Everyone knows that (most) colleges will review your grades and test scores when determining whether or not to admit you, but what if you’ve already done most everything you can do by those measures? You’ve already got good grades and test scores. What else can you do to help your college application stand out from the thousands of other applications submitted by other students with equally good grades and test scores?

Guest Post By Judith Silverman Hodara, Fortuna Admissions

A few months ago, my Fortuna Admissions colleague interviewed an MBA graduate named Paul Heslop, who serves as an Operations and Planning Chief for the United Nations. Among Paul’s bevy of unique distinctions is directing peacekeeping efforts in 17 countries, clearing thousands of unexploded mines and bombs, and defending multi-million dollar budgets to the UN Security Council. Oh, and before pursuing the MBA at London Business School, Paul had the distinctive privilege of accompanying the late Princess Diana through an active minefield on her trip to Angola.

On the latest episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, guest host Ian Fisher digs into the nitty gritty details of completing college applications, talking with his guests about the hazards of “over-packaging” yourself in the application and the role of extracurricular activities in supplemental essays. He wraps up the program with a detailed look at the requirements that students must meet in order to maintain eligibility for financial aid.

Divorce is complicated. Applying for financial aid is complicated. And when you combine the two, things get really complicated.

Determining which parent completes the FAFSA, however, is actually pretty straightforward, according to former Emerson College and Elms College financial aid officer, Stacey MacPhetres.

When I was a college Financial Aid Director, I saw MANY students taking longer to complete their degree than they—or their family—had planned. This cost the students and the parents additional time… and money.

Guest Post By Steven Tolman, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Higher Education Administration, Georgia Southern University

As a college professor, I have had the privilege of teaching undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students. Through these experiences, I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I would like to tell you that I was an exemplary freshman in college. To the contrary, I was on academic probation and my advisor encouraged me to consider career paths that did not require a college degree. Like many freshmen, my failures were not due to a lack of academic ability, but rather to my inability to navigate the transition from high school to college. Based on my own experiences and those of my students, here are my suggestions for how to avoid the common mistakes of freshmen.

Using College Admissions Statistics to Your Advantage

There are a dozen websites I regularly recommend to college-bound students and their parents, including the College Board’s BigFuture for college searches, FairTest.org for a list of colleges that don’t require the SAT/ACT, and the Princeton Review for student descriptions of campus life. But there’s another source of information for families to learn about the fascinating world of college admissions. It’s called the Common Data Set (CDS). And although this collection of data requires a bit more digging to unearth, once inside CDS, you will find a veritable treasure trove of information, chock full of minute details and big picture data you never knew existed.

Sure, you’ve got the grades and test scores, but so do lots of other students—and most of them get rejected from Ivy League universities. What, then, is the secret recipe to gain Ivy League acceptance? College Coach consultant, and former Babson and Holy Cross admissions officer, Kimberly Asselta explains in this installment of the video series, Ask the College Admissions Expert.

Back in February, Sarah Vowell penned an ode to her alma mater for the New York Times. The best-selling author, voice actor, and This American Life mainstay didn’t write about an Ivy League university or an elite liberal arts college with a 12% admission rate. She wrote, instead, over 1300 loving words about Montana State, the public university that had happened to be in her backyard. The article resonated with me because I, too, attended my home states’ public universities for both my Bachelor of Arts and Master of Education degrees.

On last week’s episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, Ian shifts the focus of our attention to the juniors and what goes into building the college list. But before we completely close the book on our current seniors, the opening segment explains a bit more about what goes on behind the waitlist process.