HS Class of 2013 Lessons Learned

canadian2013
Sat, 25 May 2013 10:42:38 +0000

From the perspective of an international:


Keep in mind that international acceptance rates are lower…so be even more realistic than you other wise would be.
Apply to several safety EAs and if there’s selective school you really like, apply ED.
Focus on programs and what you want to do rather than prestige - I realize now that a lot of the schools I applied to really would not have been great for me and some of the ones that would have been, I didn’t even submit an app.
Don’t let others talk you into applying to places…I got talked into applying to 3-4 more schools and I didn’t really care about any of them…I just applied for the sake of it and I have no doubt the admissions officers could see that.
$$$ is a big deal. Most of the people I know who got into top private need-aware schools did not apply for/get any aid. If you need aid, you’ll either have to go lower tier where you’ll really stand out and get merit scholarship (one of my friends did this) or go for top schools that are need-blind.
Don’t burn out - I got really lazy by December so the quality of a lot of my essays
suffered.
Don’t count on the waitlist - I have one friend who got into Columbia after being waitlisted at 5 places, but nobody else I know got in anywhere.
Be happy with where you end up going and don’t think of “what-ifs.” It’s time to start the next chapter of your life!