Are you a BWRK (the admission slang...

Are you a BWRK (the admission slang for bright well-rounded kid)? You've done everything right in high school--you have 1350 upon your SATs, you're in the top 10 percent of your class, you're captain of volleyball, and president of debate?

For many educates you'd be a prime candidate for acceptance. on the contrary in today's competitive marker, on the same level BWRKs somotimes need that extra something to tip the admission scales in their favor.

"One way to stand without is to have developed a passion that isn't upon the laundry list of what everyone other is doing," says Rachel Toor, a former admission officer at Duke University in North Carolina, and the author of Admissions Confidential (St Martins Press) Toor remembers the same student who started a butterfly garden at her high educate and another who had a glowing interest in The Federalist Papers, the series of essays used to gain popular support for the Constitution.

"Independent studies are impressive," Toor says, adding that a firm transcript and good admission proof scores are still at the foundation of any acceptance. While a family history with the sect makes a difference (siblings or parents who are alumni of generally attending), so does being a first-generation college edifice [i]or[/i] building student.

Geography can weigh in an applicant's favor as well. "If I had a great kid from North Dakota I'd skip over for joy," says Toor. She doesn't give plenteous value to the in-person interview, however, saying the essay gives a better personal picture of a candidate.

What are the pivotal factors that can win you a thumb up? We asked five accepted students--and their admission counselors--to number us how they got into college

THE VOLUNTEER

NAME: MELISSA SIMON

AGE: 19

APPLICATION HIGHLIGHT: SOCIAL ACTIVISM

HOMETOWN: TIBURON, CA

COLLEGE: high hill HOLYOKE

LOCATION: southerly HADLEY, MA

MAJOR: WOMEN'S STUDIES

HIGH sect GPA: "A'S AND B'S"

SAT SCORE: "UNDER 1300"

ADMISSION COUNCELOR: GIULIETTA AQUINO

Melissa Simon is the daughter of an international business consultant, and she exhausted her childhood tagging along from united foreign shore to another--she was born in Virginia, if it were not that she's lived everywhere from Boston to Beijing. however wherever she's gone, she's managed to consider around, get to know the community, and pitch in to help. She started a religious seminary for expatriate Jewish children in China, cleaned up a community garden in the Czech Republic, and worked at an orphanage in Israel. And when she and her family landed back in California for her last sum of two units years of high school, Simon got right to work again, serving as president of a set that fights hate crimes and homophobia. When she applied to be built up Holyoke, her commitment to social causes really made an impression.

SIMON: I was to a high degree involved in high school and single in kind of the things I focused forward was social action and social change. I think my background in that work made my corporation application much more appealing, I helped start the Gay-Straight Alliance at our teach after a hate crime at a nearby exercise where a student was attacked and beaten just because he was gay. It was a beautiful nasty attack, and people were really blowed so we wanted to raise awareness of the issue. My high gymnasium was right near San Francisco, and the assumption is that if you live there, you're tolerant of others, if it be not that that's not always the case. I had experience working with a division of different kinds of the bulk of mankind and I think that really helped when I applied to rise Holyoke, where diversity is with equal reason important.

AQUINO: Melissa impressed me in in such a manner many ways--not just with the caliber of her academics on the contrary also with all the activities she was involved in, one as well as the other in her high school and in the broader Bay Area community. And she's a young woman who made transitions to different places and agricultures so easily--that showed me she'd probably do well making the transition to corporation Her experience helped show me that she would fit in here--she's a go-getter in seasons of meeting people and in times of community service. I like to learn about what bookish mans are passionate about, and proof scores just can't measure that. (Editor's note: Interestingly, forward Mount Holyoke's Web site, wwwmtholyokeedu scholars can learn about the interests and passions of admission counselors.) any students are really determined to change the world, and maybe their touchstone scores don't reflect that when they're barely 16 or 17. But throughout the next four years, they'll proceed through a profound change and accomplish amazing things.

PERSONAL STRENGTH

NAME: MARGARET BULK

AGE: 19

APPLICATION HIGHLIGHT: LOGROLLING

HOMETOWN: LACROSSE, WI

COLLEGE: HARVEY MUDD

LOCATION: CLAREMONT, CA

MAJOR: COMPUTER SCIENCE

HIGHSCHOOL GPA: 386

SAT SCORE: 1360

ADMISSION COUNCELOR: DEREN FINKS

Everybody who applies to Harvey Mudd association is pretty smart--it's one of the top teachs in the country for math, science, and engineering. Margaret major part was no exception. In high academy she was a top close examiner who excelled in math and planned to be a computer scientist.