September 6, 2008 at 4:02 am (Before You Apply)
Tags: application, deadline, early decision, ed
There will be a few things you need to be extremely cautious with. DEADLINES. Try not to miss a single one of them. You might get away a few times if you use excuses like international mail is not trustworthy, and my application package got lost, or my teachers forgot to post it. However, that won’t always work. There were a lot of people, who had similar excuses like that. By now, I think colleges know what’s the truth. But, they might not take it seriously unless they have to.
The usual dates that one should be familiar with are – November 1/15, January 1/15, and February 1/15. These dates are related to the way you will be applying to the college. Let’s talk about them.
Early Decision (ED) - You get to apply to only one college. You need to sign a contract form declaring that you will attend that college/university in case you get admitted. I don’t know what consequences you might face if you don’t go there even if you get in. Sometimes people do that, but it’s because the college doesn’t provide sufficient financial aid as requested by the applicant in the financial aid form.
Normally, a lot of Nepalese choose their reach schools for Early Decision. The underlying thought is – If you apply to a school that’s not the best, but a match for you, you regret later even if you get in. You never have a chance to know if you could have gotten into the best college you thought of. Seems good enough. But if you are capable of satisfied with what you get, don’t apply to high reach schools.
Some also choose their match schools. They want to get into a school as early as possible and remain tension free for the rest of their time. It’s a long time – December/January to April. People wanting not to apply to lots of colleges, and have lots of time to enjoy do this.
No one applies to a safety school in ED. One has to be insane.
These days, a lot of schools are opting out of ED. They no longer offer ED. Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, and most of the ivies are no longer accepting EDs. That’s because of their consideration for students from middle class and lower class families – they say.
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September 5, 2008 at 11:14 pm (Before You Apply)
Tags: best-fit school, match colleges, reach colleges, safety colleges
This is the hardest question one has to face. There are limitations on the number of colleges you can apply to – sometimes the limititations are school-made, sometimes it’s because of the time, and resources on can chip in. Bottom line – You’ve got to be selective in choosing the schools you want to apply. Also, there isn’t any real increase in your chances of getting in at a lot of colleges if you just apply to more similar colleges. Again, the solution – you’ve got to be selective.
There are these concepts of Reach Schools (Again classified into High Reach, Reach and Low Reach), Match Schools and then Safety Schools(again divided like the reach schools). Let’s take all of them one on one.
Reach Schools - These are the colleges/universities in which you don’t have a high chance of getting admitted. You look at the average SAT scores, they’re higher than what you’ve got. Then the average GPA of incoming freshmen – it’s higher than yours. You know, by then, your chances of getting in doesn’t look that bright. But, you love that college. Also, people with stats lower than your’s have been admitted there. So, what do you do? Would you take a chance and apply, or become afraid and leave? I would suggest you to be fearless (like the brave Gurkhas) and then apply to a few reach schools. Two-three-Four. You decide. But, if you only apply to reach schools, you’ll be damned. Your probability of getting in even at only one place would be extremely low.
Match Schools – These are the colleges/universities in which you have a better chance of getting into. It seems that you and the college have so many things similar to each other. You fit in almost every stat the college publishes. You know that you have a better chance of getting into this type of college. You need to apply to a maximum number of colleges of this type. Five-Ten. You decide. Also, be sure to choose one best-fit school. A best fit college for you and you seem to have been made for each other. It’s the most likely college that might admit you. You’re also most likely to go there (except in cases when you get into your reach schools). However, just applying to reach and match schools would not be sufficient. What if you don’t get into both your reaches and matches. There’s another thing that you need to know.
Safety Schools - These are the colleges/universities that have lower average stats than yours. You are almost sure to get admitted into this school, if you just apply. They are usually the ones at the bottom of the rankings for most people, but if you’re real good, then a reach for someone might be a safety for you. Everything is relative. Safety schools are also tricky. Some of them have a record of not admitting students, who they think have a higher chance of getting into a better university, and who they know is just applying to their college as a safety. SO, you need to be on your toes. Two-Five. You decide how many safety schools to apply. JUST be sure to apply to some of them. Do not leave a chance to regret later.
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