Getting Accepted: What Colleges Look For in Applicants

7. Application Essays

Application essays are a prime opportunity to stand out with well-composed essays about what makes you a truly special candidate — your passion, personality, character, personal achievements, background, special talents, sense of humor, inner resilience, writing ability as well as your reasoning for choices you have made. Colleges look for articulate, well-written, thoughtful essays providing insight into your personality, values, and goals.

8. Recommendations

Admissions officers rely on letters of recommendation to round out and confirm their picture of you as a candidate. It is important to cultivate good relationships with your guidance counselor, teachers, coaches, employers and others who can recommend you highly.

9. Interview

Your meeting on-campus, or with an alumni interviewer (typically in your local area) is usually the only in-person data point that colleges have to evaluate you. Colleges value this input to corroborate their picture of you from other sources. It is also an excellent opportunity to convey your genuine interest in a particular college or university, to ask insightful questions and show your good sense of humor, maturity and interpersonal skills.

10. Level of Interest & Potential Fit

Admission officers have a preference for applicants who appear knowledgeable about their college and seem highly motivated to attend. Colleges care about their yield (percentage of accepted applicants who enroll). All factors being equal admissions officers typically favor the applicant most likely to attend, not necessarily the one with the highest score and GPA.

11. Other Factors

There are numerous other factors that can play a role in the admissions decision including geographical diversity, athletics, legacy, ethnic heritage, socioeconomic background and ability to overcome adversity.

Author:

Lynn Radlauer Lubell, Publisher of InLikeMe.com and Founder of Admission By Design, an Educational Consultancy based in Boca Raton, Florida.

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