What should my son/daughter do to get into a top college?

With the burgeoning Indian economy, leading to a rise in disposable incomes and associated aspirations, and with technology democratizing learning and make it a more level playing field, ambitions for parents and children are soaring like never before. Every second child today aspires for a top notch education and parents will leave no stone unturned to ensure this dream fructifies into a reality. Success stories of Indians becoming global business leaders and first generation entrepreneurs starting innovative enterprises by the day, we feel wonderful to be able to play a role, howsoever small, in laying the foundation stones to these dreams. 

As much as our hearts swell with pride and joy to see some of our students receive stellar admits, and some older ones go on to create companies or rise up the corporate ladders with rapid pace, in the same breath we often find ourselves telling parent after parent that they should have started work earlier. The gap between action and dreaming is often too long, and by the time a student starts working on his profile, it often is too late. While miracles happy more frequently than we anticipate, it always helps to plan in advance and then stick to that plan. 

This blog post is a compilation of questions that we find ourselves answering on a daily basis. Staying true to our commitment to open source information for a level playing field, here’s a lowdown (read: MUST READ FOR ALL PARENTS AND STUDENTS) on how to plan for a successful college admit, thereby embarking on the path for a successful career ahead.

 Irrespective of where your child wants to study, compromising on academics at the cost of anything is probably the worst possible mistake to make. The importance of academic consistency cannot be underscored enough. Colleges abroad, especially in the US and Canada, love to see an upward graph of scores from Class IX to Class XII. All school marks across all terms for these four years will be evaluated.

Aside to students, the tragic mistake made by most of you is in the ‘CHILL’ in Class XI. Nothing can be more career defeating than reducing the intensity in Class XI and letting your grades slip.

Choosing your stream of study based on “career scope” is probably the worse decision you can take. While the choice of stream is taken when you are 15 or 16 years of age, your real careers will commence only when you are 28. With technology progressing at rates hitherto unknown, it is impossible to predict what jobs will be in vogue after a decade. Nobody anticipated e-commerce to become such a large player today. Nobody knows what the next big thing will be – that’s how disruptive technology works.

The most successful students have been those who have followed their passions. No this isn’t clichéd! Select a stream of study that you enjoy the most because that will make your chances of excelling at it highest. At the end of the day, you need to be excellent at whatever you do. If you like what you do, chances are you will be good at it. 

We have numerous stories of students who are currently working in areas that they had no idea about when they were studying; in fact they studied something altogether different. Several Investment Bankers we know studies theoretical physics at the undergraduate level. Mechanical Engineers are ruling the roost in E-commerce firms. 

In fact, do this assignment for yourself. Pick any 5 industry leaders you admire and track their undergraduate areas of study for your personal consumption. You’ll be amazed to see the results. 

They are extremely important. However they shouldn’t be done at the cost of academics. These are called extra-curricular and not instead-of-curricular activities for a reason. Remember you are a student first and hence must study. Study in great depth whatever you like. In case you are unlucky to be in a school that doesn’t teach the subject well, use resources such as Coursera and Edx to learn about your area of interest in absolute depth. Areas of interest can be as varied as astrophysics, Keynesian economics, world history or classical music. Make sure you know your subject(s) really well.

Having said this, being only a bookworm won’t help and hence the need for a rounded personality is also important. Learn to balance your time well. Creating a detailed timeline to plan your activities from Class X is a good idea. If planned well, nothing is insurmountable. Our problem lies in not planning well. 

 Here’s a typical broad timeline. This is for a student who wants to study Economics at the undergraduate level. This timeline is only indicative and should be customized based on the individual student and his/her abilities and aspirations.

The SAT score is a filtration mechanism. As much as colleges will like you to believe that the selection process is holistic, what they don’t tell you is that the elimination process is objective. Unless you make the threshold with regard to your school grades and SAT scores, the holistic aspect of your profile will not even be looked at. Let’s be honest, with the sheer number of applications increasing exponentially each year, it is impossible to look at the essays, profile, LORs, etc. of every student in complete detail. Without the basic cut off SAT scores, you won’t even be considered for discussion. SAT Subject tests are compulsory for the top reputed colleges.

In a nutshell, take your SAT seriously. Also consider giving the ACT if you are more tuned towards it. We’ll leave the discussion between SAT and ACT to a different blog post.

However, you must first cross the SAT filter. Once that’s crossed, the brand that is YOU is most important. And the only way to showcase it is through your writing – essays are a window to tell adcom your story. You won’t wake up one day and be able to create a stellar essay. A typical essay requires anywhere between 2 to 4 months to work on, especially the Common App prompts, UC Essays, U Chicago, and UK SOP. Please cultivate the habit of reading. There is no substitute to good writing except extensive reading. And this habit cannot be cultivated after mid terms of Class XII. The habit must be inculcated from Class IX itself

The difference between a successful admit and a not so successful one is timely planning and unflinching and passionate execution. Either we fail to plan (because we are unaware of its need or become aware too late in the day) or we plan and make a mess of executing it. College admissions is a well planned activity (unless you are one of those obnoxiously talented kids who turns to gold whatever he/she touches). 

Make sure you plan well! That’s half the battle one. Then have somebody behind you to ensure execution is timely and success shall be yours!