Monday, May 6, 2013

The Work that Goes into Getting into College

For all students, but especially high school students, there is so much stress and college is one of the biggest stressors. Getting into a good college is not an easy task but what comes before that is even harder. Students must have their grades up, be involved in tons of extracurricular activities, have a good application essay, and so much more to even be considered by college admissions offices. And it’s not just juniors and seniors that have to be thinking about this; college stress starts as early as middle school!
The biggest thing that colleges look for is a challenging high school curriculum. If a student has B average because they are taking honors and AP classes, they are more likely to be accepted than a student with straight A’s in regular classes. That being said, grades still matter. Colleges aren’t necessarily looking to see that you’ve had perfect grades since day one of freshman year, they just want to see that you’ve improved over the course of your time in high school. If your grades in freshman year are not so good, there's still plenty of time to catch up.
In the past, admissions officers have been known to count up your extracurricular activities – the more the better – but it’s different now. Lots of people are saying that colleges would prefer the student to be fully immersed in one thing than having ten on their application that they don’t actually know much about. This is a positive thing for a lot of students to hear. Most people have a passion, and it’s easy to do things that involve that passion, but it’s harder and less exciting to be a part of clubs or take part in activities that don’t actually interest the person.
Colleges are looking for a lot these days, and it’s getting more and more stressful for high school students to think about. It’s good to keep an idea of what’s to come, even if you’re only in seventh grade. The earlier you start, the better.

(this can be found here)

(this can be found here)


Sources:
  • http://www.ecampustours.com/collegeplanning/applyingforcollege/whatcollegeslookfor
  • http://inlikeme.com/getting-accepted-what-colleges-look-for-in-applicants/

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