Improving your Acceptance Rate for College Admission

Just like millions of high school students before you, countless hours were spent thinking about where you want to be the next four years of your life after high school graduation. As your senior year approaches, you have your heart set on the perfect dream school that you know will bring happiness. Unbidden, a cold, fearful thought pierces right thru your very soul in the wee hours of the morning; will I be able to get in? Applying to colleges can be a nerve wracking experience for most people, especially if you have your heart set on a particular place and no substitution will do. Fortunately, there are quite a few concrete steps that can be done to help guarantee that all coveted letter in the mail informing you that a University looks forward to seeing you on campus next year.

Similar to get rich quick schemes or mystical cures of cancer, misleading information about how to get into your choice of college is rife online. One nebulous website advocated delivering your personal statement inside a box of gourmet pizza. While the admissions office will no doubt appreciate the free lunch, such an approach is more likely than not to ensure that your application quickly finds itself into the recycle bin, if for no other reason than the person who it is addressed to will be insulted by such a tacky approach. Fortunately, there are tried and true ways to improve your odds of success, along with some new approaches sure to help.

While everyone knows that a high GPA and stellar grades are sure to help, there are a few twists on this old formula. The first is that class rank, or how well you did compared to your peers in the same grade level as you is just as important as overall GPA if not more. This is because class rank gives a better statistical measurement of how academically talented you are since grade inflation has reared its ugly head at the high school level. By way of example, a perfect 4.0 GPA is a useless measurement if some lazy or overly generous teachers simply gave most students easy A’s. Class rank will also show that your school has very high standards if your GPA is a 3.50 but you graduated in the top 5% of your class. Such is the case with many college prep schools where an average student from there is the academic equivalent of a public school honor student. Make sure you make these distinctions clear in your application packet to your colleges of choice.

president overachiever Just as important as class rank and GPA is your choice of classes that you took. Advance Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), along with honors classes show that you have prepared yourself for college since those classes have a much higher workload requirement and are taught at the college level. At the end of the semester or year for AP and IB courses, a proctored exam is given where the student has the chance to earn college credit. Earning credit on as of those courses while still in high school shows that you have what it takes to compete at the next level of instruction. In effect, you are able to argue that you have already been successfully completing a college level workload while still in high school. As an added bonus, they save the student tuition money, and can allow them to graduate from college early.

The importance of a good personal statement cannot be over-emphasized. Understand that colleges have formulas for your GPA, class rank, and test scores. Someone high in all three areas might be guaranteed a spot, but if things are close then that is where your personal statement can make or break you. Look at the personal statement as a chance to connect on a human level with the individual who is evaluating your overall application packet. Just like you would in a job interview, attempt to connect and relate with that person in a positive way. This is where it pays to do your homework and lay some groundwork. Email the admissions office and see if you can be assigned a particular officer who will handle your packet. Learn as much as you can about that person so you not only avoid offending them but also speak to their interests in your personal statement. If you are visiting the college, make it a point to try and meet them in person so that way they can associate your face with the name that will soon cross their desk. Having an admissions officer advocate your cause is sure to help.

Colleges also want to make sure that you are a good cultural fit for them and will mesh with the campus. While individuality is admirable, remember you are applying to get into a place, and don’t want to be seen as someone who will have problems once you are there. One of the best ways to guarantee this is to attempt to figure out the culture of the university that you are applying to. Is it predominately liberal, conservative, religious, military, or business orientated? Does it have a reputation for community service, advocating for the environment, international exchange students, etc? If so, highlight your interests or accomplishments in those areas and how you can add to them. Consider geography as well. If your future alma mater is located in the Rocky Mountains or a very rural area, perhaps you have suddenly taken an interest in the great outdoors and can’t wait to spend your weekends exploring them with your fellow students. The more you can show you already belong at a certain place the easier it is to have the door opened for you.

While the last couple of years of high school can fly by rapidly, this is where procrastination can have profound consequences, so make sure that you apply early. Only a certain number of slots are open each year to new students, and once they fill up and acceptance letters are sent out there is no revoking them due to liability issues on the institution’s part. Even if you are only granted waitlist status or conditional admission (which usually just means they want to see your senior year grades), that means a spot has been set aside for you. People that apply right when the deadline approaches run the risk of making do with whatever scraps are left over. Another consequence of having the FedEx or UPS delivery driver sprint to the admissions officer just before the 5pm deadline with your application is that it shows you lack time management and planning skills, something that any professional frowns upon. Last but not least, if you don’t get into your college of choice, you will have plenty of time to prepare for one of your back-up schools.

Colleges more than ever in this day and age are not only trying to make the overall educational experience engaging and memorable for students but they want to produce tomorrow’s leaders who will bring help build a reputation of excellence for the institution. To do this they are attempting to create a positive culture that necessitates student leaders. Thru your letters of recommendation, personal statement, and even interview, show how as a potential student you are a leader who can help the institution accomplish its goals. Highlight your volunteer experience, student club involvement, work experience, sports accomplishments, and role as a leader in all of the above. Begin work on those extra-curricular activities early in high school to help build your resume.

Finally, maintain a sense of realism but stay focused on the end goal you have set. Be wise enough to realize that there are more than one ways to accomplish something to get your end goal done. Early on in Ray’s senior year of high school he had to grapple with the reality that he was simply not going to make the cut to get into West Point, one of the nation’s top military academies that promises a job after graduation as an officer in the United States Army. Undaunted, he attended a Pac-12 college, enrolled in Army ROTC while there, and earned a commission into the Army that way. There is nothing wrong with attending a less prestigious college for your first year or so and earning amazing grades only to transfer to your school of choice as a sophomore or junior. After all, no matter how you get your diploma, it only lists the graduating school of choice.

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Bryce Hall

After graduating with a degree in Communication Studies from San Jose State University, Bryce has worked in sales and marketing. With nearly a decade of business development expertise under his belt in the education industry, he now operates AcceptanceRate.com to help future students get reliable data in the palm of their hands easily and effectively.