A Deeper Look into Your College Application

The Transcript

The most important part of your story is your transcript. And, understanding how your transcript is used in the college admissions process is critical. Your transcript is a record of your academic performance throughout high school. When examining your transcript, most colleges, especially those that are selective and highly selective, will look at more than your cumulative GPA. They also will look for trends in your grades. For example, was your GPA solid throughout high school; did it start out low and then improve? Did it start out high and then decline? Colleges prefer students with one of the first two trends over the last one.

High School Classes

Colleges also consider the kinds of classes you took in the context of what was available at your school. You might be wondering how a college would know what classes your school offered. When high schools send students’ transcripts to colleges, most schools also send something called a school profile. Usually, the profile includes a list of courses the school offers. That way colleges can see if your school offers advanced courses, whether in the form of honors, college prep, AP, or IB.

Once colleges have that information, they can look at your transcript to find out which, if any, of those courses you took. Colleges would rather see that you took a more challenging class and got a B than to see you took an easier class and got an A. (Of course, if you took a more challenging course and got an A, that definitely works in your favor.)

What Your Transcript Says About You

Freshman Year to Senior Year Grades

Now that you understand what colleges look for on a transcript. It’s important to consider the kind of story you want your transcript to tell. Contrary to popular belief, colleges do care about the grades you earn freshman year. In fact, those grades generally are a good indication of how you’ll do throughout the rest of high school. However, if you don’t do well in ninth grade, that does not mean you won’t be able to get into college. Colleges tend to be somewhat forgiving of a mediocre freshman year. They understand that the transition to high school can be difficult. The important thing is to improve your grades in the following three years.

Statistically, it becomes harder to raise your GPA as you progress through high school. Your courses are likely to become more difficult. The more courses and grades you factor in, the less your GPA can move in either direction. So starting out strong in ninth grade and staying strong throughout high school is in your best interest.

Are You Challenging Yourself?

You also need to think about where you want to challenge yourself. While colleges like to see that you took higher level classes, you do not need to take the most advanced courses in every subject. Rather, you should pick 2-3 of your best subjects and take higher level courses in those areas.

So, freshmen, as you begin your high school career, spend some time thinking about what kind of story you want your transcript to tell. And seniors, if you’re not happy with your story, you’ve got one more semester (depending on when you apply to college) to revise it.

The post The Story of Your College Application: Transcripts first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

• 3 cups self rising flour
  
• 6 tbs sugar
• ¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup heavy cream (or milk if you desire)
• ¾ cup mini chocolate chips

Mix the flour and butter together. (easy, right?) Then add the cream and chocolate chips. (But don’t eat the chocolate chips while you’re doing this) Roll out the dough. Use the end of a small glass to cut out circle shaped scones. Bake them for about ten minutes at 400 degrees.
Simple and hardly time consuming! Nothing like the countless hours your teachers and counselors put into writing your letter of recommendation that cited you for being one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet.
Juliet Giglio
Educational Consultant in Los Angeles, California

The post Remember To Thank Your Teachers For Their Letters of Recommendation! first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

The post More Opinions on Advanced Placement first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

The post The Common Application and Docufide Partner to Make Applying to College Easier for Students and Their Counselors first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

I thought I would take the opportunity to provide more clarity about how a GPA is used in the college admissions process.

But an initial word of caution is in order: the generalizations below must be treated as such. Many individual readers are looking for hard and fast rules about how their grades will be treated by admissions officers. The fact is, every case is different: different colleges, different students, different years…the number of variables is enormous. So use these general rules as your guides, not as gospel.

Your transcript is your number one most important document in the admissions process. This is the proverbial “permanent record,” at least as far as colleges are concerned. The courses you have taken and the grades you have earned tell a college most of what they need to know about you as a student. More than your test scores, more than your extracurriculars, more than your community service, and more than your teacher recommendations, your transcript documents your past and is a pretty good predictor of your academic future.

The rigor of the courses you take is as important as the grades you earn. If you hope to gain entry to the most competitive colleges in the country, you have to take the hardest courses offered and do well in them. So every student should take the most difficult courses they can handle—and get the best grades possible. See this post for more information on academic rigor vs. grades.

Your academic core courses count more than your non-academic electives. The GPA recorded on your transcript takes includes your performance in gym, choir, keyboarding, health, and the like. These courses may be required for graduation, but they are not usually part of the requirements for admission. College is not a vacation resort: it is an academic experience. So you will be judged on your academic performance in the core courses: math, science, English, social studies, and foreign language. See this post for more on calculating your core GPA.

If you take honors, Advanced Placement (AP), or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, you may be given “extra credit” in your GPA to compensate for the rigor of these courses. Schools do this primarily to reward high performing students with a higher class rank (which is explained in this post). But an A is an A is an A.  If you get a B in an honors course, it is never the equivalent of an A in some other course. Don’t rationalize and try to convince yourself otherwise.

Colleges do look at grade trends, so if your transcript has some blotches on it, you always have an opportunity to make improvements. Bad grade in 9th grade life science? Do better in 10th grade chemistry. Colleges like to see students who pull themselves together and begin performing to potential. You will not be able to erase the stains, but you can make the overall picture more attractive.

So what’s the bottom line? Simple rules

1. Take the hardest courses you can.
2. Get good grades.
3. Don’t rationalize poor performance.
4. It’s never too late to get your academic act together.

Mark Montgomery
College Counselor

The post GPA Explained–With Some Simple Advice first appeared on College Admission Counseling.