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If you’re a freshman or sophomore in high school, it’s important to think ahead to what your extracurricular involvements might be like by senior year.  Colleges like to see that you’ve been consistently involved in extracurricular activities, and that you can demonstrate progressive leadership experience.

This doesn’t mean that you have to be President or Secretary of a club or organization.  That isn’t always possible.  However, leadership comes in many forms, and the more interested you are in what you’re involved in, the more likely you’ll be able to take on a leadership role within that group.

For starters, taking on a leadership role shows that you’re, well…a leader.  And that’s a good thing!  Being a leader enables you to show that your peers look to you for guidance, that you can take on significant responsibility, that you can conceive and implement ideas, and that you can take on a task or assignment and bring it to fruition.  These kinds of qualities are precisely what college admissions officers are looking for as they select potential students.

In order to set yourself up for a leadership position by the time you get to junior or senior year, it’s important to start planning now.  If you’re involved in any clubs or organizations, you’re most likely to get a leadership position by junior or senior year if you stick with some of your current involvements.  You don’t have to continue with all of your activities, just the ones that you enjoy the most and are most fulfilling for you.  Besides, the more you enjoy your extracurricular activities, the more likely it is that you’ll want a leadership position later on.

Remember…leadership positions are usually given to those students who have proven themselves through their involvement with a group or organization over time.  The longer you stay with something, the more knowledgeable, skilled, and visible you will become in the group.  These qualities will help you gain the trust of other members and advisors, which, in turn, will make them more likely to elect or appoint you to a leadership position.

Leadership in high school is important not only because of the benefits in the college application process, but also because it will help you become a better student and community member in college.  In order to set yourself up for leadership by the time you get to senior year, start thinking about your extracurricular involvements now.

You’ve probably submitted the bulk of your Regular Decision applications by now and are just waiting for the spring so you can find out the results. You might also be wondering what you should be doing now that your applications are submitted.

1) Be Patient.  After you’re sure that all of the pieces of your application have been submitted and received, it’s important to follow-up with the admissions office to make sure your application is complete. However, you shouldn’t do this right away. Colleges have received thousands of applications and documents over the past couple of weeks, and it will take a little while before everything is sorted and processed.

2) Follow-Up.  About two weeks after all of your materials have been submitted, check on your applications with each college. By then, they should have been able to process everything that was received. If anything is missing at that time, ask the admissions office for the best way to resubmit missing information. Remember – if your college counselor or teachers need to resubmit any school forms or recommendation letters, be sure to ask them nicely and politely!

3) Request an interview. At some colleges, alumni interviews are only offered to students after they’ve applied. Others still offer on-campus interviews after the application deadline. If you haven’t already had an interview, you can ask the college if it would still be possible to have one. This isn’t going to be an option everywhere, but if you do have the opportunity – great! If not, it won’t hurt your application.

4) Send your SAT Scores (if you haven’t already). In the rush to submit your applications by January 1, you may have forgotten to also send your SAT, SAT Subject Test, and/or ACT scores. Don’t worry, you can still send them. Ask each college if you need to send them via Rush Report, though, or if sending them standard is fine.

5) Did you make a mistake?  If you made a mistake on your application, try to remain calm. If it’s a minor omission, you don’t need to worry about it.  If it’s something you’re really worried about, you can always send your admissions counselor a quick email asking how to best resubmit your corrected essay.  If there’s been a significant mistake, you may want to include an explanation of the error.

6) Relax.  The hard part is over!  You’ve written all the essays, taken all the tests, submitted all the applications. Now all you have to do is stay focused on your schoolwork (colleges still need to see those mid-year and final reports), continue participating in extracurricular activities, and find some time to just have fun!

Until you hear back from colleges, there isn’t a whole lot to do for your applications. You can keep track of your applications, make sure they’re complete, and follow any further instructions from admissions offices. Beyond that, try to stay focused on your academics and activities in the present, and hope for the best come spring!

If, for some reason, you’ve missed a college application deadline and still really want to apply, you might still be able to.

Applicants miss deadlines for many reasons. Unforeseen circumstances come up.  Maybe you had a family emergency, or there was a natural disaster in your area. Or maybe you just found out about a really great college too late. Even if it’s after the official Regular Decision deadline, some colleges will still accept your application. If you have a legitimate reason for missing an application deadline, and still want to apply, here’s some advice for you.

Call the admissions office and ask if they’re still accepting applications. If they are, that’s great! Ask by when you would need to submit your application to be considered, and how you should submit it, including your transcripts, school report, and recommendation letters. And you should ask if you need to rush report your standardized test scores.

If you can still add the college and submit it through the Common Application, and your teachers and college counselor already uploaded your recommendation letters and transcript to the Common Application for other colleges, you should be all set on that front, and shouldn’t need to notify your college counselor.

But at many colleges, you won’t be able to submit a late application online, so you’ll have to print it out and fax or mail it – and this is if they’re willing to accept a late application at all. You’ll also need to give your guidance counselor and teachers very clear instructions from the admissions office as to how they should submit their documents. Some colleges have a separate fax number or email address, for instance, for late recommendation letters, or there might be a specific person in the office they should be sent to.

For the most part, college application deadlines are final. But we all know that things come up and life can get in the way sometimes. If you think you missed a deadline for a good reason, it’s okay to ask the admissions office if you can still apply. You just might get another chance. 

You may be thinking about submitting an early application or two to colleges this season. If so, you may find this primer helpful.

Early deadlines are often in the first week or two of November, and decisions are usually released around mid-December. If your application is denied, you typically can’t reapply under the regular deadline. Some colleges will defer applications to the regular round if they can’t make a decision (or don’t want to) in the early round. In that case, your application will be reviewed again in Regular Decision and you’ll usually be sent a final decision by April 1.

Early Action
Early Action is on the more flexible end of the early deadline spectrum. You can apply Early Action to multiple colleges, and to any colleges with early deadlines that don’t impose their own restrictions. If you’re admitted, you have until May 1 to decide if you want to accept the offer, and you can apply to more colleges during the Regular Decision round.

Early Decision
If you apply Early Decision, you can apply to other colleges with Early Action or other non-restrictive early deadlines. However, Early Decision is a binding agreement, meaning if you’re admitted, you’re obligated to attend that school. If you’re admitted Early Decision you need to withdraw all of your other college applications. The only exception to this is if you absolutely can’t attend for financial reasons. 

Early Decision II
Early Decision II is similar to Early Decision in that it’s a binding agreement. If you’re admitted Early Decision II, you’re obligated to attend. However, Early Decision II deadlines are a bit later in the year, usually in January, with notification dates typically in mid-February. This is a good choice for students who perhaps weren’t admitted to their top choice early application school, or who discovered a school late, but still want to submit an “early” application. A relatively small number of schools have ED II, so be sure to check if schools of interest to you offer this option. 

Restrictive or Single Choice Early Action
This deadline is less common, but still important to be aware of. Restrictive or Single Choice Early Action deadlines are non-binding, and have most of the same characteristics as Early Action. You don’t have to attend if admitted, and you can apply to other schools Regular Decision. The main difference, however, is that under Single Choice Early Action you may not be allowed to submit early applications to certain other colleges. Under some Restrictive Early Action programs (Harvard, Yale), you can apply early to public universities; under others, you can apply to other Early Action schools, but not an Early Decision school (Georgetown).  And still under others (Michigan, UNC), you can do either EA or ED at other schools.  

Rolling Admission
Schools with Rolling Admission deadlines make admissions decisions on a continuing basis throughout the year, until space in the freshman class is filled. The class at Rolling Admission schools can fill up fairly quickly, especially at the more popular institutions. If you’re interested in a school with Rolling Admission, it’s important to submit your application as early as possible. That will give you the best shot of being admitted.

Applying early can be a great idea. It can help alleviate stress later on in the process. You could end up with an early acceptance in your pocket before Regular Decision rolls around. Having submitted a college application already, you’ll feel more confident about submitting applications later on. Just remember to pay attention to specific early deadlines, be sure you know what you’re committing (or not committing) to, and that you’re following each school’s guidelines.

We all know that colleges care about your grades and academic record when you’re applying to college, but you may be wondering what exactly they’re looking for. 

It’s more than just your GPA.  When evaluating your academic performance “by the numbers,” colleges care about so much more than just your final GPA.  As you know, many high schools have different ways of calculating GPAs, and have different weighting systems.  For that reason, colleges will usually look beyond the weighted GPA to see the actual grades you received in each course. 

They look at the actual courses you’ve taken.  Instead of just looking at your grades, colleges pay very close attention to the specific courses you’ve taken.  You’ll want to challenge yourself as much as you can, without causing your grades to suffer.  Colleges will see if you took regular precalculus in 11^th grade instead of an honors, AP, or IB course.  And they will see if you stopped taking French senior year because you only had to take 3 years of foreign language to graduate from your high school.  You want to make sure that any course you take in high school is a course you feel is challenging and worthwhile.

They won’t expect you to take courses that aren’t offered.  Not every high school offers honors, AP, IB, or other advanced options.  That’s OK.  If your school doesn’t have any advanced course options, the colleges you’re applying to won’t penalize you for that.  Your counselor will send a profile of your high school to every college you apply to so they’ll know what course options are available to you.  This means they can also see which courses you didn’t take.

Colleges notice grade trends.  Let’s say you’re getting lots of A’s now, but your grades at the beginning of high school weren’t so great.  Colleges will notice that you have an upward grade trend, and perhaps be more forgiving of your weaker grades earlier on.  Similarly, if your grades were great early in high school, and have gone down in 11^th grade, colleges will notice that as well.  If there is a legitimate excuse or reason for your grades to decline, such as an extended illness, it could be worth mentioning in your application. 

If you have a class rank, colleges will look at it.  If your high school uses class rank and reports it on your transcript or in your secondary school report, the colleges you apply to will see it.  That being said, they consider class rank within the context of your school.  If you go to a very small high school, class rank is not going to mean as much.  Similarly, if you go to a very competitive school, they will take that into account when considering your rank.  They will also pay attention to other factors that could affect your rank.  For instance, if you transferred high schools after 10^th grade, that could affect your rank – so it is important to provide information about special circumstances to the colleges you’re applying to.

The most important thing to know about how colleges evaluate your academic record is that it is all about holistic review.  Colleges look at your entire academic picture within your particular context.  More important than any one particular aspect of your academic record, colleges care about how all of the academic pieces fit together.