Five Tips for College Admission, or Old Advice Revisited

Follow this advice to avoid common missteps in college selection.

1. Be true to yourself. (Don’t be romantic.)

Being true to yourself is about honoring your values and taking responsibility for meeting your core needs. It is not simply going with what feels right. A college search can be an emotional roller coaster. On this wild ride, you may feel a sudden and profound connection to one or two of the campuses you visit. Describing this experience, students often say, “I just knew this was the place for me.”

We call this phenomenon Love at First Sight Syndrome, and you need to watch out for it. You probably wouldn’t make a lifetime commitment to a person just because you felt the tug of an initial attraction. College isn’t a lifetime commitment, but it does affect your life choices and chances. Base your selection more on solid evidence and less on the emotional impact of one brief encounter, regardless of how alluring it might have been.

2. Finish your homework. (Don’t assume admission priorities.)

You’re the type of person who likes to cover all the bases.  You've set reasonable admission goals and spoken with your parents about finances. You’ve studied college websites and compared course offerings in your intended major. You’ve looked at first year seminars and general education requirements. You’ve met with faculty, alumni and current students, as well as with admissions officers. You’ve observed classes and slept in residence halls. If appropriate, you’ve considered the merits of different honors programs or varsity athletic teams. Good for you! You’ve done your college search homework…most of it, anyhow.

What’s missing? The missing piece is the accelerating trend that we call Climate Change in Higher Education Admissions. At this point in American history, many colleges and universities are restructuring their admissions procedures. It’s up to you to confirm all application requirements for your slate of schools, but here are a few points to consider.

Do you really need to take (or retake) the SAT I?

Some selective schools are now SAT-optional, and the list grows longer each year (see Fair Test for the full list). This is bad news for the ETS College Board, but it could be great for you–depending on whether you excel at standardized testing.

Is it smart to devote weeks to writing a personal statement?

Admission counselors at large state universities seldom read the thousands of heartfelt statements submitted with the thousands of Common Applications. If the universities on your slate fall into this category, consider spending less time on the personal essay.

How important are supplemental essays?

Many Common Application institutions require supplements demonstrating your suitability for their campuses. You will want to compose a compelling supplement for every school in this category. Otherwise, don’t bother to apply.

3. Be Prepared. (Don’t settle for Safeties.)

Safety schools–we know about the institutions of higher education that are obliged to admit when all others turn down an applicant. We can tell tales about the lost souls forced to enroll at their justly-disparaged last chance schools. What’s really pathetic about these Urban Legends of Scary Safeties is the absence of good planning at the root of the stories.

We encourage you to identify four genuine educational advantages for every school on your slate. (If you wish, you are welcome to add cultural, social and geographic reasons for your choices, but they can’t substitute for sound educational planning.) Inevitably, some schools of interest to you will be more competitive; others, less so.

Here is the key point. Accepting an admission offer from a less prestigious college or university that you are confident will strengthen your educational competencies and further your professional goals is not the stuff of horror movies. It’s called having a backup plan, and that's a good thing.

4. Don’t Delay. (Get Motivated.)

"The application deadline is the fifteenth of January, and today is the first of December. Not to worry, right?" Wrong. All kinds of unexpected events could befall you before the new year. You could break both legs snowboarding. You could fall in love (again). On the mundane side, you could lose track of the date while enjoying all the great food that seems to appear miraculously in December.

Before distractions erode your willpower, make a spreadsheet with every school on your slate and every deadline for each school. Include admission deadlines and financial aid deadlines. Display your spreadsheet in an obvious location, such as the refrigerator door. If you’re not prone to procrastinating, the spreadsheet should be sufficient to keep you on track.

Spoiler Alert
For electronic filing of applications, consider that the time of your submission appears on the download. You won’t make a favorable impression if your documents are stamped: 11:49 p.m., when the deadline is midnight.

Returning to the human foible of delaying unpleasant or unwieldy undertakings, if you are a procrastinator, take appropriate action to free yourself from what we call The Paintball Syndrome. Play the procrastination game long enough, and you will get splattered. It’s only a question of when the paint hits.

How severe is your tendency toward procrastination? See for yourself, by taking the quiz.

By the way, if you procrastinate for the thrill of it, try a better extreme endeavor, possibly snowboarding or falling in love.

5. Take care of yourself. (Take care of yourself.)

If you don’t make the minimum effort to maintain your physical, behavioral and psychological health at college, then you’ll find yourself in The Decaying Orbit Syndrome, certain to be seared in a downward plunge through the heady atmosphere of academe. For example, long nights of overwork and serious fun combined with tasty but nutrient-poor meals during the first weeks of college may mean spending the second half of fall semester with a virulent upper respiratory infection. This is not an amusing prospect for you or for the roommates you will keep awake with your coughing.

To avoid unwanted outcomes, try improving your practice of self-care now, during your college search. The present moment may not be as stressful as a round of final exams, but making a good academic match can be a rollicking roller coaster ride. Talk with your parents, your guidance counselor or trusted health care professionals about positive ways to manage the stress in your life. In the meantime, here's one source that may make your life less crazy.