If you’re a parent with a rising senior applying to college in the fall, you may be looking ahead with some trepidation. With gossip swirling about the horror stories of kids with stellar GPAs and test scores not getting into their first, or for that matter, third choice , it may leave you shaking your head about your child’s chances at Penn, Michigan, and UVA (and even UMD!). You might even be the kind of parent who refuses to buy into the rat race, telling people you’ll be fine with whatever school your child gets into, yet you know that if it’s not Maryland, the price tag is minimally $40k (and probably more). If you take the approach that your child can overcome the admission obstacles by applying to 20 schools you’re in for a long fall and winter application season.
In short, college admissions isn’t what it used to be, but it doesn’t have to be a roll of the dice. Streamline Tutors and College Match Plus are co-sponsoring an admissions boot camp, August 14-16, to help students know with reasonable certainty where to apply to college and how they can put their best foot forward in their applications.
“Our boot camp has a few important goals for students,” says Ian Siegel, CEO of Streamline Tutors. “The first is to conduct an admissions-committee style review of a student’s academic credentials and extracurricular activities. Based on the evaluation, a student receives a rating which is compared to enrollment selectivity data from 2500 competitive colleges. This enables us, based on students’ geographic, size and other college preferences, to provide them a targeted college search list with reasonable reach, 50-50 and safety schools where they have the strongest probability of admission. This evaluation system goes a long way to ensure students do not under or over reach for colleges while helping families plan successful and efficient college visits, information sessions, and the like,” adds Ian.
According to Siegel, boot camp faculty also will help students complete a polished draft of the major essay for the Common Application and/or the Coalition Application (e.g., the University of Maryland now accepts the Coalition Application). Strategies for how to write compelling college essays including supplemental essays required of many competitive schools also will be covered during the three-day admissions boot camp. “All other things being equal—such as a student’s test scores and GPA—the essay can make a positive difference in the admission decision,” explains Siegel. “Our goal is to give students an edge by helping them tell authentic, interesting stories about themselves that go far behind what an admission person learns through the student’s high school transcript or list of extracurricular activities. If 10-15 percent of applicants write essays that hit the ball out of the park, we want our students to be in that group.”
Siegel stresses that the admission boot camp will only take 10 students to ensure staff can provide students quality, highly personalized essay review and college search guidance. So help your teenager unpack the mystery of and get a leg up on the college search and application process by calling Streamline Tutors to learn more about the admissions boot camp.