The Great College Chase – Misconceptions

When we started down the college application path for my children, I guess my wife and I thought certain things were “givens” and that we could rely on our own experiences to guide us. Boy were we wrong. Following is a list of misconceptions we had about the great college chase.

#1. Since I and/or my spouse went to a good school it demonstrates that we have good educational values and counts in favor of our child being accepted into a top tier school, right? Wrong. If either parent has a degree from a well thought of school, you lose points on the application. Why? Because colleges want to “make a difference” and they count accepting students from families with no history of higher education as a big win in that category. Your child’s application will get bonus points if no one in your family has ever gone to college, period.

#2. Applications are judged on an objective basis and my child’s grades and accomplishments will adequately represent her in the process, right? Wrong. Over the past summer we took a long road trip to visit many campuses and I vividly remember one admissions officer speaking in a public orientation session to a group of parents and students and telling the story of her coffee shop meeting with a prospective student and how she (the admissions office) just couldn’t get over the student’s outfit, how “cool” it was with that red scarf. I don’t know what the student’s other qualifications were, but the admissions officer did tell us that she was admitted to the university.

#3. My child is very accomplished with great grades and great test scores so she will get admitted just about anywhere she applies, right? Wrong. She will be a shoe-in for most state schools and if that is where she wants to go, you are probably set. But for a top tier school there is no automatic ticket – superlative attributes are the starting point, not the finish line. Also, if she does choose the state school don’t let her forget that she does still have to actually fill out the application, something that high school students seem to resist with mountains of teenage inaction.

#4. A strong letter of recommendation from a high school teacher or counselor is a real positive for your application, right? Wrong. What university admissions people refer to as, “the standard strong letter” is a neutral. You only get real benefit from a letter that specifically details how your student was superlative in a specific area as compared to the last 10 or 20 years worth of students. In other words, if the letter doesn’t say something like, “In my 20 years of teaching, I’ve never seen a student with the same level of abilities, maturity, and selflessness that little Johnny has, nor have I seen any other student plan, build, and run an infirmary for our disadvantaged students”, then your letter is just like everyone else’s. Be aware that most high school teachers and counselors don’t realize the state of play here, and it can be a tricky business to try and educate them. In our high school, counselors are focused on state colleges and simply don’t think in terms of what is required to get into a top tier college.

#5. My child is very responsible and has done extremely well in high school without a lot of oversight from me so he should be able to handle this college application process without too much help, right? Wrong. As a parent you had better be on top of every deadline, every test, every letter of recommendation, and every contact. There is just too much to schedule, plan, and execute to leave it all to any one person, even if they’ve never missed a beat in high school.