How to Get into College: Tips to Help You Apply & Get Accepted

Whether you have a single dream school in mind, are planning to apply to all the top colleges, or just want to stay close to home, the college admissions process can seem like a minefield to prospective students. However, in addition to having a strong grasp of the timeline and application requirements, you should also keep in mind some overall factors during your high school experience that will maximize your chances of success at selective colleges.

20 Tips To Increase Your College Admissions Opportunities

Consider the College Board requirements and work with your high school guidance counselor or a college admissions consultant to get into your top picks and other colleges. It takes some planning! Excelling in challenging courses, earning strong ACT or SAT scores, honing your college essay skills, and visiting campuses are the most important admission factors. Below are twenty things to keep in mind throughout high school to align your academic success with acing the college admissions process when it arrives:

1. Understand Yourself

The most important thing you can do for college applications is figure out what you want. What kind of school will make you happy? What do you want to study? What has been most meaningful about high school? Who are you, and who do you want to become?

You’ll be answering these questions in multiple ways during the admissions process, so understanding where you’ve been and where you see yourself going will be imperative to put together outstanding, compelling college applications.

2. Seek Support from Family and Friends

Applying to college all on your own is exhausting. There’s so much to remember, including the various moving parts of college applications (from school-specific essays to letters of recommendation from teachers), the deadlines, interviews, visits, and more. Our advice? Get support from the people around you in whatever way you can.

Visit schools with your parents. Ask family friends about different schools they attended to learn more about them. Practice interview skills and review your essays with a trusted friend or parent. The college admissions process is almost impossible to do alone, so don’t be afraid to seek help!

3. Study Hard

The best thing you can do for your college applications is to work hard in school. After all, college is primarily a place to continue your education. That means you need to get good grades and top test scores in high school!

The college admissions officers who read your applications will want to see that you’re a talented student who can take advantage of the resources they offer. That means they want to see a strong high school GPA and excellent academic performance. Some may even ask for a graded paper or a breakdown of your test scores.

4. Challenge Yourself Academically

For top schools and college admissions officers, getting good grades isn’t enough if you’re not taking on challenging coursework. Many colleges these days want to see a mix of honors and Advanced Placement classes to show that you’re ready for college-level work. Moreover, in addition to the AP class itself, they also want to see you earn high scores on the AP exams.

Furthermore, nothing shows you’re ready for college classes more than taking a college class! Many colleges offer summer classes that are open to high school students hoping to earn real college credit. Taking a for-credit class in your future major can add a lot to your college application.

5. Make a College Application Calendar

It’s crucial to remember that applying to college doesn’t just take place during your senior year. Starting to research and visit schools during your junior year is important, as it will ensure you have enough time to make the best choice for you. Look up college prep classes early in your high school days.

In reality, college admissions officers look at your entire high school career. That isn’t to say you need to be a perfectly groomed applicant on the first day of freshman year, but the choices you make along the way will ultimately play a role in your application.

6. Make a Reasonable List of Colleges

Some students get fixated on a small handful of dream colleges (Harvard, Yale), while others anxiously apply to twenty or more schools. Neither of these approaches is good or strategic. Instead, you should create a balanced college list.

It’s most important to have a range of selectivity in your list. Make sure that in addition to your reach schools (where you may be a below-average applicant in your grades, scores, and overall profile), you have target and safety schools, too, places where the acceptance rates are more forgiving and your chances of admission are thus higher. Many colleges would be lucky to have you!

7. Demonstrate Interest

No college wants to be your backup plan. Just as you don’t want to be rejected by them, they don’t want to be rejected by you! Therefore, most college admissions officers today track what we might call “demonstrated interest”: a measure of how interested they think a student is in their particular school.

While not all schools track prospective students’ perceived interest, it’s a good idea to demonstrate your interest at all the schools on your college list, not just your reach schools. That means attending information sessions, going on tours, following a school on social media, and emailing the admissions counselors assigned to your area.

8. Prepare for the SAT or ACT

Like it or not, standardized test scores are a crucial part of your application at most schools. Regardless of which test you take, it’s important that you earn good SAT or ACT scores that you can submit along with the rest of your college application.

Fortunately, your SAT score isn’t handed down from on high; it’s something you can improve with study and preparation. Whether you take practice tests on your own, engage in formal test prep with a tutor or class, and/or take the formal exam multiple times during your junior year (or before), make sure you eventually have strong test scores to share with colleges.

9. Make Your Extracurricular Activities Count

We all have twenty-four hours in a day, and none of us have the power to stop or slow time. Thus, there is a limit to how much you can add to your college resume. Some students overreach, trying to get involved in everything. Unfortunately, this isn’t a good use of their time and doesn’t look good for college admissions.

Rather, it’s important to understand that your time and bandwidth are limited and that college admissions will be more impressed by a deep dedication to a few passions rather than having a toe in a hundred different things. It’s good to explore early on, but by junior year, you should know which clubs and activities deserve your time and which ones don’t.

10. Take on Leadership Positions

Another reason not to take on too many extracurricular activities and instead develop a deep interest in one or two is the greater likelihood that you’ll achieve leadership positions in these spaces. College admissions committees love leadership; they want to admit students who can handle responsibility.

Of course, being president of your class or editor-in-chief of the school newspaper are ideal leadership positions, but you can showcase your leadership for your college application process in other ways, too. Taking on responsibilities in your religious or cultural community or through service are also ways to highlight your leadership abilities.

11. Get Involved in Community Service

The importance of community service in your overall college application profile cannot be overstated. Selective colleges evaluate prospective students’ involvement in their communities, particularly with people different from them, to assess their maturity and empathy.

There’s no right or wrong way to serve your community; maybe you want to do something closely related to your interests, or maybe you just set aside time to help others in whatever way you can. Regardless of how you do it, serving your community is something you should commit to doing at least once a month, and more if you can.

12. Utilize Your Summers

The school year is busy. You’ve got classes, homework, sports, extracurricular activities, and more. There often isn’t time to expand your profile for your college applications. That’s where summer vacation comes in: a largely unstructured block of time.

Successful applicants to top colleges use their summer vacations to fill in the gaps on their resumes. Meet with your high school guidance counselor to learn about taking classes for college credit, expanding your service work, or participating in a research internship. Summer can be the ideal time to boost your profile.

13. Consider College Admissions Consultants

Right now, you may be wondering how to keep track of all this stuff. How do I know what to prioritize and when? How do I balance researching schools, founding a club, serving my community, and getting good grades in hard classes?

While some college admissions counselors only make a list or edit your essays, you’ll want someone who can really help with the whole process, from helping you develop your story to managing deadlines to finding schools that are truly the right fit for you.

14. Write Strong Essays

These days, most colleges ask high school applicants to write at least one application essay, and often several. Nearly all colleges ask for a personal statement, often known as the Common App Essay. This is the part where you get to tell your story to admissions counselors. On top of that general essay, many selective schools now also ask applicants to write supplemental essays, ones unique to their school.

In these supplemental essays, admissions officers want to know how prospective students will fit into their student body. What will they study? What clubs will they join? Why this particular college? Having strong supplemental essays will help colleges see you as one of them.

15. Maintain Your GPA Senior Year

As you get into your senior year of high school, make sure you don’t slack! Even if you apply for Early Decision or Early Action in November, colleges will still contact your guidance counselor to ask for your mid-term grades. So, don’t assume that they won’t know if you’re challenging yourself and maintaining your GPA during the fall of your senior year!

Overall, the closer your grades are to your application, the more colleges care. That means junior year is the most important overall year, but senior fall is critical, too. After all, the student you are at the end of high school is who they are admitting.

16. Get Strong Letters of Recommendation

In addition to your application essays, colleges lean heavily on your letters of recommendation to learn what kind of student and person you are. In general, you’ll want to get two teachers to write for you, and your school counselor will submit a letter as well.

When it comes to a letter of recommendation, remember to (a) ask early, (b) ask in person, and (c) ask teachers who know you well. They don’t have to be the teachers in whose classes you earned the best grades. A personal, enthusiastic letter is always preferable.

17. Proofread Your Application

This sounds obvious, but you would be shocked at how many essays, resumes, and additional information sections get to colleges with typos, misspellings, and grammar errors. While a small error in the application process isn’t going to sink your application, a lot of them will reflect badly on you.

Editing, revising, and proofreading take time. Avoid procrastinating throughout this process. Waiting until the last minute increases your likelihood of making mistakes.

18. Apply Early and Finish Strong

Perhaps you’ve heard by now that there’s an advantage to applying early. While there are certain reasons not to do so—maybe your dream college doesn’t offer Early Decision, or you need more of the school year to finish your applications—it’s still something to consider thoughtfully. Ultimately, you have to choose just one school, so why not do it in November instead of in April?

It’s also advisable to apply Early Action to multiple colleges. These applications are not binding like Early Decision, but applying Early Action can still help signal your strong interest, get the application process behind you, and let you know in December instead of March.

19. Write Deferral and Waitlist Letters

If you apply early and are deferred to the Regular Decision pool or placed on a waitlist, don’t despair! The school is absolutely still interested in you; otherwise, they would have rejected you outright. What you need to do now is signal to them that you’re still interested in them, too.

A deferral or waitlist letter doesn’t need to be long or overwrought. Instead, write a short note to your designated admissions counselor highlighting any updates to your application and expressing your continued interest in attending the university.

20. Consider All Your Options

Finally, once all your admissions decisions are in, take a moment to consider your acceptance letters. You may have different financial aid packages or merit scholarship offers; you may have gotten into honors programs or received some other perk. Take a deep breath and remember: now you’re the one who gets to decide which good college to attend. You have all the power!

Carefully weigh your options through academic, professional, financial, and logistical lenses. Visit schools on days for admitted students and talk to current students about their experiences. Don’t rush this decision; it’s one of the most important ones you’ll make.

Getting into Your Top-Choice College

As you surely know by now, selective colleges care about more than just your grades and SAT scores. They want to understand your whole profile: who you are, what drives you, and how you’ll contribute to their campus community. They’re looking for college-bound students who challenge themselves with rigorous and challenging courses, bring unique perspectives, and have a clear vision for their future.

By focusing on these aspects of your high school experience, you’ll not only navigate the application process with confidence but also increase your chances of attending college at the institution that’s right for you—without feeling overwhelmed along the way.

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