Academics > Counseling > College Counseling > College Corner > The Application Process > What Colleges Need to Know

What Information Do Colleges Need?

Academics

As a Franklin Road Academy student, you will, in most cases, meet the minimum standard for admission, but standards may vary for each college. Spring of the junior year is the absolute deadline for discovering this information, since that is when you sign up for courses for the senior year.

Colleges look for upper level courses, honors sections, and AP classes. For example, the third year of a foreign language is more impressive than after two years of study. A rule of thumb would be that if you are recommended for these classes and if you can earn grades in the high 80’s and in the 90’s in an honors section, you should be there. If not, take regular section courses. On the other hand, the student who stays in regular sections to inflate his grade point average waves a red flag. Admission officers watch for both challenging coursework and high achievement.

Remember, your entire transcript will be studied. A slow start in the ninth or tenth grade followed by a strong finish in the junior and senior years will look positive, but the reverse is not true. In general, the more recent work is the most important, which is why the junior year and the first semester of the senior year have such significance.

Colleges want over-achievers. They want visible signs of effort. The student whose aptitude is high but whose achievement is low, measured either by standardized tests or by school transcripts, is not an attractive candidate. While most colleges look at the whole applicant, a few large universities go by the numbers: if you don’t have the grades, you don’t get in.

Activities

Colleges look for well-rounded students. Colleges are more impressed with a student who makes an outstanding contribution in a few extracurricular areas than with a student who belongs to fifty-seven organizations and does nothing in any of them. They will be impressed with an elected honor or position of leadership. In addition, in the past few years, community service is of increasing interest to colleges. Don’t neglect this important area.

Recommendations

Colleges want to know you. Letters of recommendations are a valuable source of information. Honest words from people who know you well are worth a great deal more than the general “fine young man” remarks. If you ask a person (teacher, family friend, coach, etc.) to write a recommendation for you, make sure that person has enough information to describe you fairly. Do not assume that a faculty member knows that you have maintained a job while in school or that you are on the varsity soccer team. Provide a resume whenever you request a letter of recommendation.

Personal Interests

Admission officers want you to care about their college. Never walk into an interview unprepared. Be interested, be informed, be aware of what the college has to offer and honor it. If you demonstrate a sincere interest in being admitted to a college, the college will respond to your enthusiasm. If you don’t care, you invite them not to care in return.

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