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Health & Fitness

Help Your Child Get Off The Dream College Wait List

We here at CEA are motivated folks who work with may of the country’s most ambitious pre-collegiate minds, so we understand as well as anyone that students on a wait list for their dream school would want to proactively affect the outcome of a college’s final decision.  Last week the New York Times published an article discussing how some recent college-bound overachievers attempt to keep the attention of admissions boards as the last open slots for the fall are offered and claimed.  Here are some tactics that absolutely WON’T help your son/daughter secure one of those final seats at the college of his/her dreams:

  • Sending admissions officers cookies, cupcakes, or anything unrelated to their scholastic interests.
  • Having parents obsessively email admissions officers. Offering bribes of any kind (even really big ones).
  • Claiming a school is a student's first choice, when it really isn’t.
  • Sending non-specific, student-penned notes about how a student “loves loves loves, OMG IS SO OBSESSED WITH” a school.
  • Questioning a college’s judgement, or the quality of accepted students.
  • Camping outside the admissions office in a tent. Don’t take it from us, listen to the Times . (Have people actually done this?)
Do you know what WILL work? Having your child write a pointed and mature letter to the school of his/her heartfelt desires. Remind kids to detail their continued interest and update the admissions office on any new developments and accomplishments since their initial submission. Admissions officers are still interested in why each individual student feels they are a better fit for their institution than other candidates, and an appreciation of a school’s curriculum, faculty, school spirit and history all prove genuine interest versus arbitrary obsession. One well-articulated note is worth 4,000 empty “I love yous,” so encourage your kids to sit down and pour their passion onto the page. Watch them click “send,” and cross your fingers. Sincere expression works wonders, and luck often decides the rest.

For more advice on college essay writing and for information about CEA's private consultation services, visit CollegeEssayAdvisors.com or call 347-927-9CEA (9232).
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