|
THE
SILENT TIMER™
Handbook
Get
into your School
The time is drawing near.
Every high school student looks forward to leaving home and going off to college
one day—well almost everyone. The need to find yourself and become an
independent person is driving you nuts, and if you have to listen to your mother
tell you one more time to make your bed or be home by 10:30 p.m., you’re
going to scream. Trust us, we’ve been there.
While you’re counting
down the minutes until the day you have your freedom, don’t forget that
you must first and foremost get accepted into college.
This means not monkeying around during high school as well as not letting senioritis
consume your senior year (not completely at least!).
Sophomore year in high school
is a good time to start seriously thinking about college. It leaves you enough
time to research schools’ requirements while allowing a couple years to
improve on whatever areas need work. Many high schools offer college nights,
usually during the fall semester, where colleges from all over visit and offer
information to prospective students. This is a good time to talk with the college
representatives about what their campus is like, their best programs, requirements
and any other questions you may have.
After you’ve found
out what the requirements are of some of the colleges you’re interested
in, take an active role in making sure you meet those. There’s usually
no ifs, ands or buts when it comes to meeting those requirements, so start your
research today.
Your GPA
is one of the most important factors in determining college admission, so it’s
important to remember this all throughout high school. Though fun classes such
as Home Economics and Underwater Basket Weaving may be offered, don’t
take too many blow-off courses. Colleges will look at what classes you’ve
taken. A 3.5 with academically-challenging classes looks much better to university
admission committees than a 4.0 made up of no-brainer classes.
Consider taking some AP/honors
classes as well. They do require more work, but are excellent preparation for
college-level classes. You also have the option of taking AP
placement tests, which will earn you credit or advanced standing at most
of the nation’s colleges and universities. Don't let the AP tests pass
you by. When you take them, you get OUT of taking entire classes in
college.
Class rank can also be a
determining factor when applying to college. Some states like Texas, California
and Florida have even gone so far as to grant automatic admission to the top
tier of students based on class rank alone. A controversial tactic, students
lying within the necessary range of class ranks are given admission without
even having college entrance exam scores or other factors be part of the decision.
If you don’t qualify
for automatic admission, rest assured that your entrance
exam scores will lie heavily in deciding whether or not
you’ll get into your college of choice. These exams are mostly testing
skills that can be learned, so it is highly possible for you to score high if
you properly prepare yourself.
To give you an idea of what
scores and GPA you should try to aim for, here are some statistics for top
colleges and graduate schools according to U.S. News & World Report:
- Undergraduate Programs
(SAT & ACT):
- Harvard
University ranked number one.
- Average SAT
score 1400 to 1580
- Acceptance rate
of 11 percent
- Ninety percent
of their freshmen ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school
class
- University
of Albany ranked in the middle of undergraduate programs.
- Average SAT
score 1130 to 1250
- Acceptance rate
of 57 percent
- Ninety percent
of their freshmen ranked in the top third of their high school class
- Medical
School:
- Law
School:
-
Yale University
ranked number one.
- Average undergraduate
GPA 3.75 to 3.97
- Average LSAT
score 168 to 174
- Acceptance rate
of 7.1 percent
- University
of San Francisco School of Law ranked in the middle of law programs.
- Average undergraduate
GPA 3.32
- Average LSAT
score 156 to 160
- Acceptance rate
of 7.3 percent
- Graduate School (GMAT
& GRE):
- Harvard
University ranked number one.
- Average undergraduate
GPA 3.6
- Average GMAT
score 705
- Acceptance rate
of 9.7 percent
- Boston
College ranked in the middle of business programs.
- Average undergraduate
GPA 3.33
- Average GMAT
score 658
Though grades and test scores
are what colleges may look at first, they also look to see what extracurricular
activities you’re involved in. Universities generally want well-rounded
students—not all bookworms that stay in to study on Friday nights. Academic
organizations and leadership roles are particularly good to have on your resume.
If you know what you would
like to major in—great! If not, that’s okay, too, but it will help
you in choosing the right college. Look to see which academic institutions offer
the best programs for what you’re interested in. Consider their academic
reputation, size, location, selectivity, financial aid availability and social
atmosphere. Be sure to visit their campus as well so you’ll have an idea
of where you might spend the next four years of your life.
Remember that the early
bird gets the worm, so apply to about three schools as soon as you can—one
of them being a safety school in case things don’t work out the way you
plan. You never know when your organization will pay off. Think optimistically,
and good luck!
Relevant Links
America's
Best Colleges 2004
Best
Graduate Schools Index
Conquer
College Admission - 5 Steps
So
you wanna get into a top business school?
Steps
to Dental School
Additional Search
Help for Getting into School
Click below to search for "Get into school" in the following
search engines:
Google
| MSN
| Altavista
| Yahoo
| AOL
| Ask
Jeeves
|
