What I am rarely asked about, however, is the importance of intellectual depth, imagination, creativity, or vitality. Yet, at the major national admission conference several years ago, a session on "Evaluating Intellectual Vitality" drew an overflow crowd. This is something all admission officers hunger to find, and most parents do what they can to encourage it in their children, yet somehow it gets lost in the crowd of "factors" or hooks and special interests. We may not be able to define it, but I am reminded of the famous Supreme Court decision on pornography a generation ago, when Judge Potter Stewart said that he could not define it, but he knew it when he saw it. We know intellectual vitality "when we see it." It's the student who takes personal pride in learning, not just in getting the highest grade. We don't give numbers to this quality, and neither the SAT nor the high school transcript measures it. But it's no less real for being unquantified. As I said, we all know it when we see it.

We learn about intellectual vitality from both the student and the recommendations. And we are looking to see how all the pieces fit together. Does the way the student describes himself fit the portrait painted by the recommendations? Do we have a whole person or fragments? Obviously, honesty, sincerity, and insight play major roles in writing a convincing set of essays. Gimmicks, trying to figure out what we want, usually result in bland, uninvolving, boring applications.

Colleges are interested, like the Greeks, in the "examined life." We don't expect an 18 year-old to have all the answers. Which adults among us have all those answers, by the way? We want to see what your questions are, what your passions are, what you care about enough to invest yourself in, what you are moved by. At some point, it is too late to do much about your grades and your test scores. They take on permanence like your genotype. But it's never too late to start leading a reflective life. It always astonishes me that more applicants and their families do not understand this.

Q: How do I pay for college?

A: Editor, Homeschool.com: Are you aware of the real costs of higher education? Unless your child is a star athlete or you started that invest-early-and-often college savings plan at their birth, the following estimates may hurt.

The average price tag for a diploma from a four-year private college is $102,000, and that is just tuition! Things like food, room and transportation are not included. You can expect that even at your local State U you will invest approximately $38,000. But, there is help.

Below, we have listed several suggestions that can help you financially prepare for your child's outstanding college experience, without the six-digit price tag.

Community college isn't what it used to be:

Attending a junior college or community college was once considered a second-rate option, but with the rising cost of higher education, community colleges have become a smart way to go. Attending a community college for two years and then transferring to a four-year university, not only cuts the price of a four-year degree in half, it gives students a chance to improve their GPA. In some states, community college transfer students are given first priority for admission into universities.