Let’s talk about how colleges pick you and what they look for when they read your application. I’m sure this is at the top of your list of questions: what are my chances of gaining admission to the schools on my list? Because none of us likes rejection…
Now what I can’t do is guarantee your admission. I can’t tell you that you will be admitted to a certain school; only the colleges themselves can tell you that. What I can do is give you a strategy that will ease some of the anxiety of the admission process as well as tell you which schools are a good fit. This will require some work on your part but it will be time well spent.
Take out a blank sheet of paper. At the top of the page write these two words: "My Strengths." Under that write the following "In the Classroom" and "Outside the Classroom."
In the classroom can be anything you think is important; you’ve taken tough courses, you’re a good writer or the best math student. If you’ve taken the SATs or ACTs and are happy with how well you did, you might want to add that to the list, because like it or not, tests are a reality and colleges do use them as a measure of what you’ve learned in the classroom.
Outside the classroom is anything you do that you feel is an investment of your time. It can be hobbies or interests or a part-time job. Maybe you’ve done a lot of volunteer work. Anything you do outside the class AND you think is important is wise to include.
Here is a certainty: ALL schools are going to look at your application on the basis of some combination of what we’ll call The Significant Six.
