How do you get accepted to your #1 college choice AND be awarded financial aid? By understanding how different types of colleges award both need-based and merit-based aid, you can put together a college application list that increases both your chances of being accepted and receiving a generous aid package. Here’s how to get college scholarships:

Step 1: Get Accepted to College

The first order of business is to get accepted to a number of colleges. The potential issue is that the criteria for admissions is very different at different universities. The question of how you get accepted to the Ivy League is not the same as the question of how to get into the University of Wisconsin, which is still different from being accepted to your regional four-year college or a less selective liberal arts college. You first need to understand the admissions requirements for the schools you are targeting and follow these requirements very carefully.  

Bear in mind, however, that at the top-tier universities, there are unstated, subjective factors in the admissions process that are not easy to discern. For example, to get accepted to Harvard or any of the other Ivy League schools, you not only need outstanding grades, test scores, and teacher recommendations: you also need to demonstrate things like motivation, energy, curiosity, leadership ability, and special talents. 

Therefore, as you prepare for college during high school, you need to concentrate on your academic performance. No matter where you want to go to college, you must do well academically. But the more ambitious you are, and the more you want to get accepted to the Ivy League or other top-tier universities, you must also cultivate these subjective characteristics. 

Step 2: Earn or Receive College Financial Aid 

It is more difficult to be admitted while also being awarded a merit aid scholarship. Most universities will reserve their scare scholarship dollars for its top performing students and applicants, focusing first on need-based aid and then non-need-based merit aid. You don’t automatically earn consideration for a college scholarship just for applying.  

The better your high school performance, the higher the odds you’ll win a scholarship. For example, the very selective liberal arts college Washington and Lee will award non-need merit-based scholarships to only a very small percentage of its incoming class (see detail below). It reserves most of its financial aid budget for students with high financial need. So, it you want to be awarded The Johnson Scholarship at Washington and Lee (W&L), you need to be among the cream of the crop within its applicant pool.  

Examples of How Financial Aid is Disbursed 

University of Puget Sound – Less Selective Liberal Arts College (LAC) 

At some less-selective private colleges with a high cost of attendance but lower yields, many of its students receive some type of aid, whether it be need-based or merit-based aid. For example, at the University of Puget Sound, 100% of the 430 students in the Class of 2028 received some form of financial aid. 64% (277/430) received need-based financial aid and the remaining 36% (153/430) received merit aid. Puget Sound’s tuition is $65,000 for the 2025-2026 academic year with the total cost of attendance (COA) approaching $88,000. The average aid package for students demonstrating need is just over $59,000. The non-need-based award package for those 153 students was $30,400. 

Bucknell University – More Selective LAC 

But, at the more selective Bucknell University, only 50% (493/991) of the Class of 2028 students are getting any sort of financial aid from the institution, while the other 50% of Bucknell students will pay the full price of admission. 41% (407/991) received need-based financial aid and 9% (86/991) received merit aid (excluding 79 athletes). Bucknell’s tuition is $70,000 for the 2025-2026 academic year with the total cost of attendance (COA) just over $88,000. The average aid package for students demonstrating need is just over $52,000. The non-need-based award package for those 86 students was $19,000. 

Washington and Lee – Even More Selective LAC 

At W&L, which has an impressive endowment for a school its size, 61% (287/472) of the Class of 2028 students are receiving financial aid. 57% (269/472) received need-based financial aid and 4% (18/472) received merit aid. W&L’s tuition is $66,800 for the 2025-2026 academic year with the total cost of attendance (COA) just over $86,500. The average aid package for students demonstrating need is just over $68,500. The non-need-based award package is an impressive $60,000, likely due to many of the incoming 18 students being awarded The Johnson Scholarship. 

Source: College Common Data Set reports. 

Get Accepted to the Ivy League With Financial Aid 

How do you get accepted to the Ivy League with a scholarship? Can you get accepted to Harvard with a merit-based scholarship? The answer is: ‘not likely’. The first issue is that unlike W&L, Bucknell or the University of Puget Sound, Harvard and the rest of the Ivy League do not offer merit-based scholarships. Their financial aid budgets are reserved for students who exhibit financial need. 

For Harvard’s Class of 2028, roughly 54,000 high schoolers applied of which only 1,970 students were admitted, an acceptance rate of below 4%. But, Harvard is very generous to the high-need students it accepts. For the Class of 2028, 920 of the 1630 (57%) enrolled students qualified for need-based aid with the average package totaling $74,000. Only 3 students received non-need merit aid of which the average award was only $6,000.  

What’s the conclusion? While Harvard is very generous to students who qualify for need-based aid, only the most exceptional high-need students in the world will be admitted to Harvard.  

What Are the Odds You Will Receive Financial Aid? 

So, what are your odds of getting accepted with a merit scholarship to an Ivy League university?  

Very small. 

But what are your odds of getting accepted to another college with a scholarship? They could be pretty good, if you are strategic about where you send your applications. 

What Should You Do? 

Understand the financial aid process at different schools 

If you want to get accepted to university with a scholarship, you first need to understand how different schools allocate their scholarship dollars. Use the examples above as reference points while your building your college list. 

What college scholarships do you want? 

Second, you need to make sure what sort of scholarship you are aiming for? Will you be eligible for a need-based aid? If not, you need to hunt for schools that offer merit-based scholarships. 

Where will you most likely get college financial aid? 

Third, you need to look at which schools are more likely to offer YOU a scholarship. You need to carefully assess where you fit in the application pool. If you are going get accepted to university with a scholarship, you need to be realistic about which schools are going to shower you with money. As we have seen, the University of Puget Sound is mostly likely – of the colleges we examined above – to give you a merit-based scholarship. 

Need help with the college admissions process?  

College education is an investment, and college admission to selective schools is very competitive, especially Ivy League and the ever-expanding list of Little Ivies and Public Ivies. So how can you invest your college budget wisely? How can you get accepted to college with scholarships? 

These are questions that the team at Great College Advice can answer. We can help you identify those colleges where you will likely be accepted AND receive a generous aid package. Just contact us on this form and we’ll set up a no-cost, no-obligation meeting so we can learn more about you and discuss how we can help make the college admissions process more successful and less stressful.  

Since 2007, the expert team of college admissions consultants at Great College Advice has provided comprehensive guidance to thousands of students from across the United States and over 45 countries across the world. Great College Advice has offices in Colorado, New Jersey, Chicago, North Carolina and Massachusetts.  

In addition to our one-on-one counseling, Great College Advice extends its support through one of the most active and resource-rich Facebook Groups for college-bound students and their families: College Admissions Experts. With over 100,000 members—students, parents, and experienced counselors—this vibrant forum offers peer support and expert advice like no other.

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“Very carefully.”

The same sensibility applies to choosing a college.  A college may not clamp its toothy jaw around your arm and rip it off, it’s still a good idea to be careful in choosing the right college for you.

Too many kids choose a college based on the wrong criteria.  They look too hard at the architecture, they fret too much about the climate, and they obsess about climbing walls.

As educators, we try to keep the focus where it should be:  on your education.  While the some of the atmospheric issues of architecture and climate–and the amenities like climbing walls–can factor into the choice, we want to help you be sure to consider the kinds of educational environments that will help you succeed.  We want to help you identify the resources, both material and human, that you need in order to propel you personal and professionally into the future.

And the thing is, what’s right for one kid could be just awful for another.  Every student is different, and every student wants and needs different things out of their college education.

So at Great College Advice, we take the time and give the care necessary to help you identify the criteria that will drive your college choice.

And then based on our experience, we will help you identify the colleges and universities that meet those criteria.
 
It’s a fun an exciting process. No alligators.
 

The post Find the Perfect School for You first appeared on Great College Advice.

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Similarly, the rankings organizations use these student to faculty ratios in how they rate different schools against one another.  The lower the ratio, the higher the rank.

However, student-to-teacher ratios are misleading statistics. They really don’t tell you much about the quality of teaching going on at an American college or university. It turns out that the research agrees with me.

Which teachers are included in student to teacher ratios?

In a report by the American Federation of Teachers, entitled, “American Academic: The State of the Higher Education Workforce, 1997-2007,” We learn that adjunct instructors and graduate students are teaching a very high percentage of undergraduate courses in the United States. The AFT updated its research in 2020, only to find that higher education is delivered by an “army of temps” that make low wages–sometimes at or below the poverty line.

The fact is that these ratios do not really reflect how higher education is being delivered and by whom.  These ratios are not a great guide to understanding what is really happening in today’s college and university classrooms.

What is the actual student to faculty ratio? 10%?  25%?  50%?

In thinking about the student to faculty ratio, we tend to assume that the faculty are full-time teachers–most with tenured positions–whose life-calling is to advance human knowledge and impart it to young people in their classrooms.

The facts belie our assumptions.

A 2023 report by the American Association of University Professors using data compiled by the US Department of Education found the following:

At community colleges, it’s worse: four out of every five people teaching a course are non-tenure-track faculty.

At publicly-funded research universities (you know, those “flagship” campuses like UC Berkeley, CU-Boulder, Michigan, and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill). A whopping 41% of the instructional staff members are graduate assistants, 15.8% are part-time faculty, and 14.4% are full-time, non tenure track faculty. So at our “flagship” research universities. On average, only 28.9% of the instructional staff are full-time, tenured or tenure-track faculty members.

On average, private universities fare no better, with only about 29% of instructional faculty at both research and comprehensive universities either tenured or on the tenure track. But within this group, it’s important to recognize that different universities have very different mixes of instructional faculty. And as usual, those universities with bigger budgets and bigger endowments will generally have more full-time, tenure-track faculty. Also, many smaller, liberal arts teaching colleges are likely to have a higher proportion of tenure-track faculty. Even though the proportion of these professors has been declining in the past decade, too.

The one major difference of private, comprehensive colleges and universities (i.e., not the doctoral granting research universities) is that you will find very few graduate assistants teaching courses: only 2% of instructional faculty at these institutions are graduate students.

Why is this stuff important?  Because when you hear statistics like “student-to-faculty ratios.” These ratios usually include ALL INSTRUCTIONAL STAFF, including adjuncts and graduate students. Hidden behind this statistical ratio is the dirty, little secret that full-time. Tenured professors of yore are NOT the norm in most larger universities, whether public or private.

So when the admissions office or the leader of your student tour trumpets a low student-to-faculty ratio. Ask in the admissions office some more probing questions. Take a copy of the AFT report with you to the admissions office. Ask what percentage of undergraduate courses are taught by full-time, tenure-track faculty, adjuncts, and where they come from. Ask about the proportion of courses taught by grad students.

And as you ask these questions, watch the face of the admissions officer. It’s going to turn white. After a moment of panic, the officer stumbles off to find the director of admission or the VP for enrollment management. Then these marketing and sales bosses will try to reassure you that “faculty are very qualified” and “incredibly accessible” and “they are required to hold office hours.” They will downplay the importance of these statistics in the AFT report. And they’ll probably fudge the answers (which are publicly available online and reported annually to the US government).

But I assure you, these statistics from AFT are going to give you a better idea of what the undergraduate educational experience will be like.

If you’re interested in more on my take on student-to-faculty ratios, you can get a general explanation of what these statistics mean and don’t mean. How a low student-to-faculty ratio can actually have a negative impact on class sizes, and you can watch a short video in which I ask some students on one college campus what this statistic means to them. And in the meantime, when college representatives tell you that the student-to-faculty ratio on this or that campus is really low, just smile knowingly and ignore them.

Mark Montgomery
Myth Busting College Counselor

The post What is the Student to Faculty Ratio first appeared on Great College Advice.

Choosing between a career as a physician and a career as a physician assistant is one of the most consequential decisions a pre-health student will make — and most 17-year-olds are asked to make it before they have enough information to choose wisely.

At Great College Advice, our counselors regularly work through this question with students and families. The honest answer is that for many students, the right choice is not yet knowable — and the undergraduate strategy should reflect that reality.

Why the Decision Is Harder Than It Looks

The surface-level comparison is simple: physicians complete four years of medical school and a residency, while physician assistants complete a two- to three-year PA program after a bachelor’s degree. Physicians have independent prescribing authority; PAs practice with physician oversight, though the scope of that oversight varies by state and specialty.

What families underestimate is how early the structural divergence begins. The college a student attends, the clinical access built into the curriculum, and the research opportunities on offer all shape a pre-health applicant’s trajectory in ways that are genuinely difficult to reverse mid-stream.

As Pam Gentry, Senior Admissions Consultant at Great College Advice and our lead pre-health advisor, puts it: “This is a pretty tough decision for 17-year-olds to make. We try to research and work with the student and family to help figure that out — but also give them leeway to say, ‘You can change your mind, because you’re 17.'”

What Both Paths Share

Both pre-med and pre-PA students complete the same foundational science courses in their first two years, so an undecided student loses nothing by starting on the pre-med track.

The grades in those science courses carry disproportionate weight in both application processes. As Gentry notes, “The grades in their science courses are the grades that matter the most.” Understanding how admissions officers read a transcript — including how weighted and unweighted GPAs compare — is useful context before the undergraduate years begin.

Both paths require graduate-level standardized testing. Pre-med students take the MCAT; PA programs require an equivalent test. Students who struggled with high school testing should use undergrad to build confidence for these exams.

Where the Paths Diverge

Clinical experience is the defining difference. PA programs place hands-on clinical exposure at the center of the application, they want evidence that applicants understand what a PA actually does in a clinical setting.

“The undergraduate experience for pre-med and pre-PA is fairly similar — they need to take the same science classes, and they need to have access to research,” Gentry explains. “Where they differ is that in the pre-PA path, they are really looking for clinical experiences more so than in the pre-med path.”

This has direct implications for college selection. When building a list for a pre-PA student, our team specifically looks for undergraduate institutions with structured clinical access: hospitals, clinics, or community health settings where students can accumulate meaningful hours. Some schools offer dedicated pre-PA programs that build this access directly into the curriculum and, for students who meet the benchmarks, provide a pathway into the institution’s own PA program without a separate application cycle. Building that college list thoughtfully is one of the most important early decisions a pre-health student makes.

Program structure flexibility is the other major divergence. Students who enroll in a pre-PA pipeline program and later decide they want to pursue an MD face a genuine transition challenge. The reverse — a pre-med student who later decides to pursue PA — is structurally simpler because the coursework overlaps and clinical hours accumulated along the way are directly relevant to both paths.

The Major Question

A persistent misconception is that pre-med students must major in biology. Roughly 60% of medical school applicants do study biology as undergraduates, but medical schools actively value applicants who bring a different intellectual foundation.

“Med schools love students who major in the humanities. They love students who major in the social sciences,” Gentry says. “Be a religion major, be a psychology major, be an English major — because they need doctors who have excellent critical thinking skills.”

There’s a practical scheduling advantage too: an English major typically requires eight to ten courses to complete, while a biology major requires twelve to sixteen. A student majoring in English can satisfy every pre-med science prerequisite and still have room to explore widely. The same logic applies to pre-PA students. Choosing a college major should be driven by genuine intellectual curiosity, not a misguided belief that anything other than biology is off-limits.

What Professional Schools Actually Want

Both medical schools and PA programs evaluate more than academic performance. Gentry’s summary of what pre-professional students most commonly get wrong is worth quoting directly: “Pre-professional students need to not just focus on growing academically as a student, but to grow socially and within their community, and find their voice and find who they are. Professional schools want people who know who they are, who’ve had some experiences, along with the qualifications they need.”

A student who spent four years optimizing their GPA without developing leadership, community involvement, or a coherent sense of purpose is a weaker applicant than their transcript alone would suggest.

When You’re Not Sure: The Default Strategy

For genuinely undecided students, the structurally safer default is to treat themselves as pre-med during the undergraduate years. As Gentry advises: “If they aren’t really sure, then they should consider going for the pre-med, and then they can always decide later to do PA. But if you join a PA program as an undergrad, it’ll be a little more difficult to make that transition into med school.”

Key takeaway: Choosing pre-med in college keeps career options open and allows you to apply to PA or MD programs later. Gaining science GPA, research, and clinical hours as a pre-med will also meet PA requirements if plans change. A gap year before applying can help with final decisions.

Choosing the Right Undergraduate Institution

Key takeaway: The three most important questions when picking a college for pre-health goals are: Is there strong pre-health advising? Does the school offer research (pre-med) or clinical exposure (pre-PA)? Will I be able to develop academically and personally?

State flagship universities typically offer strong pre-health pipelines. Small liberal arts colleges often provide more direct access to faculty research and the mentorship relationships that generate strong letters of recommendation. Cost is also a legitimate variable — medical school in the United States is expensive, and the undergraduate institution need not be elite to produce a strong professional school candidate.

If you’re working through this decision and want guidance on building a college list that supports your pre-health goals, our team at Great College Advice can help. Reach out to start that conversation.

The post Pre-Med vs. Pre-PA: Which Path Is Right for You first appeared on Great College Advice.

College admissions are not standardized. A high school’s size, resources, and grading norms shape how admissions officers interpret a transcript. A 3.9 GPA from a large public school differs from one at a small private school. Understanding this distinction is practical when planning an application strategy.

Context matters most. Admissions officers at selective colleges read each transcript in light of the school’s offerings, grading policies, and typical competitiveness. Thus, two students with identical records can appear quite different depending on their school. Understanding how school size and structure shape college signals is essential.

Why School Size Changes the Admissions Equation

The most direct way school size affects admissions is through the counselor relationship — and the downstream effects of that relationship on how a student’s application is framed, supported, and contextualized.

In large public high schools, a counselor is likely assigned hundreds of students. Some public schools have 500 to 1,000 seniors and only a handful of counselors. They just can’t provide the personalized, in-depth guidance we can provide at Great College Advice. Even at private schools with 120 seniors and 2 to 3 counselors, the caseload remains heavier than for an independent consultant.

This matters because the school counselor’s letter of recommendation — the secondary school report — is one of the few places in an application where a student’s context gets explained to admissions officers. At a large school, that letter is often brief and formulaic, not because the counselor doesn’t care, but because they simply don’t have the time to get to know each student deeply. At a small school, the counselor may have watched a student develop over four years, attended their performances, and can speak with genuine specificity about them. That difference in depth is visible to admissions readers.

How GPA Is Read Differently Across School Sizes

One of the most consequential misunderstandings in college admissions is treating GPA as an absolute number. Colleges do not evaluate GPA in isolation — they evaluate it relative to the distribution of grades at the student’s specific school.

The mechanism works like this: at some high schools, a 3.9 weighted GPA places a student in the top 10% of their class. At other schools — where students are taking many AP and honors courses — the class average GPA may be closer to 4.2. In that environment, a 3.9 may put a student in the bottom half of their class. As our team explains it: “When colleges are evaluating GPA, really, they’re not looking at the number. They’re looking at where that puts you within your high school class.”

This is why the most useful benchmark is not the median GPA of admitted students at a target college, but percentile data — what proportion of admitted students were in the top 10%, 25%, or 50% of their high school class. Most selective schools aim for a high proportion of their class to graduate from the top 10%. That percentile framing is how colleges process academic performance, and it is how students should think about their own standing. Understanding weighted vs. unweighted GPA is also important, as different schools use different scales.

Class Rank Policies Vary — and That Variation Has Consequences

Many high schools do not rank students at all. Some provide colleges with general guidelines to approximate where a student falls in the class distribution. Others provide no guidance, leaving admissions officers to infer relative standing from the transcript itself.

The practical implication: not having a class rank does not automatically help or harm a student, because colleges have developed methods for interpreting high school performance without one. But the absence of rank data shifts more interpretive weight onto the transcript’s course rigor, grade trends, and the high school profile document that accompanies every application. At a small school without ranking, a student’s standing is communicated through the courses they took, the grades they earned, and how those grades compare to the school’s offerings.

Course Rigor Looks Different at Different Schools

A student at a large public school may have access to many AP courses, dual enrollment programs, and specialized electives. A student at a small school may have access to only a handful of AP courses and limited elective depth. Admissions officers account for this — they evaluate course selection in the context of what was actually available.

This means a student who takes every rigorous course their small school offers is demonstrating the same signal as a student at a large school who loads up on AP classes: both are showing they challenged themselves within the constraints of their environment. The mistake is assuming that fewer AP courses signal less academic ambition. What matters is whether the student pursued the most demanding curriculum available.

The Counselor Relationship: Small Schools vs. Large Schools

The structural differences in counselor caseloads produce a second-order effect that families often overlook: the quality and specificity of institutional support during the application process.

At a large public school, the college counseling office is primarily focused on logistics — ensuring students meet deadlines, complete required forms, and satisfy graduation requirements. The guidance is real and valuable, but it operates at scale. There is limited capacity for the kind of deep, values-level conversation that shapes a strong application strategy. Questions like “What do you actually want from college?” or “What kind of environment will help you thrive?” require time and relationships that large-school counselors rarely have.

At a small private school, the ratio is better, but even a counselor managing 40 seniors is working at a significant depth constraint compared to a dedicated independent consultant as that school counselor has many other job requirements than just supporting college applications. The school counselor knows their school and the colleges that school typically feeds into — that institutional knowledge is genuinely useful. But as our team notes, “a high school counselor knows their high school, and they know the colleges that their high school typically feeds into. We keep an eye on a national pool, and since it is a national competitive pool that you’re competing against, you really do want somebody who’s able to have that bird’s eye view.”

What This Means for Students at Large Public Schools

Students at large public schools are not disadvantaged in admissions, but they are operating with less institutional scaffolding. The school counselor’s letter may be less specific. The college list may be shaped more by what previous students from that school have done than by what is genuinely right for this particular student. And the application strategy may default to conventional wisdom rather than a tailored approach.

Key takeaway: Take initiative to build context for yourself. Build teacher relationships, pursue extracurricular depth, and clearly communicate your goals and identity in your application.

What This Means for Students at Small Private Schools

Students at small private schools often benefit from more individualized counseling attention and stronger letters of recommendation. But they face a different challenge: admissions officers may have less data about their school’s grading norms, making it harder to calibrate relative standing. A student at a well-known prep school carries the weight of that school’s reputation, which can help or create pressure, depending on the school’s profile and the student’s standing within it.

Practical Application: Building a Strategy That Accounts for School Context

The following framework reflects how we approach school-context strategy at Great College Advice, drawing on the specific variables that change across school types.

Step 1: Understand your school’s profile document. Every high school submits a school profile to colleges alongside student applications. This document describes the school’s curriculum, grading scale, course offerings, and sometimes GPA distribution. Students should read their school’s profile — it is the lens through which their transcript will be interpreted.

Step 2: Identify your percentile standing, not just your GPA. Work with your counselor or an independent consultant to understand where your GPA places you within your class. If your school ranks, use that data. If not, examine the distribution of grades and course-taking patterns among your peers to estimate your relative standing.

Step 3: Maximize rigor within your school’s actual offerings. The standard is not “take every AP course that exists” — it is “take the most challenging curriculum your school makes available.” A student at a small school with limited AP offerings who takes all of them and performs well is demonstrating the same academic commitment as a student at a large school who takes many.

Step 4: Invest in the relationships that produce strong letters. At any school size, the quality of teacher and counselor recommendations depends on the depth of those relationships. Students who engage genuinely in class, seek out office hours, and pursue intellectual interests beyond the minimum are the ones who generate specific, compelling letters — regardless of school size.

The following table summarizes how key admissions variables differ across school types:

Common Mistakes in School-Context Strategy

Treating GPA as a universal number. A 4.0 at one school and a 4.0 at another are not the same signal. The mistake is assuming that a high GPA automatically communicates academic strength without understanding where it falls within the school’s distribution. The correction: always contextualize GPA by percentile, not raw number.

Assuming small school = disadvantage. Students at small schools sometimes worry that fewer AP courses or less-recognized school names will hurt them. Admissions officers are trained to evaluate applications in context. A student who has exhausted their school’s academic offerings and earned strong relationships with teachers is not disadvantaged — they have demonstrated exactly the kind of initiative and depth that selective colleges value.

Relying entirely on the school counselor at a large public school. This is not a criticism of school counselors — it is a structural reality. A counselor managing a large caseload cannot provide the same depth of guidance as one managing a small caseload. Students at large schools who want a genuinely tailored strategy need to supplement institutional support, whether through independent consulting, deep self-research, or both.

Ignoring graduation requirements in the pursuit of college-prep courses. Every school has specific graduation requirements — credits in particular subjects, required courses like health or physical education. College admissions strategy must account for these requirements. As our team advises: “Be aware of the graduation requirements at your student’s school, even as we discuss and plan for college admissions. Our strategy for college admission must take into account these requirements in ways that make tactical and strategic sense.”

The Process Matters as Much as the Outcome

Understanding how your high school context shapes your application is not just a tactical exercise — it is part of building a college list and an application strategy that actually fits who you are. A successful admissions outcome, in our view, is not simply getting accepted somewhere. It is arriving at a set of choices where each school is genuinely aligned with the student’s needs, values, and goals.

Two students can start at the same high school and end up at the same college through very different processes. One chose that school because they understood what they wanted and built a strategy around it. The other settled for it because the process was reactive rather than intentional. The college experience and the student’s sense of themselves will be shaped by the path they took to get there.

School size is one variable in a complex equation. Understanding it clearly, rather than automatically assuming it helps or hurts, is what allows students to build strategies grounded in reality rather than anxiety.

If you want a college admissions strategy built around your specific school context — not a generic template — our team at Great College Advice works with students from large public schools, small private schools, and everything in between, including students applying internationally.  Schedule a consultation today.

The post College Admissions at Small vs. Large High Schools first appeared on Great College Advice.

Financial aid award letters are one of the most consequential documents a family will receive during the college process — and one of the most misread. The timing of these letters, the structure of what’s inside them, and the decisions that follow all carry real financial stakes. Yet most families open their award letters without a clear framework for interpreting what they’re actually being offered. The result is that students sometimes commit to schools based on a headline number that, once unpacked, looks very different from what they expected.

Understanding when award letters arrive, what they contain, and how to compare them across schools is not a minor administrative task. It is the financial decision that will shape the next four years — and potentially the decade after graduation.

When Financial Aid Award Letters Actually Arrive

Award letters do not arrive on a single universal date. Their timing is tied directly to the admissions decision timeline, which varies by application type and institution.

For students who applied Early Decision (ED), admissions decisions — and typically the accompanying financial aid packages — arrive in mid-December. Cornell, for example, has historically released ED decisions on the second or third Thursday of December at 7 PM ET, a pattern that community observers have tracked across multiple years. Other Ivy League and highly selective institutions follow similar mid-December windows for ED candidates.

For Regular Decision applicants, the timeline shifts significantly. Most colleges release regular decision admissions results in late March, and financial aid award letters follow shortly after — typically arriving in late March or early April. The National Candidate Reply Date, the deadline by which students must commit to a school, is May 1. That gives families roughly four to six weeks to compare offers, ask questions, and make a decision.

For schools using rolling admissions, the timeline is different again. What is rolling admissions exactly? These schools make decisions as applications arrive rather than on a fixed date, which means a student who applies in October may receive both an admissions decision and a financial aid package well before December. As Jeanette Hadsell, college counselor at Great College Advice, puts it: “If you’re looking at a school that has rolling admissions, I would definitely recommend applying earlier rather than later.”

The practical implication: families should not expect all award letters to land at the same time. A student admitted ED in December needs to evaluate their financial aid package immediately, since ED is a binding commitment. A student with multiple regular decision acceptances will be comparing packages in April under time pressure. Planning for both scenarios in advance reduces the stress of making a major financial decision in a compressed window.

How Students Receive Admissions Decisions (and What Comes With Them)

Before the award letter arrives, the admissions decision itself comes through a specific channel that families should be prepared for. Most colleges today communicate decisions through an applicant portal — a dedicated online account the student creates after submitting their application. An email notification typically signals that it’s time to log in and check the portal, rather than delivering the decision directly in the email itself.

This distinction matters practically. Students who do not create their portal promptly after submitting an application risk missing time-sensitive communications from the admissions office — including requests for missing documents and, ultimately, the decision itself. Following social media accounts for the schools a student has applied to can also provide advance notice of when portals will update, since many admissions offices post announcements before the portal goes live.

The financial aid award letter is typically accessible through the same portal, either simultaneously with the admissions decision or within a few days of it.

What a Financial Aid Award Letter Actually Contains

Award letters are not standardized across institutions. Each college formats its offer differently, and the presentation is often designed to make the package look as generous as possible — which means families need to do careful analysis rather than accepting the headline figure at face value.

The first number to establish is cost of attendance (COA), not just tuition and fees. Cost of attendance includes tuition, fees, housing, food, books, supplies, and travel — every dollar a student will need to spend in a given academic year. Colleges list this either on the award letter itself or on their website. This is the true sticker price, and it is consistently higher than tuition alone.

Once COA is established, the award letter breaks down the financial aid package being offered. That package contains two fundamentally different categories of aid, and conflating them is the most common and costly mistake families make.

“Your Money Later”: Loans and Work Study

The first category covers aid that must be earned or repaid. This includes:

• Federal subsidized loans: The government covers the interest while the student is enrolled. Repayment of principal and interest begins after graduation.

• Federal unsubsidized loans: Interest begins accruing immediately upon disbursement, before the student graduates. This distinction is significant over a four-year period.

• Parent PLUS loans: Borrowed by parents, not students, and carry their own interest rates and repayment terms. These do not appear on the award letter as a student aid item but are sometimes referenced as a financing option.

• Work study: A campus employment opportunity, not a guaranteed cash award. The award letter may list a work study amount — for example, $2,000 per semester — but that figure represents potential wages the student could earn by securing and working a qualifying campus job. At a typical wage of $15 per hour, earning $2,000 requires roughly 133 hours of work per semester. Additionally, whether the college assigns the student a specific position or requires the student to find their own job varies by institution. At some schools, campus jobs are assigned; at others, the student must apply competitively for available positions, and more desirable roles fill quickly.

None of this aid is free money. It is either money the student earns through labor or money the family will repay with interest.

“Other People’s Money”: Grants and Scholarships

The second category — and the one families should prioritize maximizing — is aid that does not need to be repaid or earned through work. This includes:

• Institutional grants: Direct discounts applied to the cost of attendance by the college. A school with a $65,000 annual cost of attendance that offers a $15,000 institutional grant reduces the net price to $50,000.

• Merit scholarships: Awards tied to academic achievement, talent, or other criteria. These are not repaid, but some carry conditions. A scholarship tied to participation in a specific activity — a music ensemble, for example — may be revoked if the student does not fulfill that requirement on campus. This is also a critical consideration for student-athletes when determining which students get athletic scholarships and what the renewal terms entail.

• Need-based aid: Calculated based on financial information submitted through the FAFSA and, at many private colleges, the CSS Profile. This aid is also non-repayable.

• External scholarships: Awards from organizations, corporations, or foundations outside the college. These tend to be smaller than institutional grants, though some full-ride external scholarships exist. They are typically more competitive.

One additional trap to watch for: some awards listed in the letter are not annual. As Sarah Farbman, college counselor at Great College Advice, cautions: “There are some times when a letter is offering a particular merit scholarship, but if you don’t look carefully, you end up finding out that it was only for the first two years.” The letter may not make this distinction obvious. Families need to confirm explicitly whether each award renews annually and under what conditions.

Comparing Award Letters Across Schools

Receiving multiple award letters in April and comparing them accurately is where families most often need structured support. The letters use different formats, different terminology, and different cost-of-attendance figures, making direct comparison genuinely difficult without a systematic approach.

At Great College Advice, we use a standardized spreadsheet to help students break down every offer on the same terms. The framework captures the full cost of attendance at each institution — tuition, fees, housing, food, travel, books, and supplies — and then maps each aid component into its correct category: loans, work study, grants, and scholarships. Formulas then calculate two critical figures for each school: the out-of-pocket gap (what the family pays now) and the loan burden (what the student will owe after graduation). Comparing these two numbers across every school on the list gives families a clear, apples-to-apples picture of what each offer actually costs.

The table below illustrates how this comparison framework works in practice:

Common Mistakes Families Make With Award Letters

Mistake 1: Treating the total award figure as free money. The total package number prominently displayed on most award letters includes loans. A package showing $35,000 in “aid” may contain $20,000 in loans and only $15,000 in grants. The correct question is: how much of this do we not have to pay back?

Mistake 2: Assuming a scholarship is four-year. Unless the letter explicitly states that an award renews annually, families should confirm the duration directly with the financial aid office. A one-year award that was assumed to be four-year creates a significant budget gap in year two.

Mistake 3: Counting work study as guaranteed income. Work study is an eligibility designation, not a paycheck. The student must secure the job, show up, and work the hours. At schools where campus jobs are competitive, this is not a certainty.

Mistake 4: Not appealing. Financial aid offers are not always final. If a family’s financial circumstances have changed, or if a competing school has offered a significantly better package, a formal appeal to the financial aid office is a legitimate and often productive step. Colleges have discretion to adjust offers, and many do.

Making the Decision With Clarity

Once award letters are in hand and properly decoded, the decision of where to enroll becomes a financial question as much as an academic one. Comparing the true net cost — cost of attendance minus grants and scholarships only — across every school on the list gives families the honest picture they need.

If you are navigating this process and want a structured framework for comparing your award letters, our counselors work through exactly this analysis with students and families every spring. The goal is not just to find the lowest number, but to understand what each offer means for the next four years and beyond. And to make the enrollment decision with full information rather than a misread headline.

Need to talk to a college advisor? Schedule a call today.

The post When Will I Receive My Financial Aid Award Letter first appeared on Great College Advice.

Financial aid award letters arrive at one of the most pivotal and emotionally charged points in the college process: immediately after acceptance. Nearly all are confusing. The format is not standardized across institutions, the terminology is inconsistent, and colleges have a clear incentive to present their packages in the best possible light. Families who take the numbers at face value often make enrollment decisions based on a distorted picture of what they will actually pay.

Reading an award letter correctly requires separating four distinct categories of aid. It means understanding the true cost of attendance, and then doing the math across every school on your list before committing to anything. This guide walks through exactly how to do that.

Why Award Letters Are So Hard to Read

The core problem is structural: there is no federal requirement that colleges present financial aid information in a uniform format. For example, one school may list a $10,000 loan alongside a $10,000 grant under the same label, though loans must be repaid and grants do not. Another may group work-study wages, which must be earned through employment, with scholarships, which are awarded funds. These differences mean two award letters with the same total figure may actually represent very different obligations for families.

A second common misreading involves the time horizon of an award. A scholarship may be a one-time first-year award, not a four-year commitment. A $10,000 scholarship that renews annually is worth $40,000 over four years; a one-time award is worth $10,000. Letters rarely make this distinction explicit, and families who miss it can face higher bills in the sophomore year.

The only way to get a clear picture is to break every award letter into its component parts and rebuild the numbers from scratch.

Start With the Real Cost: Total Cost of Attendance

Before evaluating any aid offer, establish the actual cost of attending each school. Tuition and fees are only part of the picture. The figure that matters is the cost of attendance (COA). This includes:

• Tuition and mandatory fees

• Room and board (on-campus or estimated off-campus housing and food)

• Books and supplies

• Transportation and travel costs

• Personal expenses

Colleges are required to publish their cost of attendance. Most include it either on the award letter or on their financial aid website. This number is often much higher than tuition alone — considerably higher than just tuition and fees once housing, food, and travel are factored in.

Every comparison you make between schools must start with the full cost of attendance—not just the tuition line.

The Four Categories of Aid (and What Each One Actually Means)

Every item in a financial aid package falls into one of four categories: grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study. Grants and scholarships are actual financial gifts, loans are borrowed and must be repaid with interest, and work-study requires the student to work for the money. Understanding these distinctions reveals how much you truly receive, versus what you must repay or earn.

Grants and Scholarships: Money You Keep

Grants and scholarships are the only forms of aid that reduce your actual cost. You do not repay them. You also do not work for them. This is the category to maximize.

Institutional grants are awarded directly by the college. A school might offer a Dean’s Scholarship that removes $15,000 from your bill each year. That grant is real money — it reduces what you owe.

Merit-based aid is a recruitment discount to attract desired students. Importantly, it’s awarded based on academic profile, talent, or criteria the institution values—not connected to your FAFSA results. Many strong public and private universities regularly offer merit aid of $20,000 to $35,000 per year. Elite institutions like Yale, Princeton, and Stanford do not offer merit scholarships—they do not use discounting as a recruitment tool.

External scholarships are awarded by organizations, foundations, or corporations outside the college. They range from small one-time awards of $500 to $2,000 to highly competitive full-ride programs. These scholarships are worth pursuing, but are typically smaller and more competitive than institutional aid. Treat them as supplementary funding rather than a primary strategy.

One critical detail about merit scholarships: some awards come with conditions. A scholarship for musical achievement, for example, may require the student to participate in a campus ensemble. If the student does not join that musical organization, the scholarship is forfeited. Always read the conditions attached to every award.

Loans: Your Money, Paid Later

Loans appear alongside grants and scholarships in award letters. But they are not aid in any meaningful sense—they are debt. You will repay every dollar, plus interest.

Subsidized federal loans are the most favorable loan type. The federal government covers the interest while you are enrolled, so interest does not begin accruing until after graduation.

Unsubsidized federal loans begin accruing interest immediately after disbursement. From the moment you take out the loan, the interest clock starts running.

Parent PLUS loans are federal loans that are often referenced as available options, though they will not typically appear on the award letter itself.

When you see a loan in an award letter, recognize it as a debt, not as financial assistance. Loans increase your future payment obligations and must be fully repaid with interest, distinguishing them from grants and scholarships, which reduce costs without repayment.

Work-Study: Your Money, Earned on Campus

Work-study is a federally supported program that allows students to earn money through part-time campus jobs. Although award letters show a dollar figure for work-study, this amount is potential income—not guaranteed aid. Students receive it only if they secure a work-study job and work the necessary hours.

Work-study offers potential earnings, and a student might earn around $2,000 in a semester through consistent part-time work. It’s a real commitment, and the money is earned, not given.

Another variable: not all work-study awards come with a guaranteed job. Some colleges assign students to a specific campus position; others require students to find and apply independently. Campus job desirability and availability vary, and competition for top jobs can be significant. When you see work-study on an award letter, confirm if the position is assigned or must be secured independently.

Comparing Offers Across Schools: A Structured Approach

Once you have categorized every item in each award letter, the comparison becomes straightforward arithmetic. The table below shows how to structure the analysis across multiple schools.

The following framework shows what the comparison should look like once you have broken down each letter:

At Great College Advice, we use a standardized spreadsheet that walks students through exactly this process — entering the cost of attendance for each school, categorizing every line item in the award letter, and calculating the true gap: the amount the family will pay out of pocket each year, and the total loan burden accumulated over four years. The school with the highest sticker price often turns out to be the most affordable once the full picture is assembled.

Common Mistakes Families Make With Award Letters

Mistake 1: Treating the headline ‘Total Aid’ number as the bottom line. The total aid figure combines grants, loans, and work-study into a single number. A package showing $40,000 in ‘total aid’ might include $20,000 in loans and $4,000 in work-study. That means only $16,000 is actually free money. Always break down the total before drawing conclusions.

Mistake 2: Assuming all scholarships are renewable for four years. A scholarship listed without explicit renewal terms may be a one-year award. Before making an enrollment decision, contact the financial aid office and ask: Is this award renewable? What are the renewal requirements (minimum GPA, specific program, activity participation)?

Mistake 3: Counting work-study as guaranteed income. Work-study eligibility does not guarantee a job or a paycheck. At schools where students must find their own campus job, the $2,000 or $3,000 listed may never materialize if the student cannot secure a position.

Mistake 4: Not negotiating. Many families do not know that financial aid awards can be negotiated. If your financial situation has changed since you filed the FAFSA, or if another school has offered a better package, contact the financial aid office to request more aid. This does not always succeed, but it is always worth trying.

What to Do After You Have the Numbers

Once you have built the full comparison across every school on your list, you are in a position to make an informed decision. The school that looked unaffordable at first may turn out to be competitive once merit aid is factored in. The school that seemed like the best deal may carry a loan burden that changes the picture entirely.

Most schools set an enrollment deposit deadline in the spring, giving you time — but not unlimited time — to request clarification from financial aid offices, negotiate if appropriate, and make a final comparison. Do not let the excitement of an acceptance override a clear-eyed look at the four-year cost.

Making the Right Financial Decision for Your Family

The financial aid award letter is not the end of the process — it is the beginning of a negotiation and a comparison. The families who navigate it most successfully are the ones who treat every line item as a question to be answered rather than a number to be accepted.

If you are working through award letters and want a structured framework for comparing them — or if you want guidance on whether your package is competitive and worth negotiating — our team at Great College Advice has the tools and experience to help you see the full picture before you commit.

The post How to Read a Financial Aid Award Letter first appeared on Great College Advice.

Early decision is one of the most misunderstood tools in the college admissions process. And nowhere is that confusion more costly than when financial aid is part of the equation. Families often assume that applying early decision and applying for financial aid are mutually exclusive, or conversely, that need-based aid will always make early decision safe. Neither assumption is accurate. The real answer depends on the type of aid you need, the specific schools on your list, and how clearly you understand what you’re agreeing to when you sign an early decision contract.

What steps should families take before committing to a binding application? This article breaks down exactly how early decision interacts with financial aid, when it works in your favor, and when it works against you.

Why Early Decision and Financial Aid Create a Real Tension

Early decision is a binding agreement. If a college accepts you under early decision, you are committing to attend — and you are withdrawing all other applications. That commitment happens before you have seen financial aid offers from any other school. As our counselor, Sarah Farbman, explains directly: “If you apply early decision, you are foregoing the opportunity to compare financial aid awards.”

For families who need to compare offers across multiple institutions to make college financially viable, that constraint is not a minor inconvenience; it is a structural problem. The entire leverage point of the regular decision process is the ability to weigh competing packages, negotiate with financial aid offices, and choose the institution that delivers the best combination of fit and affordability. Early decision eliminates that leverage before you have any data.

This does not mean early decision is off the table for aid-seeking families. It means the decision requires a precise understanding of your financial situation and the specific policies of the schools you are considering.

The Critical Distinction: Full-Need Schools vs. Everyone Else

The financial risk of early decision is not uniform across all institutions. It depends entirely on whether the school meets 100% of demonstrated financial need.

If you are applying to a full-need-met school — institutions that commit to covering the full gap between cost of attendance and what your family can pay — and you qualify for significant need-based aid, early decision carries less financial risk. As Sarah Farbman notes: “If you are applying to full needs met schools and they accept you early decision, that offer is gonna come with a financial package.” You will receive an aid package alongside your acceptance letter, and because the school has committed to meeting your full need, the package should reflect your actual financial situation.

If you do not qualify for significant need-based aid — and you also cannot or do not want to pay full tuition — the calculus changes entirely. In that middle zone, where a family earns too much to qualify for substantial grants but not enough to absorb a $90,000-per-year price tag without comparison shopping, early decision removes the one mechanism that could have produced a better financial outcome. Applying early decision in this scenario, as Farbman puts it, “costs you the opportunity to compare financial awards down the line.”

The table below summarizes how financial risk maps to aid eligibility and school type:

How Financial Aid Actually Works in an Early Decision Package

Understanding what an early decision financial aid package contains — and what it does not — is essential before you commit.

Financial aid award letters are not standardized, and they are not always written to make the true cost obvious. Our counselor, Sarah Myers, identifies the first step clearly: look at the full cost of attendance, not just tuition and fees. Cost of attendance includes tuition, fees, housing, food, travel, books, and supplies — and it is typically considerably higher than the tuition line alone.

Within the package itself, there are two fundamentally different categories of aid:

Aid that is actually your money later. This includes federal subsidized and unsubsidized student loans, parent PLUS loans, and work-study positions. Work-study provides a campus job at a standard hourly wage — at $15 an hour, it takes a significant amount of time to make a meaningful dent in a college bill. Loans must be repaid. These items appear in award letters and can make a package look more generous than it is.

Aid that is genuinely other people’s money. Grants and scholarships — whether need-based grants from the college or merit scholarships — do not need to be repaid. This is the category to maximize. A $15,000 Dean’s Scholarship that reduces a $70,000 tuition bill is real money. A $5,500 unsubsidized loan is a debt. For student-athletes, it is also important to understand which students get athletic scholarships and how those funds are distributed compared to academic merit aid.

At Great College Advice, we use a standardized spreadsheet to help families cut through the noise: it captures the full cost of attendance at each institution, breaks out every category of aid by type, and calculates the actual out-of-pocket gap — both immediate and in the form of future loan repayment. When you apply early decision, you receive one data point. In regular decision, you can run this analysis across multiple schools simultaneously and make a genuinely informed choice.

When to File the FAFSA and CSS Profile if You’re Applying Early

If financial aid is part of your plan, the FAFSA and CSS profile timelines matter — and they interact directly with early decision deadlines.

The FAFSA opens on October 1st each year. Early decision and early action applications are typically due the first or second week of November. That means families applying early decision have approximately five weeks between the FAFSA opening and their application deadline. The guidance from our team is unambiguous: file as soon as possible after October 1st.

The reason is straightforward. Schools have finite financial aid budgets. As Sarah Farbman explains: “The sooner you get in line for money, the more money you are going to get. Schools at some point will max out their financial aid budget, so you wanna be first in line before they max it out.” Because timing is so critical, families often ask how long does FAFSA take to process to ensure their data reaches the school before the early decision deadline.

Filing early also creates a baseline record. If your financial situation changes after you submit, having an existing FAFSA on file gives you a documented starting point to request repackaging. Without it, you have no leverage for that conversation. Examples for financial change include a job loss, a medical event, a change in family income.

One additional nuance:

Filling out the FAFSA does not obligate you to accept financial aid, and it does not signal financial weakness to admissions offices. You can complete the FAFSA and still indicate to a school that you do not intend to apply for aid. In some cases, that demonstrates financial means can actually work in a student’s favor at schools actively seeking full-pay students to balance their budget.

Early Action as a Strategic Alternative

For families who want the workflow benefits of applying early — earlier decisions, reduced stress in December, the psychological comfort of an acceptance before winter break — but cannot accept the financial constraints of a binding commitment, early action is the right tool.

Early action is non-binding. You apply early, you receive a decision early (often before the winter holidays, though at some larger universities the timeline extends into January or February), and you retain the ability to compare financial aid packages before making a final choice. Our counselor Pam Gentry notes that some large universities (Georgia Tech, University of Georgia, University of Maryland) accept the majority of their students through early rounds, making early action effectively necessary for competitive consideration at those schools.

Early action does not typically provide the same admissions boost that early decision can offer at highly selective schools. But it preserves your financial options entirely. For students who need to compare packages, early action delivers the scheduling advantages of applying early without the binding commitment that forecloses that comparison.

Our standard practice is to have students apply to at least three or four schools early action. It distributes the workload, ensures deadlines are met, and — when students are strategic about which schools they target in the early round — often produces at least one acceptance before winter break.

4 Common Mistakes Families Make

1. Assuming early decision is always risky for aid-seeking students. It is not. At full-need-met schools, for students with high demonstrated need, early decision can be both strategically sound and financially safe. The error is applying this assumption universally rather than evaluating it school by school.

2. Assuming early decision is always safe at need-blind schools. Need-blind admissions means the school does not consider your ability to pay when making admissions decisions. It does not automatically mean the school meets 100% of demonstrated need. These are two separate policies. Verify both before committing.

3. Applying early decision to a school that is out of reach academically. Early decision helps students who fit a school’s admissions profile get admitted from a smaller pool. It does not help students who do not meet the academic threshold. Applying early decision to a school you are not qualified for — what our counselor Sarah Farbman calls the Icarus Effect — can result in a denial that then forces you into regular decision at your other target schools, with no early decision advantage remaining.

4. Filing the FAFSA late. Families who wait until spring to file the FAFSA — even if the school’s official deadline is April or June — are competing for a financial aid pool that has already been partially distributed. Filing in October, as soon as the form opens, is the correct approach regardless of when you plan to apply.

Making the Decision That Fits Your Situation

Early decision and financial aid are not inherently incompatible — but they require honest, specific analysis before you commit. The questions that matter are: Does this school meet 100% of demonstrated financial need? Do you qualify for significant need-based aid, or are you in the middle-income range where grant eligibility is limited? Can your family absorb the cost if the package is less generous than expected, with no competing offers to use as leverage?

If the answers point toward financial risk, early action preserves your options without sacrificing the benefits of applying early. If the answers point toward a school that meets full need and a family with high demonstrated need, early decision may be both strategically and financially sound.

The strategic deployment of early decision — knowing which school to apply to, when the binding commitment works in your favor, and how to read the financial package you receive — is exactly the kind of decision that benefits from expert guidance. If you are weighing early decision and financial aid is part of the equation, working through that analysis with an experienced counselor before November 1st is the highest-leverage step you can take.

Need help with the college admissions process? Schedule a consultation with our team.

The post Can I Still Apply Early Decision if I Need Financial Aid? first appeared on Great College Advice.

Quick answer: There is no pre-law major. Law schools do not require or prefer any specific undergraduate major. They evaluate the quality of your thinking, the sophistication of your writing, and the depth of your engagement with the world. The strongest pre-law majors are the ones that build those skills: English, economics, government, history, and political science all qualify when pursued rigorously. The major matters far less than the reading, analytical writing, and logical reasoning it forces you to practice.

There is no pre-law major, and that is the single most important thing a high school student planning on law school needs to understand before choosing a college or a course of study. Unlike medicine, which has defined prerequisite science courses, or architecture, which follows a very directed path, law school admissions committees do not prescribe an undergraduate major. What they evaluate is the quality of your thinking, the sophistication of your writing, and the depth of your engagement with the world.

The confusion is understandable. The undergraduate years are the only window a future lawyer has to build the intellectual foundation that will carry them through three years of law school, a bar exam, and decades of practice.

At Great College Advice, our counselors work with pre-law students to reframe this decision entirely — away from “what looks like law” and toward “what builds the skills law schools are actually looking for.” It is the same fit-over-prestige philosophy that veteran college admissions expert Jamie Berger has long championed: the right path is the one that fits the student, not the one with the most familiar name.

Key takeaways

• No major is required for law school. Admissions committees admit thinkers and writers, not majors.

• The best pre-law majors build three skills: close reading of complex texts, analytical writing, and logical reasoning under pressure.

• English, economics, government, history, and political science all meet that standard when pursued seriously.

• An English or humanities major often needs fewer required courses (roughly eight to ten) than a hard science major (twelve to sixteen), leaving room for internships and exploration.

• Major alone is not enough. Community engagement, leadership, and meaningful internships are what distinguish competitive applicants.

Is there really no pre-law major?

No, there is no pre-law major, and no undergraduate major is required for law school admission. This is one of the most common misconceptions among students with law school ambitions. The undergraduate years are not a waiting room for law school; they are the primary credential. Law school admissions committees read undergraduate transcripts, personal statements, and letters of recommendation to assess one thing above all else: whether an applicant can think rigorously and communicate that thinking in writing.

A common misconception among pre-law students is that the path to law school runs through political science, since politics and law are adjacent fields. They are adjacent, but adjacency is not preparation. A political science curriculum introduces students to political theory, comparative government, and policy analysis — all genuinely useful. But it does not automatically produce the analytical writing fluency and close-reading ability that law schools identify as the markers of a prepared applicant.

The more precise question is: which undergraduate major gives a student the most practice doing what lawyers actually do? Lawyers read dense, complex texts. They construct arguments from evidence. They write — constantly, precisely, and under pressure. The major that best develops those three capacities is the right major for law school, regardless of its department.

What are the best majors for law school?

The best majors for law school are those that build close reading, analytical writing, and logical reasoning. The strongest options are English and comparative literature, economics, government and political science, and history. None guarantees admission, and an unconventional major disqualifies no one.

English and comparative literature

Great College Advice senior admissions consultant Pam Gentry identifies English as one of the most underrated and strategically sound choices for pre-law students.

One of the missed obvious choices for a lawyer is an English degree. Comparative literature really gives students, as an undergrad, those skills of reading text and writing about what they think.”

— Pam Gentry, Senior Admissions Consultant, Great College Advice

The mechanism is direct: an English major spends four years reading complex texts closely, constructing written arguments about those texts, and defending interpretations under scrutiny. That is, structurally, what lawyers do with case law, contracts, and statutes. The analytical writing skills developed in an English program transfer to law school with minimal translation required.

There is also a practical scheduling advantage. An English major typically requires eight to ten courses to complete, compared to twelve to sixteen for a biology or hard science major. That leaves room in the schedule for electives, internships, and the broad intellectual exploration that rounds out a law school application. For more on weighing this decision, see our guide on what a college major is and how to choose one.

Economics

Economics is a consistently strong pre-law choice that many students overlook.

The reasoning is twofold. First, economics trains students in formal logical reasoning — constructing arguments from premises, identifying causal relationships, and evaluating evidence quantitatively. Second, a significant portion of legal practice — corporate law, antitrust, securities, real estate, tax — is fundamentally economic in nature. An economics major arrives at law school with both the analytical toolkit and the substantive knowledge to excel in those areas.

Government and political science

Political science remains a legitimate and popular choice — not because of its name, but because strong programs require students to engage with primary texts, construct policy arguments, and write analytically about institutions and power. The caveat is that not all political science programs are equally rigorous in their writing requirements. Students choosing this path should select programs that emphasize writing-intensive seminars rather than lecture-heavy survey courses.

Government is a related major offered at a smaller number of institutions. As Pam Gentry notes, government “is a very popular major for pre-law. It’s not a major that’s everywhere — predominantly UVA has a government major, and Dartmouth has a government major.” At schools where it exists, a government major often provides a more focused analytical curriculum than a broad political science degree.

History and the social sciences

History, sociology, and anthropology all develop the close-reading and analytical writing skills that law schools value. History in particular trains students to construct arguments from primary sources — a skill that maps directly onto legal research and brief writing. Social science majors who take writing-intensive courses and engage seriously with methodology are well-positioned for law school, even when their disciplines are not traditionally associated with legal careers.

Does my GPA matter more than my major for law school?

Yes. For law school and for undergraduate admissions alike, the rigor and grades in your core academic work carry more weight than the label on your major. And colleges read GPA more carefully than most families realize. Great College Advice senior admissions consultant Sarah Myers explains how admissions offices actually evaluate a transcript:

When colleges look at a transcript, they focus primarily on your core academic classes — science, math, social studies, language arts, and world language. Many colleges will literally recalculate your GPA using only those core grades.”

— Sarah Myers, Senior Admissions Consultant, Great College Advice

The lesson for pre-law students is the same at the undergraduate and law school stages: a strong GPA built on rigorous core coursework signals more than a high number padded by easy electives. For a deeper look, see how colleges evaluate transcripts.

What does the major NOT do on its own?

Choosing the right major is necessary but not sufficient. Pam Gentry is direct on this point:

“What’s important is being engaged and putting yourself out there — working on those skills of leadership, community involvement, being a good listener, engagement.”

— Pam Gentry, Senior Admissions Consultant, Great College Advice

Law school admissions committees evaluate the whole applicant. The two non-academic factors that consistently distinguish competitive applicants are community engagement and internship experience.

Depth and engagement over a long activity list

This is where the Great College Advice “well-lopsided student” concept matters — the idea, championed by Jamie Berger and applied across the firm’s counseling, that depth in one or two areas beats a shallow list of activities. Sarah Myers describes what colleges (and, later, professional schools) actually reward:

Colleges like to see that a student has tried a few things, but by sophomore or junior year has decided to flourish in one or two particular areas — taking on leadership positions and showing real dedication and passion. They want students who have explored, but who then show leadership and deep knowledge in one or two areas of interest.”

— Sarah Myers, Senior Admissions Consultant, Great College Advice

Community engagement means more than joining clubs. It means taking on leadership roles, being aware of what is happening in the world, and demonstrating that you have applied your values in a real context. Pre-law students serious about top law schools should be running the association to support public health in their area at their university, or whatever it is, but they should be involved in their community and be a leader. Our piece on why you should stop gorging at the extracurricular smorgasbord makes the same case.

Internships that actually fit

Internship experience is the professional equivalent. Setting up a LinkedIn profile, using platforms like Handshake, and actively networking to secure internships in legal settings, policy organizations, or public service roles gives applicants experiential evidence that their interest in law is grounded in reality, not aspiration. But the internship has to fit the student. As Great College Advice senior admissions consultant Jeanette Hadsell cautions:

Internships in an area a student is already pursuing are really valuable, because they show the student is putting all the pieces together around one genuine interest. But if it’s an internship that doesn’t resonate with what you’re already doing — something you just want to throw on your resume — it’s not going to be helpful.”

— Jeanette Hadsell, Senior Admissions Consultant, Great College Advice

The broader principle applies across all pre-professional pathways: professional schools want people who know who they are and who have had real experiences, alongside the qualifications they need. Pre-law students who spend four years focused exclusively on GPA and test prep — without building a life outside the classroom — arrive at law school applications with strong numbers and thin stories.

What is the most common pre-law planning mistake?

The single most frequent error pre-law students make is treating their undergraduate years as a credential-building exercise rather than a formative experience. As Pam Gentry frames it, pre-professional students “need to not just focus academically as a student, but to grow socially and within their community, and find their voice and find who they are.”

This is not soft advice; it is strategic. Law school personal statements require applicants to articulate who they are, what they believe, and why they want to practice law. Students who have spent four years in genuine intellectual and personal exploration have material to work with. Students who optimized narrowly for GPA and résumé line items often find themselves unable to answer the most important question on the application: why law, and why you?

The undergraduate years are the last time as an undergrad to explore your world. The student who takes that seriously — who pursues a major they find genuinely compelling, engages in their community, secures meaningful internships, and develops a clear sense of their own values and voice — is the student who writes a compelling law school application. The major is the vehicle. The person driving it is what law schools are actually admitting.

How do I choose the right college for a pre-law path?

Choose the college, not just the major, on fit. Not every school offers every major, and the quality of a program within a major varies significantly by institution. Jeanette Hadsell’s advice on evaluating any program applies directly to pre-law students: look beyond the name of the school to the program itself and the environment where the student will thrive.

Students need to ask themselves: where am I going to be happy, and where can I have some fun? When students are happy and comfortable on a campus, they do well.”

— Jeanette Hadsell, Senior Admissions Consultant, Great College Advice

When evaluating undergraduate programs as a pre-law student, the questions worth asking current students and faculty include: How writing-intensive are the courses in this department? What research or independent study opportunities exist? How accessible are professors outside of class? What internship or externship connections does the department maintain?

These questions — drawn from the framework Great College Advice counselors use to help students evaluate fit — surface what matters for pre-professional planning: not just whether a major exists at a school, but whether the program delivers the skills a future law student needs. Start with our guide to making a college list.

Building your pre-law foundation

The right major for law school is the one that gives you the most practice reading complex texts, constructing written arguments, and thinking logically under pressure. English, economics, government, history, and political science all meet that standard when pursued seriously. Political science alone does not guarantee admission to a top law school, and an unconventional major does not disqualify anyone.

What distinguishes applicants who get into their target law schools is a combination of academic rigor, genuine community engagement, meaningful internship experience, and a clear sense of personal identity — all built across four undergraduate years treated as an opportunity, not an obstacle.

Plan your pre-law undergraduate path

If you are a high school student with law school ambitions and want to build an undergraduate plan that positions you for the most competitive programs, the counselors at Great College Advice work with pre-law students to identify the right schools, the right majors, and the right four-year strategy. Reach out to Great College Advice to start that conversation before you commit to a college list — because the undergraduate decision and the law school outcome are more connected than most families realize.

FAQs about pre-law majors

What is the best major for law school?

There is no single best major for law school. Law schools do not require or prefer any specific major. The strongest choices are those that build close reading, analytical writing, and logical reasoning — most commonly English and comparative literature, economics, government, political science, and history.

Do you have to major in political science to go to law school?

No. Political science is popular but not required, and it offers no admissions advantage on its own. Law schools value the writing and analytical skills a rigorous program develops, which can come from many majors, including English, economics, and history.

Is there a pre-law major?

No. “Pre-law” is a track or advising designation, not a major. Students follow a pre-law path while majoring in any subject and working with their university’s pre-law advisor.

Does your undergraduate major affect law school admission?

Your major matters far less than how rigorously you pursue it and the GPA you earn in core academic coursework. Admissions committees focus on the quality of your thinking and writing, your grades, your engagement, and your personal statement.

What else do law schools look for besides grades and major?

Law schools look for community engagement, leadership, meaningful internship or work experience, strong letters of recommendation, and a personal statement that shows the applicant knows who they are and why they want to practice law.

How does Great College Advice help pre-law students?

Great College Advice counselors help pre-law students identify the right schools, the right majors, and the right four-year strategy — building the academic rigor, engagement, and experience that competitive law schools reward, rather than chasing prestige for its own sake.

The post What to Major in Before Law School first appeared on Great College Advice.

For high-achieving students from lower- and middle-income families, college admissions can feel designed for the already advantaged. QuestBridge aims to change that by connecting exceptional students from limited financial backgrounds with the nation’s most selective colleges. As one of the most consequential and misunderstood programs in admissions, families often ask: What is it? How does the matching process work? Is it right for their student?

These answers are crucial. QuestBridge is not just a scholarship search or aid portal. It’s a structured admissions path with a distinct timeline, binding commitments, and strategic logic. Knowing how it works and how it fits into college planning can make the difference between maximizing opportunity and missing out.

Why QuestBridge Deserves Serious Strategic Attention

The college admissions landscape is crowded with programs that promise access and opportunity. Most deliver far less than they advertise. QuestBridge is a genuine exception, and the reason is structural: it operates through formal partnerships with highly selective colleges and universities in the United States, including Cornell, Princeton, and UPenn.

These partner colleges do not simply list QuestBridge as a resource, they actively recruit through it, reserving spots and financial packages specifically for matched students.

The financial rewards are significant. QuestBridge matches provide substantial scholarships at partner colleges. For families facing a gap between need-based aid and actual costs, this can decide whether a selective college is truly accessible.

QuestBridge stands out for its timeline. The National College Match does not follow traditional Early Decision or Regular Decision schedules. Discovering that too late means losing the opportunity. Early awareness and preparation, ideally by junior year, are critical.

How QuestBridge Works: The Core Mechanics

The National College Match

The centerpiece of QuestBridge is the National College Match, a competitive scholarship and admissions program open to high-achieving high school seniors who demonstrate significant financial need. Students apply to the Match in advance of their senior year.

Match decisions are released and managed by QuestBridge—not by individual partner colleges.

The Match process works as follows: Finalists rank partner colleges in order of preference (up to 15 allowed). Partner colleges then review finalist profiles and extend Match offers.

If a student is matched to one of their ranked schools, the match is binding — the student commits to attend that institution and withdraws all other applications. In exchange, the matched college provides significant scholarship support.

This binding commitment is the most important feature families need to understand before pursuing the Match. It functions similarly to Early Decision in its obligations. Students are not matched and then left to negotiate aid — the scholarship commitment is part of the match itself.

Decision Timelines and Notifications

The QuestBridge Match notification timeline is controlled by QuestBridge, not by individual partner colleges. After Match results are released, some partner colleges follow up directly with students regarding financial packages and official letters.

Based on communications within admissions advising communities, Cornell has indicated it sends official letters and financial packages around December 18th following Match notification. Students who are not matched but remain finalists can still apply to partner colleges through Early Decision or Regular Decision using their QuestBridge application materials.

Who QuestBridge Is Designed For

QuestBridge spells out its criteria. Families should honestly assess fit before devoting time to an application.

Financial Eligibility

QuestBridge serves students with significant financial need, assessing family financial circumstances holistically—including income, family size, assets, and first-generation status.

This program is for students whose families cannot afford college even after financial aid—not for those who can manage with standard aid. Timely FAFSA information also plays a key role in their planning.

Academic Profile

QuestBridge is as selective as its partner colleges. Finalists typically have top GPAs, strong extracurriculars, possibly high test scores and compelling stories. The program is for students who meet these academic standards but lack financial resources—not a back door for underqualified applicants.

First-Generation and Underrepresented Students

While not limited to first-generation students, QuestBridge serves many who are first in their families to pursue a four-year degree. Its resources and mentorship are especially helpful for those navigating selective college admissions without family experience.

Integrating QuestBridge Into a Multi-Year College Planning Strategy

QuestBridge does not exist in isolation from the broader college planning process — it is one component of a strategy that should be built over multiple years. The way we approach college planning at Great College Advice reflects this: the work of identifying a student’s authentic interests, building a coherent extracurricular profile, and developing self-awareness about what they want from college begins well before senior year.

Ninth and Tenth Grade: Building the Foundation

In ninth and tenth grade, the focus is on exploration rather than optimization. Students should try activities, discover what genuinely engages them, and develop the kind of authentic interests that will eventually anchor both their extracurricular profile and Ninth and tenth graders should focus on genuine exploration. Trying activities and discovering real interests builds the foundation for an authentic extracurricular profile and application story. Authentic engagement leads to a stronger narrative by junior year. Course  selection, summer activities, and academic rigor.

Junior Year: Focusing and Preparing

By junior year, the exploration phase gives way to focus. Students narrow their activities to those that reflect genuine commitment and, where possible, demonstrate leadership. Coursework becomes more demanding, and the college list begins to take shape. This Junior year requires focus. Students should narrow their activities to those that show commitment and, ideally, leadership. Academics intensify, and college lists emerge. This is the time to research QuestBridge, verify eligibility, and prepare materials. The goal is to have students complete the majority of their application work during the summer before senior year. When the Match application opens, a well-prepared student can engage with it fully rather than scrambling to produce essays and materials while managing a full academic schedule.

Common Mistakes Families Make With QuestBridge

Discovering it too late. The single most common error is learning about QuestBridge after the Match application has already closed. QuestBridge awareness needs to be built into the planning process by junior year at the latest.

Treating the Match as a fallback. Some families approach the Match as a safety net — something to try if other options don’t work out. This misunderstands the program’s competitive reality. The Match is as selective as the partner colleges themselves. Treating the Match as a fallback is a mistake. It is as competitive as the partner colleges. Proper preparation and strategy are essential. Commitment is equivalent. Ranking a school you would not attend is not a strategy; it is a risk.

Ignoring the non-match pathway. Students who apply to the Match and are named finalists but not matched retain significant advantages. They can apply to partner colleges using their QuestBridge application, and many partner colleges view finalist status favorably. Not being matched is not the end of the QuestBridge pathway.

Making the Decision: Is QuestBridge Right for Your Student?

QuestBridge is the right fit when three conditions align: the student meets the financial eligibility criteria, the student’s academic profile is competitive at the level of the partner colleges, and the student is genuinely interested in attending one or more of those partner colleges. When all three are true, the Match is one of the most powerful tools available in college admissions — a pathway to substantial scholarship support at a world-class institution that would otherwise be financially out of reach.

The decision about whether and how to pursue QuestBridge should be made in the context of a student’s full college list, financial situation, and personal goals — not in isolation. A balanced college list, a clear understanding of financial aid options, and a realistic assessment of where a student is most likely to thrive academically and personally are the foundations on which any application strategy, including QuestBridge, should be built.

Our team at Great College Advice can help you assess the full picture — from building the right college list to preparing the strongest possible application materials before the deadline arrives. Contact us today.

The post What Is QuestBridge? first appeared on Great College Advice.

The instinct to do everything, such as varsity sports, student government, debate, and community service, is understandable. But admissions officers at selective colleges see thousands of those students every cycle. And they blur together. What stands out is a student who has gone deep rather than wide: genuine expertise and real commitment in one or two areas, not a résumé padded with clubs attended occasionally.

This is what college advisors mean by “well-lopsided”. This has been and still is one of the most useful shifts a family can make during the high school years.

What Does “Well-Lopsided Student” Actually Mean?

A well-lopsided student has superior talent in one or two areas. Two components matter here.

It is about achievement, not just participation. The student has won a competition, held a meaningful leadership role, created something original, or reached a skill level that distinguishes them from casual participants. Playing piano is not well-lopsided. Performing at a regional level, composing original work, or teaching younger students is.

It covers one or two areas, not one. Well-lopsided does not mean monomaniacal. A serious athlete who also volunteers consistently in a cause they care about has a coherent profile, as long as both reflect genuine investment. Learn more about building a coherent extracurricular profile.

Does Leadership Require an Official Title?

No. A student might manage a club’s website, lead a fundraising effort, or mentor peers without a formal position. What admissions officers are reading for is agency: did this student take initiative, or did they just show up?

A student who attended 40 club meetings is less compelling than a student who attended 20 and built something.

How Many Activities Is the Right Number?

There is no target number. The Common Application provides space for ten activities — students do not need to fill all ten. Quality matters far more than quantity. A student with one deeply substantive activity, well-documented, has a stronger extracurricular profile than a student with ten surface-level involvements.

Jeanette Hadsell, advisor at Great College Advice, puts it plainly: “Make sure you do what you love to do, not what you think is looking good on paper.”

Can Extracurriculars Compensate for Weak Grades?

Rarely. Academic performance, particularly high school grades, takes priority in the application process. Colleges are schools first, and they look for students who do well in school. The well-lopsided strategy is a differentiator for students who have already demonstrated academic strength. Not a workaround for a weak transcript.

What If Your Student Has Not Found Their “Thing” Yet?

This is common and not disqualifying. In 9th and 10th grade, the goal is exploration: keeping doors open and discovering what genuinely engages your student. By 11th grade, as the application timeline comes into focus, the priority shifts toward identifying where real investment is happening and deepening it.

Students who understand what they care about also write far better essays. Authentic self-knowledge produces specific, memorable writing. Strategic box-checking produces generic essays, because the underlying experience is generic.

How Do Summers Factor In?

Colleges pay close attention to how students use their summers. A meaningful summer does not require a prestigious or expensive program. What matters is that the activity connects to the student’s broader profile or demonstrates initiative that the school year does not capture.

Jeanette is direct on this point: “Internships in an area that a student is already pursuing throughout their extracurriculars can be really valuable, because it shows they are putting all the pieces together on that one interest of theirs, their passion. If it is an internship that does not really resonate or partner with what you are already doing and it is just something you want to throw on your résumé, it is not going to be helpful.”

Work is entirely acceptable, too. See our guide on how to spend your summers strategically.

What Does a Well-Lopsided Profile Signal to Admissions Officers?

When an admissions officer reads a well-lopsided profile, they see evidence of things selective colleges actively look for: the ability to commit, the capacity to develop expertise, the willingness to take initiative, and the self-awareness to know what matters to you. These are not just admissions criteria, they are predictors of how a student will contribute in college and beyond.

Where Should Families Start?

The well-lopsided framework starts with honest self-assessment, not strategy. What does your student spend time on when no one is directing them? Where have they already shown initiative? Those answers are the foundation on which everything else is built.

As Jeanette says, “When students are happy and comfortable, they are going to do well. We want students to really think about where they are going to feel their best, the most comfortable. That is where they will do great.”

Ready to build your student’s profile on that foundation?

Our advisors at Great College Advice guide students through a structured self-discovery process to identify what makes each student genuinely distinctive, then build an application strategy around it.

Schedule a free consultation and let us help your student figure out who they are and how to show that on an application.

The post What Is the “Well-Lopsided” Student first appeared on Great College Advice.

Senior year is the final chapter of a high school transcript — and admissions officers read it closely. The courses chosen for 12th grade demonstrate ambition, consistency, and college-readiness. A well-constructed senior schedule does more than meet graduation requirements; it reinforces the student’s narrative since freshman year and can tip the balance in competitive admissions.

A common mistake is treating 12th grade as a reward for surviving junior year. After intense 11th-grade testing, college visits, AP exams, and application research, coasting is tempting. But colleges that see fall semester grades before deciding want to know if students maintained standards under pressure. A sudden drop in rigor or performance sends the wrong signal at the worst moment.

Use this guide to design your ideal senior-year course schedule and make informed decisions, so you can achieve both graduation and college admissions goals.

Why Senior Year Course Selection Is a Primary Admissions Lever

Course selection is not a background detail in the admissions process — it is one of the most direct signals a student sends to an admissions committee. Colleges are looking for evidence that students have challenged themselves appropriately and made thoughtful choices that are well-suited to their abilities. Takeaway: Smart, well-matched course selection matters more than just taking the hardest courses.

This matters. A student with six APs and three Bs and two Cs hasn’t shown readiness but poor self-assessment. A student with four challenging, interest-aligned courses and four As has shown what selective colleges want: challenge, competence, and judgment.

Senior year course selection also impacts the weighted GPA, which gives context for the unweighted GPA. Some schools weigh harder courses more, including honors, AP, or IB. Understanding weighted vs. unweighted GPA helps admissions officers compare rigor across schools.

The Rigorous Balance Framework: AP, IB, and GPA Protection

The central tension in senior-year course planning is between taking the hardest available courses and maintaining the grades that make them worth taking. The answer is not to choose one over the other — it is to calibrate.

The Core Principle: Hard Courses, Good Grades

The best path is to take the hard course and get a good grade. The higher the challenge and the higher the grade, the more seriously the most selective colleges will consider the applicant. That said, each student is different, and sometimes it makes perfect sense for even a highly capable student to calibrate their course load based on a whole host of considerations.

For students applying to the most selective universities, the standard is clear: if you have progressed through a subject at the honors or AP level, the expectation is that you continue at that level. Completing AP Calculus AB in the junior year, then switching to a standard elective in the senior year, raises questions. Conversely, choosing a rigorous, appropriately leveled course after struggling in a subject shows valued self-awareness.

How Many AP or IB Courses Is the Right Number?

There is no universal answer, but the framework is consistent: the number of rigorous courses should match the student’s demonstrated capacity to perform well in them. Key takeaway: The quality and fit of the course selection outweigh sheer course quantity when it comes to senior-year rigor and admissions impact.

For highly selective schools, students are expected to challenge themselves at the highest levels offered. For those applying more broadly, some institutions focus less on maximum rigor and weigh other factors.

IB vs. AP: A Structural Comparison

IB Diploma students work within a set rigorous framework. For students at schools offering both AP and standard courses, AP selection requires more planning.

AP is a specific, higher-level curriculum developed by the College Board and taught at some high schools. IB is an advanced curriculum offered by some high schools under the global auspices of the International Baccalaureate organization. The table below compares the two frameworks across the dimensions most relevant to senior year planning.

The Major-Alignment Strategy: Electives as Admissions Signals

Senior year electives are not filler; they reinforce academic identity and show a genuine interest in a field. Admissions officers view course selections in light of a student’s stated interests and intended major. Electives that align with the intended major strengthen the application narrative.

STEM-Bound Students

A student applying to engineering or computer science who takes AP Calculus BC, AP Physics C, and a statistics or data science elective shows subject depth and preparation. Choosing an unrelated elective instead of math or science creates a gap in the narrative.

The fourth year of math is key for STEM applicants. Taking calculus shows preparation and avoids leaving a visible transcript gap. For elite programs, calculus is a key academic signal.

Humanities and Social Science Applicants

A student interested in political science, law, or public policy benefits from AP Government, AP Economics, AP History. These courses demonstrate both engagement and analytical writing skills needed for college-level humanities coursework.

For pre-law or social science, a fourth year of English is essential, and the level matters. AP English Literature or Language shows readiness for college-level reading and writing.

Arts and Interdisciplinary Applicants

Arts, design, or interdisciplinary students should use their senior year to deepen relevant coursework while maintaining academic breadth. Some may pursue a capstone project to show skill in independent research or creative work. Aim for passion, depth, and competence in core subjects.

The Fourth Year of Core Subjects: Why It Matters

One of the most consequential decisions in senior-year planning is whether to continue core academic subjects — math, science, a foreign language, and English — into the fourth year. The key takeaway: For most college-bound students, pursuing a fourth year in each core subject is critical to maximizing admissions opportunities. Make an intentional plan to enroll in these courses and discuss your options with your counselor to ensure you stay on track for your college goals.

Mathematics

Four years of increasingly rigorous math is the norm at selective colleges. Stopping at Algebra II or Pre-Calculus and skipping senior-year math signals a ceiling, hurting STEM applicants and missing an opportunity for humanities students to demonstrate quantitative skills.

Foreign Language

Selective colleges usually require four years of a single foreign language. Stopping after three years falls short. Continuing to year four—even if not the hardest level—shows commitment and skill.

Science

Students not on a STEM track often need three years of science. STEM applicants should complete four years, including an AP or honors lab science course in the senior year. The standard sequence is Biology, Chemistry, and Physics; AP science in senior year adds value.

English

Four years of English is standard and expected. The key senior year choice is level: AP English Literature or AP English Language is the stronger option if the student can excel.

Dual Enrollment vs. AP: Which Is Better?

For students seeking college credit or advanced coursework beyond what their high school offers, dual enrollment and AP courses are the two primary options. Carefully research each option in relation to your goals and target colleges before making your choice.

Dual Enrollment (also called Dual Credit) is a college course offered to high school students in alignment with their high school. Students are awarded credit by both the high school and the college.

Concurrent Enrollment is similar but may not count for high school credit or graduation requirements in some districts.

AP courses are a specific, higher-level curriculum developed by the College Board and taught at some high schools. College credit is awarded based on the AP Exam score, and the threshold varies by institution.

The table below compares the two options across the dimensions most relevant to senior year decision-making.

The key distinction for admissions purposes: AP courses are a universally recognized signal of rigor. Dual enrollment demonstrates initiative and college-readiness, but the credit itself is less reliably accepted at selective four-year institutions. Students applying to highly selective schools should prioritize AP or IB coursework where available; dual enrollment is most valuable when AP options are limited or when the student has a specific college credit goal.

The Senioritis Safeguard: Why Second Semester Still Counts

Course selection matters through the entire senior year, not just the fall semester. The second semester of senior year is where many students disengage, and it is also where admissions decisions can unravel.

Colleges that admit students in the early rounds — Early Decision, Early Action, or Regular Decision — send acceptance letters with an implicit condition: maintain your academic performance. A significant drop in grades or a sudden reduction in course rigor in the second semester can trigger a rescinded offer. This is not a theoretical risk. Admissions offices do review final transcripts, and a student who earned a first C after years of strong performance, or who dropped two rigorous courses after receiving an acceptance, will draw scrutiny.

Semester grades printed on the transcript are the ones that matter. The strategic implication is straightforward: the course schedule a student builds for senior year should be one they can sustain through June, not one designed to impress in September and abandoned by February.

For students who receive a deferral from an Early Action or Early Decision school, the second-semester transcript becomes an active admissions document. A strong set of senior year grades in rigorous courses is one of the most effective ways to strengthen a deferred application. Students in this position should treat the second semester as an opportunity to make the case that the deferral was a mistake.

Senior Year Supplemental Checklist: Testing and Applications

While course selection is the primary lever for admissions competitiveness, the fall semester of senior year also involves standardized testing decisions and application deadlines. These are secondary to academic performance but require coordination.

Some colleges may consider fall senior-year grades (or mid-term grades) as part of Early Action or Early Decision consideration. Students who are retaking the SAT or learning how to ace the ACT in September or October should do so without allowing test preparation to compromise their academic performance or extracurricular commitments. For students who could benefit from an extra 20 or 30 points, retaking the test can be worthwhile — the key is doing a little more prep without letting it consume time needed for schoolwork, extracurriculars, and other commitments. A small grade fluctuation in that context is not necessarily a disqualifying concern.

The principle is balance: senior year is not the time to become obsessive about test scores at the expense of the academic record that colleges will also evaluate.

Building a Senior Year Schedule That Works

The most effective senior year schedules share four characteristics: they continue core academic subjects at an appropriate level of rigor, they include at least one or two courses that reinforce the student’s intended major or academic identity, they are calibrated to the student’s demonstrated capacity to perform well, and they are sustainable through the end of the year.

Students should be engaged in mapping their own curriculum at every step. The ability to assess one’s own strengths, make strategic course choices, and follow through on those choices is exactly the kind of executive functioning that college will demand — and senior year is the last opportunity to demonstrate it on the high school transcript.

If you are navigating senior year course selection and want a counselor who can evaluate your specific transcript, target schools, and academic profile to build the right schedule, the team at Great College Advice works with students at exactly this stage. Book a consultation with us.

The post What Senior Year Courses Should You Take? first appeared on Great College Advice.

Making a mistake on a college application after hitting submit is one of the most panic-inducing moments in the admissions process. The good news: most errors are fixable, and the ones that aren’t are rarely as damaging as students fear. The key is knowing which category your mistake falls into — and responding with the right protocol, not the wrong urgency.

This guide is built for students who have already submitted. It replaces the anxiety spiral with a clear, tiered action plan: what to fix immediately, what to update through official channels, and what to leave alone entirely.

Why Application Errors Happen

The Common Application’s review process asks students to scroll through a PDF of their completed application and click a confirmation button before submitting. In practice, as our counselors observe consistently, students are often overconfident at this stage — they scroll quickly, click through, and submit without catching errors that a slower review would have caught.

The consequences range from trivial to consequential. One student submitted to Purdue University’s wrong campus because he hadn’t filled out the data for his counselor to check before hitting submit. He was admitted to a campus that wasn’t his top choice, and the university would not allow a change. He ultimately enrolled elsewhere with a strong scholarship — but the Purdue outcome was locked the moment he clicked submit without a second set of eyes on the form.

That example illustrates the core principle of post-submission error management: the time to prevent mistakes is before submission, but the time to fix them is immediately after you find them — not weeks later.

Not All Errors Are Equal

Before taking any action, categorize the error. The appropriate response depends entirely on which tier the mistake falls into.

The following table maps error types to their urgency level and the correct response channel.

Critical Errors: Act Within 24 Hours

Critical errors are those that affect how the admissions office identifies and processes your file. A wrong birthdate, for example, can create a mismatch between your application and your financial aid record — a problem that compounds over time if left uncorrected. Understanding how long does FAFSA take to process can help you realize why data consistency is so vital for your financial aid package.

For Critical errors, do not wait for the portal to offer a self-service fix. Call the admissions office directly, then follow up with an email the same day. State the error clearly, provide the correct information, and include your full name, application ID, and the school you applied to. Keep the tone factual and brief — admissions officers process thousands of files and need the correction to be immediately actionable.

Academic Updates: Use the Right Channel

Colleges expect that senior year produces new information. A strong first-quarter grade report, a new SAT score, or a significant award earned after submission are all legitimate reasons to contact an admissions office. These updates work in your favor — they demonstrate continued achievement — and most schools have a formal mechanism for receiving them.

The first place to look is the school’s applicant portal. Once you submit through the Common App, each college sends login credentials for their own applicant portal. Many universities include an “Application Update” section within that portal specifically for submitting new academic information. This is separate from the Common App itself — the Common App’s role ends at submission.

For schools that use the University of California or California State University applications, the update process is handled entirely within those systems’ own portals, which have dedicated fields for post-submission academic updates. These differ structurally from the Common App portal and should be navigated separately.

If no portal update field exists, email the admissions office directly. Use the template format in the next section.

The Additional Information Section and Direct Outreach

Some changes aren’t errors, they’re developments. A family illness, a school closure, a new leadership role, a significant personal event: these are the kinds of circumstances that admissions officers genuinely want to know about, because they affect how they read the rest of your application.

The Common App includes an Additional Information section where students can explain circumstances that don’t fit elsewhere. If you’ve already submitted and didn’t use this section, you’ve lost that channel for that school — but you haven’t lost the ability to communicate. A direct email to the admissions office, framed as an application update rather than a correction, is appropriate here.

Admissions officers are people who understand that life happens. As our counselor, Sarah Myers, notes, if a student has a legitimate reason for a late or incomplete submission — an illness in the family, a hospitalization, a genuine emergency — reaching out directly is not against any rules. The same principle applies to post-submission updates: a well-written, concise email explaining a meaningful development in your circumstances will be read by a human being who has context for what students go through.

How to Email an Admissions Office

When the portal doesn’t offer a self-service fix, email is the correct channel. The email should be short, specific, and professional. Below are templates for the two most common scenarios.

Template 1: Correcting a Critical Error

Subject: Application Corr

6ection — [Your Full Name] — Application ID [XXXXX]

Dear [Admissions Office / Specific Officer Name if known],

I am writing to correct an error in my submitted application for [Program/Major] for the [Year] entering class.

The error: [Field name] currently reads [incorrect information]. The correct information is [correct information].

Please let me know if you need any supporting documentation to process this correction. I am happy to provide whatever is needed.

Thank you, [Full Name] [Date of Birth] [Application ID]

Template 2: Submitting an Academic or Contextual Update

Subject: Application Update — [Your Full Name] — Application ID [XXXXX]

Dear [Admissions Office],

I wanted to share an update relevant to my application for [Program/Major] for the [Year] entering class.

[One to two sentences describing the update: new test score, award, grade report, or circumstance. Be specific and factual.]

I have attached [supporting document, if applicable]. Please let me know if there is a preferred channel for submitting this information.

Thank you, [Full Name] [Date of Birth] [Application ID]

Keep both emails under 150 words. Admissions offices receive thousands of messages during review season; brevity signals respect for their time and makes your correction easier to act on.

When Not to Report an Error

Not every mistake warrants a correction email. Sending an unsolicited message to flag a minor typo in your essay can draw more attention to the error than the error itself would have received.

The threshold for action is whether the error affects how the admissions office evaluates or processes your application. A typo in a supplemental essay (a missing comma, a repeated word, a minor phrasing imprecision) does not meet that threshold. Admissions officers read thousands of essays and extend reasonable grace to small errors. As our counselors note, a typo is unlikely to cause an automatic rejection; what matters far more is the substance and authenticity of what you’ve written.

Apply the Wait and See protocol when:

• The error is a single typo or grammatical imprecision in an essay

• The error does not affect any factual claim in your application

• Correcting it would require drawing the admissions office’s attention to a section they may not have flagged

• The error is in a supplemental essay for a school where you have already submitted a strong overall application

Do not apply Wait and See when the error involves any identity data, academic record, or information that could create a mismatch in your file.

How to Withdraw an Application

If you’ve been admitted to your top-choice school through Early Decision or rolling admissions and need to withdraw applications elsewhere, that process does not happen through the Common App. Once you submit, the Common App’s role is complete — it has transmitted your information to each school.

Withdrawals are handled through each college’s individual applicant portal. Log in to the portal for the school you want to withdraw from, locate the withdrawal option (usually a clearly labeled button), and confirm. If you’ve already received an offer of admission you’re declining, the portal will typically present a “Decline Offer” button rather than a withdrawal option.

If you cannot locate the withdrawal function in the portal, a brief email to the admissions office — using the same format as the templates above — is sufficient. State that you are withdrawing your application and will not be enrolling, and thank them for their consideration.

Accessing Your Application After Submission

Your Common App account remains accessible after submission using the same login credentials. However, once an application is submitted, the editable fields are locked — you can view the PDF of your submitted application, but you cannot modify it through the Common App interface.

One practical step: download the PDF of every submitted application and save it. Our counselors recommend this consistently, because that PDF becomes your reference document if a discrepancy arises later — during financial aid processing, scholarship applications, or transfer situations. If you used a high school email address to create your Common App account, access may become difficult after graduation, since many schools deactivate student email accounts. A personal email address avoids this problem entirely.

The Strongest Prevention Is a Pre-Submission Review

Every post-submission correction protocol in this guide exists because the pre-submission review was skipped or rushed. The Common App prompts students to review their PDF before submitting — that prompt exists for a reason.

The most common errors our counselors catch in pre-submission reviews include: wrong campus selected for multi-campus universities, test scores reported or omitted incorrectly, activities listed in an order that doesn’t reflect academic priorities, and — critically — the wrong college’s name appearing in a supplemental essay. That last error happens when students repurpose essay content across multiple applications, which is a smart and efficient strategy, but only when every instance is checked individually before submission.

The activities section carries its own set of risks. The Common App gives students 50 characters for position title, 100 characters for the activity name, and 150 characters to describe it. Students who fill out the activities section directly in the Common App without drafting offline first consistently underuse these character limits — and every unused character is an opportunity to communicate something meaningful about who you are.

What to Do Right Now

If you’ve found an error after submitting, work through this sequence:

1. Identify the tier: Critical, Academic, Contextual, or Minor.

2. Check the applicant portal for the school in question — look for an update or correction field before sending any email.

3. Draft a correction email using the templates above if no portal option exists. Send it within 24 hours for critical errors; within a week for Academic and Contextual updates.

4. Apply Wait and See for minor errors — do not send an email about a typo.

5. Download your submitted PDFs now if you haven’t already, and save them somewhere accessible.

If you’re unsure which tier an error falls into, or whether a particular update is worth sending, that’s exactly the kind of judgment call where a counselor’s perspective saves time and prevents missteps. Our team works with students at every stage of the process — including the post-submission moments that feel most urgent.

Need to talk to a counselor for help with admissions? Book a free consultation today.

The post How to Make Changes to Your College Application first appeared on Great College Advice.