Words of Wisdom
At College Goals, we know that the best advice comes from students! Here is what our students from the Class of 2025 wanted to share with juniors who are just getting started:
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“Honestly, I wish I had known how normal it is to feel completely overwhelmed during the college process. I was so stressed, constantly second-guessing myself, and there were moments where I truly didn’t think I could do it. It felt like everyone else had it all together, while I was just trying to survive the chaos. But the truth is, almost everyone feels that way—we just don’t always talk about it.”
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“What I learned is that the college process isn’t just about getting in—it teaches you a lot about yourself. I spent so much time writing essays, trying to put my whole life into words, and in doing that, I started to understand who I am and what I care about.
I learned that it’s okay to change your mind, to revise (a lot), and that the best writing comes when you stop trying to impress people and just speak from the heart. And I learned how to manage my time better—deadlines come fast, and sometimes you just have to push through, even when it’s not perfect.
A tip I’d give? Start earlier than you think you need to. Even just brainstorming or making a rough list of schools helps take some pressure off later. You don’t have to do everything all at once—just take the first step.”
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“Looking back, I’d say the biggest advice I’d give to juniors is to start early, but don’t put too much pressure on making everything perfect from the beginning. Just getting your ideas down is a huge step. Also, don’t compare your process to anyone else’s — everyone has a different path, and that’s completely fine.
…And honestly, take breaks when you need them — burnout is real, and rest is just as important as productivity.”
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"It's ok to completely rewrite essays if you have a better idea and … remember to consider a wide variety of schools."
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“Mainly, stay organized and separate the essays you have for each school. The essays can seem daunting at first, but it’s very likely that you will want to reuse bits and pieces of other essays to help with the load. So make sure that they are all easy to find and won’t get mixed up.”
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“I think my advice would be to do as much purposeful brainstorming as soon as possible. I think students should just jot ideas of genuine passions rather than trying to check any boxes at all.”
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“I would emphasize having someone who knows you well and has some familiarity with the process suggest ideas. I also think the same goes for people offering feedback on your essays. You definitely don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen, and, aside from your counselor, I think one or maybe a second is largely enough to look them over.....”
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“If you're feeling lost or unsure—you're not alone. Keep going. You’re capable of more than you think.”
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And, finally, a Top Ten List:
“1. Take time to relax over the summer, but your senior fall self will THANK you if you start early! I would say try to research colleges you want to apply to in June, work on your activities list and personal statement in July, and definitely start your supplemental essays in August. Make sure to visit some colleges if you have not already. Senior fall is an extremely busy time so you will be VERY thankful if you have a good chunk of your work out of the way.
- Don't let other people and their opinions dictate what colleges you apply or attend to in the end. There is no such thing as a bad college.
- Practice writing your college essays by writing about everyday items and going into detail, or just getting some writing practice in general.
- Have some safeties/likely colleges at least, because the college application process can be extremely unpredictable at times
- Don't be afraid to ask for feedback or help! Use your resources like your college counselors, and I also found it extremely helpful to have my friends peer review my essays as well
- Try to make it...fun. Personally, I hated the process at first, but then I started to change my mentality and started enjoying the process of constant writing and reflecting.
- Keep your entire senior year grades up because they can be important for things like waitlists
- I would recommend doing most of the optional things in a school's application, such as if a school has an optional video option or optional essays, because it will show demonstrated interest and that you care about the school.
- Be kind to other people and mind your business--focus on your own college process, not where or how other people got in. There's no point in college gossip and it distracts from what you should be doing
- Read your emails because a lot of schools track demonstrated interest through the emails they sent you”
A Recommended Reading (and Listening) List
We here at College Goals wanted to share with you some of our favorite “go to” resources that are guaranteed to support your family through their college admissions journey. These endorsements are our own, not paid placements by any author or company.
If you want to listen to a podcast about college admission:
- "Inside the Yale Admissions Office" -- This one got started during the pandemic shutdown, and they recorded a lot of great episodes about different aspects that go into selective college admissions. Episodes are topical (there's one on letters of rec, one on activities, etc.), they are not too long, and there are no commercials. They have really slowed down in the posting since the pandemic ended, but they do release new episodes when there's information to change (they did 3 excellent shows about Yale's return to "test required" admissions). This show is also great for students who are not planning to apply to Yale! It is just straight answers about admissions, but with a focus on hyper-selective universities and their specific considerations.
- "The Truth About College Admission" -- This brings together two of our very favorite communicators about college admissions (Rick Clark of Georgia Tech and Brennan Barnard who writes about admissions for Forbes among other places). In each episode, they interview someone in the field and reveal the "truth" behind the mythologizing that swirls around the admissions process. This is a great place to learn about topics like "institutional priorities" or athletic recruiting.
If you want to read a book about college admission:
- Who Gets In And Why by Jeffrey Selingo – Selingo, a long-time journalist writing about higher education, spent one year embedded in three different admissions offices (Emory University, Davidson College, and the University of Washington –Seattle). In his year, he observed the admissions “gatekeepers” as they made decisions. He also followed students (and parents), met with school counselors and others, and worked to understand and then dispel some of the misconceptions and mistruths that guide families as they consider admissions.
- The Truth About College Admission by Rick Clark and Brennan Barnard – This is the podcast in workbook form! This excellent guidebook sets up tasks and charts to support families through every aspect of the college process from building a list to constructing an application.
- The Price You Pay For College by Ron Lieber – Lieber, the NYTimes financial columnist, has long been an advocate for great clarity and transparency in the college financial aid process. This book is a must for any family looking to better understand how colleges set their costs and more importantly how families can navigate the complex financial aid landscape.
- I’m Going to College – Not You! edited by Jennifer Delahunty – For some lighter (and occasionally hilarious) reading, Delahunty, the former Dean of Admissions at Kenyon College, has assembled short essays by parents, students, college admissions officers, and college advisors that reflect on the student’s central role and growth in the admissions process. Two favorites are the piece co-written by Delahunty and her daughter about her own admissions journey, and Anna Quindlen’s reflections on swimming in the “deep pool” of her own growth as an undergraduate at Barnard College.
If you want to read a blog about college admission:
- Georgia Tech Admissions Blog – The GA Tech Admissions Blog is one of our favorites! There are so many posts that explain topics with incredible clarity. Some of our favorites include: Applying to College is not like the Movies!; How the Olympics Explain College Admission Part I and Part II – use the search feature to find topics of interest to you!
- UVA Dean J’s Notes from the Peabody – Dean J. at UVA, is an excellent explainer about confusing admissions topics (Should you send a resume? etc…) … plus, the dog is super cute!
And, finally, one amazing “go to” resource that includes a little bit of everything:
The College Essay Guy – Ethan Sawyer, aka “The College Essay Guy,” has made it a goal to share high-quality and thoughtful materials (free!) to support students through every aspect of the college application process. Not only does he have great resources to support your essay writing (including some amazing brainstorming YouTube videos), he has lists of great verbs to use in your Common App activities list, tricks and tips to tackle the supplemental essays at almost every school on your list, and so so much more!
AI and Your College Process
Can you just “ChatGPT it”?
There is a lot of misinformation out there about correct and ethical usage of generative AI to support the college process. It is worth considering the ways that you could potentially use generative AI for good – and also to note the ways that it might be easy to abuse the principle and start to cross solid ethical boundaries with your AI use. It is important to say right at the outset that all work you submit to a college must be your own – and for great reasons! They are admitting YOU to be a student on their campus and in their classrooms. The work you submit in your application is how they can best evaluate your fit for their program and the value that you’ll add to their community.
That said, there are a lot of really positive ways that ethical use of generative AI can support your college process, both in the discovery and research phases as well as in the application stages.
Discovery and Research:
ChatGPT is a wonderful thought partner to help you brainstorm colleges to fit your criteria!
If your high school uses Naviance, Scoir, or Maia Learning, you can use one of those programs to run an “Advanced College Search” that asks you to put in your “limiting criteria” (student population, geography, majors, admit rates, etc…) and will generate a list of schools to fit this criteria.
ChatGPT will do the same – and more!
Enter a prompt like this one (but use your own criteria):
“You are my college counselor. I am looking for a list of 15 colleges that meet the following specifications: fewer than 8,000 undergraduate students; a pretty campus; a location near a city; a state on either the east or west coast of the US; a strong economics department; great placement opportunities for student internships; some fun campus traditions that bring the community together; and, a basketball team that people like to support”
In response, ChatGPT reminded me about some schools like Davidson College and Santa Clara University, which both fit these specific criteria well, but it also added schools like Gonzaga University and the College of William and Mary, which both also fit this criteria but would not have been right at the front of my mind!
Once you find a college you like, ChatGPT can also help you to identify other schools that are similar to that school but might have different admissibilities – therefore be more of a target or a likely on your balanced list.
Enter a prompt like this one (but use your own criteria):
“You are my college counselor. I really loved my recent visit to Georgetown University, but I’m worried because it’s really selective. Can you tell me about 10 schools that have the same vibe and academic focus as Georgetown but that admit more than 20% of the students who apply?”
In response, ChatGPT reminded me about Seattle University, American University, and Villanova University (among others), focusing on the strong spirit and traditions along with parallel academic disciplines.
ChatGPT is a wonderful travel agent and can help you to plan your college tours! It can help you think about how long you might want to spend on each campus, how long the travel would be between schools (or from college campus to airport), and also provide you with some other ideas for activities and attractions to explore while you are in town!
Enter a prompt like this one (but use your own plans):
“I am planning a trip to Chicago to visit colleges (Northwestern, University of Chicago, and Loyola University Chicago). Help me to plan a 4 day trip – I will be flying in on the first morning and leaving on the 4th evening – to see these schools and also gives me a chance to explore the area.”
Not only will ChatGPT help you think about what to do when, it will also give you fun restaurant recommendations and other area attractions to explore!
Application Process
As students look at the volume of supplemental essays required by some colleges, it is tempting to consider just outsourcing the writing process to their favorite generative AI “friend” and breezing through the work. However, the essays that ChatGPT creates, while technically executed and on point, lack soul, spirit, originality, and humanity. When you read a lot of college essays every day, it is easy to tell which college essays have been written by generative AI. Students might not craft sentences with the same degree of grammatical correctness, but student writing always feels like it was written by a person.
That said, there are still a number of ways you can utilize the tools of ChatGPT to support your application process. Here are two!
- Getting your activities list down into the 150 character “Description” box on the Common App: You can ask ChatGPT to help you pare down your activities to fit into the description box on Common App by giving it a prompt like this:
“I need your help writing about my activities. I’d like to have them described in a format that uses only phrases, each starting with a unique verb. The phrases should be separated by a ; punctuation mark. The whole description can be no longer than 150 characters. Now use these rules to describe my work on [insert activity here]”
- Learning about campus specifics to support your “Why do you want to attend [College Name]?” essays: You can ask ChatGPT to help you with some details that will enhance your writing on your “Why X College?” essays. Say your weekend job at home is in a specialty grocery store. Ask ChatGPT to tell you about the best specialty grocery stores near the college campus. What if you participate in a mentoring program for young musicians in your hometown. Ask ChatGPT to tell you about some of the music-related community service work that students do on that campus. Additionally, have ChatGPT tell you about favorite campus athletic traditions; cozy campus locations to read a good book; the best coffee shop within walking distance of campus; or, remind you of the name of the student internship placement program. A good “Why X College?” essay will include some great proper nouns associated with the school, and ChatGPT is an excellent thought partner to find yours!
Again, it is unethical and wrong to have ChatGPT do more for your process than to participate in some of these exercises. It cannot write your essays, or edit them for you! That said, leveraging the power of generative AI can be supportive of both your list building and writing efforts!
Don’t just take our word for it! Want to learn more? Read these two excellent blog posts from the Georgia Tech Admissions Office:
"Do you have any questions for me?"
A guide to one aspect of your college interview:
Often, at the end of a college admissions interview, the alumni (or student) interviewer will turn to the candidate and say: “Do you have any questions for me?” This is a wonderful moment for you to seize an opportunity, so do not let it pass you by!
First, what NOT to do:
- Say “no, I don’t have any questions” about this college
- Ask a “yes or no” question whose answer could be easily Googled (“Does College X have a French major?”)
- Ask any question whose answer could be learned from your explorations of the college’s website (“Where do you have study abroad programs?”)
- Ask a question whose answer is generally mundane (“How good is the math department?”)
- Ask a “stock” questions that sound like ChatGPT wrote it for you (“What do you think makes College X unique compared to other schools, especially in terms of its student culture or academic opportunities?”) *ChatGPT did write this one!
What SHOULD you do:
- Ask a question that makes a clear connection to YOU
- Invite your interviewer to tell you a story from their experiences as a student
How do you do this?
Prepare in advance!
Think of a few things that are central to your interests, your character, and your application and craft thoughtful questions connected to these interests BEFORE you go into your interview. Be sure to keep the question short, but also make sure it includes enough depth and detail to highlight your interest in the area at hand.
Here are a few examples:
- Sustainability is really important to me and my work with our school’s Green Team has been among my favorite extracurricular activities. I was really proud of our recent “Weigh the Waste” contests to reduce dining hall waste at lunches. I’m curious if you can tell me more about how students at College X are involved in environmental sustainability initiatives? What types of projects have students spearheaded at College X to make the campus greener and improve the school’s environmental footprint?
- My high school’s small size has been really important to my growth as a student. I love building relationships with my teachers both in and out of the classroom. College X is a lot bigger than my high school, and I want to make sure that I can still get to know my teachers. Can you tell me about some of your favorite professors at College X? How did you get to know them outside of lectures?
- The best projects I have done in my classes have been collaborative ones, where each member of our team contributes their own expertise to our success on the project (and maybe give a little example). Given how selective College X is, I’m worried that the school might foster a more competitive than collaborative environment. Can you tell me about how you found the school to be on the spectrum from competitive to collaborative? Was the same also true for your friends?
You can write your questions down on a notecard and bring it with you to your interview! When the interviewer asks if you have any questions, it is ok to pull out your card and read one! Having your questions in advance shows that you are thoughtful and prepared.
Want to know more about college interviews from the “inside”?
Check out this great episode of the Inside The Yale Admissions Office podcast (“Interviews” – 28 minutes)
Letters of Continued Interest: Myths and Reality
Google “I just got deferred from my Early Decision school! What can I do now?” and you’ll be directed toward any number of threads and conversations filled with myths and partial truths about the purpose, structure, and value of the “Letter of Continued Interest” (LOCI) to be sent to support a student’s chances in the Regular Decision round.
MYTH: The letter needs to be submitted immediately following the defer decision to assure that the school knows the student isn’t too disappointed about being deferred and/or is still very interested in attending.
MYTH: There is a perfect LOCI that the student could craft that would all but guarantee admission in the regular round.
MYTH: Students who have been deferred ED have a better (or worse, depending on what you read) chance of being admitted in the regular decision round than students who simply applied RD.
MYTH: Students should do more than just write a letter, they should call and/or visit the college, send additional letters of recommendation, request a meeting with an admissions officer to explain their interest, send cookies/flowers/cardboard cutouts of their face, in order to ensure that the school knows how very interested they are.
In truth, each of these is just that – a myth about admission.
Truth: LOCIs should be sent in mid-January, not only after a student has taken the time to craft great supplemental essays for the other schools on their list, but after they have an update to share with the school (which is likely after first semester grades have been reported).
Truth: All LOCIs are different and should be unique and individual to the student, and their interests and aspirations. There are no guarantees in the world of admissions, and LOCIs are a part of that reality.
Truth: Each student in the RD round has the same “chance” of being admitted as each other student in the round. There are no special points (or demerits) for the ED deferred applicant. About the same percentage of applicants are admitted after a deferral as are admitted from the entire pool. (ie: If the school has an RD admit rate of 5%, about 5% of the deferred ED applicants are admitted as are about 5% of the RD applicants)
Truth: Students should simply write one letter (one LOCI). They should absolutely not visit, call, interrupt, send anything else, or otherwise inundate the admissions office. Students (and parents) need to simply trust that the process does work out and that one LOCI is sufficient.
So what is the formula for a great LOCI? It is simple. One letter, 4 parts, 250 words or about ½ a page:
- Gratitude: For the time during busy RD season; for the defer in a competitive pool, etc
- Updates: Here are some things that have happened to/for/because-of me since I sent you my application in mid-October that I haven't shared yet that I think you'd like to know about in my application
- Connections: Here are some great things that I am/continue to be excited about at your school which makes it such a great fit for ME and are all the things I love about it/your school/my future there (even better if they might connect to your updates!)
- Gratitude Redux: For the “continued consideration” -- and (if applicable) an assurance to yield if admitted (can't do this unless it is true… consider your options!)
Do you want to read more about deferral and steps you can take? Try this excellent blog post from the Georgia Tech Admissions Blog.