1. Famous schools must look at the GPA of high school, but pay more attention to the results of AP exam, because it is a national unified exam, which is more indicative. Finally, look at the SAT scores, among which the writing scores are the most important.
Some high school students take many AP courses, especially public high school AP courses, which can help students improve their GPA and ranking, and some even take more than 20 courses. If you get 5 points in every exam, there is definitely nothing to say. If most AP scores are 4 or lower, the admissions officer of a prestigious school will think that the student wants to challenge but doesn't want to challenge because of his limited learning ability or lack of self-knowledge. Admissions officers are not very interested in such students. My daughter only took five AP courses and got 5 points in each course. Choose fewer but better courses, you won't study too hard, and you have the energy to prepare for the exam. However, two girls in public schools in our district really took nearly 30 AP exams, with 5 points. They also won prizes in some competitions in the state, and they all entered Harvard successively. Such a super girl is beyond my daughter's power. You can only choose from thousands of miles away.
The average grade of high school is the preparation that children should make at ordinary times and in the first three years. It's no use saying it when you applied to college. The only thing we can do is to choose more AP courses in the last semester when 12 years old, improve GPA and strive for a better ranking.
At this time, we should pay attention to the filling of SAT2 scores. SAT 1 means that the date and score of each exam must be filled in, while SAT2 only needs to fill in the best score. When applying for a prestigious school, don't fill in too many SAT2 on the form, especially those below 700, otherwise you won't see the passion and investment of the candidates. Generally speaking, it is enough to choose 4 or 5 subjects related to your child's future major in the SAT2 exam. If you take SAT2 five times, you get high marks, of course. Otherwise, if you want to take at least three exams, you must fill in the subjects with high scores on the registration form and discard the two subjects with low scores. If candidates have submitted their applications to three schools during the examination, the three schools have no choice but to fill in their volunteers. My daughter took the SAT2 four times, but I didn't ask her to send it to any school for free, for fear that she would fail in the exam, and those schools would have records. When she filled out the application form, SAT2 applied for three courses, one of which was tested three times, so she filled in the one with 800 points. She threw away Spanish, and her score was only 740, which had little to do with her major.
2. It is very important to apply for papers from prestigious schools. All academic achievements are just a bunch of boring data, and Essay is the applicant's face. The essay is not to show off, but to let the admissions officer immediately feel and understand what kind of person you are, whether you have passion, what is your passion, and whether you have the potential to exert personal influence in the university and the future. A good composition must clearly tell others: Who am I? This is why good articles are very personalized and personalized. Generally speaking, applicants are reluctant to share their papers with others, even their parents.
Many children don't know the importance of composition, especially boys who don't pay attention to writing. They often cram for the last few days and then send them in a hurry with the application form. Many excellent all-round children have excellent grades and specialties, but they have not been admitted to their favorite schools. I checked the reasons, and most of them said that Essay was not written well or the application materials were not ready. Therefore, parents must urge their children to write drafts during the summer vacation, so that as soon as the school starts, they can let the entrance counselor or English teacher review and make comments, and the children also have time to revise them many times.
There are many books for reference in composition writing, so try to avoid writing popular subjects. A good article is an article that can make readers deeply rooted in their minds and full of interest. You can start with a story or scene to show your knowledge, experience and abilities, and then describe and emphasize your feelings and ideas. Naturally, inadvertently express your unique highlights and personal characteristics.
My daughter once revised and compressed her award-winning composition about summer camp life into more than 500 words, and wanted to use it as a composition when applying for a university, but I refused. Her paper on the Spanish summer project was so wonderful that I refused. Because I read in a book about how to write essays that too many people write about summer camps and foreign trips, which loses their personality and is difficult to impress people unless you are special and charming. So, my daughter wrote two more articles, which were sent to the admission counselor as soon as the school started, and were revised twice according to the advice of the admission counselor before being finalized. Her prose begins with a scene, straightforward, but clear, fluent and vivid. Making it simple and interesting to read is the principle that we ask her to write a composition.
It is precisely because few people, especially parents in China, know or are willing to share this, so whenever someone asks me how my children should apply for schools, I repeatedly emphasize the importance of Essay and how to write it well. A few years ago, when school started in autumn, a friend's child wanted to apply for a university. I read her application materials, nothing exciting. She ranked 35th in Grade 3 1 1, and her SAT 1 and SAT2 scores were not high. She won many awards, all small regional awards, and only her writing won a regional award. The only thing I can see is that she has been a volunteer in the court for many years and has become a volunteer leader. Writing is her strong point, so she has a chance. I suggest that she highlight the work of the court in the application materials, and that the composition should write about her feelings about the work of the court, and must write about her personal passion and leadership characteristics. I also gave her some other suggestions on how to prepare the application materials. Later, she and her parents spent a lot of time preparing the application materials. She was admitted to MIT and the University of Chicago. She was the only student in the school who entered MIT that year and became a dark horse among the graduates. Several other top students in the same school also applied for MIT, but none of them were accepted.
3. Letter of recommendation certainly plays an important role in the process of admission examination of famous schools. From these letters of recommendation, admissions officers can piece together students' personal characteristics, such as personality, leadership, curiosity, creativity, learning spirit and potential, and combine application essays and other application materials with interviews to get a complete impression of students. At the same time, admissions officers can also judge the authenticity and consistency of students' application materials such as application essays through these letters of recommendation.
When looking for a school teacher to write a letter of recommendation, you must find a teacher who knows you very well and is impressed. There are too many students in public high schools, and teachers, especially grade counselors, are often difficult to cope with. If you are not familiar with students, their letters of recommendation will easily become vague, which will affect their persuasiveness. Applicants can ask the instructor of extracurricular activities, the employer of work, the * * of social organizations, or the priest of the church. These people know themselves very well and write letters of recommendation as a supplement to the school's letters of recommendation. If the recommendation letter from the school has provided enough relevant information, don't send any additional information.
Before my daughter applied for university, we studied her report card, and found three comments that were particularly good. She liked her teacher very much, and there was a teacher who was equivalent to the grade head teacher and asked her to send an email to greet them before the school started. In fact, my daughter only sent three letters of recommendation to each university, because the chemistry teacher was in the field and was very busy. My daughter only asked him to send two universities related to his major. Their letters of recommendation provide more information to admissions officers from different angles, so that admissions officers can understand their daughters more comprehensively.
The girl mentioned above, after reading her application materials, suggested that she go to the relevant teacher immediately and decide to write a recommendation letter. Be sure to find a teacher who has a good relationship with her and is willing to speak well of others and write well. The sooner the better. Otherwise, it will be delayed, too many people will ask the teacher to write, and the quality of the recommendation letter cannot be guaranteed. I also suggest that she find a person in charge of guiding her work in the court to write a letter of recommendation. It is best to emphasize her strengths, such as work attitude and leadership, to highlight her highlights and reflect the consistency of her application materials.
The son of a friend of mine is also his daughter's playmate in primary school. He is extremely clever, but he hasn't had time to understand. He is addicted to playing games all day or working for a computer company to earn money. It was not until the third year of high school 1 1 grade that he began to study hard. He also participated in state-level competitions in mathematics and other disciplines on behalf of the school and won the ranking. That summer vacation, he took a course offered by Harvard for middle school students and liked it very much. Talking to the professor is quite speculative. When he applied to Harvard, Brown and Chicago in his early days, he asked his professors to write letters of recommendation. Because of his low GPA, he was not admitted to Harvard and Brown, but Chicago accepted him. The University of Chicago mentioned in the admission notice that his grades are not excellent, but his application essay is very well written, from which we can see that he is a creative student, and the recommendation letter from Harvard professor also strongly praises his rich imagination and creativity. So the Admissions Office is willing to give him the opportunity to study in Chicago. He studied economics in Chicago and is now studying for a doctorate in economics at Stanford.
4. Matters needing attention when filling in the form. Good students in public schools usually win many prizes, some of which are small and insignificant. However, when filling out the application form, many people can't tell the priorities clearly, so they move out all the awards, thinking that the more they fill in, the better. In fact, if the mountain is not high, the immortals will become famous, and there are not many prizes. The grand prize is good, because the admissions officers of famous schools pay more attention to the grand prize. So the arrangement and selection of awards are also very important. When arranged, from big to small: national size award, state size award, regional size award, and so on. The chronological order is 12 grade to grade 9. Among these awards, it depends on which awards are related to the university major chosen by the applicant, with the relevant ones in the front and the irrelevant ones in the back. If you win a lot of prizes, those prizes in small areas, especially in the ninth grade, should be given up.
Similarly, don't fill in too many clubs and various student organizations in extracurricular activities. Admissions officers of prestigious schools should not only look at the number of extracurricular activities (including volunteers) of applicants, but also look at whether they have leadership skills. If you haven't been the chairman of a small club for three years, don't fill it out. However, sports activities can be supplemented every year, and it is best to change from ordinary players to main players or captains. Because from these activities, the admissions officers of famous schools can see your input and various abilities. These are all suggestions from my daughter's career counselor.
As far as I know, many children, especially those with good liberal arts, have the above problems. When I first read the girl's material, I really couldn't think of her strengths. I watched it several times before I found out. And it's small print No.9, with a lot of pages, which makes me dizzy. Comparing people's hearts with their own, how many materials do people's admissions officers have to read a day, and how tired are they? How can they have the patience to try to find your strengths and highlights? In order not to be eliminated when the admissions staff read the materials, should we make our own materials better so that everyone can see them more clearly and easily?
So, I asked the girl to rearrange and edit all the application materials, rearrange all the awards according to priority and time, and delete all the unnecessary small awards. Some associations that have participated for many years but failed to achieve leadership positions have also been deleted, and the work of the court ranks first. I also suggested that she fill out the form in 12 font, and use the attached form if she can't finish it. All articles are written in 12 font.
If the child is strong in all aspects, then the application materials should be clear, focused and bright, so that the admissions officer can easily read and be impressed. When all applicants' documents are carefully read, the admissions officer will give comprehensive scores and recommendations. If the group (as if reading the materials in pairs) all recommend it, the child will definitely be admitted. If only one person recommends it, discuss it again, or discuss it in large groups before making a final decision. If it is not recommended, it will certainly not be accepted.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) choice of famous schools
Apart from my own efforts, there is also a question of whether anything can be successful, not only the external fit itself, but also the external problem of my own fit. I think it is very important for children to choose a suitable prestigious school and major. If the child can't integrate into the school, he won't be admitted. Schools are not suitable for children, and children will not be happy when they go to famous schools. Many famous schools have students drop out of school or commit suicide almost every year, which is related to their unsatisfactory school life and too much psychological pressure.
My daughter chose her favorite school and the right major. She thinks Harvard is more civilian. In Boston, a familiar big city, many childhood memories make her feel kind. She chose engineering major because she has a good foundation in mathematics and physics, which makes it easier to learn, and because she thinks that making new products is the real contribution to society. During her four years at Harvard, my daughter was very happy, learning and playing. She co-published two papers with a doctoral student and won an outstanding student award from the Engineering Society. She thinks Harvard is suitable for her and she is suitable for Harvard. My daughter is not the best student. Before she went to a private school, she couldn't compete with the best China students in public high schools. But she likes to go to rattan school, just as many of the best students like to go to state universities.
Among the children of my friends and acquaintances, as well as my daughter's classmates and friends, there are many brothers and sisters who gave up Harvard to study medicine in Brown, and many who gave up Harvard or other big rattan schools to study in state universities with full prizes, or gave up big rattan to go to small rattan, and so on. These children's undergraduate studies are very smooth and their career development after graduation is also very successful. Instead of simply pursuing a prestigious school, they chose a school and major that suits them, so they can do things with ease.
I always feel that some parents I know (most people in Taiwan Province Province) are pitiful, but they spend a lot of money to force their children to attend some rattan schools, regardless of whether their children are suitable for schools. Some children are unhappy in rattan school. They stayed at home until graduation and didn't look for a job for several years. Another girl went to London to study as a chef after graduating from Yale, saying that she would live for herself after completing the tasks assigned by her parents, which worried her parents very much. They pushed their children into prestigious schools without considering their characteristics and needs at all. As a result, they didn't buy it Therefore, when parents choose the prestigious schools they want to apply for, they must teach students in accordance with their aptitude and fully consider their children's adaptability. While getting the admission notice, children should also choose their favorite schools and majors, so that they can have a four-year college life that is both growing and happy.
Climbing vines is not romantic. Let children enter famous schools only for their better life in the future. It is not difficult to get into a prestigious school. If the applicant is an ideal candidate for a prestigious school, it is not difficult; No, it's hard. Parents who want their children to climb vines should first study how to recruit students from prestigious schools and what kind of students to recruit, and then determine whether their children are suitable for prestigious schools, so as to formulate and arrange appropriate education plans according to their characteristics and cultivate their children into ideal candidates for prestigious schools. Of course, if you don't want your children to climb vines and just want them to live safely and happily, then letting them develop freely is also one of the successful ways to cultivate children to become great men. All roads lead to Rome, and no one in the United States thinks that "only reading is high." What smart people don't want to learn is that many successful people in business and politics have poor academic qualifications, and famous big bosses who drop out of college abound. "Liu Xiang didn't study", still can farmland!