20 Tips on Getting into College
Below are twenty things to keep in mind throughout high school to ensure that you’ll ace the college admissions process when it arrives:
1. Understand Yourself
The most important thing you can
do in the college application process is figure out what you want. What kind of
school will make you happy? What do you want to study? What has been most
meaningful about high school? Who are you, and who do you want to become?
You’ll be answering these
questions in multiple ways during the application process, so understanding
where you’ve been and where you see yourself going will be imperative to
putting together an outstanding, compelling application narrative.
2. Seek Support from Family and Friends
Applying to college all on your
own is exhausting. There’s so much to remember, including the various moving
parts of the application itself (from school-specific essays to letters of
recommendation from teachers), the deadlines, interviews, visits, and more. Our
advice? Get support from the people around you in whatever way you can.
Visit schools with your parents.
Ask family friends about different schools they attended to learn more about
them. Practice interviewing and review your essays with a trusted friend or
parent. This process is almost possible to do alone, so don’t be afraid to seek
help!
3. Study Hard
The best thing you can do for
your college application is to work hard in school. After all, while college
can be a lot of things altogether, it’s primarily a place to continue your
education. That means you need to get good grades in high school!
The admissions officers who read
your applications will want to see that you’re a strong student who can take
advantage of the resources they offer. That means they want to see a strong
high school GPA and excellent academic performance. Some may even ask for a
graded paper.
4. Challenge Yourself Academically
For top schools, getting good
grades isn’t enough if you’re not taking on challenging coursework. Most
selective schools these days want to see a mix of honors and Advanced Placement
classes to show that you’re ready for college-level work. And, in addition to
the AP class, they also want to see high scores on the AP exams.
Furthermore, nothing shows you’re
ready for college classes more than taking a college class! Many schools offer
summer classes that are open to high school students hoping to earn real
college credit. Taking a for-credit class in your future major can add a lot to
your application.
5. Make a College Application Calendar
We’ve written on this more at
length here,
but it’s also crucial to remember that applying to college doesn’t take place
just during your senior year. Starting to research and visit schools during
your junior year is important, as it will ensure you have enough time.
In reality, college admissions
officers look at your entire high school career. That isn’t to say you need to
be a perfectly groomed applicant on the first day of freshman year, but the
choices you make along the way will ultimately make their way into your
application.
6. Make a Reasonable List of Colleges
Some students get fixated one a
small handful of dream colleges (Harvard, Yale), while others anxiously apply
to twenty or more schools. Neither of these is a good or strategic approach.
Rather, it’s important that you create a balanced college list.
It’s most important to have a
range of selectivity in your list. Make sure that in addition to your reach
schools (where you may be a below-average applicant in your grades, scores, and
overall profile), you have target and safety schools too, places where the
acceptance rates are more forgiving and your chances of admission are thus
higher.
7. Demonstrate Interest
No college wants to be your
back-up plan. Just as you don’t want to be rejected by them, they don’t want to
be rejected by you! Therefore, most colleges today track what we might call
“demonstrated interest”: a measure of how interested they think a student is in
them.
While not all schools track
prospective students’ perceived interest, it’s a good idea to demonstrate your
interest at all the schools on your college list, not just your reach schools.
That means attending information sessions, going on tours, following a school
on social media, and emailing the admissions counselors assigned to your area.
8. Prepare for the SAT or ACT
Like it or not, standardized test
scores are a crucial part of your application at most schools. Whether you take
the SAT or ACT, it’s important that you get a good score that you can submit
along with the rest of your college application.
Fortunately, your SAT score isn’t
handed down from on high; it’s something you can improve with study and preparation.
Whether you take practice tests on your own, engage in formal test prep with a
tutor or class, and/or take the formal exam multiple times during your junior
year (or before), make sure you eventually have strong test scores.
9. Make Your Extracurricular Activities Count
We all have twenty-four hours in
a day, and none of us have the power to stop or slow time. Thus, there is a
limit to how much you can add to your college resume. Some students overreach,
trying to get involved in everything. Unfortunately, this isn’t a good use of
their time.
Rather, it’s important to
understand that your time and bandwidth are limited and that colleges will be
more impressed by deep dedication to a few passions rather than having a toe in
a hundred different things. It’s good to explore early on, but by junior year,
you should know which clubs and activities deserve your time and which ones
don’t.
10. Take on Leadership Positions
Another reason not to take on too
many extracurricular activities and instead develop a deep interest in one or
two is the greater likelihood that you’ll achieve leadership positions in these
spaces. Colleges love leadership; they want to admit students who can handle
responsibility.
Of course, being president of
your class or editor-in-chief of the school newspaper are ideal leadership
positions, but you can showcase your leadership in other ways, too. Taking on
responsibilities in your religious or cultural community, or through service,
are also ways to highlight your leadership abilities.
11. Get Involved in Community Service
The importance of community
service in your overall college application profile cannot be overstated.
Selective colleges use prospective students’ involvement in their communities,
particularly with people different than them, to evaluate their maturity and
empathy.
There’s no right or wrong way to
serve your community; maybe you want to do something closely related to your
interests, or maybe you just set aside time to help others in whatever way you
can. Regardless of how you do it, serving your community is something you
should commit to doing at least once a month, and more if you can.
12. Utilize Your Summers
The school year is busy. You’ve
got classes, homework, sports, extracurricular activities, and more. There
often isn’t time for expanding your profile for your college applications.
That’s where summer vacation comes in: a largely unstructured block of time.
Successful applicants to top
colleges use their summer vacations to fill in the gaps on their resume. From
taking classes for college credit to expanding your service work to
participating in a research internship, summer can be the ideal time to boost
your profile.
13. Consider College Admissions Consultants
Right around now, you may be thinking:
how do I keep track of all this stuff? How do I know what to prioritize and
when? Where do I fit in researching schools with founding a club and serving my
community and getting good grades in hard classes?
While some college counselors
only make a list or edit your essays, you’ll want someone who can really help
with the whole process, from helping you develop your story to managing
deadlines to finding schools that are truly the right fit for you.
14. Write Strong Essays
These days, most colleges ask
applicants to write at least one, and often more, application essays. Nearly
all schools ask for a personal statement, often known as the Common App Essay.
This is the part where you get to tell your story to admissions counselors.
And, on top of that general college essay, many selective schools now also ask
applicants to write supplemental essays, ones unique to their school.
In these supplemental essays,
admissions officers want to know how prospective students will fit into their
student body. What will they study? What clubs will they join? Why this school?
Having strong supplemental essays will help colleges see you as one of them.
15. Maintain Your GPA Senior Year
As you get into your senior year,
make sure you don’t slack! Even if you apply early decision or early action in
November, colleges will still contact your guidance counselor to ask for your
mid-term grades. So, don’t assume that they won’t know if you’re challenging
yourself and maintaining your GPA during the fall of your senior year!
Overall, the closer your grades
are to your application, the more colleges care. That means junior year is the
most important overall year, but senior fall is even more important.
Ultimately, the student you are at the end of high school is who they’re admitting.
16. Get Strong Letters of Recommendation
In addition to your application
essays, colleges lean heavily on your letters of recommendation to learn what
kind of student and person you are. In general, you’ll want to get two teachers
to write for you, and your school counselor will submit a letter as well.
When it comes to a letter of
recommendation, remember to (a) ask early, (b) ask in person, and (c) ask
teachers who know you well. They don’t have to be the teachers in whose classes
you got the best grade. A personal, enthusiastic letter is always preferable.
17. Proofread Your Application
This sounds obvious, but you
would be shocked at how many essays, resumes, and additional information
sections get to colleges with typos, misspellings, and grammar errors. While a
small error isn’t going to sink your application, a lot of them will reflect
badly on you.
Editing, revising, and
proofreading take time. Throughout this process, make sure you’re not
procrastinating. Waiting to the last minute increases your likelihood of making
mistakes.
18. Apply Early & Finish Strong
Perhaps you’ve heard by now that
there’s an advantage to applying early
decision. While there are certain reasons not to do so—maybe your dream
college doesn’t offer ED or you need more of the school year to finish your
applications—it’s still something to consider thoughtfully. Ultimately, you
have to choose just one school, so why not do it in November instead of in
April?
It’s also advisable to apply
early action to as many places as you can. These applications are not binding
like early decision, but applying early action can still help signal your
strong interest, get the application off your desk, and let you know in
December instead of March.
19. Write Deferral and Waitlist Letters
If you apply early and are
deferred or regular and placed on a waitlist, don’t despair! The school is
absolutely still interested in you; otherwise, they would have rejected you
outright. What you need to do now is signal to them that you’re still
interested in them, too.
A deferral or waitlist letter
doesn’t need to be long or overwrought. Instead, write a short note to your
designated admissions counselor highlighting any updates to your application
and expressing your continued interest in attending the university.
20. Consider All Your Options
Finally, once all your admissions
decisions are in, take a moment to consider your acceptances. You may have
different financial aid packages or merit scholarship offers; you may have
gotten into honors programs or some other perk. Take a deep breath and
remember: now you’re the one who gets to decide! You have all the power!
Carefully weigh your options:
academic, professional, financial, logistical. Visit schools’ admitted
students’ days and talk to current students about their experiences. Don’t rush
this decision; it’s one of the most important ones you’ll make.
Conclusion: Getting into Your Top-Choice College
As you surely know by now,
selective colleges don’t just care about your grades and your SAT scores. They
want to know about your whole profile: who you are and what’s important to you.
They want to see you as a college student, and more specifically, one of their college
students. What will you bring to campus? What will you do afterward?
Keeping these tips in mind will
ensure that you both put together a strong application and—equally
importantly—don’t get overwhelmed in the process.
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