ACADEMIC PREPARATION OUTSIDE YOUR HIGH SCHOOL
Many admissions officers suggest that the best preparation for college is to be an avid reader and to learn how to write well.

Therefore, do everything you can to increase your vocabulary and learn how to write while you are in high school. Among other things:

• Read books on your own or join a book club.

• Subscribe to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal or your local newspaper and read it every day.

• Ask your English teacher for the names of books to read, and for assistance or coaching if you want to do better in class or learn how to write more effectively.

• If your parents can afford it, work with a writing tutor.

• Join a writing club or an on-line writing group.

• Take day, weekend, or summer writing courses.

adMISSION POSSIBLE® TIP! Colleges are now looking for students who show special intellectual ability by getting involved with or creating their own learning opportunities outside their own high school, even beyond their own communities.

If highly selective colleges are a student’s aim, excellent grades in demanding courses and high test scores are taken for granted. They also look for “something else” that separates an applicant from the crowd: intellectual vitality and a true love of learning. The exact content of students’ intellectual pursuits is not important, only that something fascinate them.

One of the best-kept secrets in college admissions is how much colleges value students’ involvement in academic pursuits outside their own school. Especially among the most selective colleges, the phrases most commonly used to describe the kind of superb students they want are people with “intellectual vitality” (Stanford), a “desire to learn” (Harvard), a “passion for ideas” (Oberlin), “intellectually curious” (Claremont McKenna), or “an intense curiosity about learning for learning’s sake” (Reed).

Some years ago, successful applicants could simply make straight A’s with a rigorous course-load and get high SAT scores, proof enough for many colleges that such students were the strongest candidates in the land. Today, the bar has been raised. Developing “academic prowess” is an important part of your preparation for college.