College Visit Guide: Questions to Ask & Things to Notice
Summary
This session covered holistic college admissions strategies focusing on academic rigor, extracurricular quality, and standardized testing preparation.
Academic and Testing Strategy
Junior year serves as the most critical academic period for admissions assessment requiring balanced course rigor. High scores remain impactful at test-optional institutions and Advanced Placement classes often outperform dual enrollment.
Extracurricular Activity Profiles
Colleges prioritize quality over quantity by evaluating 3 to 5 long-term extracurricular activities that demonstrate increasing leadership. Students should develop a thematic spike aligning with their major and use data-driven descriptions to quantify their community impact.
Application Logistics and Preparation
Meaningful summer experiences and authentic personal statements enhance application profiles significantly. Maintaining detailed spreadsheets for extracurricular data and avoiding over-commitment helps ensure authentic and impactful submissions.
Details
Introduction and the Importance of Junior Year: Gina Carapella and Brandi Bell introduce the critical nature of the junior year, identifying it as the final full academic year available for review by admissions officers prior to applications. Students are advised that this period is the peak for academic rigor, and they should prioritize high grades and consistent engagement in their coursework and extracurricular activities.
College Admission Nutrients: Brandi Bell explains that admissions officers evaluate applications holistically by looking for specific "college admission nutrients". These qualities include intellectual curiosity, demonstrated community impact, the ability to take initiative or lead, effective collaboration skills, and consistent, long-term engagement in selected activities rather than sporadic participation across many disparate groups.
Standardized Testing Requirements and Strategy: Standardized testing remains a significant factor for college applications, even at test-optional institutions, as high scores can boost a student's profile. During the fall, students should take the PSAT, which serves as a practice for the SAT and a qualifier for the National Merit Scholarship. Brandi Bell recommends that students plan for test preparation during the winter, take the ACT or SAT in the spring, and schedule retakes for the summer before or early in the fall of their senior year to avoid stress.
Testing Logistics and Accommodations: Gina Carapella clarifies that the state funds the ACT for juniors, while the PSAT carries a $20 fee, and the SAT requires registration through the College Board. Regarding test accommodations, parents must ensure that if their student requires them, they coordinate with their school testing coordinator to submit the necessary documentation, as processes vary by the specific test and school involvement.
Course Rigor: AP versus Dual Enrollment: Gina Carapella and Brandi Bell discuss the balance between AP and dual enrollment courses, noting that AP courses are standardized, which allows colleges to accurately assess the rigor, whereas dual enrollment lacks such standardization. While dual enrollment may be suitable for non-core subjects, they recommend AP courses for STEM majors and suggest that AP classes often foster better collaboration and classroom engagement. Some universities may even recalculate grades and exclude dual enrollment if it is not considered a core class.
The Reality of Test-Optional Policies: Gina Carapella warns against interpreting "test-optional" labels literally, noting that at some selective universities, a high percentage of admitted students still submit test scores. Students should aim to submit scores if possible, and families should be aware that the number of AP classes a student takes should be balanced based on individual capacity rather than attempting to maximize the quantity.
Crafting an Activity Profile: For the Common App, students have space for 10 activities, and Brandi Bell advises prioritizing three to five of these as long-term extracurriculars that demonstrate increasing responsibility and leadership over time. Students should aim to quantify their impact—such as by measuring the number of people recruited, percentage increases in club participation, or total hours committed—as this data is highly valued by colleges.
Meaningful Summer Experiences: Brandi Bell emphasizes the importance of securing at least one meaningful summer experience prior to senior year, such as internships, research, part-time employment, or pre-college programs. These experiences, along with consistent community service, provide valuable content for applications and demonstrate a student's commitment to their field of interest.
Admissions Review and Activity Prioritization: Gina Carapella notes that admissions officers may only spend 9 to 11 minutes reading an application, meaning they will focus primarily on the top five activities listed. Therefore, students must focus on quality over quantity, and it is acceptable to have a job in lieu of a formal internship, as consistent employment demonstrates reliability, maturity, and the ability to work with authority.
Developing a Thematic Spike: Brandi Bell and Gina Carapella encourage students to develop a "spike," which is a thematic thread running through their application that aligns with their intended major or interests. Examples include engaging in robotics and coding for engineering, HOSA or public health programs for healthcare, FBLA or DECA for business, and sustainability initiatives for environmental science. Speech and debate is highlighted as a beneficial activity across almost any career path.
Taking Action and Demonstrating Leadership: Students can demonstrate leadership by sustaining and growing existing clubs, mentoring peers, tutoring, or managing social media accounts for organizations. Gina Carapella emphasizes that students should look for ways to "give back" in their areas of interest, such as youth sports involvement for athletes, to show a 360-degree engagement with their community.
Creative Hobbies and Personal Statements: While academic and professional rigor is necessary, Gina Carapella and Brandi Bell highlight that personal interests such as art, poetry, hiking, and photography are vital components for personal statements. These hobbies allow students to share non-academic stories that are not found elsewhere in the application, helping to humanize the student and mitigate the stress of the junior year.
High School Opportunities and Pay-to-Play Programs: Gina Carapella discusses programs like the Governor's School and advises that while "pay-to-play" summer programs can provide a collaborative "pre-college" experience, they are not a requirement for admission. Families should not feel obligated to spend large sums on these programs, as meaningful opportunities can often be found through local nonprofits and government organizations.
Junior Year Timeline: The roadmap for the year includes using the fall for exploration, college research, and counselor meetings; the winter for test preparation, finalizing senior course plans, and researching summer programs; the spring for testing, campus visits, and requesting teacher recommendation letters; and the following summer for drafting Common App essays and finalizing the activities list.
Data Tracking and Application Logistics: Gina Carapella instructs students to maintain a detailed spreadsheet tracking the hours, weeks per year, roles, and awards for all extracurriculars. When writing activity descriptions, students should use "power statements"—concise phrases starting with strong verbs—to describe their impact and leadership within the 150-character limit allowed by the Common App.
Common Pitfalls and Conclusion: Brandi Bell and Gina Carapella advise families to avoid common missteps such as overcommitting to too many activities, which leads to burnout, and failing to track data accurately. They emphasize that students should avoid generic essays by being specific and authentic, which also helps ensure the application does not appear to be generated by AI.