Here are some general advices for the students that they want to apply to a college, a university, a professional school or to take a standardized test.

1-Don't listen to this common phrase "my friend or my cousin said this and that" or "what he/she did or didn't do".

Never assume that if something is worked for another person it will work the same way for you or vice versa.
We all know that no 2 persons needs, conditions or situations are alike.

2-Never assume or guess anything about a person, a program or a process until you have all the facts.

Don't make any decision in the heat of the moment.

Don't listen to rumors. It is your life and your future, don't let anybody else make a decision for you.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet about a program or a process either until you have cross checked that information with the official web site of a school, a college, a university or an organization.

3-Be realistic and think logically.
As we go through life we encounter some stuff in our lives that we have no control over so we shouldn't blame ourselves for why we can not change them.
We should worry about the stuff that we have control over and try to change them so that change can benefit us in the long run.

4-Trust yourself, you are the best person to tell that what are your strengths or your weaknesses, build on your strengths and work on your weaknesses.

5-Nobody knows you need help if you don't ask for it, so if you think that you need help about something then ask for it from the right place or the right person.

6-Do your own research, it is your life, your time and your money.

This is an information age and don't forget the famous phrase "knowledge is power".

You have many tools to choose from to do your own research, so invest enough time to find all the facts about a program, a process, a college, a university and etc.

If you have one of those helicopter parents (I don't mean the concern parents), tell them to back off and let you to be involved in all aspects of a process that it is involved the future of your education (be careful here and be polite, you might need their help and support if you are accepted to a professional school)

7-Visit the college or university of your choice yourself if it is possible.

There are many colleges, universities and professional schools in the U.S. and Canada so you have many choices. I have made links to most of them here.

You need to narrow down your search to find a college that is the best for you. You need to look at many factors such as public or private college, location, tuition fees, loans and scholarships, length of the program, cost of living, college accreditation, admission requirements, etc.

8-Talk to the admission offices yourself, nobody can help you more than the people who they actually running a program and set the requirements for the admission to a college or a university. If you have a question about a person, a program or a college go directly to the source for the relevant information.

Ask different universities or colleges for their calendars, course requirements, publications, catalogs and the other printed materials if they are not posted on their web sites.

You should ask for the past few years of statistics for the students that they have applied to that school or the students who they have been accepted to that school. These statistics and information could give you valuable information about the test scores needed, GPA's of the applicants, their academic background and etc.

9-Admission requirements
After you choose a program, a college or a university to apply to, the next important thing is to look at the admission requirements.

Talk to the school advisors and counselors about their programs and their requirements. Don't trust or believe what other people say until you hear the facts yourself from the official people from the admission office of a college or a university.

Each program, college or university has its own admission requirements so make sure you know exactly what they are.

Make sure you contact the school or the college of your choice directly and get the first hand and up to date information. The requirements for a program can change from this year to the next year or from one school to another school.

The admission requirements for a program may include:
you academic background
you high school grades and course loads
your undergraduates course loads
the required courses (some need the lab sections)
your overall GPA or adjusted GPA
writing an essay
work experiences
letter of recommendation or letter of references
result of personal interviews
result of the standardized tests such as (AP courses, SAT, ACT, DAT, MCAT, OAT, PCAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT and etc

10-Before you take any standardized test such as the AP courses, SAT, ACT, DAT, MCAT, OAT, PCAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT and etc. make sure you are familiar with the contents of these tests.

Make sure to visit the relevant web sites for the above tests and read all the information about the above tests and their contents.

If you want to study on your own for any of the above tests , make sure you pick up a study guide that it is complete and it has developed for that particular test, and also it covers both the notes and the practice tests.

11-Please notes that admission to some professional schools such as Medical schools, Dental schools, Optometry schools, Pharmacy schools and etc. is very competitive and sometime just having the minimum requirements is not enough.

12-Lately there are explosion of the so called discussion boards on the various sites on the internet.

On these boards you can see back and forth discussions about the different topics such as the MCAT, the DAT, the PCAT, the OAT, Medical schools, Optometry schools, Dental schools, Pharmacy schools, how to study for a test, personal experiences and you can see advices about everything that you can imagine.

During these so called discussions you can see how some people try to promote or to discredit some products, programs, test preparation materials, study guides, Schools, Colleges and etc.

There is nothing wrong with reading the materials on these boards and participating in these discussion but never make any decisions about the future of your education such as choosing a school or a college, how to study for a test, what study material to buy or what tutoring service to use based on these discussions.

There are no ways for you to verify that if the information presented on these boards are accurate or not.
Please note that people could pretend to be anybody on the internet and you can not really be sure who is at the other end that you are chatting with.

The best advice is to always verify and check the information yourself by contacting the official people that they are responsible for a program, a school, a test and etc.