High school is starting up again for many incoming freshman, sophomores, and juniors, so I figured now would be a good time to write this up. The burning question on their minds: how can I get into a good college? Some people may tell you very specific steps, such as participating in this sport or joining that club, but ultimately, it boils down to three simple things.
1. Get good grades. Bonus points if some/most of your classes are challenging: I'm talking AP, IB, and dual enrollment. This one's probably the most obvious, but there's a reason why everyone tells you to do well in your classes. When admissions officers look at your application, they only have so much information to go off of. Because colleges have a limited number of spots, it can be difficult to decide who to admit to their learning institution. Generally, good grades show that you're responsible, hardworking, and interested in learning. It also leaves a lot of opportunities for you to form relationships with your teachers. This will be important for receiving good letters of recommendations. Now, I'm not telling you that you have to get all A's at the expense of your mental health and social life. If you do happen get all A's, that's great, but if you don't, that's okay, too. People may have certain things going on in life that may affect their grades one way or another. For this reason, many colleges tend to take a more holistic approach when admitting students. Nonetheless, there are other ways to show colleges that you have what it takes.
2. Do extracurriculars. Commit the majority of your time to ones you're genuinely passionate about. In high school, I thought that I needed to join a multitude of clubs/organizations if I wanted to get into college. When it came time for me to write my personal statement and other college essays, I realized that there were only really about 1-3 extracurriculars that I wrote about. Focus on the quality rather than the quantity of your extracurriculars. I wasn't one of those people who built interesting, cool projects or participated in math or science competitions, but if you're even mildly interested in any of those, feel free to experiment with them. Try joining a sport, learning an instrument, or taking on a part-time job. Note that these are definitely not the only options that exist. The sky's the limit when it comes to the amount of opportunities and extracurriculars out there. If you're unsure of where to look, ask an older sibling, a guidance/academic counselor, or even your peers. The important thing is that you find a few that you truly enjoy and stick with them.
3. Write good college essays. Like everything else I've mentioned, there's already a lot of information out there on this, so I won't go into too much detail. Nonetheless, I strongly suggest you start them early. During my senior year, I procrastinated on my college essays. Believe me, it was not a fun time. The more last minute you start, the less time you have to edit and refine your essays. (if you really wanted to, you could even write your rough drafts prior to your senior year, but know that you might not have enough to write about or you might change your mind later on in regards to writing a specific topic) In high school, I had an academic counselor who always said to just write the first draft, no matter how terrible it is. Besides, academic counselors, teachers, and other mentors are there to help and support you with revising your college essays, so definitely leverage that. For each college you apply to, I would recommend having a separate Google Document or Microsoft Word Document that includes the application's questions and your essay responses. That way, if you come across another application (college or scholarship) that has a similar question, you can copy and paste your answer and change/refine it as needed.
I realize that a lot of this information is also applicable to scholarships as well. I might make a separate article that delves deeper into it.
additional things to consider: