<p>Edad, of course there’s no magical way to be 100% certain of what schools are looking for, but I found it useful to get a hold of each prospective school’s strategic plan and see what they were emphasizing in terms of goals and objectives for the next few years. Many admissions offices will give you a copy if you ask, many schools also have it online if you use a few search tricks to find it. Other institutional reports and data can give you similar insights, as can reading the student newspaper, asking well directed questions of admissions and faculty, etc. What programs are being built up, what new endowed seats have just been created, which majors are over subscribed, which are undersubscribed but still very good. Looking at past admissions trends – like who got rejected here on CC or in your community over the past few years — can also yield some clues. And, there’s fair amount of intuition as well. Finally, you have to be willing to look critically at your own child, and see their admission weaknesses (and every applicant has them) as clearly as their admission strengths.</p>
<p>Kate, if you PM me and give me an idea of your daughter’s stats and interests, I’ll share my son’s, and give you some ideas of schools that I’ll probably be suggesting to him to look at as solid bets for his particular interests. By the way, didn’t mean to make him sound like some sort of wunderkid, he has his share of weaknesses too.</p>