Hi Everyone! I was hoping someone created a spreadsheet for their child to use as they complete their college applications. My daughter started one but I’m sure she is missing things. Could anyone share what they created… for us newbies? She has essays and scores and transcripts, etc. Not sure the most efficient and thorough way to set it up. Thanks!
What is the goal of the spreadsheet?
Tasks to complete?
or info about colleges?
We made an extensive one a few years ago and wish I could find it. It had just about everything you need including oos vs instate tuition with room /board. Scores needed. Deadlines for everything. Scholarship information like links. We listed the estimated personal expenses per each school. Contact people. I am positive I am forgetting somethings.
We the parents did this and learned a lot about each school. I would read through a college and give my wife the information as she typed it into excel. Then at some point we did recheck the dates of things like there was a good amount of schools that had similar deadlines. Others had deadlines that were definelty different and some had open ended deadlines. Which schools were EA vs Ed or EA1vs EA2 etc.
If your kids are willing have then do this with you. It goes much faster and it’s a great way to learn some facts about each school.
For my son for engineering we also put down things like side comments that pertained to that for each school if it made sense. Same with daughter for her field.
I would actually suggest a link to the schools moto and mission statements. Why? Well first it shows you did a little research on the school if a reference is put into the essay. Plus do you align with what the school is looking for? If you do talk it up and you have something positive to point it to. I think this is grossly overlooked.
I started a spreadsheet for my D21 that at the time only included credits given for various AP scores, etc, with the intent to add things like dates as we got closer to admissions…and then my computer crashed and I lost it all!! Arrgghhh! But thank you for the reminder that I had back burnered this. I would also rolling vs. firm deadline for scholarships, gives your daughter an idea on how to prioritize her time for those applications.
We had different spreadsheets for choosing a college and apps. Keeping it apart made it alot cleaner. I also suggest color coding. 3 colors for: not started, in the process of, and complete. We used red, orange, and green but pick whatever you like.
Off the top of my head since I too can’t find DS’s (sigh):
Name of school
Deadlines for ED, EA, Reg, etc
Test scores, AP
LORs and other GC stuff
Any supplemental writings, with hyperlink
Scholarships, with hyperlink
Expected decision date
Oh, one thing you may want to include is where the application is located & possibly with the hyperlink. Most of DS’s apps were on CommonApp, but he had one that was on a portal. If you have multiple portals, that may be hard to keep track of without some sort of indicator.
Our spreadsheet had columns for:
Name of School
Acceptance Rate
COA
USNWR Ranking and engineering ranking
Enrollment number
Student:Teacher Ratio
4 Year Graduation Rate
%of Women in Engineering
SAT Subject Test Required/Recommended
Average SAT and ACT scores
Average GPA
If the schools were need blind
Percentage of D’s intended major/overall engineering numbers
Special note related to D’s intended minor at the time
If there was a 5 year MSEng option
Then we had hyperlinks to:
Visit information
Career placement outcomes/first destination survey
Hotels in the area
What we also should have included in retrospect:
Major specific acceptance rates, along with major specific stat averages, and in vs OOS acceptance rates. Basically the spreadsheet should have been more specific with the stats.
If your child has special clubs, sports, or a religious group that he/she may want to join, add a column for that.
Also, if you make the categories, let the student review the categories and add to it. Then assign the student some of the research work as a way to engage on researching the best fit college.
If finances matter, list the NPC price and full price.
On or off campus housing? Costs go up or down in year two?
Travel costs to each location, distance and time to get there
A lot of students I know apply to say Worcester Poly, then at the very end calculate that its a nine hour trip
and that school might have been eliminated by distance from home alone. Take into account bus transfers, trains etc,
if distance from home may matter to your child.
Many students seem to gravitate towards “closer to home” as the end of senior year approaches.
Some do not feel that way.
Be ready to change the spread sheet a million times! It just keeps growing. It may be more useful as a way
to motivate research than to make the final decision, but each family is different.
I have one currently for S20 who will be applying this fall. We may add more, but at present we have:
School Name
Tour Date and Time (if scheduled)
Info Requested from School (Yes or No)
of Students
Acceptance Rate
Average GPA
Average SAT Range
Average ACT Range
Tuition Cost
Room/Board Cost
Merit Likely (based on S20’s current GPA and scores)
Stats Needed for Merit
Grant/Aid Likely (for our estimated EFC of $15K - this one came from running NPCs)
Total Estimated COA
Application Open Date
Application Deadline
SAT Reporting Code
ACT Reporting Code
Username/Password info (for any accounts established at the school)
We have multiple:
First one had basic info:
- School name
- Website link
- Location
- City/Suburb/rural
- #undergrads/total entrollment
- COA
- mid 50% SAT/ACT
- superscore?
- admissions counselor name
- name of major (they were all somewhat different) and school its in
- Date of visit, and notes once we were home
Next one had:
- application type (common app, online, etc)
- ED/EA/Rolling/Regular admissions
- Admission Deadline
- Scholarship Deadline
- Scholarship app link
- interest considered?
- Application Requirements including # of LOR
- Username/Password for school portals
- link to common data set if we could find it
- AP credit info
- This one had a page for each school with school specific stuff including:
----Essay questions
----mission statement
----important links
I’m sure there’s more, but for each of my kids, they evolved as we used them. I also had my kids do them on google sheets so that I could look any time I wanted and add columns or comments
D had a separate spread sheet with the application nitty gritties - visit date, details of who she met with, her pros/cons, when school specific or honors essays were submitted, deadlines, notification dates, and passwords.