Below you will find some of the most common mistakes high school counselors observe over and over as their students apply to college. If you don’t want to be miserable or receive a stack of rejection letters, pay particular attention to the mistakes, and try to avoid them if at all possible:
Student Mistakes
Selecting a school based solely on a subjective publication. This would include any magazine, book, newspaper, flyer, or any other written group of words that ranks a school in some way. Do you really want to spend thousands of dollars and years of your life in a school simply because someone else ranked it?
Selecting a school because a friend is going to go there. Guess what…bad idea. Your friends will change, even if you don’t think they will. More importantly, you are not your friend, so chances are the school he or she hopes to attend was selected for different reasons than yours.
Selecting a school for prestige. While it is true that a degree from Harvard or Yale is impressive, it does NOT guarantee to a job. You might think it does, but is doesn’t…ask any employer. A degree from a top tier school might get you an interview, but the ultimate test of whether or not you will get hired one day in a career that you love will depend upon how well you communicate, what you are capable of contributing, and a host of other attributes that can be honed by colleges that are a fraction of the competitiveness of top tier places.
Allowing someone else to select a college for you. A high school counselor is supposed to help you figure out the best college for you, not select it for you. The same goes for anyone else who wants to “help” you through the process…private counselors, parents, relatives, or friends. Advice is a good thing, but ultimately these people are not the ones that are going to be taking the classes every day.
Selecting a major for the wrong reason. Trying to get into a college by choosing a “safe” major is a bad strategy. So is choosing a major in which you have no interest simply because you think it will make you a lot of money or because it is the latest craze. College is about discovering who you are and what you hope to become, not selling out.
Admission Factors
Selective colleges consider these factors for admission:
Ø courses taken
Ø counselor/teacher recommendations
Ø ethnicity
Ø grades
Ø application questions and essays
Ø geographic location
Ø grade point average
Ø personal interview
Ø alumni relationship
Ø rank in class
Ø activities outside the classroom
Ø major/college applied to
Ø admission test results
Ø special talents and skills
There's no general agreement about which of these factors are ranked more important. However, most admission officers place the most weight on your high school record.
How Important Are Extracurricular Activities?
The significance of activities has been exaggerated. While schools do consider them, they're looking to see if you've shown a long-term commitment in one or two areas.
Need-Blind Admission
Most colleges have a need-blind admission policy. This means they decide whether to make an offer of admission without considering your family's financial situation.
Other colleges are need sensitive; they do consider your family's financial situation in the admission process. These colleges know they can't satisfy the financial aid needs of all applicants. Some schools use need-sensitive admission when deciding to accept a borderline student or to pull a student off of the waiting list.
Matching Admission Standards
As part of the college search, you should compare your academic and personal qualifications to those of students typically admitted to schools where you want to apply.
This is a great overview of mistakes we all make when our children are applying for college. I can honestly say my daughter and me made a few of mistakes you have listed here. Wish I knew about your business last year when we were going through the college selection process!
Posted by: Beth | September 16, 2008 at 12:36 PM