Admissions

What Do Colleges Look For In An Applicant?

Colleges will look at your transcript, GPA, essays, extracurriculars, basically everything on your application when considering an acceptance. Many colleges will look for your experiences such as leadership skills that will translate over to their campus.

Be sure to have people proofread your essays and provide feedback on improving your essays to greaten your chances at an acceptance to your dream college! Many schools also have certain beliefs they stand by, so be sure to include that in your essay!

What Can You Expect in the College Admissions Process?

The college admissions process can be intimidating at first, but with College Achievement, we can help you figure it out.

When you apply for college, there are a number of documents that you should have ready when applying. This can help colleges see who you are as an individual based on your academics, extracurriculars, interests, etc. during your high school career to ultimately determine if you would be a good fit for their campus.

Some important documents that you should have when you apply are:

  • Identity cards and Social Security Number
  • School Transcript
  • Test Scores (SAT, ACT, AP Exam scores)
  • Awards and extracurriculars
  • Letters of recommendation
  • Common App
  • College Essays

    • When applying for college, it's also important to know deadlines when submitting your application, when applications open, and deadlines for committing to a school so you can give yourself ample preparation time. These dates may vary from school to school, but in general, applications open in August, run til November of next year and the deadline to commit to a college is May 1.

    Be sure keep these dates in mind! We recommend putting all the important dates in a spreadsheet or calendar to stay organized!

    Different College Admission Types:

  • Regular Decision: the standard admission, gives you the most time to submit
  • Early Decision: if you get accepted to a college applying for ED, you must attend that college because it is a binding contract. We suggest you apply during ED if you 100% want to attend a particular school
  • Early Action: an earlier application you turn in to a college
  • Rolling Action: colleges will review the applications as they are sent in and respond based on when you sumbit