How much do colleges weight sports? Does it help if I quit tennis and pursue a more unique sport? Can I get into a top school if I am Captain of Speech and Debate? Do I really have to do research? Is 1600 the score I need to get into any college? What if I try to skip ahead in Math and do Calculus in my Junior year, is that better than if I do it in my Senior Year?

These are the types of questions I often get from parents of older students as it relates to their high school students. But these were the questions that a very eager and precocious seventh grader asked me the other day. As a thirteen-year old, she is already wrapped up in the college admissions race going so far as to know what is her dream school. While I was not shocked to hear from such a young girl her plans for the future because so many students are thinking about college earlier and earlier in their lives, I was a little saddened to think about her pursuing only those interests and activities she deemed would “look good on her college application.”

Middle school students, all students for that matter, should use their time pursuing activities that truly appeal to their sense of curiosity, their sense of adventure, and their sense of fun.

Colleges, yes, want to see accomplishments, strong academics, and a complete list of activities, all of which should stem from a student’s interests and not from some preconceived notion of what is expected. Admissions officers do not match applications against a set list of criteria. And when colleges tout the use of a holistic admissions process they are not just trying to calm the applying masses.

So rather than planning the next year or few years trying to be the perfect college applicant, use that time being the best you that you can be. Get involved in the activities that really speak to you. Those are the ones where you are likely to gain some of recognition anyways. And in whatever you pursue reach for the stars, knowing that failure can be just as valuable as success. If the opportunities you want are not in front of you, find ways to make them happen. Start a club if you want but because you are passionate about a cause not because staring a club shows leadership. Think beyond the bounds of your high school. Perhaps you would love to or need to get a job. Working in a fast food restaurant can teach you some very valuable skills about working with customers and working in an office can teach you about a potential career. Both are valuable.

When it comes to academics and test scores, balance is the key. You should push yourself to your limits. But you also have to be deeply aware of what those limits are. Don’t sign up for the hardest courses because that is what you think you need to do. Take the classes that excite you and also ones that show colleges your academic potential. And work for your test scores but don’t obsess about them – admissions officers certainly don’t.

The reality is that almost anything you do is valuable to an admission’s officer because it gives a glimpse into who you are. In the several pages that make up your college application, admissions officers want to learn as much about you as possible – about what you will contribute to the campus, what you will gain from the experience of being a student, and what you will represent as an alumnus of the school. In trying to build a well-rounded class, admissions officers want students that will contribute in different ways. Admitting students that fit any checklist will only bring together a boring, uni-dimensional group of students that will not inspire one another. It is important to think about the future. It is important to have goals. But it is also essential to live in the moment.

As I tell my students, this is your life. Live it to the best of your ability and admissions officers will be more than impressed.

One of the ongoing debates in the world of college admissions is how to make the entire process more affordable, especially to families in lower income brackets.  The Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success (CAAS), a diverse group with more than 90 colleges and universities, is aiming to offer a more affordable education to students.  The Coalition is providing a single focused set of resources to help students to organize and develop their college applications.  It will be free for students, families, counselors and high schools to use, and it continues to add high profile colleges as members.

New college planning tools, meant to streamline the admissions and financial aid processes, will include the College Locker, set to become available this April.  The Locker will provide a private space for students to gather work they’ve accomplished on their high school journeys, from strong essays to volunteering photos to videos from extracurricular competitions they engaged in along the way.  Colleges will not have access to the Locker while students are making choices about how to represent themselves, but students will be able to share their Locker with counselors, teachers, and other adults they choose to.  Eventually, the Locker is intended to become the Coalition’s Collaboration Platform, a shared meeting place where counselors and teachers can support students by offering feedback and editing.  The final piece of the puzzle, the Coalition Application portal itself,is scheduled to become available this July, 2016. Here, rising seniors will be able to maintain a detailed list of their colleges, review admissions requirements of each school, and submit materials before school deadlines. 

Currently many Coalition schools have agreed to accept applications starting this summer, although others are in the process of deciding exactly when and how to use this new application system.  But it’s important to note that there is not a distinct advantage to using the new Coalition Application over the more well-known Common Application. Colleges that accept both will not have a preference.  The long list of Common app schools that have already joined the Coalition includes Brown, Caltech, Chicago, Claremont McKenna, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Georgia Tech., Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Northeastern, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Penn, Pomona, Purdue, Rice, Stanford, Tufts, Vanderbilt, Wash U., Wesleyan, Williams, and Yale. However, three prominent public universities – Florida, Maryland, and Washington – will be using the Coalition app exclusively.

While the Coalition plans to go into full effect this coming application season, it seems probable that it will be used by many more people starting the following year as everyone becomes increasingly familiar with this new process.  As we gather more information, we will update families accordingly so that you have all the knowledge needed to navigate the CAAS.In the meantime, students will find CAAS affiliated colleges marked with a “C” on their tentative college lists in the portal.  As always, students may direct any additional questions to their Insight counselor. 

On March 24, the University of California (UC) announced a drastic change to the essay section of the UC application. Effective immediately, freshman applicants will have the freedom to choose four questions to answer out of a possible eight. Each short-answer can be as long as 350 words.  So in simple terms the maximum word count has gone from 1000 words to 1400 words.

Although the UC has decided to rename the prompts, “Personal Insight Questions,” the reality is that students will now be required to write four admissions essays. On the one hand, the diversity of questions will hopefully make it easier for students to identify topics that they connect with. On the other hand, teenagers often struggle when given too many choices. And in our experience, the thought process, time and energy behind writing one 500 word essay is no different than writing one 350 word essay.

Our immediate and general reaction to the changes is that they are an improvement over the previous essays. The prompts for the previous essays were written in a way that targeted a specific segment of the applicant pool. The wording of those prompts was also rather confusing and often led to unoriginal responses.  The challenges that come with these changes are likely to impact students who struggle with writing or start the UC application late in the admissions season. We also worry that calling them “questions” vs. “essays” will leave some students assuming that they don’t have to take them as seriously as a proper personal statement/essay.

Below are the new prompts:

1. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
2. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
3. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
5. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
6. Describe your favorite academic subject and explain how it has influenced you.
7. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
8. What is the one thing that you think sets you apart from other candidates applying to the University of California?

The beauty in these new topics is that students finally have a choice in what they want to convey to the University of California. This will undoubtedly cause some students to panic, wondering if what they think is important is what the admissions officers want to read. The most important thing students can do is to spend some time this summer reflecting on their experiences and what these experiences reveal about them. This will lead them to identifying the four prompts that best suit their life experiences. Essays should always be approached as opportunities to highlight those things that are not readily evident on the rest of the application. This is where voice becomes so important and the UCs have taken one valuable step in letting that voice shine through.