When it comes time to apply for a certain college, you’re not going to be alone.  In fact, depending on the college, you could be competing with thousands of other students.  It’s your duty to make your application look perfect so that you can get accepted to the college you want to go to.  Don’t settle for anything less and remember, time is your best friend when it comes to creating the perfect college application.

Take hard courses – If it’s not too late, try and take as many tough courses as possible in high school.  Don’t think that high school is just a walk in a park and take only the easy courses so that you can get by and graduate.  Instead, focus on taking AP courses and work your butt off to get great grades.  If you can show the prospective colleges that you took adult level classes, this will increase your chances of getting in.

Don’t be a bum – You high school life should be the busiest you’ll ever be in life.  Instead of just going to school and heading home after class ends.  Start joining groups and as many extra curricular activities as possible.  If you show the colleges that you’re more than willing to do more than just work and help out with your school, this will be a huge plus for yourself.

Get great recommendations- Some of the best recommendations you can get are from high powered people at your high school.  Don’t try and refer your maid or you next door neighbor.  The schools don’t care about these people.  Instead, try and go after teachers that have been there for a while or even try the principal.  Try and get your name out there so that the staff knows how hard of a worker you really are.

Get good grades- This one is a no brainer.  If you want to get into Harvard, you can’t get in with a 2.9 GPA.  No matter where you want to go after high school, make sure you get the best grades possible.  If you can get straight A’s, do it!  No matter how long it takes you, never settle for less.

Write the perfect essay – When you send in your application, you’re most likely going to have to send in an essay on why you should attend this school.  Instead of writing an essay in ten minutes, sit back, do your research and take your time.  A college board likes to see a well written essay and they will know when you only took a few minutes to write it.

Making your college application stand out isn’t really that hard.  Be active, join programs at your school, and get good grades.  If you can meet the college’s GPA requirements, that’s great but don’t just do the average, go above and beyond.  If you want to get accepted to that school, work hard for it because there’s still that chance you may not get accepted.