College Strategies

A college application rewards the students who start early. Grades and test scores matter. The way you build your list and time each submission matters nearly as much, and the person reading your file will never meet you in person. So the decisions below, all of which come before a single deadline, deserve your attention now.

Build a balanced college list

Most students apply to six or ten colleges. A list that size only protects you if you sort the names by how likely each college is to admit you. Compare your grades and ACT score against the students a college already enrolls, and divide your list into three groups on that basis.

• Reach schools. Your record sits below the middle range of admitted students. Admission is uncertain, so limit this group to two or three names.
• Match schools. Your record lines up with the middle range. The bulk of your list belongs here.
• Likely schools. Your record stands well above the typical admitted student. Keep at least two, and pick places you would be glad to attend.

One number does most of the work in this step. Compare your grade point average and ACT score against the published middle-fifty range each college reports. It places you far more honestly than any ranking will.

Understand application timing

Colleges accept applications on several schedules. The schedule you choose decides how soon you hear back, and whether an acceptance commits you or still allows you to compare offers later.

Early Decision is a binding commitment. An offer of admission means you enroll there and withdraw every other application. Use it only for a clear first choice you can afford without weighing aid offers side by side.

Early Action provides the early answer with no commitment attached. You remain free to apply elsewhere and decide in the spring.

Regular Decision is the standard route. Deadlines fall in winter, and replies arrive in March and April.

Rolling Admission has no single cutoff. A college reads each file as it arrives, which leaves more open seats for those who apply sooner.

Genuine interest shows in an early application, and it usually improves your odds. The cost is a finished essay and a complete record by November.

That is why the work behind it begins the summer before senior year.

Request transcripts and recommendations early

The counseling office sends your official transcript straight to each college you name. Put your request in at least two weeks ahead of a deadline. Longer, if that deadline falls near a school holiday.

Recommendation letters take time, and the good ones take more. Find two teachers who have seen your best work, and ask them face to face, near the end of junior year or the start of senior year. Lean toward teachers in your core academic courses, and where you can, in the field you plan to study. Pass each of them a brief rundown of your goals, your college list, and the accomplishments that mean the most to you. Hand that summary over, and the letter comes back specific. Skip it, and the letter comes back generic.

Know what colleges read

A reader in the admissions office weighs several parts of your file together, and no one number settles the matter.

• Course rigor. Did you reach for Advanced Placement, Honors, and dual enrollment courses, or take the lighter path?
• Grades. Your grade point average across four years, and the direction it moves.
• Test scores. The ACT or SAT, read alongside everything else rather than alone.
• The essay. Your voice and your judgment, in your own words.
• Activities. Depth in a few commitments counts for far more than a long roster of brief ones.
• Recommendations. An outside read on your character and your presence in class.

Put together, these point to one student. A reader wants the one who reached for harder courses and stayed with a few pursuits over several years. A transcript that climbs from sophomore year to senior year reads better than one that drifts.

Show demonstrated interest

Some colleges quietly track how much attention you pay them before you ever apply. They read that attention as a sign you will enroll if they admit you.

So visit campuses when you can. Open the emails a college sends, and click the links inside them. Attend the sessions admissions officers hold at Benton High and around Shreveport. Find the representative assigned to our region, introduce yourself, and note what you learn. None of this costs much. All of it can tip a close decision.

Plan the financial side

Money planning belongs beside the application, not after it. The FAFSA opens on October 1 of senior year. File it that week. Several aid programs award funds until the money is gone, so the early filer keeps a quiet advantage.

In Louisiana the FAFSA does double duty. It is also your TOPS application, and the state holds a firm July 1 deadline. Miss that date, and the TOPS award disappears for the year.

Before any school becomes your favorite, open its net price calculator. What a family actually pays seldom matches the advertised figure, and the calculator provides the accurate one. Read each award letter line by line when it arrives in spring. Separate the grants and scholarships, the money you keep, from the loans, the money you repay with interest. The lowest advertised price will not always produce the lowest cost once aid is counted.

Prepare for interviews

A few colleges offer an interview. Fewer expect one. Think of it as a conversation, not a test. Research the college first, and prepare two or three questions of your own. Arrive early, dressed neatly. Send a short thank-you note to your interviewer afterward. It is your one chance to show the warmth and detail no paper form can carry.

A senior-year timeline

The work spreads out across the year in a steady order.

• Summer. Finish the college list, draft the essay, and open a Common Application account.
• September and October. Request transcripts and recommendations. File the FAFSA on October 1.
• November. Submit Early Action and Early Decision applications.
• December and January. Submit Regular Decision applications.
• February through April. Compare admission offers and aid letters as they arrive.
• May 1. Send a deposit to your chosen college by the national reply date.

Questions

Call Benton High School at 318-759-2580, or visit 449 Fairburn Avenue, Benton, Louisiana 71006.