Friday was a packed day. I woke up to snow on the ground, and finished the day running a 5K in 37 degree mist. Invigorating! At the conference, I learned so much. My goal with these blogs each day is to try and virtually bring all students, parents and teachers to this conference where so much useful information about college admissions is shared. It is no secret that the admissions game is getting more and more competitive and confusing. Hopefully, by sharing the top five things that I learned on Friday, it will better equip all of us.
1. For students who want to get into a fine arts college, an audition/portfolio review is a tandem with the academic parts of the application. These auditions usually happen in February of the senior year and have specific piece of art or a series of musical pieces that they expect. Finding the specific requirements way in advance and preparing them, a student will put his best foot forward. It is wise to see what pieces can be used at multiple auditions. A big mistake that students make is coming in with a piece prepared that does not meet the requests of the audition committee. Music majors should be able to read music and expect a music theory exam. Many admission decisions in fine arts schools are based upon a specific need the department has, for example, three tuba players are graduating, and we need to restock the shelves with tuba players- great situation for the high school tuba player who is auditioning.
2. The college essay is the only thing that a student has in their “power-to-impress” control when completing their application. The grades have been made (no regrets, hopefully). The test scores are the product of hours of test prep; it is what it is. Ah, but the essay is the one chance to pop off the page to a college admissions counselor who has realistically read his 50th essay for the day and it is 2 am. Your essay, when well written, can be a refreshing experience for the reader. Understand that the goal of the essay is for you to tell your story. Get the essay topics as soon as you can and start writing and rewriting, and rewriting (you get the picture) those essays. Remember to market yourself to the college with writing that demonstrates who you are. A student will have a very difficult time if they have not spent much time being introspective and getting to know who they are and who they can effectively talk about. A great prewriting activity to get the creative juices flowing is for the student to sit down and write a letter of introduction to their yet-to-be-determined future roommate. This forces the student to begin to define who they are, what their idiosyncrasies are and what is important/annoying, etc.
3. With most applications that have an essay requirement, there is a package of short and medium essays. Remember that it is the whole package, not one essay, used to understand who the applicant is. When combined with the resume activities, the student can fully present the complexity of who he or she is to someone who has to learn that from an application. A strategy should be formulated on the best approach to tell your story.
4. A great and powerful strategy for the approach to college application essays and resumes is when the student can clearly state what they want to do in their four years at College X and state clearly how College X can help them to achieve that. Answer the question, “Why College X?” An awesome prewriting activity to do that is for a student to write a “bucket list” of what they want to do/achieve at College X over the next four years.
5. For student athletes (especially current freshmen) so much is changing about NCAA Eligibility. Too much to explain for the ol’ blog page, but here is a link to the changes: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Important_New_Rules/New_IE_Rules.pdf
Highlights- minimum, core GPA is a 2.3 for students who will graduate in 2016 and after, 10 of 16 core required classes must be earned BEFORE the seventh semester, and there is a sliding scale of “minimum” that uses the core GPA and the SAT/ACT score. It is imperative that both student athlete and parent click on the link above and know going in so that you can avoid problems. Much damage can be done in the freshman year! By going with the plan of being satisfied with a standard C in a class is a practice that over time will keep a student from competing at a Division 1 level.
Saturday is another big day and you can bet that I will let you know what I learn. One of the intangibles that the students and parents are getting out of being represented at this conference is that I have gotten to know, personally, college admissions professionals at approximately 10 to 15 schools. This relationship makes it possible for these colleges to really begin to know who North Oconee is and how awesome the students are, because that is what your counselors truly believe and espouse to everyone who will listen. The relationships formulated here this weekend are the start. I have witnessed how many school counselors from private schools (who have attended this conference for years) have well established relationships with admissions counselors from outside of the bounds of our state. Out of these relationships, the admission counselor already has a context of who the school is and what they produce. We have started that relationship by being at the NACAC conference this week. See you all on Monday!
