqami was lucky in this instance, but as the admissions process becomes increasingly competitive, students in future years may not be so lucky. The application is the student’s only chance to show colleges who he or she truly is. A college essay about the student’s most fulfilling extracurricular activity will provide the admissions committee with a snapshot of his or her personality and with the lasting impression that the student is a focused, responsible and well-rounded individual who will be a valuable part of the college community.

Steve Schwartz lives in Manhattan, where he is a professional college counselor and tutor for SAT, Regents and Advanced Placement exams. He can be reached at CollegeCounselingServices@gmail.com

Author: Steve Schwartz
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You’ve completed your college application.You breathe a sigh of relief as you click “Submit” or drop the envelope in the mail. Your application and all of your supporting materials work their way to the desk of the admissions officer at your number onechoice school. Where it is added to the stack of, depending on the school, 450, 700, 1000, maybe even 1500 or more applications.

How do you intend to stand out? How will you make yourself memorable in the average 7-9 minutes the admissions rep spends to review your application? Your message – some call it a “hook” – as part of a college admissions strategy will make the difference in getting NOTICED.Done correctly at the right schools, will get you IN and get you MONEY to help pay the bill.

Now I know you’re thinking… “my friends aren’t doing this” (they should be) or “is this really necessary?”

You can get through the college admissions process without a strategy – it’s possible. Yet, every year, you hear the stories of students who didn’t get in to a choice college. They had the GPA, the SAT scores, a laundry list of activities but they are left scratching their heads wondering why they didn’t get in. With few exceptions, the one thing that could have made the difference for a student was a strategy that helped them organize and present themselves better to the colleges.

Your College Admissions Strategy should be part of the larger, longer range plan. College is a stepping stone, not the end game. It is part of a plan to get to a particular career or a particular goal you have set for yourself. Your plan guides your actions when taking the steps of choosing colleges, creating your application strategy, and so on.The steps of the college admissions process are not a plan of action. They are simply the things you must do to complete the task.

If you’re serious about winning at the college game, you need to create a master plan that will guide your actions.Your plan will ensure you have a purpose behind the steps you must take to complete the college admissions and financial aid process. Your admissions strategy, as a piece of this plan, will help you put your best foot forward with the colleges.

So, yes, you could choose not to do this and realize your mistake if you don’t get in or you miss out on a scholarship – but, there will be nothing you can do about it at that point. You’ll just be one of the students saying “But I thought I would get in…”

Jeanmarie Keller, Admissions and Financial Aid Strategist who has advised hundreds of students and their families on how to develop their strategies to get NOTICED, get IN and get MONEY to help pay the college bill.

She publishes the award-winning, weekly newsletter, ‘The College Oracle’. If you’re ready to jump-start your college search, get money to help pay the bill, and have more fun while planning your future success, visit her on the web at http://www.jeankeller.com

Author: Jeanmarie Keller
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(10) Applicants are pre-screened.

Whether using the common application or a school-specific application, college admission offices have enough staff members to read your entire application. After all, you pay an application fee for a reason and colleges want to make sure you get your fair chance. However, if your application is incomplete or missing crucial components (essays, transcripts, or supplements) this might explain why it is rejected, or pre-screened out, before it reaches the full committee.

(9) You must choose your major and stick to it.

When you apply to college, admissions officers know your major is bound to change. In fact, many admissions offices have reported that the majority of their students change their major by the end of their freshman year. Don’t worry about choosing your major. Pick a department or major where you have a genuine interest, and be open-minded to changing it once you’re enrolled.

(8) You must apply early decision or early action.

Yes, applying early decision or early action shows a student is committed to a particular college. But you do not have to apply early to be accepted, even to top colleges. In fact, if you’re deferred in the early decision or early application round, your application goes right back into the regular pool and will be re-evaluated again.

(7) Colleges have a certain profile of the “perfect” student.

While colleges strive to admit students who will fit into their college, there’s simply no way for a college to predict whether a student will be happy or whether they will actually succeed at their college. This is why colleges don’t set a particular admissions profile for the “perfect” student.

(6) Ivy League schools don’t give scholarships.

Although Ivy League schools say they only allocate “need-based” scholarships, there’s no doubt that certain schools issue other grants and fellowships based on other criteria. If you’re a top athlete, recruit or a national merit scholar, an Ivy League school will go out of its way to make sure you can afford their school.

(5) International students don’t receive scholarships or loans.

More colleges are looking to diversify their student body with international students; major banks and financial institutions offer the same financial opportunities for international students as they do American applicants. Scholarships and fellowships are available for international students.

(4) You should pad your resume with extracurricular activities.

Every admissions officer is a human being. Imagine that. Applications aren’t accepted or rejected by a computer. So when filling out this section of the common app, know that admissions offices can (and do) spot superfluous extracurricular activities. Further, they can certainly tell whether you added an extracurricular because you have a genuine interest or because it “looks good” on your resume.

(3) Recommendations don’t matter.

Great recommendations are vital. You cannot expect to be admitted simply with high scores and great grades. If an admissions officer sees a perfunctory or suspicious recommendation, it will set off a red flag. Bottom line: choose the recommender who knows you best and make sure they know where you’re applying and what your qualifications are.

(2) There’s a GPA Cut-Off.

Colleges generally don’t have a GPA cut-off. The reason admissions offices don’t have a GPA “cut-off” is because students come from all sorts of different high schools with varying curriculums and grade structures. Some students attend public schools, others private schools where the GPA ranges could be wider or narrower. Further, there has been much discussion about grade inflation, and colleges do know what particular high schools tend to have higher GPAs than others. Whether this is so-called grade inflation or not, the schools have an idea of what schools have a more competitive curriculum, including more AP, IB and honors courses. Be aware of your GPA and explain discrepancies in your transcript.

(1) There’s always an SAT/ACT Cut-Off.

Some state colleges do have a cut-off for SAT/ACT scores. But the majority of American Universities do not. So keep working on your test scores but don’t fear the mythical cut-off.

If your SAT scores or ACT scores aren’t as high as you’d like them to be, you can improve your score with test prep and admissions counseling.

Hope these admissions myths were answered.

Ross Blankenship is an admissions consultant and admissions counselor. He is also an author and co-founder of Miro Advantage and http://www.TopTestPrep.com, which help with test prep and admissions for students and parents in the admissions process.

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Transcripts: Your high school transcript is often the most important component of your college application. Your class work load and grades reveal what type of student you are and offer a glimpse into how you would work at their university. However, admissions officers are trained to know the discrepancies among different schools and class schedules. For example, at some schools, it’s easier to land an A than others. They also look at what types of courses you fulfilled. If you took honors classes, advanced placement or international baccalaureate classes, admissions officers will take this workload into account when reviewing your GPA.

Test Scores: SAT and ACTs are being de-emphasized in many colleges, but these standardized tests do help the admissions officers compare students from different high schools across the nation. Most schools have a range that the majority of students fall under when determining acceptance, but a low test score generally won’t break all chances of getting into college.

Admissions Essay: The college essay is a way to make you pop off the page. Now, instead of being a series of numbers and grades, you become an individual, unique person. This is therefore an increasingly important factor in the college admissions decision process. We suggest telling an anecdote about your life or your personality and describing how you have learned and grown from that experience.

Letters of Recommendation: A really good letter of recommendation can really make a difference, but colleges don’t really penalize students when the letter is not written well or only offers superficial information. Here’s some of the stuff that admission officers are looking for when choosing a college candidate:

• Comparisons to others in the class; to those whom the teacher or counselor has worked with in past years; or with students who have enrolled at the college in question.
• Information about grading and/or competition.
• Illustrative examples or anecdotes
• Personal information
• Other personal traits or study habits (e.g., maturity, response to criticism, acceptance by peers, timely completion of assignments, willingness to go beyond what is expected, participation in class discussions)

The law entitles students to see completed recommendations. However, reference forms include a clause that most students sign to waive this right. This enables counselors and teachers to be candid, which is what admission officials prefer. Recommendations normally do become part of a student’s permanent file.

Extracurricular Activities: Extracurricular activities are important to show that you are an involved student. But with so many high school students doing so much and with so many programs and organizations, teams and clubs and causes, it’s hard to predict what admissions officers will favor. They are really looking for what the activities teach you-qualities like commitment, accomplishment, initiative and leadership and well-roundedness.

Here are some areas they look at:

• How much time does this student devote to an activity? How significant is the contribution? Admission professionals often favor depth over breadth.
• Evidence of leadership is a key factor that can tip the scales in your favor. There’s a difference between the student who joined the Geography Club and the one who founded it.
• Some balance is best. The student who participates in the Science Club, the Drama Club, and is also on the tennis team usually stands out more than the one who only chooses athletics as extras. Similarly, a balance of school related activities (clubs, teams, choirs, etc.) and those which take place elsewhere (volunteering, scouting, church groups, community theater, etc.) shows your horizon exists beyond the schoolyard.
• Volunteering is very important, and the key here is real hands on involvement. Admission people are usually able to differentiate between the candidate who spends every Saturday tutoring and one who volunteered a couple of times so they can add it to their application.
• A few collegiate candidates will up their stock in admission officers’ eyes by being extraordinarily talented in some area or with a truly off-the-wall interest or experience.

So now you know what happens behind the closed doors of the admissions decision. Still, with so many factors go into college admissions decisions that the results can sometimes seem unpredictable and off-the-mark. But don’t try to be someone you’re http://www.campuscompare.com not-it’s all about being yourself, and that’s what’s going to really make you stand out in your college application.

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Author: Maxine Grossman
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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