Improve your chances of getting into college,

This is a very common question especially when you are interested in schools that are not close to home. If you can't visit, you should take advantage of the online resources available to you.

Most schools will have virtual tours on their websites. These tours are usually quick and showcase the places the college or university wants you to see such as a new building or a sparkling athletic facility.

If you feel that the school's virtual tour did not provide you with a real "feel" for the campus and the student population, check out College Confidential, College Prowler and Campus Tours. Each has reviews, videos, and testimonials from current students. You can also browse videos and chat with current students right here on Unigo.

In the end, there are plenty of online resources at your disposal. Spend the time with them so you get to know these schools and can make an informed decision about whether or not any of them could be the right one for you.

In my experience the most common red flags are areas where students either neglected to include information, or entered information that was incorrect, or had one of their parents fill out the application. The former is a sign of sloppiness, the second one is a greater problem in and of itself.

When you are filling out an application, you should fill it out completely and accurately. Leaving questions blank can lead an admissions counselor to wonder why the question was not answered. Is there something the student is trying to hide? Doubt is not the first reaction you want a counselor to have when he or she is reading your application. You also want to make sure your information is accurate - even simple things like the name of your high school or your counselor's name should be spelled correctly. In fact, you should double check your entire application for spelling errors before you submit it - EVERYTHING should be spelled correctly.

When a parent fills out the application, any number of problems can come of it. Incorrect information, embellished information and if the application is done by hand, it can be quite apparent that a student did not fill it out him- or herself. This is irresponsible and unethical on everyone's part. This is also a situation where the college or university could choose to decline the application altogether regardless of the applicant's qualifications. Complete your applications yourself. If you want to have a parent help you with proof-reading, that's fine, but make sure you are the one answering the questions.

When an application is submitted with errors, it says that the student did not spend the time on it that it deserved. It can easily be assumed that the student rushed and did not take it seriously. When the application is filled out by someone other than the student, it says that the student is dishonest. Neither of these judgments are in the student's favor.

DON'T tell the reader what they already know about you. Instead, tell them what they should know about you. Respond to the question at hand and let them know why you matter, what kind of a difference you will make, that you can reflect on your life and who you are as a person and that you know how to use that understanding to make progress towards your goals and dreams.

Before you start writing, DO look at what the question is asking for and prepare yourself to respond appropriately. When you are thinking about your answer, ask yourself repeatedly if you are answering what the question is asking for.

It’s okay to want to talk about an obstacle or challenge you have faced in your life, but DON'T dwell on telling the story of this challenge – talk about what you learned from it, why you are a better person for having gone through it and how you’ve grown it. Nobody is going to learn anything of value from you if you fill your essay with complaints, excuses and self-loathing.

One thing you absolutely should DO is read your essay out loud to yourself. Why do this? To see if your voice and your personality are really on that piece of paper. Are you in that essay or does it just sound like it could be anyone else? When you read it yourself and actually hear your words, you are more inclined to identify areas where your writing doesn’t flow well or where you start to stray from your message.

Yes! At some schools, students who are in their senior years can be the ones who conduct interviews. Recently, I was at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT and that's how they work on-campus interviews. You interview with a Wesleyan senior who works for the Admissions Office. They won't be reviewing your application, but their feedback on your interview will be shared with the admissions counselors who are reading it.

A tremendous benefit of interviewing with a student is that you will be able to get answers from a student's point-of-view on campus life, activities, the academic experience - anything you want to know. You may also not feel as nervous interviewing with a student as opposed to interviewing with an admissions counselor. However, be prepared for the interview, go in with a plan and give it everything you have!

This has been a hot topic as of late in the college admissions world. Recent studies have shown that there has been an increase in the number of admissions counselors who are using social media applications like Facebook to research an applicant. As far as whether or not this will affect your chances of being admitted, I would turn the question around and ask you, "do you want it to affect your chances of getting accepted?" After going through all the research, the visits, putting in the time and effort at school, taking the SAT or ACT, do you really want to risk your admission because of a photograph or joke in bad taste? Chances are, it will not happen to you, but what if it did?

If there are aspects of your online profile that you think might be questionable, perhaps its time to rethink why your profile appears the way it does. You can also adjust your privacy settings so that your information, profile and pictures are not available to the general public.

My best advice in this situation is to play it safe. Clean up your online profile and make sure that it reflects who you are as a person - this will be a great first step in what will be ongoing online profile maintenance as you work through college and prepare to enter you career!

My initial response to this is that I hope you have visited or done thorough research on any school you have been admitted to. I don't see the sense in applying to a school that you don't have a good feeling for from day one.

Having said that, once you are an accepted student, any visit you make to a school should be about trying to finalize your decision as to whether or not this is the school you want to attend. Some schools will host accepted students programs specifically for this reason. If you are trying to decide between schools, a program like this is a great opportunity to meet current students, potentially stay overnight on campus and get a better feel for campus activities and student life. If a school you are admitted to hosts a program like this, you should make every effort to attend.

Ultimately, if you did your research up front, you should already know that any school you are admitted to is going to be somewhere you could be happy. A final visit as an accepted student is really about making sure you are ready to choose the school you feel that you would be MOST happy.

This is a question I always turn back on the student to answer because there is no way for me to say which choice is a better one. However, what we can do is have an honest and open conversation about what you think are the positives and negatives of the situation.

I think first you have to define what "far" is. Is it the other side of the country? How about another time zone? Another climate or region? Or is it just the next state over?

Next, I think you need to think about how you relate to your family and your home life. I've known students who couldn't wait to graduate from high school and take off on the college adventure only to realize they missed the familiarity of home, friends and their family. Others, took off and didn't look back because they were okay with keeping up with people through email, the phone and Skype.

Another consideration is cost. If you go far, you will need to live on campus (and I'm a big believer in living on campus regardless of where you go, but that's a topic for another day) and you will have to think about how you will get home for holidays and breaks. If you are across the country, that could mean paying for multiple flights each year which is a cost you may not necessarily think about when you are looking at schools. If you were to stay close to home and actually live at home, you could save yourself quite a bit of money which might be used towards a car, or saved for graduate school.

At the end of the day, there are several layers to this question, but they all begin with figuring out what is important to you first. Start there and the answer will reveal itself eventually.

Absolutely! Back in my admissions days, interested students would send in an inquiry card and we would mail them a viewbook or some glossy brochures promoting the university and encouraging them to apply. The process was tedious (it could often take several weeks for materials to go out in the mail) and cumbersome to track. Entering all the inquiry cards into a database was very time consuming work and one typo would ensure that a student would not receive their materials.

Now, students can "like" a school on Facebook or become a follower on Twitter and their access to the school is immediate. The school can track their followers and strategically market to them to try and increase the chances that these interested students will apply. Schools are devising all kinds of strategies to share information, advertise events, remind students of deadlines, share stories about alumni and promote any recent developments on campus. The process now, as a result, is live, has a much quicker response time (the jury is still out on whether or not this is such a good thing), and the experience is so much more interactive than it was several years ago.

Colleges can, and will, revoke admissions offers but typically you are only going to see this in extreme cases. Let's say you contract a severe case of senioritis and end up failing several of your courses senior year - this would be one instance where a college may consider revoking their offer of admission. Why? Well, when you completely check out of your courses, the school may call into question your abilities, your potential and even your integrity. Remember, offers of admission are contingent upon you successfully completing your senior year. This means continue going to class, work hard and earn the grades that you initially set your sights on back in the beginning of the school year. Besides making sure your offer of admission is not revoked, there are other benefits of finishing your senior year strong - a topic I blogged about just the other day which you can read here: http://www.doblercollegeconsulting.com/1/post/2012/02/seniors-are-you-finishing-strong.html.

Absolutely! Attending an information session and going out on a campus tour are great ways to get to know a college better. You will receive a lot of information and get a feel for the campus. However, these activities are one-sided. The college provides information and you receive it. There's little interaction unless you ask a lot of questions and talk to the tour guide throughout the tour - neither of which is always possible.

By making an appointment to meet the admissions officer who reviews applications for your high school or a professor who teaches a subject you are interested in, you now have the opportunity to have a real conversation. These opportunities are great because not only do you get a chance to ask questions that are more important to you as an individual (will I get a chance to work in research labs as a freshman?), but you also get a chance to demonstrate your interest in the school.

Some of the most competitive colleges will track this information and use it to help them make a decision on your application. When you reach out to a school like this, it tells the admissions staff that you are a very interested applicant. The more contact you have, the better!