I am really fortunate to work with many great students and parents. It’s amazing to get to do something I love everyday with students and parents who care about education and the community around them.
Below are some very wise words from a parent of a current college freshman with my own opinions, as well.
- Parent: GPA is the most important thing. Protect the GPA. Don’t take a bunch of AP classes unless you know you can get an A. GPA is the first thing they look at and if it isn’t above a certain number, they probably don’t even look at the rest of the application.
- Lee Academics: It is better to get an A in a regular class than a B in an honors class. This is especially true if the B took time away from your other classes. However, if the B helped you to pass an AP exam, maybe it was worth the pain.
- Parent: SAT/ACT scores need to be strong. Prepare early and then kill it and get it off your to do list.
- Lee Academics: This is great advice. However, if you are struggling with your junior year grades, work on pulling up the GPA instead. You only have one try at the GPA each semester. You still have senior year and the summer after junior year to work on the SAT/ACT. Many seniors do better on the SAT/ACT in the senior year. At Lee Academics, we have had seniors jump as much as 400 points from their junior year scores.
- Parent: Have leadership roles and community service/volunteer work. This is probably about 5 to 10 percent of total application. It won’t get you in if your GPA and SAT scores are not strong, but I think it can nudge you in or out if the decision makers are on the fence.
- Parent: California public schools are taking more out of state and international students because of the money that it brings in. This pool of students is held to a different (possibly lower) standard than the pool of in-state California student. We have some friends from Idaho and their daughter got accepted to almost every UC.