Admissions

BEFORE APPLYING

• 1. Know where you would like to go to school. (This also involves knowing where you would be satisfied going.)
• 2. Know that school’s standards.
  • a. What academic credentials do they expect?
  • b. What personal characteristics do they look for?
• 3. Promote yourself.
  • a. What are your most favorable personal traits?
  • b. What are your most impressive achievements?
  • c. What are your most interesting experiences?

[Blow your own horn. Nobody will do it for you.]

• 4. Remember to submit your application early.

STATISTICS AND CONCLUSIONS

Take note of the value the average college places on various qualifications.

GPA/COURSE RIGOR 55-65%

STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES 10-20%

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES/PERSONAL QUALITIES 20-30%

ESSAYS/PERSONAL STATEMENTS * 8-12%

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION 5-8%

OTHER (first-generation status, hardship overcome, school

environment, geographic or demographic background 10-15%

The more selective the school is the greater the weight placed on essays/interviews and personal context). Public universities weigh GPA and test scores more.

We may conclude that:

A B (or even a C) in a demanding college preparatory course means more than an A in an average or easy course.

There is no substitute for good grades. If you have good grades, your chances will always be good despite weaknesses in other areas.

Good test scores help—but are not the sole or prime determinant.

Extracurricular and community activities are very important for getting into college.

Recommendations can be a critical influence in marginal cases.

Work experience, either part-time or full-time, rarely rates any significance. The greatest exceptions are going to school while working to support yourself and/or your family.

In your application, turn everything to your advantage. For example, in discussing work experience emphasize what you learned or gained:

qualities needed to be a good boss

qualities needed to be a good subordinate

methods useful in motivating people

methods for getting things done

insight into how people make decisions or act under pressure

In discussing extracurricular or community activities, consider these questions.

Are you a member of any clubs? (Acting as an officer is more impressive than just being a member)

Do you play any sports? [Varsity sports are impressive, but intramural participation or leisure sports can also help sell you to a college admissions or scholarship committee when the information is tied academic success.]

Do you play any musical instruments? [Talent is impressive. Those long hours spent marching can pay off here, too.]

Have you participated in journalism?

Do you have any hobbies? [Use these only if they demonstrate your intelligence, perseverance, creativity, or other positive trait. Pure escapism is not a major selling point.]

Do you participate in politics? [This can be especially useful if you have served as a precinct worker]

Do you possess artistic talent? [Participation in exhibitions and contests should be noted]

What have you done to help others? [Helping people outside the family is rated higher than baby‑sitting, for example. Community service is rapidly becoming the number-one qualifier for many scholarships.]

Do you participate in church work?

Get your message across to the college.

Use concrete examples.

Present the information in as interesting manner as possible.

Explain clearly.

Emphasize how your experiences changed you as a person.

Link your experiences to their importance in your further education.

WRITING THE APPLICATION/SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY

The value the average college places on various qualifications.

ACADEMIC MERIT (GPA, course rigor, test scores, academic 55-70%

academic awards)

FINANCIAL NEED (FAFSA/CSS Profile data, student aid index 18%

(SAI)

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES, LEADERSHIP, AND SERVICE 15-25%

(leadership roles, community service, sustained involvement)

ESSAYS/INTERVIEWS 10-20%

UNIQUE TALENTS/SPECIAL INTERESTS (music, athletics, arts, 5-10%

robotics, intended major, first-generation, demographic-

specific awards, and other traits)

*If the primary requirement for a scholarship award is an essay and/or an interview, the percentage of weight in the process increases. More competitive foundations awarding scholarship may weight essays and interviews heavily.

The college uses the essay format to analyze you.

How self‑aware are you?

What do you have to say about yourself?

How well do you present yourself?

Consequently, you must write straightforwardly and openly about yourself.

Focus on one aspect of yourself which would prove interesting.

Talk about something that is not covered elsewhere in the application.

Elaborate on something that is mentioned only briefly elsewhere in the application.

Some college admissions and scholarship applications require an essay answer to a set of questions while others ask you to choose a topic that will allow you to tell the officer or committee what you most want them to know. The following outline includes typical questions that you may be required to answer. Of course, if you get to make a decision about what to write about, these still provide effective guidelines.

Identify some adversity you have faced: poverty, racial discrimination, having one or no parents, physical handicap(s), educational disadvantages (changing schools often, for example), language handicap(s), or any combination of these or others. Describe how you overcame the hardship.

Identify a difficult project in which you played an instrumental role from start to finish.

• 1. Explain how the project was difficult.
• 2. Tell the story of carrying out the project
• 3. Discuss what you learned by doing the project. For example,

The importance of organization and follow-through

The challenges of teamwork

The unexpected obstacles which appeared but were overcome

The work of convincing others outside your group to be of help

• 4. Describe how your effort helped you gain insight into your own strengths and weaknesses. If you didn’t learn anything, then don’t write about it.]
• C. Tell the story of a single incident which helped you learn something about yourself: a book you read which changed your thinking (nothing trite here), a family event (a death, a departure, an argument), any incident which taught you about the character of other people or about yourself, not just one that made you realize how much you miss someone or how sad a person can feel.
• D. Describe someone you have met or read about who inspired you.
  • 1. Specify in detail what qualities drew you to the person.
  • 2. Concretely identify and explain the actual influence he or she had on your life.

[Family members are not, in general, the best choice—unless the application specifically requests that you discuss your family.]

• E. Relate an experience that took you outside what is familiar to you: extensive travel, a foreign exchange experience, volunteer work in an underdeveloped or underprivileged area, but don’t dwell on such obvious points as the fact that food and customs were unfamiliar or strange, that you picked up the language, or that you gained a new appreciation for America.

Unless the college or scholarship committee specifically requests any of the following, avoid the following topics:

• A. A topic of local, national, or international interest [They want to hear about you.]
  • B. A summary of your academic record [It is on your transcript.]
  • C. A description of what “college is all about” [You do not know yet.]
  • D. An excuse for past failures [Remember that you are trying to sell yourself.]

WRITING EFFECTIVELY

1. Write a serious essay—not a juvenile one
2. Write on a topic on which you can be honest.
3. Write in your own words—not in a series of cliches or quotations.
4. Before you actually write an essay, make a list of the ideas you want to cover.
5. Next, arrange the ideas in the order in which they most logically fit together.
6. Write a first draft . . . a second draft . . . a third draft . . .
7. Be sure your essay is broken into paragraphs.
8. Vary sentence length and pattern. (Avoid short, choppy sentences)
9. Use a college‑bound vocabulary, but do not use a thesaurus indiscriminately.
10. Write as though you were talking to your audience—but not as though your audience were fellow high school student standing beside your locker.
11. Use words economically. Do no use many words to do the work of one.
12. Use transitional words, phrases, or statements between paragraphs.
13. Have someone whose judgment you truly respect edit your second or third draft.
14. Type the draft you will submit to the college or scholarship committee yourself. Definitely do not have a professional typist do the job: professional work shows. [Note, however, that some colleges and boards now request handwritten work to avoid fraud.]
15. Write with confidence in yourself!

WINNING ESSAYS

• I. Consider your audience.
  • A. College admission officers and financial aid officers spend eight hours each day reading hundreds and hundreds of applications.
  • B. They’re looking for something that stands out from all the others.
    • 1. Start with a statement that will pique any reader’s curiosity.
      • a. “Twice each fall, I break the law, and I am proud of it.”
      • b. “I am a drug addict, and my habit is keeping me alive.”
• II. Consider yourself.
  • A. Unless you live in a vacuum, you have had countless experiences that would make a fascinating topic for an application essay.
  • B. Reflect on every memorable experience you have ever had.
  • C. Talk with your parents and your friends about experiences you have had that they remember. [You may actually have had an interesting experience that you either forgot or that you mistakenly do not regard as interesting.]

Some of the best essays are written about very ordinary events: summer jobs, family trips, a driving exam.

• III. Consider your introduction.
  • A. Make sure that your first paragraph captures your reader’s attention.
    • 1. It sets the tone for the rest of the essay.
    • 2. It may make your essay memorable when the final cuts are made.
  • B. An essay that is uplifting and cheerful shows you in a more positive light than an essay that sounds like a whining catalogue of excuses.
    • 1. Do not waste time and effort describing how bad your school was: you will come off sounding arrogant, condescending, or ‑ perhaps ‑ antisocial.
    • 2. You do want to make yourself sound interesting and unique in your essay.
• IV. Consider your purpose.
  • A. Your essay is the one tool you have to show the committee that you are a person who should be admitted.
  • B. Your essay is an expression of your personality in a way that nothing on your transcript or list of activities can begin to communicate.
  • C. An effective essay can—if the application does no forbid it—center around a person other than yourself. [Such an essay allows the committee to see how you view the world rather than how the world views you.]
• V. Consider the effect of your essay.
  • A. You can never have your essay proofread too often: any constructive criticism may prove to be very helpful.
    • 1. Do not have the same person who suggested the topic edit your paper.
    • 2. Have as many people proofread as you can possibly get.
    • 3. Have someone read your essay to make sure that a complete stranger (the admissions officer or scholarship panelist) gets the message you were trying to get across. Ask your reader what he or she got out of the essay before you tell what you wanted to accomplish.
  • B. What you finally send in as your application essay will ultimately reflect that time and effort that you, not your guidance counselor, English teacher, or parent, put into the essay.
    • 1. Avoid restating the rest of your application.
    • 2. Show your best side and your most interesting character traits to a group of people who really would like to admit you to college or give you a scholarship.
    • 3. Demonstrate your ability to work hard, to persevere in the face of hardship, or to make the best of a situation.
    • 4. Tell what you have done and why it is important.
    • 5. Write about what genuinely interests you.
    • 6. Write about something that has affected you personally.
    • 7. Be honest with both yourself and the admissions officer.
• VI. Consider the time.
  • A. Make sure you allow yourself enough time to write a good essay. MOST STUDENTS DO NOT.
  • B. A sloppy, poorly written essay is a sign that the student is really not serious about his/her schooling.
  • C. The best essays are clear and concise.

THREE RULES TO REMEMBER

• 1. Make sure that your essay is well written.
• 2. Make sure that your essay presents you in a positive manner.
• 3. Make sure that your essay grabs your reader.