The controversial debate over which senior class "had it worse" began intriguing me. Albeit, as a member of the class of 2021, I hold some bias in my perspective. While the class of 2020 missed out on the majority of their senior year experiences - such as prom or graduation - the class of 2021 missed out on their whole college application season (and the way COVID cases are trending, they'll miss out on graduation and prom too). We were left to fend for ourselves as our counselors, teachers, and practically everyone else was working to transition into the remote setting, leaving less time to help seniors with their college apps. Due to this, I learned to navigate the chaos, which is applying to universities, by myself. I've compiled a guide for all those future juniors and seniors who may need help applying to college below. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!
Step 1: Find your major
Many people have no idea what they want to major in as seniors in high school and decide to apply as an undecided major. If this is the case for you, find a general field of study which interests you.
Step 2: Determine the environment you thrive in as a student
Personally, I do well under pressure and excel in relatively competitive spaces. By recognizing this, I know that I can handle the pressure which comes with top and prestigious universities. This is not the case for everyone. If you don't think you'll do well in competitive spaces, you know not to apply to the Ivys or schools like Stanford. This is the beginning of creating your college list.
Step 3: Find schools that have many opportunities catered to your major
This is as simple as searching up "colleges with a good undergrad [insert major] program". Collegevine is a great website to begin curating a list of colleges and putting together your application, so use that if you want. Begin listing out colleges that attract you, whether its the size or location or program. Create two to three bullet points for why that college attracts you (this can be used for interviews and even your essays).
Step 4: Finalize college list
Sort through the colleges and label them as "safety" - easy to get into, "target" - possible to get into, and "reach" - hard to get into. Use their acceptance rates or student profiles as guides to label. After labelling, choose about 3 safeties, at least 3 targets, and as many reach as you want. A good college list will have about 10-15 colleges. Applying to college is expensive, so be sure to check if your eligible for a fee waiver and condense your list if needed.
Step 5: Create a checklist
For each of your colleges, determine the requirements. This includes, number of teacher recommendations, supplemental essays, deadlines, application fee, application platform, and testing requirements.
Step 6: Create accounts
Most colleges are on the common app. This is a platform through which you submit your teacher recs, essays, general information, personal statement, and anything else colleges may require. Other applications include coalition, universal, and the UCs have their own platform.
Step 6.1: Write your personal statement
If you are applying through coalition or common app, you need a personal statement. Search up personal statement examples online to use as inspiration for your own.
Step 7: Find similarities in supplemental essay prompts
Open a word document or google document and type out all your colleges. Under each college, type out the supplemental essay prompts you need to complete and word count. Now go through the prompts and color code them based on similarity. Many colleges have the "why your major" prompt. You don't need to write multiple different essays for that prompt, you can reuse it for each college. By color coding prompts, you'll have a clearer idea of how many essays you really need to type.
Step 8: Write your essays
I used collegevine's blog for guidance on how to write my essays. Search up "[school name] 2020-2021 essays" and you'll likely find a collegevine blogpost walking you through what you can include and how to organize your essay. Use this as a support when writing your essay, but make sure to remain authentic to yourself.
Step 9: Get edits
Ask friends, family, school counselors, teachers, anyone you know for feedback on your essays. You don't need to use the edits they provide, but its nice to have others read it over and hear their take on your essay.
Step 10: Submit!
Make sure to review your application before you submit. Make sure you have accurate information in your application and use the preview feature most application platforms provide to make sure everything is formatted correctly.
Hopefully those are helpful steps to those who may not know a lot about the application process. I highly recommend using collegevine to draft your application and develop a college list. It's a free website which allows you to input your activities, scores, classes, and demographics to determine your chances of getting into a school. Other than that, good luck on your college application process!
Additional Tips:
-Ask teachers if they will write you a teacher recommendation early, this means March through May during your junior year of high school
-Communicate deadlines clearly to your teachers and counselors to make sure everything is submitted on time
-Keep track of deadlines!
-Many colleges have different deadlines (Early action - EA, Early Decision - ED, Restrictive Early Action - REA, and Regular Decision - RD)
-EA means you apply a couple months early and get your decision a couple months early, EA deadlines are usually around November 1st and EA decisions are usually released in December or January. You can apply to multiple schools EA.
-ED means you apply a couple months early and if you get into the college you ED to, you must go there. It is a binding application and you can only ED to one college. However, you can apply ED to one college and then apply EA to others. ED decisions usually come out in December.
-REA is like ED but it is not binding, so you don't have to attend if you get in. REA is different than EA since you can only REA to one school and REA can have some restrictions where you cannot apply EA or ED to other schools. REA decisions usually come out in December.
-RD is the standard application deadline. You apply through the regular pool and usually receive your decision around March.
-There are four different decisions you may receive: accepted, deferred, waitlisted, rejected. Accepted means you have gotten into the school and can attend. Usually you are deferred from EA, ED, or REA colleges, meaning your application will be reviewed again with the RD pool of applicants. Waitlisted means you are a worthy candidate but the spots have been filled by other candidates at the school, so if an accepted candidates decides not to attend, waitlist candidates are then given a spot. Rejected means you were not accepted by the school, however this does not mean you are not a strong applicant, it merely means that the school is not a good fit for you.
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