<p>This fall I'm going into my senior year, and frankly I'm terrified about the whole applying for college thing. I'm going to be the first in my family to attend high education, and while making my family proud, we have no clue what to do! I've had a strong desire to go into pharmacy and we have talked to a family friend who is a retired pharmacist who has given us some great advice in the major aspect of it, but there's still a lot of holes in the application process. My grades are decent (3.5) and I take mainly honors and AP classes. My first SAT score was decent too (1790 and that was with no studying), but I know with studying I can get a 2000+ score. I have 3,000+ hours of community service since middle school (I don't want to sound like a big shot, but I love community service and jump on any chance I can to help.) I also have a nice job as a clerk and eagerly participate in youth group and track&field. Basically, I've been working really hard my whole life so that I know I could go to college. And well now that it's right around the corner, I'm really scared and looking for any help or advice to the application process and such (i.e. applying, time frames, essays, anything that goes into the application process!). Sorry, for the rant, but I just feel so scared about all this right now!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Be aware that though many friends/family want to help, they can be misinformed, particularly if they have not dealt with the college admission process for many years, as it’s changed substantially.</p>
<p>Please spend some time looking at the sticky threads at the top of the various forums as they contain important information. They are a good place to start since you need basic information. The other thing to do is to read some books about college admissions this summer. I like ‘Admission Matters’ by Sally Springer, other members have their favorites too, use the Search function on this forum for ‘books’ to find more. Many times these books are available at your library, so check there first.</p>
<p>There are two main hurdles to entering college: being admitted and being able to pay for college. For the latter, there are again books (Search for ‘books’ on the FA & Scholarship forum) and I like the website finaid.org for an overview of need based FA and merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Your HS guidance counselor should be your first stop for information as they are familiar with where students with your profile usually go from your school. Finally, for things like deadlines, testing requirements, etc., the college websites are your best source as they have up-to-date, accurate information.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you are going to retake the SAT, visit the SAT/ACT forum here, navigate to the SAT-preparation subforum and find the pinned stickey’s that outline a couple of study strategies-- do that for the rest of the summer. Otherwise it isn’t common for people to improve that much.</p></li>
<li><p>You can start on your essay by googling ‘2013 Common Application Essays’ to see the options for the prompt.</p></li>
<li><p>Did you speak with your family about what they can give you each year? Have you run a net price calculator to see what your family will be expected to contribute?</p></li>
<li><p>Identify your safety school(s) where you are sure of getting in and can afford. Usually these are your instate options. Once you have this ID’d you can look at some other schools, where you might get in and might get some extra financial aid. What state are you in?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>There is no use in being scared. This is just a process with steps to take. Read and understand the process so you will know what you are doing. But realize that you will not know where you get in and how much money you get for sure until the letters come back. That’s why to identify your safety is so important, so you will know for sure at least one place where you are sure to be able to attend.</p>
<p>The application instructions are pretty straightforward. They are available on the college website. If you have any specific questions you can make a new post, but first do some reading to get familiar with the process. Use the SEARCH feature here, because most any question you can think of has been asked and answered many times here.</p>