The Honolulu McCarters

First off, there is no magic equation that guarantees success, but we as parents did learn some things that we would do differently.

• Review your child’s applications and discuss the essays. We got involved late in the game. While Gavin’s school did a great job helping him, and there is no doubt that his teachers had great advice on his essays, no one cares for your kid like you. Give them that personal touch and share your worldly experience.

• Explain that they must be bold in sharing their accomplishments.
  • Not a bad idea to start cataloguing events throughout high school. Special events might be forgotten in the senior year.

• Make sure that your child gets some "leadership" experience.  Doesn't have to be student body president, but a contributing role in a club is good -- and like all items this is good for life, not just a college app.
• One school made mention that they liked to see consistency from year to year: as in they didn't like seeing them jump from sport to sport to sport every year.

• Show an interest in the school. Let them know that you really want to come.  Send a letter expressing interest. Let them know if you are visiting the campus.  Give them something extra to drop in their file to show your interest.
• The schools want to feel special and not just they are one of 10 other applications. 

• Don't let your child get their hopes up on that "single" school. Acceptance in the competitive schools is a lottery.  I really do believe that they are not trying to find the perfect fit of all the applicants, but rather they are trying to create a collection of students to match their vision. So if they are looking for that one XYZ student that had X% experience in <Fill in the Blank> and a GPA of 3.87, and they find their match, they are not going to look at other students that might be an even more perfect fit.  The process is not to find the best students, but to fill their schools with students that fit.  That means perfect match students will not always get picked.  So if you child has their mind set, then there is a good chance of dissapointment.  (Fortunately for us, Gavin had mutliple ideas of good schools: some selected him and some did not. Life went on.)