Earning Admission by Greg Kaplan

Author:Greg Kaplan [Greg Kaplan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: na
Publisher: Greg Kaplan
Published: 2016-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6:

Responses To Application Form Questions

I. Application Form Questions: Strategic Answers Can Strengthen Your Child’s Theme and Appeal to Admissions Officers

The college application itself is a relatively straightforward process. Many colleges use the Common App. The Common App is what the name suggests: an online form that an applicant submits to any college that accepts it. On the Common App, applicants input their biographical information, their awards, classes, essays and extracurricular activities for admissions officers to review.

All of the Ivy League colleges and many highly selective private colleges including Stanford, Vanderbilt, and Rice, accept the Common App. Other colleges, including many public universities, do not accept the Common App. For example, the University of California has its own application for all of its campuses. Your child should use the Common App at any college she wishes to apply to that accepts it. The Common App will streamline the application process and avoid duplicative forms for your child to fill out.

Many colleges that accept the common application also require a supplemental application that is accessed through the Common App’s website as well. Supplemental applications are usually shorter and ask your child to declare a major. It includes all the other questions that do not form part of the Common App (i.e. your child’s favorite book).

This Chapter discusses how to use responses to form questions on the application to your child’s advantage and how to respond to questions in a way that demonstrates additional value to admissions officers.

II. What Admissions Officers Look for in Responses to Application Form Questions

1. No mistakes

With so much competition, your child must not make any unforced errors with typos in the application. Typos suggest your child is careless, even though that may not be the case. You should proofread your child’s application to make sure that it is grammatically correct.

2. Comprehensive responses

Your child will submit one application to each college. It must include everything that supports her theme and demonstrates that she is a compelling and highly valuable applicant.

3. Diverse applicants for a well rounded class

College admissions officers value diversity in their incoming class and attempt to create a well-rounded class with different perspectives, life experiences and backgrounds. Diverse and well-rounded backgrounds are more than an applicant’s racial, ethnic, or religious identity. Admissions officers seek students interested in all of a college’s programs, and take into consideration the gender balance of majors and schools within their college when selecting applicants for their incoming class.

III. What Your Child Should Do to Stand Out with Responses to Form Questions

1. Strategic answers demonstrate an applicant’s value to a college

Every answer to a form question must support your child’s application theme and portray your child in the most compelling manner to admissions officers.

Foreign language: admissions officers value foreign language proficiency. The Common App asks for your child to list the languages she is proficient in. If your child speaks another language other than English at home, OR has completed or is currently enrolled in an AP (or other college level) foreign language course, list those foreign languages in the application.

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