The Insider: College Admissions Advice from the Experts

Do colleges look at freshman year grades?

We get this question all the time, whether from a student who is excited about a top-notch start to his high school career, or a parent who is concerned about a rocky adjustment to a more rigorous curriculum. To put it bluntly, yes, colleges do look at freshman year grades on your college application. However, if a student doesn’t receive her best grades during her first year of high school, all is not lost. Admission officers recognize that some students need time to adjust to the rigor of high school work, and can forgive a rocky start if things eventually improve and even out. So if a student starts off with a less-than-stellar academic performance, an upward trend will be noted and appreciated.

Do you have recommendations on how many AP courses a student should have at the time of applying to college?

The expectations at the most selective colleges in the country are that the student will go to the highest level available in all five major subjects (math, science, history/social science, English and foreign language). This can and often does mean going to the Advanced Placement level in all five subjects by the time the student is a senior, though not all high schools will offer AP level courses in all subject areas. If they are not offered, the student will not be penalized during the college admissions process for not taking them (you can’t take what isn’t available!). Those colleges also expect to see excellent performance in those courses, ideally As in everything taken in high school.

Concerned that your child is heading off to college in the fall with no idea what he wants to study? Worried that your daughter has her sights set on a career that isn’t a good fit for her abilities? Are you struggling to select a primary focus from your three main areas of interest and anxious about wasting your parents’ and your own money on tuition as a result? You’re not alone! College Coach’s senior director of educational consulting Elizabeth Heaton spoke to US News and World Report about this widespread issue, offering some tips for working through this particular challenge.

As colleges send out their early action and early decisions notifications, many students are receiving letters and emails indicating that their applications have been deferred. In an article for USA Today, College Coach’s Elizabeth Heaton draws on her experience as an admissions officer at Penn to help students understand how this decision came to be, what it means, and what their options are for ultimately turning that deferral into an offer of admission.

Do you have recommendations on how many AP courses a student should have at time of applying for colleges?

Rather than focusing on number of Advanced Placement (AP) courses, I would instead concentrate on curriculum choices that make sense for your child. The expectations at the most selective colleges in the country are that the student will go to the highest level available in all five major subject areas (math, science, history/social science, English and foreign language). This can and often does mean taking AP courses in all five subjects by the time the student is a senior, though not all high schools will offer AP classes in all subject areas. If they are not offered, the student will not be penalized for not taking them (you can’t take what isn’t available!). Those colleges also expect to see excellent performance in those, and all, courses. As colleges get less selective, the expectations in terms of curriculum rigor get slightly lower, and many of the schools in this country don’t expect to see any AP classes at all.

My fellow College Coach admissions consultants and I get asked quite a few questions every year about high school course selection and college applications.  Colleges want to see you challenge yourself as much as possible in the context of your high school, and will not compare curriculum options across high schools.  The majority of colleges do not have a preference between AP and IB classes, so you should instead focus on challenging yourself as much as possible with the classes available to you at your school.

Call it the “Scarlet H.”

Q: I have just received a denial letter from a college. Can I appeal the decision?

The letter from the college wasn’t skinny, but it wasn’t fat either. It was somewhere in the middle--you’ve been waitlisted.

Just because I appreciate a good turn of phrase does not mean I’m poised to write the next great American novel.   Nor do my frequent visits to WebMD make me qualified to dispense health advice.  As I opened my Outlook calendar this morning, I realized it is late March.  Tax time.  I better call my accountant, not my best friend who majored in economics in college.