When people think of using baseball to get into college, they’re usually thinking about a coach offering a full-ride scholarship to play on the team. For those who still hold such delusions, time for a reality check. But there are still all sorts of ways baseball can help you get into college, including providing content for your college application essay.
If you want to make a better college list, don’t limit your potential list of colleges to just schools you have heard of. There are over 1,600 four-year US colleges-there is no reason to start off with a short list of five institutions. Having a larger list of colleges opens up opportunities you haven’t even considered at prices you didn’t think possible.
Over half of all college students attend schools less than 100 miles from home. Only 16% of students travel 500 or more miles from home. This pretty much matches the preferences expressed by far too many parents and students of wanting to be close enough for them to come home on the weekends if they want to or in case of emergencies. Yeah, I have a problem with that.
Before parents sit back and let their kids drive the college application process, there are some numbers they need to understand when comparing colleges. Because while it’s true that it’s the student who is going to attend college, the colleges are pretty clear that they are going to turn to the parents to pay the bill. And anyone expected to write a check to cover the cost of college, needs to have some meaningful numbers to evaluate the value of what their buying. However, not all numbers are created equal. For example, the acceleration speed of a car and its sticker price are both numbers, but one probably will have priority over the other for most people making a car purchase. Understanding these five numbers will provide you with some basic references for comparing colleges to decide if you’re willing to pay the college’s asking price.
Most students will not submit Early Decision college applications for the same reason that most students will be accepted at their first-choice school. Students generally apply Early Decision to improve the admission chances at a limited number of extremely competitive colleges. Only 10% of all four-year colleges accept less than 40% of students. Since most students aren’t going to these colleges, there is no reason to apply Early Decision. If you are considering applying Early Decision, you need to understand the following:
Unless you’re willing to just pick one set of college rankings and use it to decide between colleges, at some point you’re going to have to dig deeper and actually start researching colleges. The fact is that once you get past adding or removing colleges from your list based on things like size, majors, and locations, most students will still need to narrow down their lists. There’s no magic formula for deciding between schools–what’s important to one student won’t be for another. And given the cost of college, students should commit to researching them further to find their differences. But how do you research a college?
(If you just want to see the list of college essay examples-keep scrolling to the table.) It’s easy for students to put off writing their essay for their college applications. After all, chances are that the most commonly requested essay, the personal statement, is something the student hasn’t had to do before. And it’s only natural that their first reaction leaves them feeling as if they couldn’t possibly provide an answer that wouldn’t sound contrived or pathetic. So they start looking for college essay examples to see what is expected and possibly for inspiration.
The excitement generated by acceptance letters so many high school seniors received before April 1 has morphed into anxiety if not outright panic as families’ finances have been turned upside down. What was an affordable college before COVID-19 may not be any more. Athletes face uncertainty about scholarship availability. And there are students who would just rather stay a little closer to home than when they first created their college list.
So now what?
Most high school seniors are ready to breathe a big sigh of relief reaching their spring semester thinking they’re safe from making any college application mistakes. Unfortunately, the college admissions process doesn’t end just because you submitted your applications. In fact, even after completing all the college applications and submitting test scores, there are five things high school seniors can do to ruin their chances of attending college in September. And they don’t all have to do with being accepted-there are things other than rejection that can keep you from starting classes in the Fall.
