What do College Admissions Officers Look For?

Transcript

– Your transcript includes…• Academic record for 4 years.• All grades in all classes.• Regents scores.• Credits earned.• GPA.• Class Rank.

Transcript (cont)

• Rigor: How challenging are the courses that you have taken?

• How good are your grades?• Upward trend—when your grades go up from

year to year in High School.

Transcript (cont)• What matters about your classes–How challenging are they?–Are they regular or summer school

classes?–Do your grades “make sense”• If you want to be major in Biology but

you got a 65 in Living Environment, that doesn’t make sense.

Essays

• Should take at least three months to write.• No more than the allowable word count.• The college will give you a prompt (a question

or requirements that you must answer).

Activities

– Before/After school clubs or sports– Neighborhood program– Church/Synagogue/Mosque– Chores/Responsibilities at home– Jobs

Activities (cont.)

• Summers are important– Summer Youth Employment– Volunteer work– “Nothing” is the worst you can do.

Recommendations

• You will need at least two (2) teacher recommendations.– The teachers should be from your core courses

and preferably those who taught you junior year.– You will also need one (1) counselor

recommendation - They talk about your academic ability and your personality.

– Ask teachers that you have good relationship with.

SAT or ACT • SAT– Three Sections: Critical Reading, Math, and

Writing– Each is scored on a scale of 200-800. • ACT – Four sections: English, Math, Reading, Science,

with an option Writing section.– A student’s raw score for a section is converted

to a scaled score, which ranges between a 1 and a 36, with 36 being the highest possible score.