As part of our Student to Student video series, College Matters reconnected with its former student Molly, who is studying nursing in college. She explains which extracurricular activities she did in high school, what she considered when applying to nursing programs, and shares other helpful tips for high school students.
One Section on Your Common App That Could Help You STAND OUT
We’re getting tons of questions from students and parents who want guidance on completing the Common App. If you want more tips like the one above, join Gilbert for a live (and recorded) presentation that will walk you through EVERY section of the Common App.
5 Reasons to Love Colorado Mesa University!
1. THE GREAT OUTDOORS
One of Mesa’s most popular organizations is the Outdoor Program. This organization is always scheduling fantastic trips for students and also has inexpensive equipment rentals. While on campus in Grand Junction, you’ll find great views of the Colorado mountains. You can access even more cool sites since you’re 40 minutes from skiing and 1 hour and 45 minutes from the scenic town of Moab, Utah.
2. NEW BUILDINGS EVERYWHERE
It’s quite apparent that Mesa has been making significant financial investments in its facilities to give students hands-on experiences. Mesa bought out a former hospital and converted it into clinical and lab spaces for health science students. The university’s engineering building has modern equipment, and students can earn their engineering degree from the University of Colorado-Boulder while staying on Mesa’s campus. There’s a beautiful student-run hotel and restaurant where students can get hands-on hospitality experience. We’re not even scratching the surface here!
3. SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT
A common thread during our two-day visit was an atmosphere of support. The student tour guides cared about the school. The university’s president has a one-hour open office hour where students can drop in to talk. The largest class size at Mesa is 60 students, but most classes are capped at 40. Generally, the higher-level classes will have about 12-15 students. The professors are much more committed to teaching students than their own research.
4. NOT ONE, BUT TWO SCHOOLS?!
The university has a formal partnership with Western Colorado Community College (WCCC), a seven-minute drive from Mesa. WCCC students can earn their associate degrees in fields like culinary, aviation, and even winemaking. They can also take classes and live at Mesa to earn their bachelor’s degree.
5. THE PRICE
Out-of-state students looking for a bargain will find Colorado Mesa’s tuition, room, and board to be a bargain! The listed price is anywhere from $37,000-44,000, with the possibility of earning up to $6,000 per year in scholarship money if you’re out-of-state.
INTERVIEW: How You Can Apply to and Attend College for FREE
Are you a high achieving student who comes from a low-income family and/or will be a first generation college student? As part of College Matters' Student to Student series, we interviewed our former student Lee to talk about her application process through QuestBridge. Find out how QuestBridge not only helped her apply and attend college for FREE, but also how it benefited her after college.
What Is The University of Texas at Austin Like? Our Visit and Review
I called a Lyft to pick me up near the popular 6th Street in Austin, Texas. Normally, I would’ve walked, but it was an unusually cold 35-degree day in late January. I was told that it was a beautiful 60-70 degrees and sunny just a week before. Looks like my timing was unlucky, but good to know that Austin can provide some bright days to break up the winter months. In just a short seven-minute drive from the heart of the city (30 if I had walked), I passed the Texas State Capitol building and arrived at UT.
It was easy to notice within the first two minutes on campus that the student body was much more diverse compared to many of the other schools I had seen. The statistics back that up. According to Niche, 37% of the students are White, 26% are Hispanic, and 24% are Asian. And while a vast majority of the students are Texas residents, the student body still has students from all 50 states and over 120 countries represented.
Most of the buildings I saw were maintained throughout the years, but they are not all that modern. Two exceptions to this were the Moody College of Communication and Cockrell School of Engineering. According to the admission counselor, the university’s engineering and business programs were the most competitive to get admitted to. Since UT’s primary goal is to serve Texas residents, it’s very competitive to be admitted to the university at all from out-of-state.
One reason to stay motivated to apply is the school spirit once you’re there. The vibe there is supportive and prideful, from the First-Year Interest Group (FIG), to the study groups in the library by noon on a Monday just weeks into the new semester, to the big-time football game days. I attended a top-15 men’s basketball match-up that night with Baylor University visiting UT at the brand new, ultra impressive Moody Center on campus.
Outside of campus, students can go to famous barbecue spots like Franklin Barbecue (pro tip: go during an off-peak time for a shorter wait) and Terry Black’s (pro tip: mix your cream of corn with Mexican rice). 6th Street is a popular and long street with plenty of food, bars, and businesses. Also, you’ll see that many technology companies have already set up offices in downtown Austin, like Google and Indeed. The city is becoming one of the hottest places for people in their 20s to move to because of the weather, job opportunities, and wide variety of activities available.
Terry Black’s brisket, beef rib, Mexican rice, and cream of corn.
At College Matters, we’ve visited colleges from all over the country (and even some abroad too)! It’s helpful to keep an open mind and take as many in-person and virtual visits as possible to find the right fits for you. We have the expertise to point you in the right directions.
Five Mistakes to Avoid BEFORE Starting Your Résumé
Updated: November, 2022
Submitting a résumé with your college application can be an effective way to share more about yourself with admission officers. There will be a space for you to list your different activities on the main college application, Common App. However, this section only allows students to list ten activities and write 150 characters for each activity. This amount of space will be sufficient for some students and very limiting for others. If you think you’re a part of the latter group, consider putting together a college résumé. Before you begin writing yours, check out our five big mistakes to avoid.
Make Sure Your Colleges Allow You to Submit a Résumé
Some schools welcome students to submit a résumé, while others prefer applicants submit just the normal activities section on the application. You can check on your schools of interest in two ways. The first is creating a Common App account and adding colleges onto the application. Once you add the schools, you can click on each of them on the left-hand side, click Questions, and look to see if there’s a space that says, “If you wish to submit your résumé, you may upload it here.” There’s usually an “Upload” button underneath it.
The second way would be to look up all your colleges’ admission websites and see if they list a résumé as one of the application requirements or if you are able to upload one to your applicant portal after submission of your application.
Think Twice Before Listing Pre-High School Activities
We get this question a lot: “What if I played piano until 8th grade?”
A general rule of thumb is to list activities and accomplishments starting from your freshman year of high school. Admission officers are more curious about what you’ve done recently rather than what you were interested in a long time ago. One exception to this rule could be listing activities that you started pre-high school and continue to do now. By including these, you can show you’ve made a deep commitment to an activity as opposed to a passive commitment. Another exception is if you had an outstanding accomplishment pre-high school. For example, if you won a state or national competition in piano in 8th grade or starred in a popular sitcom, you could consider listing it.
At the end of the day, you should be more focused on what you’re doing now rather than relying on past activities.
List Everything First and Cut Later
Students sometimes feel like some of their extracurriculars aren’t good enough to put on their résumé. While this might end up being true, we highly encourage students to list everything first and then decide later. Take some time to think more deeply about your activities. You might find that certain ones that you originally questioned are actually a great reflection of who you are. You won’t know until you mull it over for a bit, and if you never list the activity, you might end up forgetting about it later. Give things a chance and give yourself credit for the great things you’ve done.
Don’t Go Without a Plan
You’ve listed your activities. Now what? Do you just plop them onto the résumé? Before doing so, come up with a plan. What are the qualities you want admission officers to take away from reading your résumé? Do you want them to know you have extensive experience in the communications field? Do you want to highlight your strength in coding? Consider different skills or qualities that are important to you and use them as categories to group your activities together on your résumé.
In a Résumé, Looks Matter
If you look up examples of poorly formatted résumés versus well-formatted résumés, you’ll quickly get the idea of what we mean here. You could have wonderful accomplishments, but if you present them in an unprofessional-looking way, your readers may not give those accomplishments the credit they’re due.
Some of the keys to a nice résumé format include proper grammar and spelling, consistent use of fonts (including size, bold, italics, etc.), consistent punctuation, and proper spacing. Thankfully, there are many free templates available on Google Docs, Word, and other sites. There is no one right way to arrange a résumé. Sometimes people will even get a little creative with theirs. Before you get any ideas, make sure yours looks clean and easy to read.
Before You Hit "Submit" On Your College Apps, Read This
Application season is HERE! Like here, here. You probably know you’ll need to take care of the basic things like filling out the Common App and finishing your main college essay. However, if you want to maximize your chances of getting admitted and your scholarship offers, there are many more factors to consider.
For example, College Kickstart surveyed ten colleges that admit between 10 and 24% of their applicants. Those colleges reportedly increased their Early Decision enrollment by 5% (on average) from the 2025 class to the 2026 class. How can you use data like this and apply it to your own application strategy?
We hear it from students and parents all the time: “When it comes to college applications, I just don’t want to miss anything!”
That’s why our Educational Consultant Gilbert Guo is hosting a virtual event titled “Before Hitting ‘Submit’ On Your College Apps,” right before students head into their senior year. This presentation will address some of the most common mistakes students make during application season and how you can stay ahead of those in your own process! For more info or to secure your spot, you can go here to get started.
INTERVIEW: Do You Have What It Takes to Study Engineering in College?
While it's challenging to study engineering in college, it can also be very rewarding and stimulating! As part of College Matters' Student to Student series, we interviewed our former student Audry to talk about who would be a good fit for engineering, how unlikely classes and clubs helped her, and advice for engineering applicants.
INTERVIEW: The Most DIRECT Way You Can Become a Doctor: BS/MD
Do you have aspirations of becoming a doctor one day? There's a way you can bypass the medical school applications and get earlier assurance into med school. As part of College Matters' Student to Student series, we interviewed our former student Anish to talk about the basics of how BS/MD works and other important advice now that he’s a current BS/MD student.
Need Help With Your College List? Then Attend This Upcoming Workshop
Are you a sophomore or junior in high school who’s ready to start considering different college options? The good news is there are so many options available to you here in the US and abroad. However, it’s not so easy to know what you want out of a college and how to find colleges that fit.
In the upcoming workshop Getting Your College List Started, College Matters Educational Consultant Gilbert Guo can help you get more clarity on your college list. On February 21st and 22nd (winter break for most local high schools), he’ll work with students on figuring out their college profile and how to properly research colleges.
With these skills and resources, students and families will walk away with several great match colleges that they could potentially visit and apply to. They’ll know how to get the information that students need in order to interview well and write standout supplemental essays.
This workshop will be limited to the first 12 students who register. For more details or to secure your spot, please go to this link: calendly.com/gilbertguo/collegeworkshop?month=2022-02. For questions, email Gilbert at guo@college-matters.com.