It is never to early for high school students to start thinking about college.
Recently, A first year college student and I had an interesting conversation about how he was adjusting to college life. He quickly replied, “College is good. It’s easy”!
I explained that his classes were easy, because of the college prep classes he had taken in high school. Taking college prep classes while in high school, gives you an advantage over some of the other students, and they also prepare you for the foreseeable future.
He went on to say that he was curious about, why colleges require you to submit a transcript, an essay, 2 letters of recommendation and your record of community service along with your application.
This is how I answered his question.
These documents are needed because, each year colleges and universities do a national search looking for their ideal students. The requested documents are used to create a personal profile for each applicant, competing for a limited number of seats at their school.
The application process is your opportunity to apply promote your skills, and give the selection committee the best of you. Your skills, unique abilities and experiences are your personal attributes, that’s a reflection of who you are. You want your application to stand out over the other applicants, grab the committee’s attention thus giving you an Edge over the other candidates applying for the same seats.
Let’s say a school has five hundred available seats, and thousands of candidates are competing for those five hundred seats from around the globe. Your personal profile becomes a part of the filter used to determine if you meet their criteria, for their school. Post secondary schools want students who will represent their school well, as they compete with other colleges and universities for funding, special programs, academic and sports competitions and so much more.
Hopefully this information gives you an overview of the reason why schools request these documents, and why they should be submitted in a timely manner. This article also gives you a sneak peek into some of the duties of the counselor. Lots of work goes into recruiting, screening potential candidates and making informed decision that is beneficial to both you and the school.
Stay tuned for part 2 where I will do a deep dive into each document and explain why they are important.
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To Your Continued Success,
Ruby Freeman
HelpingKidsLearn.org
Ruby@HelpingKidsLearn.org
Wishing you much success,
Ruby Freeman, Academic Coach / Founder of HelpingKidsLearn.org / Ruby@HelpingKidsLearn.org
