Senior Course Selection's role in College Admissions

       By the time a student reaches their senior year of high school, they should have acquired most of the data that will be decisive in their college admissions. They’ll apply to college in the fall, so the GPA colleges will see will likely be the one they have at the end of their junior year. Hopefully, they’ve been taking standardized tests and should be nearing their peak score there. And, they should be well down the road of building a resume that includes their extracurricular activities. So, among the significant cards they have left to play as they head into their senior year is the strength or rigor of their 12th grade curriculum.

In many cases, a senior might have met the majority of graduation requirements following their junior year. They may be able to enjoy their senior year with a relatively easy schedule. However, this is often not a smart move for a college-bound student.  The appearance of a rigorous senior curriculum can be crucial to a student’s chance of admissions. Colleges want to see a senior who is continuing to challenge themselves and pursue a robust education. They are looking for students who want to reach higher and higher each year and are dedicated to their studies. Taking a bare-minimum schedule does not accomplish this.

College bound seniors should take courses that continue to move their education forward and make a positive impression on the colleges they hope to attend. I think there is a bit of a sliding scale here too. Students who are already well-positioned for the colleges they want to attend might have a little more leeway in their senior course selection. Students who really want to attend a reach school, maybe don’t. So, let’s say you really want to attend a given state university. You do some research and find that last year, that school’s middle range of SAT scores from students who were accepted was 1180-1300 and weighted GPAs ranged from 3.7-4.2. Your SAT score is 1390 and your GPA is 4.4. You should already have a pretty good chance of getting in and thus might be able to take some liberties with your senior schedule. If your friend also really wants to go to that school but has an 1150 SAT and 3.4 GPA, they don’t have that same luxury. 

Thus, maybe you and your friend have debated taking Spanish 4. You both are in Spanish 3 and are doing okay, but feel like you are reaching your ceiling in the subject area and are losing interest. You’re trying to decide between Spanish 4 and a health class you’ve heard is pretty easy. You might be able to take the health class and have a little “break” in your senior schedule. Not your friend though. They are playing the admissions game at this college from behind and might not be able to afford to take such a chance. I would advise them to take Spanish 4 in this scenario in an effort to “max out” their senior curriculum. To say it succinctly, the lower your chance of getting into the schools you want to attend, the more impressive your senior courses need to be. Well, to a point at least. You’ve still got to “live” that schedule and you want to be somewhat successful in it. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. 

Executing Demonstrated Interest in the College Admissions Process

         This college admissions cycle, I had the pleasure of watching a good friend deftly exercise a seldom-discussed element of college admissions strategy. That is “demonstrated interest.” This is the concept of conveying to a college that you REALLY want to go there. To be impactful in this area, one really needs to go beyond simply applying as an early action candidate and/or writing your personal statement about how you’ve wanted to go to this college since you were a little kid and both your parents went there and their legendary quarterback is your idol, or whatever. To fully actuate this element, a student really needs to DEMONSTRATE their interest in the school.

So, my friend’s son, a senior who we’ll call Brian, really wanted to go to this large university. Admission to this school is very competitive and Brian’s test scores and GPA were a level below the range we typically see admitted to the school. Honestly, his numbers were far enough away that I didn’t think he had much of a chance of getting in. I think Dad understood this, but was determined to give it his all. 

The first thing Dad and Brian did was to go and tour the campus and meet with an admissions rep. I can’t overstate the importance of an official tour here, especially in cases such as this where no one in the family has a tie to the university. How can you say that going to a given school is the most important thing in the world to you if you’ve never even been there? Colleges absolutely track who signs up for their official tours and align that data with the applications they receive. If you don’t bother going to see the college, you’re not really making an effort to demonstrate your interest.

The other key thing they did here was meet with an admissions rep. Indeed, Brian has a great personality. He’s magnetic. Dad understood he had a kid with traits that can make him successful well beyond his high school numbers. Admissions reps are the same individuals who read applications and make decisions about students. This meeting established a relationship and made Brian a face and personality that went along with his application.

So, the relationship was established and Brian was on the radar. Between that meeting and the time admissions were released, Dad and Brian worked to foster the relationship they had with the admissions rep simply by staying in touch. They sent an email every so often with a question or just to check in and reiterate how much they felt the school’s program of study in Brian’s intended field was perfect for him. Conveying an alignment between what a school offers and what a student wants to do in their career path is also a crucial piece of effective demonstrated interest.

This continued contact kept Brian in front of the admissions rep, likely brought him familiarity in the whole admissions office, and he was eventually accepted. Brian plans to start school there this summer. As the school released data from their admitted students, Brian’s numbers remained well short, but he got in anyway. It all goes to show the important role demonstrated interest plays in the process.