5 DEADLY COLLEGE APPLICATION BLOOPERS

BY Arlene Matthews, ARLENE’S ADMISSIONS

Applying to college? The sheer magnitude of detail can seem overwhelming, but—trust me—it is worth your time to avoid these deadly mistakes:

1) Calling a School by a Competitor’s Name

Lots of colleges ask a question that equates to, “Why do you want to come to this school?” Since applicants may be applying to several similar schools, it is tempting to cut and paste answers from one application into another. In the first place, generic answers won’t help you, but if you give in to this temptation nonetheless at least take time to make sure you are not telling Harvard what you like about Yale, or Lehigh what you like about Lafayette? You can rest assured that an oversight like this will land your application in the NO pile.

2) Expressing Interest in a Major Not Offered

I wish I had a dollar for every applicant who tells Johns Hopkins they want to be a “premed major.” Johns Hopkins does not offer a premed major, contrary to popular belief. As with many schools, they expect potential premeds to major in another discipline while completing the range of required courses for medical school. Likewise, please do not tell a school that you want to be a business major if they do not offer a business major (many liberal arts colleges do not). Requesting an unavailable major signals to a school that you have not really investigated whether that school is a good fit for you.

3) Trying to Sneak in a Back Door

Is a terrible idea to try to get into, say, the University of Pennsylvania by pretending you want to attend their College of Nursing while planning to sneak into the Wharton School of Business at a later date. First of all, it is extremely difficult to be a nursing major. It is even more difficult, of course, if you have no interest in the major you have selected. And there is no guarantee whatsoever that you will get into Wharton just because you are physically on the U Penn campus. Transferring from one school to another within universities may or may not be feasible. It is also unethical to try to take a slot from a sincere applicant when you plan to use that slot to further another agenda. Besides, a savvy admissions officer can smell this ruse a mile away.

4) Neglecting to Proof for Typos

A single garden-variety typo won’t put the kibosh on an otherwise flawless application. Nevertheless, a pattern of typos will mark you as someone who is careless or even apathetic. Or, perhaps worse, it will mark you as a “moran” who doesn’t know basic spelling and grammar. Take the time to proofread your applications by printing them out and reading them aloud. Studies show this enables you to catch one third more errors than simply rereading them online.

5) Wasting Your Essay Opportunity

The essay is the one part of your application over which you have complete control. Think of it as having five minutes alone with an admissions officer in which you can make your case. Whatever you choose as your topic, please understand that the subtext of all personal essay questions is always the same: what personal qualities do you possess that we would value in a member of our student body? Does your essay show that you are resilient, hardworking, innovative, compassionate, and/or humorous? Then you are on the right track. If it only shares that you had a really neat grandma or that you love your summer house on Cape Cod, you have completely wasted your five minutes.

FOR MORE INFO: Arlene Matthews, arlenewrites@comcast.net, www.arlenematthews.com