Cadser, One Exchange Place,
Suite 1000, Jursey City, New Jersey 07302,
United States.
Suite 1000, Jursey City, New Jersey 07302,
United States.
College admission in the US is extremely competitive, especially among international students. If you do not have a strong academic background, sufficient financial resources, and proficiency in the English language, you will be at a disadvantage in the admissions process.
Colleges are looking to see that you have challenged yourself in secondary school; have taken Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and college- level courses and have delved into some subjects that really fire your imagination.
Grades are important, and colleges will look closely at your transcript to assess your success in the courses in which you enrolled. Some consideration will be given to the rigor of your course load in assessing your success, but the most selective colleges expect students to succeed in the most challenging curriculum.
Second, make sure that you have taken the specific courses and tests required by the institution to which you are applying. For example, to apply to engineering schools, you should take four years of math through Calculus, Physics (Honors if recommended), and the Physics SAT II Subject Test exam.
When an admissions committee opens your folder to consider you for admission, they will see your official transcript.
Your official transcript from your School will list all your courses and grades in those courses starting with Grade 10. No cumulative grade point average - for the semester, the year, or career - is provided on the transcript. In assessing your success, colleges will consider the rigor of your courses within the context of your School's curriculum, and other academic awards or distinctions.
You are of course more than just your transcript! Perhaps you play in a band, design fabulous websites, or captain your swim team. So tell us about it! Help us get to know the “total you” better.
When reading your application, we will also look at your teachers' and guidance counselors' recommendations to help us learn more about you.
Most of the Colleges require the SAT Reasoning Test and some require with Writing and two SAT Subject Tests of different subjects. You may submit the ACT with Writing as a substitute for the SAT Reasoning Test and SAT Subject Tests.
All SAT Reasoning Tests and SAT Subject Tests should be completed by the end of January of your senior year of secondary school. If English is not your first language, please take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). International students whose primary language is not English must take the TOEFL and the SAT Reasoning Test.
Colleges look closely at the student's part of the application, particularly at the quality of the essays. Each year, we see students who gain admission at the college of their dreams because their essays were strong. And each year, students are denied admission to colleges for which they were superbly qualified because their application demonstrated little thought or care. The quality of your application is the one aspect of this process over which you have complete control; take advantage of the opportunity to help yourself. The essay is one of the most important parts of your application, and writing it can be an extremely difficult task.
In the first part of the application, the student is asked a series of background questions about his education and his family. This information gives admissions officers some understanding of the school and home environment and the nature and extent of the student's academic and non-academic opportunities. Next, the student is often asked to specify the general areas of study that will be pursued in college: liberal arts, business, engineering, etc. There is always an undecided option, and for most students this may be the appropriate response. Some colleges will handle applications differently if the student identifies a particularly competitive interest area. Colleges are also interested in the student's non-academic interests and activities in and out of school. Colleges often try to build a freshman class that includes a variety of talents and backgrounds. A full, detailed description of activities should be included. Because space on the application may be insufficient, students are urged to create a resume of activities to include with the application. A sample resume is included in the appendix. As every admissions officer will acknowledge, it is not the number of activities, but the quality of participation that counts.
Up to this point the application will require only short responses and data. Many applications will require one essay and, in some cases, several. The essay is a very important part of the application, and to be effective the student will need to do the hard, time-consuming work to maximize this portion of the application. There are two purposes for the college essay. First, it provides the admissions office with an indication of the student's writing ability. Can the student put together a sentence, a paragraph, an entire statement? Because writing is so crucial to academic success, colleges are extremely interested in evidence of this ability. A second reason for the personal essay is that it provides the opportunity for the college to get beyond student grades, test scores, and resumes to learn about the student as a person. Although the essay questions from one college to another will differ, there is an underlying similarity to most of them. In short, most are asking the student to answer the statement: “Tell me something about you that I cannot earn elsewhere in the application.” This is the opportunity to tell the college about yourself and to present yourself as an individual who would bring freshness of vision and viewpoint to the college that would enhance the quality of its academic and social life.
There are basically two types of essay topics: those that require a specific response and those that are open-ended, allowing the student to select and structure his or her own response. Examples of the specific question essay include: “React to something you have read”; “What brief message would you beam to a suspected civilization in outer space to describe the nature of humans on our planet?”; “Write a short essay about a significant experience in your life, an issue you consider important, or a special interest.” Examples of the open-ended essay include: “Please write an essay that will help us understand you better as a person and prospective university student”; “Brag about yourself ”; “Write a description of your goals, what you hope to achieve in college, what influences have helped shape your life.” A few colleges will ask applicants to submit a writing sample. Usually, the request is for a piece of writing the student has done for a class that has been graded by a teacher. If a college suggests that you submit a writing sample in addition to the required essay, do so.
When preparing the college essay, consider the following:
If the student has a highly developed talent (artistic, athletic, musical, or scholarly), he or she should consider sending materials to explain and document it. Copies of this information should be directed to the appropriate campus department to enlist the support for the student's candidacy.
Teacher recommendations are another very important part of the school's contribution to the student's application. These are read closely by admissions officers. Teacher comments provide support for other data received and help to form a picture of the student and his or her academic and personal strengths.