Ten Tips To Maximize Success for College Admission

1.

Throughout the college admissions process, it is important to develop your “personal brand” 

- What’s different/special about you 

- Your connection with each college

- Passion

- Leadership

- Character

- Teamwork / ability to work well with others

2.

Set up a separate e-mail address for college with just your name, no cute nicknames!

3.

Most colleges make decisions based on: (In rank order)

1.   Difficulty of courses and grades in those courses

2.   Overall GPA

3.   Standardized tests

4.   Interviews, outside activities, work experiences, summers,   essays, recommendations (guidance and teachers)                  (Importantly, #4 serves as tie-breaker for admissions.) 

4.

Register early for SATS and/or ACTS so you can take at your school or one near you. Consider private tutoring or use an excellent group tutoring service. Some colleges use an SAT/ACT cut-off before even looking at applications.

5.

Consider founding a club or creating a program, independent science research, launching a blog, etc.

6.

When you visit colleges, set up meetings with professors so your answers to “why this college” can be very specific.

7.

Admissions staff would rather read about local community service in essays than one week trips that cost $$$$.

8.

Internships are available if you know where to look.

9.

Students need to sell themselves in each part of the college process. Always try to do an interview on campus if the college offers one – do a practice interview at a local college first if possible and always do a mock interview.

10.

Consider early decision carefully –major advantage for some colleges and some colleges fill one third of their class that way.