More and more high school seniors are seeking admission to top colleges. At the same time, the class sizes of the top colleges have stayed the same. An inevitable result is that college admissions are more competitive now than ever before.
To get admitted to the top colleges, it’s no longer enough to put a good effort into grades, tests, and clubs. With limited time on your hands, you need to know exactly which clubs colleges look for and which colleges skim right past. You need to know how to make the best impression on visits, and exactly what admissions officers are looking for on applications.
Most books, consultants, and counselors to college admissions are fine as a first-stop resource. If you don’t know what a GPA is or how long the SAT is, talk to them first. However, you’ll quickly find that few of them have clear, consistent, and accurate advice about exactly what admissions officers are looking for. It turns out that beyond the basics, the majority of books, guidance counselors, and even professional consultants are misinformed about the specifics of college admissions.
“Guidance counselors tell you to join clubs, but often they have no strong advice about which club to join. Consider the following two clubs: National Honor Society and chess club. One of these will earn you high accolades in the eyes of Harvard admissions, the other will be skipped right over and even seen as a negative resume padder. Which is the better club to have? The counterintuitive answer is Chess club, which is by far better. Knowing how to spot clubs that college look for is key and there's a system to it.”
— Fred L. student at Harvard, featured in our guide