<p>Get a rough application done (activities list, know which teachers to ask for recs, and especially a solid ESSAY) in the summer after junior year. If I had all that done before senior year started, it would have saved a lot of stress.</p>
<p>The best thing my son did was to his applications before Thanksgiving, a concept learned on cc. He had an early ED deadline, which jumpstarted the process. He then finished all his other applications by Thanksgiving eve and put these envelopes in a stack. He enjoyed gloating over this stack. (Actually, so did I.) By the time he received his ED decision (deferral) in mid-December, he was a little removed from that application, having completed all of the other apps and essays in the meantime, so the sting of the deferral was lessened, even though he was very disappointed. He then mailed all his other apps. The carrots we used were the carefree enjoyment of the holiday season, the carefree enjoyment of his winter sports season which began in early November and was very time-consuming, the preparation of apps done in a positive frame of mind (compared to having to summon up the energy to complete the other apps in the event of an ED denial), and... most powerful of all...the satisfaction of having it DONE. Most of his friends were in misery in December, especially if they had not prepared for unfavorable ED news. Many spent the entire holiday break writing apps under pressure. We started talking about this several months ahead of time, so when senior year began he had a plan and hit the ground running. He is glad that he did it that way.</p>
<p>My daughter kept a journal of all of the volunteer work hours that she participated in once she entered high school. When she had to fill out scholarship applications and they asked for the number of hours that she had volunteered, she didn't have to guess--all of the information was in one place. It was easy to forget volunteer activities that she participated in as a freshman, but they still took up a significant part of her time.</p>
<p>I'm gonna go against the grain here w/my personal experience and resulting advice:</p>
<p>I visited a few colleges the summer before my senior year and managed to fall in love with each of them. Oddly enough, I was rejected at two of those and waitlisted at two others. I had failed to get in at any of the schools I had visited and to visit any of the schools at which I was accepted. I suggest getting to know a college through website, pamphlets, e-mail/chats w/current students, etc. and waiting until admissions decisions come out before actually visiting. Thankfully, I got over my grief, but I can imagine how heartbreaking it must be for an applicant to fall in love w/a school, visit it only to fall in love all over again, and then get rejected. Waiting did cost me a week of school the spring of my senior year, but if I had to go through the process again, I wouldn't change that part. </p>
<p>If you know what you want out of a school and what your prospective schools provide, you're all set to go and you have only to spend a final night (preferably not the night for admitted students b/c those are generally set up as propoganda to make you want to come to the school) at the school to see if you can get that feel</p>
<p>But again, that's just MHO</p>
<p>LAGal, my D thought she was in love with Columbia...she did all that you had suggested. Visiting was a bucket of cold water. And there's no way that my D would have figured out that she liked LAC's in general, womens colleges in particular, without having visited.</p>
<p>I'm as skeptical of making a good college selection w/o visiting as I am of dating via the Internet...the Internet doesn't know chemistry. Even with visiting, my D was very cautious and didn't allow herself to fall in more than like.</p>
<p>TheDad, I understand where you are coming from...</p>
<p>The problems I had were time, money, and parental concerns...
My mother didn't approve of my traveling so far away alone. Most of the schools I was interested in were in the NE, and I live in the South, and we couldn't afford to make two trips to all of the schools b/c of financial and time constraints, not to mention I couldn't miss that much school and she couldn't miss that much work. </p>
<p>You truly see a school through different eyes before and after you have been admitted, and I found it helpful to know when I was visiting a school that this place could really be my home for the next 4 years b/c I had survived the application process as opposed to dreaming about spending 4 years in a place to which I may never be accepted.</p>
<ol>
<li>Know what you want in a college before you ever make a list. This is important!</li>
<li>Don't do the majority of your applications in the two weeks of Christmas break.</li>
<li>Be prepared for your interviews.</li>
<li>Don't visit the schools during accepted weekend. It's also advisable not to visit schools during that April before you have to make your decision except to verify your choice.</li>
<li>Which brings me to: have a pretty good idea what your first few choice schools are before April.</li>
<li>If you do insist on visiting after being accepted and are of modest means, you can always try to ask the schools to pay for your visit, especially if it's a small LAC or LAC like school...it worked for me, anyway.</li>
<li>If you have a valid reason, you can always contest fin aid. No guarantees, but you can try.</li>
</ol>
<p>Of course, I didn't do hardly any of that, but learn from my mistakes :-P. Even if you make them though...things will turn out fine in the end. It'll just be a lot more painful to get there.</p>
<p>If I had the chance to do it all again, I'd still apply ot the same places that I applied to this year. However, I may have added a few more schools to my list. My family wanted me to apply to Notre Dame this year, but I decided against it in the end. If I did it again, I probably would apply there. I may have also applied to some of the other smaller LACs that I learned about on this site. My essays were all right for what I knew then, but I know that they would be much better if I wrote them now due to the revamping that my writing style went through in AP English this year.</p>
<p>I really enjoyed the activities in which I took part in high school so I'd still take part in those. I really don't think it would be possible for me to take part in any more of them because I don't drive (too poor of vision - I took driver's ed after 9th grade and passed the written portion. However, they wanted me to have more practice with the actual driving portion the following summer and said that I wouldn't have to retake the written portion since I already passed it. I decided against worrying about driving at this point in my life because I don't want to have to worry about getting in an accident and having other people's pain be because of my poor eyesight. Plus, if I got in an accident and it was not my fault, it'd be way too easy for the other party to pin the blame on me. Even though I envy all of my friends thtat can drive as I speak, the risks associated with me having a lisance right now are too great in my opinion. It's not worth it for me.), and I already have to ask people to drive me places whenever I want to leave the house. That inability gets annoying for me as well as a hassle for those people after a while.</p>
<p>Ahobbitinside, the only problem with your #1 is that some students can't/don't know what they want in a college until they've been through the process at least part way. Some have no idea to begin with, others change their minds. For example: near/far, big/small, research/LAC, co-ed/womens, urban/small town/rural are just some criteria that can change.</p>
<p>LAGal, I understand and am sympathetic to financial constraints. But the problem is "dreaming" about a school; falling in love is the problem, not visiting before hand. A certain amount of cold-eyed realism is helpful; certainly I've seen enough pain from both students and parents who didn't have it in sufficient measure.</p>
<p>apply to numerous schools early/rolling. it's so nice to know that you are into a school early in the game. it takes off a lot of the pressure. consider state schools such as Michigan, Wisconsin, etc... and other great institutions that offer rolling and early (but not binding) admissions.
Also, aim high, like someone said before. It pays off. Even though you may only get into 2 of 7 extremely selective schools, you have those 2!!</p>
<p>*Take classes at a local college or community college during high school, especially in subjects that are intellectually stimulating</p>
<p>*self study for APs</p>
<p>*try to find research opportunity, stick with it</p>
<p>*find one community service project for a couple of years as well, get heavily involved</p>
<p>*read more, especially in fields of interest, then contact professors at a college I'm interested in to hear their views</p>
<p>Apply to less schools. I would say focus on a pretty narrow list - it saves you money and headaches.</p>
<p>amen, I applied to nine schools and I'd say it was at least five too many considering I couldn't really "see" myself living at any of those campuses. Besides it made me feel like a jerk applying and getting into schools I had no intention of attending while a lot of kids at my school couldn't. I guess I just got used to the idea of a few schools without actually facing the fact that I did not want to attend. Like the University of WA for instance, yeah right. It is obscenely huge and scares me to death. Then I applied at the u of chicago, which I was in love with for the longest time until I was waitlisted. After I thought about it more I removed myself from the list because I knew I didn't want to go thousands of miles away to freezing cold chicago where I know no one. So I am totally a LAC person, but I didn't even learn that until spring break. I cut it way too close. If I could go back I would've been more realistic and taken the process more seriously.</p>
<p>Catsmeow - your post should be read by every junior - not that they would listen ;). Some of the senior year "growth" that is talked about a lot here, is not real change, but rather kids actually recognizing that college really is going to happen and that they can have input into what the future will be like.</p>
<p>If you possibly can, do overnights at your top choices so that you are there for an overnight both on a school night AND a weekend night. I think that is the only way to get a true flavor of the intensity of study and intensity of partying going on.</p>
<p>Visit more: I took a huge road trip and visited a bunch of schools the summer before my senior year. It helped me figure out what I wanted in a college, but it would have been good to visit some of those schools again when students where there. </p>
<p>Apply to less colleges: I ended up applying to 10 schools, and I don't actually think that was way too many, but 4 or 5 were very similar, and some of them could have been eliminated. Also, one I decided was too far away after I was accepted, and a couple I decided I wouldn't like the atmosphere after all. I should have thought about that a little more before applying.</p>
<p>Don't pick an absolute favorite. I think this was the best thing that I insisted on. All through my application process, people kept asking me, "Which is your top choice? If you get into all of them, and they all offer the same financial aid, which would you choose?" I refused to answer, because realistically, they won't all offer the same thing. I was accepted to most of them, but my family doesn't have a lot of money. A couple were completely unaffordable, and I'm glad I didn't have my heart set on one of them.</p>
<p>Have at least one true safety. You know you can get in, you know you can afford it, and you know you will like it. This may be hard to find, but it is worth the effort. Don't let that stop you from dreaming big, but keep your feet on the ground and realize that you might be glad for that school.</p>
<p>If you are applying to a lot of schools, make a chart of all the deadlines for each school: what they need, when they need it, and when you send it.</p>
<p>Relax. everything will work out for the best. Even if you don't get into the college you liked the most, you'll find a good one. If you end up without a college, you'll probably really enjoy a gap year and learn a lot.</p>
<p>Some of the things we did do that I would recommend to others:</p>
<ol>
<li> Take the SAT prep course and study words during the summer (August) before JUNIOR year. You are then prepared for both SAT and PSAT in October (do practice tests between end of course and test date.) And if things go well, you are done and don't have to take time from school work to take a prep course.</li>
<li> Take one SAT II at a time (eg. separate test dates)...study for each to be as prepared as possible.</li>
<li> Start working on essay in August before senior year---family can help brainstorm ideas by remembering things student has mentioned that have an impact on him/her (this can be a specific event or experience that they shared with you). Show the essay to a respected English teacher and if possible one or two other people whose judgement you trust. Often times, the narrower, more specific the topic, which is explored in detail, the better.</li>
</ol>
<p>1) Do at OVERNIGHT visit at EVERY college you're visiting. I didn't get a good idea of any of the campuses until I actually spent the night.</p>
<p>2) Start visiting early, as in early Junior year. That way, you won't miss 3 weeks of school and be far behind on school work (no, I didn't do that). :)</p>
<p>3) Don't worry as much, and don't compare yourself to your friends. Don't let them decide where you're going. HAVE FUN in high school!</p>
<p>4) Write thank you letters after each interview. </p>
<p>5) DON'T wait until the last minute to do essays! </p>
<p>6) I thought I was going to apply to 20 schools. I ended up applying to 6 (1 safety, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Centre, West Point, and Naval Academy). Don't apply to the schools you aren't even really considering.</p>
<p>I would reccomend the following if I had another child to go throught this with.
1. Spend some money and get the best SAT prep help to maximize those scores.
2. Interview with one or two schools at the bottom of your list before you interview with the schools at the top.
3. Know more about the school than the tour guides do and use that knowledge to come ready with questions to the interview.
4. Apply to a rolling admission college for at least one safety school to take the edge off of things.
5. I would skip ED and consider EAs at schools that didn't put restrictions on EAs. Wellesley's EAs are better than their EDs because of the freedom.
6. Tour More schools earlier to have more to compare too.</p>
<p>
[quote]
. All through my application process, people kept asking me, "Which is your top choice?
[/quote]
Yeah, people kept asking me that all through my pregnancies, too.</p>