Max It Out

What's more impressive? The carpenter who creates beautiful furniture with basic tools circa 1950, or the one who uses high-tech software and automation tools?

Same result, but the it's always more impressive when someone can do more with less.

When colleges look at a student, one of the items they look at is how much they used the resources available at their school. Ideally, a student will have maxed out advanced placement classes, sports, student council, volunteer activities, and extra curriculars.

Of course, this is not always possible. In many cases it leads to an unhappy student who will get burnt out. But it's good to keep in mind what that ideal looks like. We don't push our kids to max out every resource at their schools. We simply encourage them and always stress how we want their best, not perfection.

But the fact remains; in the world of college admissions, doing more with less and maximizing the resources available to you will increase your chances of success. This is especially true for the most competitive colleges.

Here are some tips on how to go about maximizing your resources. These are based on the experience we are having with our high school senior and freshman.

Go To Those Help Sessions

If there is a help session available for any classes where a student needs help, then the student needs to do all they can to attend those sessions. This helps the grade, and communicates to the teach that this is a student that wants to get better and wants to win.

In our case, math is the subject that our kids tend to need help on. I tell them that good things happen when you attend these. And if that makes you late for sports practice or whatever else - oh well. That's fine. Take care of business first, then do those other things.

Volunteer

Whether it's at school or an outside organization; sign up for volunteer work. When you start applying to colleges you will see that some of them ask for letters of recommendation. That's when the student will either feel really good about their past history of volunteer work - where you were reliable and went above and beyond what was required. OR, the student will regret not having started earlier in their high school career. There is the usual rush of high school seniors desperately looking for places to volunteer. Only to find that there is no space because the current volunteers have been there since their sophomore year. So start early, put in the work, and be proud when that day comes where you get to ask for a letter of recommendation.

Worth A Visit?

Some colleges take into consideration your interest in them. Some of the ways they gauge this interest are;

• If you open and reply to their emails


• Attending on-campus tours


• Attending online information sessions


• Establishing rapport with their admissions counselors


Do as many of these items as possible if your target school(s) require it.

What are some other ways that you can demonstrate to your target college admissions reps that your student is maximizing his/her resources?

Thoughts or comments? Let me know!