Earlier this year Magellan Jets launched a 10 Hour College Jet Card for seniors visiting perspective colleges. Now we are taking our support for education to the next level by partnering with Mimi Doe and Dr. Michele Hernandez, the country’s leading college admissions experts. They leverage their experience to create applications that rise above the rest in their intensive 4 day Application Bootcamp for rising seniors! Their internationally acclaimed Boot Camp has sold out for eleven consecutive years! Mimi & Michele also offered Magellan Jets clients a special discount on the camp!
Below is a glimpse of a few tips from Mimi and Michele:
Top 7 Mistakes Students Make on College Applications
By: Dr. Michele Hernandez & Mimi Doe
1. Waiting until the last minute to take action. Many students put off college applications because they are anxious about the dreaded essay, or they don’t anticipate the amount of time required to complete all aspects of the process. Rushing can only hurt the end result. Holding off on asking teachers for recommendation letters is also detrimental. Popular teachers are asked for dozens of recommendation letters each year. Their letters often become hurried and impersonal by the time deadlines near. Beat the rush and ask for recommendations letters at the end of junior year or at the very beginning of senior year. Pay attention to what teachers tell you. If you sense any hesitance, select a different teacher. Begin working on your applications during the summer before senior year in order to focus on those all important senior fall grades. We offer a self guided Application Boot Camp that guides you through a four day system for creating stand out applications. (www.ApplicationBootCamp2014.com)
2. Writing a clich©d essay. Students seem to think that colleges like essays about “how I overcame a challenge” or “what I learned on my Outward Bound trip.” Rather than going with the predictable, select unique and interesting topics about which you feel passionate. How you developed an interest in plasma physics…or how you taught yourself Hindi using audio tapes… A distinctive essay holds the attention of admissions readers and tells them how you think, how you approach life, and what scholarly focus you will have when you attend their college.
3. Sounding inauthentic. Write your essays in your natural voice. Sprinkling $10 words into your work will only make it sound phony. One admissions officer at an Ivy League school keeps a scoreboard of how many times he reads “plethora” in essays. Express yourself in a genuine way and your sincere tone will be refreshing.
4. Failing to send official test scores. Schools won’t consider applications unless they receive official SAT, Subject Test, ACT, and AP score reports directly from the testing agencies. Don’t assume your school will send the scores. They will NOT. Also, don’t assume that your own reporting of the scores on the application is enough. It is NOT. Furthermore, colleges won’t call to let an early decision candidate know that he/she forgot to send scores. They will be more likely to simply defer that student.
5. Misidentifying or misspelling the school. Writing “Dartmouth University” instead of “Dartmouth College” or writing “Carlton College” rather than “Carleton College” will not win you any friends in the admissions office. They might assume you aren’t really interested in their school if you can’t manage to get their name right.
6. Leaving questions unanswered. Admissions offices tend to assume that if a student doesn’t answer a particular question he/she is hiding something. If the race question is left unanswered, for instance, they might assume that it’s a white student hoping to “game the system” as being white doesn’t give them an edge. If the disciplinary action question is left blank, admissions officers might assume a student did indeed have had a violation of some kind, but doesn’t want to mention it. Be thorough!
7. Failing to provide a compelling reason for applying. It is not sufficient to write that the school is highly ranked, or has a beautiful campus – admissions officers know that already. Specific explanations show that you have done a lot of research on the school and have concluded that it is a good fit. Find a particular professor in the field that you are interested in and what he/she is doing that is of interest to you. “Brown University’s Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies is the perfect place for me to further deepen my interest in ancient Egyptian history.”
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