Throughout their high school years, students are making decisions that will ultimately impact the success of their college applications. Most notably, they are choosing the high school courses they will take, and the level of difficulty of those courses.

There are certainly guidelines required by the state of New Jersey, including four years of English and Physical Education/Health, three years of Math, Science and Social Studies, and an array of courses in World Languages, Visual or Performing Arts, and Financial Literacy. But students are given great latitude as to the specific courses taken within these fields and the level of rigorousness of these courses. Also, students with the goal of enrolling in an elite college or university should seek to surpass the minimum high school graduation requirements.

Regarding Math, for example, students are required to take Algebra I, Geometry, and one higher level course. But many colleges strongly favor students who have studied both Pre-Calculus and Calculus during their high school years, particularly if they will be pursuing a major in Business, Engineering, Architecture, or other math-intensive field. Such students need to carefully plan their four-year course of study, as they may need to double-up on Math during one high school year or take a summer course for which they will be given credit.

Electives are another area in which high school students have a great deal of latitude and an opportunity to impress college admissions officers. Students considering a major in Business or Economics should study Macro and Microeconomics during their high school years. Those seeking a career in Psychology should take a course in that field. Students planning a future as Physical Therapists should choose to study Anatomy & Physiology. There is often a supplementary essay on college applications asking students to explain why they have chosen their particular major. By taking a high school course in the field, they will be able to rationalize their choice.

Students should pursue the most rigorous course of study for their abilities, focusing on their areas of interest. Most local high schools offer an array of AP courses, for which students may be awarded college credits based on their performance on end-of-year AP exams. Students considering a pre-med track in college would do well to undertake AP Biology and/or AP Chemistry. Students anticipating a future career in law may favor AP Government & Politics and/or AP US History.

The courses chosen by high school students, and their level of rigor, will certainly be noticed by college admissions officers.

The wait-list, commonly referred to as “admissions purgatory”  is that ugly and uncomfortable grey area – they didn’t like you enough to accept you and they didn’t hate you enough to reject you.

Students will need to make a decision and a deposit at a college where they were accepted by May 1. When a college puts a student on a wait-list they will ask the student to respond as to whether they want to stay on the wait-list or if they’ve already made other plans and accepted or will accept an offer from another college or university.

So after dealing with the loss of not being accepted, students and parents need to determine which of the colleges where they were accepted represents the best fit academically, socially and for the family financially. If there is a clear winner, then the process is over. Otherwise, families need to evaluate the wait-list opportunities.

It’s important to be realistic about finances. It would be a rare occurrence for a wait-listed student to receive merit-based aid. Need-based aid is more likely, but colleges will not necessarily meet 100 percent of need.

The wait-list is all about the yield; what percentage of accepted students will choose to deposit and attend each institution? The national average for yield is 33.6 percent, which means that two-thirds of students are rejecting the offers of admission that they receive. It makes sense because a student applies to multiple colleges and universities and hopefully receives multiple acceptances, but can only attend one school. Colleges wish their yield was 100 percent, it would make their jobs much, much easier.

The dynamics of the wait-list vary from college to college and may greatly vary from year to year. The big problem comes when colleges invite thousands of students to be on their wait-list and then find out, after May 1, that their yield increased. Then they have no open spots for students on the wait-list, in fact, they may be panicking that they don’t have enough beds for incoming freshmen who have already said yes.  Colleges do their best to predict yield, but it’s a risky game. All of this is to say that there is really no accurate predictive measure to determine how many spots there will be.

According to Rick Clark, Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Georgia Tech (www.gatech.edu), “Essentially, the wait-list exists to accommodate for demographics that were not met in the initial round of admission offers. If you have the right number of deposits from the West Coast, you go to your wait-list for more East Coast students. If you have enough Chemistry majors, you may be going to the wait-list for Business students. Ultimately, the job of admission deans and directors is to make and shape the class, as defined by institutional priorities. Meeting target enrollment is critical to bottom-line revenue, creating a desired ethos on campus, proliferating the school’s brand, and other factors.”