1. Don’t be afraid to focus in and expand upon a subject
that interests you. You do not have to cover EVERYTHING
as the admissions office will also have your complete file
when they read your application. That’s why it’s OK to
spend 20 minutes talking about your love of Greek and
Latin, especially if your interviewer happens to share that love.
If you find a common bond, follow up! There are no rules to what
must be covered.

2. Look the interviewer in the eye — it’s off-putting to stare
down at your feet.

3. Make sure you have substantive questions, not just typical
questions you could find the answers to in the view book or web
site. If the interviewer attended the school, ask pointed
questions about what he or she liked or didn’t like about the
school.

4. After the interview, write a brief thank you note (hand
written is best) and try to mention something specific that you
talked about so they remember who you are.

5. Make sure you do your research about the school BEFORE the
interview so you’re not caught asking embarrassing questions
about a program that doesn’t exist or a major that is no longer a
real program.

6. Students tend to overcompensate for how they think they should
dress for an on-campus or alumni interview and end up looking
like they are going to the prom. Others who don’t want to look
concerned about how to dress end up looking like hobos. Part of
how to dress of course depends on who you are and how you
normally dress. If we had to make the most general suggestion,
we’d suggest dressing only a standard deviation or so up or down
from how you normally dress unless you are very far from the
“normal” spectrum. If you are too dressed up (dresses for girls,
suits and ties for boys) it looks like you went way out of your
way and that draws unnecessary attention to yourself. Unless you
go to school dressed that way, avoid it. On the other hand, you
don’t want to wear ripped jeans, a tongue ring, dyed hair and
tattoos unless you really want your dress to make a statement for
you. Either extreme ends up detracting from what you actually
have to say.

You don’t have to be a boring conservative, but you
shouldn’t be ultra casual either. For boys, usually either
khaki-type pants and a neat shirt (polos are fine or collared
shirts if you feel more comfortable) with some clean shoes are
appropriate for any interview. Some sneakers might pass, but hey,
try shoes which look better with pants! Boys can also wear clean
and neat jeans instead of chino-style pants if that’s closer to
their normal style of dress (but keep the shoes). Girls have a
wider variety of options. You do not have to look “dressed up.”
Any slacks and shirt works, or a skirt and blouse if you like
that type of clothing. When in doubt, go for neat and aim to fly
under the radar. In the interview, your words should speak for
you without your clothing interfering too much in any one
direction!

If you are meeting someone for an alumni interview at an office,
however, dress accordingly. So, if you are going to a fancy law
firm, a jacket and tie might be appropriate. If, however, you
are meeting the person at Starbucks, ditch the jacket and tie.

Sign up NOW for our Application Boot Camp® 2010 as we
have a few spots left in each session to help with ALL of the
aspects of the application process!

DO YOUR RESEARCH

We can’t tell you how many times kids report to us that they want
to go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, etc… but when we
ask them why, they have no good reason. Now that you have to give
up the early round to “wait” for Harvard or Princeton, it’s key
to have a specific reason. Colleges want to know why you are
applying—are you impressed by their world-famous chemistry
program? The well-known English department? The art history
department with a specialty in Renaissance art?

Oftentimes students with particular interests do themselves a
great disservice by not bothering to check if the schools on their list
match their own academic interest. For example, if you like
ancient languages, you’d want to apply to a school that at least
offered classes in Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Sanskrit and the like.
You may find that schools that you’d barely considered before end
up being top in the country in particular areas. How can you
check? First, it’s often helpful to consult the graduate rankings
in a publication like US News and World Report, although keep in
mind that sometimes graduate programs and faculty are separate
from the undergraduate, sometimes shared. Once you have that list,
comb the web sites, course guides and published information from
colleges to see if they are strong in your area(s) of interest.
You should also pick up a copy of Rugg’s Recommendations On the
Colleges. Finally, call the school or visit and speak to professors, visit
the library, check out the holdings—in short, make an informed
decision about where you are applying and why.

Also, bear in mind that if you state a reason for applying to a
school, it should be an academic reason. Unless a particular
school has an extracurricular program that is truly unique (and,
ideally, ties in to an academic interest), the school is going to
care far more about what you want to study than about the
backpacking trips you want to lead and the underprivileged
children you want to tutor. Those are all great things, but
clubs, community service programs, and intramural sports are
available at almost every college these days.

COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY GUIDANCE

After you have done your research and have compiled a list of schools,
begin working on your applications. Focus your main essay
on an area of academic interest, and end your essay for each
application differently with a specific “why” paragraph
pertaining to what you learned in your research and why that
school would be the best fit for you academically. Enter our Lead
Editor, Josh Stephens. Josh has worked with Application Boot
Camp® for six years, helping students craft the perfect essays to
complement their applications and really show why you belong at
your top choice school.

Click here to sign up for Josh’s five hour essay package!

Don’t wait as Josh’s packages fill up quickly!
“Thank you for recommending Josh. He is absolutely outstanding
and a terrific asset to your team. I would recommend him to anyone
without reservation. I was somewhat skeptical at first since the
communication between Josh and Jake has been entirely via the
Internet. However, Josh exceeded any of my expectations for
responsiveness, creativity and providing practical recommendations.
One of more significant results is that with Josh’s advice Jake has
become more confident and the quality of his essays have improved
considerably.”
— Peter S. (Father)

TESTING TIPS 

Top tips for maximizing your efforts on the upcoming spring AP tests. 

1. Create your own marking system in order to pace yourself.  You
should spend, at most, 30 seconds examining each question.  After
the much time, you should either select the correct answer, or
mark the question with a “Y” or an “N” – questions marked with a
Y are questions that you know how to solve, but that you need
more time to work on.  Questions marked with a N are questions
that you do not know how to solve, and should only be revisited
if you have time later on.  Doing this will make sure that you
stay on pace and get a much better feel for the entire test.

2. Points are deducted for incorrect answers – therefore, never
guess unless you can eliminate at least 2 choices.  However, once
you have eliminated two choices, it’s always statistically
correct to guess.  If you can ever manage to eliminate a few
wrong answers, always play the odds and take a crack at the
answer.

3. Relax the night before the exam.  The AP isn’t something you
can cram for – it tests knowledge that you’ve accumulated over
the course of an entire year (or longer).  The night before the
exam, turn your brain off – watch TV with your buddies, get a big
meal, and go to sleep really early.  Nothing will hurt your
performance more than staying up late the night before the exam
studying material.  Conversely, no amount of studying can make up
for a great night’s sleep.

4. On the essay portion, only write as much as you have to say.
The essays on AP exams are graded only for their structure and
content – there are no bonuses for length.  Make sure to write a
concise, well-crafted argument with an introduction, a supporting
body, and a conclusion.  If you ever find yourself writing for
writing’s sake, stop – a short, clear essay is much better than a
long, rambling treatise on your topic.

5. Make sure to submit your scores to your college!  Assuming
that you do well, you want to make sure that you get your results
to your future school so that you can get credit for taking the
exam.  Find the submission deadlines for your particular school
and make sure to meet them – the credits you gain from your AP
exams might allow you to take more electives when you get to
college.

You and I corresponded a few times last year about my daughter and her interest in applying to Dartmouth and other Ivy League schools. You were very informative and I wish that she could have taken advantage of all the boot camp offers. I did not have the resources to send her to the boot camp, but I would have saved for it had I known about it previously. I was able to read two of your books and a couple others that you reference in your writing, and I had my daughter subscribe to your news letter.

Needless to say, your books were worth every penny and provided much insight into the process of applying to top schools. What a tremendous wealth of information the news letter is, too. [My daughter] mapped out her application strategy after reading your material, and was able to attend some campus fly-outs that helped her sort out her intentions and desires.

In the ED round she was accepted at several safeties that ended up offering big scholarship amounts. In the RD round, she was accepted at Dartmouth!  We are very happy for her and I just wanted to let you know that you have another success story out here – although not a boot camper. I know that your website, books, and news letter helped us a lot. I promise you that we will encourage people that speak to us about our path to Dartmouth to become familiar with you and your products. Had I known about you earlier, we would have saved to be in a position to take advantage of the boot camp and I think it would have reduced our stress quite a bit.  (At least we could have stressed out about something else.)

We thank this father for sending us his daughter’s success story. Congratulations! We are so happy to be a part of so many families’ lives at this exciting time.

Do Extras Matter?

Extracurricular activities DO matter—but only when academics are
strong. On the 1-9 scale,  if you’re only a 1-4, that means that
your academics are low enough that extracurriculars won’t make up
for them. On the other hand, if you’re an academic 8-9, college
admissions officers won’t care as much about extras since your
academics are so strong. It’s for the middle range of students
that extracurriculars and leadership really matter. Just remember,
academics are always 75% or more of the decision; once you’re in
the range, THEN extras come into play. To say it another way,
incredible extras won’t make up for mediocre performance.
So, whether you are a rare coin collector, founder of your
school’s history club, tuba player, or editor of the newspaper,
your activities alone won’t get you into a top college. It is
better, however, for you to be a leader in a few activities and
distinguish yourself with a high level of participation in a
particular area rather than be a member of tons of clubs with no
discernable passion for one area. Show a genuine commitment
rather than just signing up at random for a lot of things. In
general, an activity such as debate would be better than simply
attending a year book staff meeting once every few months.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TOP HIGH SCHOOL SUMMER PROGRAMS

Showcase your interests by getting more involved! Spend a summer
taking a college-level course, working in a hospital research
center, or producing your own movies. We have the only
comprehensive guide of summer programs for high school students.
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Even a student who is No. 1 in a top public school will not be
accepted to top colleges if he or she has low scores on the SAT
and SAT Subject Tests. Another thing to consider is the
competition: at top private schools like Andover and Exeter, only
the top students get into the very top colleges. It’s actually
harder to be in the top 5-10% of the class at a place where
almost everyone is qualified versus a big public school with some
“dead weight.” In short, you should make this decision based on
the options, comfort level, course offerings, sports and
specialty offerings for your child rather than trying to outwit
college admissions officers who will not be impressed just by a
big name private school.

Most importantly, students will perform better — and be
happier — at a school where they feel most comfortable. If a
student truly loves Andover, and the family believes that the
expense is warranted, then Andover is the right choice.  If the
local public school has great teachers, neighborhood friends, a
full line up of AP courses, and a safe environment, then it may
be worth more to a student than any of the famous prep schools.

Check out the Online Degree blog here.

In a previous tip, we talked about early decision, early action
and single action early action. No matter which program you apply
under, it is a good idea to follow up around November 12th or so
to make sure all your materials were received. In order for your
file to be complete, the high school must send in their forms,
you of course must send in your forms (and the check) and your
recommendations must be in as well. Early decision has a very
compressed time schedule, so take the time to follow up. Not to
horrify anyone, but in Michele’s own case, she called Dartmouth
in mid-November to check and it turned out that her high school
had not checked early decision even though she had in her
application, so Dartmouth had put her in the regular pool. It
always pays to follow up.

This is the time of year where students need to finish
up early applications and get them posted soon. Don’t forget
about the schools that have a second round of early
decision—those programs can still increase your admissions
chances dramatically from the regular pool and you can wait to
hear from your early decision program before committing. Wesleyan
has a second round ED program to give one example.

Dartmouth College notes the following on their website: Applicants are considered “legacies” if either parent graduatedfrom Dartmouth. Though the college values its long-term relationship with alumni, legacy candidates must still meet Dartmouth’s rigorous admissions criteria. President Wright is unequivocal in affirming the value and importance of legacy students at Dartmouth and is proud that during the 2006-07 academic year there were over 40 students at Dartmouth whose mother or father he taught.

Another interesting fact is that some schools, such as U Penn, Northwestern, and Stanford (as of 2008), give applicants legacy status if a parent attended any of their graduate schools.