The Most Important Part of Your College Application

One thing tells admissions offices more about a student than any other piece.

Colleges care how you performed in your high school classes—and they have a special window into your academic background. Photo by Alex Simpson on Unsplash

The most important part of any application to a selective college is a student’s high school transcript.

That sentence is carefully worded. First, a high school transcript is more than just a high school GPA, but also includes every course and every single grade for all four years of high school. “Most important part” does not mean “the only thing that matters.” Also, “selective” here means a school that does not have a basic set of admissions requirements, rather than simply one that rejects some students. If a school says any incoming student must have a minimum high school GPA or standardized test score, it is not “selective” for our present purposes. Take the opening sentence of this piece as a truism only for schools using a holistic review in evaluating applicants.

Holistic review means a school considers every piece of a studen…