{"id":55071,"date":"2022-06-09T07:27:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T14:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/how-to-prepare-for-college-admissions-long-before-the-application-process\/"},"modified":"2022-06-09T07:27:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T14:27:00","slug":"how-to-prepare-for-college-admissions-long-before-the-application-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/how-to-prepare-for-college-admissions-long-before-the-application-process\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Prepare for College Admissions Long Before the Application Process"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Preparing<\/figure>\n

\u201cThe early bird gets the worm,\u201d<\/em> as the saying goes. <\/p>\n

This is as true for the college admissions process as it is for hardcore shoppers trying to snag the best deal on Black Friday (or, you know, for birds-catching worms).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The college admissions process is insanely competitive, but the good news is that if you\u2019re thinking about it early, there\u2019s plenty you can do to strengthen your applications<\/a>, even years before the deadlines. But with all the resources and conflicting advice out there, how do you make sense of it and find a way forward?<\/p>\n

Well, get cozy, and let\u2019s get into it. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take Sandra, for example. Sandra is a sophomore. She\u2019s interested in politics, community service, running, and writing. She runs track, writes for the school newspaper, and has done one community service trip. She gets top grades and dreams of attending Columbia, and she wants to prepare far in advance to increase her odds. <\/p>\n

What should she do?<\/p>\n

4 Tips to Starting College Application Process Early<\/h2>\n

Learn about yourself, your interests, your strengths, and your passions.<\/h3>\n

One of the major keys to a stand-out application<\/a> is demonstrating what makes you different, through the interests and activities you pursue outside of class. But, how do you choose these? <\/p>\n

Sandra is already off to a solid start, in that she knows a few of her key interests. But there\u2019s a big difference between casually pursuing broad interests as they arise, and lunging toward specific goals. So, do some self-reflection and intentional experimentation\u2014figure out what excites you. Maybe since Sandra is interested in politics, she volunteers with a national campaign canvassing door-to-door, and then also volunteers with a local campaign helping out with communications. She discovers she much prefers the writing component of the local organizing work. That honed-in interest is much more actionable than a general interest in \u201cpolitics.\u201d <\/p>\n

The real KEY is that the takeaways here will be different for every person\u2014there\u2019s no universal recipe for success, it\u2019s more of a choose-your-own-EPIC-adventure kind of thing. You don\u2019t need to lock yourself into a specific career path at this point, but the goal-oriented and mature applicants adcoms are looking for should be able to talk expertly about one possible career path.<\/p>\n

Make a plan of action for converting your interests into accomplishments. <\/h3>\n

Sandra is already pursuing a few of her major interests through being on the track team, writing for the newspaper, and doing a service trip. But is this level of involvement enough to earn admission to the top schools<\/a>? Probably not. That\u2019s the benefit of starting early: she still has time to dig into her major interests and accomplish big things that showcase her leadership skills, creativity, and innovation.<\/p>\n

For Sandra, planning ahead means she can find ways to COMBINE her major interests in cool ways, and can then unleash unique accomplishments through pursuing those overlaps. She can start by sketching out a big-picture vision, and can then drill down. For example:<\/p>\n

Big-picture Vision:<\/em> By the middle of senior year, Sandra wants to have founded a new political journal at her school, focused on local politics. Beyond digging into political issues, she wants the journal to enable her and her classmates to get more involved in issues they care about, so she\u2019ll connect with local organizations to increase opportunities for student impact. To further this impact, she wants to organize one major running-related fundraiser for a local nonprofit. She could organize a school-wide \u201cOlympics Field Day,\u201d that raises money through entrance fees and sponsorships. <\/p>\n

This combination of pursuits allows her to blend her interests, and, as a result, to achieve a range of accomplishments that are boldly and uniquely her. After the big-picture vision, Sandra can break this down by year. This might include: <\/p>\n

Sophomore Year:<\/em> Launch political journal. Continue with track and newspaper.<\/p>\n

Junior Year:<\/em> Grow political journal, connect with local organizations, and organize events that allow students to get involved locally. Continue track and newspaper\u2014maybe earning leadership roles.<\/p>\n

Senior Year:<\/em> Organize \u201cOlympics Field Day.\u201d Continue with the political journal, track, and newspaper, focusing on leadership opportunities.<\/p>\n

Optimize your high school GPA and SAT\/ACT test scores.<\/h3>\n

By now, you\u2019ve probably heard that top grades and test scores alone aren\u2019t enough to get you into the top schools\u2014instead, they often function as a sort of \u201cminimum requirement.\u201d What that means is that if you don\u2019t have the grades or scores that the school tends to look for, none of the other stuff will matter much (now, there are always exceptions here, but this is a good guiding principle).<\/p>\n

This means that Sandra needs to ensure that she is able to secure top grades and top scores, in order for her awesome collection of other accomplishments to get her across the finish line.<\/p>\n

Develop the writing, introspection, and communication skills necessary for strong essays and interviews.<\/h3>\n

What\u2019s the point of having top grades, top scores, and an incredible collection of unique accomplishments if you\u2019re not able to effectively communicate all you\u2019ve achieved? Being able to tell your own story, in your own authentic voice, is what will tie all of your hard work together in a strikingly compelling bow. But, this ability doesn\u2019t happen on its own, and, luckily, it\u2019s something you can hone, refine, and strengthen\u2014with practice. Again, that\u2019s the benefit of starting early. Even if Sandra doesn\u2019t have stellar personal writing, self-reflection, or communication skills<\/a> as a sophomore, she has time to strengthen them, with consistent hard work. She can start keeping a daily journal, completing weekly creative writing exercises, answering sample prompts, and doing practice interviews. <\/p>\n

What we\u2019ve sketched out for Sandra can be used as a guide for any student trying to prepare for the college admissions process far in advance. If you need help in figuring out how this might look for you, get in touch<\/a>\u2014that\u2019s what we\u2019re here for. <\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

The post How to Prepare for College Admissions Long Before the Application Process<\/a> appeared first on Admissionado<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe early bird gets the worm,\u201d as the saying goes.  This is as true for the college admissions process as it is for hardcore shoppers trying to snag the best…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,817,775],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-admissionado","category-admission-consultants","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}