Getting Started - Part 1
Level 1 - Baby Steps
Welcome! One of the most common questions that we receive from parents and counselors is on how to get started in the college admissions process.
In our experience, there are usually two kinds of individuals asking this question:
A student is approaching senior year and there is a sudden realization that the process is more daunting than they originally planned
A student is either entering or recently entered high school and wants to ensure they are “on track” for college
Although there is nothing wrong with being in either position, it is generally a good idea to think about college and career outcomes as early as possible to maximize your chances of getting into your preferred college.
The problem is, most people have no idea how to actually get started in this process. Most assume the process is to just submit college applications.
To assist, we have put together a series that provides the basics of getting started.
Overview:
To make this as straight forward as possible, we have put together the below steps to help you understand the basics of getting started in the college process:
Understand your talents
Translating your talents into a career
Identifying the correct colleges
Crafting your story
Designing a plan
Evaluating against the plan
Application and decision time
Some key caveats before we get started:
This is the most foundational view of getting started in the college process. This is not intended to be exhaustive. If you are looking for greater detail, we recommend you look at our comprehensive guide to college
This will not provide you with a step by step view of what to do - instead it will focus on knowing the steps in the process so you can better understand the pathway forward
That being said, let’s get started.
Understanding Your Talents
You may notice in the order that we do not start with college at the beginning. This is purposeful.
The most important thing to know is that college is not an end in and of itself. There are countless articles and findings showing the challenges associated with college:
The high cost of attendance
Lack of clear connection to employment opportunities
College degrees don’t provide the same level of protection against job loss as they once did
Shifting economic and job landscape
While some of this may be a bit overblown, it does underline the fact that you have to be sure that college (and grad school) are the right decisions for you and your family.
The only way to know that is to know what you want to do.
The most common question a parent will ask is - “how do I help my son/daughter figure out what they want to do?”
There are two ways to approach it:
Focus on your passions (what do they enjoy doing)
Focus on your talents (what do they do extremely well)
The best case scenario is that 1 and 2 are the exact same. Congrats! You have won the jackpot.
But most likely, someone will be passionate about something that they may not necessarily be very talented about. Or talented in something that they are not passionate about.
In our opinion, you choose talent every time. Here’s why:
In any given field, hard work can only take you so far if you lack the underlying talent
The top performers in a given field earn the lion’s share of gains
The difference between top performers is often the talent they have
Choosing to pursue your talent is a bet on yourself. Choosing to pursue a passion is a betting on someone being there if you need it.
Every person has a talent. While you may not be the best at something, you can probably be in the top 10% of people in some area. If you find that, you can make a good living and find success. In other words, it is unlikely you will find long-term failure in your talents.
Your passions, on the other hand, may not be where your talents are. There are countless stories of individuals who pursued their passions but did not find success.
At 15, a passion for music is amazing and should be cultivated. But at 35, a passion for music without the talent may not provide much if any financial success for you.
Is that a risk you want to take?
That concludes this portion. In the next post, we’ll focus on how you translate your talents into a career.