<p>The title is pretty self explanatory. Many of us have now gone through the college process and anxious juniors are now looking on the boards. For those of you who have gone through the college process, what did you wish you knew before you started college apps or what did you learn? </p>
<p>let’s leave the derogatory statements out of it like “[insert school name] sucks.” and “I wish I was a Native American/other URM.” constructive comments please.</p>
<p>I’ll go first.</p>
<li><p>I wish I knew how important teacher recommendations were.</p></li>
<li><p>I wish I used my early decision more wisely.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1.) Top 1% SAT scores would not yield any merit awards while
top PSAT scores (just missed the cutoff) can help secure big money</p>
<p>2.) That kids on a grading scale that doesn’t go beyond 4.1 (even with many AP classes) are at a huge disadvantage, especially when applying out of state (like CA) where colleges don’t understand your grading scale (and where their kids have the potential for much higher GPAs).</p>
<ol>
<li>I wish I had known that colleges and undergraduate business programs generally don’t care about how well you invested your own money or how successful your personal business was.</li>
</ol>
<p>Cavalier302,
I’m not sure what you mean by “misunderestimated”, but since you are from Virginia, maybe you are familiar with Fairfax County’s grading system (A=94-100, B+=90-93, C=84-89…1/2 point for AP classes, no credit for honors). When applying to the UC’s, you have to remove all pluses and minuses, so a 93 takes on the same weight as an 80 would at many other schools. It is much harder to get a 4.0, and nearly impossible to get above a 4.1 with this system…as opposed to surrounding districts where the same numerical grades would lead to much higher GPAs. At the UCs especially, GPA seems to be the primary consideration from what we’ve seen. A parents’ group in our county is leading an effort to change our grading system because we’ve all been told that our kids are missing out on admissions, merit scholarships and
honors programs due to “cutoffs” that don’t take this grading policy into account.</p>
<p>I wish I had given earlier thought to taking the ACT when I wasn’t happy with my SAT scores. I winded up taking the SAT’s 3 times and studying very hard for them. In the end I did OK (not fabulous), but by then I was too burned out to take the ACT.</p>
<p>vc08, you’ve been accepted to really nice schools, if my memory serves my correctly. Which reach schools do you wish you had applied to?</p>
<p>haha powderpuff I completely agree on the SAT, though luckily I was able to take the ACT as well. But in retrospect, I should have just saved the SAT cash and used it on one more ACT!!!</p>
<p>As for the schools, I wish I had applied to Georgetown and Duke…I can’t complain about my options now, but it would have been nice to see how I stacked up against other applicants from those schools. Honestly, I was just too burnt out after 10 apps to fill out the other two!!!</p>
<p>cyb: UC is a huge system… they deal with applications from all over the country and they understand how to deal with different grading scales.</p>
<p>I wish I knew engineering wasn’t for me. College transfer, woo! (although, I’m not totally sure I would have gotten in had I originally applied to the College, so I’m thankful either way)</p>
<p>Yes, we do realize that UCs deal with grading systems from all over the county and try to be fair, but the application itself, as I mentioned, has you remove pluses and minuses – which does impact a GPA. And they do not request transcripts until after you’re accepted, so they are not looking at how your school weights (or doesn’t weight) classes. I personally talked to 2 different admissions people in 2 different UC offices who admitted there was no real way to explain the lack of honors credit, the 1/2 AP credit or the grading scale of a specific school district unless you tried to add it somewhere at the bottom of the application. I went to a UC and my son was hoping to have that chance too…but it is really hard for an out-of-state student, even with high SATs to get in…a grading system like ours doesn’t help. (and it is significantly different in every surrounding district here–a 3.8 here could easily be a 4.5 based on the numericals in schools just a mile from here).
The Washington Post wrote a story about this in December and the writer is an author of college admissions books (Jay Mathews) He explains this better than I can. Sorry to tie up the UVa threads with this, except that we are grateful UVa is much more familiar with these different systems within Northern Virginia and Maryland.</p>
<ol>
<li>I wish I applied to some EA schools…(UVA is Top Choice)</li>
<li>I wish I concentrated on EC’s in freshman and sophmore years</li>
<li>I wish I spent the time doing FA in advance</li>
<li>I wish I did my applications earlier</li>
<li>I wish I knew that faxing is for fools that don’t have a fax machine</li>
<li>I wish I didn’t take so many AP classes (on top of an IB curriculum)</li>
<li>I wish I asked for recommendations earlier and more carefully</li>
<li>I wish I did better on the PSAT (179 PSAT to 2130 SAT…dammit)</li>
<li>I wish I applied for more scholarships</li>
<li>I wish I didn’t get a C in calculus (had all A’s in everything else)</li>
<li>I wish I organized my time and spent more time with my family.</li>
</ol>
<p>Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think doing well on the PSAT does enough for anyone to really focus on this point in regards to their application, when there are SO MANY other things that are more vital. National Merit Scholars are quite common.</p>
<p>Essays for an app are not essays for your english class. They need lots and lots of time, should be fun and creative, not be a cheesy recitation of how wonderful you/your school are/is, and probably shouldn’t be proofread by your mom.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and though National Merit is nice and all, it doesn’t do you a shred of good if you’re going to UVA. Very few great institutions give NMS money, and when they do its very little. Its pretty much only state schools that will give out the big bucks. (Still try to do well on the PSAT, taking it sophomore year is probably the best way to study, but its not the end of your world if you don’t)</p>
<p>-taken advantage of counselors and teachers willing to read application essays</p>
<p>-taken the act</p>
<p>-turned my apps in earlier</p>
<p>-done more overnight visits and made connections with current students</p>
<p>-not stressed out so much</p>
<p>-realized that no individual can capture his/herself completely in a paper application, nor can an admissions officer know you after simply reading it. And, with that in mind, not taken decisions personally and focused instead on the many wonderful opportunities available to hardworking and motivated students.</p>
<p>and applied for more independent scholarships. Because after you’ve written so many essays, they can be adapted to pretty much any question. Except U of Chicago’s app. Thats a different story.</p>