I love this time of year because most of my student’s are finally getting to hear from the colleges they applied to and there has been much good news this year. I will provide more details on the good news in another post.
But what I want to talk about now is what I hate about this time of year. I hate getting phone calls and emails from students that I did not work with telling me that they did not get into any of the colleges they applied to and then wanting to know what they can do. There are almost always options but the best thing to do for you younger students is to keep this from happening at all.
You see, the best thing you can do to avoid getting shut out by colleges is to make sure that you have a good list of colleges that you apply to. And by good list I don’t mean all Ivy League and other highly selective colleges.
I know you have all heard that you need a range of colleges to apply to. Make sure you have some that are pretty sure bets, others that you think are quite likely and then, throw in some that are less likely for admissions. The problem with the students who don’t get in anywhere is almost always that the student applied only to colleges that are highly selective.
I have said this before and I will say it again, weird stuff happens in the world of college admissions and I don’t care how smart you are, you are not assured acceptance into highly selective colleges. I have mentioned before one of the smartest students I have ever worked with who was admitted to Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Caltech and others, but rejected by the University of Chicago.
Have a full list of colleges. If you are bright and want to apply to highly selective colleges, go for it. But always make sure that these aren’t the only colleges on the list. You want to have choices come April of senior year as to where you go to college.
No one thinks that they will be the one with no choices. Follow this simple advice and you won’t be that sad person with no choices.
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