Applying for College

Applying to College
1

<p>The fated time has come when we, the rising seniors, must begin to write our college applications. Hooray. I'm very confused about this process. My list of colleges is elementary, and I'm not even sure where I want to go. This is my "list" that my school counselor and I came up with. I don't know anything about whether these are reaches, matches, or safeties, so I'm guessing. Feel free to correct me, holistically, as I am probably wrong. :)</p>

<p>Reach:
Princeton
Stanford
Columbia
Caltech- maybe
MIT - maybe
Williams (?)
Amherst (?)
Harvard - maybe</p>

<p>Match:
UCB
UCLA
Cornell
Williams (?)
Amherst (?)
Claremont Colleges - Pomona
USC - Maybe</p>

<p>Safety:
Cal Poly
Other UCs - Davis, SB, SD, etc.</p>

<p>Maybes are ones I may or may not apply to. It would be amazing if I could get into Stanford; it's my dream school. It's so selective though, that my college counselor basically said I'm not gonna get into it, or Princeton, at that. I wrote down Stanford, Princeton, and UCB. My CC added the others. </p>

<ol>
<li>Is this a good list? </li>
<li>How do I begin to write my essays for these?</li>
<li>Can you explain or direct me to a good article about Common Applications? i.e. Is there a limit to the colleges I can apply for with Common App? </li>
<li>What sort of things should I write in my essays? What should the structure be? Formal (like for the AP Lang test), or looser (like for creative writing)? </li>
<li>What topics should I avoid? i.e. something overused, uncreative, fake. </li>
</ol>

<p>Thank you in advance! :D</p>

2

<p>Bump for mee~</p>

3

<p>No one can comment on your list without some detail about your credentials–GPA, scores, EC’s, though I guess we have to assume all three are outstanding, given that the schools on your match list are all very selective.</p>

<p>There are a number of books on the subject of college essays–go to the library. And there are entire CC forums on College Essays and on the Common App where you can pose any questions you have. There are also articles on the non-discussion forum section of CC that would be useful for you. Rather than posing so many general questions, do the groundwork and figure out if there’s anything specific you need to know.</p>

<p>You have the summer to sort all this out–you’ll get there, don’t worry.</p>