Katharine Harrington

Juniors: Plan Your Senior-Year Coursework

Meet with your counselor to plan your senior-year coursework. A fourth year of math and a laboratory science as well as a fourth year of science are highly recommended. And if your school does not offer an AP, IB or other advanced curriculum, consider dual enrollment -- enrolling in a course at a local community college or university. You should be challenging yourself to signal to colleges that you are likely to succeed if admitted. "Academic ability is the ante to get into the game," says Katharine Harrington, Vice President of Admissions and Planning at University of Southern California.

For more information about a recommended course of study and the role of the academic record in admissions, see Chapter 5, "The Academic Record," and Appendix II, "A Recommended Course of Study," in College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step.

College Admission on India Ink at The New York Times

Our primer on standardized testing for international students applying from India is up on the New York Times' blog India Ink. Thank you to Jacques Steinberg, education writer and author of The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College, who helms the New York Times' blog The Choice, for inviting us to explain the role testing plays in the admission decisions of American colleges and universities. And thank you to the experts who contributed to the feature: Jarrid Whitney, executive director of admissions and financial aid at the California Institute of Technology; Katharine Harrington, vice president for admissions and planning at the University of Southern California; Jenny Rickard, chief enrollment officer at Bryn Mawr College; Jim Montoya, vice president for higher education at the College Board; and Amin Gonzalez, associate director of admissions at Yale University and his colleagues Rebekah Westphal and Jean Lee.