Moving to a New State Senior Year

For anyone who has experience attending a new high school senior year, how does this complicate the college application process in terms of teacher/counselor recommendations and other materials? I recently moved to a different state on the east coast.

it’s not ideal, but it happens.

These are things I recommend you do this summer if you haven’t already:

  1. Make a list of all your ECs, when you did them, about how many hours a week, and descriptions.
  2. You only get 10 slots for ECs on common app, so start categorizing them. Like you may want to categorize all music ECs together, or split them up somewhat.
  3. Make sure to mention what leadership you have in those ECs, even if not a formal position…and talk about what you did as a leader.
  4. Choose a Common App essay prompt
  5. Write a draft of your essay this summer. Give it to your GC/English teacher to review in the fall.
  6. If you haven’t already, choose who you want to ask to write recommendations for you. If your major is STEM, ask a Math and a science teacher. You may need to contact your old school and see if your junior math/english whatever teachers would write you a recommendation.
  7. See what your HS Guidance office wants you to do for college apps…(look on their website)…Do they want you to complete a brag sheet or something else to help the GC? Make one for your GC regardless so they can get an idea of what you are about. Ask how it will be coordinated with your old school.
  8. Visit some local colleges…like your State flagship, a smaller private school…see what you like and don’t like about them. Or take a trip and visit more schools.
  9. Come up with a list of what you want in a college…major, location, urban/rural, size, etc etc
  10. Based on that, use Naviance, Supermatch (here on CC), Fiske Guide, etc to come up with a list of colleges
  11. Find out from your parents how much they can spend on college each year
  12. Run the Net Price Calculator on those colleges to see if they are affordable
  13. If not, look at colleges that give automatic scholarships and see if they are good for you http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html#latest
  14. Try to visit some of those colleges over the summer if possible if you haven’t already
  15. DO NOT APPLY TO A SCHOOL YOU WOULDN’T ATTEND. Also known as “Love thy Safety”. Pick your Safety first. I don’t know how many stories I read about people who didn’t get into an of their reaches and what they thought were matches and are only accepted to the safety and have a fit…find one that you like.