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10 MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ADMISSION REPS EXPECT TO SEE
AT COLLEGES THAT ACCEPT LESS THAN 30% OF APPLICANTS

1. HIGH LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE FROM FRESHMAN YEAR ON.

   Challenging courses require strong academic, language, mathematics, critical thinking skills, consistent improvement, and classroom participation. The junior and senior years are crucial. (Please do not show symptoms of senioritis.)

2. STRONG STANDARDIZED TEST RESULTS, i.e., SAT I ~ 1550 + ~ ACT 32 +

   However, now that many colleges are going “test-optional” and the College Board is not offering subject tests, the student’s high school transcripts, always the most important, are even more so now. In any case, submit your higher-than-average test scores at those “test-optional” colleges. (Look at past years’ Common Data Sets to see averages.)

3. ALL AP CLASSES

   The applicant will have been expected to have taken from 5 or six over the three years they are usually offered. AP Test Scores to be at least 4 ~ preferably 5. If the high school did not offer more than two AP classes, did the student take advantage of dual enrollment at a local community or state college? Also, any student can take AP tests without taking an AP class. This is for the serious, self-motivated, and genuinely intellectually curious. (Homeschooled students can stand out this way.)

4. MEANINGFUL EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

   The operative word is “meaningful.” A plethora of club memberships require high school community service, and membership in the National Honor Society does not impress the ADCOM at the most competitive colleges. One, maybe two activities (a sport or music) in which the student has shown serious interest and ability to pursue is constructive to round out a bright student’s application. Ideal activities will show strong leadership, follow-through, organizational and/or creative talent, and purpose and breadth.

5. WELL WRITTEN ESSAYS

   This is called the “Personal Statement” for a reason. It is an opportunity to tell the ADCOM something personal about the applicant. The ideal essay would leave the reader with a desire to meet the applicant. It is not always easy, but when work on essays begins at the end of junior year and is crafted and tweaked over the summer, the likelihood of that happening is heightened.

   NOTE: Contact Programs for Education if you would like exemplary support on essay review and/or admissions guidance for your top applicants. 1 (978) 820-1295. (We also provide essay support for those applying to graduate schools, including Medical or Law schools.)

6. INTERESTING INTERVIEWS

   It is not often offered to juniors, but some of these schools will invite the applicant to an interview in the fall of senior year. ADCOM will play down the importance of these interviews in the final decision. Don’t you believe it. We prepare the students carefully by ensuring they have researched the school’s policies, curriculum, and academic profile. They should go to the interview dressed as a well-dressed teenager but not overdo it. (Unless they are applying to the Clown College in Florida.) Plus, they will have questions ready that are preferably related to their possible area of academic concentration and undergraduate advising.

7. FLAWLESS APPLICATIONS:

   How questions are answered in the application is crucial! This is where bright applicants in a rush to meet a deadline and get through with it all are responding too hastily to essential questions. i.e., What about Dartmouth made you decide to apply? ~ My uncle said I was a strong candidate, and he was a member of the Class of 1964. Wrong answer. i.e., Dartmouth may ask, “What other colleges have you applied to? Madison, WI applicant responds Brown, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Beloit, Reed, and U of Minnesota. Again, the wrong answer. This list demonstrates the student, though bright based on standardized test scores, is clueless. Does not understand the differences between these 30% colleges. Do you?

8. PERSONAL FACTORS

   This is the ADCOMS effort to diversify the student body and construct a class with a particular geographic, ethnic, socioeconomic, and talent mix. Clues to what a school is looking for may be found in the all-important college catalog, available online; if you can not visit a college campus when in session, go to sites like www.Niche.com to learn from the candid comments by undergrads about the ethos of a college and things you won’t find in a catalog.

9. DEMONSTRATED INTEREST

   The DI could begin in the first half of junior year when the student is doing due diligence on the World Wide Web. We encourage personal communication between the student (not mom) and the college as early as the last half of the junior year. We want to begin working with students in the sophomore year. This allows us to get to know the student and construct a starter list of 15 appropriate colleges. We can then make substantive recommendations on how and when to begin this direct communication with admissions and academic departments. Other due diligence may inspire the serious student to demonstrate interest, but it depends on the school and the student. Be careful here: students should not overdo it. Nor should they email queries to colleges that are quickly learned at the college website. i.e., Do you offer a civil engineering major?  Okay, I exaggerate a bit here, but believe me, you would be amazed at some of the things college admissions reps say they have heard from prospective applicants.

10. The HOOK

    When all else fails, this could be an applicant’s saving grace. It could be an exceptional achievement, athletic prowess of Olympic caliber, an unusual hobby, unique talent, or previous employment such as a circus acrobat, musical talent, or (sadly) a wealthy relative who needs a good reason to gift old Ivy Tower ten million dollars for that new state of the art science laboratory. One that will help that institution be on the “shortlist” for untold millions in government contracts for biological research leading nowhere.

Contact us today if you have questions or want to arrange a complimentary “get acquainted” consultation. This meeting can be via Zoom or a conference call from your home. We do not guarantee admission to specific colleges, but in the last 32 years, 94% of students were accepted to their first-choice college ~ the rest to their second choice.

Eric Goodhart
1 (978) 820-1295
help@smartcollegeplanning.org