Not necessarily for me but it applies to a lot of kids at my old school. MAKE SURE YOU VISIT YOU #1 SCHOOL! I live in Florida and people here are in love with UF (University of Florida) yet they’ve never visited, they just like the football team or whatever. Once they apply, get accepted and enroll, they end up realizing they hate it. They either didn’t like the layout or the people. The program isn’t what they were expecting to get from it. Or they just didn’t feel comfortable and accepted. Make sure to visit in the summer between Junior and Senior year. Even if you can’t go to the ones out of state you like, go to ones in your state to get an idea of what you do and don’t like about campuses.
As a now gainfully employed recent college grad, here’s what I’ve got:
Don’t spend too much time on these forums. Seriously, I felt great about my odds until I discovered this message board as a high school senior and comparing my stats with everyone else’s. Reality checks are important, but it turns into unproductive wallowing pretty fast.
It’s hard to realize this when you’re 17/18/19, but if you don’t get into your dream school, it’s not the end of the world. Chances are good you can still find classes you like, people to make friends with, and things you like about whatever school you end up going to. And if not, you can always transfer.
-Along the same line, put as much thought into selecting your safeties as your reaches. Find places you can really picture yourself attending. If HPYS are the only schools you can picture yourself at, that’s a problem.
Visit the school during the fall! Don’t necessarily wait until you have been accepted, because I’m struggling to find time to go now. My mom has to take off from work
Also- take a broad area of courses. You may be set on a single major, and take those courses in high school, but 50% of people change their major. Take something your’ interested in like an AP Science or an art class
I’ve skimmed through a couple pages of what people said. I have a story about college recommendations that I think will drive home the importance of communication.
I was applying for this College Match program that helped link URMs with good well-known colleges. I found out about it the day before the deadline.My sister and I were frantic! My one chance to apply to awesome colleges(OH NO!*dramatics) She luckily lived in California nearby the HQ of this College Match program,she inquired and we luckily got it extended after an email was sent explaining my situation. So as I was working my butt off to get essays written I still had to get recommendations in also. My Guidance counselor faxed the recommendations to them the wrong way! (Something with the specific bar code didn’t match up) And I didn’t even know what I was looking at when I was checking through the documents that had been faxed when I realized what I was seeing. The two teachers which I had entrusted to do good college recommendations had written 5 sentence long cookie cutter applications. There was no passion at all. I was a little hurt but I took some of the blame; I had given what I thought was a good enough cheat sheet to kind of remind them how I was a focused student etc. It’s like they never taught me. There was a whole summer between handing in the recommendation and when I had given it to them.
I didn’t haven them change anything and I just begged a teacher who had nominated me for a scholarship earlier that year to write me a recommendation, which out of faith I believe painted me in the best light.
I wrote a strongly worded, but respectful letter which was kept anonymous and it was read at one of their meetings. My guidance counselor stopped me in the hallway later on in the week to tell me how much it’d meant for them to hear that from a student.
It’s sad it took a clerical error to guilt teachers into doing their part. So as the student make sure you show your passion at all times. People aren’t going to just care for you. This doesn’t apply to every school but I didn’t think I’d have this story to tell when I first asked them to write these letters.
I think it’s incredibly important to be authentic and do you things you love rather than because it will look good on a college application. The purpose of HS is to grow, learn and enjoy your teen years, not just to get into college.
One of the the things that helped D (who was acccepted to all 3 schools she applied to, 2 with merit money) was that she arranged to speak to a professor from the major she applied in at all 3 schools. I personally think these interviews sealed her acceptances, because her enthusiasm for her chosen field (game design) and the background that led her to pick it shone through these interviews. Obvioiusly at some large programs and for some majors this may not be possible, but boy did it help her.
Her essays were also very clear cut statements on what kind of a person she is (and is not). I could imagine some admissions committees loving this aspect and others rejecting her based on what she said–she was clear that she didn’t want to attend the kind of institution that would reject her!
And finally, don’t bother with all of the “chance me” threads!!! Come on, a bunch of HS juniors or seniors telling others what school they can or can’t get into? Useless at best, misleading or cruel at worst.
Graphene:
It comes to a surprise to students, that not all teachers relish writing recommendation letters, even to their A students. My son Biology AP teacher gave everyone in class a heads up that she was not going to write letters for everyone, even if they were A students! Her rule was, you had to approach her on the first day of class in Senior year and ask her then. Even then, my son, 2nd in line, heard her give the 1st student in line “flack”. She also served as my son’s “Quest” teacher (an extracurricular requirement in 11th year for those finished with AP classes in May). We have no idea what kind of recommendation she gave, even though my son had A’s in AP Biology and scored a 5. Colleges recommend a letter from a Science or Math teacher in the 11th or 12th grade and we didn’t have many other teachers to choose from.
My advice would be to start “establishing” relationships with teachers early. They have no obligation to write you letters of recommendation and many don’t like to do the extra work!
Sorry, for your stress! In my school, a teacher took the applications for recommendations with him on Christmas vacation and left them in a hotel room in Paris! Then he contacted the students and asked for copies, and blamed them for not having the foresight to make extra copies of the application. Needless to say, that students got screwed!
I wish we had known most of the schools to which D was accepted (mostly private, highly selective, top twenty-five national universities and LACs) will not give credit to premeds for AP biology, but will give credit for AP chemistry. Without that knowledge, D passed AP biology with a 5 score but had to repeat the university version, and neglected to take AP chemistry for which she could have received credit.
Haha…now the process is done, I suppose I should offer my .02
Have your stuff in order. Have your teachers who you want rec letters from ready to go, have your essays perfected and triple-checked, have the list of schools to which you are applying ready and set. I have friends who spent Christmas vacation completing dozens of essays–you want to do it on your terms, with plenty of time. This goes double if you’re applying early.
RELAX. I was so uptight about getting into the schools I wanted that I would waste time on CC, waste time worrying, etc. Just enjoy it and you’ll get the best results. (This applies to everything in life, as I’ve found out the hard way!!) Undergrad is just a stepping stone to grad school or a job, just as high school was a stepping stone to college. If you don’t get into Northwestern and go to U of Wisconsin instead, as long as you work hard, you’ll get where you want to go.
Just because you can take the ACT or SAT nine times doesn’t mean you should. I would aim to take the tests as little as possible (while still getting the best scores, of course). Study very hard for the standardized tests you take; don’t blow it off because you have three more test dates before apps are due. You never know what might come up.
Understand that selections for the top schools are an absolute lottery. Part of me cringes when I see chance threads because all the people making them are qualified students. For these schools, everybody has great grades, great GPA, great ECs, great recs, a great interview, and something that distinguishes them. If you want to go Ivy, my suggestion is to apply to all of them–don’t put your chances on just one. Yes, it’s time-consuming, but if you get going early, you’re all set.
For those applying to non-merit based schools like the Ivies or top LACs and in need of financial aid, research independent scholarships very early. Many you can apply early for in your high school career. Some may not be much, but I qualified for several that were a couple thousand each as well as a couple $500 dollar ones and believe me, they add up.
Challenge yourself in high school not merely to impress some adcom, but to see what you can get out of it. I took 7 AP classes my senior year, I admit, largely to give my transcript weight. While it has been a challenge with a few sleepless nights, I actually discovered I had a real aptitude for calculus and chemistry, which I had never even thought about studying before.<br>
I second the call for homeschooling. If you can provide rigor and seem unique and driven, I think it’s great. There are social drawbacks, of course, but that is for the individual to weigh. If you and your family put the time into designing your education, it shines through on a transcript. There are plenty of resources out there; for those who want to take independently offered AP classes, check out Pennsylvania Homeschoolers.
As a parent of a student who has already been accepted (SCEA, RD and LL) to some amazing schools this application season (3 of HYPSM), I do have a piece of advice:
PLEASE -quit over-inflating the importance of standardized test scores. Are your SAT or ACT scores important? Yes, of course. But think of them as simply a weed-out benchmark for the schools to use to determine which applications are actual contenders and which hit the reject pile. After that, I truly don’t believe they care anymore. The admissions dept quickly moves on with their stack of “worthy” apps to looking at more meaningful indicators of success like your teacher rec’s, essays, h.s. course-load, EC’s and gpa. I get so sad when I read students on CC obsessing about how unfair/unfathomable it is that a “better” student with a 2400 on their SAT got rejected when another with a 2240 got in. At that level it’s splitting hairs. You are more than your test scores. MUCH more. And the top-notch schools know this extremely well.
So, my advice to future applicants? Learn what the schools-of-your-dreams’ 25-75% SAT stats are for accepted students, take your test(s), do the best you can and once you manage to get your scores in that range, STOP, quit torturing yourself because you “only” got a 2280 superscore and move on! CC is great, but I can see how it could drive a kid crazy with worry and doubt, too. Remember kids, it’s far more important who you are, than what number you are - so be genuine and let yourself shine through. Deep breaths, everyone, and best of luck to those already in the hunt over the next couple of weeks!
From a parent who’s been there to the other parents of prospective college students: I know this sounds kind of obvious, but don’t badmouth the safeties in front of your child, even in jest, especially after talking up the more preferred high matches and reaches. I know this may not apply to many of you but when the acceptances from D’s safeties came in (early), I at least, made a big fuss about them because, well, you never know what the competition is for any given year, and I felt D should be glad and appreciative of any place she might end up at, but D was singularly unimpressed with those “fat” envelopes. Although D’s “safeties” were good schools, and in fact, were matches and reaches for many of the kids in D’s class, DH routinely scoffed at them because he had his heart set on one particular (private) reach for her. D did get into that school and it was her first choice, but it required some financial wranglings on our part to make it possible for her to go.
Success at a school relies as much on attitude as it does on academic prowess and hard work. It’s amusing to me to read reviews from students at some of the college review websites out there and for every person who despises a particular school, there is at least one other who give the same place high praise, even as they acknowledge the school’s supposed “failings”. To think of having to make a new start at a place that your parents had previously disparaged, well, how good could the experience be?
(Incidentally, many of D’s friends did end up at those “safeties” and all reports so far indicate that they love the places.)
Grades are important. They show the effort you can put in over the long-term and how good you are at handling difficult material. The SAT, on the other hand, is just a test where after a point (say, 2200, or possibly lower), scores are nearly identical for admissions. The difference between a 2250 and a 2350 is a few questions. So don’t think that a good SAT score is equal to grades earned over 3-4 years of hard work.
I wish I had understood early on how important finances would be in the decision. If I had known that earlier, I would have tried not to get as attached as I did to private schools and I would have accepted earlier that I would most likely be going to one of my safeties. I’m ok with it now, but I do wish that I had gone into the process knowing that simply getting into my dream schools unfortunately wouldn’t be enough.
Luckily my daughter applied at a variety of schools that she liked. She chose really difficult to get in (Rice, Vandy, UW), a few private schools in Texas and some state universities. She got into all the schools but Rice and UW(waitlist and still waiting on Vandy). We thought with her high grades, 2nd in class, high SATs, very involved, Student Council pres etc…she would get a lot of financial aid. Our EFC was 4938. Wrong. Most of the schools still want 17000 a year parent plus loan (even UT) to make up any difference. While the private schools offer a lot of money the costs of attendance still makes it unreachable. Luckily she visited and applied to Texas Tech which has given her more scholarship money than any and will probally be where she attends and she got into the Honors college. Luckily she loved Tech but not one of her top 5.
My advice is to apply to lots of lower ranked schools that don’t cost too much if you are middle class. I know many of her class mates have no idea how they are going to pay for college and may not be able to go. Our experience has been that EFC doesn’t matter in Texas. We would have applied to some lower ranked state universities that had Honors programs to give her more choice.
I can attest to the last two posts. I also did not consider finances when I had a college consultant choose for me colleges I want to apply to. My stats are not great and I turned in all of my applications near the deadlines so I couldn’t apply for merit aid. I got rejected from several colleges, accepted in several out-of-state colleges, and as for in-state I got only one waitlist and acceptance offer for two UCs. It wasn’t until I got my UC decisions and my financial aid information that I realize my stats aren’t as great as I thought and with an EFC of over 22000, I couldn’t go out-of-state without piling up huge amounts of debt. So I would suggest anyone to be aware of your family’s financial situation, how to pay for college, and how financial aid works well before filling out your FAFSA.
I wish I had applied to more reaches. My counselor basically told me that the school that I thought was a low reach would be nearly impossible for me to get into. He gave me a list of colleges that were honestly too easy for me.
You need a really good balance of safeties, matches, and reaches. I applied to way too many safeties.
I wish I understood financial aid better–no, I wish I understood that it’s impossible to understand financial aid.
I didn’t apply to a lot of schools I wish I would have because I was afraid they would not give enough financial aid because my parents are divorced, but all the schools I was accepted to calculated my EFC to be my mom’s EFC + child support, not my mom’s EFC + my dad’s EFC.
Parents on CC told me that colleges that use the CSS Profile use the latter method and I believed them. I don’t blame them for anything, but I just want people to know that financial aid is different for every case, and if you really need it, apply to a variety of schools because the cost of application fees will just be a small drop in the bucket.
As others have said, keep finances in mind. I got into my dream school and will indeed be going there this fall, but I hadn’t taken the cost into account. While my financial situation isn’t nearly as bad as others due to merit and need based grants I qualified for from the school, I will still owe a lot more than I thought I would before looking at the actual price tag.
Make sure you visit the schools you’re considering–yes, even safeties. Make sure you can at least see yourself potentially being at that school for four years, even if there isn’t a “click” with the campus and/or the surrounding area. If you walk on campus and get a bad vibe, don’t apply. My dream school at the time of applying (prior to taking into account the campus itself) was UCLA; in contrast, I checked the box for UC Davis as an afterthought because it had what I was looking for. As it turns out, UCLA was a horrible fit for me in pretty much all areas other than academics–for instance, I’ve grown up in the suburbs, and I have asthma that would just get worse with the smog (something I didn’t even consider until someone pointed it out to me). I checked out Davis as kind of an afterthought since I happen to live about an hour from it, and I fell in love with the campus. Had I visited before applying, I could have saved the money applying for UCLA when I realized that the university isn’t a match for me.
In a similar vein to the above point: You never know what college could “click” until you visit. Going on my own example, I only considered Davis as another match school and ended up loving the campus and will be going there in the fall.
Don’t focus on any rejections you get. Instead, focus on the acceptances. Think of it as being the college’s loss that they rejected you, and spend your time considering your options instead of obsessing over the fact that you didn’t get into whatever school.
Take into account the distance of the school from where you live. I have a classmate that applied to several schools on the east coast. She then realized that she doesn’t want to be that far away from home quite yet. I have another classmate that refused to apply to any college within a three hour driving distance because she feels it would be too close to home. Whether it’s better to be closer to home or farther from home is entirely dependent on the individual. Another thing to consider regarding distance is travel expenses.
Finances are critical. Make sure you understand the Financial Aid process, the deadlines involved (D applied to several schools with a significant difference between deadlines for applying for enrollment and deadlines for applying for financial aid).<br>
Be more organized than you think necessary before senior year starts. It gets chaotic quickly. Stay on top of deadlines.
Are the AP/IB credits just elective credit or do they cover some of the general education requirements? This can make a difference in what options your have once enrolled. And make sure you know credit situation before you sign up for those Senior Year AP tests…less stress can mean a higher score on the tests you do take.
Another item to consider: do you prefer quarter system or semester system? For some reason we didn’t focus on that, although the semester system is better for D…and the school she will be attending is on a semester system.
