College Admission-How to Get Into Your Dream School: Real Students, Real Stories

Foreword

James Lewis’s book College Admission: Real Students, Real Stories about current students and their experiences in high school and during the college admissions process is a wonderful and important addition to helpful resources at a time that too often is filled with angst. As one who has been an educator for 45 years, including the last 27 as a college counselor, I found the book to be uniquely layered with both peer-to-peer and professional advice that could make a significant difference for applicants and their parents. As Lewis and those whose stories are told demonstrate, a student’s dream school can be well known or a hidden gem, and it is important for all families to keep an open mind about which schools may truly be best fits in preparing students for careers and meaningful lives.

Nancy T. Beane

Associate Director of College Counseling at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, GA

Former President of the National Association for College Admission Counseling

A Letter from Claes Nobel

Senior member of the family that established the Nobel Prizes

Dear Students,

I truly believe that you are the future of our world, the future leaders. Each and every one of you is capable of achieving greatness both in your personal and professional life. You should be proud of your hard work and what you have achieved so far, but you cannot allow yourself to become complacent. This is the time for you to seek opportunities to learn, to grow, and to expand your mind, so you can reach your full human potential. You do not need to wait for the future to start making your mark on the world. Achieving greatness takes time, so you must begin now to take steps to accomplish your goals. This is your moment; RIGHT NOW, seize it, and begin on your path towards future success. This is your moment to: Be More!

This book, College Admission: How to Get into Your Dream School—Real Students, Real Stories, was created to help you be your best. The idea of recognizing the best has been the goal of the Swedish Nobel family for nearly 120 years. My great-grand uncle, Dr. Alfred Nobel, started a mission of Peace & Excellence for World Betterment by establishing The Nobel Prize. While it is an honor and a privilege to recognize the greatest scientists, poets, statesmen, and philosophers among us, there is a special place in my heart for encouraging, recognizing, and empowering the young people of the world.

I encourage you to form unique friendships and build a lasting network now that helps you and your peers advance in the future. Use the gifts and talents you have been given, leverage your academic achievements earned, and you will be empowered to change the world to make it better, safer, and saner.

I know that as young scholars, you are deeply passionate not only about academics, but also about the conditions of your community and the world. Today, we live in a time when differences often dominate our dialogue. When you young, emerging leaders are given respect, support, validation, and encouragement, you then have the power to make profound and lasting changes to our society.

Serving as Co-founder and Chairman of the National Society of High School Scholars, an organization dedicated to honoring and empowering youth worldwide, I am continuously inspired by the unquenchable spirit of young students. You and your peers represent the best and brightest minds of the Millennial Generation and Generation-Z. The stories in this book illustrate that those among you not only succeed academically, but also are actively involved in community service and civic engagement, and have already begun to leave your mark on the world.

This book is filled with advice from a diverse network of students, industry experts, and universities. Together, we hope to support you as you continue your education, pursue meaningful career opportunities, and lead lives of true purpose.

To the parents of our readers: Thank you for supporting your wonderful children as they set out to accomplish their goals. We thank you, your children thank you, and the world thanks you. There is wise advice for you in this book as well.

Young scholars, I have enormous faith in each and every one of you. You have within you the power to achieve your goals and make a positive impact on the world. Acceptance to the college of your dreams is an important step toward your own personal greatness. Be Honored by what you have already achieved...and then go forward to Be More.

Good Earth!

Claes Nobel

Introduction

If getting into college is an important goal in your life, then you can likely relate to the sentiments of Esther M. Bedoyan, a student at Carnegie Mellon University: At the start of my freshman year in high school, the prospect of attending college seemed abstract and distant. The application process seemed like a long and harrowing ordeal that would either result in success or failure. Despite her original misgivings, this student landed at a top-notch university to study biomedical engineering. She adds, Reflecting upon my college application process from its start to finish, I now realize that it was simultaneously draining and exhilarating, and it helped me learn more about myself and allowed me to build self-confidence. Ultimately, through a lot of hard work, persistence, and the help of my family, school counselors, teachers and friends, I was able to achieve my goal of identifying and getting accepted into the college that best suits my career goals and holistic interests—my dream school, Carnegie Mellon University.

Esther’s observations perfectly sum up what this book is about. College Admission: How to Get Into Your Dream School—Real Students, Real Stories is a how-to guide for college-bound students and their families filled with personal, relevant guidance and useful information in the college search and application process. Students who have successfully joined the ranks of their dream schools share their own journeys and first-hand experiences that led them to college acceptance. The real stories and essay samples from real students pursuing a wide range of school options—from community colleges to the Ivy League—set this book apart as a relatable and rich resource for anyone looking to find your best-fit college or university.

More than anything, I want the pages that follow to help you clarify your own hopes and dreams as you pursue a college education. I’m reminded of a wise saying:

The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.

For many, the college application process and college itself are the important steps that reveal your true purpose in life. I believe that the lifelong pursuit of education is critical to helping us all discover who we are and what our purpose is in life.

My passion and life’s work has been to focus on opening doors of opportunity for all young people—of all races, creeds, colors, and income levels. Having access to a good education is critical to a person’s development, and I strive for equal access for everyone. To that end, I’ve spent the last 40 years visiting college campuses and meeting with admissions officers and representatives at more than 150 institutions across the U.S.

Through my experiences of working with more than a million students at the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS), a student organization co-founded with Mr. Claes Nobel, I have been able to comfort and guide students and families through the college admission process, which is often overwrought with anxiety, competition, worry, and fear. The majority of students in high school (a full 70% in my estimation) do not yet have a strong sense of self. Most of you are still going through that process of identifying who you are, who you may want to become, what you want to study, where you want to go, and how you will pay for it. The uncertainty is difficult for families. It’s a challenge because we know the importance of a good education and its capacity to elevate you, your family, and your future family. We know how access to a college can be a profoundly important step in life and is one of the most critical factors for personal and professional happiness (however you define happiness). The stakes are high.

My motivation for writing College Admission: How to Get Into Your Dream School—Real Students, Real Stories was to provide guidance to all students, including first-generation college applicants, parents, and family members. I want to reassure you that no matter where you are on the path to college, it’s OK. My dream is to enable all students to have an equal shot at going to a great school—equal footing for hope. You can dream big, explore multiple educational opportunities, discover who you are and what you want to be along the way. It is OK if you don’t know what you want to study, where you want to go, and how you’re going to get there yet. Really...it’s OK.

The journey we all go through in life is full of surprises and ups and downs. As a student, you will experience those ups and downs vividly during high school and as you navigate the college application process. NSHSS sponsored a scholarship competition inviting students to share their personal stories of how they got into their dream schools. The flood of responses revealed the hard work, perseverance, and sheer wisdom of students who have been through the process. We were inspired by their first-hand experiences and decided to collect some of the best tips and most authentic stories to share in this book. You will hear of high school students’ dreams about taking that next step, exploring different options, coming up with cool solutions to defining their dream school, and building on the foundation for their future dreams and their lives.

These stories are an important testimony to the challenges students have had to overcome and the decisions they have had to make along the way. The information is for all families. I hope the book will motivate students, parents, and siblings to start thinking early about college and to better understand how you define your dream college experience. We share stories of students who changed their minds—sometimes at the last possible moment—about what their dream school is and what area of study they want to pursue.

These words from real students who have been there and done that tell the real story and hold weight in my book—in any book. Much of the advice and personal insight into the college application process that our students offer is applicable to anyone. These life lessons or pearls of wisdom, as one of our scholarship winners calls them, will serve you well through high school, college, and beyond.

What is a Dream School, Anyway?

Everyone’s dream is different. And there is a dream school out there for everyone.

First and foremost, a dream college doesn’t have to be what you initially thought you wanted. There are a number of unforeseen factors that come into play when selecting a college that one may not have considered early on in the process. What constitutes the perfect college for each person differs, but the journey is more or less similar for us all, which makes it helpful to learn through the experiences of others.

—Abbigal Maeng, Austin College

If you base your ideal on reputation and competitiveness alone, the Ivy League schools come up first on that list. These eight elite institutions include Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. Known for academic excellence, these schools have their pick of the best students and athletes in the world. Lots of students dream of attending an Ivy, but only 5% to 10% of those who apply are accepted. It’s important to remember that even some of the brightest students do not get accepted to these top universities. Although these schools are considered top universities they are not the right fit for even some of the very best students. And if you are a cream-of-the-crop student, you may have other schools on your dream list. Location (other than the cold northeast, for example), size (smaller or larger than the 4,000 to 20,000 students at these eight schools), academic focus, or financial considerations can open up a whole range of other school options that fit your ideal.

Throughout my entire research process of looking for undergraduate and graduate programs, I was not focused on applying to Ivy League schools, nor did I even look at any of the programs offered at Ivy League schools. Yes, Ivy League schools may seem better to some people, but the purpose of college is to help the individual learn who they are, what they want to do in life once they graduate, and to teach themselves or rather help them gain more knowledge and wisdom while attending classes, asking professors for assistance when needed, and participating in on-campus activities or organizations. This experience can be gained at any college; it just depends on the mindset of the individual attending.

—Kelsey Santiago, University of Florida

(graduate student in forensics)

Keep in mind that there are more than 3,000 four-year universities in the United States, which means that there are more than 300 schools that rank in the top 10%. The Ivies are a very small portion of the excellent universities out there. It’s important, as a student, to keep an open mind about your options and the unexpected opportunities that you discover as you research and refine your own definition of what a dream school means for you.

The Stats

According to worldatlas.com, there are close to 5,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. That’s a lot of school options! This book will help you narrow down the choices.

Those 5,000 schools enroll more than 21 million students. If you are reading this, you will, no doubt, be one of those students soon. Know this: There is a school out there for you!

About 3,000 schools are four-year institutions and 1,700 are two-year. Most of the advice in this book comes from students pursuing a four-year degree. (The advice is just as relevant, however, if you are looking to begin your post-secondary education with a two-year program.)

Roughly 700 of the four-year schools in the U.S. are public; the 2,300 others are private, and their sizes range from very small (fewer than 500 students) to very large (more than 50,000 students). If you’re not sure what type of school is right for you yet, keep reading!

You will see schools ranked according to all different criteria—admissions statistics, athletics, social scene, campus beauty, graduation rates, job placement, and more. The rankings from College Board, U.S. News & World Report, Princeton Review, and Niche.com, for example, can give you an idea of how you might begin to evaluate your own college options, but in the end, they don’t mean as much as how you feel about a certain school and what it has to offer you. Your Top 10 list should look different from everyone else’s because you create it for and about you.

What do all of the numbers mean? That if you are a hard working student and you want to go to college, there is most certainly one out there for you. It also means that all of those schools are competing for students. They want to fill their lecture halls with their ideal mix of dream students just as badly as you want a spot in one of their dorms. Yes, the college application process can feel like a cutthroat, competitive, and stressful endeavor, but don’t lose sight of the fact that there are multiple schools out there that would love to have you on their roster next fall. Following the advice in this book can help you stand out as more than just a number and show your dream school all that you have to offer.

Good Luck on Your Journey

The path from high school to college is a slow and steady kind of progression. You can’t rush the acquisition of knowledge; the practice required to excel in a sport, musical instrument, or special interest; or the hours logged in community service. At times, the days, weeks, and months of school can seem endless. You may think you have plenty of time to improve your grades, study for those exams, earn a leadership role on a team, or win an award in a club. But before you know it, you’ll be heading up to the podium to collect your high school diploma on your way to your dream school. How you get from here to there is up to you. Luck may be on your side, or not, but your level of hard work and determination is entirely within your control.

The process can also be stressful. Just remember to ask for help along the way when you need it. That’s what this book is all about—assisting YOU.

I’d highly recommend people consider reaching out for help when they really need it. Asking for help is not a weakness, but rather a strength. There are people out there who want to help and who will help you if you just ask for it. Although the search is hard and the application process stressful, no one ever said one has to accomplish it alone.

—Abbigal Maeng, Austin College

The Wisdom of Your Peers

At the same time that I was writing this book, I was evaluating How I Got Into My Dream College scholarship submissions. I remember thinking to myself, These students could almost write this book themselves! I always knew I would include real students’ college application essays in the book, but thought that the advice and guidance would come mostly from experts in the industry. What emerged was the realization that the advice from students often mirrored or deepened the insight from the professionals. In reality, students who have recently been through the college application process have a perspective that makes them authorities on the subject. The following student—one of our scholarship winners—aptly describes her journey as a scramble through a complex and intricate jungle gym, rather than a straight climb up a ladder. Her pearls of wisdom give a taste of what is to come in the rest of the book. Real students, real stories.

Pearls of Wisdom

Down the Slide and Across the Monkey Bars: Climbing the Jungle Gym to Wellesley College

Cassandra Allen, Wellesley College (Class of 2018)

Sheryl Sandberg, in her incredible ability to sum up many of the life experiences of professionals across the globe, once noted that: Careers are a jungle gym, not a ladder. While Sandberg was specifically speaking about the professional realm, I couldn’t help but see the parallels between Sandberg’s observations and my own college application process. In reflecting back upon my four years at Wellesley College and the incredible (and sometimes daunting) application process that preceded it, there was no clear-cut pathway from a small suburban Indiana high school to a celebrated women’s college just outside of Boston. Instead, there were many adventures (and misadventures), a jungle gym if you will, that brought me to my home-away-from-home. In describing my own personal journey to the school of my dreams, I hope to capture and share my pearls of wisdom that I learned along the way and have the honor of sharing my story (with all of its successes and failures) with you.

The beginning of my college journey can be traced back to my sophomore year. As the oldest of three children raised in suburban Indiana, I was dying to explore outside of my small town and see what college adventures lay ahead. My parents spent fall breaks and winter vacations driving me around to different campuses within the state so we could do campus tours. While I was open to visiting Indiana schools, I was far more passionate about being out-of-state; however, before being allowed to explore outside of Indiana, my family wanted me to understand what local schools were available first. For my interest in fashion, I was already certain that no university in Indiana would have the program and connections that I needed to be successful; however, this assumption didn’t hold true. While I didn’t find the perfect fashion program within the state, I did learn other notable qualities to look for when visiting out-of-state schools. Particularly, I was enchanted by the beauty of DePauw’s art museum and having an inspiring creative space such as that became an important characteristic for me. Additionally, I wanted an institution with a nice athletic facility (since I’m an avid runner) and a library that I could get lost in (being in atmosphere with good aesthetics helps me study better, or so I learned from my visits). Thus, from this experience comes my first pearl of wisdom: Start local, explore the different institutions around you. Even if you’re absolutely certain that they aren’t the right fit, you may just learn something unexpected about yourself and what is important to you in your college search.

From an academic perspective, my focus in high school was to explore as many subjects as I could. I went through many different changes in terms of what I wanted to do professionally: everything from orthodontist, to fashion designer, to surgeon. This was hugely helpful in terms of forcing me to explore different subjects. And while I’m sure it was confusing to those around me who got a different answer as to what I wanted to do each time they asked, I’m incredibly grateful that it played out this