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Independent College Admissions Consultant, Janet Rosier’s Educational Resources

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While your high school record –your grades and the rigor of your curriculum–is the most important factor for admissions, you do want the entire application to be your best work. Every part of the application serves a function and requires your thoughtful attention. Take your time and follow directions. Online applications do not have spell check so you need to proofread all parts. List your extra-curricular activities in the order of importance. Write all of your essays and short answers well in advance so they don’t read as if you rushed through them at the deadline.

Executive Director & Founder, Get Me To College

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Each application is different, so keep track of what information you must provide. View each section as critically important. Decide how you can share the most positive information about what you have to offer. Often grades and test scores are the top factor, so make sure to send in transcripts and test scores as requested. Other applications or supplements require essays, recommendations, and activity summaries. Use these sections to provide as many powerful pieces of information about yourself as possible. Leave no section unfilled. If the college wants to read it, then the college values that information.

Director of Admissions, St. Lawrence University

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There is no doubt that the most important component of the application is the high school transcript. Admissions counselors are looking at the rigor of the courses taken and the student’s performance in these courses. The transcript provides the best single insight into the candidate as a student. The other elements of the application – recommendations, essays, test scores, activities – will serve to support, explain and/or enhance the story that the transcript tells. High school profiles, provided by guidance offices, are also important, providing further context for the transcript.

Director of Student Services & University Advisor, St. John’s Ravenscourt School

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Simply put, everything. First, applications are judged in their entirety as every part says something about the candidate that the college finds important. Otherwise, the college wouldn’t waste its time asking for the information. It is not the job of the applicant to judge what might be important. Second, on a college application the devil is in the detail as well as the transparently substantive. Sloppy grammar and spelling can tell a compelling story about applicant carelessness, or worse, ignorance and indifference that can undermine the forcefulness of the most compelling essay. A lack of attention to detail or following the instructions properly says something important about the applicant’s inability to understand and execute simple directions or indifference to following directions. In the competitive world of college admissions, success invariably goes to those who take the time to do the substantive job right and take care of all the details. You’d be surprised how many applicants make it extremely easy for an admissions officer to reject their application. Don’t be one of them! Pursue perfection in everything you submit.