A Strategic Start
Over the years, the selective admissions process has evolved to distribute thousands of outstanding high school graduates among a hundred or so of the countryâs top colleges. You can establish a strategic position in this process by learning how a number of selective colleges expect you to prepare yourself academically for their demanding work, and by knowing how particular colleges select their first-year classes from among many qualified applicants.
HISTORIC HIGH LEVELS OF U.S. HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES AND COLLEGE APPLICANTS
(Chronicle of Higher Education)
To begin with, you will familiarize yourself with the admissions requirements of a number of selective colleges. Why so many when your chief interest may be in only two? A key feature of the Ten-Step Plan is that you will increase your chances of admission to a selective college of your choice by applying to a collection of schools where you believe your particular strengths give you a unique advantage. To do this, you will need to learn about a variety of selective colleges and their particular programs.
Begin with College Catalogues and Web Sites
You can acquaint yourself initially with a variety of colleges by looking over catalogues, viewbooks, Web sites, and other material available at your school, public library, or on the Internet. Send away or e-mail for information you cannot get otherwise. Selective colleges receive tens of thousands of inquiries each year! Colleges are anxious to help you learn about their institutions. As we will discuss, one of the major changes we have seen in the last two decades is the shift on the part of the colleges toward Internet-based marketing, information provision, communication with students and high schools, and even submission of applications. College Web sites and the Internet offer an easy, fast, and valuable means of gaining a great deal of insight on particular colleges and their admissions requirements.
The Class Profile
Every college publishes a profile of its freshman class, distributes this to alumni and guidance counselors, and, often, makes it available on their Web site. Useful data such as the number of applicants admitted by class rank, their GPA, advanced courses taken, test scores, extracurricular interests, and regions of the country can help you position yourself as a candidate for the colleges you are considering, and may lead you to add new schools to your list. Your guidance counselor should have such profiles, but if not, check the collegeâs Web site, e-mail them to ask for a profile, or contact the local alumni representative.
INFORMATION SOURCES
The Collegeâs Requirements
As you read through the material, take particular note of the admissions requirements of colleges that interest you, and record the information in the notebook you should be keeping on your admissions procedures (this notebook can be a three-ring binder or a computer file). Or use our College Requirements Worksheet, a copy of which appears later in this chapter and in the Appendix.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A STRONG CURRICULUM
Relative Selectivity
Selective collegesâ requirements can be rated in three broad categories: Exceedingly Demanding, Very Demanding, and Demanding. The table in the âLetâs Get Startedâ chapter lists the selective colleges and their classifications. Be sure your research includes colleges in at least two and preferably three categories. Even though you may believe yourself highly qualified and a good candidate for Swarthmore, Stanford, Williams, Duke, or others that are Exceedingly Demanding, you can never be certain of admission to such colleges and should consider some Very Demanding and Demanding ones you would be happy to attend.
Or if you think that only a Demanding college will take you, you may be selling yourself short by not considering Very Demanding institutions as a possibility. You could be surprised to discover that a college you thought was beyond your reach would like to admit you for reasons you hadnât considered.
Preliminary Self-Classification
By going through various collegesâ requirements in your notebook and comparing them with your curriculum and your performance to date, you can arrive at a preliminary classification of where you are in the selective college pool. You may already have had such a classification in mind, but now you are in a position to evaluate it realistically. This self-classification will help you establish admissions goals and work toward them systematically.
Let us look at the way two different students went about their preliminary self-classification.
Laura
Laura came to us in the spring of her junior year at a competitive mid-Atlantic boarding school. She had received PSAT scores of 63 verbal, 59 math, and 66 writing, scores that put her between the 81st and 94th percentile, and similar SAT-level scores. She was a varsity field hockey player with a strong curriculum that already included calculus, physics, and French 5. Her grades were good, but put her only in about the third decile of her class. Laura was looking for a highly selective college with a good field hockey program, but she was not sure she could compete on the Division I level. While she was initially set on Dartmouth, she needed to figure out if that goal was realistic. We walked her through this competitive Ivyâs current statistics: median SATs in the 700 range on each section, 90% of the entering class in the top 5% to 10% of their high school class, students with a strong particular talent, and students with usually a few AP courses by senior fall. It became clear to Laura that Dartmouth, Princeton, and some other Exceedingly Demanding colleges would be too unrealistic a stretch for her. We encouraged her to set her goals for SATs in the mid-650s in October, to bring her grades up to a point where she was in about the top 15% of her class, and to stay with and a challenging curriculum in the fall of her senior year, including French 6, AP statistics, and advanced English. Laura would continue her discussions with field hockey coaches at the Division III level, and would be a prefect (leader) in her dorm the next year. She might continue to strive for a few Exceedingly Demanding colleges, but would see mostly Very Demanding schools as her targets, with one or two Demanding colleges as backups.
Laura was able to bring her grade average up almost ten points over the year, to receive âmost improvedâ awards for varsity squash and varsity lacrosse, to generate interest from Division III coaches, to bring up her SATs modestly, but, more importantly, to score fours on the English Literature and French Language AP exams. She applied early decision to Middlebury, which had been recruiting her for hockey, and was deferred. She decided to continue to pursue this first-choice college, and to send out applications in the pattern she had initially identified. Eventually, she was rejected by two Exceedingly Demanding colleges, Dartmouth and Georgetown, and accepted at Middlebury (where she enrolled), Vanderbilt, Trinity, and Colby. She had classified herself almost perfectly, and had played to her strengths in athletics and academics (Middlebury liked her language skills and interest in foreign study). Had she applied early to Dartmouth and continued to focus on this unrealistic choice, she could have missed the opportunity to identify and gain admission to Middlebury.
COLLEGE REQUIREMENTS WORKSHEET
Name of College ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Level of selectivity
(Demanding,
Very Demanding,
Exceedingly
Demanding) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Units of high school
courses required
(1 unit = 1 year):
English___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Mathematics___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Science___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Languages___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
History or Social Studies___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Electives advised___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Total units required___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Is SAT or ACT
required? ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
How many SAT
Subject Tests
required? ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Tests recommended___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Early Decision or
Early Action policy? ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
ED or EA deadlines___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Notification dates___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Regular admission
deadline___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Notification dates___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Frank
Frank was in the winter of his junior year at a highly competitive private day school. Enrolled in a very strong curriculum, including fourth-year Spanish, AP U.S. history, physics, and advanced math, he was near the top of his class, with A/Aâgrades across the board. With PSATs of 63 verbal, 69 math, and 73 writing (all in the 90th percentile range), he had a good chance of going far in the National Merit Scholarship competition. He also had a chemistry SAT Subject Test score of 730. Frank wanted a highly challenging college where he could pursue math, science, and history, and he had an early interest in Dartmouth because of its combination of lib...