For rising seniors, now is the best time to start working on your college applications. Why so soon? The senior year of high school is very busy with students taking difficult classes, working on activities,  preparing college applications and just trying to have some fun.  The one thing you can work on early is the college application.

If the colleges you are applying to use the Common App or the Universal College Application go to their websites to complete all of the basic information required on the application.  If the college you are applying to doesn’t use either of these applications, go to the admissions website of the college. At this point, most colleges have made their application for next year available.  Besides completing the basic information, you can also take a look at the essay questions being used and start to plan how you will answer the essay. For many competitive colleges, the essay is one of the best ways to distinguish your self from other applicants. If you want more information on writing a great college essay check out our page on college admissions essays.

You should enjoy this summer, but at this point you need to start putting some work into your college application. It will make your senior year much more pleasant.

Boston.com has a good article about the hazards of getting too much help writing the college essay. The article makes it clear that with the increasing competition for students to gain admissions to their dream colleges, admissions officers are paying more attention to the essay to discern whether the applicant actually wrote it.

Students can, and should, discuss possible topics for the essay with a trusted adviser whether they be parents, teachers or private counselors. They can, and should, have an adviser review and possibly edit the essay for such issues as syntax and spelling. However, the essay must come from the student with the student’s voice coming through. Not only is this the honest approach but if the student’s voice is not coming through in the essay, the student is not giving the college an accurate view of who they are. To find the right college, the student must communicate to the college who they really are.

The executive director of the Common Application, Rob Killion, has released the numbers of applications through January 15. According to him the Common Application had 1,281,196 applications this year (a 40% increase) from 367,994 unique applicants. This means the average applicant this year submitted about 3.5 applications through the Common Application. This number is consistent with the number of applications submitted per student in the past several years. This means that the increase in application numbers is due to more students using the Common Application which is consistent with the increasing number of colleges using the Common Application and the fact that the majority of the most selective colleges use this form for their applications.

These facts seem to confirm that the stories of students submitting 15, 20 or more applications is not the norm among students submitting college applications.

The Common Application also announced that 23 new colleges which will begin using the Common Application next year.

Many of the most selective colleges are starting to release their application numbers and as expected the number of applications at many of these colleges again set records. Here is the bad news:

Harvard applications are up 18% to more than 27,000
Princeton applications are up 6% to 20,188
Stanford applications are up 2.5% to 24,564
Brown applications are up 7.5% to 20,505
Duke applications are up 5.4% to 20,250
University of Virginia applications are up 3.8% to 18,776
University of Chicago applications are up 18% to 12,267
Northwestern applications are up 12% to more than 25,000
Amherst applications are up 17%
Dartmouth applications are up 10%

But enough of the bad news because there is some good news also. According to a survey of 386 colleges by the National Association for College Admission Counseling the average college acceptance rate is still 69%. In other words, as long as you are willing to consider a school outside the most selective colleges, there is still a reasonable acceptance rate with most colleges. As always, don’t get hung up on the name of the college. Find the best college for your needs and if it one of the most selective, have a good safety.

It is that time of year again. Some applicants to colleges are submitting more than the requested applications. The Boston Globe discusses some of the items sent to admissions offices in the hope that they would improve the applicants chance at admissions.

Let’s keep this simple. DON’T do this. The message you are sending along with the gimmick is that your application is not strong enough on its own to allow you to gain admission. Instead, work on your grades, prepare for standardized tests, spend time at your favorite extracurricular activity and if you really have some extra time, spend it on polishing the application and essay. Doing these things will help your chances of admissions. Submitting something to make you the joke of the admissions office will not help your chances.

The New York Times recently published an article discussing the need for counselors to work with students in finding the best college for their needs. While the article simply restated the fact that most high school students have inadequate college counseling, I was struck when actually considering the numbers.

The article addressed some of the numbers from the State of College Admission 2007 which is published by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The average public high school counselor spends only 23% of their time advising 311 students on colleges. When this is broken down it turns out that the typical public high school counselor spends 64 minutes during the entire year advising students on issues related to colleges. Even more disturbing, only 10% of public high schools provide a college counselor specialist for their students.

Surprisingly, the typical private school counselor doesn’t fair that much better. Private school counselors spend 56% of their time advising students on colleges and have 234 students to advise. This breaks down to 3 hours and 26 minutes that the private school counselor has for each student in their college advising.

In preparing for college students need to consider the courses they are taking, what courses to take, what tests to take and when, what extracurricular involvement they should have, what colleges to consider, factors to consider in deciding how to pay for college, the application process and when to apply, factors considering the college visit, who and when to ask for recommendations and the list keeps going. It is unfortunate that this country continues to inadequately fund schools so that there are not enough qualified counselors. But it is a national disgrace to think that students are only provided with one hour of advice on all of the issues surrounding the search for the right college.

Historically, in looking at admissions, private colleges looked at the whole student including the grades, test scores, activities and essays. Public colleges on the other hand relied much more on the simple numbers of grades and test scores. Recently, however, more and more public colleges are started to use the more holistic approach and considering factors beyond grades and test scores. Oklahoma State University is the latest to propose using the holistic approach to consider the applicant’s talents and leadership skills. The University of Oregon, the University of California system and the University of Wisconsin are already using this more inclusive approach in admissions.

For students this means that they may need to be more concerned about factors outside the classroom even if they are considering a public college. Personally, I think this is good for admissions. Yes, college is about academics and learning, but it is also about exploring the world and learning about yourself. Students who do nothing outside the classroom often do not contribute to society as much as those who follow their interests. I would encourage more public colleges to consider using the holistic approach to admissions.

The Wall Street Journal is out with some numbers for some selective early action colleges and as expected the numbers of applicants is up. This was expected after Princeton and Harvard eliminated their early application programs earlier this year. However, the amount of increase is somewhat surprising. Yale’s applications for early action are up 36%, University of Chicago early applications are up 42% and Georgetown’s early applications are up 30%.

Of course the reason for the increase in early applications also includes more students applying in general and a push among many educators who urge students to apply early action since the decisions are not binding. The problem with this significant increase in applications for early action admissions is that it makes if more difficult for the colleges to determine how many students might accept the colleges offers of admissions. With increased uncertainty the colleges will most likely increase the number of students put on a wait list to try to give themselves some lee way in meeting their goals for class size.

The New York Times recently reported on what they think is a new trend in college admissions: the thank you note. Thank you notes after an interview or after meeting with a professor have always been appropriate and continue to be so as common decency. This has not changed in 100 years. What the New York Times was reporting on are those that are written simply for strategic purposes such as those that include items meant to be meaningful such as food or using college stationary to write the thank you notes.

College admissions officers and other receiving such notes appreciate receiving sincere thank you notes but they are not stupid and those notes sent for strategic purposes are seen for exactly what they are; attempts to gain an advantage by those who do not feel that their academic and other credentials are sufficient to gain admission.

Show common decency and write thank you notes where appropriate. But using insincere tricks to try and gain an advantage doesn’t work.

Here is an interesting take from another college admissions counselor who also happens to be a lawyer. Steve Goodman, a counselor in Washington DC advises students to make a small mistake on their college application to convey authenticity to the colleges. Since colleges are looking for the “real” you, making a mistake, which no one would purposely do, makes you seem more authentic.

Although I understand why Mr. Goodman is making such a recommendation, I would advise against such a tactic. Students should be trying to convey who they are to the colleges without the use of the pretend mistake. Writing a strong essay, getting appropriate recommendations, and properly completing your application are all ways to communicate the real you. Besides, mistakes are common enough without trying to make a mistake that you might come off looking like you didn’t care enough in the application to avoid all of the mistakes. Moreover, this is a very fine line to walk. You want a little mistake, but not too big a mistake. What spelling error is appropriate and what makes you look uneducated? The biggest problem I have with this is by faking a mistake you are not conveying who you are but rather try to fake who you really are.

Do colleges play games in the application process? Sure they do. But that doesn’t mean that you need to play games such as fake mistakes to convey the person behind the application.
Be yourself and you are more likely to be accepted at and enjoy attending the right college for your needs.