College Planning Blog

STRATEGIES TO MAKE YOUR APPLICATION COUNT Series

Most Regular Decision (non-Early Decision) application deadlines are still a month or so away; however, the next few weeks are critical to pulling together an application that puts you in the most competitive position possible. While it may be tempting to wait a little longer before working on the final version of your applications, there is real merit to getting things done now.

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 12 of Winning the College Admission Game: Strategies for Students entitled, “Time to Apply: Get It Done.” If you find yourself stuck in a rut as application deadlines draw near, check out the book for guidance on how to work through the troublesome and potentially annoying details that might be bogging you down.

“One of the biggest stumbling blocks in the college application process is the application itself. You’ve done everything else—the thinking, talking and planning. There is nothing left to do but complete the application! Much as that might seem like a “no-brainer,” when it comes to actually filling out the forms, a lot of students can’t seem to “find the time.” As important as the pending competition for admission might be, there always seems to be a good reason why completing the application is put off to another day.

If you are like many other teenagers, this is a familiar scenario. Procrastination, or the ability to put things off until they really need to be done, is a strategic element of your survival plan, so no worries there. After all, why stress out on a project any more than is necessary especially when you know you can do your best work under pressure? Why should your college applications be any different?

Well, you might consider the consequences. For example, waiting until the application deadline means that you are in a hurry and you are stressed. As a result, you won’t have much patience for questions on the application that require reflective thought. You won’t be as likely to tidy up grammar and spelling—and you certainly won’t be inclined to ask anyone to look over your work.

So, what are you left with? Typos? Grammatical mistakes? Poorly developed ideas? Errors of omission—and the very strong impression that you, the candidate, didn’t care enough to invest time and effort in preparing your application? Remember, to the reader your application is you. Do you want to risk presenting yourself in a bad light that might cause an admission officer to lose interest?

As you prepare your application, then, do the little things well. Be thoughtful in your approach.  Invest in yourself. When everything else is equal, you want the reader of your application to come away feeling: “Wow—we need to take this one!” So, take a deep breath and get ready to tackle your applications!”

Six tips for reducing the stress as you complete your applications:

1. Work ahead of deadlines. Allow time for the unexpected. You never know what might come up at the last minute that could interfere with your preparations.
2. Make sure you and your college advisor are on the same wavelength with regard to what needs to be submitted, by whom and when.
3. Check to make sure you have submitted the appropriate standardized test results to each school. If you are applying test optional to any school, remind your college advisor to remove the scores from the transcripts that will be sent to those schools.
4. If you are preparing an online application, print out a copy of the form with the work you have completed at the end of each entry session. It’s always good to have a hard copy on file. Besides, you might find it easier to edit the hardcopy.
5. Print out the final drafts of your applications and put them away for several days. Then, read through the hard copies. Are they saying what you want them to say? The extra time you take in editing will give you a perspective you may not have had as you worked through the documents initially.
6. If you are preparing tapes, DVDs, CDs or portfolios, submit them in duplicate so one copy goes to the admission office and the other goes directly to the program directors who will be evaluating them.

STRATEGIES TO MAKE YOUR APPLICATION COUNT Series
An important point to remember as you complete your college applications is that colleges to which you are applying don’t have to admit you just because you are a good candidate academically. Your academic record merely puts you on the competitive “playing field.” In order to gain admission, you need to give the decision-makers a reason to want to admit you.

If you have heard me talk about the admission process you know that I liken the selection of applicants into the class to community building. Admission officers scan the hundreds of academically qualified candidates for those whom they want to include in the communities they are building on their campuses. Their questions raised upon acknowledgment of your competitiveness sound something like this: “We know she is a capable student, but what do we get if we admit her? What will she bring to the community we are trying assemble?”

This phase of the application review process is critical to all but a few of the candidates who are truly academic superstars. If your credentials don’t put you in that category, you need to be mindful of other talents, interests or perspectives that might set you apart from your peers—“gifts,” if you will that might put your candidacy over the top in a tight competition.

In preparing your applications for admission, then, it is important to remember that your applications are like personal statements in which you are saying, “This is who I am and what I have to offer.”

Bring your talent to life. If you are a musician, make a studio quality recording (tape or CD). Audition if you can. If you are an artist, attend portfolio days or assemble a slide collection of your work to submit with your application. This demonstration of talent will be required for entry into highly selective conservatory or specialty programs in the arts. It can also make the difference for you at schools that value the arts but are not pre-professionally oriented.  You do not need to have professional aspirations as an artist, musician, actor or dancer—or even a major in the arts—in order for your talent to give you a competitive edge in the selective admission process.

If you are an athlete, make sure your high school coach provides a good introduction or “scouting report” for the college coaches that might be interested in recruiting you. Be prepared to submit one or two game films—and resist the temptation to put together a highlight reel! Much as recruiting coaches want to see your skills, they also want to see what you do when you are not in the middle of the action.

By demonstrating your talents in this way, you go beyond the listing of activities and achievements on your application to reveal the nuances of tone and texture that distinguish your performance from the rest of the competition. More importantly, you give admission officers reasons to want to admit you because they value you for what you do well.

In a previous blog article…
I observed that applicants should proceed cautiously with regard to submitting resumes with their applications for admission. Having worked with a number of students as they prepare their applications, though, I feel I need to change my view on the topic. This is especially true for users of the Common Application. The current version of the Common Application produces downloadable documents that are hard to read. This is particularly true of the Extracurricular Section where the detail associated with listed activities is difficult to follow.

That said, it might make sense to produce a brief resume that you can attach to your application. Keep it focused on activities and achievements from your high school years and organize it around the key themes of your application.

STRATEGIES TO MAKE YOUR APPLICATION COUNT Series

I have received a number of questions lately from students regarding the use of personal information in positioning their applications for admission. The questions range from the usefulness of a resume to the viability of leveraging family history to the competitiveness of credentials at highly selective colleges.

While I will address these and other questions in the set of tips below, I want to emphasize that admission committees are most interested in learning about you and what you have to offer the community of scholars they are building through the admission process. With that in mind, focus on your story. Present it consistently and eliminate the guesswork for the folks who will read your applications. Use your application to make a compelling statement that says, “Take me!”

Eight Tips for Making Your Case
1. Know what it is you want to say about yourself. If you are having trouble getting your arms around this, either because there is a lot to say or because you are struggling to find a beginning point, try the following:

• Think about how others see you. How would your friends describe you? Your teachers? Your parents?
• What key words and thoughts begin to emerge? Generous? Competitive? Studious? Inventive? A leader? A “renaissance” person?
• Choose two or three that are most consistent with your core identity.
• List your key involvements, experiences and achievements that make the connections to these themes.
• Look broadly and creatively at your application (essays, extracurricular profile, letters of recommendation) to find opportunities to make your case.

2. Resist the temptation to add newspaper clippings and certificates of your achievement. This isn’t the time to document your accomplishments; rather, it is a perfect opportunity to give your voice to the telling of your story.

An exception involves the submission of tapes, DVDs, CDs and portfolios that illustrate your talent. These submissions are important even if you do not intend to pursue specialty programs. The communities that admission officers are trying to build include theatre groups, orchestras and chorales, each of which needs to be populated by talented contributors. What do you have to give? Just as athletes get credit for their potential contributions, so should dancers, actors, musicians and artists. Let your talent speak for you!

3. If you are submitting information in support of your talent in the arts, send two copies—one to the admission officer who recruits in your area and the other to the director of the program that interests you.

4. If you are preparing tapes/DVDs to submit in support of your athletic interests, resist the temptation to put together highlight reels. Coaches want to see game films in their entirety. Why? They want to see how you make the plays—AND what you are doing when the spotlight doesn’t fall on you.

5. Resumes are not terribly helpful and only add to the clutter of the application. Most admission officers want to see how you distill the information that defines you in the space provided. If you absolutely need more space, submit an additional page with your application.

6. Focus on the events that have defined your life since the beginning of high school. Earlier accomplishments are nice but they are ancient history from an admission perspective! Reference them only if they have had a profound impact on the person you are becoming.

7. Reference family situations (achievements or setbacks) only to the extent that they have had an impact on you. You are the candidate. Family histories may be significant to those involved, but not to admission committees unless they have a bearing your personal development.

8. Perhaps the most important tip is actually the reminder that you need to put yourself on competitive playing fields where you will be valued for what you do well. This is the essence of a good college fit. You can’t will your way into a college or university simply because you are qualified and have a strong desire to attend. If what you have to offer isn’t valued, your chances of getting in aren’t that great. Focus your time and attention on making the case for yourself at schools that make sense for you.

For more information on finding a good college fit and putting together a compelling application, check out my book, Winning the College Admission Game; Strategies for Students and Parents. Winning can be found in bookstores and online including my website, www.TheAdmissionGame.com.