Improve your chances of getting into college,

All parents just want what's best for their son or daughter, so we immediately have that in common. Relationships are important, so it's worth taking the time to establish a positive one with them. When they know that the counselor cares, and they come to trust him or her, the counselor can educate them and speak more frankly about what helps and hurts their child's chances in the process. Parents want a role in the process, too, so it's good to spell out specific things they can do to contribute that will help rather than hinder. It's also good to keep everyone in the loop with regular updates and meetings. Sometimes confrontation is necessary, but working together works better. Honey vs vinegar.

Tell them sincerely that they are your first choice. If a school is indeed your first choice, then you've done good research and know a lot about it - ask questions and make comments that demonstrate that you know the school and have solid reasons for applying there. Visit the school if at all possible. Maintain a continuing relationship with the admissions person who will read your application. Above all be sincere and honest about it.

There is nothing like visiting campuses to help you decide whether it is right for you or not; and discovering that a college you thought would be great is actually not for you, is just as valuable as falling in love with a school during a visit. Giving the admissions representative who will read your application a real person to remember is almost always a positive thing, and can certainly help you get answers to your questions when you need them.

This depends on sincerity and time. Apply only to colleges you want to attend, and only do as many applications as you can do well and completely. There's really no need to apply to more the 8 or 10 if you do thorough research and make good decisions. That way you can spend the time it takes on each application in order to introduce and represent yourself completely. It shows a good level of maturity and when you limit the number of your applications. Don't fall into the trap of thinking if you apply to 15 schools which accept fewer than 20% of applicants, you have a better chance than if you apply to 8. Apply to schools you like, with various admission difficulty. Doesn't it make sense that it's a lot more fun to get acceptances from schools you like than denials?

Portfolio, portfolio, portfolio. Start early and build a good, complete one that represents the artist you are - not one that represents the artist you had to be in the last month when you had to hurry to put the last eight pieces together to finish before the deadline! And don't neglect your other academic subjects. Conscientiousness in those subjects will reflect well on you. Art schools and departments do care about you as an overall student and person.

You approach the admissions process in the same way everyone else does. Living abroad doesn't make the process different for you, but if you've taken advantage of being overseas, you will have a rich collection of experiences to offer colleges, and to share with them on your applications.

Split up with your parents and take two different tours, or after the same tour, split up and wander around campus separately and compare impressions later. Come up with questions that are important to you and ask the same ones at each campus. Ask questions that require an evaluative answer - instead of "Do you like it here?", ask "What are the three best things about this school?" Take photos and notes. Don't visit more than two schools a day. Treat every visit like that school could be The One, because it might be!

The right guide books can be really helpful. Your uncle's opinion might be helpful, but only if you filter it through your own criteria for choosing a school. Rankings? Only if you can find a ranking that uses the same criteria that is important to you, which is not likely. I don't know many students whose criteria includes what college presidents think of the schools they are considering. The best rankings are your own, based on your own criteria and research.

It's generally not the activity or the organization that impresses a college - it's the quality of your participation and your commitment to it over time. Sure, it's impressive when someone raises all the money to build a school in a developing country, and goes there to help with the construction - but it's not the fund raising or the school that's impressive. Some activities carry more "weight" than others, I'm sure, but what is really important is that you follow a passion (even if it's drawing and publishing cartoons, or becoming a black-belt-underwater-basket-weaver............) and do it with character and commitment.

I think everyone should consider taking a "gap year" after high school - not a year off, but a year of meaningful experience. Parents, don't panic when you read this - I said "consider"! A year out of school is not right for everyone, but for many students it can be a valuable experience, and as a side effect, actually help you get into the college of your choice. Live with a family in Spain and learn the language first-hand; do service work for six months; be a part of a crew on a sailing schooner; take a course to learn something you've always wanted to know how to do; or work to earn money for college. There are hundreds of examples of constructive things you can do with a gap year and organizations that can help you organize it; but just taking a year to hang out with your friends and play video games is a bad idea. A constructive gap year can be fulfilling, character-building, and help you grow as a person, which is why colleges consider you a more attractive applicant after a substantive gap year.

1. When you're visiting several colleges during the same trip, and you're getting toward the end and they all seem to say the same things, and yo're getting a little tired of it all - hang in there. One of my students who visited 19 campuses during a ten-day trip from overseas told me that she stayed focused all the way through because, as she said, "I figured that the next one might be THE one for me, and I didn't want to miss it."

2. Take photos and take notes during the visits; then each night, write your reactions to the school in a journal. This will come in very, very handy two months later.

3. Parents and students might think about taking different tours, and comparing notes later. If you do take the same tours, try to keep your reactions to yourselves until afterwards - then compare notes.

4. Before or after the tour, eat breakfast or lunch somewhere on campus. Ask current students what they like and don't like about the school. Don't ask IF they like it, but WHY they like it. Come up with two or three questions to ask at every college and ask them of the tour guide and random students you meet.

5. Have fun!

First, remember that college websites are essentially advertisements - everyone is good-looking; everyone is either happy, studious, or both; and the weather is always perfect! with this in mind, the college sites can be helpful. Take the virtual tours. Take a look at the requirements of your major, if you've decided on one. Look at the core requirements, if any. And if it's offered, chat with current students. Get what you can from the site, but also use other resources - there are some good books and websites out there which aren't affiliated with the colleges.

1. When you're visiting several colleges during the same trip, and you're getting toward the end and they all seem to say the same things, and yo're getting a little tired of it all - hang in there. One of my students who visited 19 campuses during a ten-day trip from overseas told me that she stayed focused all the way through because, as she said, "I figured that the next one might be THE one for me, and I didn't want to miss it."

2. Take photos and take notes during the visits; then each night, write your reactions to the school in a journal. This will come in very, very handy two months later.

3. Parents and students might think about taking different tours, and comparing notes later. If you do take the same tours, try to keep your reactions to yourselves until afterwards - then compare notes.

4. Before or after the tour, eat breakfast or lunch somewhere on campus. Ask current students what they like and don't like about the school. Don't ask IF they like it, but WHY they like it. Come up with two or three questions to ask at every college and ask them of the tour guide and random students you meet.

5. Have fun!

College websites are full of information you can use, but remember that they are essentially advertisements. A good resource for impartial descriptions of colleges can be found in the Fiske Guide to College, available in book form or as an iPad app. With Fiske, you can get a pretty complete and accurate description of a school in just two pages.

There are lots of advantages to attending a women's college. According to research, women's college graduates achieve at a higher level in their careers, earn more in salary, have longer lasting relationships with classmates, and have a higher level of loyalty to their colleges. There tends to be greater opportunity for women in these colleges, as well; the vast majority of leadership positions in coed colleges are held by men, where obviously 100% of leadership positions in women's colleges are held by women. Equally obviously, 100% of research opportunities at women's colleges are open only to women. But what about men on campus? While some women's colleges don't have many men on campus, others that are situated near coed schools routinely see men on campus, either taking classes there or just visiting. Besides, can you think of a bigger "guy magnet" than a college full of women? Even if you've never considered a women's college, keep your mind open to the idea and do some research, including asking questions of current students.

There's nothing like visiting a school to get a real feel about whether it's right for you or not. Having said that, well over half of the students I work with can't visit colleges before they apply. If you can't visit, then you really need to do your research on colleges you're considering - Visit college websites and take the virtual tours and chat with current students if that is offered (Keep in mind that college websites are advertisements - everyone is good looking, everyone is happy, and the weather is perfect!); read books and visit websites that are not written by the colleges. Above all, know what you are looking for in a college before you starts shopping - that will help you find schools that fit who you are as a person and a student.

Take the most challenging courses you can handle, and do as well as you absolutely can. If you're really interested in a subject, do extra reading about it and have periodic discussions with the teacher. Develop your own projects in a subject area you love. No college will hold it against you that your school didn't offer advanced classes - they will evaluate your application based on how you took advantage of what you had to work with.

The best time is when school is in session, although even summer is better than not visiting at all. Any time is a good time; it's just as valuable to find that you really don't like a school as it is to find that you love it.

Absolutely, positively, without a doubt, you should start by taking a good look at yourself. What kind of student are you - one who learns best in smaller, interactive classroom with lots of discussion, or in lecture-based classes where you can take notes and reflect on them later? Are you better in group work or on your own? And how about as a person - are you shy or outgoing? A "doer" or somewhere who holds back at first? You need to make a list of characteristics you want in a college - you need to know what you're shopping for before you start looking. Once you have a list of three or four essential qualities a college has to have, then you're ready to wade through the masses of colleges out there to find the ones that are right for you. Those characteristics also give you criteria on which you create your own rankings of colleges, instead of relying only on the published rankings that are built on other peoples' criteria.

The most important rankings are the ones you make. Published rankings are based on what's important to someone else. Would you spend between $100,000 and $200,000 on a car or a house, just because someone else said they liked it - without checking it out for yourself? Of course not. You need to decide what's important, and what's essential to you in a college, then find colleges that have those characteristics and rank them based on YOUR criteria. Maybe a high rank in a published ranking is one of your criteria - but don't make it your only one. Be your own person and make your own rankings!

Get a real hold on your academics - do absolutely as well as you can. Even if you've not done particularly well in grades 9 and 10, it's not too late to show people that you're serious about doing well in school and are qualified for college work. Don't give up your extra curricular activities, but pay good, efficient, determined attention to your school work. Your senior year is amazingly hectic, and it's important to have a good academic base going into that year.

I work with many international students who can't visit colleges before they enroll. It definitely adds uncertainty to the process - but you could also look at it as adding adventure! Remember that you will have to adapt to lots of aspects of a college in your first semester, whether you've visited or not. Not visiting just means that you have to do more thorough research before you commit - get to know that school inside and out through good printed materials, conversations online with current students, and other resources, including the college website. It almost always works; and if it doesn't, and you don't like it, it's not that hard to transfer. Very little in life is permanent. Remember - it's an adventure!

There is no such thing as the "right" extracurricular, except the one or two about which your are truly passionate. Find an activity - in or out of school - that you love to do, involve yourself deeply in it, enjoy it, and grow with it. That will benefit you as a person first - and as a side benefit, the right colleges will appreciate that you've done that, too.

Don't tailor your life to a college or colleges - do what "feeds" you, what you love to do, and do it passionately and with joy - then find colleges that want you for who and what you are. You will be a good match for each other.

Getting so busy with school work and other obligations and pushing work on the the application later and later, then having to hurry and not do as good a job as you can. Treat your college applications like important school work; do a certain amount of work on it every week, or even every day. You want to do your absolute best on your applications, including the essays, in order to show the true you to colleges, not the hurried, frantic, "I just gotta get it done and in" you!

That fame and rank and selectivity equal good quality. A famous school is not necessarily a great - or even good - quality for undergraduates, and for you. And rankings are based on so many factors that have very little to do with undergraduate quality that they can't be relied on as the only indicator of quality either. And selectivity? If it isn't really hard to be admitted, it must not be very good, right? NOT! there is a school in the midwest which is ranked among the best in the country for engineering, yet which admitted over half its applicants last year. Make your own criteria, do your own research, and make your own rankings.

Start by first looking inward and figuring out what you want in a college; what's important to you - what are the three or four essential qualities that a college must have in order to attract you? Then you know what you're shopping for, which makes it more likely that you'll find what you want. Then use the resources, both online and in print, to do your research. Use mostly impartial sources, along with university websites.

You determine what the most important factors are. Before you start "shopping" for colleges, you have to know what you're shopping for. Decide what are the three or four essential qualities a college has to have in order for you to consider it, and you've got your most important factors. then go find the schools that have what you want!

Good news! The creative thinking skills, inventiveness, and general right-brain abilities that you have developed in the arts will give you an edge in the job market of tomorrow. It might be easy right out of college, but more and more, employers in all fields are looking for people who can think, communicate, create, and collaborate with others. Add to that the fact that fewer and fewer graduates work in the field of their college major, and the world is pretty open to you. It's becoming about your personal skills than your training. Just recently, I know of a political science major who is working in finance at a major bank, a computer science major who is working for a business consultancy, and a liberal arts major who is now in medical school. Check out https://career.berkeley.edu/major/major.stm and uncw.edu/career/WhatCanIDoWithaMajorIn.html to get some more ideas. If you stay positive and look for opportunities, you will find them.

Yes, Yes, and Yes! Don't put anything on your Facebook page that you wouldn't want your grandmother to see or read!

This is a good question, but one that only you can answer. The very first thing you should do is to have a good look at yourself and decide what's important to you in choosing a college. What characteristics does a college need to have in order to be interesting to you? Is class size important? Is it important for professors to teach you in your first year? Is graduation rate important? Retention rate? Study abroad? Scholarships or other financial aid? Ranking? Fame? Community atmosphere? You can't do good shopping unless you know what you're shopping for.

The one most important factor in choosing a college is "fit" - and knowing what you want will help you find schools that fit you, and where you can be happy, thrive, and grow, instead of just attend, adapt, and get a degree.

The retention rate refers to what percentage of students return to a school for their second year. Put simply, it's a measure of how satisfied students are with the school, and how well the school sees that students get the quality and attention they want and need. That's not universally true, because there are lots of reasons students might not return for a second year, but as a general rule, I believe it is one good indicator of quality. A high retention rate doesn't mean that you will necessarily like the school, but it tells you that others do.

When you're accepted to a college, it is actually a "conditional" offer. Essentially all you have to do to keep it is to maintain the efforts and grades that got you accepted in the first place. If your grades slip a bit, some schools will ask you to explain that, and may put you on probation or require study periods when you get to the college. Or they may accept your explanation if there is a legitimate one, usually backed up by your counselor. But deciding that you've worked hard enough for 3 1/2 years and coasting in the second semester of grade 12 could get your college acceptance revoked. It's not common, but it does happen.

Unless there are extenuating circumstances, college is a time to step out and away from home to be "on your own". Of course, you're never all alone at college - there are always people and facilities to take care of you when you need a little TLC. I think the distance from home is less important than whether or not a school fits you - is it a place where you can be comfortable, thrive, and grow for four years? If a college fits you like an old shoe, it becomes your second home. You will never completely let go of your first one, but you will feel less need to be closely attached to it.

You didn't believe it, did you, when someone told you that the final choice of colleges would be tougher than deciding where to apply! If you did your research well and all the colleges you applied to were places you would like to be for four years, it makes it a tougher decision, but a nice problem to have - because you can't make a bad choice. It's a nice problem to have, but is still confusing. Go back to your research, read about the choices again, visit their websites - then go with your instinct, without second-guessing yourself. Going to college is partly about taking steps forward that involve a little risk - and this is the first big one. Chances are huge that you will like the school you choose and make it your place; and in the unlikely event that doesn't happen, transfer is not that difficult. So make your choice, get the t-shirt, don't look back, and make it your school!

If you know what you want and do your research well, 6-10 should do it. Avoid the "shotgun" approach of thinking that the more Reach schools you apply to, the better your chances of getting in - a 10% acceptance rate gives you the same chance whether you apply to one or five of them. Find schools that fit you well and apply to some Targets and Likely entries, too. And don't just apply to any Likely school - make sure it is a school where you think you could be happy. Spread your list out and you will have a happy choice in April of several schools who want you, instead of hoping you "might maybe" get in to one!

Applying ED is trickier for international students, because most have not had the chance to visit the campus before applying, something that is important before committing fully to one school over all others. Otherwise, ED holds the same advantages and disadvantages for international students as for domestic students.

The guidelines for writing the essay are no different for international students than for anyone else: Be genuine, write from your own experience, and use your own words. An effective essay is one that allows an admissions person to get to know you better. You don't have to write an "important" essay - just one that offers a glimpse of who you are.

If not required by the university, an interview is not any more necessary for an international student than for a domestic one. If you have the chance to interview, however, it is a good opportunity for you to make a human impression on the admissions person, rather than just a paper/virtual impression on your application.

Need-based aid for international students is available at a number of schools, but at all but 5-10 of them, the need for financial aid may affect your chances of admission. You have to decide whether your need for funds is worth the risk at these schools. Merit-based aid is available to international students at most universities in the U.S., and does not affect a student's chances of admission. Merit scholarships are given for a number of reasons by admissions offices, and international students have as good a chance of receiving it as anyone. The schools which are the most likely to award merit aid to an international student are those where the student falls in the top half of the applicant pool, and schools where there are not many other international students.

The "correct" major is in an area you are really interested in. Explore your interests and abilities throughout high school, and find out what kinds of careers might use those. Use career exploration assessments and interest and personality inventories to help you; you can find several of those online. Remember though, that the U.S. university system does not require you to know what you want to study when you enter; there is flexibility to explore and change your mind - some students change their major two or even three times and still graduate in four years! Follow your passions and you will find a major that suits you well.

They should do the same things that will help their chances of admission - take challenging courses in high school (if they have a choice of courses) and do as well as possible in them. Also, choose one or two activities (in or outside of school) that they are passionate about, and participate with quality in those activities over time. Make yourself as attractive to a college as possible.

Need-based aid is available at a number of schools, but at all but 5-10 of them, the need for financial aid may affect a student's chances of admission. Merit-based aid is available to international students at most universities in the U.S., and does not affect a student's chances of admission. Merit scholarships are given for a number of reasons by admissions offices, and international students have as good a chance of receiving it as anyone. The schools which are the most likely to award merit aid to an international student are those where the student falls in the top half of the applicant pool, and schools where there are not many other international students.