When applying to college, these two words define your chances.

Many students and parents are in the throes of finalizing a college list. As they attempt to make sense of where students might have a chance, so often they point to GPAs and rigor of classes with the hope that these will be the keys to unlock the admissions doors. While these are undoubtedly key factors, there’s more to understand.
Read on for the two words that define everything about how a college application is read –
The first? Context.
Every aspect of a college application is read in context, and nothing is evaluated as stand alone information. What context? The first is the context of a student’s high school, community, state, and region. Admissions readers begin with the High School Profile, a document prepared by your school and sent with your transcript that provides crucial information about your high school’s demographics, curriculum, grading policies, student performance, and more. We encourage every student and parent to access this document from your high school, or ask for a copy of it if it isn’t readily available on your school’s website. Admissions review processes will use this information to understand an applicant’s course rigor, academic performance, test scores, awards, involvements, and service hours compared to the applicant’s peer group at their high school. If, for example,  two applicants are candidates for the IB diploma, that credential alone means something to the admissions reader. If, however, a student attends a high school where only 10% of their peers pursue this diploma, this context will be different than the student who attends a school where 90% of the graduating class pursues that same credential.
I recently attended a webinar where an admissions leader from Wake Forest University spoke to this element of context as it pertains to their office’s perception of the rigor of AP, honors, or dual enrollment courses. He noted that they go to the High School Profile, and use the weight a high school assigns to determine how they evaluate rigor. If a high school gives dual enrollment courses equal weight to APs, then WFU does as well. The inverse is also true. Even with the context of rigor, grading systems, and GPA, it’s important to note that colleges will consider these factors, and still make their own assessments. Most colleges recalculate core academic unweighted GPAs for 9th-11th grade course work to be able to understand a student’s raw performance, while still giving consideration to the rigor of the course work in the context of what was available to a student at their school.
Zip code, state residency, and even gender are also elements of context that impact how an application is perceived. Some colleges are working hard to recruit more male or female students, or more students from outside of their geographic area. Being from an underrepresented area may be to the benefit of one applicant, while being from an area that is highly represented in the applicant pool may make things more challenging for another.
Even the intended major or future career interest a student indicates on their application serves as context in the evaluation process. A student who indicates an interest in business or medicine, but earned a C in calculus may face a difficult time in the admissions process. The context of how competitive certain majors are at a school will also have a bearing on the review process. As applications to undergraduate business programs explode, students will face increased competition. In this way, the major becomes the context for not only evaluating a student’s preparation for that field, but their competitiveness within that specific applicant pool.
Which brings us to the next key word: Evidence.
It cannot be overstated how crucial it is for an application to contain the evidence of both a student’s engagement in their areas of interest and their proven ability to succeed. Admissions readers, unfortunately, are often screening for a track record that indicates a student’s ability to succeed at their institution and in their stated field of study, rather than looking for potential for future growth. When an applicant indicates an interest in engineering, the entire application will be filtered through this lens, seeking evidence of strong academic performance in the most rigorous STEM coursework available to a student at their school.
But a strong curriculum and good science and math grades are not likely to distinguish the engineering applicant. Beyond this, heavy emphasis is likely to be placed on the math side of SAT or ACT testing, and even more so, evidence that a student has already engaged an interest in engineering beyond the coursework available to them at their school. This does not mean applicants need to have paid for expensive summer programs to find success. Rather, admissions readers look for applicants to take advantage of offerings in their school or area. This means joining the robotics team, finding a free online opportunity to pursue engineering learning, and taking initiative to pursue their own self-directed projects and explorations of the field. Doing pretty well in math and science and hoping to gain your first exposure to engineering in college will rarely play out well in the admissions process.
Similarly, a student who has a stated interest in environmental policy, will do well to show evidence of strong performance in rigorous social science and science coursework, as well as engagement in their areas of interest in their school, local, and regional community.
At the most competitive schools, the expectations for both the breadth and the depth of evidence an application demonstrates expand. Fair or not, at the most selective schools, the admissions process is screening for academic excellence across all subject areas of a rigorous curriculum, and strong test scores that provide quantitative evidence of a student’s academic ability. This alone is not enough.
The most selective schools look for this breadth, as well as a depth of engagement in particular areas of interest and evidence of significant achievement or contributions. This may include publication, founding organizations, starting businesses or obtaining patents, advocating for legislation, or initiating programs that serve their community. Drawing connections between their intellectual curiosity, convictions, passions, and impact help distinguish the students who make it through the most narrow doorways. We share this reality not to induce anxiety or suggest that every student should be crushing themselves under the weight of such efforts. Rather, we want families to have a realistic understanding of how competitive the landscape is at the most selective schools, and how much evidence shapes outcomes.
As we noted in our blog, AI has arrived to college admissions, the prevalence of AI tools in the review process makes it more important than ever to build an application that is strong on evidence. Applicants should pay careful attention to how not only their application writing, but also their high school coursework, involvements, activities, and contributions reflect the skills, interests, curiosities and passions they profess.
The best thing a student can do is not try to engineer a perfect application, but rather identify areas of curiosity, passion and issues of importance and focus their efforts in the direction of exploring these interests and creating impact in their community.
TBU Advisors are experienced in supporting students to navigate their college choices and prepare their most compelling applications. If you’d like to explore working with a TBU Advisor, get in touch here. We look forward to connecting with you.
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