<p>D1 and S high school is having a information program for parents/juniors/seniors tonight about filling out college applications. I have been asked to come be on a parent panel and be available to answer questions.</p>
<p>This will be a large public school setting where I would say SOME students may use the common app but many will just apply to one or two schools, many of them state public schools.</p>
<p>Care to share a helpful tip from your experience with your children and what helped or might have made it helpful the first time????</p>
<p>My first tip: Insist that everything is ready to go 2 weeks before the deadline. Just like the "always late to dinner" relative, making your own deadline - an early one - might take some of the stress off and build in a little time for unforseen problems (like late letters of recommendation, October snowstorms with no power...etc....)</p>
<p>read the supplementary essay requirements carefully and be sure whether the school is asking for a character count or a word count. You will save yourself time if you write a 500 word essay, only to discover that they wanted 500 characters…</p>
<p>Answer supplementary questions in a draft first and don’t work directly on the online application. My D worked directly in the answer box for her NYU supplement and got timed out when she went to submit it; all her work was lost… </p>
<p>You CAN amend your common app after submitting it to one school, if you want to make changes later. Doing it is a bit complicated, and I can’t recall how it’s done, but it is possible. I think it has something to do with creating different versions of it.</p>
<p>Don’t be afraid to write several essays and figure out afterwards which ones work and which questions they answer. My younger son’s original idea for his main Common App essay, didn’t quite work there, but ended up being a great answer for the question about extra curriculuars.</p>
<p>Also, one admissions officer said that they looked forward to applications that didn’t answer one of the common application suggested questions and instead made up their own prompt.</p>
<p>Do the ad comm’s a favor, every college essay I’ve ever read, became better when it was made shorter. They have to read thousands of essays. Less is more.</p>
<p>Sell yourself-- give them a reason to really want you, beyond grades/scores. Show your motivation, your dedication, the things that make you really special. Make yourself memorable — get a good story or some unforgettable detail into that essay, that will reassert itself in an adcom’s head. I really think telling a good story, either in the essay, or through your own particular mix of classes and EC’s, is the most important thing you can do in an application.</p>
<p>Just reiterating the: WORK ON IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AND SUBMIT IT EARLY!!!</p>
<p>Coming from the parent of a kid who wasn’t a terrible procrastinator but was working on it 2 days before it was due and we had the east coast snowstorm which wiped out power and internet service to millions. </p>
<p>We are a living, breathing example of why you should not leave it to the last minute. Blessedly, we were in the one section of our CT town that regained power and internet quickly. But I know tons of kids who had to camp at their parents’ offices or hotel rooms or grandparent’s houses in order to get their early action applications on time.</p>
<p>Schedule your SATs/ACTs/subject tests carefully. Better to take a subject test you may not need than to scramble at the last minute trying to take one you do need.</p>
<p>Make a spreadsheet for each application component’s deadline for each school.</p>
<p>Apply to rolling admissions schools early. Besides giving you a better shot at getting in, an early acceptance allows you to cross off your application list any schools lower on your wish list.
It is also be important to apply to some state universities early, and send in a refundable housing deposit immediately upon admission (whether or not you have decided to attend), in order to obtain housing.
Be aware of any state universities in neighboring states that allow reciprocity for in state tuition.</p>
<p>Check dates for application deadlines for merit scholarships. Some schools have an earlier deadline to be eligible for merit aid.
Adding- Teacher recommendations- Have several teachers in mind, ask them early. If your school is a public school as your favorite junior year teacher if they will provide you a rec and ask for their personal email. Due to budget cuts my D found that almost all her academic teachers from her soph year were pink slipped.</p>
<p>Agree with applying early to rolling admision schools. Not only does it improve your chances of being admitted and, in some cases, of getting a scholarship, but it really takes the pressure off having an acceptance or two in October.</p>
<p>Besides checking dates for scholarship application deadlines, find out if school has separate application requirements for scholarships. Lots of schools use the college app for scholarships, but some do not, and they tend to have early deadlines for these special scholarship apps.</p>
<p>Request letters of recommendation early and give teachers a deadline required by school. </p>
<p>Apply even if you aren’t sure you want to go to college!! We had a friend who didn’t know what he wanted to do, so he did nothing. Then realized in April that he wanted to go to college but had missed the boat! He’s going to CC and is glad he’s doing that, but I know he regrets not applying to 4 year colleges.</p>
<p>Keep a list of all usernames/passwords created for college board, Common application, and non-common app school applications</p>
<p>Log on to college website to check that all pieces of the application (scores, transcript, etc) have been received and follow up on any missing items</p>
<p>Allow 2 weeks in advance for sending SAT score reports</p>
<p>Ask for teacher recommendations in the spring of junior year and let teacher know what date you will need recommendation by (especially important if you want the recommendation to be used for rolling admissions school).</p>
<p>Make sure you understand your school’s process and timeline for requesting transcripts and secondary school report</p>
<p>prepare a resume of activities/employment to send as supplemental information </p>
<p>the common app is tricky don’t want until the last minute to work on it; print preview before submitting to make sure answers aren’t cut off</p>
<p>Consider creating an email account just for college applications that you and your student both have access to, and monitor it. Especially if your student’s current email address is something like “wild<em>studmuffin14@</em><strong>.com” or “hot_gurrrlll@</strong>__.com”.</p>