I am going to be a senior this fall and I am basically on my own while applying to college. My parents don’t know much about the process and i don’t have an older sibling attending college so i am kind of lost in the dark. I have already researched colleges and made a prospective list of 12 colleges that i am thinking of applying to and i also wrote a rough draft for UC personal statement #1. I know that the common app opens in August but i am so confused on what i should be doing right now. (It is July before my senior year)
By the way i am not referring to summer activities, i am talking about what i should do regarding college apps.
Pick a common app essay prompt and start working on it, think about which two teachers you will ask to write references, prep for ACT or SAT if you haven’t already taken them, prioritize schools that require early application deadlines for scholarship consideration.
@NorthernMom61 Thank you!
1- HAVE THE MONEY TALK with your parents right now!
Ask them what they can afford to spend to send you to college.
Get specific answers- how much have they set aside, how much can they spend each year., etc etc.
dont accept vague " well make it work" type of answers. Youll need real numbers from them in order to determine what you can afford and where you should apply. Applying to colleges that you cant afford to attend is just a wast of your time. So as awkward as this conversation may be, it has to happen.
If they cant afford to pay all your college expenses then you’ll need to apply for financial aid, and you will need their financial information to do so.
The FAFSA is the form that all students who need financial aid from the colleges they are applying to must fill out.
In addition, many private colleges ALSO require the Profile FA form to be filled out.
2- Go to the individual colleges you have tentatively selected and run their Financial aid calculators in order to get a rough idea of how much “aid” you might expect to recieve from them.
Be sure to read the fine print- Grants or Scholarships do not have to be paid back- Loans MUST be paid back.
If they have plenty of money set aside, or can easily afford to pay your tuition, R&B, books then great.
3- come back to us after you’ve done all that with your SA scores, GPA , PSAT score[ if you took it- are you from Calif?] and well try to help .
Agree with all that has been said here. MONEY, or lack of it, determines if you can attend a college. So it isn’t enough to work to be ADMITTED to a college, you also have to know if you will likely be able to AFFORD to attend there.
Getting admitted to colleges is not easy, but if you can target schools that your GPA and Test Scores match well, you will be less stressed. It isn’t just the prestige of a highly ranked school that should cause you to be interested in a particular college. You want to look at college websites, make some visits to different types and sizes of colleges and start thinking about what suits your personality and academic interests best.
Ask questions and be open to new ideas and ways of thinking and you can improve your college admissions process.
Yes, agree that you need to have the money talk with your parents now. Also, sit down with them and run the net price calculators on several of the colleges you are interested in (assuming that you are in California, do at least one UC, at least one CSU, and a few different privates of interest). Their reaction can give you an idea of whether you need-based financial aid is an option for you, or if your list needs to be merit-seeking.
Be aware that UCs and CSUs have a rather early regular application deadline. However, they do not require any support from your high school (transcripts, recommendations) at application time (Berkeley will allow 0-2 optional recommendations). You still need to send SAT or ACT scores in addition to the application (one application and set of test scores for each system) and application fees (one for each campus).
For financial aid forms, UCs and CSUs require only the FAFSA form (note that California state aid requires listing a California college first if you submit one with multiple schools; besides that, some schools use the order of schools as an indication of “level of interest”). Most private schools with good financial aid also require the CSS Profile.
Check the NPC for each school on your list. Talk to your parents and then eliminate the financial reach schools unless you have a chance for merit aid.
I agree with the above comments - start with your budget and financial aid picture.
It varies campus to campus but, for round numbers, a CSU will cost about $7500/yr for tuition and fees. UCs are around $13500/yr. Community college will cost about $1500/yr. Room and board on campus is $10k-$15K depending where you are.
Those are some pretty big checks to write, even for people who make good money. Financial Aid can help, depending on your family’s situation.
See what your parents think of those numbers - then plot your course.
Don’t just think about who you want to write your recs. Go ahead and actually ask them via email or phone if you are close to the teacher. Create a spreadsheet so that you can keep track of everything from app deadlines to fin aid deadlines to scholarship deadlines and any meaningful statistics about the school. For me, some of those statistics included miles away from home, diversity, male to female ratio, and class sizes.
Hi!! Both of my parents didn’t know much about the college process and I’m an only child so the whole process was very new. I was behind heading into senior year since I didn’t really have a college list and I did not start my common app essay, but it seems like you are on your way in both those fronts. What I suggest is go to the common app or look up the essay questions for this year and get a rough draft of one of them. You can never start too early or have enough drafts of your common app essay. Also try to tour some of the schools you have put down. That will give you and idea of what kinda of school you want to attend because you might go and then change your mind (which I did!). Once you have an even better version of your list, start looking at the application requirements which can be found on either the common app, the colleges website, or college board. These are all helpful sources for deadlines and the things the college requires. You also may need to start searching for scholarship opportunities and starting to work on what you’ll need to do with financial aid. If you schools are asking for tests, then make sure you are comfortable with your scores or if there are any other tests you may need (sat 2s for example). I would take this time to get organized so when senior year comes it’s go time and you can get your applications in early or at least have hem finished with time to go over them. At this point it’s time to stop worrying about what has already been done, so don’t worry about old grades or AP scores of you took them, and start working with what you have and learning how to talk confidently about your high school career and you as a student and person. There’s a lot to keep up with, but take this time to get organized and confident about the process and you will have a much better experience. I hope this helps and good luck!!! 