Love Your List: List Your Love

Touring and selecting schools is an arduous process.  It takes nearly a year, it has dozens of variables, and often the decisions come down to intangible gut feelings. But those intangibles are difficult to write down, explain, or justify.

Which is why, when you’re looking for schools, you must write down at least three things you love about any school you’re planning on applying to.

When I say love, I mean love.

Every single school has things that are great about it. It might be nice dorms, top-notch academics, low tuition, ease of entrance, rolling admissions… the list goes on and on.

I don’t care if its your safety, your “ugh I don’t want to apply there but I have to,” match, or your “its so perfect I’m going to die” reach.

If you can’t find three things to love about each school you’re applying to, you shouldn’t waste your time and money filling out an application.

Why should you list your love?

1.     It will give you things to write about on your “Why ___?” Supplements

2.     LOVE YOUR SAFETY SCHOOLS LOVE YOUR SAFETY SCHOOLS LOVE YOUR SAFETY SCHOOLS. No explanation there. Just a hard cold truth.

3.     It will encourage you to put in effort on your applications.

4.     It will make things easier if you don’t get into your dream school, and give you things to be excited about.

5.     It will help you remember why you’re applying there when it’s 3AM and you have three chapters of Microecon to read and 6 more supplements to write.

So, for example, here was the Love list for my safety school:

1.     Small School, personalized attention, small- discussion based classes

2.     Close-ish to home, drivable, I could have a car freshman year

3.     Good arts department, draw in a lot of theatre majors, lots of theatre on campus. NOT HIPSTER.

Here was the Love list for the school I almost outright refused to apply to.

1.     Small class size, especially in the psychology department

2.     Excellent male to female ratio

3.     Close to home, lots of family nearby

4.     So few drama students that they give out scholarships for theatre (!)

(I may have thought that I was going to double major theatre and psychology at that point… Summer after my junior year proved otherwise, but that’s a story for another day).

Those were two schools that I didn’t love overall, but I found things to love about them.

So remember, in order to love you list, you must list your love.

Learning to Keep Calm

Learning to Keep Calm- The inevitable and awful, wait (and how to deal with it).

Perhaps the most nerve-wracking part of any application process is the wait time. You send off your hopes and dreams to be decided on behind closed doors, and all you can do in the meantime is wait. And wait. And wait some more.

Today someone asked how I was doing, and I replied, “I’m staying calm. I’m Zen”

I am waiting to hear back from a summer fellowship. I’m not sure when exactly I will hear back, but I’m fairly sure it will be some time this week.

My entire life, waiting has never been my forte. I’m a critical, nitpicky type. That makes me amazing at writing and editing applications, but absolutely terrible at actually applying to things. Because once I hit send, I start nitpicking.

I should have added this in. I should have worn a different shirt to the interview. I should have done more research. I should have read the website more thoroughly. I could have… I should have… I could have… I should have…. I’m never going to get it. I shouldn’t have even tried. It was silly for me to think I could do this. What am I going to do when I’m rejected? I have back ups. I could have done more. I messed up so badly. I could have, I should have, I could have, I should have. I didn’t.

Does that inner monologue sound familiar?

I thought so.

The worst part of waiting is knowing it’s out of your hands.

But that needs to be your strength.

It’s out of your hands. There’s nothing else you can do. Focus on other possibilities until you know for sure.

The dwelling. The nervousness. The anxiety. The awful “up in the air” feeling. You can’t let that bog you down.

Keep calm. Focus on other things.

Full disclosure: I had to visit 3 different doctors the week before I heard back from my college for various health problems due to the agonizing, self-imposed anxiety.

I’ve gotten better at waiting since then. Because I focus on what is directly in front of me, instead of what I have no control over.

High School Seniors, you are about to find out from regular decision. And that’s absolutely terrifying, am I right?

But you still have a few more weeks until you know for sure.

Focus on the other things.

Hang out with your friends and truly appreciate them, as this is likely the last time you’ll get to see them all together.

Participate in your extracurriculars for the joy of participating. Leave behind a legacy of greatness. If you’re an athlete, an artist, an actor, an activist, leave it all behind. Put your full hundred percent in. Be an inspiration to the underclassmen, the person they aspire to be.

Know that Prom is coming up. And that even for introverts (like me) prom is a really special, and fun, thing. You get to dress up in the fanciest dress you’ve ever owned and be together with everyone one last time. I didn’t love my high school (in fact, I was desperate to get out of there) but prom was one of my best high school memories.

Spend time with your family, another group of people whom you’re about to be separated from for a while. Relish the unconditional love (even if you don’t like them, you love them). Appreciate living with people who know, and anticipate, your habits.

Appreciate that this is going to be the last time where you’re not going to be responsible for feeding yourself. Appreciate that you’re eating real food that someone cooked (or microwave, or bought), instead of gross cafeteria food.

Exercise a bit. Even if you hate it. The freshman 15 is looming on the horizon, and to keep it off you’re going to need to hit the gym. Form those habits now.

Keep your grades up in your classes. Learn for the love of learning, rather than a good mark to put on an application. Appreciate teachers and classmates who know your name.

If you’re doing a senior project, focus on that. Make it the best it can be. Pick something you’re passionate about, and really go for it.

Staying calm is hard. Not panicking is hard. But it gets easier when there are other things to focus on.

Nothing was ever accomplished by dwelling on things outside of your control. But all of that pent up nervous energy can be used to achieve greatness.

A brief timeline for recommendations.

Quick Bulletin: Your teachers are people. With lives.

So if they offer extra help, office hours, tutoring, go on their schedule, even if it’s not super convenient for you.

If they’re making time for you, thank them profusely.

And this, in particular, is true for recommendations.

And remember, recommendations don’t happen overnight. They take effort, they take time. If you want great recommendations, make sure that your teachers have plenty of time to get them out.

A brief timeline for recommendation success:

Junior Spring: Contact your teachers about writing you a recommendation the next fall. Make sure that you ask them, in person, if they would feel comfortable writing you a recommendation.
Generally they will tell you to remind them in the fall, and talk to them in detail then.

So now you’ve had all summer. You made a CommonApp in August. You’re on track to finish all of your essays by October (ED/EA) or early December (RD).

But there are those scary things that are a bit out of your hands… Recommendations.

If you are planning on applying ED/EA/Rolling, talk to your rec writers the first week of school. Touch base with them; remind them that you had talked about them writing you a rec.

Most teachers will have some kind of paper or form for you to fill out, so get those back to them ASAP, along with the addressed/stamped envelopes.

If you’re applying EA/ED/Rolling, remind them in mid October about the recommendations. Just mention that your deadline is November 1^st (or whatever it is) so it needs to be postmarked soon.

Then ask them once a week until it is in.

Do not hassle them unless it is October 25^th and they’re not in yet. And then make sure you are polite and grateful every time you ask them about it. Do not pester. Do not stalk. Just remind them gently until you’re sure they’re in.

If you are applying regular decision, remind them the first week of school that you had discussed them writing you a recommendation. Then fill out any paper work or forms they give you and return them with (stamped, addressed) envelopes.

Remind them in early November about the recommendations. This is after the ED deadline, so things probably free up. Remind them again in early December. Then ask them weekly about the recommendations until they’re in.
Don’t start hassling about them until the week before winter break begins. But, again, be polite and grateful.

Make sure to thank them. Some students give them some kind of gift (usually around holiday time). I would definitely write a thank you note (handwritten!) and give it to them. Make it detailed and heartfelt. They just wrote at least 100 words about how wonderful you are. They didn’t have to, but they did it.

They took time out of their lives to write you a rec, so be grateful.

Waste Not, Want Not: Why every single thing matters.

Waste Not, Want Not: Why every single thing matters.

If there is one lesson I can impart on each and every one of you, it would be to take nothing on your applications for granted. There is no “good enough” here.

Do not waste a single essay, word, interview response. Everything you submit to every school should be something you are proud of.

The purpose of an undergraduate application is to create an image of you. You as a student (boards and transcript), as a leader and participant (resume), and as a person (recommendations, interviews, and essays).

Each little bit is a puzzle piece to who you are, and who you have the potential to become.

You might hide or downplay some of the bad, but you want to take the good and bring it front and center.

If you have a weird life story, write about it. If you went through some trauma, write about it or make sure it’s noted on your application. If you have a learning disability make sure it’s on your application. If you’re a charismatic person, make sure you interview. If you had a great relationship with a teacher, even if you didn’t do well, even if it wasn’t in a subject you are applying for, have them write your recommendation.

Don’t hide anything that could help. Don’t submit anything less than the best.

When you’re writing an essay, nothing should “just take an hour to write and spell check.” Things should take time, ideas should marinate, and supplements should be read over and analyzed.

I don’t care if it’s your safety school. Laziness comes across, even with the best writers.

If there is a sentence you’re unhappy with, take it out. Rewrite it. Change the entire 500-word essay to fit the 20 words in your first draft that you do like.

This blog has taught me how to write a thousand word, coherent argument in an hour or less. Does that mean that I write my papers for school that way? No. Does that mean that I crank out cover letters in 20 minutes? Absolutely not.

Nothing on a college application that is listed as “optional” actually is.
If the supplement is optional? Write it and write it well

If a Skype interview is optional? Make sure to set one up.

If an additional resume is optional? Send one in that further elaborates on your activities and what you actually do. 

If you’re an outstanding artist (of creative or performing nature)? Send in an arts supplement of your very best work.

If you’re an incredible athlete? Get in contact with the coaches.

If the school is test optional and your SAT/ACT scores are great? Send them in.

Do not waste any opportunity to flesh out your application in a positive light.

Admissions committees want to see ambitious, interesting, accomplished, driven, students. They want to know who you are, not just what your grades were.

If you’re passionately into stand up comedy, don’t write your essay on the research you did on jellyfish. Jellyfish might make you look like an intellectual, but stand up comedy tells them something about you as a person.

The jellyfish essay tells them what they already know, you’re smart, you like science, you’ve done research.

The stand up comedy essay (a question 1 essay on this years CommonApp) tells them that you’re funny and interesting, and you have nonacademic interests. Maybe you’ll be a member of the improv troupe at the college, maybe you’ll take some acting or writing classes when you attend. Maybe you’re super funny and will make a great tour guide.

The fact that you did science research is still on your application in your classes, activities, and recommendations. A jellyfish essay is wasting valuable space.

Don’t waste any opportunity to add something new to the pile of information they have about you.

I did drama and music in high school. But I sent in a theatrical resume as well. It told them that I can do gymnastics, I’m trained in stage combat, I took voice lessons, I acted in films, I did 3-5 plays a year. None of that information was on my application in other places. I fleshed out the “theatre” part of my identity to show that I was accomplished in that respect.

My biggest regret on my applications is that I did not, on any essay I wrote or any interview I went on, mention my lifelong love of Jeopardy. My CommonApp essay had one sentence about my collection of trivia and random fact books.

That was not the whole story.

I am a massive lump of random and useless trivia. I aspire to be on Jeopardy, and I had to give up my one chance because I was in a play the same night as the second round of teen Jeopardy callbacks.

Even though I was accepted to 100 percent of the schools I applied to, I sorely regret that I didn’t add that in anywhere, because it was such a huge part of my life and my personality.

Waste nothing. If you’re into fashion, wear something cool or funky on your interviews. If you’re into photography, send in an arts supplement. Nothing that is important to you should be left out.

Want nothing.

There should be nothing that is so important to you that you think “man I should have added that in somewhere.”

Waste no opportunity to add everything in.

Tailoring your image and personal branding are a huge part of what I preach, but you should come off the application as a three dimensional person, not a one-dimensional, one-sided list of grades and achievements.

A college application is, in its essence, a summary of who you were in your first 16-17 years. Give them the detailed, nuanced summary, not the spark notes.

Unpopular Opinion: You can absolutely pick out your freshman roommate

Unpopular Opinion: It’s okay to pick out your roommate.

College advice websites love to tell incoming freshman that they should live with a random roommate their freshman year. The reason given is that living with a friend from home can ruin a friendship over petty roommate things, prevent you from branching out, and generally just rob you of the awful human experience of living with a stranger.

While I agree that you shouldn’t live with a friend from home for aforementioned branching out and friendship ending fiascos, that doesn’t mean that you can’t pick out your roommate.

When you pre-select a roommate you’re still going to have the strange transition of learning to live with someone you barely know, but it might be a little easier because you’re compatible people.

The best pre-selected roommate pairs I knew my freshman year came together in one of two ways  

1.    The Set-Up

These roommates did not know each other before, but had a mutual friend who had an inking they’d get along. They met for coffee/lunch, talked a bunch, and decided they were compatible roommate pairs.

Pros of this approach-
Pre-Screening: Your friend is not going to suggest you live with a crazy or someone who you aren’t compatible with.

Cons of this approach-

Branching Out: If you had a mutual friend, its possible there are other connections out there as well. Make sure to expand your friend pool more than your immediate geographic area.

2.     The Facebook

These roommate met online (gasp!), probably in the facebook group for their freshman class. Usually they friended each other after discovering mutual interests (Ex: someone posts on the page “Who’s planning on playing club soccer?” and both answer). After talking to each other a bunch, they decided living together would probably be a great idea.

Pros of this approach:

Friendship is likely with this path, as you have a lot in common. The first few weeks probably won’t be as awkward because you know about each other.

Cons of this approach-

Competition/Jealousy. Usually this pair formed over a mutual love in an activity. The issue is, of course, that this could be a potential disaster if you two are competing for the same spots/parts/placement in things. Jealousy can be a killer of a budding relationship. So if you’re planning on picking someone who you have commonalities with, make sure that you’re not going to be directly competing with each other.

Example: My roommate and I both do music and theatre. Luckily, we do different types of both (she does a capella and musical theatre, I do classical and straight plays) so we’re never auditioning against each other.  

Picking a roommate doesn’t work out for everyone, many pairs I know just lived together without any sort of lasting friendship. But sharing a tiny 10x12 space is a little nicer when you’re reasonably confident that the person you’re with is sane and friendly.

So while I do advise against living with a friend from home freshman year, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t try to find a roommate in other places.

It's the little things: Substances and Bathrooms

Substances, Bathrooms, and College

Today is going to be a two-parter for some overlooked but very important college selection factors.

First off

Alcohol and Drugs

It is of little surprise that many college students like to use drugs (of the legal and illegal kind). The most common drug is, of course, Alcohol. But many schools have marijuana as well. Harder things are more school dependent. Of course, different colleges have different levels of substance abuse.

When you’re searching and selecting schools, it is worth your time to see what the drug culture at the school is.

I know this seems weird, sketchy, and scary, but there is a reason.

It all comes back to fit of course.

If you’re not a big partier, or you’re very against substance use, you will want to find a school where you can embrace that without being a social pariah.  If you want to party, you’re better off finding somewhere that it won’t be a struggle.

I would say that the culture of nearly every school I looked at was “If you want to drink, no one will stop you, but if you don’t, nobody will pressure you.”

I didn’t want a school that was dry and boring, but I also wanted a school where it wouldn’t matter that I didn’t drink or smoke. Comfort zone everyone, find out what yours is.

You’re not going to find this kind of information on an official tour, but there are websites like CollegeProwler that will provide that information. The internet is your friend for this search. You can also ask your friends at the schools what the culture is, but of course, this is limited to the scope of their experience.

But even if you go to a school that is considered to be fairly dry, there will be people who drink and smoke. Know this. Accept it. Don’t be too surprised.

My school is supposed to be very light on alcohol and nearly non-existant for anything illegeal.

Does this mean that I don’t know anyone who smokes marijuana? Absolutely not. I have many friends who smoke. But I also have lots of friends who don’t smoke or drink at all.
I don’t smoke, anything, at all. But my suitemates (who I share a bathroom with) like to smoke in their room. Which means that every once in a while I’ll come home, go to take my contacts out, and then immediately storm out of my bathroom after opening the window wide open and placing the fan on high. It takes a long time to air out our bathroom from the nasty smell. It’s frustrating, but that’s what happens when you get random suitemates.

So time for a transition

Let’s talk about BATHROOMS

Another thing that you don’t really want to think about or talk about when you are touring schools, but again, very important.

There are typically 4 types of bathrooms you’ll find at college. And you’ll want to know what you’re about to live with for the next 1-4 years.

So 4 basic bathroom types

1.     Single Sex Hall Bathroom- This is by far the most common. It’s a public bathroom with showers and toilets shared by the entire hall. You won’t have to clean it, but privacy can be an issue.
Tip: Have a time you plan to shower every day and stick to it. It will keep you from having to wait for a shower because you know what to expect.

2.     Co-Ed Bathroom- This is not as common, but is definitely the most divisive or intimidating of bathroom types. The major difference is that it’s coed, which can definitely be a bit scary or intimidating. Make sure you can deal with all of the possible awkwardness this situation can bring before you jump in.
Tip: Robes are your friend. But also don’t be too scared. It’s not going to be a perverted thing, everyone will be just as nervous as you are.

3.     Suite-Style bathroom- This is common for upperclassmen dorms, but some schools have this option for freshman. You’ll have a bathroom shared by 2 rooms. You will usually have to clean it yourself. At some schools you can pick your suitemates the same way you would a roommate, and at others you cannot. Luck of the draw on this one.
Tip: Work out a shower schedule for the mornings and evenings and a cleaning schedule that ensures the bathroom is being cleaned hardcore at least once a week. Also enforce a “you puke, you clean” rule.

4.     Apartment or Private Bathroom- This is the crème de la crème, but very rare (especially for freshman dorms). You will have a bathroom for just you and your roommate. It will be glorious, but you’ll probably have to clean it yourself.
Tip: Once again, have a schedule. Also invest in a pretty shower curtain and a bathmat, it will make everything feel homey. Also, cleaning the bathroom can be used as currency with your roommate.

Other things to ask about bathrooms:

Do you have to clean the bathrooms? Especially important for suite style, some schools have people in to clean them but most do not.

Is toilet paper provided? No explanation, but a money saver and good to know.

Final tips:

Learn how to clean a bathroom! Know how to do it properly before you get there.
Invest in a nice big towel, a robe, and shower shoes. Also a shower caddy if you have a hall bathroom, or a shower shelf if you have a suite (so everyone can keep their things in the shower all the time).

How to Deal With: Bad or Unfair Teachers.

There is a laundry list of reasons as to why a normally excellent student might have an inconsistently low grade. While common knowledge is to explain any family or health tragedy, fewer people explain inconsistent grades. And when they do explain them, they often just give an excuse without proper support.

The biggest mistake you can make on these academic hiccups is to leave them alone. You have places to explain yourself, use them. Each piece of information on your application serves to flesh out the puzzle of who you are, and who you might become. So if there’s a little black mark on your record, make sure that there is a reason for it somewhere else.

Firstly, don’t start with excuses. The most common response to a “bad” or “inconsistent” grade is: “Oh I had a bad teacher” or “Oh my teacher hated me.” These are subjective things, and the admissions committees are going to look at them, without proof, you will probably not be taken seriously.

How to remedy the “I had a bad teacher” grade?
Prove that it was probably the teacher’s fault.

Step 1: Excel in related courses.

For example: I am a psychology major at my university. The research component of my major is in 3 parts. Statistics for Psychology (where you learn the theory of the math you need to use), Research Methods (where you learn the practical applications of the statistics and learn to conduct ethical experiments and analysis, and learn to write articles of your experiments in APA style) and Advanced Research (where you take a research class in the area of psych you plan on going into).
The lowest grade I have received in college to date was a C in Statistics for Psychology. I have not gotten a grade below an A- in my major besides that C.

So how do I prove that that C was a fluke due to a bad teacher? I explain the grade in 3 parts.

1.     The professor was on his last semester of teaching at my university and was not leaving happily. He was unwilling to provide basic help (like office hours).

2.     I had previously taken a statistics course and received an A, as well as receiving a 5 on AP Statistics in high school.

3.     In the class where I was supposed to apply what I had learned in statistics, I received an A.

I do not ever say that I had a bad professor, because that comes off as blaming someone else. But I usually say, “The grade in that class was not really indicative of my abilities in statistics” and then give those 3 reasons. Whoever I tell this to almost always concludes, “It sounds like you just had a bad professor.”

So if you had a bad teacher who didn’t properly teach? Do well in all of the other classes you take in that subject. If you got a C in biology freshman year, get As in chemistry, physics, and AP Bio. The lucky thing with science is that you basically start with a clean slate every year.
History is the same thing; you’re going to learn different things in each class.

Math is the only case where this can really stunt your growth, but you can always seek out extra help and tutors (I had a friend who was constantly teaching me the Algebra 2 that I was supposed to be learning in class, because the teacher was not great).

This is the same for “the teacher hated me,” excuses. I will say that this excuse can only be used in classes where the grading is subjective. In a lab science course where the exams were all multiple choice, the teacher’s opinion of you matters very little. In an English class where your grades are all based on essays? You might get away with it.

But the same principle applies; show that the grade was a fluke by excelling in all related classes and tests.

For example: Lets say that you are taking AP Language and Composition junior year.
Your teacher hates you for some unknown reason, and whatever you try they just will not give you anything higher than a B- on your essays. How do you combat this?

1.     Get a 5 on the AP Language exam. This demonstrates that perhaps your high school class was harder than the actual AP standards.

2.     Get As in all of your other English classes. If you have a random B- thrown in amongst a sea of A’s (freshman, sophomore, and senior year), they will notice something was wrong.

3.     Demonstrate English and writing ability on your SAT/ACT. If you’re receiving 800s on your critical reading and 750s on your writing, that also indicates that perhaps you just had a tough teacher.

In the case where you really feel you are being mistreated with your grades in a subjective subject, you can always ask to meet with them and have them tell you what exactly is wrong.

Maybe they don’t like your attitude, and you can work on that together. Perhaps they want you to change the style of your writing.

Example: I loved to write unconventional essays in English because I almost always had read the books before, but one teacher I had hated when we did our own analysis of the books. I went to talk to her, because I didn’t understand my grades. It turned out that she thought anyone who did their own analysis was using spark notes or other types of aides instead of paying attention in class, so I could sort of understand where she was coming from. I decided to bite the bullet and just write what she told us to write. It sucked, but my grades improved dramatically once I started keeping my weird opinions to myself.

You can also bring those papers to the head of the department or other teachers who teach the same class and have them look at it. If you are truly receiving unfair grades to the point of ruin, you can try to fight it.

A bad grade due to a teacher shouldn’t keep you from excellence. But this is, of course, assuming it’s truly not your fault. Dig deep and make sure it’s nothing you’re doing. Talk to the teacher. Seek extra help.

Overall, the show don’t tell principle applies. Don’t tell them that a teacher hated you; show them that the grade was inconsistent with everything else you have done in that subject.

Always explain what happened, it could keep you from the “reject” pile.

Lets talk about Class Rank

A talk about Class Rank

So I’ve gotten several questions and emails in the last few days about class ranks. What’s good enough? What does this mean? Is this okay? What if I don’t rank?
(I’m guessing juniors just got their tentative ranks?)

So let’s discuss what class ranks are used for and how they’re evaluated.

To start off: The majority of high schools don’t use rankings. Some just use percentiles. Most do nothing at all.
Not having a class rank is totally fine. You’re not going to be penalized for it. The online college application community makes rankings look commonplace, but they’re rarer than you would think.

So now that we have that out of the way, what is a class rank used for?

Class rank is used to better evaluate you in the context of your school. GPA is a good standard, but due to glade inflation, weighting, and just general school-to-school differences, it’s very difficult to know exactly what a GPA means.

There are schools where nobody gets a 4.0. There are schools where almost everyone has a 4.0+. Is it fair to compare two students, one with a 3.7 in a school where a 3.0 is the average, and the other with a 4.5 in a school where students typically have 4.3s?

Rank tells admissions where you are in the context of your school. Student A, with the 3.7, might rank 3^rd in a class of 200. While student B with the 4.5 might rank 80^th in a class of 300. Just comparing those GPAs between two different schools doesn’t tell the whole story.

Admissions Committees want to know that you did the best in the context of your school. And class rank really puts things into context.

BUT, class rank is not everything.

Highly Selective admissions committees are, generally, looking for students in the top 10-25% of their classes. But there are other evaluations that come into play.

For example, take student A and student B from before.

Student A is 3^rd in a class of 200. They are clearly on top of their school, outperforming other students.  But what if student A had a 26 on their ACTs? Even though they’re doing well in their home context, they’re still not in the highly selective school range with those boards.

Student B is 80^th in a class of 300. They’re in the top 3^rd of their class, but they’re not at the very top. BUT student B had a 33 on their ACT. Even if they’re not ranking super high in their high school, they’re clearly excelling on the school-to-school comparison.

In this case, I’d say student B is much more in range for highly selective schools than student A.



This is why holistic admissions exists. Because if you had to simply type in a few numbers (GPA, class ranks, boards) to get a decision, the whole story wouldn’t be there.

They want to know that you’re doing well in the context of your school. They also want to know that you’re doing well when compared to all of the other high schoolers in the country (which is why standardized tests exist).

This is why so many valedictorians are surprised when they get rejected from schools. They’re used to being the best of the best. But maybe they don’t go to a rigorous high school. Maybe they’re lazy and their teachers mentioned that on their recommendations.

Remember that there are nearly a hundred thousand valedictorians every year.

There are not that many spots at highly competitive universities.

The vast majority of the students at these schools were not valedictorians.  Some valedictorians are going to be less qualified than the average students at other, more competitive schools.

And there are other soft factors that could come into play.

 Maybe student A is supporting their chronically ill single parent and 4 younger siblings while still pulling such amazing grades. Student A could only afford to take the ACT one time without tutoring or classes, and their grandmother had died the day before. A little different with context, am I right?

Maybe student B is an absolutely incredible artist who suffers from anxiety and has to constantly miss classes due to breakdowns.

Ranks are there to help flesh out the story, but like all other parts of your application, they’re not the whole story.

If you have great ranks that’s great. If you have okay ranks but your other factors are good, that’s fine. If you don’t have a rank at all its absolutely fine.

When applying to highly selective colleges you always need to remember that you’re being compared to thousands of other students who are just as special and amazing as you are. It’s a hard thing to wrap your head around, but it might help you sleep better at night once decisions come out.

What “Type” are you? Personality and Colleges

The most often overlooked component of college search is the “Personality” of a school. Although every school is going to have its nerds and its jocks, its partiers and its hippies, most schools have an overall “vibe” that it fits into. The ability to place yourself with like-minded people is a huge advantage of college over all other schooling.

Many of us can fit into more than one category, and most schools have 2 or more strong representations of groups. But when you’re searching and selecting, it’s best to know, what “Type” are you?

(Disclaimer: These are going to be the extreme stereotypes of these “types” don’t take them to heart too much)

Academic-Competitive: You want to be on top, and you don’t care by what means. This is the type of school where everyone wants to be the best. The academics are tough, and you shouldn’t expect any help from your classmates, who would rather rip up your notebooks than help you out. Every student government election, every research position, every job fair, everyone is fighting for attention and positions.

Academic- Quirky: While intellectual pursuits are definitely number one, you don’t have to be better than anyone else to be smart. You’d rather collaborate with your classmates on something interesting and cool than ensure you’re the top of the curve. You’re all nerds, and darn proud of it. You’re not afraid to let your freak flag fly as a school; in fact, the relative nerdiness of the school is a selling point.

Artsy-Hipster: You’re going to be a theatre, music, or fine arts major. Perhaps you’ll dip your toe into the humanities.  And you know what, that makes you more worthy to discuss what it means to be human than others. While others are fighting in the rat race to make more money, you know that you’ll be truly fulfilled artistically. Plaid shirts and beanies are so last year. You were wearing fedoras before they were cool. You’re much cooler than you’re super cool classmates, and wow this college feels more like an artists colony.

Liberal/Activist (grouping these two together): You want to make a difference in the world. You want to take a gap year to volunteer with under privileged children in Africa. Your school pays a living wage to all of its employees, uses locally grown produce in the dining hall, and offers a plethora of vegan choices. When Obama got re-elected? There was practically a riot of excited students.

Conservative/Traditional: You’re a 20something republican, and darn proud of it. You’re going to major in something financially responsible to ensure your future economic success. Your school technically has single-sex dorms, and doesn’t have a terribly active LGBT community. You probably decided to attend the school because its associated with your religion, and while you are looking to get an education, finding that special someone to have 2.5 kids and a white picket fence with certainly wouldn’t hurt. You’re really happy that your professors aren’t spewing “liberal crap” like they would be at other schools.

Hippie: The best thing about your school is the grounds. Everything is so open and environmentally friendly. Your school doesn’t have core requirements and lets people explore their own paths. You took off your Birkenstocks or your Toms to walk barefoot on the lawn, but now you can’t tell the difference between those and everyone else’s. You’re thinking of growing dreads like your roommate.

Partier: YOLO, am I right? Why waste 4 years of your life in a boring town, studying, when you could be going to awesome parties. Those college movies that your friends say don’t accurately portray party life? Yeah, your school looks like that. Weekends are Thursday-Monday, and your school doesn’t even offer Friday classes. You have the rest of your life to worry about grades, but you only get to go to college here and now.

Country-Club Prep: You know what sorority you’re going to be in before you even rush, because every girl from your private high school is already planning on taking you as a little. The only thing bluer than your blood is the water in your dorms pool. You’ve lived off campus in a beautiful condo every year of school. Nobody laughs or rolls their eyes at a boy who has a roman numeral after their name. Bow ties in class? Typical Tuesday.

Ra-Ra Sports Fan: You love love LOVE sports. You only applied to SEC or Big 10 schools. If getting tickets to the football games is easy, they’re probably not worth going to. Game day is the most important event of the week. Your entire freshman wardrobe is in the schools colors. The athletes are literal heroes of the school.

Okay, have I offended everyone yet?

All stereotypes and kidding aside, the personality of a school has a lot to do with how easily you will adjust to college life. Too big of a mismatch and you might find yourself transferring within a semester. I definitely stuck to Academic-Quirky schools in my search, but there were quite a few liberal/hipster/artsy schools thrown in as well. I found my perfect match, will you?

Stay Active: Top 5 Tips for Great Extracurriculars

Stay Active: Top 5 Tips for Great Extracurriculars

I’ve written about activities before (http://collegeappchick.com/?p=33) but I’ve never gotten into the nitty gritty of just what you should be doing with your extracurriculars.

With the way the CommonApp is changing, there’s going to be a huge shift in how you need to represent your extracurricular involvement. So to start on this, lets go with my top 5 tips for how to utilize your extracurriculars.

1.    Have at least 2 high commitment activities

To start out, have at least 2 high commitment clubs. These are clubs that you’ll list high on the importance scale, and likely the ones you’ll talk about in interviews and on “activity” essays.

Don’t just be a one trick pony who only does one thing. Do try your best to make your two high commitment activities slightly different. If you’re really involved in your high school’s Young Democrats don’t have your other high involvement activity be a local chapter of young democrats. Do something different. If you’re a Young Democrat, maybe you’re also a cross-country runner. If you’re on the kickline team, don’t have your only other high-commitment activity be a competitive dance team. Maybe you do that and the competitive dance team as your top 2 commitments, but you also do a lot of community service.

They don’t have to be as drastically different as my examples (see next item on the list) but you want to add some variety.   

*One exception to this rule is if you are an INCREDIBLY high-ranked or successful person in your field.

Examples: A near-Olympic level gymnast who practices 50 hours a week, or a professional actor who does equity shows while being a full time student.

2.    Have an angle (What will you add to the school?)

This may sound a bit like I’m contradicting my last point, but bear with me.

Have a PASSION.

Part of the reason that a school looks at your activity resume is because they want to know what you’re going to add to the community. They want a vibrant school with dancers, activists, LARP-ers, Quidditch players, baseball Players, Greek life, etc. etc. etc.

And they want to know where you’ll fit in. What clubs are you going to join at their school, what will you add to the community?

Which is why it’s best to have a strong angle. In high school you’re a Jock or a Theatre Kid, or a Science Olympiad, or whatever. This is a good thing.

Lets go back to my example from before, the Young Democrat. If you’re super interested in politics volunteer on a campaign or write political columns for the school newspaper. Be a strongly angled “politics” person. They know what you’re going to add to that community, they see your “brand” and they know what you’re about.
BUT: If you’re a strong politics person, don’t write your big essay about politics. Tell them something they don’t know.

Personal example, I was strongly angled towards the performing arts in high school. My top 3 activities in High School were drama club, chorus, and speech/debate tournaments. I had other non-performing activities, but those were my big ones.

The “Well-Rounded” thing is sort of a myth (another post for another day). Be triangular at most. Remember that a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none. You want to excel in one or two areas.

3.    Watch your hours/week counts

This goes back to my top 3 overall tips. DON’T EVER, EVER LIE. But especially don’t lie about your hours. They add up. If you’re doing 200 hours a week of activities, they’re not really going to believe you and it will reflect poorly on the rest of your application.

Example: Drama club was legitimately a 30-hour a week commitment for me in high school, but I only listed it as 20+. Unless you are an aforementioned “near professional” don’t go above that 20-hour mark in any given activity.

Another personal example, I was recently asked in an interview to go through my hours/week for my college activities. The woman was skeptical of the hours I gave (even though they were honest) and I told her, point blank, that I usually don’t eat lunch, I do grab and go dinner, and that I don’t often socialize during the week. You don’t get that chance to explain on your CommonApp.

4.    Stay Committed (long term) and increase difficulty

This is another point I’ll rehash.

Have long-term commitments to things. Don’t join a bunch of clubs junior year. Have a passion. Join things freshman and sophomore year and stick to them.

More than that, make commitments to these clubs. Be an officer or make huge contributions.

And increase the time you spend in the clubs. Take on more responsibility each year. Go from JV to Varsity on your sports teams. Be a captain of quiz bowl. Start ranking higher in your debate tournaments.
Show that you’ve improved and grown with your activities.

5.    Don’t be afraid to leave empty space

The final tip I’ll give you is that its okay to only have 2 or 3 clubs. Its best to have a few high commitments than a million varied low-commitment things (see previous jack of all trades comment).
If there are 10 lines for activities, and you only really have 4, that’s okay. Don’t list every show you’ve been in or every season of baseball as a separate thing just to fill up space. Be proud of what you’ve done. It’s all about quality, not quantity.

So there it is, 5 things to remember when you’re thinking about your extracurriculars. 

Weird Freshman Problems: I don't know how to study!

Weird Freshman Problems:  I don’t know how to study!

New Series starting today, going to list out the weird problems freshman encounter, and give my two cents on how to fix them!

I write this post at 11:43 at night. I’m in the last 15 minutes of my sorority’s study hours for the night, and very excited to go home. Study hours are great because they keep me from procrastinating (having to be the academic role model for 90 women really makes Tumblr less tempting), but they can be very long.

I am the scholarship chair for my sorority, which basically means that I’m in charge of keeping people’s grades on track (see previous, Sororities are not just Elle Woods post). I have to meet with individual girls about grades and work out plans for them to succeed in the future. But I always want to hear their side of the story first.

One girl, a freshman now in her second semester, answered me “Honestly, I don’t really know how to study, I never had to before”

Which is something that I don’t really relate to… I definitely have always needed to study for everything.

But I’ve been reliably told this is actually the case for many college freshman… I need to ask you all high school students who follow me… Do you study?

In college I definitely learned to study smarter. I learned that flashcards are magic tunnels into storing things in your brain (especially because the action of physically writing the information helps you learn, Psych-Majored), and can be improved by dividing each sub-topic for a test into a different color.

For example, these are the flashcards I made tonight during study hours (ignore my terrible handwriting).

They’re for my first Cognitive Psych Test. Which I’m nervous for, because neuro based classes are definitely not my strongest suit.

I never did flashcards in high school, I drew webs of connecting ideas, or made lists. But that left my ideas jumbled and vague. Flashcards (and color coding) definitely were my best way to learn, and they didn’t come about until I was stranded in the library with flashcards and crayons (that kept breaking).

Happy accidents.

Other things that really help people in college is that there is a chance to find somewhere quiet to study. You have a big library with chairs and desks and tables at your beck and call, when before you may have only had your house (which, at least in my case, was always very loud).

Of course, college is also a kiss of death to some.
Suddenly it’s all up to you. No one is holding you accountable but yourself. You don’t have parent-teacher conferences. The difference between success and failure is all on your shoulders.

And that can be really scary!

Some do what I did, and way overcompensate. I probably worked harder than I really needed to in my first semester of college, and missed out on a lot of fun, because I was so scared of failing. I’ve toned it back a bit now, and have finally found the perfect work/fun balance.

The issue is, of course, taking your freedom and running with it. This can lead to some very scary academic realities. The first semester of college can go very poorly for people, particularly ones who didn’t need to work very hard in high school.

College classes usually have 2 or 3 tests (for math/science) or a test and 2 big papers (for humanities). There’s no extra credit. No class participation. No soft factors. And there’s no room to screw up. Failing one test can make you pray for a C.
And that’s terrifying, and causes many to shut down.

So what should you do, to ensure academic success in your first year?

1.     KEEP TRACK OF YOUR ASSIGNMENTS

I can not stress this enough. Get a calendar. Take your syllabuses and a pen. Write EVERY SINGLE THING you need to turn in on the calendar. You won’t miss assignments this way, and you’ll know when you have a busy week coming up (see: my two neuro tests on Monday)

2.     Seek help (even if you don’t think you need it)

Another great resource at almost every school is a writing center. College writing is hard. And it’s different. I’m still not great at writing for humanities at a college level (I’ve finally gotten Psych down). Get all of your papers looked over. Even if they’re only nit-picky issues, its best to nip them in the bud now. Even if it’s a small mini-paper that’s graded for completion, you don’t want to slack or make any big mistakes.
Also, seek out tutors and mentors! I can call the most academically driven person I know at any time when I’m freaking out, and she can give me great advice and point me to where I need to go.

Also, office hours. Go to them. Yes they’re scary. Yes, usually you can answer the question on your own (thanks internet!). But the face time with your professor and the extra help will be a positive influence.

3.     Over-prepare

I know I said I went overboard my freshman year. But take a tip from a brilliant freshman friend of mine. She was freaking out Monday about an upcoming test, she had pages of dates to memorize and was really worried. Tuesday afternoon? “Oh, it was easy, I feel really good about it,”

You can’t study too much for a test. Physical and mental health come first, but don’t be afraid to push yourself.
Study for quizzes. Write practice outlines for open-note essays.
Each little assignment should get your attention. Don’t blow things off.

Also, things I learned sophomore year, the vocab lists and chapter summaries in your textbooks are the best study guides (aside from professor-given study guides, but those are few and far between).

So I really need to ask all of you to leave a comment or an inbox with your answer!

Do you study? How do you study?