By: Annelise Klein
College application season can be extremely overwhelming: understanding terminology, figuring out FAFSA, finding a good fit. Here are some tricks I found extremely helpful during my application process last year.
Organization
One of the best things you can do while completing college applications is stay organized with the information you research. One way I did this was creating a master spreadsheet. I created different sheets for different tasks like college research and scholarships.
I organized my spreadsheet into different sections I felt were important regarding my applications: deadlines, percentage of financial need met, required essays and letters of recommendations, and the location of the school. I color coded the name of the institutions I was applying to according to the level of schools: safety (green), target (yellow), and reach (red).
In addition to the spreadsheet I utilized, I had master documents for various essays like the Common App, supplementals, and scholarships. I organized these documents by sorting the specific essays into headers with the name of whichever essay for which I was writing. This allowed me to have all my writing in one place where I could find key words and phrases through command + f to reuse my previous words.
Another master document I created was one including my extracurricular and volunteer information like the dates I participated, the total hours per week or per year, a brief description of the activity, and the position I held.
Another form of a master document which I would recommend creating is a resume. Resumes keep track of accomplishments, awards, and experiences. In addition to having a description about the activities’ niche details, having a professional document to share with schools and organizations is extremely helpful.
Having master documents with this information is extremely helpful because applications—Common App, scholarships, fellowships—ask for this information which can be difficult to remember. The master documents allow you to have access to information in one place and reuse it.
Resources
To help me find the information I referenced above for college/scholarship information, I utilized College Board’s College Search to help me find schools I was interested in and then information about the institutions. I also used John Zmirak’s Choosing the Right College 2014-15: The Inside Scoop on Elite Schools and Outstanding Lesser-Known Institutions along with the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2022.
Similarly for scholarships I used The Ultimate Scholarship Book 2023 by Gen and Kelly Tanabe. I also utilized numerous scholarship databases like scholarships.com, Fast Web, Scholarship America, and my high school scholarship page where I found local and state opportunities.
From these resources I picked out information which stood out to me and that I felt was valuable in not only writing my application, but also in making a decision regarding applications and acceptances. For example, as pictured below, the size of the undergraduate program and location of the schools to which I was applying was an important factor. I was able to visually organize and rank my choice of schools based on seemingly minute details.
Mindset
In addition to having the material and organization to feel prepared for application season, it is important to remember to take care of yourself. This is a stressful time; do not be afraid to ask for help. School counselors and teachers want to see you succeed; their job is to help you learn and assist you with achieving your academic goals.
Having a growth mindset is also necessary. College admissions can be an extremely draining process. From time commitments to filling out applications to the personal, familial, and structural reflection necessary to answer questions, it is mentally exhausting. While facing adversity is difficult and awkward, it can also be an opportunity to grow. It’s important to stay true to oneself, not only can admissions officers see through fake and fabricated stories, it is so much more rewarding to achieve something through your own work. You want to end up in the right college for you, not for a fake version of yourself you may be tempted to present during the application process.
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