Get College Admissions Advice From The Best Source–College Admissions Officers

Driving and flying to the college of your choice can be expensive and time-consuming, so why not let them do the legwork and come to you? Your college counselor knows which schools are planning to visit and when, so you should ask him or her as soon as you can.

If they don’t, they may still visit your area; they’ll just host a visit on a weekend or at night, usually at a hotel. These hotel visits can draw a big crowd (300 or more!), but since the information is valuable, you should go-and be sure to ask a question!

Also, colleges love school counselors and will often host meetings with them. I had a breakfast just last week with representatives from five such colleges, and they passed on some great advice:

APs or college classes? High school students often decide to take classes at a local college instead of taking the AP classes their high school offers. The thinking here is colleges will be more impressed by a student taking “real” college classes than students who stay at the high school and slave away over AP courses.

Nonetheless, the university representatives breakfast (which, by the way, came from Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Georgetown, and Duke) disagreed with this notion. AP classes will often transfer to their schools more often than college courses, and staying true to your high school is a more impressive mark on your record.

The reps didn’t cover how to deal with the problem of taking a college class that your high school doesn’t offer. In that case, it’s best to contact directly your college of choice’s admissions office and ask them.

Unexpected application trends. The reps at the breakfast said the hot majors right now are science, math, and business. They credit this trend to the poor performance of the US economy. Students right now want to make sure the major they choose is going to have plenty of jobs available during the downturn. This trend is likely to repeat next year.

Letters from the student’s counselor. All five schools represented require that the student submit what’s called a “Secondary School Report,” which is written by the school’s counselor and provides basic details about the student. This letter can strengthen your application by giving the college a glimpse into your life and any special circumstances you may have.

All the reps agreed that writing these letters is difficult for college counselors, considering they have at minimum 200 (and often many, many more) to write in a single school year. They also said that a recommendation can often be as simple as a form letter stating that the student has no criminal record and was never expelled or suspended, but you really should get a personalized letter if you can.

My advice? Counselors can really cheer for you, but since they have so many students to see, you’re going to have to make the first move. Respect their time and space, but find a way to get your counselor to get to know you; if every other applicant sends in a checklist, your counselor’s letter will help that much more.

Patrick O’Connor is the author of the definitive college admissions guide, College is Yours, and one of the top college admissions counselors in America.

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