What College Should I Go To?

With so many moving parts, deadlines, and mounting pressure from peers and family, applying to college in the US can be a stressful time for many. Breaking down the tasks and understanding the work ahead of you can make the process feel far more achievable, so here are some common college application components to consider.

• Grade Point Average (GPA) - Your GPA is a number calculated based on the grades you receive for your classes, with 4.0 being the highest number for schools with an unweighted GPA scale and 5.0 being the highest number for weighted GPAs (accounting for honors and Advanced Placement classes). Colleges often require a transcript showing your cumulative GPA in high school, so it’s important to maintain a good track record and take classes that demonstrate your academic capacities.

• Standardized Testing - The SAT and the ACT are the two standardized tests that colleges often require as part of a student’s application. Performing well on these tests will demonstrate to colleges that you are academically outstanding and ready to handle college-level rigor. To prepare for these tests, consider buying a test prep book and working through practice questions and practice tests. Keep in mind that you can take these tests more than once for a shot at a better score!

• Personal Statement - The personal statement is an essay that helps colleges get to know you as a person beyond your academic and extracurricular achievements. You can answer a prompt or, if you already have a topic in mind, write about the part of you that you most want to present. This essay should fundamentally be about you, however, and especially what makes you interesting as a person.

• Supplementary Statements - Many colleges have essay prompts specifically tailored for their school, with a common question being “Why do you want to attend this particular college?” Because multiple different essays for each college you apply to can be a lot of work, make sure you do your research and determine the colleges you actually want to spend time getting to know and write about.

• Letter of Recommendation - Along with the personal statement, the other important way that colleges get to know your personality beyond your achievements is with a letter of recommendation from a teacher who has gotten to know you. To prepare for this, cultivate connections with teachers whom you’ve enjoyed taking in school and ask them way ahead of time so they can craft a convincing recommendation.

• Extracurriculars - Colleges want to know that you have interests and activities outside of just going to school, and this is where they look to your extracurriculars. This can be an instrument, a sport, a leadership position, or anything that shows your passion and/or talents. It doesn’t necessarily have to be something fancy, but it should show that you care about things and are willing to realize your vision.

• Interview - Some colleges will offer you the chance to interview, often with an alumnus of the school itself. Prepare beforehand by looking up common interview questions and thinking about how you might answer them. During the interview, dress presentably, be polite, and demonstrate curiosity about the school and your interviewer’s experiences with college.
  
  

Narrowing the list of colleges you are interested in can make it easier to focus all your attention on crafting the best application for those schools. Our College Recommendations Tool can help with that. Just head back up and tell us a bit about yourself!