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“What to do while you’re expecting”… to become a college freshman? This is the big summer of transition for soon-to-be first-year students. By the way, “first-years” is the preferred new term for college freshmen.

While students don’t have control over the content of their letters of recommendation, they have more power than they realize. There are many things a student can do to improve the likelihood that a teacher will write a strong recommendation that will impress the admissions office.

The letter of recommendation will never outweigh a student’s performance in the classroom, but it can be a tipping factor in the college admissions process.

Graduates expect something more creative than an oversized dictionary. These gifts go beyond the basics.

Know which standardized test suits you best, then prepare for it

Whoops! If your mailbox was filled with rejection notices, today might be your lucky day. For the student who didn’t receive any “Congratulations!” letters, there is still hope.

TMI: Too much information. I’m not referring to the fact that some students share too much stuff inappropriately in their college applications – though unfortunately some do.

What’s the one thing you don’t want to do if you’re on the wait list? Wait.

I hate to break this to you, but if your child was wait-listed at a dream school, the stats are not encouraging. Getting off the wait list is totally variable year to year and institution to institution.

The biggest question I get this time of year is: “How do we decide?”

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Lee Bierer
Lee Bierer is an independent college adviser based in Charlotte.