Originally published on 7 April 2015 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly and Sierra Madre Weekly

The road to college

FRESHMAN

There are only two more months left in the schoolyear. Your 9^th graders should be on track on all their academic grades and extra-curricular activities. They need to put extra effort into getting the best grades they could muster. They also should have already lined up summer activities – enrichment programs, summer camps, volunteer work or part-time jobs. 

A recent study released by Harvard’s Graduate School of Education calls for schools to emphasize both ethical and intellectual engagement, with 80 of the nation’s institutions of higher learning endorsing it. This means that if they were to implement the recommendations put forth, colleges to which your children will later apply would like to see kids who truly showed commitment to the activities they began. They will want to see one or two important community service work students engaged in for a sustained period of time.

All these – grades, arts, athletics, community work, employment – from 9^th through 12^th grade, will be recorded on the transcript that your children’s high schools will send to the colleges to which they apply.   

SOPHOMORE

Make sure your children have registered for all the standardized tests they need to take in May or June (Possible SAT II tests for 10^th graders are Math, Chemistry, History and Foreign Language. These are the subject tests that selective universities require.) Deadlines are April and May for tests in May and June.  Students are responsible for registering through the College Board website: www.collegeboard.com.

They should line up their summer activities. If they are taking an Art elective, or are interested  in a particular art field, they should consider a summer program in that course to put on their resume.

JUNIOR

This is the last complete academic year admissions officers will see when your children apply to colleges. They want to see grades that are improving from year to year, so the 11^th grade final marks should be the highest on the report cards. If your children had gone on college campus tours during spring break, they should also know the academic requirements of the colleges to which they are thinking of applying. They need to look at where they are grades-wise to figure out if the school on their list is a realistic goal.

Make sure your children have registered for the SAT, ACT (www.act.org), SAT II, AP especially if they are thinking of applying through early action or early decision.

They need to line up all their summer activities – enrichment programs, summer camps, volunteer work or part-time jobs. 

SENIOR

Some California universities sent out their decision letters mid-March, while for some students this is month they’ve been waiting for. If your children are lucky enough to be accepted to all the schools to which they applied, they deserve a big congratulations!  You can all exhale now! 

Now comes the part where your children get to choose the school they really want to attend.  During the application process, your children were hoping the colleges to which they applied accept them. Now the colleges that accepted your children would like your kids to choose them!  In this rank-obsessed world of American universities, the schools encourage all students to apply to them (they actively recruit students they would never even admit because the more applications they receive and the more rejections they send out, the higher they’re ranked.) Now, the tables are turned because once your children get the schools’ acceptance letter, these schools would want to ensure your kids actually attend their college. This is the yield: the higher their yield, the higher their ranking.  

If your children are applying for financial aid or scholarships, now is the time to compare schools’ financial aid or scholarship offers. If a particular school really wants your children, you might have the opportunity to ask for a better package than what it originally extended.

If your children have been waitlisted to a school they are determined to get into, they need to respond quickly to let the admissions officers know that they are very interested. Your children should send a follow-up letter to express that the school is their top choice and that they will definitely enroll if accepted.

Demonstrated interest is all the more critical at this juncture as your children want to ascertain the admissions officers keep them in mind. Encourage your children to work with their high school’s counselor to make sure they send the transcript for the first semester, and any updates on awards and honors received after they sent their application. Your children need to keep in constant touch with the admissions officers.

The admissions office requires a decision from accepted students on May 1^st. Make sure your children accept the offer of their second choice school where they have been admitted, and pay the required deposit. If your children are later accepted to the school to which they were waitlisted and accept that offer, they will lose the deposit on the other school. But it’s their guarantee that they will be attending a college in the fall.