Dear Freshmen:
You probably think you are currently on track to get into the college of your dreams.And, by virtue of the fact that your transcript is a blank slate right now, you technically are.
But unfortunately, you’ve been lied to, and throughout your high school career people are going to keep on lying to you, because they think that’s helpful. And by the time you find yourself actually filling out a college application your senior year, it will be too late to fix the constant stream of misinformation you’ve been fed.
Fortunately for you, The Oracle staff wants to help you out. We’re going to tell you what actually does (and doesn’t) matter when it comes to applying to colleges. Partly because we care about you and partly because the seniors on this staff can’t help but wish someone would have been honest enough to tell them all this when they were freshmen.
So let’s start with what does matter. The first, second and third most important things on your college application are almost always your GPA, your SAT/ACT scores and the rigor of your courses. You probably already knew that, but what you might not realize yet is just how important those three things are (GPA especially!). Unless you have literally cured cancer with your bare hands, your dream college is unlikely to accept you unless you’re up to par in those areas. And trust us: It’s not too early to start thinking about what that dream college is. We’re not telling you to set up a Common App account just yet, but call a few admissions offices and ask them what the average GPA is of an accepted applicant and start making a plan for how to get there before you have any bad grades weighing you down.
Sound like a lot of work? Well, here’s the good news: Those are the only three things on your application that matter. That’s right: we here on The Oracle staff want to issue you a solemn promise that no one in the history of this hallowed school has ever been accepted to a college due to their participation in the Fishing Club. Not that we’re knocking the Fishing Club, of course. They’re awesome. But they’re not going to get you into UVA.
Your National Honor Society membership, your passion for violin, endless volunteer hours and even your teacher recommendations are just side notes. Yes, a particularly good recommendation letter can push you over the line, but that’s only if you were on the wrong side of the line in the first place.
Rather than counting on your junior year English teacher to get you into college, you are infinitely better off focusing on the three things we already mentioned. As long as you’re challenging yourself in hard classes – and doing well in them – colleges are going to want you. That’s not to say you should quit playing sports, drop out of your church youth group and devote your life to aggressive Netflix binge-watching. Keep being a productive person outside of school, but don’t do it because it’ll get you into college.
In fact, don’t do anything because it will get you into college. Do things because you enjoy them. High school shouldn’t be four years of stressfully pampering up your future applications, because we promise you, senior year’s going to roll around and you’re going to realize every activity you did purely to put on a college app was a waste of your time. Colleges do like to see kids who stand out and have a real passion for something, but you’re not going to discover or nurture that passion in an activity you’re only doing because someone told you it looks good on college apps.
So don’t waste your time like we did: Focus on those three things that really matter and spend the rest of your high school career having fun.