7 Secrets to Getting into the College of Your Dreams

By Matt Musico

Is there a college you’ve been dreaming about attending? Are you feeling overwhelmed about giving yourself the best opportunity to get accepted by that college? These questions aren’t mutually exclusive, and you’re not alone. The following seven tips are intended to help you improve your chances of turning your dream into reality.

1. Control What’s in Your Control

“So, what’s most important to colleges for admissions?”

That, or some variation of the above question is what I’m asked most frequently by parents and students. My answer is always the same. In my previous work as an admissions counselor, every time I reviewed an application, the first thing I looked at was the transcript.

Why? Well, if an applicant wanted to be a student on our campus, the best way to get a handle on his or her academic prowess was to find out what kind of student he or she had been the past three-plus years of high school.

It can feel like there are lots of things out of your control in the admissions process. That’s why it’s important to control what you can: the classes you take, the grades you earn, and the test scores you get. Colleges will eventually have the final say on your admission status, but you’re in control of what they get to review in your file.

This includes planning, preparing, and doing your best on ACTs or SATs, always staying on top of your schoolwork, and finding ways to challenge yourself within your high school curriculum – all the way through senior year.

2. Show Genuine Interest

The Common Application has made it easier than ever to send an application to 10 different colleges in a relatively short period of time. To combat that, some colleges look at demonstrated interest, which is a fancy term that means they’ll determine how interested you really are in them, or if you’re just applying because you can.

There are many ways to demonstrate interest in a natural way, both before and after you apply. Some include reading emails they send you, visiting the admissions counselor at a college fair or when they visit your high school, visiting campus (in-person or virtually), doing an admissions interview (if it’s offered), and following a college on social media.

However, there are two easy ways to demonstrate interest that haven’t been mentioned yet, and they go together: putting a lot of thought into your application and submitting it early.

3. Apply Early and Put Your Best Foot Forward

Completing your application isn’t just something that needs to get crossed off your to-do list – every bit of it is important to admissions counselors in making decisions, so treat it that way.

Some colleges offer Early Decision or Early Action (which are very different), forcing you to get things done earlier because the deadlines are in November and December. But even if a college you’re applying to only offers Regular Decision with a deadline in January or February, don’t wait until the day before the deadline to submit it.

Every July, I tell my students that the goal is to submit applications 3-4 weeks before the deadline. It shows a college you’re organized and serious about them because you’re prioritizing an application to their school. It also allows time for your school counselor and teachers to send transcripts and letters of recommendation before the deadline.

Even with that goal, it’s better to do it right than to do it rushed. Don’t submit anything until you’re completely satisfied and proud of it. To get a head start and eventually apply early, do a lot of application work (including your college essay) during the summer before senior year. It may help relieve some stress if you walk into the first day of school with a finished college essay in your back pocket.

4. Listen To What You Really Want

It’s easy to get caught up in social comparisons, and the college admissions process is part of that. Your dream college may not be well known or have the most Instagram followers. There are many people invested in your college selection experience: counselors, parents, grandparents, guardians, friends, and significant others. It’s important to consider the different perspectives of people who are helping you along your college path. However, listening too much to others’ opinions could lead to the trap of following someone else’s dream, not yours.

There are too many students out there who define a “good” or “dream” school on someone else’s terms. You’re the one that will be spending at least four years of your life on the campus you choose, so it’s important that you’re happy and excited about the decision.

5. Make a General Decision About Majors

I recently talked about how choosing a major (or majors) that you’re interested can help you find your best-fit college. But after talking about different paths and doing a lot of research, many students still have no idea.

And as I’ve said before, that’s OK! Even for those who think they know what they want, it’s impossible to be sure of what you’d like to do for the next 20-40 years of your life. There’s nothing wrong with going into freshman year of college completely undecided.

There’s one question that can help even the most undecided of students narrow down projected majors a little bit, though, and it’s “Are you a science person or a non-science person?” Those are two very distinct tracks to take in college, regardless of what the specific major ends up being. Deciding whether you’d like to pursue a STEM-related career or not can be a huge help in narrowing down your college list.

6. Have More Than One Dream (School)

I’ve heard the term “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” for most of my lifetime. That advice fits perfectly here. It’s human nature to have one place you gravitate to more than others. Unfortunately, this gets dangerous when your dream school ends up being the only one you like on your final college list.

When I’m helping my students build a list, our goal is to have a bunch of colleges they’re excited about. Whether it’s the top school on your list or the last safety, ask yourself, “If this was the only school I got accepted to, would I be happy and excited to attend?”

If the answer isn’t yes, do more research. Your list should be balanced from a selectivity standpoint and have lots of colleges you love.

7. Don’t Be a Joiner

It’s common to get into a “cover-letter mentality” when filling out the Activities section on the Common Application. Is this the place to highlight all the wonderful things you’ve done outside the classroom? Yes, but you need to be doing these things because you want to – not because it’ll look good on your application.

That’s what a “joiner” is. There isn’t a legitimate reason for doing a particular activity because they only did it to check off a box in their minds. It’s so important to remember that the quality of the commitment is more important than the quantity of the activities.

You’ll have to give an estimate on how many hours per week and how many weeks per year you’re involved in a particular activity. So, someone who spends every waking moment on the tennis court may be just as impressive to a college as someone who is invested in six, seven, or eight activities.

Students have different amounts of time outside of the classroom to get involved, depending on their personal and other non-academic interests. How you decide to divvy up that time is important. Make sure you’re doing things you enjoy. It’ll be easier and more fun to talk to admissions counselors about it, and you’ll be presenting your most authentic self in your application.

These aren’t actually “secrets” after all. They’re reminders for what you should be thinking about and prioritizing as a high school upperclassman. Use these tips as a roadmap to help make the college application experience as enjoyable as it can be.

Major Decisions: How to Choose the “Right” College Major Webinar - February 8th

When it comes to choosing a college major, there are no easy or “right” answers. The path you choose will ultimately depend on a variety of factors, including where your interests lie, what you hope to do after graduation (if you know yet), and so much more. 

Join Sue Wasiolek, former Dean of Student of Affairs at Duke for over 40 years, for a behind-the-scenes tour of college majors and how to choose one.

 

Major Decisions: How to Choose the “Right” College Major 

February 8th

8:00 PM - 9:00 PM

14 "Easy" Ways to Improve Your GPA

By: CollegeData

These GPA-boosting habits may not only help you succeed in high school but in college and beyond.

At many colleges, your grade-point average (GPA) is one of the most important factors in your application, along with the academic rigor of high school and course load. Even if you don’t have perfect grades, many colleges like to see significant improvement or a steady upswing in your GPA over time. Here are 14 strategies that may help you achieve a higher GPA this year.

Get Ahead in Class

• Take notes. Taking notes in class may help your brain sort out what is important and make the information easier to retrieve. However, you can't just write down everything your instructor says. You need to take thorough notes that help you retain the important material covered in class.  Note-taking is a skill you can develop, and there are different approaches you might want to try.  See these notetaking tips from the University of Minnesota. It can also be helpful to review your notes each day and shortly after a lecture while it is still fresh in your mind. If taking notes is difficult for you, consider recording your lectures. That way, you can listen to the lecture again later and stop and start the recording as you create your notes or outline. 
• Sit near the front. According to one study from the National Library of Medicine, students perform better when they sit closer to the front of the classroom. Some teachers even call the front and middle of the class the zone of participation. If you have trouble staying focused and engaged in class, sitting in the front -- or being on camera if you’re taking an online class -- might make it easier.
• Speak up. Ask questions and join discussions. You may be more likely to retain content than if you stay quiet.
• Improve your reading and writing skills. This will not only help your high school grades but also help you create strong applications and do better in college. Get help from your English teacher, a parent, or a tutor if you struggle with reading comprehension or writing. And, read for pleasure whenever you can. Studies show that students who read for pleasure outside of the classroom get better grades.
  
  

Get Organized

• Write assignments down. Whether you use a personal planner, a digital calendar, or a spiral notebook, keep track of assignments, due dates, and upcoming test dates.
• Prioritize your study tasks. Take care of your studying and school assignments before beginning other activities if you can. This will help you avoid procrastination and do your most important tasks first.
• Develop a study schedule. Time management experts and college professors alike have long recommended a daily study schedule. The number of hours you spend studying each day isn’t as important as being consistent and not waiting until exam time to study.

Study Effectively

• Don't multi-task. Students who focus intently on studying a subject get more studying done in a shorter amount of time than do students who interrupt their studying with tasks like checking social media or email, watching YouTube videos, or following a streamer on Twitch. The data shows that multitasking just doesn't work.
• Quiz yourself. Research shows that self-testing, such as with flashcards, helps students retain knowledge more effectively. The results are even better with a friend or study group.
• Vary your study locations. This keeps your brain alert and allows better retention of the material. Even if you are schooling from home, try studying in different areas of the house, if you can. 
• Space it out. According to an American Psychological Association article, research shows that spacing out study sessions over a period of time rather than cramming right before a test improves long-term memory. If you have 12 hours to spend on a subject, it’s better to study it for three hours each week for four weeks than to cram all 12 hours into week four.

Take Care of Yourself

• Get enough sleep. Your brain needs rest to function at its best. According to some experts, high school students should aim for nine to nine and a half hours of sleep each night and college students should aim for seven to nine hours each night.
  
• Reward yourself. Celebrate your achievements, big and small, even if it’s simply sticking to your study schedule for a week.
• Ask for help. If you feel you're floundering, get help from a teacher, counselor, tutor, friend or parent. Don’t wait.

It might take some trial and error to find the study habits that work best for you. But stick with it. Adopting even a few of these habits should help you become a better student not only in high school – but in college as well. 

Do's and Don'ts for College Essays

By Matt Musico

Writing your college essay can be a huge hurdle to jump over in completing your college applications. It can also create a ton of stress because you want to put your best foot forward to the admissions officers who will read it. Before you sit down to start writing, keep the following tips in mind.

Do: Be Honest

Don’t: Try to Impress

Every single year, multiple students ask me what kind of topic would impress a college admissions office. And, every single year, my answer is the same: what will impress them is whatever story you’re most excited to tell.

Entering the college essay-writing process by choosing a topic you think will look impressive is not necessarily going to make it stand out in a pile of applications while they’re getting evaluated. What college admissions offices truly want to see is a slice of your personality. It’s one of the very few places in an application where you get to show who you are and what experiences have shaped your current mindset/trajectory in life.

It may be easier for students to share honest stories about themselves when they learn how admissions officers use a college essay during the evaluation process. The essay is an opportunity for admission officers to get a sense of how your personality would fit socially on their specific campus. Knowing what they do about the institution they work for; they use essays to gauge how well you’d assimilate and contribute to student life.

The easiest way for admissions officers to get an accurate picture of you is to show your true self – not what you think they want to read about.

Do: Own Your Story

Don’t: Speak in Clichés

You may have heard about common college essay clichés. Whether it’s how sports taught you about the importance of teamwork or how traveling to another country broadened your horizons, admissions counselors have seen them all, multiple times over.

During peak application season, application readers can view as many as 50 applications per day. If you want to ensure that your essay falls into the large pile of essay topics they’ve seen before, include a cliché or two while you’re trying too hard to impress.

The best way to make an essay unique is to tell your story in a way nobody else can. You can do this by including thoughtful details and personal insights, which include your own thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the specific examples you plan on writing about. This way, it’d be difficult for anyone else to tell the story the way you just did – even if they experienced the same exact thing.

A great way to find out whether you have enough detail in a story or not is to read it over and be honest. There’s nothing wrong with saying for example, that being an athlete taught you about the value of teamwork. But anybody can say such a thing. Add why and how you realized this to make your essay more personal. If you ask yourself, “Can anyone else tell this story the way I just told it?” and the answer is yes, then you need more detail.

If you’re unable to do that, you may have to find a different story to tell.

Do: Share New Information

Don’t: Turn It Into a Cover Letter

As I said before, there aren’t many places in a college application to showcase your personality. Outside of the essay, the only other opportunities are the descriptions of your extracurricular activities, and if a school asks for it, additional essay questions or writing supplements. With so few places to show off who you are, it’s important to take advantage by sharing new information with each chance you get.

This is not to say you shouldn’t write about activities you’ve mentioned elsewhere in your application. If being a baseball player or being in the theater club is truly important to you, it’s okay to write about those experiences in your essay. But remember that you’ve already mentioned it elsewhere in your application, so discussing it again means you’ll need to dig into new details about your experiences to show a reader why they’re so special to you (this is where owning your story comes in handy).

Keeping that in mind, your essay isn’t the place to list and discuss all your greatest accomplishments during the last three-plus years of high school. Other parts of your application should highlight the great things about you and what you can bring to a college campus. Your essay shouldn’t sound like a cover letter, trying to convince admissions officers why they should accept you.

There are three pillars of fit that admission counselors are mindful of when evaluating applications: academic, extracurricular, and social. By the time they get to your essay, they have a sense of the first two, but not the last one.

Do: Sound Like Yourself

Don’t: Use a Thesaurus to Sound Like Someone Else

A lot of the stress behind college essays for my students comes from the fact that it’s an unfamiliar assignment. Over the years, they’ve been told that their English papers need to have one introduction paragraph and one conclusion paragraph, to write formally (which can include avoiding contractions), and to stay away from using first-person language. None of that is required for a college admission essay. Instead, admissions officers encourage students to be themselves and use a conversational tone. What does that mean, though?

Your essay shouldn’t look like a text message conversation you’re having with a group of friends. To nail down this “conversational tone,” think of a high school teacher you like and respect. How would you speak to them? Use that tone in your essay (which typically ends up being friendly, yet respectful). You’re not trying to get a good grade on this essay. It’s supposed to be about you, which will help admissions officers get a sense of who you are. The only way for this to happen is to simply be you, and if your essay sounds like it was written by a teenager about to head off to college, that’s perfect because that’s exactly where you are in life right now. Don’t use a thesaurus to inject a bunch of fancy words because it will come off as unnatural if you typically don’t use them.

I’ve always viewed college applications in two different parts: the paper side and the human side. The paper side is where students should aim to look “impressive” since this includes your transcript, test scores (if submitted), and extracurricular activities. The human side is everything else, which includes letters of recommendation and your essay.

Admissions officers get a sense of your qualifications by looking at the paper side of your application. They get a sense of the person behind those qualifications by looking at the human side of your application. Use the essay to your advantage to show colleges the type of person they’d be getting on campus if they accept you.

 

Matt Musico, a current college counselor at Collegewise is a freelance writer for CollegeData. He has worked in higher education for the better part of a decade. Half of that time was spent working in an undergraduate admissions office, while the other half has involved working with high school families as a private college counselor.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to CollegeData, 1st Financial Bank USA or any other person or entity. All liability with respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this article are hereby expressly disclaimed.

Applerouth's College Night for Juniors: How to Get on Track for Early and Regular Decision - Webinar

Calling all high school juniors and their parents/guardians! Now's the time when college planning and admissions testing go into high gear. Early and regulation application deadlines for your class are less than a year away. Whether you've been thinking about college since freshman year or haven't started yet, what you do in the next few months can make all the difference. 

If you're looking for a successful (and less stressful!) process, join Dr. Jed Applerouth for this highly informative webinar. We'll get you set for success!

  Applerouth's College Night for Juniors: How to Get on Track for Early and Regular Decision

  Jan 30
8:00pm  - 9:00pm

Applerouth's College Night for Sophomores: How to Get Set for Success

Calling all high school sophomores and their parents/guardians! Thinking about college? Wondering where to start? Unsure how your decisions today will impact your applications? This event is for you. 

Dr. Jed Applerouth will walk you through everything you need to know about the admissions testing and application process. Start planning now for a successful (and less stressful!) college admissions process.

 College Night for Sophomores

Jan 26
8:00pm  - 9:00pm

How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile - Preparing for Your Freshman Year!!

Ianni Le from Collegiate Parent

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As your student gets ready to dive into the post-grad job search, encourage them to pay a little extra attention to their LinkedIn profile!

LinkedIn is an excellent way to build their network and keep themselves in the loop for the best career opportunities, but it can also be challenging.

Here are some of our favorite tips for optimizing your LinkedIn profile to help you get your resume and profile in front of future employers.

Building Out Your LinkedIn Profile

Visual Appeals

You are seven times more likely to be found if you have a profile picture on your LinkedIn. And for better or worse, we judge a book by its cover; your LinkedIn profile picture is an important first impression that may help you get your foot in the door and land an interview.

Make sure you have a recent headshot of you wearing what you would ideally like to wear to work. Headshots that feature your face (a close-up where your face takes center focus) will help your profile stand out, as full body shots make it more difficult for recruiters to see you (remember, the profile picture displays aren’t especially large on LinkedIn).

Next, upload a background image for your profile as well. This adds visual appeal to your profile, making it memorable to potential employers. It can also serve as another way for you to show what interests you.

Find creative and original ideas for background photos here >

Headlines and Summaries

These will serve as your first opportunities to introduce yourself and your professional interests, so make sure to spend some time thinking about what you’d like to say. Your headline can be much more than simply your job description — and it should be! Don’t just tell recruiters what you’re currently doing; add descriptive words to tell them more than just your job title (i.e. “Growth-Minded Manager” or “User Experience Oriented Creative”). 

College students who aren’t currently employed can use this space to share their career aspirations or even what they’re currently studying or interested in (i.e. “studying marketing analytics at UCLA” or “Future Innovation Driven Entrepreneur”).

Use your summary to introduce yourself, your professional background and your personal interests in five or so sentences. If you’re not one for stringent academic writing, don’t write your summary that way! Take this opportunity to showcase your personality while telling your story. 

If you want to include your favorite joke or something about your pets or personal life, add it in at the end as something to help you stand out without stealing focus from your professional attributes.

Remember that the more time you spend building out your profile, the more information you'll provide to potential employers. LinkedIn is constantly coming out with new features for profiles, so checking in periodically to keep your profile up to date will help keep you visible!

Interacting with Your Network

LinkedIn, though used primarily in a professional capacity, is still a social networking site. You make yourself easier to find when you interact with other people’s posts and you can even create a few posts yourself.

Don’t shy away from commenting on posts from people you don’t know either! You may open the door to new connections or expose your profile to somebody else’s network. You can also spend some time following companies that you’re interested in to see what they’re sharing in case you ever find yourself interviewing for a position there.

If you’re looking to create a few posts yourself, make sure you share things that are relevant to the industry that you’re trying to attract attention from — LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes relevancy.

That also means that LinkedIn tailors your feed for your professional interests, making it a great resource for you! If you’re looking for ways to grow within your industry and become a more competitive job candidate, make sure you spend some time browsing through your LinkedIn feed to see what other people in your industry are doing.

Keep in mind that, at the end of the day, LinkedIn is just one tool and it's not the end all be all platform for finding a job. While it is one of the primary things employers will look at in addition to resumes, ensure your student keeps their options open when starting the job search!

Preparing for the "freshman year of life" right now, or navigating it as a new graduate, is especially challenging, so make sure to check in with your student or grad often and offer your encouragement whenever you can!

 

Taking Too Many APs? Thoughts from Jed Applerouth...

by Jed Applerouth, PhD on January 17, 2023

  

What is right level of academic rigor for your high school student? How many APs or IBs or dual-enrollment classes should your high school student take? As noted in a previous article, APs and other advanced classes have taken hold of American secondary education, and admissions offices around the country closely evaluate applicant’s level of academic rigor, attending to the number of AP, IB, and dual enrollment classes.

The expectations for academic rigor continue to escalate, even in the face of mounting evidence that more APs, beyond a fairly low threshold, do not predict greater college achievement. However, they do predict higher stress levels for students. Against this backdrop the College Board has announced new APs, such as PreCalculus, while its CEO, David Coleman, publicly advocates that colleges “stop the madness” and consider no more than 5 APs for college admission.

I’ve been working in this field since 2001, and living in Atlanta, I know how closely parents and students attend to the level of competition for our highly economical flagship state schools, UGA and GA Tech. When I began coaching students who were interested in attending UGA, the general wisdom was that the admissions office wanted to see at least 2-3 AP exams to demonstrate academic preparedness. Having no advanced classes on the transcript made an acceptance at UGA less likely. When I read the most recent stats for the Early Action acceptance data for UGA, my jaw dropped. The middle 50% of the 8,253 accepted students had 8-13 AP, IB, or dual-enrollment classes. That means ¼ of the accepted students had more than 13 of these advanced classes. (I was also stunned that the middle 50% had a 32-34 ACT, 1370-1510 SAT, and 4.16-4.38 core GPA, but that’s another article).

In 1994, I graduated high school at the top of my class having taken 7 AP classes and 8 AP exams. Nobody was close to taking 13+ advanced classes. The idea would have been ludicrous. And now ¼ of students getting accepted early into UGA early are operating at that level. Inevitably there are trade-offs here, opportunity costs, and other costs. What is being sacrificed to the altar of academic rigor? What activities are reduced, social engagements missed, sleep diminished, anxiety and stress enhanced?

If there is no cap on academic rigor, then students will continue to push into higher and higher number of rigorous classes. Seeing as we are entering a time of greater anxiety and depression and stress for teens, it’s impossible to ignore how the greater academic burden may be contributing to the teen mental health crisis. Our young adults need more than advanced classes to form a self, and be ready for the next steps towards adulthood. Things are clearly out of balance, and we are seeing the effects of the imbalance, at a national level.

Parents and schools need to consider the overall well-being of our young people and not myopically focus on academic success. The goal, after all, is to build healthy adults.

The problem is not a simple one, and the competitive dynamics fueling the runaway growth in academic rigor need to be addressed. The ultimate fix will have to come from colleges, and then high schools setting limits for students. Parents need to be very mindful of the need for balance, and the natural tradeoffs that occur when students place such a tremendous focus on maxing out their curriculum, rather than on having a healthier, more balanced young adulthood.

 

College and Money Webinar - January 25th

Going to college is an exciting time for families, but figuring out how to fund higher education can be daunting. From scholarships to grants to work study to loans, there’s a lot to consider. This strategy session is all about making college affordable, and three finance-savvy experts will provide the tools, insights, and resources for a cost-efficient path to campus! Our panelists will cover a range of topics such as setting a budget as a family (including how to pay off debt), applying for need-based aid, and sharing the “Holy Grail” of searching for outside scholarships. Featuring: Jason Brown, author of “Margin Matter$” and “It is Possible: How I Earned Two Debt-Free Degrees … and how you can, too.” 

Chanell Thomas, Associate Director for Student Financial Aid and Scholarships, Vanderbilt University 

Will Geiger, Co-founder of Scholarships 360

 

 

College & Money Webinar - January 25th 

8:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Choices and Options- A Blueprint for College Admission

By Rick Clark, Georgia Tech Admissions Would you rather eat a bowl of worms or drink a gallon of sour milk?  Would you rather walk to school naked one day or walk to school backwards every day?  Would you rather sit on a nail or stand on a push pin?  These are just a few of the queries I overheard recently at a sixth-grade girls spend the night party. Hold on. Let me clarify- I have a sixth-grade daughter and I was washing dishes while they were playing this game in the adjoining room. (Just didn’t want you canceling this blog based on the wrong idea.) Anyway... none of these or the other options sounded great to me. And I thought about them. Really, I'm still thinking about them. I mean worms or sour milk? Just not sure. It’s the gallon that gets me. If it were a pint, I’d go milk without question. The quantity was a brilliant add.  I actually find would you rather instructive for college admission, because ultimately, (just like the colleges I wrote about last time) having choices and options is the goal for students and applicants. Unless you get into a college under an Early Decision plan, the ideal situation is to be able to sit down in the spring of your senior year with multiple offers of admission- and financial aid packages from those places that make it affordable and enticing for you to attend. Unlike sixth-grade girls who clearly only incorporate embarrassing or painful options, you want to have to make a tough decision because the options are so good. And in my experience, the college students who are the most satisfied with their choice are the ones who know they intentionally picked that school over other viable options.   So how do you end up with choices and options?   As a freshman and sophomore this starts with doing well in high school classes, and doing good outside of them. In other words, challenge yourself academically to the point where you can learn, enjoy, and still have capacity to contribute to your school, family, and community beyond school hours. At the end of the day, colleges want good high school students. They want kids who are well prepared academically and ones who will add to their campus life and ethos too. Your goal in 9th and 10th grade is simply to set a foundation. Work hard academically, learn to study, focus on time management, advocate for yourself, and get involved in things where you can really have an impact or influence.   When colleges review transcripts, they start with the ninth grade and work from there. They are asking questions around what you could have taken, what you chose to take, and how you did in each class during each grade. On the Common Application, you’ll also be asked to indicate which years in high school you participated in various activities.  Your goal is to be kind to your current self by getting sleep and not overloading and be kind to your future self by investing now inside and outside the classroom. Having choices and options for college as a senior, comes from making good choices throughout high school.  As a junior starting to explore colleges (and likely starting to receive lots of mail and email from schools), you should be thinking honestly and earnestly about what you really want and need in an academic environment, and the type of setting in which you can thrive. Does 30,000 students sound exciting and dynamic or terrifying? Does snow from October to March bring about visions of skiing or crying? Does the college you root for or know best have the major you really want?   Honing in on places that focus on what you are focused on will help you eliminate colleges that don’t match your interests and invest time, money, or other resources visiting and exploring the places that do. This is not easy. It demands keeping an open mind when brochures from places you have never heard from land on your desk or kitchen table. This means being confident enough to tune out unhelpful voices (sometimes the loudest and closest in proximity) and humble enough to seek out information, perspectives, and details that may be less familiar or easy to attain.  Ask your high school senior self this: Would you rather end up at your state’s flagship or your parents’ alma mater or the closest college to your house or know that you eliminated other options, thought seriously about what you really wanted in a college experience, and intentionally chose your state’s flagship or your parents’ alma mater or the closest college to your house? To have choices and options as a senior, you have to do your college homework as a junior. As a senior in the fall, please do not apply anywhere you don’t actually want to go. That's just dumb. And please do not let anyone convince you that you need to apply to “a few more places” justso you have some arbitrary number they have conceived for you. Instead, be realistic about your grades, your profile outside the classroom, and the competition you will be facing. Again, don’t forget that the end goal is to be able to afford to go. Do your homework by talking to your school counselor, using net price calculators, and consulting sites such as MyIntuition or BigFuture. Be reminded that your chances of being admitted to a school with an admit rate below 20% do not go up 20% by applying to 20% more of those schools. Trade out “dream school” for IRL colleges. Apply to a group of schools (you figure out the number but generally more than 2 and less than 10) where you know you will be thrilled to get in and excited to go. People, there are 4000 higher education options in America and many more around the world. When you eliminate 99.9% of them, it should only leave you with places you are fired up to attend. As a senior in the winter, if you are deferred, please do not write these places off if you are still legitimately interested. Julie Andrews lists raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens/ Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens/ Brown paper packages tied up with strings/ but I note she doesn’t include being deferred and having to wait during college admission as one of her favorite things. Still, if we agree your goal is choices and options, then be reminded a deferral is not a closed door. Ego bruise? Perhaps. Annoying? Sure. But you applied in their admission process not for one round. Stay the course. Send in fall grades, complete the essay, fill out the form, do the interview, or whatever else they may ask. Don’t lose sight of the end goal. Ask yourself if you would rather see it through or wonder later what might have happened? To recap- how do you end up with Choices and Options?  ·         Do well - and do good.  ·         Do your college homework.  ·         Only apply to places that excite you.   ·          Stay on Target.   Spring of senior year. Voila- CHOICES & OPTIONS. You got this!

 

Class of 2026 - Getting Ready for Your College and Career Search

The first step to any career and college search for a freshman student is to know the available resources. 

 

Career Search

Let's start with the career search. Personality assessments can help you understand what spaces and areas you thrive in more. You can take a free Myer's Briggs assessment and the results will help you better understand the careers your personality type tends to thrive in better. You can also explore the career exploration tab in GA Futures.

College Search

When starting your college search, there are literally thousands of colleges and universities and they range in size, location, campus environment, and academic offerings. Start your college exploration by checking out the Fiske Guide, and sites like CollegeXpress, College Data, and BigFuture College Search.