<p>I had absolutely no clue, and neither did my parents or gc. Least of all my gc, actually, she was more of a roadblock than anything. I did not go through high school with thoughts of college applications in the back of my mind, I got involved with things I wanted to be involved in, and took challenging classes, but only the ones I wanted to take. My school doesn't even offer APs, so there was no issue there. I got a lot of college mail and advise from random people, and visited a lot of colleges the summer before my senior year. I think it was just luck that the colleges I applied to were such good schools, because I hadn't heard of most of them before I began the college search. I knew they were good, but I didn't know they were the top few LACs in the country. I had no idea what my chances were. I just filled out the application honestly, wrote a couple good essays and picked one to revise, found a couple teachers who like me to write recs, and sent it all off. I had to have a principal write the counselor recommendation since my counselor was--not unwilling, but a horrible writer, mainly. Also, she thought I should go to the state u "to be close to my mom" Note: my parents are divorced, and I live with my dad.
Result: I was accepted to Amherst, Wesleyan, Swarthmore, Colgate, Bowdoin, Oberlin, and Reed, plus two state schools, and rejected at Harvard.
So, it worked out fine. Of course, there are plenty of things I would have done differently if I had known better, but I am more than happy with my college choice (Amherst). I wonder if maybe the admission people can tell when the students do it themselves, and take that into account? Actually, I found applying for financial aid to be much more difficult and confusing than the admission applications.</p>