The first thing that will pop up in your mind is probably the question “What colleges are looking for in a college applicant?” or “What is an ideal college applicant for the colleges or universities out there?” things like those are usually shouldn’t be taken for granted. This article is going to tell you what colleges usually do in search of the ideal college applicant.

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According to a college admissions counselor, he says that the ideal college applicant may be a scholar, an athlete, class president, chess champion, a swimmer, etc, but not all of the above because that is not really that important, but it does matter of course. It does not really have to be that way because most f the time, college admissions staff are usually looking for a diverse set of individuals who can together come in their campus and form a vibrant community.

Yes, it can’t be denied that the GPA and the student’s score in Sat also matter, but what is also more important is the way the student communicates his or her clear interest in the school and he or she must demonstrate leadership in that area. “Good colleges are not looking for the well rounded kid, they are looking for the well-rounded class,” said Steve Cohen, the author of the bestselling college application guide entitled “Getting In! The Zinch Guide to College Admissions and Financial Aid”. “The ideal applicant is a kid with passion who has achieved some sort of leadership position in their chosen endeavor.” He added.

In the meantime, according to John Chopka of Messiah College, VP for Enrollment Management, he said that what the admissions committee usually wants to know are the things that excites and motivates you to do your best. “The admissions committee is looking for immeasurable qualities that set a student apart. What passions and experiences have shaped academic ambitions? What might the student bring to the college community that is unique or distinct?” he says.

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The college application essay serves a great purpose during the college admission process because this is one way for you to win the college admissions and it provides you with an opportunity to present the college committee who you are as a person and what you are as a student. Given the fact that you have good grades, you engaged in a lot of school activities and you have completed or will complete your testing soon and the college application essay is the last among your list of college application requirements that you’ll need to submit in which you have some control.

For you to easily write your college essay smoothly and readily, below are some of the best college essay topics that you might consider choosing from. These topics are the most common topics that most college students use and these are usually what the college admission staff are looking for.

Most Common College Essay Topics:

1. Tell us about a risk you have taken.
2. Discuss a personal, local or national concern and its importance to you.
3. Describe an experience or idea you find intellectually exciting and cite the reasons why you find it interesting.
4. What contribution will you bring to the school campus?
5. Tell us about a talent, experience, contribution or personal quality that is significant to you.
6. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement; risk taken or ethical dilemma you faced and its impact on you.
7. How have you taken advantage of the educational opportunities you have had to prepare for college?

There you have it. Just select a topic you find it best to discuss or you can make up your own topic if you wish.

Unlike before, applying to certain college nowadays already starts early and do not be surprised if the process even involves new terms, new strategies and new perspective. When two college admissions counselors were asked for some advice on how to successfully approach today’s challenging world of college admissions, there answer is just simple and we summarize it in this article.

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When they were asked as to when should students apply to college for early decision or early action, one of them said that the early decision should only be reserved for students who are a hundred percent sure of the college or university they wanted to attend to. However, if you are not certain if you’re going to end up in that college, then you must think it over and take some time in choosing among the list of colleges you wanted to attend to.

Take a look at the scenario. It is their first choice of school and they will be thrilled, delighted and ecstatic if they have learned that they were already given the opportunity to enroll by the school. If that’s the case, then he or she must start on the college admission process as soon as possible. In fact, even statistics show that this commitment can be of the student’s advantage.

Usually, early action is not being offered by most schools, but for those students who wanted to receive an earlier decision, it could be a viable option. But you must also keep in mind that most of the colleges which provide Early Action programs are usually of standard qualities and their applicants are usually trimmed down to the best and potential students. So if you are in a hurry and you have already made up your mind that you really wanted to study in this college, then you work on your college admission process the soonest time possible.

Most high school students, especially those incoming college students, are really anxious to think that they are going to take the SAT, ACT and other standardized tests before going to be accepted in a particular college or university. Good news dear students because latest surveys revealed that there are already schools that don’t require you to pass the SAT exams or they go “test optional”. These colleges include Worcester Polytech, NYU, Bates College, Lewis and Clark College and Lawrence University. You may research about their standards and other college admission requirements if you are interested to study in any of these schools.

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You may ask the reason why some of the colleges like them go test optional. It’s just simple. These colleges think that the SAT and the ACT are not really accurate prediction of how well a student can do in college. There are also other aspects like in extra-curricular activities or they may excel in sports and athletics. The score of a student in a SAT or ACT does not determine how intelligent or not a student is. There are also a lot of factors that may affect his or her score in the exam so this mustn’t be a basis.

Also, there is a body of research that indicates your score in SAT may be the indicator of how poor or good your academic performance can become. I believe that the college interview or the college essay still has a greater weight because in here, the college admissions staff can determine the personality and determination of a student in terms of their discipline in their studies and in other things. So try to look for a college that does not require you to take the SAT or ACT.

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Once a high school student anticipates that a college interview is about to come up, he or she starts to get anxious and nervous because they don’t want to fail in the interview. Since they have no idea about what is happening in the actual scenario of the interview, they begin to imagine things like more of an interrogation, complete with firing questions here and there.

Don’t be too obnoxious about college interviews because it’s not what you think it is. In fact, the truth is, college interviews are relaxed, informative and even fun. The interviewers are not really that mean, besides, they are even willing to help you with your interview. Just act confident and relaxed and you will surely finish the college interview with a smile.

According to one high school counselor, she said that interviews are not much about you finding out about the college that you want and whether it fits you as it is an interrogation with dire consequences. The students must know that college interviews are usually conducted to allow the college admission staff to know you better and know more about your determination and eagerness to be part of their college. This is an avenue for you to present yourself, sell yourself in a way that could help you overlap your grades, college essays and SAT scores. In short, a college interview can help you enhance your application, especially when you have the same person to evaluate your application. I guess it won’t hurt you if you will take time to visit the college you’re applying at, right? Besides, this visit and college interview can even give you a good impression that you are really interested in their college or university.

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Before you can write a good college essay, you must first know what the basic components of a college application essay are. You can only perfect writing if you write a draft of it and reread it after wards. In order for you to get started and get a quick guide on how to write a draft for a college essay, just follow the steps below.

Step 1: Focus on Yourself Alone

When you write a college essay, it’s all about you. Focus on your strengths and weaknesses, identify your best qualities, describe your potential traits like being an achiever, an intelligent student, an athlete, an artist or the like.

Step 2: Choose the best quality of you that you can present to the admissions committee

You can start your sentence with “I am a very …..” and you can indicate here the best quality that you have which you think will impress the college admissions staff pretty well. Do not pick an event or something that you have done. All you need to do is to focus on a quality of your mind and of your character, nothing more, and nothing less.

Step 3: Tell a Story

Try to use the characteristic you have identified in Step 2 in making a story about an experience you had during your high school days that made a really great impact in your student life. When you write this one, try to give more focus so that your story will come out very realistic as if you are taking the reader in to the actual scenario. You can a lot about 20minutes in writing this part of your draft.

Once you are done with your draft, you are now ready to proofread your college application essay. Allow someone to read it so that you can have other’s opinions. Once you have finished your draft on your college admission essay, you can now proceed in looking at college application forms and see what questions they ask. No matter what the questions are, you have already identified the important characteristic you want to convey to college and the next thing you can do is to fully finish your college essay.

The freshman year in college is the adjustment stage in your entire college life. This is where you adjust the most because everything is new to you, starting from the campus, the schedule of classes, news faces, new classmates, new college professors, and new activities to make. Yes, you’re simply coming back to school once again but this time, it’s within a new and higher level. Though it is very stressful as what you may think, don’t worry because thousands of incoming freshmen college students also do the same from all over the world. It is not just you who undergo the stressful college interview, the writing of a college essay, or the one who experiences stress when the submission of the college admission requirements already gets near. You all do the same. Everybody experienced it, even your parents.

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This article will help you understand ways on how you can cope with all the stress in your college freshmen year. The first thing that you’ll have to do is to get everything organized, especially your college admission requirements. Plan your schedules properly and make sure that your classes do not overlap the other. Just attend your classes regularly because this can help you cope with your requirements, quizzes, etc. Also, you must eat right, have enough hydration, and sleep well. You won’t be alert in your next classes or in the school’s activities if you don’t have energy for the day.

Learn to socialize well. This will help you gain new friends and make it comfortable to attend classes and go around the campus if you have your new friends with you. Of course, you need to call your parents or siblings once in a while so that you won’t get homesick and you will also get some support and motivation from them. This can help you do well in school.

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It was about 70 percent of those who apply in their first choice of college gets immediately admitted, but 30 percent of them usually gets rejected on their first attempt so they just end up finding another college to apply. In this case, did you ever wonder how they were able to succeed in their first attempt? It’s just plain simple, effort and determination are the two best answers for that. But you don’t have to be sad because you can do that also, you just need to follow the steps below.

1. You must get good grades. Of course, your capital in getting into the college of your first choice is to make it good in academics and impress the college admission staff on how you made your good grades. The higher your grades are, the better. Obviously, this will give them an impression that you are a dedicated student and having high grades, whether you like it or not, obviously grabs more attention to the admission staff than those who have low grades.
2. Target to Have a High Score on the SAT. Truly, there is no way that a certain college or university will turn your college application down if you do not only have high grades but you also scored high on your SAT. Not just that, you might also get bigger chances to be offered scholarship grants and financial aid programs. If you want to score high on SAT, then you must prepare early and review well.
3. Get involved in the activities in school. A little time with extra-curricular activities won’t hurt you. Try to participate in the activities sponsored by the school, may it be outside or inside the campus. This will not just mold your social life, but it will also make use of your vacant time. Of course, you must also choose the activities that you think you can enjoy, not just on the purpose of joining one.

Parents really play an important role or part in the college admission process of their children who are turning to college in about a few months. Though as parents, we know that our part is to support our kids in whatever decision they will make in terms of choosing their school for college, choosing the college major that they will take, and choosing what subjects to get, we can do better than that and we can even act as college admission counselors if we can.

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What I am saying here is that, you don’t need to hire and pay for a college admission counselor if it’s too expensive for you to have it if you can simply perform counseling to your kids when it comes to their preparation for college admission. You have been through all that – the college admission tests, college interviews, submission of the admission requirements and all that. Thus, you have a better outlook on how it feels like to be pressured with all your requirements to go to college. You now have the idea on what your child feels because you have experienced all of that. The stress and worries that they are experiencing are not new to you.

So what you need to do in order for you to act as college admission counselor is  to help your child work through his or her college admission requirements, proofread his or her college admission essay, accompany her during college visits and try to explain to her the purpose or function of each department in the campus, and try to give her the advantages and disadvantages that she might encounter in choosing the college major that he or she has at the moment. This will even develop a good bond to you and your child and more to that, you can also help him or her get accepted and accomplish their college admission process.

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We all know for a fact that college education is really way too expensive and some of us couldn’t afford it or even if we could afford, some can’t afford to send their children in huge private colleges and universities. If you are a parent who has a child who is bound to enter college, then you must probably have a difficult time right now in devoting mental energy to any other subject.

First thing that you need to consider for your child who is going to college is the tuition fee. Next is the payment for the dormitory, the monthly allowance, etc. You need to consider all those expenses that you need to pay when you are sending your child to college. So don’t you think it would be better if there are financial aids like scholarship grants and the like to help you with the expenses? This article will give you some simple tips on how to avail financial aids for college.

As a parent or even as the incoming college student, you need to hunt down scholarships as much as you can. Scholarships are the best way for you to get to college without having to repay the money. Next is to apply and apply for grants. Grants are also great because they don’t have to be repaid either. FAFSA or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid can be also of big help to you but you really need to make sure that you have filled up the forms carefully and correctly.

You must also pick the right school where you can have less expense in terms of your tuition fees and other miscellaneous fees and you must also weigh the possible benefits of a gap year, the craze which extols the virtues of taking a year off between high school and college.

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• Ideal College Applicants: What Colleges Are Usually Looking for?
• Most Common College Application Essay Topics
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