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How much do ACADEMICS factor into college competitiveness?
How much do ACADEMICS factor into college competitiveness?
Arguably, it's the #1 factor of consideration for most selective college programs!
Grades are NOT everything, but academics is one of the most important aspects of your college competitiveness. Colleges use your demonstrated academic performance over time, particularly in your core classes, to try to predict your success in their environment. Fundamentally every college gets to decide what they are looking for in an applicant, to whom they offer admission, and who receives their internal scholarships --- and that varies WIDELY!Arguably, it's the #1 factor of consideration for most selective college programs!
Here are a couple helpful hints for preparing ACADEMICALLY for college admission and success throughout your college prep journey:
- Do your best work as often as you can, focusing especially on your core classes (English, history, math, science, world language) and any other courses required for graduation.
- If you're struggling with an academic subject, seek out help swiftly and be prepared to work a little harder! Improvement over time and upward trends in your grades send an important message to your teachers (recommenders): you're not deterred by a challenge!
- Take challenging courses to demonstrate your ability to handle high-level work. Be prepared to take more than the minimum requirements to graduate. Check out our dual enrollment options and/or pursue courses outside of TCS to expand your education.
- Actively explore your academic and future career interests through elective courses, extracurricular activities, programs, clubs, internships, classes, MOOCs, and other experiential learning to demonstrate your curiosity and depth of interest. Check out the enrichment programs page! Find something exciting to you and that will provide fuel to get through the less than exciting elements!
- Make sure your teachers hear from you (in a positive way)! Asking questions, participating in class, communicating professionally through email, seeking out help or additional resources, or sticking around to have a meaningful chat about what you're learning helps encourage and build high quality interactions between you and your teachers -- who will end up being your recommendation letter writers! 💎
Then, look at all the other aspects "above and below the surface" that weigh into the conversation!
- Only about 100 out of 3500 accredited colleges in the US have acceptance rates under 30%, and have significantly higher requirements and expectations than most. They often practice holistic admissions, where they look at the whole student application beyond grades, because they have very few "seats" relative to the number of the applications they receive and they have to make decisions amongst a lot of high performing students.
- The vast majority of those 3500 colleges accept MORE students than they reject. The rough estimate is that about 70% of colleges admit approximately 70% of applicants who apply! Some will have higher academic criteria they look for than others, and some will have a more holistic application process! This is why we do research to understand each college's approach and what they look for -- not just what WE want in a college!
- Some less selective schools intend to be more accessible to a lot of students, so they admit more students and with a wider range of academic profiles. Those colleges might post minimum GPAs (usually somewhere between 2.0 and 3.0), but may still have summer/"bridge" or community college transfer opportunities for students with less than those minimums.
Okay, what else matters? How else do I add to my resume?
Okay, what else matters? How else do I add to my resume?
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