Why Do I Need a College Admissions Strategy?

Picture This:

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
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Mobile device news