· Determine if the atmosphere of the
prospective school is conducive to enhancing
your chances for a pleasant, lengthy educational
experience.
· College rating guidelines have inherent
technical problems that may make them a
questionable source of information relative to
selecting a college. Nevertheless, it
may be worthwhile ascertaining the rating of
possible schools from an acceptable
reference source.
GETTING INTO COLLEGE
___________________________________________
Two groups of individuals are associated with
filling freshman college classes. One
group consists of the schools' admissions
personnel who are given the difficult responsi-
bility of selecting students for their schools'
incoming class who are bright, self-confi-
dent high achievers and energetic learners. The
other group consists of the large appli-
cant pool of high school seniors who seek
admission into colleges of their choice. Each
group has a perspective of its own. This
section will focus on the issues that will influ-
ence your achieving the educational goal you
seek and how you can best facilitate your
chances for getting accepted by one or more
appropriate schools.
Admission Considerations
It is important to recognize that your
acceptance will depend not only on your creden-
tials and applications, but also on how intense
the competition is for admission to the
particular institutions. Some have a one out of
two acceptance ratio, while others have
only one out of five or more.
There are several important areas relative to
your application for admission to col-
lege. These are: academic profile, essay
(personal statement), extracurricular activities,
and the interview. Each of these areas will be
discussed separately. It should be clearly
realized that some issues that impact upon
admission potential are outside of your con-
trol. These include the number of applicants,
your high school's reputation, and the sec-
tion of the country you come from.
Academic Profile
This consists of a number of components that in
composite provide a picture of your
educational accomplishments and thus may
indicate possible future academic potential.
These three items are: courses completed and
their grades, standardized test scores, and
class rank. Colleges seek students who are
capable of successfully meeting the chal-
lenge that their curriculum presents, as well
as other significant factors. It should be
noted that the first item of interest is the
content and quality of the student's record.
Subsequently, each school follows its own
procedure for screening applicants.
Your Transcript
This document provides a list of courses taken
in the past, or presently, and the grades
assigned to those you have completed. The two
elements, courses and grades, provide a
picture of your effort and achievement and need
to be carefully interpreted in order to
draw the appropriate conclusion about your
future potential. This information is a key
ingredient in the college admission assessment
process. However, the nature of your
transcript is not taken at face
value.
While a predominance of As on your record is
obviously very desirable, it is clear
that what is especially impressive are those
grades in challenging courses that have been
completed. Taking such courses and achieving
superior grades in them is the best recipe
for making a favorable impression on admissions
personnel. Your choice of courses is
therefore a significant factor in setting the
"tone" of your transcript. Most schools offer
such honors work as Advanced Placement (AP)
classes. Where this is the case, admis-
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