NACAC, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, released their "2009 State of College Admissions Report" earlier this week. The bottom line suggests that it will be another highly competitive year for students applying to college, and that the economy is causing some challenges as students look for bargains and high schools cut the number of guidance counselors they employ. Despite these stressful and unfortunate circumstances, applicants should keep focused on what really matters for getting into college. Here's an excerpt from NACAC's press release:
"Admission Offices Identify Grades, High School Curriculum and Test Scores as Top Factors: The top factors in the admission decision were (in order): grades in college preparatory courses, strength of curriculum, standardized admission test scores, and overall high school grade point average. Among the next most important factors were the essay, teacher and counselor recommendations, class rank, and student's demonstrated interest, which were all ranked similarly."
What do each of these factors mean? You may not be able to count on a personal conversation with your guidance counselor to discuss them -- the NACAC report shows that some states have a single guidance counselor for as many as 1,000 students.
But fear not. Here are some articles to help you understand the important admissions factors identified by the NACAC survey:
