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| How to Ace Your College Admissions Application »
- Get good grades. Your GPA is the most important factor in college admissions.
- Emphasize your strengths through a challenging curriculum. Don't overload with advanced courses unless you can do well in them. Balance your schedule but be aware that colleges are masters at finding GPAs which are inflated by basket weaving type courses.
- Get a good score on your SAT / ACT standardized tests. Most schools require these and most students practice, practice, and practice some more. If you don't, you're at a disadvantage. These are not intelligence tests because you can improve your score by studying, so do.
- Use extra-curriculars to show your passions. You will likely be asked to talk or write about your choices for your non-school time, so choose activities for which you have passion as they will be more meaningful to you and you will be able to better communicate passions.
- Get good letters of recommendation. Nothing looks sillier than a letter of recommendation from someone who has a recognizable name or position but obviously doesn't know the person for whom they're writing a letter of recommendation. Better to have someone who really knows and likes you write it than someone who doesn't know you or doesn't like you. Ask them in advance what they'll say. You'll be surprised at how many people write negative recommendation letters because their reputations are more important to them than your ability to be admitted to a particular school.
- Your essay should reflect your values. Be honest as it will show how unique you are. If your honesty prevents you from being admitted to a particular school, count yourself lucky as you would not have fit in well there and the degree from a school that does not share your values is not a degree that you want following you around for the rest of your life.
- Don't just say you're interested, prove it. Email, write, visit, and interview. In-person visits matter a great deal to most schools, even if they don't tell you so.
- Include at least two "safe" schools. More students are applying to more schools, yet the number of slots is not increasing. What does that mean? More rejections. Just because your parents applied to three schools and were accepted at two doesn't mean that you will. In fact, you probably won't be simply because it is harder to be admitted now than it used to be. It isn't that the students are better. It is that there are fewer slots per student. Apply to at least seven schools: two to which you could be admitted but probably won't qualify, three to which you should be admitted and probably will be, and two to which you will definitely will be admitted but probably will decline if one of the better five come through.
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