Charles Bukowski offers a critical insight into applying to a top ranked university.

In his self-claimed low-brow poem, "about competition," he observes, "the higher you climb/ the greater the pressure." He goes on to note, "those who manage to/ endure/ learn..."

Therein rests a valuable truism for applicants to world class universities: manage to endure/ learn. . .

The pressure is great for students to quit trying to distinguish themselves. Cooperative learning, collaborative projects, and other activities for communitas in schools work against individual distinction.

Think of individual distinction as accomplishing something outstanding. You don’t have to win the American Idol contest or compete on a U.S. Olympic team. But students attending top schools have demonstrated these levels of disciplined results over years while preparing to qualify for admission.

Successful applicants to top programs have learned ways to show university staff that they deserve admission more than thousands of other bright, talented, and accomplished peers from around the world.

Few educators know from experience what it takes for acceptance into world class programs. A relative few have attended top colleges and universities. So, search out those in K12 schools for guidance who have met such criteria.

Student Tableteers have an advantage over most applicants. You can go online frequently to increase your preparation rate over your competition. It's appropriate to exploit that advantage.

Here are several suggestions of things to do to prepare online for admission. They’re a starting point. I’ve seen others use these steps successfully. As a competitive candidate, these suggestions confirm what you already know.

You have already started preparing for admission.

Write a list of accomplishments to date that indicate you are a competitor, a person who willingly, increasingly, and repeatedly stretches to accomplish more than peers. For example, list your rank number 16 in the national BMX racing Gold Cup competition for eight year old girls. Your participation in your school’s Mathematics Competition Team. Your work as a reporter on the floor of electronics trade conferences. Your attendance at 20 plus (you insert the number) teacher in-service training sessions with your dad. Your participation in summer church work in Columbia, SA. Keep expanding that list in number and kinds of entries. You can sort them later by categories that correspond to entries on admission forms.

Expand that list carefully and deliberately.

Review admission procedures carefully. Download and fill out trial copies of applications. Think about how to use each daily activity to your advantage. Where will you enter it on an application? How does that entry show you increased your accomplishments in the activity over last year? Make sure you can enter competitive accomplishments in each cell.

I’ll offer more suggestions later.

For now, keep in mind, the higher you go, the greater the pressure. People at the top thrive on pressure. They figure out how to do something, in spite of disappointments, obstructions and opposition as well as FUD. In this sense, disappointments, obstructions, opposition, and FUD are forms of competition.

If you want to attend a top university, you will manage your life in K12 schools to compete with the best online and in person. You will figure out ways to make your Tablet PC an advantage in competition at home and in school.

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