While your school transcript and ACT or SAT test scores are important, they don’t give a full picture of who you are. College admissions officers are looking for students that will create an incoming class with diverse interests and backgrounds.
Compatibility with your college roommate is important. When I started college, I was matched up with someone who lived close to my hometown, but he also kept me up all night, every night, by talking to his girlfriend on the phone in our (very small, very cramped) dorm room. He also chewed tobacco, and his car never worked and so he was constantly asking to borrow mine. Needless to say, this was not an ideal match for me.
Here’s how to improve your odds of being compatible with your college roommate.
Over the last decade, the internet has made it much easier for students to apply to college, especially thanks to services like the “Common App.” For the nearly 700 schools now part of the Common Application—the nation’s leading standardized online college-application portal—students can browse by name, state, or region, by the type of institution (public or private), and by whether it’s co-ed or single-sex. Clicking on a college takes students to a brief profile of the school and then an invitation: “Ready to apply?”
The first schools that many students learn about are famous, highly selective colleges like Yale and Harvard. About 50-60 U.S. colleges are considered “highly selective.” They have admission rates of 33 percent or less. For some, admission rates are in the single digits.