3 Tips for High School Students to Standout in the Crowd come admissions time

What stands in the way of you getting that last spot at Harvard or winning a scholarship? It might be the student sitting to you in class says high school counselors in a recent survey. A survey of 740 high school counselors conducted by Arizona State University MBA graduates asked counselors, "“What do you feel is a senior’s biggest obstacle to getting into top college programs or obtaining a scholarship?” and one of the top responses was a "competition amongst classmates". While ”Lack of initiative or starting too late in the process” and “Poor SAT/ACT testing or GPA” were the top two recorded responses, competition among classmates was recorded more than responses like, "Money" or "Family situations".

Collegeboard.com writes, "The majority of colleges indicate that they are looking for well-rounded students." Which essentially means, colleges prefer applicants who can demonstrate balance among academics, extracurricular activities, and their personal lives; however, Collegeboard.com does warn against attempting to pad your resume by joining multiple organizations or activities, "When admissions officers look at resumes, they are attempting to assess leadership, commitment, and integrity… [but] If you're an overachiever, beware. More is not necessarily better.”

So what can students do to stand out in a crowd of their peers?  Below you’ll find three suggestions from the WhatisAverage team.

• Get Involved – In Something *YOU* Like:  FastWeb.com states that “winning scholarships isn’t about having the longest list of extracurriculars. It’s about communicating who you are and what you care about through the activities you participate in and enjoy.”  While this comment is geared towards scholarships, the same holds true for college admission too. 
  
  So, what does this mean for you as a student (or as the parent of a student)?  Well, it means that it is important to get involved in extracurricular activities, volunteer work, church stuff – whatever is interesting to you, will capture your attention, and is something you’re passionate about.  The key is not to be just be involved to put it on your resume, but to enjoy it enough to talk about it in essays, in interviews, and in general.  Typically admissions officers and scholarship committees can tell if you’re just padding your resume versus being involved in something you love.
  
• Update Your Resume:  Now that you’ve been involved in activities that are meaningful to you, it’s important to update your resume to reflect this involvement… and to choose those individuals who will write references for you too.  There are a ton of different resources online that give tips to writing a resume, like “Resume Writing 101” on CollegeBoard. While these tips are typically geared towards job or internship placements, they give some general ideas that can be really helpful as you prepare your individual resume for college applications and scholarships.
  
  Your resume should highlight who you are as a student and as a person, focusing on your school activities and extracurriculars – and it should also be geared towards whatever you’re using it for.  This means that your college-admissions resume may look different than the resume for one of your scholarships… and tailoring your resume to meet the needs of each application can only help you!
  
• Choose Your References:  One of the last pieces of advice to stand out among your peers and the competitiveness of your graduating class is to carefully and purposefully choose the individuals who will write your letters of reference or recommendations.  While FastWeb.com gives an indepth review of choosing individuals for your letter of reference, ACTstudent.org gives some brief recommendations on making the most of personal references. 

• Ask people who know you and can support the recommendation well.
• Prepare a neat and legible reference form.
• Give your references plenty of time—a school counselor isn't likely to write glowing recommendations for last-minute requests! Allow at least two weeks before application deadlines. [At WhatIsAverage.com we recommend asking early – some counselors require a timeline of at least a month for a letter of recommendation!]

Your letters of recommendation should give your application more context on why you’re so great, explaining why colleges should choose you, and why you should be given scholarship money.  With this in mind, you want to choose people who can offer a well-rounded view of who you are as a student.  We’d recommend choosing someone who knows you academically and can speak to your academic merits… then choose someone who can speak to your personality and other involvements: maybe a coach, your supervisor at work, someone you volunteer with, or your leader in whatever extracurricular activity you’re involved in. 

With all of this talk of standing out among your peers and competition among classmates, it’s important to understand that you can’t just focus on extracurriculars, that your GPA and SAT/ACT scores still matter!  It doesn’t matter how purposefully involved you’ve been, if your grades are too low to be considered competitive for admission into the school of your choice, you won’t get far in the application process.  With this in mind, stay focused on the numbers too!

3 Tips to Keep Students from Falling Behind this Summer

Everyone knows that the SAT/ACT can play a role in a student’s chances of getting into college, but how much importance should we put on these tests? According to a recent study of 740 high school counselors by Arizona State University MBA graduates, it is the second most important factor for a high school student looking to get into a top college behind preparing early and not waiting till it’s too late to apply or bring up their GPA.

The survey asked the question, “What do you feel is a senior’s biggest obstacle to getting into top college programs or obtaining a scholarship?” and the number one answer (22% of counselors’ response) was”Lack of initiative or starting too late in the process” and the second highest response (15% of counselors’ response) was “Poor standardized testing or GPA,” spotlighting the importance of these tests. In fact, John Baylor, President/Founder of John Baylor Test Prep, commented, “studies show that cost is the number one reason that students drop out of college, and the best way to decrease the cost of college is with higher test scores.”

So what can a high school student do this summer to keep from falling behind and be successful on the SAT or ACT?

• Study, Prepare, and Take the SAT/ACT Seriously:  It is amazing how many students don’t take the SAT/ACT test serious enough or have the misconception that you “can’t” study for either one.  Based on your budget, there are a ton of different options to prepare for the SAT/ACT. You can purchase books on Amazon starting at $15, or if your willing to spend a little more, you can take courses online at your pace starting at $200 or work directly with a tutor 1-on-1 this summer for around $700.  As boring as studying for these tests can be, many of these resources cite significant improvement with a bit of studying and the online or 1-on-1 services often offer money back guarantees and/or free-trials if you do not see the desired results!
• Know the Numbers:  Research the colleges you are thinking of applying to and see the average score from their previously admitted classes. Many colleges publish this information online and will give you a realistic picture of the standardized test scores and GPA you will need to be able to be accepted to the college. If you’re looking to save time, visit the College Potential Calculator which is a database of admission statistics for over 3,600 Universities and approximately 2,000 scholarships. It calculates not only your potential to get into a University, but also let’s you know how much you will need to improve your GPA, SAT or ACT score over the summer to have greater than an 80% chance of being accepted.
• Your Cumulative GPA Matters:  Many colleges will make admissions decisions based on your coursework through junior year, but many other colleges will also admit students contingent on the successful completion of your senior year.  Additionally some colleges will recalculate GPA’s to see your “core” classes on a 4.0 scale.  You can find a list of high school core classes online here: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/high-school/33.html.  This means that you need to take your high school classes serious – freshmen year through senior year – and don’t just take fluff coursework like office assistant and bowling!  

The College Potential Calculator at WhatisAverage.com gives both students and their families the opportunity to understand where they stand based on their GPA and SAT/ACT scores, shedding light on what students should improve to be considered competitive for the institution of their choice.  Additionally, it provides an opportunity to understand if a school is out of their reach and provides alternatives that are within their reach.  In fact, you can allow the calculator to find your potential to get into up to 20 colleges at a time based on the cost of the college, location of the college, national rank of the college, or your best chances.