Rising Seniors:
You are probably thinking about the College App cycle…thinking this is something you do in the fall.
But in the fallyou will be taking the toughest courses of your academic career and usually having leadership activities in your ECs…if you do the steps below you will be so happy you have all the grunt work out of the way for college apps.
So this summer, do the following:
- Make a list of all your ECs, when you did them, about how many hours a week, and descriptions.
- 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.
- 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.
- Choose a Common App essay prompt
- Write a draft of your essay this summer. Give it to your GC/English teacher to review in the fall.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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.
- Come up with a list of what you want in a college…major, location, urban/rural, size, etc etc
- Based on that, use Naviance, Supermatch (here on CC), Fiske Guide, etc to come up with a list of colleges
- Find out from your parents how much they can spend on college each year
- Run the Net Price Calculator on those colleges to see if they are affordable
- 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
- Try to visit some of those colleges over the summer if possible if you haven’t already
- 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.
Yes this seems like a lot of work…but imagine doing it when you have classes and ECs too!
