A Helpful Guide to College Admissions

By: Lakshya Mahajan

Navigating through the college admissions process can be difficult for most high school students. Moving to the next stages of your life, it is something that could be, for some of you, approached with a bunch of enthusiasm or, for others, touched with a giant tablespoon of nervousness. You could be both enthusiastic and nervous or anywhere in between—all of these feelings are ok. 

The important part is starting now. It doesn’t matter if you are entering your senior year or freshman year of high school; you can take steps right now to better prepare you to apply for college and/or universities. Your college application will be assessed on 5 primary factors:

1. Standardized test scores

2. Classes & Grades

3. Extracurriculars (clubs & activities)

4. Essays

5. Recommendation letters and interviews (not every college has an interview option)

It is important that you focus your efforts on developing each of these aspects throughout your four years in high school. Starting early can help a lot, but with the right amount of time and effort, you can easily catch-up with your peers who may have started earlier.

Let’s break down each of these factors one-by-one, so you can maximize your potential of getting into the college you want. 

1. Standardized test scores

The ACT and the SAT are the “big tests” that you may have heard about. While you should attempt to take both to gauge your proficiency in each, focus on one more so than the other. It does not matter which one, as they are equal before the eyes of the admissions office. Taking it early on gives you more opportunities to attempt it again to raise your score. Nowadays, a lot of colleges and universities are test-optional (which means they will consider your score if you submit it) or test-blind (they won't consider your score even if you submit it), so you can opt-out of testing if desired. Every college has a different policy, so be sure to check online before applying. 

Other test scores that you may choose to send (you don’t have to if you don’t want to!) include Advanced Placement (AP) subject tests, International Baccalaureate (IB) subject tests, or SAT subject tests. The SAT subject tests are discontinued by CollegeBoard, so those will only be sent if you took them before they were not in use anymore. Learn more about SAT subject tests here. In schools, AP subject tests and IB subject tests, which are college-level classes, are widely available. Certain schools have an IB Diploma Programme, so if you are interested in such coursework, search for IB schools near you. For instance, in the RDU-area, Enloe Magnet High School is a great choice in order to pursue IB courses. Learn more about IB courses here. AP courses in schools are very common—and very popular too. These courses will be discussed in more detail in the following section, but essentially the standardized exams for these courses are graded on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being “no recommendation” and 5 being “extremely well qualified.” While anything more than a score of 3 is considered passing, it is recommended that you self-report any scores of 4 or 5 on your application to really stand out from the rest of the applicants. More information about AP coursework can be found here. You definitely want to have a good combination of AP classes (or IB classes if your school offers those) from all different disciplines.

If you are an international student, you may find that you need to report scores in English language proficiency or any other assessments you may have taken. You should double check with Common App here for more information. 

2. Classes & Grades

The bulk of your college application is assessed based on your class rigor and grades. At most colleges, they serve as the initial screening process to see if you are a qualified candidate at their institution. There is not a specific benchmark that you have to meet per se, since every school has different ways of calculating GPA and offers different courses, but it should be competitive for the circumstances at your school. Often, this involves taking the most challenging coursework that your school offers. For example, if your high school has 5 AP courses in total, you should strive to take as many as those as you possibly can. Now, suppose you go to a large high school that has 15 AP courses, you should still attempt to take as many of those as humanly possible, but it is not an expectation to take all of them. Colleges know of the coursework you have access to when your counselor or equivalent school personnel submits it, so do not worry too much about not having enough opportunities. 

Another great way to pursue coursework that may not be offered at your school is through dual enrollment. Oftentimes, this involves taking classes at a local community college or university, either in-person or online, for credit. In the RDU area, Wake Tech offers dual enrollment through their Career and College Promise program. And even though every high school has a different policy dictating which classes can be taken, it opens the doors to so many classes that may interest you. There is no tuition involved for dual enrollment students, and it is a great way to boost your GPA if you pass those courses with good grades.

Taking challenging courses is not just the whole story; you need to excel at them. The grades you receive are very important too. It is no use if you take a full college-level course load and barely pass. You should try to earn straight-As or as close as possible to that in honors and AP/IB/dual enrollment classes (if your school offers any of those, of course). In North Carolina, As in AP, IB, or Dual enrollment courses are worth 5.0 on the weighted GPA; As in honors classes are worth 4.5 on the weighted GPA; and As in academic (or standard) classes are worth 4.0 on the weighted GPA scale. Every letter grade below that subtracts 1 from the GPA, so for example, a B in an honors class will be a 3.5 weighted GPA. 

GPA, which stands for grade point average, is a numerical value that is meant to sum up your academic grades. Colleges place a very heavy emphasis on this number, so you want to make it as close to perfect as possible. Most schools operate on a 4.0 scale. There are two types of GPA you should know about: unweighted and weighted. Unweighted does not take course rigor into account (i.e. all courses are worth the same - generally the maximum is a 4.0 and each subsequent letter grade drop decreases that by 1.0), while weighted does take course rigor into account like mentioned above. 

It is incredibly important that you also balance your classes with clubs and extracurriculars in school and out. It is not feasible for most people to pursue a full college-level course load with a bunch of clubs or sports. Instead, you should know which subjects you are strongest in and try to take challenging classes (honors or higher) in those subjects, leaving the other subjects somewhat less-challenging classes. Due to other non-academic commitments, often the question of having a B in an AP class versus an A in an academic class is brought up. While there is no definitive answer here, most colleges would like you to excel in whatever courses you are taking, obviously, so it just makes sense to try to play on your strengths and take rigorous coursework in those fields, whilst still attempting to challenge yourself in the disciplines in which you lack by going for the highest level you possibly can with extracurriculars taken into consideration. 

3. Extracurriculars (clubs & activities)

Extracurriculars done from 9th to 12th grade are the place to show colleges and universities what you’re truly passionate about outside the classroom, whether that be dance, or math club, or underwater basket weaving—you name it! Like stated earlier, extracurriculars should be balanced with the classes that you are taking, not substituted. No college will excuse your lousy grades even if you have stellar activities. 

Now, finding the right activities to do is the tricky part. A lot of teenagers do not know what they want to do with their lives, and for those who do know, they might not understand the club/activity offerings at their school. Both are a-ok scenarios to start from. If you are just starting off high school, try to join anything and everything that interests you. Yes, you read that right: anything and everything that you like the sound of (just beware of year-long commitments that require you to continue without dropping out like some sports). Chances are that you will drop most of your activities, but that is what freshman year of high school is meant for—experimentation. It is your opportunity to experiment with every type of activity like a kid in an ice-cream store sampling every flavor before choosing a few. You will learn what makes you tick, what activities you actually enjoy. These will be the ones that you will stick with throughout the remaining years of your high school career. Now, if you are starting off later in your high school life—say sophomore or junior year—all hope is not lost, but it does mean that you will be at a disadvantage compared to your peers, so you will have to make up for lost ground pretty quickly. Joining anything that interests you is not a viable option; there simply isn’t enough time to balance it with your rising course load demand or gain valuable experience from everything you join. This means that you will have to do a little bit of introspection—a fancy way of saying looking within yourself. Think of your hobbies and what really stands out. Think about stuff that you enjoy doing or, at the very least, don’t mind doing. Then, find corresponding activities or clubs at school that fit that interest. Enjoy public speaking? Join Model United Nations. Enjoy spending time coding with other nerds like yourself (no offense)? Join a computer science club at your school. Enjoy spending time playing soccer? Try out for the soccer team (this one is pretty self-explanatory). Whatever it may be, there will be something for you, and if it doesn’t exist, it is as simple as making a club for it! Most schools allow students to start clubs or chapters of other organizations at their schools, so take advantage of that. It is really a great way to showcase your initiative. 

 Suppose you were in the shoes of college admission officers for just a moment. You have two applications: the first student was a member of Technology Student Association, a Career and Technical Student Organization, and placed in events at the regional, state, and national levels, whereas the second student also was a member of Technology Student Association, and aside from just placing at the regional and state levels, was also in a chapter officer leadership role in which they organized a couple school-wide events. Who would you accept if you could only accept one? Chances are you chose the second student. Even though the first student did compete and place at the national levels and the second student did not, the second student was more involved in the school community and displayed their leadership skills. The point of this scenario is to illustrate the choices that college admission officers face and really demonstrate the importance of leadership. Anybody can—relatively easily—join extracurricular activities but becoming a leader or taking initiative is much harder and can help you stand out. Remember, depth over breadth. It is imperative that you strive to be a leader and be consistent, even if it means to be involved in just a few activities. And if the activity has no form of student leadership, that is perfectly fine; colleges understand that. 

4. Essays

After you complete everything else, Essays will be the remaining portion of your college application that YOU have to complete. When applying, you will have to submit a personal statement—which goes to every college or university you are applying to—and supplemental, college-specific essays. These essays are a place to really present your personality—something that is mostly devoid from the other aspects of your application. This is not a place to list activities you could not fit on your application, nor is it a place to talk about the grades or test scores you received. Colleges and universities already know that. 

The primary purpose of essays is to judge whether you would be a good fit on the school’s campus or not. It is to know if you would fit in the community or not. So, you need to reflect your best self in the words that you write. This is not an invitation to lie or “smudge” your personality, but rather to highlight the characteristics that make you a great person by talking about events from your life, moments of upheaval or revelation, or even mundane things that you do. Do not, however, write about overused topics such as a sports injury or a trip abroad, unless those are very significant in your life. 

Revision is key in this process. Start early and seek feedback from those around you to help guide you. There are multiple prompts you can choose from, so if one does not resonate with you, try thinking about another. You can read some examples of great college essays here (do NOT copy them). As always, besides using improper grammar or spelling, there is no wrong way to write an essay since it is just so subjective and personal.

5. Recommendation letters and interviews (not every college has an interview option)

The last and final step of the admissions process is asking for recommendation letters from teachers, counselors, coaches, faith leaders, and others. These recommendations show who others think you are as a person as opposed to essays which display who you make yourself to be, so they provide a critical benchmark to colleges and universities about your personality and work ethic. The actual words on the recommendation letter may be out of your hands, but you can still control who writes you a letter. Choosing people who you have strong, positive connections with is definitely the best way to proceed. In this case, taking classes with teachers in more than one school year is very useful because the teacher can speak for your growth over your high school career. Every college has a different policy on how many letters they require, so make sure you check beforehand. Diversify who you ask as well to give different insights into your personality. 

Some colleges and universities have the option of giving an optional interview, generally conducted by an alumni from the institution. These may be in-person or online, but they are another great way to present yourself before actual people. A great interview can boost your chances of admission but a bad interview does not necessarily disqualify you from the school either. While it may seem daunting to be interviewed, just remember the interviewer sitting in front of you just wants to know if you would be a good fit at the school, so like always, be true to your personality and show your best self. 

That’s it! Apart from these many factors, you should be good-to-go in order to get into the place in which you belong. You will go to the right one, so don’t sweat about it too much and enjoy your high school life.

Disclaimer: The views, opinions, suggestions, or ideas expressed in this text and any links are not representative of the views, opinions, suggestions, or ideas of Om Squad or the Hindu Society of North Carolina. Please do your own informed search from credible sources before implementing or adopting any views, opinions, suggestions, or ideas.