Step By Step Applications

College Application Instructions

    1. Buy a notebook that you can throw in your backpack with lots of blank pages.  Each school gets two facing pages.  You must keep track of the majors and minors you apply for since you cannot see your application(s) once it’s submitted.  Keep notes on score reports, which essays you sent, any other thoughts on the process.  Write down the admissions email address and portal URL. 
    2. Set up college email.  Your parents/family can help you with “engagement” by opening emails from applied schools quickly and responding to emails quickly.
    3. USE SAME PASSWORD FOR ALL!  You will struggle with lockouts if you do not do this.  You will share this password and login with parents and family friends that will help you.
    4. Download OneDrive app on phone or IPad.  Use a laptop as often as possible when doing college stuff - you are more likely to make mistakes on the phone.
    5. Login to Chrome on your phone with this new college email.  Colleges track web traffic and it has to come from this email to match your application profile.  Each adult that will help you will do the same, so it looks like you are opening and searching the schools yourself.
    6. Draft CV/Resume and put a date on it so you can keep updating as awards or jobs come through
    7. Scoir - download app on phone and iPad.  Pull male/female, race, top 3 states, majors summary, acceptance rate, scattergram rate, av SAT noting the percentage of students reporting SATs comes from nces.ed.gov instructions below.  Put data in a spreadsheet.  Put in College Preferences and let it match you.  Take first three schools that you like and create your spreadsheet.  YOUR SCATTERGRAM ACCEPTANCE RATE IS ACCURATE - YOU WILL LIKELY GET ACCEPTED IF IT IS OVER 60% AND YOU SHOULD APPLY IF IT’S OVER 30%.  BELOW 30% IS A LONGSHOT.
    8. Common app
    9. Collegeconfidential.com
    10. STARS
    11. Collegeboard main
    12. College Board CSS (Financial Aid)
    13. ACT
    14. Quora
    15. Reddit
    16. UCAS
    17. Nces.ed.gov/ipeds - pull enrollment trend, tuition, test submission rate, graduation rate, programs and majors, cohort default rate and put in spreadsheet.
    18. Web - endowment, three comments about school from research or Reddit or college confidential.  This is for your college specific essays.
    19. Google Maps - map each school’s location and save it - when you write college specific applications you can point to the area and make up a story.
    20. Draft Significant Activities section in word.

After Aug 1 when applications open:

    1. Pull Common App prompts and begin writing at least 3 essays
    2. Draft a Personal Statement - instructions in UCAS website
    3. Apply Early Action to any school that offers it; apply Early Decision to only one school in consultation with your parents.  ED means you have to go there - and you will not have the opportunity to see the discounts other schools will offer you later in the process.  I do not recommend unless you have money to pay.  Earlier in the process you may think you have a dream school; this changes between Sept/Oct and Dec/Jan for many students.
    4. Review your High School profile from previous four years
    5. Write all essays and prompt responses in WORD or GOOGLE DOCS.  Save them with a descriptive file name so you can find it later.  Do NOT write directly into CommonApp, Scoir, or school specific websites.  You will mess it up.  Copy paste at the last minute before submitting.
    6. I do not recommend visiting schools until after you’ve been accepted.  Instead, visit short drive campuses which are all similar.
    7. Print out your resume, personal statement, draft transcript and favorite two essays. Write a note for two teachers for recommendations and hand them this package when asking them to write you a rec.  If all of this work is done by September, it’s much easier for them to write your recommendation before they get bombarded.  For coach or employer recommendations, do the same and instruct them to email it only to your guidance counselor.  they will then process everything through Scoir.  For UCAS – ask your guidance counselor what to do.

After initial application is sent - you must set up the school ID login for the admissions portal immediately.  Do not wait.  Each adult can manage their assigned schools for you.  Favorite the application portal in your browser - it is very hard to find later.