<p>I'd like to get some advice/tips on how to start organizing myself for the application process. I purchased a large dry erase calendar to mark deadlines, etc. Any helpful suggestions?</p>
<p>i too am looking for suggestions...</p>
<p>I researched each school and made a one page sheet with some basic details/deadlines/facts about each school as well as a checklist on the next page. I will be making a calendar like yourself, but am also open to ideas.</p>
<p>Some parents were very organized and will no doubt be willing to share tips.</p>
<p>What we did: write down all the dates for: scheduling talks with GC if necessary; completing CV; completing brag sheet, asking for recs and giving brag sheets to teachers; reminding teachers about recs as needed; completing essays and filling out forms; reminding GC about transcript (and checking transcript for accuracy); due date for applications.</p>
<p>When asking for recs, make sure to give stamped and addressed envelope, note due date for the rec, attach brag sheet with anecdotes that teacher can incorporate in the recs.</p>
<p>If your student needs to take or retake SAT or ACT, also make note of deadlines for signing up, taking the exam, getting scores, etc...</p>
<p>Excel, excel, excel...I mean spreadsheets, not performance BTW. The key thing was dates, really, and keeping notes on visits. We missed the dates to send in supplemental creative arts work to a couple of places. Bad mama. Oh well. It usually turns out OK anyway:).</p>
<p>ditto what alumother said. this is the best way to keep yourself organized!</p>
<p>One very easy way to simplify things is to get all the applications in early. You avoid deadline issues and for some colleges, the applicant maximizes his chances for grant/merit aid. The advantages for colleges with rolling admissions is obvious. Our son had all his in by mid October and was very happy he did. The guidance office was not too busy with other students and it gave him lots of time to check on the few colleges which did not send him a completed postcard.</p>
<p>confused..do university's prefer common app or their own / should i apply on paper or online? i was thinking common app online would be easier for both myself and the school..but i wanted opinions.. thanks!! move this if it's inappropriate here..</p>
<p>I don't know about common app vs school app, but with online vs mail some people say it looks better to send it in the mail, but the schools themselves usually clearly have on their website "we strongly recommend that you use the online form." When you send it by mail what happens is that someone has to then enter all your info into the database by hand apparently. They are not supposed to show a preference anyway. I am doing it online, if that's what they strongly recommend.</p>
<p>hah im not a parent</p>
<p>but i have one of those accordian files just to put random info, paper application copies, etc.</p>
<p>I researched all application dates for the college I'm interested in because a lot of them have early deadline for music supps and scholarships .. like master list and i put them on a paper calendar I printed off the interenet (my "deadline" calendar")</p>
<p>I also have a dry erase board (my SAVIOUR during jr year) .. where I list interview dates in general (for jobs/internships/clubs) and i bought a BRAND NEW TEAL marker especially for college interviews ..</p>
<p>I also made a notebook where i pasted copies of the the essays questions from each school and grouped the coomon apps together and the supplements together .. and I wrote a short list at the beginning of the amount of work I'd need to put into each school </p>
<p>my college counselor also has all my of deadlines/phones numbers/essays/recs organized .. soo that helps a lot</p>
<p>eh .. yea im a big organization freak so its fun for me to buy different colored post its and what not ...</p>
<p>i think the trick is to find something that works for you .. and to actually keep up with it throughout the whole process ^^</p>
<p>We used a spreadsheet as well but since I don't even have Excel on my computer, I did it with Word and inserted a "chart." Not quite sure to this day, how I figured it out but I did! I created a chart for each school my daughter applied to. I know, bad mama, she's supposed to do it herself but I'm an organizational freak and it's an "opportunity area" for her. She came up with the list of schools and she was responsible for completing every item e.g teacher recommendations, supplemental essays, transcripts, by the deadline. All I really did was lay it out with a checklist in an easy to read format. We had one big brown accordion folder with the checklists paper clipped to the front so she could see at a glance what item needed to be prepared and sent.</p>
<p>I will also tell you that I had embedded in my brain the deadline dates. I was the nag-o-meter as in, don't forget that your supplemental essay is due TOMORROW AND YOU HAVEN'T STARTED. Aside from that, I was a wonderful mother throughout the entire process....</p>
<p>Seriously, I think she did appreciate the organization I brought to the process (she applied to 10+ schools) but she was responsible for every individual step.</p>
<p>My mother had a bunch of spreadsheets with all the date info and whatnot in them. I just kept the actual applications in separate folders, and each one had a sheet or two at the front where it said what was due when and what different students had to send, so I highlighted the relevant info so I could glance at it quickly when going through them. But I only had five schools so I pretty much remembered all the important stuff anyway.</p>
<p>I also pretty much pretended to myself that all of my applications were due on the same date that the earliest application was due, which I believe was in the beginning of December, so I had everything done at once even though everything wasn't due at once.</p>
<p>I made a cover sheet where my son could fill in the basic requirements (dates, essays req'd) and checklists (items mailed, recs given, etc) and taped them to the front of three hole punch folders he kept in a big binder. A copy of every paper required and sent was kept in the folder for each school. In the front of the binder we did an overall spreadshhet/checklist for all of the schools applied to. It kept everything in one place and seemed to work well. But then again, I'm not too adept at excel!</p>
<p>We used a large desk calendar rather than a dry erase (which can get erased by mistake). With DS this was critical because we had seven audition dates to schedule as well as dealing with all the other deadlines. The calendar was used to mark off deadlines for aps, finaid, and the HS guidance office, as well as audition dates and other commitments for DS. We also used a hanging file folder system with a different color file for each college, and a separate one for the FAFSA/Profile/Tax information. Whenever something came in the mail or on email (which we printed out), we read it and placed it in the file for that college.</p>
<p>We did 3 major things that made all the difference for us. By the way, these 3 ideas I got by stumbling across CC in my daughter's junior year in high school. And some have already been mentioned.</p>
<p>--Created an activities sheet (some call "brag" sheet). This was extremely important and a major timesaver for all applications, honor programs, scholarship apps, help for teachers doing recs, etc. Best advice I was given.
Still using updated version today for odd-ball scholarship apps, loan apps, etc</p>
<p>--Set up big plastic box with a large folder for each school. Wrote in marker on the front of each folder the dates things were done--ie sent SAT scores, sent app, sent reqs, etc. Easy visual way to keep track of exactly where we were in each college's app process. Also indicated dates things were received, acknowledged by the college--when received first letter, invitation to apply for honors, etc. There's so much paperwork, and each college does things a little differently. It also helped give a quick visual of what follow ups might be necessary ("Hey, we never got an acknowledgement back from college x that the app was received.")</p>
<p>--Created Word document (table form) that was THE master list. Each school shown on the left (12 for D, 7 for S), with separate columns on the right for due dates..ie early app, regular deadlines, cost of app, scholarship deadlines, special notes re oddities of that particular school in terms of a unique form required, etc. </p>
<p>I am so glad we're done...what a learning experience. It will make applying for grad schools seem like a piece of cake. (Unless D decides to try for med school!)</p>
<p>In addition to some of the above, my daughter made a list of all of the essays, including the short ones, and grouped them by school. She then tried to figure out which ones were reusable or adaptable. With essays on "topic of your choice," many were reusable, but sometimes the one she wanted to reuse overlapped too much with a short/paragraph answer for a particular school, so it was helpful to see them all laid out.</p>