2. Location is very important, although it’s not the only factor you should be considering. Don’t neglect type and size as well as competitive level. And definitely visit the school before signing up

3. Interviews, if they’re available are generally a good idea. So is spending a night on campus.

4. SAT and ACT tests are not the same as IQ tests: they can – and should – be strenuously prepared for.

5. Take the most challenging classes you can do well in – a B+ in AP Calculus is more impressive than an A in Math for Poets.

6. Parents will be involved in the college selection process but they need to let their children take the lead – college selection is often the first adult decision of a young person’s life.

7. The application essay is not the place for a hard-sell summation of why you’d be an awesome addition to College X – it’s a place to introduce yourself to the admissions committee and let them hear your authentic “voice.”

8. A binding early decision application is only a good choice if you are absolutely, positively no- holds-barred certain that you know what your first choice school is. Remember, if you are accepted Early Decision you must withdraw your other applications and attend that school.

9. The FAFSA student aid form is required for all federal grants, loans, state aid and many college aid programs – it’s the most important app you’ll fill out for financial aid.

10. Don’t wait till your junior year of high school to prepare for applying to college. From freshman year on, your course choices, extracurricular activities, grades, and financial arrangements will affect your decisions and choices when it comes to college.

It’s easy to find seemingly endless lists of private-scholarship possibilities, especially in the era of the internet. The potential savings add up very quickly in our minds, and the temptation to apply for every private award under the sun can be strong. But don’t get carried away. The increased visibility brought by the web means a lot more competition for the juiciest awards, and the old saw about a scholarship so obscure that the winner was the only person who applied becomes less true every year (and many private scholarships reserve the right not to award any money in a given year if no applicants cut the mustard).

Finding all those awards and writing all those application essays takes time. If you were Bill Murray’s character from the movie Groundhog Day, you would have endless time in which to craft perfect applications to so many private scholarships that college would end up free—but in real life, time is precious, and there are more pragmatic things an incipient college applicant could be doing with her or his time than chasing every private award there is. Remember, scholarships don’t help you get accepted to college, so there is still that little matter to worry about: it would be bad news for a student’s grades, extracurricular participation, or community involvement to suffer because of time spent laboring over scholarship applications. (If parents are involved in the process, hunting down scholarship leads on the web and refining them into a “best-of” list for the student makes a good task for a parent who does not work full-time.)

Locating the necessary info about private scholarships is not rocket science. It is usually as simple as typing a search term (e.g., “hockey” or your ethnicity) into Google followed by the word “scholarship.” It is simply not necessary to pay a scholarship-search company to seek out the opportunities for you—such companies merely charge you a fee for research you could have easily done just as well (and probably more quickly) on your own, and don’t better your student’s chances of winning any of the awards.

So how should a student go about seeking private scholarships? Well, you should always play to your strengths, and when it comes to private scholarships, here are a few of the best situations you can be in:

• You are a member of a minority or special-interest group. And this doesn’t just mean ethnic or religious minorities. There are scholarships for students with every imaginable disability or handicap—even psychological conditions like bipolar disorder or ADHD, or purely cosmetic conditions like the skin disease psoriasis. Remember to think outside the box: if there is anything at all statistically unusual about a student, there’s a good chance a scholarship exists for it—there are even scholarships for students who are interested in polka music! And be advised that a “special” group doesn’t necessarily have to constitute a statistical minority—for example, Christians and women are both numerically majorities of the population, but there are plenty of scholarship opportunities specific to those groups.
• You are extremely good at something. Academic and/or athletic merit are the forms of excellence most commonly honored by scholarships, but not the only ones. Skill at a musical instrument, or at the visual arts, or at composing poetry, can garner financial awards as well. There are even scholarships awarded to promising young stand-up comics! But it is a poor use of a student’s time to suddenly try to get good at something just for a scholarship (since you will be competing against other applicants who are lifelong devotees). The best route is to identify what you are genuinely already interested in and skilled at, and seek out scholarships in that area.
• You are a skilled (i.e., convincing) writer. The last point already established that skill in a given art form can earn scholarship money, so why is writing singled out separately? It’s simple. Because so many scholarship competitions hinge on the composition of an essay, a good writer with a questionable relationship to the awarding organization’s goals will usually outperform a mediocre writer who is more sincere in her or his heart. Maybe you don’t really feel more passionately about endangered species or the swing-dance revival than any other applicant, but if you are a good enough writer and can empathize with the core concern of the organization, it may be a good idea to try. It may not be fair, but it is how things are. Writers with the chops to pull it off should seek out the most lucrative scholarships and tell them what they want to hear.

When it comes to private scholarships, the name of the game is focus. A student who applies willy-nilly for fifty scholarships may feel lucky when she or he drops the envelopes into the mailbox, but then not win a single one. Conversely, a student who carefully selects three well-fitting scholarship opportunities and meticulously crafts those apps stands a much better chance of seeing her or his efforts pay off.

Being deferred can be a frustrating outcome: you’ve demonstrated a significant interest in a school, hustled to make the earlier deadline, and still have nothing concrete to show for it. But the thing to remember if you get this news is that you haven’t been rejected, which probably means your application is in the ballpark of what the school is looking for.

If you do get deferred from your first choice school, here’s what you should be doing right now:

• Understand that excellent first semester grades will do more than anything else to enhance your chances of acceptance. This is not the time to sulk or embrace defeat – step up your studying efforts and do extra-credit work if possible.
• Tell your guidance counselor you’ve been deferred, since he or she won’t be informed by the college until well after you are.
• Read the deferral letter from the college thoroughly. The letter will often give you suggestions about how to improve your chances. Follow the school’s instructions very carefully – if they say not to submit additional recommendations, don’t do it!
You may also find this information on the school’s website.
• If the college encourages you to submit additional information, you should write a letter reaffirming your strong interest in the school. This is also your chance to update the admissions committee on anything that might be relevant to your application. But don’t waste the committee’s time by telling them what they already know – notify them only if you’ve received any awards or honors, attained a leadership position in a club or extracurricular activity, or increased your SAT or ACT scores.
• Additional letters of recommendation are usually not necessary or helpful. Again, these letters should only be sent if they provide new information that other writers have not presented.

• If you are feeling some anger toward the college, put it aside. Make sure your correspondence with the school is polite and respectful. Writing “I can’t believe I didn’t get accepted” will be perceived as whiny and arrogant. And don’t try to convince the college they made a mistake by deferring you – just explain as best you can why the school is a great fit for you.

• All the contact you have with the college should be between you and the admissions committee – do not let your parents call or write to the school!

Remember that there is still time to apply elsewhere and there are other colleges out there that will be a good fit for you. Meet with your guidance counselor and review your options. And try to stay positive – a deferral may not be the best news, but it’s also not the worst!

You may want to consider gaining work experience through an unpaid internship, which can give you valuable experience and a sense of responsibility, along with an impressive item to put on your resume – without interfering with financial aid.

You should also know that it’s not always necessary to file tax returns and report cash earned for small jobs such as babysitting or mowing your neighbor’s lawn. If your family has a tax advisor, he or she can help you determine which portion of your income, if any, is legally required to be reported.

Another impediment to financial aid is high parental income and assets. Eligibility for aid is based on the income tax return from the year prior to application (for example, a FAFSA application for 2010 will require tax and income information from 2009). This means that strategic planning with an accountant or financial advisor should be undertaken by the fall of your junior year in high school at the latest.

Any income, dividends, etc. that can be legitimately transferred before the end of the year preceding college may make a noticeable difference in financial aid awards. Generally, the less income parents earn, the less they will be expected to pay. So having parents take on a fourth job during their child’s junior year in high school may not ease the burden of paying for college – especially if it lowers the financial aid award.

Even if they are good students with rich, multi-faceted lives, college applicants often look at the blank page and have no idea what they should write. No amount of parental nagging will help these students get started – what they need is a plan!

We have broken essay writing down to five basic stages; tackling these steps one at a time will give you an easy-to-follow framework for handling your essay.

Step 1: Find the Right Topic
Brainstorm with a friend, family member or teacher to come up with the right topic. Try free association: write down people, movies and books that come to mind and see if they trigger a topic idea. Write down memorable events in your life. Consider writing about ways in which you’ve helped others or overcome adversity – but don’t try to portray yourself as overly noble.

Stage 2: Write the First Draft
Before you have a chance to obsess, just get going – write a few paragraphs and see where that leads you. Once you’ve gotten something down on paper, try to map out the path of the essay. Start with an opening sentence and paragraph that will grab the reader’s attention – a quotation or song verse can be a good starting point.

The main body of the essay should contain several paragraphs, each with a topic sentence you will go on to explain and illustrate. When you write the conclusion, make sure to refer back to the introduction in some way – this will bring the essay full circle.

Stage 3: Revise the First Draft
After finishing the first draft, wait at least a day before looking at it again – this will give you a fresh perspective. Then take a close look at what you’ve written to make sure you’ve answered the question and supported your main point with personal and concrete examples. Make sure you haven’t wandered too far from your topic. Check to see that the essay sounds personal and that your thoughts seem to flow smoothly throughout.

Stage 4: The Final Edit
This is your chance to fine tune your revised draft with some smart editing. Now is the time to take out extraneous words and phrases you might have overused. Make sure your point is clear. Remove any cliches and ty to vary the length of your sentences. Read the essay out loud and see how it sounds.

Stage 5: Proofread
Last chance: check for typos, correct use of capitalization and proper punctuation. Use spellcheck but don’t rely on it too much – it won’t catch every problem. Make sure there is subject/verb agreement and that your use of the past and present tense is consistent. It’s a good idea to have someone whose writing ability you trust proofread too.

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These five steps will put you on the right path for a successful essay. Using them as a guideline will keep you focused and organized, and prevent the essay writing process from becoming overwhelming.

Guided by the most loving of intentions, parents can be the personal essay’s worst enemy. Even more than their children, parents often get caught up in the competitve frenzy of college admissions, and the essay tends to be a common target of parental over-involvement. Despite the fact that guidance counselors, guide books and admissions officers all advise keeping the essay clear of “hard sell” descriptions of academic or other achievments, parents often insist on trying to cram this information in. The results are rarely subtle and often interfere with the theme and flow of an otherwise good essay.

Another trap parents fall into is simply over-helping with an essay – trying to change their child’s topic or rewrite the piece altogether. I can totally identify with this impulse – as an adult it’s tempting to think you can do a better job and it’s natural to want your child to make the best possible impression. But taking over the essay – besides being completely unethical – deprives your child of his or her rightful place at the helm of this process. And it robs the essay of the genuine and personal “voice” it’s supposed to have.

As I have heard from more than one admissions officer, it really isn’t hard to spot an essay that’s has been written by a forty-five year old tax attorney. So help your child with brainstorming and proofreading – then step away from the essay!

If you want to avoid this fate, you can’t just apply to colleges you might get into – or even ones you will probably get into. You also need to apply to one or two that are pretty much a sure thing. These safety schools have admissions criteria that you exceed – your GPA, class rank and standardized test scores should be higher than what you’d need for admission. This is a school that acts like a safety net in case more selective schools don’t admit you. It’s important to remember that people do sometimes end up going to their safety schools, so make sure you have at least one that you’d be comfortable attending. The fact that you can get in is meaningless if you’ll be miserable going there.

Most of the schools on your final college list will probably be target or level schools. These are colleges where you would fit in as an average student. Some admitted students will have higher grades and test scores, while others will have lower. You would have at least a 50-50 chance of being admitted to this kind of school.

A reach school may be your first choice, but it’s a long shot. You should not apply to more than a few of these schools, where your GPA and test scores will be in the bottom one-third of students admitted.

Schools in the Ivy League, as well as other top colleges and universities always need to be considered reach schools, no matter how good your credentials are. The most selective schools reject hundreds of valedictorians and students with perfect SATs every year.

It’s important to remember that numbers only count for so much with college admissions – your GPA and test scores may be perfectly on target, or even on the high side for a certain school, but a poorly written essay, obnoxious interview behavior, or a lack of extracurriculars can still sink your chances of admittance.

A good essay should be long enough – just long enough – to answer the question that’s been asked in a clear, personal and compelling way. Padding the essay to increase the word count will make you seem long-winded but not any smarter. Admissions officers recognize fluff when they see it; and since they have dozens (if not hundreds) of essays to plow through, they will not appreciate having to read an essay that is longer than it needs to be.

Until recently there was 500 word maximum for the Common App essay. It’s acceptable to write more than that now, but you may still want to stay in the 500-600 word ballpark.

To some extent you can be guided by the minimum word requirement of 250 words: twice the minimum – or a little more than that – is a reasonable length for an essay. Five times that amount seems like overkill.

The real guideline should be how well the essay reads. Is it repetitive? Are there unnecessary words and phrases? These are signs that you need to do more editing.

Be careful not to go off on a tangent. One student I worked with wrote an essay about his favorite book; two entire paragraphs were devoted to his lengthy (and not very interesting) search of area bookstores for the hard-to-find novel. This kind of detail is a waste of space: stay focused on the central theme of your essay.

The good news is that if you write about yourself honestly – even if you are not a saint or a scholar – you will probably come across as likeable and sincere. Which means the challenge of an essay is self-discovery – finding traits that are genuine and relatable and putting them down on paper. This is no easy task but there are ways to do it.

One technique is to create a list of adjectives that best describe you; make another list of the activities you most enjoy, Be brutally honest – if you’re cautious by nature, don’t claim to be a thrill-seeker. If your passion is karaoke, don’t pretend it’s practicing the violin. Remember, the essay is the place to reveal yourself, not sell yourself. It may help to ask friends and family to describe your character and attributes. As you write and edit your essay, check it repeatedly to make sure it is reflecting an honest picture of you.

Students often dread writing their college essays, but looking inward will definitely get results – and not just in an effective essay, but in a surprising reward of self-discovery. All in all, a nice payoff to a stressful enterprise!