After almost a decade in the college prep industry, I am still frequently surprised by how poorly most students and parents understand the college admission process. Obviously, the most competitive schools expect to see high GPAs and competitive SAT or ACT scores. However, these factors are just the tip of the iceberg.
The College Admissions Process is not a meritocratic system where schools attempt to reward those who have worked the hardest with letters of acceptance. Colleges have their own needs to take care of, and if you hope to earn admissions to top-tier school, it is essential that you understand these needs and reflect them in your applications. The students who perform the best are the ones who realize that college applications aren’t merely a tedious chore but an exciting opportunity to market themselves.
First, if you expect highly competitive schools to take you seriously, you must demonstrate that you are serious about them. Schools care about this because their reputations depend on it–if admitted students decline, it hurts their yield rate, an important factor in school rankings, so they only want to accept students that they expect to actually attend. One way to show interest is by visiting campus or, if that’s too difficult, arranging to meet with an admissions representative near you. However, the application also plays a crucial role.
To this end, most applications include a supplement essay in which applicants are asked to explain their interests in that particular school. This is a very important step, and vague or generic answers are not strong enough. For instance, if you are planning on applying to Columbia University, it is not enough to merely say that you are interested because it is a large school in an urban location with a good atmosphere and strong academic reputation. All of these descriptions could apply to dozens of schools.
Hand in hand with showing interest in the school is demonstrating that you have a plan. A more successful applicant will highlight specific features of the school’s program and connect these features to his or her passions and interests. Don’t worry if you haven’t even figured out what you want to major in. Nevertheless, it is still important to express that you have clear goals and interests that you will pursue in college. Otherwise, they will wonder why you are applying to college in the first place. You can always change your plans after you get accepted.
Ideally, your plans should be something that you are able to connect to your skills and experience, both academic and extracurricular. For students who know what they want to do, it is important to cultivate relevant experience, beginning as early as freshman year of highschool. For instance, if you think that you want to study political science, it would make sense to take classes like AP Comparative Government, AP US History, and AP World History, to involve yourself in activities like Model UN or Amnesty International, and to get a summer internship working for a candidate for local government.
For students who are not yet certain what they want to do, it can often make sense to look at your strengths and work backwards. For a student who excelled in AP Biology and AP Environmental Science and who was also a leader of the Green Club, it might make sense to major in Environmental Policy.
Finally, keep in mind that, in making their decisions about whom to admit, most schools are trying to foster a community. Top universities receive many applications from students with perfect GPAs and perfect SAT scores. Many of these students get accepted, but many don’t. Of course, the universities realize that all of them must be intelligent and diligent, but that’s not enough. They have plenty of intelligent and diligent students already. They want future innovators, leaders, creators, activists. Above all, they strive to bring together students from diverse background with diverse interests, and to give them a place to interact. Therefore, when writing your application, is important that you show passion, insight, determination, compassion, awareness, and open mindedness.
-Nathan Greenberg (Ivy League Mentors Founder), September 2018
Ivy League Mentors 