I’m a current senior, so I just do all of the normal senior things — procrastinate on my homework, hang out with friends, and… apply to colleges. Oh yeah, right. That. This year, when I started that process, I discovered that there wasn’t enough guidance on how to do so. I’m certainly no expert, but I thought it would be helpful to offer some tips that I learned along the way.
Plan ahead for recommendation letters, transcripts and test scores, but don’t freak out.
Some colleges require these things by the deadline and others give you leeway. This means that you should request a letter of recommendation from your teachers and send in your transcripts and test scores (if applicable) well in advance of when you are applying. Usually, if the college allows it, you have two to four weeks after the deadline for your application to send these materials in. However, as noted before, not all colleges do this, so it is worth checking beforehand to make sure all your ducks are in a row.
For example, UNC’s early action application deadline was Oct. 15, a very early date, but the other materials were not due until Nov. 1. Likewise, Virginia Tech’s deadlines (shown below) allow submission of extra materials two to three weeks after the application deadline, depending on whether the student chooses early action or regular decision.
Usually, you can find these deadlines on the website under a section often called “Dates and Deadlines,” or they will make clear that all materials are due by the application deadline. But if you can’t find it, call or email the college and they will let you know.
Fill out the FAFSA.
You might be thinking, “But I’m not going to qualify for financial aid!.” However, there is a difference between financial aid and financial need. You can still get aid, like grants and merit-based scholarships, without needing the money to pay for college. Filling out the FAFSA allows you to get both need-based and other types of aid.
The only requirements for getting financial aid are that you are a U.S. citizen, have a social security number, be enrolled in high school, show satisfactory progress there, and show that you are qualified to be enrolled in college, along with three financial conditions, none of which have to do with income level.
- you are not in default on a federal student loan,
- you do not owe money on a federal student grant, and
- you will use federal student aid only for educational purposes
So you will notice that no matter how much money you or your parents earn, you may still get aid to help you pay for college. So go and fill out the FAFSA; the earlier you do it, the more money you are eligible to get.
Don’t take the U.S. News rankings so seriously.
Yes, it’s hard sometimes when you just want a number to be able to tell yourself you’re going to a good school. But the problem is, you can’t simplify a school down to “good” or “bad” — you have to think about the combination of factors that you want in a school. For example, Harvard University is one of the “best” colleges in the country, according to U.S. News. But it is also in the middle of urban Boston. What if you don’t want to be in an urban area? You could get into Harvard, but be miserable because of the pressures of city life. Likewise, say you want a good Honors College like I do. The U.S. News rankings don’t rank those, and so you could overlook schools that have what you’re looking for just because they don’t have a high number. The U.S. News rankings are not comprehensive, and they will not help you on your college search, unless you want a name-brand school.
The acceptance rate does not determine how good a school is.
For some reason, people tend to associate a more “selective” college with being a “better” school. Oh, wait! Maybe this is because the U.S. News uses selectivity as a factor for ranking colleges, and colleges would like to be ranked higher so they try to make themselves more selective! It may not be as simple as that, but conflating “selectivity” with “quality of education” certainly is not accurate. Let’s look at N.C. State as an example. It is an excellent school, with a 45 percent acceptance rate. Does this mean that it is nine times worse academically than Harvard, which has about a five percent acceptance rate? Of course not! Ignore the acceptance rate and think about which schools that you want to go to, not what schools are the most selective in the country.
Metrics that do indicate academic quality are subjective, because everyone can get a different experience from the same school depending on what they want to get out of it. You are the only person who knows what type of school and program you want to study, and you should find a school that meets your needs.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help with the application process, but don’t let people do things for you either.
I am certainly still very confused about the whole “applying to college thing,” even after applying to three schools. The Common App is not always the easiest platform to navigate, and it can be hard to keep track of all the supplemental essays, especially if you are applying to a specific program.
So if you have questions, email the college you are applying to or ask people who are knowledgeable, like your counselor. Common App has a helpline, as does the FAFSA. Your peers are going through the same thing you are, so they may also have words of wisdom.
If you ask your parents for help, they may be tempted to rewrite all your essays to what they think “sounds good” to a college. Do not let them. You should come through in your essays, and that is what colleges want to hear. The admissions officers do not want to read an essay written by the student’s parents — that is not the person they are admitting to the college! Accept advice, including from parents, but don’t capitulate to letting them write your essays for you.
Pace yourself.
Do not make the mistake of waiting until the last minute to do everything. I speak from experience here. Yes, you may work better under pressure, but also doing that means you are more likely to make careless mistakes.
If you write your supplemental essays over a long period of time, you have more time to edit, and you’ll be able to space out college applications. It really helps you to write better essays and review them.
At the end of the day, the college application process is a lot of work, and colleges understand that everyone is doing this for the first time, and everyone is freaking out. So understand that you are not alone, take a few deep breaths, and write about “what community you belong to” and then proceed to bang your head against the wall. It will be fine!
Photo courtesy of Justin Kern/Flickr.
