<p>For heaven’s sake, helljumper, you’re only talking about 6 colleges, and for the UC’s, if things haven’t changed too much in the past few years, several of the applications are going to involve making a check mark. </p>
<p>Now is the time you should be looking at the websites for each of these colleges and taking a look at the applications. Everything you’re asking about is right there online, and you can answer your own questions in a couple of minutes. Right now would be good. You will be able to see all of the different essays and short answer questions you need to answer, and whether you need to do special things if you are applying for a certain major at some of your schools. Does any of your schools want a pre-application so they can set you up with a student number and a file before materials arrive? With USC, you will see that to be considered for merit scholarships, you have to get everything in by Dec. 1. If you want to send in a music supplement, you will find special instructions at the UCB music dept. website. Explore the website for each school, and for your proposed major (if you know already) at each school.</p>
<p>Then, you need to take a look at the statistics for all of these schools and make sure that you have a couple of absolute, slam dunk safety schools. Remember that the UC’s took a terrible financial hit this year, and it’s not clear how that’s going to affect the number of incoming freshmen they accept. People who might have been shoo-in’s at UCI a couple of years ago might not be in the same situation today. </p>
<p>Also, think about what you love about USC and Princeton. Are there a couple of other schools that have those qualities? For the schools you’ve already got on your list, make yourself a big calendar that says what you have to get in for each school by what date. Then get a big notebook with a section for each school and write a checklist with dates for each one, as well as all of the different essay and short answer prompts. Download the special forms for your GC and teacher recommendations from each school and make stamped envelopes for each one. </p>
<p>Think about who would be a good reference over the weekend, and on Monday, start asking teachers if they feel they can write you a strong recommendation, mentioning a couple of your schools. As soon as you know which teachers will recommend you (next week!!!), give them the stamped envelopes and the forms you have downloaded for each school. (It is fine if you add a couple of additional schools later on, as the teachers will use the same basic letter for each one. Just be sure not to wait to ask them or to give them the forms at the last minute.) </p>
<p>Make sure that you have a very organized sheet that list your different activities, awards, and interests to give your teachers who are writing recommendations and your GC. If you are wildly interested in something that you’ve been pursuing outside of school for years, they have no way of knowing about it unless you tell them. They might not even know about your school activities, or that your participation in MUN lead you to want to be an IR major, or that your boy scout community service project involves 7 hours a week. Tell them.</p>
<p>If you are finished taking SAT’s/ACT’s, have your scores sent to your schools next week. Find out what you have to do to have official high school transcripts mailed to your colleges. Get the correct forms from your high school registrar, fill them out, and get them back to her right away.</p>
<p>Now you will have most of the paperwork part of applying out of the way, and you can get down to working on your essays. You have nothing to worry about if you get going now. Your only problem would be if you haven’t looked into rolling admissions schools yet. For example, if you like the UC’s, you might also like the University of Michigan, especially the honors college. If this is the case, you need to jump on it because with rolling admission schools, you have a much better chance of being accepted if you apply early in the process. You might want to check out rolling admission schools over the next couple of weeks, so you can apply asap if one of them interests you.</p>
<p>Good luck! Get going with the totally clerical, paperwork part of this so you won’t have to worry about it and you can get down to the meaningful part, essays and such.</p>