January 2025 College Guy Rant for Seniors!

Hey Seniors – greetings from the College Guy!

Hope everyone had a safe and restful Holiday break. Cold here in Maine but very little snow – can’t say I really miss it.

Most of you have sent all your applications in to your colleges and are now playing the waiting game. For those of you who have not gotten applications out yet – not to worry (unless you were planning on applying to a college with a January 1 deadline – then you’ve got troubles). For many schools you’ve still got time to apply, but what the heck is holding you up? If you need some last minutes help getting organized and getting things done, give me a holler by phone or email. I’m happy to read and comment on essays, review your list of schools and answer questions you may have regarding the application process.

This email explains and elaborates on my idea of sending a “follow letter package” with supporting items to each of the colleges you’ve already applied to. This is neither a required nor a commonplace practice, but I think it’s a smart and potentially helpful thing to do (in terms of getting accepted, and being considered for merit money from the colleges which offer it) . Some call me crazy and I agree: crazy like a fox!

Before jumping in to it, three quick reminders:

1. Confirm that all your applications have been received in their entirety by each of your schools, and follow directions to set up your “portal” at each college you’ve applied to.

2. PARENTS: If you are applying for financial aid complete and file the FAFSA, and be prepared to interpret financial aid offers once junior gets his or her acceptances. For those whose students are applying to private schools which require the CSS PROFILE (required by about 400 colleges) make sure you get that bad boy sent in, and then follow instructions for completing the IDOC if it’s requested – check status on the Collegeboard web site.

Here’s a list of the colleges which require the CSS PROFILE:

CSS Profile Participating Institutions and Programs

3. Make sure your high school knows where to send your Mid-Term Grade Reports.

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Okay, the rest of this email is devoted to what I call the “follow letter package”, which I suggest you put together and send at the end of this month to all the schools you’ve applied to and are still waiting to hear from (including schools where you may have applied EA or ED and been deferred – this can be especially effective for those schools). I’ve included an example at the end of this email. Look it over, rework it in your own words, and if it makes sense, do it!

Now I know there are some of you who are snickering cause you’ve already gotten acceptance letters via early decision or early action from your first choice school, so you can take a hike and not read any further (but remember to write ’em a “thank you” and follow directions about submitting a deposit to reserve your space and any $$$ awards they’ve offered you.)

For the rest of you, I suggest sending a “follow up” letter to your schools at the end of the semester. This is a “hi,-how-you-doing-thought-I’d-check-in-with-you-and-remind-you-of-what-a-wonderful-person-I-am-and-what-an-injustice-it-would-be-if-you-don’t-accept-me!” letter.

The timing is to send this letter when you receive your mid-term grades. For most of you that’s going to be toward the end of the month. (Those of you who attend schools which operate on a trimester basis won’t get grades in late January, but you can ask teachers for progress reports and do the same thing with them).

The idea, as you’ll see, is to have an additional contact with the admissions folks, who are right now engaged in the process of reviewing applications. Sharing your mid-term grades are the excuse for the letter, but the real reason is to give them yet another slice of your personality, and to impress them with:

a) how wonderful you are, and
b) how motivated you are to be accepted.

I suspect some of you are saying you don’t wanna do this. Certainly it’s your call, but here are a couple things to consider:

It’s not that hard, it doesn’t cost you anything (other than postage), and believe me I’ve heard from many fine schools that a gesture such as this can make a difference by demonstrating your interest in attending that college.

So what exactly do you put in a follow letter/package of additional information?

I suggest you include at least two of the following items:

  • a newsy update, where you share your mid-term grades (comment on them if necessary) and your new schedule, and whatever else of note may be going on in your life.
  • one or two additional letter(s) of recommendation the college hasn’t seen. Don’t send the letter(s) yourself of course, but have them sent by either the writer of the letter, or ask your guidance counselor to include them when they send your official mid-term grades to each of your schools. Be creative here – ask a coach or an advisor or an employer, or even a peer who would write a responsible but edgy letter about you. The more interesting the letter, the better!
  • an additional essay or writing sample. Remember those extra essays I suggested you do last spring, summer and fall? Plug one in here. Or use the odd supplement you wrote for Cornell or U. Chicago or one of the U. California Personal Insight Questions. If it’s good, now’s the time to recycle it to the schools who haven’t seen it already.
  • your resume (remember that?) to the schools where you didn’t upload it directly with the application.
  • a ‘show and tell’ piece – remember these? Some of you sent art work or poetry, an audio tape or film or photo essay or CD or link to your web page at the time you sent your applications. Others wanted to do it but didn’t get around to making it happen. Here’s your second chance. Remember, ‘eye candy’ (or ‘ear candy’) can work by livening up your application – just make sure it’s tasteful and contributes to an understanding of who you are. A show and tell piece could also be a ‘graded writing sample’ from a class. This is a paper you’ve done recently which reflects hard work and a sound effort on your part. Important thing here is for it to represent something you’re proud of.

You don’t need to send all of the above items – just your grades and one or two additional things will be fine. On the other hand, if you’ve got something good they haven’t seen, use it! Just make sure you write why you want the school to have that particular item.

Click here for an example of such a letter. Rewrite it in your own words – the following is only to give you an idea of what to say. Make sure to keep the idea I’ve expressed in the next to last paragraph – that you hope they will consider your letter and other material IF APPROPRIATE…

Okay, nuff said. Give me a call or email if you have questions. For those of you who haven’t checked in with me in a while, don’t be a stranger! And if you’ve already received acceptances from schools I’d appreciate hearing about them from you.

Good luck, from
Gary the College Guy

—
Gary L. Canter
College Placement Services
14 Bedell Street
Portland, Maine 04103
(207) 318-7289
www.collegeplacementservices.org

College Placement Services provides high school students and their families
assistance with all aspects of the college search, selection, application. and financial aid process.