hey, as high school juniors start looking into colleges, here are some major tips I learned during my process under the cut because it got pretty long. this is really for anyone wanting to learn tips for the college admissions process!!
1) make sure the school you’re applying to has the specific major you want to do (if you know what you want to major in) so that you’re not halfway through a supplemental essay before you realize you don’t actually want to go to that school.
2) if you’re interested in colleges, go to virtual events. there are campus tours, faculty panels, student q&as, and department specific stuff. a lot of it is useful information, and even if you find it boring, you’ve demonstrated interest in the school which helps your chances at getting in. right after you’ve finished the event send a thank you email to the person running it (when in doubt, send it to the admission office) saying how you enjoyed the event and are interested in applying to that school. keep it enthusiastic, professional, and short.
3) application fees suck. for a lot of colleges you’ll have to pay $50-80 to apply which is bullshit and adds up quickly. ive gotten fee waiver codes by attending virtual events and emailing admission officers questions about my application. this is obviously not a guarantee, but again, demonstrated interest will give you a higher chance of saving money and getting in. make sure to tally up all the fees of schools you're applying to before you start the application. I applied to several no-fee schools, and had fee waivers for others, and still was looking at paying $1,000+ just to apply to the rest of my list, which got shortened pretty quickly after that little calculation
4) apply to a reasonable amount of colleges. the more colleges you apply to, the more extra essays you have to write, and the more money you have to pay. a model you can try and use is applying to safety schools, match schools, and reach schools. safety schools are schools that you are very likely to get into. match schools are schools that you have a decent chance of getting into. reach schools are schools that you have a slim, but possible chance of getting into. i would say apply to 2-6 of each type of school
5) you’re gonna have to write supplemental essays, and it’s gonna suck. so get started early. there was one girl in my grade who did all of her college apps in the summer of her junior year. i was stupid and didn't do that but I sure as hell wish I did because I went into the first semester of senior year with a lot of unnecessary stress. try spending 30 min-1 hour per school day working on college things, and you’ll get so much done by the end of the summer. you will thank your past self SO much
6) again, supplemental essays. you want to have a base pool of writing that you start off with. I applied to some UCs (university of californias) which have four insight questions you have to answer. I spent several weeks writing those and polishing them with my college counselor until they were really good. I ended up recycling them into my common app essay, supplemental essays for multiple schools, I put in the effort in the front end and it really paid off
7) seek out all the information on the specific application process for each school multiple times. if you’re applying for any kind of visual or performing art- including directing, stage managing, playwriting, comedy, etc- chances are you will need some combination of an interview/audition/portfolio, and you’re gonna wanna make sure you know the requirements before you put a bunch of time into something. if you're gonna be applying for visual arts, you really want to start building up your portfolio as soon as possible, and noting all the different requirements for each school, because there is no uniform portfolio that you can use to apply to all art programs. I personally didn't apply for visual arts but my poor friend had a real rough time with it so please learn from their mistakes
8) schedule interviews as soon as you can!! they can really help your chances at getting in- ive gone to virtual events about interviews and college admission officers say that 99% of the time interviews turn out really well! but there are never enough slots for everyone so get those applications in early because a lot of the time you can only get an appointment after you apply. I applied to one of my top schools two months early and got one of the five remaining interview slots. but remember time zones when you schedule interviews so you dont have to wake up at 6 or stay up til 12
9) fuck deadlines. dont kill yourself trying to get your app turned in three months early, and dont sacrifice quality, but really, the sooner you can submit an application, the less stress you have to deal with. deadlines are the LAST day you can submit an application, not the only day. and if your application is a few days late, send it anyways. they can’t do anything but reject you, and as long as you dont have an app sent in, you're already not getting in
10) colleges care a lot about extracurriculars. it’s like their 2nd most important thing besides grades/test scores (which are becoming more and more irrelevant). but it looks way better to have concentrated and held leadership positions, so don’t make yourself miserable not doing what you want to do/doing what you don’t want to do, but keep in mind how colleges will view it. when you're writing about your activities for your application, try to sound as impressive as possible while still sounding truthful
11) if you're a good writer, this process is gonna be a lot easier for you. if you're not, im sorry. I fall into the former category and wrote my common app essay a day before it was due, which is something I dont recommend, even if you are a good writer. its just stressful. if you're a good writer, your first drafts will still not be polished enough. get feedback and edit. if you’re not a good writer, start your essays early, and get a fuck ton of feedback and do a lot of editing. im serious, my college counselor said that from his experience, mediocre writers who frequently met with him to revise their work and good writers who didn't meet with him much often ended up having writing that was around the same quality. it will take more time and effort, but you can produce good work. meet with your counselors. meet with your english teachers. meet with your parents if that makes sense, or any good writers you know.
12) if you're a boy/girl scout, GET YOUR EAGLE SCOUT/GOLD AWARD!!! im not kidding that thing can get you tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in merit aid!! I was a girl scout for several years and hated it, but I did my gold award on something I was passionate about, it didn’t suck as much as I thought it would, and it literally paid off. get it done as soon as you can before the admission process because I pretty much finished mine right before the admission deadlines and it was hell
13) there will be days where you just have to sit down and grind out a bunch of admissions stuff. that’s just a reality, not matter how well you schedule your time. try to make a calendar with deadlines for each app/essay and have a plan for when you’ll work on each thing. you may not follow it to the letter but it will help guide you and keep you on track
14) im so serious, finish your apps during summer before senior year and you will feel so light while the rest of your peers are being dragged into hell. please please get your apps in early. please
15) if you really dont want to live in a certain place (its way too cold, its way too populated, its too far away, etc), just dont apply. there are a gazillion different schools that can give you great experiences without subjecting yourself to environmental misery. for example, my anxiety levels spike when I leave large cities, so I only applied to schools in major cities. if anything, it definitely helps you narrow down the list
16) apply to several schools that you would be happy going to instead of pinning all your hopes on One Dream School. admissions processes can be the most arbitrary decisions and there is ALWAYS a chance you won't get into a school that you thought would be a cinch. there is not one sole school that is your perfect fit, there are hundreds of schools that you would have fulfilling experiences at, so make sure you apply to a few of those. it’s like my dad says, don’t close any doors until you know which one you’re going to walk through
17) apply for financial aid, even if you don’t think you’ll get it. the same goes for merit aid. apply for as much aid as you can. college is expensive as fuck, and the majority of people are gonna come away from it with some form of debt. but debt WILL drag you down, so you want to try and get as little as possible. apply for scholarships, not necessarily the big $100,000 lotteries that a billion people apply to, but to several $1000 ones that require you to write 500-800 words. if you wrack up several of those it can seriously help you out. there are a lot of interesting ones you can find, and you'll probably come across a prompt that you're passionate about. and remember, there’s no shame in going to community college if everything else is going to put you in too much debt to climb out of. remember, there’s interest to that debt, so you can spend your whole life paying off the interest and not the debt, and end up paying more than you took out in debt without actually paying off the debt
18) the college process SUCKS. its classist as hell, and inherently designed to make it hard as fuck to apply so that the more persistent people get in. you're just gonna have to accept that, get started early, work hard, and make sure you're passionate about what you’re writing about/applying to. make spreadsheets or lists or whatever helps you organize. do your research. START EARLY, you’ll hate the world a little less. good luck!!
