In this short and sweet video, one Latina mom lets other parents know it is okay to let their children go away to go. Both her daughters went away to schools.

There are many different types of college admissions. Keep track of college acceptance types and make sure you don’t apply too early if you need to wait for higher test scores and fall grades.

Some colleges have specific deadlines, while others accept students as they apply or who meet certain minimum criteria. Some have binding early decision options, while some let you get in early and then still apply to other colleges. Many state colleges have only one fixed deadline. Be smart in choosing how you will apply to a college.

Early Action (EA)- Many colleges enable you to apply Early Action in November-December, and you receive a decision by mid-December (or January). Early Action is NOT binding. You can apply to as many Early Action schools as you like. You have until May 1 to accept.

• Pros- 1. You can get an early acceptance to a great college before the winter holidays and eliminate some colleges from your list. 2. You don’t have to accept the EA college.
• Cons- 1. Colleges don’t see your fall senior grades or late November-December test scores. 2. Early Action doesn’t really offer any increased chances of admissions.

Early Decision (ED)- Many private colleges offer Early Decision which is an early BINDING route to college admissions. You apply in early to mid November to ONE college, and you find out by mid-December. You must attend if you get accepted.

Some schools even offer Early Decision II which means you apply in January and find out in February. You should really investigate this college in person by visiting it or meeting with college representatives in your city. You should contact admissions officers, alumni, and classmates who attend this college. Take this decision very seriously.

• Pros- 1. If accepted, you know where you will go to college by mid-December. 2. Colleges deny it but there are distinct advantages to applying early especially if you have a connection to the college or a true passion.
• Cons- 1. You must go. You cannot accept another college if you are accepted Early Decision.2. You cannot always get the best financial aid package as financial aid forms aren’t due until January. So Early Decision is not for those students whose financial resources are iffy. 3. Early Decision colleges don’t see your first semester senior year grades or late November to December test scores.

Note Brown allows ED students to apply to Early Action schools. We think this is because they reject so many ED students that they want these students to have other options. Check to see whether an ED school will let you apply EA to other schools.

Early Response or Notification- Many public colleges are now offering Early Response or Notification which is very similar to Early Action. You submit your application in the fall and find out within a couple of months whether or not you are accepted.

• Pros- Same as Early Action.
• Cons- Same as Early Action.

Guaranteed Admissions-Many public universities offer automatic admissions to students who meet certain academic and/or test scores requirements. Students must still apply but get admissions offers earlier than other students. Some state colleges accept all students who meet certain guidelines. Some guarantee admissions to schools in local service areas or at certain sets of colleges. UC eligibility is now for students who are in the top 9% of their high school class and who meet UC admissions requirements. They are guaranteed admissions but not to any particular campus.

• Pros- You know early on where you can go to college.
• Cons- Really strong kids not in the top % set by a college have a harder time getting admitted.

Priority Applications- Some private universities send priority applications to highly qualified students reducing some application requirements and guaranteeing earlier admissions. They reduce or waive application fees.

• Pros- You can get a great scholarship to such a college.
• Cons- These schools may be too easy for you.

Priority Deadlines- If you apply before this deadline, you have a higher chance of getting admitted and/or receiving a scholarship to a public university. Many state and/or public universities use priority deadlines to encourage early applications. They do not guarantee admissions to those who apply afterward the priority deadlines but do accept some of those applications. The University of Maryland, for example, has a November 1 Priority Deadline.

• Pros- You get a greater chance of receiving a scholarship and getting admitted to competitive majors and programs.
• Cons- Earlier application preparation. Same as Early Action.

Regular Admissions- This is a set deadline for applying to a college. You apply by one date-usually January 1-February 1 for freshmen and February-April for transfers. You find out in March-April for freshmen and March-June for transfers whether you get admitted. Freshmen must let the college you accept of your decision by May 1. Some major public universities have fall regular admissions deadlines. The University of California and the Cal States have a November 30 deadline for freshmen and transfers. The University of Texas has a December 1 deadline.

• Pros- 1. You get to submit your fall grades and all fall test scores. 2. You get to apply for Financial Aid and compare offers. 3. You get stronger consideration if too many kids from your high school are applying early. 4. You can ask a senior teacher to write a recommendation.
• Cons- You have to wait until springtime to find out.

Restrictive Early Action or Single Choice Early Action-These are the same as Early Action-early deadlines and not binding. ONLY, you CANNOT apply to another other school Early Decision or Early Action. Harvard and Princeton just re-introduced this option.

• Same pros and cons as Early Action.
• Two additional Cons. 1. Also a risk for kids in very competitive classes as you may get deferred, and regular admission may be the way to go for stronger consideration. 2. You can’t apply to another other private college Early Action or Decision.

Rolling Admissions- Many public universities and some private colleges offer Rolling Admissions. You apply as soon as you can and within a few weeks you can find out whether or not you get in. This goes on throughout most of the admissions cycle for a college. Once your application is complete, you can get a decision. Some of these colleges do defer students to see fall grades.

• You can get an admissions decision really early.
• If you apply really early in the fall, schools won’t see fall grades or test scores. Kids at really big public high schools sometimes have a challenge getting all the paperwork work in early.

Now more than ever, we need to help counselors and schools prepare our students for college. Join our group of lay-college counselors, aka high school teachers, with these 10 September College Readiness tips.

1. Encourage students to apply for Diversity Fly-in Programs. Now is the time for diverse high school seniors to visit many colleges for free. Deadlines are now-October for visits to more than 40 four year colleges. Here is our list. Undocumented students can also apply– http://getmetocollege.org/hs/2011-diversity-fly-in-list
2. Arrange campus tours. All colleges host open houses and special events this fall. Visit a campus with your students. Or send them to visit some campuses on their own. They can visit classes, spend nights in the dorms, interview, meet professors, and more.
3. Invite colleges and/or alumni to visit you. Many colleges have reps visiting your area this fall. Many are booked already but call and see. Also contact local college students to come and visit your classes.
4. Sign up for fall tests. Make sure kids take the PSAT this October. It’s a great diagnostic and counts for National Merit. Seniors should take fall tests at least twice this fall. Remember, fee waivers works twice for each test. Very few schools now require SAT Subject Tests so check. And many schools are now allowing January testing, such as the UCs. See the fall test schedules below.
5. Have seniors complete brag sheets. You will have to write many letters of recommendation, and colleges want very detailed ones that describe leadership and initiative, so have students complete a brag sheet for you. Have students write examples of their favorite assignments, papers, projects, and class moments. Have them attach copies of best papers and projects.
6. Start working on college application essays. Embed application essay writing into your homework or teaching curricula. These essays make for great autobiographical assignments. Bring in guest speakers to help push great essays. Let me know if you want great samples and tips. Buy ALL COLLEGE ESSAYS-the one-stop app for ALL college application essay requirements. I developed this app, and it provides all essays students must write along with deadlines and application requirements. Now available on iTunes. http://www.allcollegeessays.org/ More on essays next month
7. Encourage students to research private colleges. It would be great if students could apply to four UCs, four Cal States, and four privates. The UCS and Cal States provide fee waivers for four campuses. Undocumented students must pay for their Cal State applications. Privates often cover more than public universities for top diverse students. The Center for Student Opportunity (CSO) has a great guide that features colleges that welcome diverse students and free resources. http://www.csopportunity.org. The colleges are on the diversity fly-in list are also friendly to diverse students as is every Ivy League college.
8. Direct students to great websites that promote college attendance. www.unigo.com; http://www.latinosincollege.com; getmetocollege.org; http://www.csopportunity.org
9. Encourage students to research scholarships. Some major scholarships are already online and students can start working on then now. Below is a list of some major ones with their links and deadlines.
10. Make a college corner in your classroom. Put up a college board of your own college years.

• • Post pictures, a copy of your diploma, and some memorabilia. Contact your college to send you free stuff.
  • Focus on different colleges each week or two to three days.
  • Unigo.com features colleges all the time.
  • The CSO guide focuses on colleges that welcome diverse students.
  • The Cal States and UCs will send you free materials.

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Fall 2011 Test Schedule:

SAT/SAT Subject Tests (http://sat.collegeboard.org/register/sat-dates)

• • Oct 1 (Sept 9 registration)
  • Nov 5 (Oct 7 registration). Listening part of foreign language tests offered.
  • Dec 3 (Nov 8 registration)
  • Jan 28 (Dec 30 registration)

ACT Tests (http://www.actstudent.org/regist/dates.html)

• • Sept 10 (Registration passed-Walk in)
  • Oct 22 (Sept 16 registration)
  • Dec 10 (Nov 4 registration)

Fall 2011 Diversity College Visits.-Updated October 12

(New Additions-Brandeis, Franklin and Marshall, Lewis & Clark, Pomona, and Trinity College) Read the rest of this entry »

Tip 1. College application essays are fourth in importance behind grades, test scores, and the rigor of completed coursework in many admissions office decisions (NACAC, 2009). Don’t waste this powerful opportunity to share your voice and express who you really are to colleges. Great life stories make you jump off the page and into your match colleges.

Tip 2. Develop an overall strategic essay writing plan. College essays should work together to help you communicate key qualities and stories not available anywhere else in your application.

Tip 3. Keep a chart of all essays required by each college, including short responses and optional essays. View each essay or short response as a chance to tell a new story and to share your core qualities. Remember, our IPHONE/IPAD APP: ALL COLLEGE ESSAYS provides all essays required for every major public and private college in the US. www.allcollegeessays.org.

Tip 4. Look for patterns between colleges essay requirements so that you can find ways to use essays more than once. This holds true for scholarship essays.

Tip 5. Plan to share positive messages and powerful outcomes. You can start with life or family challenges. You can describe obstacles you have overcome. You can reflect on your growth and development, including accomplishments and service. College admissions officers do not read minds, so tell them your powerful life stories.

Tip 6. Always write in the first person. Remember, these are autobiographical essays, even when you talk about other people. Remember the colleges are looking to accept you, not your relatives. So use the one third and two thirds rule. If you choose to write about someone or something else, you must show how it affected you for the majority of the essay. Your essays show colleges why you belong on college campuses and share how you will enrich diverse communities.

Tip 7. Follow Dr. Joseph’s Into, Through, and Beyond approach. Lead the reader INTO your story with a powerful beginning—a story, an experience. Take them THROUGH your story with the context and keys parts of your story. Make sure the reader understands your initiative, leadership, development, and continuity. End with the BEYOND message about how this story has affected who you are now and who you want to be in college and potentially after college.  The beyond can be implied in many pieces that are so strong that moralizing at the end is not necessary.

• It is not just the story that counts.
• It’s the choice of qualities a student wants the college to know about herself

Tip 8. Use active writing: avoid passive sentences and incorporate power verbs. Show when possible; tell when summarizing.

Tip 9. Have trusted inside and impartial outside readers read your essays. Make sure you have no spelling or grammatical errors.

Tip 10. Most importantly, make yourself come alive throughout this process. Write about yourself as passionately and powerfully as possible. Be proud of your life and accomplishments. Sell yourself!!!

Beat the SAT or ACT: Don’t let these tests beat you!!!

Read this advice my current expert column on Unigo. http://www.unigo.com/expertnetwork

NEWS: USC is now on The Common Application for 2011-2012. Follow these tips and buy my ALL COLLEGE ESSAYS application on the IPhone, ITouch, and IPad as it will list all the common application supplemental essays and requirements for each college.

Tip 1:

Sign up for the Common Application (www.commonapp.org). It went live July 31, 2011.

Account Set Up.

- Use an email address you check often.

- Set up an easy user name and password. Your user name and password are okay.

- Text yourself and save in a million places your user name and password.

- If you school uses Naviance, you need to sign the Common Application waiver on Naviance to allow you to submit teacher recommendations via Naviance.

Tip 2:

Overall Application. You can keep changing info until the minute you submit the application. So don’t worry. You can go back and make changes. Any requirement with a YELLOW DOT in front of it is MANDATORY to fill in. If you plan to apply for financial aid, you need to add your SSN. If you don’t have one, enter all 0s.

Tip 3:

Left hand column. Learn that the left hand column provides the links to each core section of application.

Tip 4:

Future Plans. Each college asks for different info so don’t freak out. You can have different majors and plans for each college on your list. Each college selects the questions for you to answer from a specified list of questions.

Tip 5:

My Colleges. Click on it. Add all your college choices. You will see core information about each college. Application. Supplemental. Payments. School Forms. School Details. Enter your teacher and counselor recommendation information here.

Tip 6:

Academics. The Common Application is asking more academic information this year. You can list every college that you’ve taken courses since 9th grade. It also asks for GPA and test scores. If there is not a yellow dot in front of an item, you do not have to put it in. Do not put in low GPAs. Let them see that later with your transcripts. If you are waiting for test scores, do not enter any test scores here.

Tip 7:

Supplements. Click on this tab on left. You will see information about supplements for each college on your list. Start a master list of the supplemental short and long essays. Color code overlapping prompts. My Iphone/IPad application provides each supplemental essay you will need to write: ALL COLLEGE ESSAYS.

Tip 8:

Honors and Activities. You can list up to 5 honors and 10 activities. You can move the order of your 10 activites around but focus on the most significant and most recent. Focus on leadership and initiative. Put them in order of your most important honors, activities and jobs. Put your positions (all leadership roles) in the short line to the right of the chart. Preview the page as the Common Application cuts off answers even though you can type them in without getting cut off. If you have more than the allotted number of activities, you can combine some common activities or put extras under additional information. You must identify each honor as S (School), S/R (State/Regional), N (National), or I (International).

Tip 9:

Essays. Start working on essays now. The Common Application limits your short activity statement to 1000 characters (includingwith  spaces) even though it says 750 characters max. We measure it so go with the 1000 character max . The Common App now says you have 250-500 words to write your essay. But since you upload it, there is no actual limit. But try to keep it to one page single spaced. Unless you have written an award winning essay, readers don’t want to read much more. Grab their attention through amazing stories that are short and sweet. Use essays more than once for different applications.

Use my Into, Through, and Beyond approach for both long and short (activity) essays. Grab readers attention!!!

Tip 10:

School Forms and Payments. School forms are the forms for your counselor and teachers to complete. Most schools require that freshman (non-transfer) applicants complete these forms online and control the number of teacher letters so select your best teacher as teacher one. Beg some technology reluctant teachers to allow you to use their email addresses. Payments. You pay for each college separately. With fee waivers, you can contact the colleges directly or get fee waivers from NACAC. Ask your counselor for help or us.

1. Finalize summer and fall plans to focus on leadership and initiative. Be busy this summer.-Spend-at least 20 to 30 hours per week taking classes, working, volunteering, doing internships, and more. Take leadership roles this fall in and out of school and really push the initiative factor.
2. Make a resume. Focus on your major accomplishments in each listing.
3. Do all you can to prepare for fall standardized tests. There are three ACT and three SAT dates you can take this fall. Hire a tutor if you really need to improve your scores.
4. Really refine your college list. Have a range of schools that match your interests and abilities. Don’t have only reach colleges on your list. Use Naviance’s scatter-grams to help show you your likelihood of getting in or other online tools. The Fiske Guide is great as is Unigo.com to help you learn about colleges.
5. Book fall trips and arrange interviews either here or there. Plan to meet with professors, students, and other campus representatives that interest you. See if you can stay in a dorm and eat in the cafeteria.
6. Start writing your major essays—for Common and UC applications. They are the same as last year. Tufts (http://admissions.tufts.edu/?pid=195). Connecticut College (http://www.conncoll.edu/admission/11189.htm), and Johns Hopkins (http://apply.jhu.edu/apply/essays.html) share essays that real admitted students wrote. I can send you others. Only write stories that are unique and interesting to read.
7. Begin completing the Common Application on August 1 when it goes online (USC is now on it). Follow the yellow dots-only they are mandatory to fill in.
8. Save all passwords on your computer and your phone.
9. For artists, musicians, etc…collect all audition requirements. Begin preparing audition materials and developing repertoire lists as well as specialized resumes.
10. First gen, Latino, and African-American students should apply for some free fly-in programs to top colleges this fall. Applications go online this summer and early fall. Undocumented students can apply for most of these programs.
11. Research the scholarships that are due in the early fall–Questbridge, etc. and start preparing their requirements.
12. BUY MY ALL COLLEGE ESSAY IPHONE AND IPAD APP THAT LISTS ALL COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY REQUIREMENTS. BUY IT NOW FOR $1.99. THE COMMON APP AND UC ESSAYS ARE THE SAME. ONCE THE NEW SUPPLEMENTAL ESSAYS COME OUT YOU WON’T NEED TO BUY THE AGAIN.