Editor’s note: This PCH Tutors contributor is a former college application evaluator. Although they no longer read evaluations for this university, they have requested anonymity in providing these valuable insider insights for college applicants.

As a former college application evaluator for an elite liberal arts college, here is my advice for high school students who are planning to apply for or who are currently applying to college. These tips will help you make the most of your high school preparation time, get an idea of what to avoid when applying to colleges, and even help you attract the attention of your reach universities.

1. Don’t take it personally.

Seriously, that is the last thing you should be thinking when you get your rejections (and acceptances!) back. Every school to which you apply has a number of specific, nit-picky criteria that dictate how they evaluate candidates, which is why whether you do or do not get in doesn’t have much to do with who you are as a person. Do not base your self-worth on whether you do or do not get into a specific university. In fact, you shouldn’t be basing your self-worth on what anyone else thinks about you, let alone an admissions officer you’ve never met. Easier said than done, I know, but you have to be confident in who you are as a person even if you only get into your safety school. All of which is not to say there aren’t ways you can improve your chances at getting into your reach schools.

2. Your grades are the most important part of whether you get in.

Yup, grades matter. If your grades aren’t up to the standards of the school to which you are applying, you will not be admitted. It’s harsh, but true. Study up.

3. Take AP Calculus.

Colleges may not tell you this - and your college advisor may not know this - but taking calculus is essentially a requirement for getting into an elite school. Whenever I looked at a transcript and saw a high-performing student opt for AP Statistics senior year, their chances of getting in dropped precipitously. In very special cases, a student who takes AP Stats may get in, but don’t assume that’s you.

4. Take the hardest schedule available to you.

Take as many AP courses (or whatever your school’s equivalent is) as you can, and take the harder ones. Getting a better grade in AP Environmental Science will look less impressive to admissions officers than getting a slightly lower grade in AP Chemistry (but try to get an A in AP Chem anyway). If you go to a school that only offers four honors courses and that’s the hardest schedule you can take – take it, because admissions officers will notice. The most important thing to an admissions officer when comparing prospective students’ different high schools is not which one has the most APs but instead which student took on the hardest schedule based on what was available to them.

5. Use your essay to show your personality.

After grades, the essays were the most important aspect of the application for me when I read someone’s application. If the school asks for an optional second essay, write it. Show who you are through your writing. An essay that puts you on display can take all kinds of forms – it doesn’t need to be directly about you (though it certainly can be), but it should show the admissions officer who you are. Don’t write about how much you love volunteering because you think that’ll ingratiate you with the admissions committee. Write about what volunteering means to you if and only if it’s a central part of who you are and helps you show your personality. Don’t be boring. Have fun with writing your essays! You’ve spent your entire high school career writing essays about the American Revolution and Hamlet – colleges want to hear about you! Write about you, and enjoy the break from your academic papers.

6. Pick your recommenders carefully.

Get to know your teachers! Believe it or not, a lot of them are really interesting people and it’s worth talking to them. Ideally, you should be close enough to one humanities teacher as well as one math and sciences teacher so they can write you a great recommendation that truly speaks to your strengths as a student and a person.

Additionally, make sure to choose teachers with whom you have a good rapport (even if they don’t know you as well as they might). Teachers do write bad recommendations for students they don’t like. Above all, don’t choose a teacher who doesn’t know you; generic recommendations will significantly damage your chances of getting in and make admissions officers think you had no impact at your high school.

7. Don’t include a long list of clubs on your extracurriculars resume.

List only the few that you were actively involved in, if any.

8. In the end, which college or university you attend doesn’t matter as much as you think it will.

It’s up to you to get the most out of your college experience. Sure, Harvard may be an excellent name to put on your CV (and if that’s what you want out of your college experience, then, by all means, go to Harvard if you get in), but if what you want the most out of your college experience is a meaningful experience, you can find that at almost any school. Every school – public, private, big, small, “prestigious,” whatever – has something to offer the student who wants to get what they can from their time there.

The most important thing that happened to me during college was signing up to take a class with the professor who would become my advisor (and with whom I am still close) my freshman year. I had no idea where that road would lead, but that choice was easily one of the most important ones I’ve made in my entire life.

Know that you can do everything you can to try to pick the best fit schools to apply to and attend, but chance - and your initiative at whichever school you matriculate - is what is ultimately going to make the difference to your life.