Guru Academic Advising
Like us, tweet us, connect with us:
  • Home
  • Meet the Team
  • Our Services
    • One-on-One College Planning
    • Virtual Essay Advising
  • Why Use a College Planner?
  • Testimonials
    • Accepted!
  • Contact Us
  • E-Newsletter
  • Resources
    • Blog
  • College Application Organizer

Advice and musings from the Guru Academic Advising Team

The college admissions process can be stressful, time-consuming, and confusing. Fear not! We are here to help set you on a path to presenting yourself as the best applicant you can be.

Join the Newsletter

​Winning the College Admissions Game 

12/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Question: Who “wins” this game?
 
Player 1 was accepted into Harvard, his dream school.
 
Player 2 was denied from every highly selective school to which she applied. She also applied to and was accepted by High Point University, her safety school in a sea of “lottery schools” from which she was denied.
 
If we stop the game here, Player 1 is the clear winner. He has the acceptance to the prestigious university and the application plan that went according to plan. Player 2 is settling. She had an application plan that was not smartly put together, and she is dealing with the result.
 
But guess what? The “game” doesn’t stop there. And that’s because life doesn’t stop there. There is more to it than just getting in. Once a student gets in, he or she has to attend, work hard, interact skillfully with professors and peers, apply for and win research opportunities, pass classes, get internships…
 
What if we zoom forward three years from the scenario with which we started? What if we find out Player 2 is thriving? She is a “big fish in a smaller pond” about to do a semester in Florence with an internship for global marketing. She already has a job offer from her last internship in the summer, and she’s weighing that against the decision to continue on to graduate school. Possibilities abound. The failure she felt senior year being rejected from so many more prestigious colleges is just a blip in the past she doesn’t have time to dwell on.
 
Meanwhile, Player 1 has, amid the incredible pressure of his immensely talented peers and the increased expectations of college life, dropped out. He’s taking time off while his mother encourages him to transfer into the local state university so he doesn’t fall further behind. He wasn’t a good fit for the pressure, and he had no idea it was going to be that way. He had applied and decided to attend his first college because of the name recognition. “If you get in to Harvard, you go”, his dad had told him. So he went, and he failed. It was never a good fit.
 
Who is “winning” the game now?
 
There’s a bigger idea here that’s so important for students and parents to remember. They must remember the end goal. What is this all for? What’s most important in this process? Is it bragging rights about how selective a school you could get into? It shouldn’t be. Your likelihood of success is not correlated with the lower the admissions percentage of the school you attend.
 
Seniors, as you get your acceptances, think long term. Think realistically about your priorities. At Guru, we celebrate every success, not just the ones that come with single digit selectivity percentages, because we know we work hard to help families put together college lists that are based on substance—places our students will thrive academically, socially, and financially.  And when Harvard says yes to the right kid, we celebrate that, too! The same way we do for Ole Miss, Syracuse, Stanford and everywhere in between. 

0 Comments

    About Us

    We are a full-service academic advising and college planning team. We started up shop in 2013 because we are passionate about helping students pursue opportunities for elite higher education. Need help? Want to know more? (972) 755-9507 

    Like us on FaceBook!

    Archives

    September 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All
    Admissions
    Application Boot Camp
    Applications
    Apply Texas
    College Major
    College Options
    College Visit
    Essay
    Extracurricular Activities
    FAFSA
    Financial Aid
    Future College Graduate Of The Month
    GPA
    Guest Post
    Guru Talks
    High School
    Ivy League
    Letters Of Recommendation
    Parenting
    Pepperdine
    Rigor
    SAT / ACT
    Scholarships
    Social Media
    Standardized Testing
    Summer To Dos
    Summer To-Dos

    RSS Feed


Picture
Contact​

Less stress, better results.
Copyright Guru Academic Advising, 2018.  

Work With Us 
​