What YOU need to do
So, how do you apply this to yourself?Well, to begin, academics are obviously one of the biggest factors in determining college admissions. This means you need to excel on the SAT, SAT Subject Tests, AP Exams, and high school (your school GPA, your school Rank, and the difficulty of your course load).
Obviously not everyone will have to be the best at or even do all these things, but admission to the most prestigious universities and scholarships to most schools depend heavily on these factors. Still, the top schools like Harvard and Princeton reject almost half of all perfect scorers on the SAT. There are tens of thousands of top students who are valedictorian, get exceptional test scores, and take hard classes. Clearly, academics alone aren’t enough.
What really ends up making the difference for the top academic students is the extra things they do that go above and beyond the “normal”. Colleges and scholarships want to see that you have passion and that you can take initiative.
This means participate in extra-curricular activities (click here). Community service, sports, clubs, jobs, internships, etc. are all great activities that show colleges who you are, what you care about, and your dedication to achieving your goals. Make sure not to simply stack together a list of activities that you half-heartedly participate in. That might help, but it won’t persuade colleges that you have any of the aforementioned qualities. Remember, they want to see your passion and your initiative. A list of 30 different clubs that you spent 1 hour each on doesn’t show them anything. Find a few activities that are really important to you and pursue them. Quality is always, always better than quantity. Being the state champion of debate is much more significant than being an undistinguished participant in five random clubs.
And finally, take the extra step. Everyone can join school clubs and do the things that are already established. What can really make you stand out is taking the extra step, the initiative to start something or find something that not everyone else does. Look for an internship position in the field that you want to pursue or start an organization or community service project that you are passionate about.
Ultimately, in the cutthroat world of college admissions, there are no guarantees. When Harvard only accepts 8% of applicants, sometimes even the best of students don’t make the cut. You can’t be sure you’ll get where you want, but by planning ahead and working hard, you can dramatically increase your chances. Follow the PathAspire plan that breaks down what you should do year by year as you go through high school.
Link: Setting Yearly Goals
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