Okay, as a first-year college student who's recently familiar with the college admissions process and looking for literally any reason to procrastinate doing his calculus homework, I'll hop on my e-soapbox and give some advice about applying to college/selecting schools. More the latter than the former.
This post obviously only applies to United States freshman undergraduate admissions. Smart PhD/Masters and non-American students can scroll down if they please ;)
1. College admissions are an investment, not a service contract.
Colleges care about what you're going to do, not what you've done. Think about what colleges look for; they're looking for people that are going to get a degree and use that degree to improve the reputation of the college and give back to the college down the road. Admissions officers are paid to sniff out the people that are most likely to do that; colleges are investing one of the seats in their class of 2018 in you so that you'll one day represent that college as an expert in whatever field you study. What does that mean? It means that not all 3.8 GPAs are created equal. If you slacked through your freshman year but pulled a 4.0 your last three, you look a ton better than the freshman-year hero who made straight B-minuses his junior year. Upward trends matter because what you did at age 17 matters a lot more than what you did at age 13. You're not going to be blacklisted by your dream schools just because you forgot to turn a paper in when you were 13 years old and got a crappy grade in English because of it if you demonstrated the maturity and responsibility to pull that grade up the next few years.
By the same token, if you peaked at age 14 and have been a complacent ass your last two years, expect colleges to look the other way. College admissions officers are looking for people that will make their university look great in the future, not looking to reward high school students who hit certain GPA and SAT benchmarks because their mommies and daddies made them. If you don't try on your essays and expect admission to XYZ University because your GPA and SAT exceed their accepted academic profile, don't be shocked when the acceptance letter goes to the kid next door. I can personally attest to this. I applied to Georgia Tech because I thought my 2350 SAT (far above their middle-50% of accepted students) would make them foam at the mouth with the possibility of me attending their school. I crapped through their essays, sent the application at the last second, and waited for the acceptance letter. I was waitlisted. They ultimately rejected me. I made myself look like an asshole with those essays (they weren't condescending or anything, just obvious "last-minute" essays) and Georgia Tech told me "If you didn't try on your essays, why would we expect you to try on our coursework?".
When building your application, think of why the college should invest a seat in their lectures and a bed in their dorms on you. Why are you going to be the next great University of _____ graduate?
2. Love your safety schools.
Most colleges can be boiled down into "reaches", "matches", and "safeties" based on how likely they are to admit you into their class. A "reach" is a school that you would be lucky to be admitted to, a "match" is a school where you would have a good, but not guaranteed, chance at admission, and a "safety" is a school that you won't lose any sleep over being admitted to. Assuming you have the finances to apply to many schools, it's likely that you'll be applying to some reach, match, and safety schools. When selecting your safety schools, don't think: "Ugh, what bad schools should I apply to in case I don't get in anywhere good?". When selecting your safety school, think:
"What schools with high admission rates would I really like to go to?" The only difference between a "reach" school and a "safety" school is the admission rate. If you want to be an engineer but don't have the MIT/Stanford/CalTech profile, I guarantee you there are great engineering schools that you can get into that are 95% as good as those three. There is a chance that you have a bad day with admissions and only get into your safety, but you should be just as eager as the guy who got into his dream school.
If you love your safety school, you can't lose at college admissions.
Do you want to be a businessman but don't have the grades for Harvard or UPenn? New York University is ranked 5th in the country* in business and accepts a less-than-intimidating 35% of its applicants. The University of Michigan is tied for 2nd* in the country and accepts 36.5% of its applicants. Indiana University-Bloomington is rated in the top ten* in business and accepts
over 75% of its applicants. Are you a future engineer with no shot at MIT or Stanford? Georgia Tech is an elite engineering school that lets in over half of its applicants. Purdue University-West Lafayette is a top-ten* engineering school with an admission rate far above 50%. These are just a few examples; if you're looking for an Ivy-quality education without an Ivy-quality resume, check out what schools specialize in what you love. If you look hard enough, you will find safety schools that you would be honored to attend.
*These rankings are the 2014 editions of the U.S. News and World Report Undergraduate Business and Engineering rankings. More on these later.
Furthermore, you are not "too good" for your safety school. No matter what school you go to, odds are you aren't the smartest person there. If you're in your first class of 500 students, there's a 499/500 chance someone there is smarter than you, even if it's at your safety school. If you get snubbed by some schools and have to go to your safety, wear those rejection letters like a chip on your shoulder. Don't think "this school lets anyone in, I'll be the smartest person on campus." If you want to be the smartest person on campus, if you want to make straight-A's and come out with a 4.0, get ready to put in the hours. Just like you did in high school :)
3. College rankings are a guideline. Your goal is not to hit the high score on the US News Rankings List.
Let's face it. Every one of you has probably glanced at the
U.S. News and World Report College Rankings at least once. I would like to remind you that these rankings are one publication's
estimate of the prestige and quality of education of the country's universities. Moses did not come down from Mount Sinai with these rankings etched in stone and say: "Yahweh hath commanded you to research what schools your SAT scores correspond to, apply to the highest rated ones, and then see if you beat your friends in the Admissions Bowl!" For example, the University of Chicago is rated 5th in the country by the USNWR. If you're a pre-law student, you might pick it over Princeton because of how prestigious Chicago's Law School is. On the other hand, if you're a future engineer, you wouldn't bat an eyelash at Chicago because it doesn't offer engineering undergraduate majors. If you're a future engineer and want to study engineering, odds are you'd take the 41st-ranked University of Illinois over the top-5 Chicago. Don't fret over U.S. News rankings. Your friend is not smarter than you because they got into a higher school on the U.S. News list, your friend is not smarter than you because they got into a more selective school than you, and your friend is not smarter than you because they got into a school you didn't. College admissions are not an end-all be-all predictor of life success. To compare it to sports (about the only thing I'm good at making comparisons to), just because Princeton didn't draft you first overall doesn't mean you can't have a wonderful career playing for 62rd-ranked Clemson. If your friend gets into a great school (or
any school, for that matter), congratulate them. If you get into a great school, be humble but excited. Getting into a great school isn't an accomplishment, getting a degree from a great school is.
Out of the two schools I got into, I chose the one lower on the USNWR rankings list. I do not regret my decision, but if I chose the other school I would probably be just as happy. If you're choosing between two schools you love, even if they're your safety schools, you're in a win-win situation.
Look at Walrein's post on the previous page. He is not any less intelligent because he wants to go to Missouri. If he were to turn down Princeton for Missouri, he does not magically lose IQ points. Neither will you. Go to the school that works best for
you, not the generalized student reading the USNWR.
4. Start early on your applications. Apply at the right time to each of your schools.
You're competing with literally millions of people from across the globe for that chair in a lecture hall at Harvard. Every minute you're not working on an application is a minute where someone else is. Finish your essays early so more people can critique them. If your SATs are low, take them a second time. Remember, the second semester of high school literally could not matter less to your life (outside of AP Exams), so bust your ass now and take a well-deserved eight-month break from January to August. In fact, you probably wasted your entire ten-minute Smogon break reading this post, so get back to work!
If you have one, singular dream school, apply Early Decision. Start on your applications as soon as possible so you are totally finished by the time the Early Decision/Early Action deadlines roll around. Remember, you can't change your Common Application essays once you send them, so the real deadline for those essays is November, not January! Early Decision
does increase your chances of getting into a school, so if you really want to boost your chances of getting in somewhere, apply ED. Your admission chances will never be higher. (Non-Restrictive) Early Action vs. Regular Decision isn't that much of a boost, so if you want to use the time between November and January to brush up your essays, SATs, SAT IIs, or GPA, then it's usually the better idea to wait.
5. Panic. Get stressed out. Lose sleep.
Because come June of 2014, you can look back and see how silly it was how stressed out you were over college admissions :P
Good luck to everyone applying to schools this year, may you all get into your dream schools! (and do well at them!)
Look I don't want to be a shameless school-promoter but Michigan has a library with like 4000 playable video games and a Pokemon club. Just saying.
