Improve your chances of getting into college,

No surprise, admission officers prefer college applicants who have a real hunger for knowledge and a solid personal pursuit of intellectual challenges. Also, nearly all admission officers understand that not every student has the same access and opportunities to advanced classes in their high schools. However, several approaches can illustrate your thirst for learning and your academic ability. First, you can work with one of your high school teachers and create an independent study course to study an advanced subject area. This requires a great deal of determination, maturity, organizational skills, and real academic love, which admission officers love to see. Second, you can take classes at a community college or a local college. This is a great way to show your college readiness to admission officers. Our advice is to have one of your high school teachers to be your mentor during the courses in case you need additional assistance and support. Third, you can create an informal group of classmates to pursue more advanced studying in a particular subject area. The informal group should work with a high school teacher. Last, many colleges such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford and CalTech have summer programs for talented high school students who have shown exceptional intellectual abilities. These programs are wonderful opportunity to get advanced training in a particular subject. Overall, limited access to advanced classes should not stop your pursuit of intellectual rigor.

In our view, there are four significant, yet avoidable mistakes that students make. The first mistake is that students do not use each piece of their application to tell a consistent story. You can combat this error with personal brand mapping to share who you are, what impact you hope to make, and why the college is an ideal fit for you. The second mistake is that students wait until the last moment to work on their applications. Often, they discover roadblocks like attempting to get recommendation from a busy teacher, experiencing writer's block, or regretting not taking a particular course. The result can be drastic such as missing deadlines, so start the admissions process earlier. The third mistake is that many applications are often filled with grammatical errors, which do not present the best first impression of you. Proofread, proofread, proofread, and then proofread some more! You have only one chance to make a first good impression. The final mistake is that some students do not ask for feedback on their applications. It is critical that you ask your parents, teachers, friends, classmate, and counselors to review your application and provide helpful feedback. Also, you should not test drive portions of your essays out on college admission officers and ask them for their thoughts. It won't get you very far.

Indeed, there are several options to waive or reduce college application fees. If your family's financial circumstances make it difficult to pay college application fees, most colleges would be happy to waive application fees. Colleges would typically need some evidence of your family's financial constraints. For those applicants who are using the Common Application, you can submit a request to have college application fees waived for specific colleges. Another option is that some high schools may be able to provide financial assistance to students who are unable to afford the application fees. The last option is that application pools now allow students to submit several college applications for a low fixed price. For example, EDU, Inc. Common Black Application allows high school students to apply up to a total of 35 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) with one application for a single price of $35.

Yes! Yes! Yes! You should fill out the FAFSA, regardless of your family's financial status. First, at least 2/3 of students get financial aid, which includes families with income over $100,000. Hence, you have a great chance of paying less than the college's full sticker price. Second, not all financial aid is need-based; others are merit-based. You still need to fill out the FAFSA to qualify for any merit-based grants and scholarships from a college. Third, filling out the FAFSA allows your family to use unsubsidized PLUS loans and unsubsidized Stafford loans to pay college expenses. The advantages of unsubsidized Stafford loans are slightly lower interest rates and no interest payments while you are attending college. Last, unexpected things in life can happen in life. When you fill out the FAFSA, the college can account for any changes in your financial aid eligibility status. In summary, you should fill out the FAFSA regardless of your family's income status because the loss of not doing so may be greater than you anticipate.

Certainly, but 'negotiate' sets up a 'you versus them' scenario. This mindset to financial aid is often ineffective. Instead, financial aid officers should be your partners rather than adversaries. Here are three tips:

• Explain any special financial circumstances because officers welcome the opportunity to understand your situation beyond the FAFSA and might adjust your package.

• Be creative and collaborate with officers to identify nontraditional aid options such as co-ops, HA positions, work-study, outside scholarships, or shared book programs.

• Develop a financial aid plan with officers that outlines potential aid breakdowns and increased loan amounts over four years.

Absolutely! Actually, you should have a couple of individuals to proofread your essays. You can ask your parents, teachers, friends, college counselors, and mentors. Now, there are plenty of admission coaching companies that can provide you with expert advice on your essays. Also, it may be a good idea to get a small group of classmates together and each can give feedback on each other's essays through the admission process. Nonetheless, when someone proofreads your essay, they can catch any grammatical errors, provide feedback on what you were attempting to express and what they read, and raise any red flags that could hurt your essays. With recent reports of cheating and plagiarism, it is prudent to write your own essays because admission officers want to learn about you in your own words.

Absolutely Yes! Including a resume in your college application is advantageous for two reasons. First, a resume serve as a great summary of your leadership examples and achievements in and outside of the classroom. Instead of provide a list of extracurricular activities, achievements, and leadership roles, you should provide the admission team with a story through your resume. Second, a resume can be an useful tool to elaborate on experiences not mentioned in other places in your application. Overall, a resume is helpful as a quick summary of who you are as a person, a student, and a leader.

DO tailor a story that illustrates your unique leadership. For example, if you want to college to be a journalist, it makes sense to showcase that you were the school newspaper editor, participated in Princeton summer journalism program, or won several writing awards.

DO highlight your passion, contributions, and achievements. Your resume should express how you have made an impact to a person, a team, organization, or a community. A list of things tells very little about the importance of what you have done.

DON'T send your resume without proofreading it! It goes without saying that you want to give the best first impression. Basic grammatical and writing errors could bring up questions about your writing ability.

DON'T list everything on resume, but instead highlight relevant activities that fits your application story. You should provide the admission team with a focused, consistent story of your leadership.

Having little job experience is not an issue, but it is quite expected. Other than job experiences, you have extracurricular activities, community services, competitions, summer programs, travels, awards/honors, and art presentations to highlight in your resume. A clear and consistent story of your leadership and passion should be evident in your resume. You should use various parts of your high school experience to build the right story and not focus simply on one thing like job experience. Consequently, the amount of activities is not the most important thing in crafting a great resume, but rather the quality of your contributions and your passion.

Majoring in the arts does not limit you to being only a performer or an artist. Creativity and innovation are needed in every organization. Steve Jobs is the best example of the influence of art with the success of Apple. Art majors are sought after in the following industries: advertising/marketing, technology design, interior design, media, music, product design, innovation, and architecture. Also, art majors are valued in the nonprofit sector where deep knowledge and appreciation of the arts are needed to lead a museum, an orchestra, an opera house, a theatre, and other cultural organizations. Art majors are also using art as a therapy tool to help mentally disable children and adults. Yes, you can become a teacher and help children to develop to an appreciation for the arts too. Hence, art majors are valuable wherever creativity is appreciated.

The simple answer is possibly. In our opinion, this is enough to be careful about what you post on Facebook and other social network sites. In a recent survey of admission officers at 359 colleges and universities, Kaplan found that 24% of admission officers reported using Facebook or other social network sites to research an applicant in 2011. About 20% used Google to find information about an applicant. Importantly, of those who checked the social network, approximately 12% indicated that posts with such things as vulgar language in a status update or alcohol consumption in photos negatively impacted a prospective student's admissions chances. Our advice is to eliminate any items on social network sites that do not reflect the best you.

Choosing a college should be a reflection of who you are and what you hope to become. In a way, the real purpose of college should expand beyond receiving a quality education, but also growing as a person and a leader. Hence, the most important factors in choosing a college depend on your own interests, values, goals, beliefs, views, strengths, and weaknesses. I could list the usual suspects such as graduation rate, diversity, class size, reputation, professors, extracurricular activities, etc. However, what you might deem as a top priority someone else might not. Also, the tradeoffs among the different factors that each individual is willing to make may vary.

Our advice is to construct a list of your goals, views, interests, values, etc. that are important to you, prioritize these factors, and check off which colleges harmonize with the highest numbers of these factors because each college will have tradeoffs. For example, Harvard is known for its innovative research, which may come at the cost of large class size and less access to certain professors. When you establish what is most important to your future, the right college will fit like a glove. You will have the feeling that this college is right for me!

A 'gap year' between high school and college is a wonderful opportunity to learn and contribute to the world in a meaningful way. Typically, students take this opportunity to perform community services in an underserved community or volunteer in a developing country. This experience will lend a new viewpoint to the classroom, enriching your education. Also, you can take the chance to travel and explore different cultures, languages, and traditions. Yet, here are some untraditional options: starting a business, leading a community initiative, or exploring a potential career path as an intern. Students are beginning to choose these paths. Several high school students are starting their own business immediately and a gap year is a great time to do so. Overall, you should not nothing during a gap year.

Transferring into another college can be tricky academically and emotionally. First, the number of spots available for transfer students tends to be very low, increasing the competitiveness of getting into the school. Hence, it may be critical for you to be a top transfer applicant to illustrate your college readiness and your ability to excel. Second, you should work closely with the college that you plan to attend in order to ensure a smooth transition. You should have a personal contact on the college admission team and continue to keep him abreast of your academic and leadership achievements. Third, your college credits may not be transferrable to every school, which could delay your college completion or overload your semester. Not all courses at different colleges and requirements are created equal, so understand the new graduation requirements and expected academic standard when you transfer into the college. Fourth, you should ask the college about scholarships and/or financial aid grants for transfer students. Some have special funding designated only to transfer students. Last, there is an emotional adjustment period that all transfer students will experience. You will be attending a new school with new classmates who have formed bonds with others in the first year. It is easy to feel like you don't fit in, but give it time to form your special friendships.

When students and parents ask this question, it usually indicates that they are attempting to play the number game: if I apply to more college, then I will increase my chance of being accepted to at least one college. However, this line of thinking should be referred to as the "diversification trap". First, the more colleges you have to research, write essays, complete essays, and prep for interviews, the less time you have to do each well, which actually decreases your chance of being accepted. Second, more importantly, this is simply the wrong number game. The real number game in the admission process is applying early decision or early action to college.

Let me elaborate on the second point. If you want to improve the possibility of being accepted to college, your chance increases exponentially when you apply early decision or early action. To do so, you must be so committed to your first choice that you would gladly reject the others if accepted. This is not the case for non-restrictive early action, which allows more flexibility. Hence, here is a basic admission strategy: Apply to 1 college for early decision/restrictive early action round; Apply to 1-2 college(s) for non-restrictive early action rounds; and Apply to 3-4 colleges for regular admission round. If your early decision application gets accepted, excellent! You are done! If your early decision application is unsuccessful, but one of your non-restrictive early action application is accepted, you can stop or you can apply to more schools in the regular admission round. Last, if the early admission rounds do not fare well for you, you can conquer the regular admission round.

In my opinion, about 4-7 college applications should be sufficient without overwhelming yourself.

In the admission process, the competition among international students is ferocious because there is usually a limited number of spots available for international students and their academic performances usually rank in the top tier of the application pool. Absolutely, it is critical for international students like other students to apply early decision if they are certain abut their first college choice. It signals that your strong desire to attend the college and your commitment to achieve this goals through hard work and organization in completing your application early. Also, applying early decision allows the admission teams to read over your application more carefully and get a chance to learn more about you. Consequently, you can separate yourself from the pack through early decision and gain a slight advantage over regular admission applicants.

Yet, there are a couple of more reasons for international students to apply early decision. First, applying early decision can provide international students with priority consideration for offsite interviews. Second, an early decision application for international student can be crucial with the facilitation of visa arrangement. Also, the funding of your college education through government sponsored programs may require extra time to obtain. Though these reasons are practical, they are important to consider because they also reduce uncertainty and risks for the admission office.

This topic has been met with recent controversy. Specifically, several Asian-American students have been very reluctant to identify their race in fear of being held to higher academic standards than their peers (often referred as reverse discrimination). This hones in on the issue that colleges and universities have an applicant quota for races and ethnicities and applicants within their racial groups are competing against one another. On one hand, some believe that you are not revealing who you are as a person by not disclosing your race, which is what most colleges typically preach that they want. Conversely, some feel that racial identification intensifies admission competition for them and shrinks their chance of acceptance. The key question is 'where does college draw the line between creating a diverse academic community and discrimination?'

Overall, there is no benefit to check 'no race' on your application. If a college does not accept you based solely on your racial identity, it is not the right college for you, regardless of how prestigious it may be. There are many proxies that the admission team can use other than race to build a diverse intellectual community.

LGBT college students might face unique challenges than other students. First, other students on campus might not be comfortable with you as LGBT. This can be difficult as you feel misunderstood and discriminate against based on your sexual preference. While some progress has been made, a better understanding about bi-sexual and transgender individuals is still needed. Second, LGBT has redefine how colleges and universities view diversity. In our opinion, this has been a great thing. Recently, Elmhurst has started to ask the application question on LGBT identification. Harvard is considering this as well. Nevertheless, not all colleges and universities have figured out how to embrace and encourage this form of diversity on campus. Third, a LGBT student might feel pressured to fit a stereotype held by either the LGBT community on campus or other students. Last, the LGBT community can be fragmented on campus, which can make it difficult for LGBT students to share experiences and find support.