Many high school seniors will take this long, holiday weekend to work on their college applications.  Most will not have a clue what to write about.  While the best topics are authentically personal, and therefore unique to every college applicant, I can tell you with a good degree of certainty what NOT to write about:

1.  Your girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other.  Choosing this topic might be the biggest faux pas in the history of college essay writing.  No matter how wonderful this person is, and no matter how good a writer you are, there is absolutely zero chance that this topic will present you in the best possible light to college admissions professionals.  This is because one of the character traits most admissions professionals are looking for is a sense of maturity and self-understanding.  Focusing on someone you love, or worse yet, like “a lot,” is highly unlikely to show this side of you.  In fact, it is more likely to paint you as the dreaded “typical teenager,” possibly one of the worst monikers in the college admissions industry.

2.  A recitation of your resume.  They have already read that.  They know your GPA, test scores, and ALL of your activities ad nauseum.  Listing them again will not sit well with the vast majority of college admissions readers.  They would like to know something they wouldn’t already know by reading the rest of your application.  So think about what’s unique about you, and something about which you’re passionate, and begin writing.

3.  A political or religious issue.  This is the one caveat to the last sentence above.  Some of you are passionate about politics or social issues, but this is NOT the place to explore those beliefs.  You want your essay to appeal to a broad range of readers, so picking one side or another of a controversial (or even not so controversial) issue is not a good idea. 

4.  Big Words.  They don’t want to see them.  If you keep it simple, and use conversational, yet intelligent language, you will present yourself as an authentic, honest, intelligent young person.  You’re not writing a research paper, and you don’t need to impress them with the SAT word of the day.  College admissions professionals are regular people just like you, so write something that connects with them as a human being, and you’ll be in a great position.

5.  A “Big” topic.  Contrary to popular belief, students should not write about a horrible life event that changed their life forever.  The fact is that most of us have not had such a life changing situation before the age of 18 (so don’t make one up either!).  Even if you have had such an experience, don’t write about it.  These types of pieces can come off negatively, and sometimes a teenager’s perception of a life changing event is much different than that of a college admissions reader.  Instead, write a big essay on a small topic.  I once had a student who wrote about how he observed a water droplet while on vacation.  This seemingly insignificant event caused him to think about why he loved art and philosophy over science and math.  It turned out to be an excellent piece.

So resist these typical tendencies, and try to think carefully about one slice of who you are.  Take a good deal of time, and approach the process in stages.  Don’t try to write the piece in one sitting, and ALWAYS have others read it for content and grammar…but not TOO many!

Many high school seniors are feverishly completing their admissions applications in preparation for Early Action or Early Decision deadlines.  Most of our students have been working on their essays and applications since June.  They have worked hard over the past year or two to visit and narrow down their list of schools, take the SAT and ACT, and complete all the requisite requirements for admission.  Once they hit submit, they will feel a sense of relief…for a few minutes. 

But then, students – and their parents – realize there is nothing more they can do.  It’s at this point that they must cede all control over admissions decisions to other people, namely college admissions officers, whom they’ve never even met.  This complete lack of control is unnerving for most families.  After all of the time and effort they’ve put in to the process, there is nothing left to do but wait.

But wait they will, some longer than others.  For students who’ve applied ED or EA, the decisions will come in December or early January, which isn’t so bad, but the vast majority of students will wait until March or early April for their decisions. 

Although this is difficult, students must understand this as an important life lesson.  There is so much of our lives we cannot control, but the only thing we do have power over is our response to our circumstances.  This is a powerful lesson.  If Johnny doesn’t get admitted to the college of his dreams, he could cry, whine, sulk, and contact the admissions office demanding an answer why (usually, its parents who behave in this manner)…OR, he could accept the decision, and move on, focusing on another of his options.  He has the choice.

One of my parents recently told me that if his very talented son did not get admitted to ALL of his chosen schools – most of which were Ivy League colleges – it would be the only time in his life that he had failed.  This talented young man won varsity letters in three sports in high school, started at quarterback on the football team, maintained a 4.0 GPA in very challenging classes, and scored a 33 on the ACT.  On top of that, he was one of the most polite young men I’ve ever met…and yet, he had never failed at anything.  Perhaps, I thought to myself, this failure will be a good thing for this student.

So when the thin envelopes outnumber the thick ones, please remember that failure should always be an option, because failure is an important part of life, and learning how to fail – and rebound from it – is exactly what we should be teaching our young people.

Early Action and Early Decision applications can serve as a great advantage to college applicants.  With deadlines fast approaching – November 1, for many EA or ED schools – I thought a description of advantages and disadvantages to both of these programs would be a good topic for this week’s blog post.

Advantages

1.  Getting apps done early.  Students and parents face the frenzy of early fall applications, but get most everything done well before the holidays.  This is a great benefit for the mental health of the typical family! 

2.  In most cases applying under a school’s Early Decision or Early Action program increases a student’s chances for admission because colleges want to know who’s interested in them.  Colleges also need to meet enrollment numbers, and the earlier they know of their on track to do so, the better.  But families need to be careful for two reasons:  First, some schools’ early programs actually deny admission to a larger proportion of their applicants.  Families are best advised to run the numbers which are readily available on most school’s web sites.  Second, the pool of students who apply under these programs is usually much stronger.  So while the admit rate is often higher than the regular decision admit rate, the kids who apply under ED or EA, are typically much stronger academically.  They have usually begun their college search as sophomores of juniors and have an organized strategy, not to mention better grades and test scores.

Disadvantages

1.  Because Early Decision applicants are locked in, they will not have the opportunity to compare financial aid or scholarship offers.  This could be an expensive mistake for families who are unable to write a check for full tuition.

2.  For students who are marginal applicants to their top schools, waiting for 1st or 2nd quarter senior year grades to be posted, can increase their chances for admission – assuming, of course, that their senior year grades are stronger.  So applying by November 1 or even November 15 could hurt some students’ chances if their grades are a weakness in their application.

Families should strategically weigh their options, and thoughtfully decide whether Early Decision/Early Action programs will aid their candidacy.

For parents entering the college search and admissions process, there’s a great deal of noise from other families about the realities of the world they’re entering.  One of the biggest myths is that standardized test scores (the SAT, ACT, and the SAT Subject Tests) have become much less important.  This couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Many families mistakenly conclude that because more colleges have become “test optional,” (meaning  they don’t require students to submit test scores), that admissions officers are placing less emphasis on such tests.  This is an incorrect assumption for three reasons:

1.  Even those students who actively seek out such “test optional” options will still have at least one or two schools where the SAT or ACT is required.  So they still must take the tests at least once or twice.

2.  Most colleges who are test optional are not test optional for scholarships.  So while they afford you the choice of not submitting your test scores for admission, they will not consider you for a scholarship unless you do submit them.  Unsuspecting parents may not realize that this will be prohibitive from a cost perspective. 

3.  The SAT and ACT have actually become  much more important mainly because there are more kids applying to college than ever before.  More students are heading to college directly after high school (about 70% compared to only 60% twenty years ago).  In addition, more kids are applying to more colleges than did students two decades ago.  So there are a glut of applications and roughly the same number of colleges. 

If you were a college admissions officer at say, Boston University which receives more than 42,000 applications, how would you read apps?  You would first look at high school GPA, and then SAT or ACT scores.  If they were in the general ballpark, then you would continue reading the rest of the application.  If those two numbers were moderately close to your middle 50% ranges, then the app would go in the “maybe” pool.  If they were a little further away from your ranges, you would not even read the rest of the application. 

In this way, SAT/ACT scores are critically important because they are part of a “triage” process of reading applications.   This type of reading is not only typical at large colleges, but at many medium and small sized schools as well.   This is why parents and students should take these tests very seriously, engage in a strong test prep program, and have a year long strategy for when to take the exams and which scores to report to which colleges.

Many families ask me if colleges really track student interest.  The answer is that many colleges definitely do.  What’s more, this often plays into admission decisions.  The phenomenon, which I call, “The Interest Quotient” is increasingly popular on the part of colleges, primarily private schools.  It is important to schools because of a concept called “Yield.”  This is the percentage of admitted students who ultimately enroll in a particular college.  Yield used to be one of the criteria used in the “U.S. News and World Report” rankings.  The higher an institution’s yield, the higher their ranking.  In recent years, yield has been removed from such rankings, however, it is still an important measuring stick for most college admissions offices.  Colleges calculate their yields on a regular basis and compare themselves to their peer schools.  If those yields increase, they know their market position is improving.  If not, they work to make them higher.

So what does this mean to you and your child?  The more interest your child shows in a particular college, the more likely they are to be admitted.  I caution you to make certain your student is in fact sincerely interested in attending a school.  If they are, then they should make the college aware that it is among their top choices.  They should do so via campus visits, meetings – and interviews if offered – with admissions representatives at college fairs and at the student’s high school, inquiry forms on the school’s web site, and general communication – either via email or phone – with an admissions representative. 

Each of these interactions should be thoughtful and honest.  Students should prepare for their communication with admissions professionals.  It could be the difference between gaining admission to their top school or not.  If they need help in those efforts, they should contact an experienced college admissions counselor.