COllege Admissions News and ACT / SAT Strategy

As it gets more and more difficult to be accepted to college, students everywhere are keen to stand out.  The good news is that with just a little thought, and some planning, you can.  Here's a handy-dandy “top ten” list of sure-fire ways to distinguish yourself when applying to college.  In part 1, I’ll share my first five tips, and in part two (to come in a few weeks) I’ll round out my top ten.

Every time a reader picks up a new application, he or she must wonder: "Is this going to be another generic snooze-fest of an essay or the dynamic proclamation of an individual thinker?" Guess into which category you want to fall?

I recently spoke with a former college admissions officer who mentioned that a lot of applicants fail to give supplemental essays their proper attention. Instead, these students focus all of their energy on the main essay. While it’s obviously important to have a knockout personal statement, overlooking the supplemental essays could be a fatal error in judgment. Every individual piece of your application matters. Here’s how to maximize the positive impact of your college application supplemental essays.

FILL IN THE BLANKS

The personal statement isn’t your life story – it’s one story, hopefully with a lot of character and detail, but still – just one story. The supplements allow you to mine from other stories in your life – various skills, interests, or challenges you’ve overcome. Use your quirks, your passions, and your unique life experiences to give your application greater depth. It’s an opportunity to share another side of yourself – something that wouldn’t necessarily be on your resume. Doing so will give the admissions committee a fuller picture of who you are. Your supplemental essays should help illustrate the many facets of your personality, and you’ll leave the impression of a real person instead of just grades on a page.

Recently, a number of students who have worked with MyGuru for ACT or SAT tutoring have followed up asking about SAT subject tests.  Their main question has been which SAT subject tests should I take?

Though there are many factors that play into the college admissions process, your score on the ACT carries a lot of weight.  It can influence not only what colleges you get accepted to, but also the availability and amount of scholarship funds, and is therefore not to be underestimated.  If you weren’t the best student in high school, and thus don’t have the best grades, doing well on the ACT represents an opportunity to partially make up for less than stellar academic performance in high school.  So, it can really be viewed as an exciting opportunity, instead of a stressful requirement.

With that in mind, here are 5 strategies you can apply to get the best score possible.

Strategies 1 and 2: Before the Test

Study Comprehensively 

We’re taught to be modest – not to brag or talk too much about ourselves. But when you write your college essay, you’re forced to do the exact opposite, and that shift can make students uncomfortable. It’s hard to strike the right tone in writing or speaking about yourself, especially when you’re discussing something at which you excel. Here are some tips on how to write about your accomplishments without bragging (hint: they’re all about showing rather than telling).

Show what you’ve learned

Talking about your achievements shouldn’t be a list. It should be a discussion. Focus on just one - or a few - accomplishments instead of listing every single one, and then give more details and context to measure your success. What skills have you developed as a result of excelling at an academic subject, a sport, or hobby? What happened the first time you tried, and how is it different now that you’re more experienced? If you naturally excelled from the start, how have you managed to keep challenging yourself and to hold your interest over time? If you didn’t succeed at first, what kept you from giving up?