Rising seniors can undoubtedly make the college application process more smooth by taking some proactive steps in the summer. Here are some helpful tips for students:
1. Complete a solid draft of your college essay over the vacation. Send it to your counselor, so when we are writing your letter of recommendation, we can highlight your strengths that emerge within your narrative. We can also support your essay by elaborating on your story, or we could amend our letter if the two documents become redundant.
2. Visit colleges, even if you don't have time to make an official tour. Narrow down your list and, ideally, by September, have at least three to four colleges in which you intend to apply.
3. If needed, create a college email that is separate from your personal email. It may be useful to allow your parents to have the username and password to this account; about 99% of colleges' communication is entirely electronic, and if you're not consistently checking your email, you may miss essential information. Your parents can keep you on track by monitoring your college email to see if anything is missing in your application file.
3. Do some research to see what application(s) is/are required by your schools. Individual southern schools (e.g., Elon, Clemson, U Maryland, U of South Carolina, UT at Austin, U of Florida, James Madison University, and a few others) do not accept the Common App and instead, have signed on to the Coalition. If you are a person driven by detail, check out the pros and cons of both apps. My personal advice: If all of your schools accept both applications, use the Common App; it is more intuitive and user-friendly.
After committing to an application, you can start to fill out your personal data, educational background, awards, and activities. Additionally, add each college onto your account; for the Common App, perform a "College Search" to add schools onto "My Colleges" (see upper right). For students using the Coalition, click on "Colleges" (see lower right). Once this step is completed, you can note whether you'll need to write additional supplemental writing pieces for specific schools. I suggest you should attempt to group topics to minimize the writing you'll need to produce.
4. If you have an extensive list of extracurriculars (e.g., more than ten significant activities) consider making a resume; here is a clear, concise example, as well as tips on how to format it. If you don't have more than ten activities, then don't waste your time duplicating your efforts by making a resume. Most applications (including the Common App and the Coalition) have an "activities" section in which candidates can list roughly ten activities and five awards.
5. If you plan to re-take the SAT or ACT in the fall, try to sign up for the earliest test dates available (SAT/August, ACT/September). You will likely have to go to each website (www.collegeboard.org or actstudent.org) by July/August to register. Remember, statistics show that most students' scores will peak in the fall of their senior year due to maturity and brain development. It can't hurt to try these tests again unless you are completely satisfied with your results from your junior year.
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| The puzzle of the holistic admissions process! |
6. At the end of August, email your teachers who have committed to write your letter of recommendation, and politely remind them of your first application deadline. Most early deadlines in the Northeast are on November 1st; however, some southern colleges have deadlines on October 15th.
Above all, enjoy your summer and relish the freedom before you head into your senior year. Try to keep a balance between preparing for college and spending time with friends and family. Your senior year will fly by, so it is essential to make some high school memories while you have time.
