First of all, all the best in moving forward towards this new chapter in life! This is one of the most important areas in life, and every effort counts in making it work out well. You may have had your eyes on the best colleges for you, and nothing would compare to the joy of being accepted as a student there.
To help you secure a seat at your favorite college, this blog helps highlight some of the most important points that college counselors themselves vouch for. Reading this will upgrade your application and make it stand out among the rest. So, what are you waiting for?
Useful Tips to Help Secure a Seat at your Favorite College:
Mentioned below are seven tips from a college admissions counselor which will help you make your college application shine the best among all and help you secure a seat in whatever college you prefer. Make sure to read all these tips thoroughly and apply them in your application process. Good luck!
- Work on That GPA:
All those who tell you GPA doesn’t matter at all, don’t listen to them! While it is true that GPA is not everything and your skills and experiences are just as important, your GPA also plays a major role in securing your position in the colleges you want.
Work harder on your academics than you usually do, and get the GPA you deserve. Do your best and leave the rest in the hands of fate. We are aware that it is certainly not healthy to push yourself beyond your capacity as it can cause several mental and physical health issues, but do as much as you can when it comes to your academics.
This will end up being incredibly fruitful when it comes to applying for colleges.
- Be Yourself in Writing your Essay:
Your college essay is about YOU, and what your goals and aspirations are related to the college you’re applying to. If you plagiarise someone else’s essay, ask someone else to write it, or write a lousy essay with no passion in your heart, there is hardly a chance of you getting into that college.
Even if you do, it won’t be well-deserved. Writing your college admissions essay is extremely intimate, personal, and important. You should write your heart out based on what you want from life professionally and academically concerning the college you’re applying in.
It would help if you were very mindful of the tone you use, avoid grammatical mistakes, and get it double-checked from various plagiarism detecting sites.
- Get in your Teachers’ Best Books:
Being a teacher’s pet is not everyone’s piece of cake, and that’s perfectly okay! This tip does not mean to get out of your way to butter up your teachers and do special favors or extra labor for them.
This point means to do exceptional work in your class, so your teacher has nothing but good things to say about you. Avoiding any bad or disrespectful behavior in class would have you stay in your teachers’ good books and have them have your back in applying for your favorite college!
Also, doing extra activities in class wouldn’t hurt for getting those credits to hype up your application.
- Don’t Ignore the Extracurriculars:
The extra hours of extracurriculars which you’d rather spend at home or studying? Avail it while there’s still time. It would be best if you had achievements that are not academic too.
Playing sports, participating in debates, being part of MUNs, and other amazing, fun stuff at school has a lot of credits but also helps you develop into a better individual with so many talents and experiences. These skills play a huge role in practical life and allow you to live outside of studies.
College applications focus a lot on a person’s inter and interpersonal skills, including all those fun activities at school that students don’t take seriously.
- Read, Read, Read:
If you are a bookworm, there is nothing more important than following that passion, having immense knowledge of things, and having a creative mind. Reading can involve anything, especially fiction which people dismiss for “not being academic.”
Reading improves your grammar significantly and allows you to have a perspective other than what you already have. It helps you think outside of the box and makes you live through countless experiences just sitting in your room curled up with a good book.
When writing your college application essay, reading will assist you a lot in writing exactly what’s in your mind and help you score a better chance against the other candidates.
- Prep for the Interview:
One of the crucial parts of applying for college is the interview. It can truly be a piece of cake if you know what you’re doing. Prep for it using different techniques, like watching a YouTube video giving the best interviews or practising talking to yourself in front of a mirror.
Write down all the important questions people ask in interviews (Google them!) and answer them aloud in front of a mirror or record yourself doing so. This will help you see where you’re going wrong and will help improve your tone, words, and body language for the actual interview.
- Give your Best:
Whatever you do, do your best, and you will get what you deserve. If it’s giving an interview, practice hard until you feel that you did well in your bones. If it’s writing an essay, write it with your heart and read it many times till you can no longer find any flaws in it.
Get a teacher, or someone experienced to read your essay and point out any mistakes. In short, every step of your college application process should be done with you giving your best shot. This is how you will increase your chances of making your application stand out and even succeed.
Final Thoughts:
College applications need to be extraordinary to stand out among the rest, as there are thousands of applicants waiting to be selected. Your application needs to be the best, and it will be if you follow the steps mentioned above.
You can also explore more tips or ask your college counselor for advice, just like we did and came up with this blog for you! What matters is you take your academics and extracurriculars seriously and use them as points to make your application solid enough to secure a seat in your favorite college.
We wish you all the best in your future endeavors!