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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
Demystifying the process of completing a college application Written by two former admissions officers at top universities and current admissions coaches, this book is a must-have for preparing a winning college application. The authors reveal the mystery behind what college admissions officers are looking for and show applicants how to leverage their credentials, stand out in the over-crowded applicants' pool, and make a genuine, memorable impression. This is the book that will help the college-bound get off the "like many others" pile and onto the acceptance list. * Includes instructions and examples for every component of the college application, from writing the essay to answering questions like "Why do you want to go to College X?" * Shows how to avoid underestimating the importance of critical features on any application * Includes the latest information on the Common Application 4.0 and corrects outdated, holdover advice still stressed in many other books This book is filled with step-by-step advice that students and parents can use immediately and will refer to again and again.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
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Table of Contents
Title page
Copyright page
Preface
Everyone Is LMO (Like Many Others)
You Can Go from LMO to Admit
You Can Produce a Standout Application
Our Seven Proven Strategies
How to Use This Book
Why We Wrote This Book
PART 1: Getting Started
CHAPTER 1: Big Decisions
Big Decision #1: Where to Apply
Big Decision #2: Where (if Anywhere) to Apply Early
CHAPTER 2: Your Plan
Some Planning Realities
Your Plan
CHAPTER 3: Your Story
Your Application Should Tell Your Story
Discovering Your Story
CHAPTER 4: Your Résumé
What a Résumé Is … and Isn't
Your First Draft
Your Second Draft
Your Third (and Final) Draft
The Final Check
Prepare to Be Contacted
PART 2: Completing the Application
CHAPTER 5: The Application as a Whole
The Application
The Application through the Eyes of an Admissions Officer
CHAPTER 6: Factual Questions about You and Your Family
Name, Birth Date, Social Security Number
Contact Information
Demographic Questions
Family Information
CHAPTER 7: Education and Academic Questions
Your Schools
Grades and Test Scores
Academic Honors
CHAPTER 8: Activities Lists
Examples
CHAPTER 9: Really Short Answer Questions
Really Short Answer Tip #1: Show up Ready to Play
Really Short Answer Tip #2: Declare Yourself
Really Short Answer Tip #3: Distinguish Yourself with Details
Really Short Answer Tip #4: Choose Wide or Deep
Really Short Answer Tip #5: Go Big or Go Home
Really Short Answer Tip #6: Personalize the Cliché
Really Short Answer Tip #7: Watch the Tone
Examples
CHAPTER 10: Short Answer Questions
Short Answer Tip #1: Answer the Question
Short Answer Tip #2: Make One Well-Developed Point Only
Short Answer Tip #3: Be Specific
Short Answer Tip #4: Showcase Your Vocabulary
Short Answer Tip #5: Observe the Grammatical Rules for Formal Writing
CHAPTER 11: Essay Questions
Picking a Topic
Writing the Essay
Your Final Draft
Sample Essays
CHAPTER 12: “Why College X?” Questions
Develop the Right Content
Use a Template
Check Your Facts and Proofread
Tim's Answer Reworked
CHAPTER 13: Disciplinary and Criminal Background Questions
CHAPTER 14: Miscellaneous Other Questions
Questions That Get Your Application into the Right Pile
Academic and Career Interests
Questions That Change Your Chances of Admission
CHAPTER 15: Additional Information Questions
Required Explanations
Optional Explanations or Extra Information
Supplemental Statements or Essays
Your Résumé
Additional Information Tips
CHAPTER 16: Supplementary Materials
Supplementary Materials Done Right
Supplementary Materials to Consider
CHAPTER 17: Test Score Reports
Research the Colleges' Test Policies
Choose Your Scores
Just for International Applicants
Just for Homeschooled Applicants
Logistics of Requesting Test Score Reports
CHAPTER 18: School Reports
Your School Counselor Is Your Contact for the School Report
What Is the School Report Anyway?
Types of Schools Reports
Just for International Applicants
Just for Homeschooled Applicants
School Report Component #1: Transcript
School Report Component #2: Comparative Data
School Report Component #3: The School Profile
School Report Component #4: Counselor Recommendation
CHAPTER 19: Recommendations
Using Core Recommendations to Your Advantage
Using Other Recommendations to Your Advantage
Just for International Applicants
Just for Homeschooled Applicants
Sample Cover Letters for Recommender Packages
Sample Recommendation Letters
CHAPTER 20: Interviews
Should You Interview?
Prepare
Logistics
Dress Code
Practice
At the Interview
After the Interview
Etiquette
Twenty Sample Interview Questions
Sample Interview Evaluation Form
CHAPTER 21: The Application as a Whole Redux
Read Your Application File
A Few Tips for the Second through Last Applications
PART 3: Crossing the Finish Line
CHAPTER 22: The Logistics of Submitting and Following Up
No Exceptions Is the Rule
Stick to Your Master Plan
Submit before the Deadline
Check in with Those Providing Supporting Materials
Submission Logistics
Follow-up Logistics
CHAPTER 23: Application Updates (Including Deferrals, Wait Lists, and Correcting Mistakes)
When You Have Significant Updates
When You Have Been Deferred
When You Have Been Wait-Listed
Taking the Right Actions at the Right Times
Correcting Mistakes
No-Nos
Closing: You're Done, Now What?
Celebrate the Milestone
Celebrate the Life Skills That You Have Acquired
About the Authors
Index
Cover design: JPuda
Cover images: dandelion © Andy Roberts/Getty; sky © Thinkstock/Getty
Copyright © 2013 by Alison Cooper Chisolm and Anna Ivey. All rights reserved.
Published by Jossey-Bass
A Wiley Brand
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chisolm, Alison Cooper.
How to prepare a standout college application : expert advice that takes you from LMO* (*like many others) to admit / Alison Cooper Chisolm and Anna Ivey. – First edition.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-118-41440-8 (pbk.); ISBN 978-1-118-70206-2 (ebk.); ISBN 978-1-118-70207-9 (ebk.)
1. College applications–United States. I. Ivey, Anna, author. II. Title.
LB2351.52.U6C45 2013
378.1'616–dc23
2013017889
Preface
At soccer matches and in Starbucks lines around the country, students and their parents are talking about that “great kid” from their local high school—the one with the “great grades” and the “great scores” and the “great extracurriculars”—who got denied by all of the elite colleges. No one can believe it. It's D-Day, also known as Decision Day, and the news has everyone baffled and a bit panicked.
They can't imagine how this could have happened. It's especially confusing for the students who are just a year or two behind that senior because they have been knocking themselves out trying to acquire the same kinds of stellar credentials as the great kid who got rejected. Now they want to know exactly what it takes to get into the best colleges. Their parents don't know what to say because left without a better explanation, the parents themselves ruefully conclude that getting into the top colleges must require making a seven-figure donation, having some kind of magic hook, or turning into Tiger Mom.
But they are wrong. It's not about pull or having a hook, and it's certainly not about having better qualifications. The superstar was in fact qualified, and he had all the right credentials. So what went wrong?
The application itself.
When read as a whole, the application failed to make that particular “great kid” stand out from all the other “great kids” in the applicant pool. Admissions officers have shorthand to describe these kinds of applicants, the ones with the right credentials who don't submit standout applications. They're called LMOs, short for like many others.
Stellar credentials are great, but without a standout application, they are not enough. It really is as simple as that. So when people ask us, “What's the secret?” our answer is always the same: The application is the secret.
Everyone Is LMO (Like Many Others)
There is a single, brutally hard reality that drives everything about admission to a top US college: there are more than enough qualified applicants to go around. Whether you compare the number of available seats to the number of applicants with the best grades, the highest test scores, or another best something, the math doesn't budge. There are many, many applicants just like them. Consider these sobering statistics regarding academic credentials alone:
Are you ranked number one in your high school class? So are more than forty-two thousand others.Have you been recognized as a National Merit Scholar? So have about fifty thousand others.Did you score in the top 5 percent on the SAT or the ACT? So did more than eighty-two thousand others.No matter what your credentials, your demographic characteristics, or your connections, you will start off as an LMO.
You Can Go from LMO to Admit
So you're an LMO. Does that discourage you? It shouldn't. If you're an LMO, you already have solid credentials and noteworthy accomplishments or you wouldn't even be considering applying to a top US college. Your LMO status provides the foundation you need in order to go from LMO to Admit. That's great news.
Remember: What's the one thing that makes the difference for LMOs? Not better credentials, which you already have (or are well on your way to having), but a well-prepared and compelling application.
You already have what it takes; now you need to present it in the right way. You need to produce a standout application, and that's why we wrote this book.
You Can Produce a Standout Application
A standout application showcases your excellent credentials. It conveys a coherent and compelling story about who you are and why you should be admitted. It brings you to life for the admissions officer. You're no longer just a piece of paper or like many others.
Not surprisingly, a standout application is not something you produce in an afternoon or bang out in a couple of hours at the computer. It requires time and effort. But if you are willing to put in that time and effort, we are certain that you can produce a standout application.
Why are we so confident that you can? Because we are seasoned admissions experts and we know how to coach you through the process step by step, from just getting started to crossing the finish line. We will give you practical advice for how to complete every component of your standout application.
It all starts with a brief overview of our seven proven strategies and a few tips for how to use this book. Then it's time to get to work.
Our Seven Proven Strategies
Working with all different kinds of applicants over the years, we have developed seven strategies that are the keys to producing a standout application. These strategies have been tested and proven to work for applicants just like you. Throughout this book, we will introduce you to each of the strategies and show you exactly how to use them in the context of the various parts of your application. By the time you are ready to hit “submit,” you will have mastered all seven of them.
Ivey Strategy #1: Work Smarter, Not Harder
You do not have time to waste. You need to work efficiently and effectively when it comes to your college applications. Ivey Strategy #1 shows you how to do that.
Ivey Strategy #2: Think Like an Admissions Officer
The purpose to your application is to influence the decision maker. In this case, that's the admissions officer. In order to influence a decision maker, you have to understand how the decision maker thinks so that you can frame your presentation in the way that will be most persuasive. That's what Ivey Strategy #2 helps you do.
Ivey Strategy #3: Tell Your Story
A standout application conveys your story. Read as a whole, your application presents a coherent and compelling story about who you are and what you will bring to the college. But you can't convey your story if you do not know what your story is. Ivey Strategy #3 teaches you how to discover and convey your story.
Ivey Strategy #4: Focus on the Core Four—Passion, Talent, Initiative, and Impact
In order to present yourself in a way that stands out, you must focus on the characteristics and attributes that all admissions officers want to see—passion, talent, initiative, and impact. Ivey Strategy #4 gives you the answer to the most common applicant question: what are admissions officers actually looking for in an applicant?
Ivey Strategy #5: Sweat the Details
Every single thing on your application contributes to the impression you make on the admissions officer, whether for good or bad. Too many applicants concentrate on one or two aspects of the application and neglect the others. Ivey Strategy #5 shows you how to attend to every detail of your application because they all matter.
Ivey Strategy #6: Make the Form Work for You
Your application is a set of forms. Figuring out how to make each form work best for you is essential if you are going to convey your story. As improbable as it may seem to you now, figuring how to say what you want to say within the very limiting confines of the form is often one of the biggest hurdles you will encounter in the application process. Ivey Strategy #6 gives you everything you need to know to conquer any application form.
Ivey Strategy #7: Show, Don't Tell
A standout application is a memorable application, and an application that shows rather than tells is the one that the admissions officer will remember. Ivey Strategy #7 will teach you how to show instead of tell and how to make a memorable impression.
How to Use This Book
We wrote this book primarily for applicants, but also for their parents because we know that applying to college is a family enterprise.
For Applicants
This book is your do-it-yourself (DIY) guide to producing standout applications. We have crammed it full of everything a DIYer could want: practical advice, tips and tricks, and dos and don'ts, beginning with these tips for how to use this book.
Applicant Tip #1: Follow the Path We Have Mapped Out for You from Start to Finish
If you skip over the “Getting Started” part because you are impatient to dive right in, you will have to double back because choosing a topic for your essay depends on having discovered your story first. If you skip the “Crossing the Finish Line” part, you may discover that all your hard work on your standout application has come to nothing because your application wasn't completed by the deadline. We've sequenced the advice throughout the book to be useful (and used!) in the order in which you'll need it, so stick with that order as you move forward. That's part of working smarter instead of harder (Ivey Strategy #1)!
Applicant Tip #2: Keep This Book Close at Hand and Consult It as You Go
In our experience as coaches, we have learned that a book like this is most helpful if it is kept close at hand and consulted as you go rather than read from cover to cover and then parked on a shelf. (Or even better: read it cover to cover to get the lay of the land, and then consult it again as you work your way through the applications. Just don't stick it on the shelf when it's game time!) That's why we have organized the book into sections that map out your path from beginning to end, and we've devoted each chapter to one of the big tasks you have to tackle as you are preparing your applications. We encourage you to delve into the parts of the book that are relevant to whatever you are working on at the time. For example, the tips for choosing an essay topic will make a lot more sense and be much more helpful to you if you read them as you are working on your essays.
Applicant Tip #3: If You Are an International Student or a Homeschooled Student, Look for the Information Tagged “Just for International Applicants” or “Just for Homeschooled Applicants”
We know that international students and homeschooled students comprise a significant percentage of today's applicants. We also know that you face particular and unique issues throughout the admissions process. Most of our advice in the book will be generally applicable, but we have broken out special tips for those instances in which our advice to you differs.
For Parents
Things have changed a lot since you applied to college, and this book is intended to provide you with up-to-date knowledge about the application phase of the college admissions process. We also give you some pointers for helping and supporting your child throughout the process. Please do read the book as a whole, but pay special attention to the Parent Tip sections. Here's our first one.
Parents are usually the planners for the whole family, and the college admissions process has important implications for the family calendar. So we always suggest that parents consult the recommended application timeline before they make big family plans. You will find our recommended timeline in chapter 2.
All of the stories and examples in this book have been inspired by our experiences with real-life applicants and families. We are grateful that they have given us their permission to reproduce some of their materials from their applications in order to help all of you. However, because of the personal nature of the stories and examples, we have altered identifying details in order to preserve the privacy and confidentiality of the applicants and their families.
Why We Wrote This Book
We are seasoned admissions experts with more than twenty years of collective experience in the trenches. We have seen how admissions works from every vantage point, and we know what it takes to get in.
We both started our careers on the admissions side, where we decided the fates of thousands of applicants. We both worked in admissions at the University of Chicago (where we met), and Alison also worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University and Dartmouth College. We know how an application is read and evaluated. We know how every kind of application is handled and what separates the LMOs from the Admits. Top-of-the-class students, bottom-of-the-class students, international students, homeschoolers, students with disabilities, students of color, students with disciplinary or criminal records, students with pull and clout, recruited athletes, performing arts students, celebrity students—we have seen them all, and we know how their applications are handled.
Alison complemented her admissions experience with a stint in senior leadership at an innovative public school in Chicago called the Young Women's Leadership Charter School. There she got to see admissions through the eyes of the school counselors whose recommendations are such an important component of the college application. She learned how the best school counselors work and how applicants can collaborate with their school counselors to make their applications even stronger.
While Alison was working at the charter school, and later at Dartmouth, Anna was busy founding Ivey Consulting, an admissions consulting firm that provides one-on-one admissions coaching to applicants and their families. Anna built Ivey Consulting into one of the premier admissions consulting practices in the nation, so when she asked Alison to join as head of the college admissions practice, Alison said, “yes!”
Through our one-on-one coaching, we have been able to offer our guidance to applicants and their families from all over the United States and across the globe. Although our firsthand admissions experience has been invaluable, our one-on-one coaching has helped us focus on the practical advice that is most helpful to applicants (and their families)—the information and guidance they actually need and want. Not surprisingly, merely telling applicants that it takes a “standout application” is not very helpful to them, so we also offer them the tools and methods to produce one. (See? We take our own medicine; we show and don't just tell [Ivey Strategy #7]!)
Inspired by the success of the many applicants we have coached (and Anna's previous book, The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions), we wanted to make our college expertise more broadly available. This book is the result. It distills our best advice about producing a standout application into a guide available to every applicant. We hope that you find it useful and that it helps you navigate this part of the process with less stress and more success!
PART 1
Getting Started
CHAPTER 1
Big Decisions
Before you start working on your applications, there are two big decisions you should make in advance: (1) where you'll be applying and (2) where, if anywhere, you'll be applying early. We call them the big decisions because they are decisions that can have a big effect on your admissions outcomes.
These big decisions can also require some trade-offs, and that's why many people procrastinate in making them. (Nobody likes trade-offs!) But those trade-offs don't go away if you procrastinate; by putting them off, you just end up forcing yourself to make them when you're rushed and trying to get applications out the door, and by then you may have missed some very beneficial opportunities along the way. You'll maximize your options down the road—and your admissions success—if you make those big decisions before you start working on your applications rather than trying to muddle through and make them as you go along.
Big Decision #1: Where to Apply
A sensible list of colleges is often a work in progress, and that's entirely appropriate. It will morph over time as you get more information about yourself (new grades, new test scores, new classes you're excited about), about your goals (what kinds of majors you might be interested in, what kinds of careers you imagine for yourself), and about your college options (selectivity, academic and nonacademic offerings, location, your reactions after visiting, and so on).
At some point, though, you need to treat your list as final so that you can commit with your whole heart (and your whole brain) to the task of producing standout applications for the colleges on your list. In the next chapter we'll go into much more detail about your ideal timeline, but for now, the most important thing to realize about timing is that you should have a final list of schools in front of you in the July before you apply.
You can make it easier or harder for your child to finalize his or her college list. Obviously, we encourage you to make it easier (and we assume that's what you want, too!), so here are our tips for how to do that:
Do your best to call on your rational self when you have conversations with your child about the college list. Your rational self knows that your child's college choices should reflect your child's preferences, not yours, so your rational self would never insist that your child keep a particular college on the list when it really isn't the right fit for your child just because you fell in love with it on the tour and would have loved to go to college there yourself. And your rational self would allow your child to apply to colleges out of state, even though you hoped that your child would attend college within driving distance from home.Recognize that everything you say about any college, even in an offhand or joking manner, reverberates for your child as a personal commentary on your child or his or her choices. Your child is exquisitely tuned to all things college right now and has no capacity for objective distance. Imagine you are all at a family reunion and you teasingly say, “Hey, why is College X a reach on your list? It should be a safety because if Uncle Jerry could get in there, it can't be very selective.” What do you think your child hears? Your child hears that you don't think much of College X or your child's credentials.Educate yourself about the colleges that your child is considering before offering an opinion about whether they should be on the list or not. Just because you have never heard of a college doesn't mean it wouldn't be an excellent choice for your child. Just because the college had a reputation for being a party school when you were in college doesn't mean it is a party school now. Just because you've heard from several people that a particular college is great doesn't mean it would be great for your child. You owe it to your child to educate yourself before you speak up.Engage with your child in researching the likelihood for admission to the colleges on the list. Set aside a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon and work on it together. You both need to be realistic about your child's chances for admission, and the best way to form a realistic opinion is to look at the data. The numbers don't lie. An additional benefit of tackling this task together is that it makes you and your child allies in the enterprise rather than pitting you against each other. For example, rather than having a painful and tortured conversation in which you try to extract information from your child about why a particular college is not a realistic safety, you discover the information together, and the information speaks for itself. Tortured conversation averted!Have a full and frank discussion with your child about the affordability of the various colleges on the list. You'll have to do some preparatory work for this conversation including determining what financial support you can provide to your child during college and what the financial aid options are. Financial aid is a complicated subject, and it will take you some time and effort to research the options on each college's website, but it is important you do it now. You don't want your child to apply to colleges that he or she couldn't attend, even if admitted, because they simply aren't affordable.How many schools should make it onto your final list? There are more than two thousand four-year colleges in the United States, and even though it is easier than ever to apply to multiple colleges, you aren't going to want to spend your time applying to every college out there. You want to limit yourself to a reasonable number of colleges; in our experience, that means your final list should have no more than fifteen colleges on it.
If you have more than fifteen colleges on your list, you need to revisit it and make some hard decisions about which colleges to cut, because your list is too long. Otherwise, you'll learn the hard way that nothing wastes more of your time, energy, and money than applying to too many colleges, especially if some of the colleges on your list aren't even really right for you.
How you go about selecting the right colleges for yourself is the subject for a whole book unto itself, but in a nutshell, a sensible college list is a list of eight to fifteen colleges that offer a range in terms of your likelihood of admission:
Two to three colleges should be ones where you have a high likelihood of admission (usually called safeties)Four to eight should be colleges where you have a good likelihood of admission (usually called targets)Two to four colleges should be ones where you have a low likelihood of admission (usually called reaches)There are a few classic mistakes to avoid when compiling your college list. First, be realistic when you assess your chances for admission and distinguish between low-likelihood and no-likelihood colleges. When it comes to getting a basic handle on your chances for admission, it is all about your academic credentials. Even if you have other standout credentials and a standout application, you have to have competitive academic credentials if you are going to have a chance. A low-likelihood college is a college where your academic credentials fall into the bottom 25 percent of those admitted, and a no-likelihood college is one where no one with your academic credentials was admitted. Take all no-likelihood schools off your list. (Okay, if you really have to apply to Stanford because you've always dreamed of going there, then leave that one no-likelihood college on your list, but let go of Caltech and Princeton.)
You can look up statistics about the test scores and grades of applicants who have been previously admitted to a particular college. They are available on a variety of websites and in multiple books. However, you'll know you're getting the most current information if you go to each college's website and search for a link or tab called something like “profile of the incoming class.” You can also find this kind of information on the College Board's website (www.collegeboard.org) or the Department of Education's College Navigator website (www.nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator). These two sources are completely reliable, but the data you find there may not be as current due to a time lag between when the college reports it and when it is posted.
You will find different formats for reporting the information, but the most common format reports it in terms of percentages. So, for example, you will find that test scores are generally reported in terms of the “mid-50.” The mid-50 range shows the scores distributed by quartiles, and those scores in the mid-50 range are those that range from the 25th to 75th percentiles. From that mid-50 you can easily deduce how you stack up: are you in the mid-50 or in the bottom 25 (below the lower score of the mid-50) or in the top 25 (above the top score of the mid-50)?
For grades, the format is less standardized, with colleges reporting percentages in terms of class rank and GPA. For example, you might find that the college reports what percentage of admitted students were ranked in the top 10 percent, the top quarter, or the top half of their classes. Or you might find that the college reports what percentage of students had GPAs of 3.75 or better, 3.5–3.74, 3.25–3.49, and so on. (Note these GPAs are unweighted, and you can learn more about weighted versus unweighted GPAs in chapter 18. The College Board has a tool on its website that allows you to calculate your unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale.) Once you know the percentages regarding grades, you can easily deduce how you stack up.
It is pretty easy to figure out whether your academic credentials are competitive. All you have to do is compare your grades and test scores to those of applicants that the college has admitted in recent years. You can find that information on many websites or directories, but the best place to get the most current and accurate information is on the colleges' own websites. Usually the college makes it easy to find by collecting it into a set of “fast facts” or a “profile of the incoming class.”
Also, understand that you will not increase your chances of admission to a particular college simply by applying to more colleges. College admissions isn't a lottery. Your chances of admission to a particular college have nothing to do with the number of applications you submit overall. You are far better off using your time and energy to submit twelve standout applications than you are firing off twenty so-so applications.
Big Decision #2: Where (if Anywhere) to Apply Early
One of the major changes in college admissions in the last twenty-five years is the proliferation of early admissions options. As of the writing of this book, the vast majority of top colleges in the United States offer one or more of these options (including Harvard and Princeton, who both reinstated the option in 2011 after doing away with it for a while). Because applying early will impose certain restrictions on you (when you must submit your application and where else you may apply), it is important that you decide where, if anywhere, you are going to apply early before you start working on your applications.
Should you apply early? There is no one right answer that applies to everyone, so we'll give you some pointers to make the best decision for yourself.
First, figure out what early options are available to you by looking them up on your colleges' websites. Early options are called a variety of things by the colleges, but all of them have early somewhere in the title, and they all fall into one of three categories: Early Decision, Early Action, or Restrictive Early Action (sometimes called Single-Choice Early Action). Don't be surprised if you discover that a college offers more than one early option.
Early Decision (ED) options are binding—an applicant who applies ED is bound to accept that offer if admitted. At most colleges, an ED applicant may not apply early to any other college. However, some do allow their ED applicants to apply EA to other colleges or to apply early to public (state) colleges.
Early Action (EA) options are nonbinding—an applicant who applies EA and is admitted is not bound to accept that offer of admission. An applicant may typically apply EA to more than one college.
Restrictive Early Action (REA) options are nonbinding, but an REA applicant may not apply early (ED or EA) to any other college.
Now that you know your early options at each of the colleges on your list, you need to weigh the benefits offered by those early options against the restrictions that they impose. This, too, will require you to do a bit of digging into the fine print of each college's early options.
There are generally two primary benefits to applying early. First, if you apply early, you might also receive a final decision from the college earlier. Check the notification deadlines for each early option to learn exactly when you will receive a decision, and also check to see whether the college can choose to defer the decision to a later round of decision making.
Second, applying early can increase your odds for admission. How much it increases your odds of admission largely depends on the option itself. Early Decision increases your odds the most; Early Action increases your odds the least; and Restrictive Early Action falls in the middle. Why the difference? Without getting into too much unnecessary detail, colleges use these early options to increase their yield (the percentage of admitted applicants who accept their offers of admission) because a higher yield benefits the colleges. The more a particular option increases a college's yield, the more it will increase your odds for admission. Early Decision increases a college's yield the most because it commits you to accept an offer of admission (if you receive one); in other words, the Early Decision yield is 100 percent.
To give you some sense of how much your odds of admission change if you apply early, consider these statistics for Harvard and Williams. For the class of 2016 (admitted in 2011–2012), Harvard admitted only 5.9 percent of its applicants overall. But if you break out the acceptance rates by early versus regular, you'll notice a dramatic difference: Harvard admitted only 3.8 percent of those who applied Regular Decision but admitted 18.2 percent of those who applied under its Single-Choice Early Action option. (Even better: Harvard deferred nearly two-thirds of the early applicants, so those 2,838 applicants got a second shot at admission in the regular round of decisions, with the benefit of an extra semester's worth of grades and accomplishments.) Similarly, Williams admitted 16.7 percent of its applicants overall but admitted 42.2 percent of those who applied Early Decision. That's quite a difference!
Given how much applying early can benefit you, you are probably inclined to apply early somewhere. But—and this is a big caveat—before you commit yourself to applying early, you must consider the restrictions. Typically, you will find that the restrictions concern when you must apply, how many colleges you may apply to early, and whether you must commit to attending the college if accepted (a so-called binding early option). You'll have to consult the policies for each college carefully because the restrictions can be a bit complicated, and there are often important details buried in the fine print. For example, many REA options (including Harvard's) actually allow you to apply early to other colleges but only if those colleges are public colleges. Also, now that many colleges have two ED options, you will discover that only the first ED round has an earlier deadline for submission of your application. So make sure to spend some time getting a handle on the details and understanding what the trade-offs are for the different early options.
Once you know the benefits and restrictions for each college on your list, you must balance them against each other. Not surprisingly, the early options that offer the biggest boost to your chances are also the ones that impose the most restrictions, so you have to weigh your choices carefully. Whatever you do, don't lose sight of your own true preferences as you make your decision. There will be trade-offs no matter what you decide. Sometimes limiting your options can actually improve your odds, and there can be a penalty for leaving all your options open. Welcome to the world of grown-up decision making!
Because weighing the benefits against the restrictions can be quite difficult given all of the various combinations and permutations possible, we've developed two basic rules to help you as you are making your decision. Of course, like all rules, there are exceptions, and we have noted the most common exceptions along with the rules themselves.
Early Rule #1: If You Have a Top-Choice College and It Has an Early Option, Then Apply Early There
Exception: You cannot fulfill the application requirements by the early deadline. For example, you will not have taken the required tests by then.Exception: You cannot live with the restrictions imposed. For example, this is your top-choice college, but you are not so in love with it that you are willing to commit yourself to accepting their offer of admission without knowing what your other choices are, or perhaps you want to compete for a merit scholarship at another college on your list, and you won't be able to do that if you apply early at your top-choice college.Exception: The early option is binding, and you are unsure whether you can afford to attend the college if accepted. Unfortunately, you will likely not have a firm commitment from the college about your financial aid package until mid-March (well after you have learned you are accepted and must withdraw other applications). However, you can often get a basic sense of what your financial aid package will be if you ask the college. So, before you back away from the early option, ask!Exception: Your top-choice college is a no-likelihood rather than low-likelihood college. Applying early is not a magic trick: it improves your odds of admission only if you are a competitive applicant in the first place. If you have a second or third choice that is a low-likelihood college, you might be better advised to use your early application chip on it, especially if you can apply early to only one college.Early Rule #2: If You Are Not Applying Early to Your Top-Choice College or Your Top-Choice College Does Not Restrict Your Ability to Apply Early Elsewhere, Then Apply Early to Any College on Your List That Has an Early Action Option
An EA option is one that does not limit the number of colleges where you can apply early, and it does not bind you to accepting an offer of admission before the universal deposit date of May 1.
Exception: You cannot prepare a standout application by the early deadline. As we said earlier, applying early is not a magic trick. Early application only helps if it is a “cherry on top of the sundae,” and the sundae is a standout application from a competitive applicant.If neither of these rules fit your situation exactly, then you should consider the early options available to you in the spirit of these rules. Apply early when it boosts your chances at a college that is at or near the top of your list and you can live with the restrictions (early rule #1), or apply early when the restrictions are minimal and you have nothing to lose (early rule #2). If you don't identify early options that meet one of these rules, then applying early probably isn't in your best interests. It isn't for everyone, and you shouldn't apply early just because everyone says you should or the statistics suggest it. You should decide based on your own true preferences and best interests.
Whatever your final decisions are about where to apply and whether to apply somewhere early, the most important thing is that you make those big decisions before you get to work on your applications. We promise it's worth it because once you make these big decisions, you are ready to move on to the next step—making your plan.
CHAPTER 2
Your Plan
Todd prided himself on being a sane, balanced guy who got everything done with a minimum of drama. He was expecting to manage all his college applications with his usual combination of organization, planning, and hard work. And he was already off to a good start. He had made his big decisions: he was applying to ten colleges total, and he was applying Early Action to his top-choice college, MIT.
Like many applicants, Todd was already pretty savvy when it came to college applications. He knew that they were more than just a fill-in-the-blank forms, and he had already been warned about the essays (as a science-math type, Todd was dreading those). He also knew that he needed teacher recommendations and that his school counselor had to send in some forms along with his grades. Todd had even heard of the Common Application, and he knew that although nine of the colleges on his list accepted it, MIT did not.
Todd came up with what he thought was a pretty solid plan for completing his applications. He would get his applications under way as soon as school started in the fall. He would allot most of his time to completing his MIT application (because it was his first choice and did not use the Common Application), and then he would knock out the applications to the Common Application colleges in one intense weekend. He did not anticipate having any trouble getting his MIT application in by the early admissions deadline of November 1, and he knew he could get his other applications in by the end of November, no sweat.
But when Todd talked to us, we explained that his plan was not going to work, despite his good intentions. There were two big problems.
First, he had dramatically underestimated the time he would need to devote to his college applications. He was not going to be able to knock out nine of his applications in one weekend, even if all of those nine colleges used the Common Application, because he, like many applicants, fundamentally misunderstood how the Common Application works. And even though he knew that there were parts of his application that he had to request from other people (like his teacher recommendations) and that it was going to take some time for him to finalize and submit the applications, he hadn't allotted any time for getting those additional tasks done.
Second, Todd was starting work on his applications too late. In order to get his applications done with minimal drama, Todd needed to start working on them in the summer before his senior year rather than waiting until school started.
Todd is not particularly unusual. Many, many applicants fall victim to poor planning (or its evil cousin: no planning). But you don't have to be one of them. Even though applying to college is a big and complicated undertaking, you can apply to college without driving yourself or your family crazy, and you can do it all in a way that will maximize your admissions results. It requires some more work up-front, but it will save you so much stress and time in the longer term. That's the philosophy behind our first strategy:
Ivey Strategy #1: Work smarter, not harder.
In order to work smarter, not harder, you first need a good plan. That's what you'll have by the end of this chapter.
Some Planning Realities
Much of the reason Todd came up with a bad plan was that he didn't really understand the planning realities of applying to college. We don't want you to be in the same position; we want you to have a firm grasp on these realities, so you can avoid magical thinking and make a good plan.
Planning Reality #1: Each College Has Its Own Application
What every applicant needs to understand from the outset is that every college has its own application. If you are applying to ten colleges, you will have to complete ten applications. Todd didn't understand this. He assumed that the nine colleges on his list that accepted the Common Application all used the same application. It is an understandable mistake (the application is called common, after all), but that's not the way it works.
The Common Application is not a common application. It's true that the Common Application (also called the Common App for short) and other similar cooperative ventures (such as the Universal College Application or ApplyTexas) were created to standardize forms and minimize the amount of time you have to spend completing your applications. But the standardized components form only the core of each application, not the whole application for each college. Every college can (and usually does) customize these applications. For example, on the Common App, colleges routinely use one or more of these customizations:
They add their own questions to the Common App itself or to a separate writing supplement. More than three-fourths of the Common App colleges add college-specific questions.They request that certain information from the Common Application be “suppressed” or “undisclosed.” For example, many colleges choose not to receive the information you share about your religion in the Demographic section of your application. So although you might enter that information on the Common Application, some schools might see it and others won't.They can require different kinds of additional materials and also refuse to consider certain additional materials. For example, each college has its own particular requirements for teacher recommendations, and each college can decide whether or not to accept arts supplements.So although the Common App and other similar “common” applications are definitely time-savers, they are not miracle shortcuts through the application process.
We know that this can be a particularly hard concept to grasp, especially if you come from another country that does use a truly common application, such as the UCAS application in the United Kingdom. But in the United States, admissions policies and requirements are not standardized across colleges, and US college applications are not the same, even among schools that use the Common Application.
So if your copy of this book gets washed away by a flood and you retain nothing else, remember this: If you have ten colleges on your list, you have ten applications to complete, even if all of ten colleges on your list accept the Common App.
Planning Reality #2: Applying to College Takes a Lot of Time
Applying to college takes a lot of time for three reasons. First, as we have just explained, every college has its own application, so you have to allot a certain amount of time for every application you have to complete. Because most of you will have ten or so applications to complete, there is simply no way to avoid spending a fair amount of time on your applications.
Second, college applications consist of more than just the forms that you have to complete. As we explain in the next section of the book, your “application” is actually a set of materials that include supporting materials that you must request from others. You must budget time for requesting those additional materials.
Finally, applying to college involves a lot of administrative tasks, including entering information into online forms and following up on different parts of the application. Those tasks are not particularly hard, but they do take time.
You should assume that you will devote about one hundred hours total to complete eight to twelve applications. We know that sounds crazy, and you're thinking that it couldn't possibly take that much time. But trust us, it will. If you budget one hundred hours, what's the worst that can happen? You find yourself in the happy situation of having more free time than expected. Compare that to what happens if you fail to budget enough time for your college applications. You'll have to scramble to make time when you are under serious pressure, and it won't be pretty.
How do you make room for one hundred hours of application work? The hard truth is that you may have to let go of some activities in order to make time for your college applications. That's just the way it is. There are no shortcuts, and living on three hours of sleep each night is not a good solution. You can't perform well if you are relying on Red Bull, coffee, and sugar to get you through the application season. Lack of sleep is the number one contributor to seismic senior year meltdowns, so make room for those one hundred hours, and sacrifice activities if need be so that you can still get enough sleep.
Your child needs time to apply to college, and unfortunately the time that's needed often falls during the time that's usually set aside for family vacations and holidays. You can be a huge help to your child if you adjust the family schedule to give your child the time he or she needs to focus properly on the college application process. Consider taking the family vacation earlier or later than usual. Plan to be at home from August 1 to December 31 (or, if traveling, make sure your child has access to the Internet and quiet time to work). Avoid scheduling big events at or near the submission deadlines or notification deadlines. In other words, make your family schedule fit the college admissions timeline rather than trying to make the college admissions timeline fit your family schedule.
Planning Reality #3: Colleges Dictate the Timeline
The timeline for applying to college is driven by two things: the application submission deadlines and the application release dates. Both are set by the colleges.
Most top US colleges have application submission deadlines between November 1 and November 15 for the first round of early admissions and deadlines between January 1 and January 15 for both the second round of early admissions as well as regular admissions. When it comes to the application submission deadlines, the colleges do not negotiate them with individual applicants, and they are not soft deadlines. There are no extensions or incompletes. (This comes as a surprise to some non-US-based applicants, who might be used to softer application deadlines in their home countries.) The deadlines are not suggestions. They are firm. That means that at many colleges, if you fail to submit your application by the deadline, your chances of acceptance are reduced to zero because the application will not be considered, no matter how much you beg and plead (or worse, have your mom call up to beg and plead).
Most top US colleges also release their applications between mid-July and mid-August. The Common Application releases a preview in March, along with the essay topics for the year, but does not go live until August 1. Although applications often remain much the same from year to year, colleges can and do change them, and it is generally unwise to begin working on college applications before they have been released.
So there is no way around a timeline that has a crunch time from August 1 to December 31 of the year before you start college. That is just the way it is. Make sure to plan for it and clear your schedule accordingly.
Your Plan
Your plan should be a plan that is based on the essential realities. It should be a plan that plots all of your major activities and gives you an overview of what you will be doing when. Over the years, we've developed a sample master plan that we use as the starting point with all the applicants we work with, and that's what we have provided to you in the following section. You will need to adjust the plan to suit your particular situation, and we'll give you some tips on how to do that right after the plan.
Sample Master Plan
June
Shift gears: Stop building credentials and start presenting them.Make big decisions about where to apply and where to apply early. (chapter 1)July
Make your plan. (this chapter)Write your story. (chapter 3)Create your résumé. (chapter 4)August
Complete your applications for two colleges on your list. (chapters 5–15 and chapter 21)Get started on supplementary materials. (chapter 16)September
Complete your applications for three colleges on your list. (chapters 5–15 and chapter 21)Arrange for supporting materials. (chapters 17–20)Continue preparing your supplementary materials. (chapter 16)October
Complete your applications for two colleges on your list. (chapters 5–15 and chapter 21)Finish your supplementary materials. (chapter 16)Submit any applications with deadlines in early November. (chapter 22)November
Complete your applications for three colleges on your list. (chapters 5–15 and chapter 21)Do the necessary follow-up on submitted applications. (chapter 22)December
Receive any decisions from early admissions applications and follow up if necessary. (chapters 22–23)Submit all applications that have not been previously submitted if continuing in process. (chapter 22)January
Follow up on applications submitted in December. (chapter 22)February
Submit required supporting materials. (chapter 18)March–April
Receive decisions from colleges.Choose which college to attend.If accepting a place on a wait list, follow wait-list procedures. (chapter 23)May–June
Follow up on wait lists.July
Shift gears: End the process of getting into college and begin the process of going to college!Planning Tip #1: If June 1 before Your Senior Year Has Already Passed, Compress Your Timeline
The most important thing is to follow the basic path we have laid out; if you try to skip steps, you will only have to circle back around. If you are really late to the party, we suggest that you focus on producing standout applications to your top three colleges. Do everything we suggest, in the order we suggest, for those applications only, and then do as much of it as you can with the others.
Planning Tip #2: Add or Subtract Colleges from Your Master Plan
This master plan assumes that you are applying to ten colleges. If you are applying to more than ten or fewer than ten, then you need to add or subtract them from the sample master plan.
Planning Tip #3: Add Any Activities Related to Standardized Tests
This master plan does not include any activities related to standardized tests because it is focused solely on the applications themselves. Many of you will be preparing for and taking standardized tests during the same time period. To ensure that you allow yourself sufficient time for those, we suggest you add all those test-related activities to your master plan as well.
Planning Tip #4: Add Any Activities Related to Financial Aid, Including Scholarships
Applying for financial aid is its own process with its own timeline, and it will overlap with the application process. To ensure that you do not lose track of the financial aid process, add all of those activities to your master plan.
Planning Tip #5: Add Your Deadlines and Notification Dates and Tweak if Necessary
This master plan does not show any application submission deadlines or notification dates, because they will depend on where you are applying to college and where, if anywhere, you are applying early. But in order to sequence all your activities, the master plan incorporates some assumptions. It assumes that the early admissions deadline is November 1 and that the early notification date is early December. It also assumes that the regular deadline is January 1 and that the regular notification date is April 1. The master plan has you submit your applications at least two weeks before each deadline. But in order to save you time and expense, it does not have you submit your regular applications until you have received news about your early applications. The dates set for follow-up in response to decisions are aligned to the assumed notification dates. Once you add your own deadlines and notification dates, you may need or want to tweak the plan. As you make adjustments, we suggest that you follow the structure we've described. For example, if your deadlines are later than the assumed deadlines, then you can shift your submission dates, but we encourage you to stick with the plan's structure that has you submit at least two weeks before the deadline.
At this point, you have made your plan. That's a huge step. The only thing left to do is to work the plan you've created. Good plans only lead to smarter work and better results if you actually follow them, and that's what the rest of this book is about.
CHAPTER 3
Your Story
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