Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA
Grantdawg hit a pretty big one already: "checking the boxes". It's the reason we always had seniors who'd never done anything athletic suddenly running cross country and such. Something athletic, something service oriented (club, volunteer work, whatever), something leadership related (even if it's just assistant treasurer to the chess club), so on & so forth.
Breeze hit another one: AP classes. For example - using a benchmark you'd be familiar with - a member of UGA's freshman class now averages 6 AP classes. (my HS didn't offer 6 APs back in my day) It's a benefit to the student for skipping past some of the most tedious college course load as well as being a financial benefit but for admittance purposes they're looking at it as an indication that the student can handle more rigorous coursework.
My own tips/advice would include a number of other bullet points, in no particular order:
-- You can't start thinking about this stuff too soon. We started unofficial campus visits at the beginning of middle school (at his request). By the time you get to more serious in depth ones, they're old hat & they've developed a keener eye for what they're looking for instead of being dazzled by any dog & pony show stuff.
-- scholarships, scholarships, scholarships. By 10th grade start exploring every angle. A lot of "full rides" can be cobbled together with smaller scholarships regardless of what the school itself eventually offers. Every organization, membership, legacy, interest group, you name it. Grandparent was a postal worker? Your child is eligible for their stuff. Wanna be a history major? There's major-specific stuff offered at the school / through the department. It's endless, but it requires a lot of thinking & digging ... as well as a ton of paperwork and a literal calendar to keep track of deadlines.
-- write, write, write. The admission process includes an increasing number of essays and the scholarship process includes even more. That means the better your writing chops, the better your chances for both admission choices AND financial boosts. And then work smarter not harder by figuring out what essays could be tweaked & repurposed for multiple uses. By the end of it all I think 3 dozen applications used only 4-5 basic essays here.
-- as the list of schools of interest forms, start getting familiar with their specific requirements for admission. Are they ACT-only? SAT only? Essay only? Interview only? Combinations of the above? If you spot a strong trend, you can focus preparation on those elements more.
-- test early, test often. The best way to figure out where you stand on those tests is to take them. The big two definitely match up better with certain skill sets so the sooner you know where you stand, the sooner you know what to work on improving.
-- re: scores Dig into the admission info for the schools of interest deeper, some offer automatic scholarships at certain score levels. And it's enough money to easily be worth re-taking a test a couple times to try to hit that score if a school is a serious contender. You might be fine on getting in but an extra point can mean significant $$ back in your direction.
That's my top of mind contribution
|