It’s finally fall, which means college application season is upon us! While talking my high-school senior friends through their college applications, I’ve had to revisit my CommonApplication and have found myself compiling a mental list of things I wish I had known while applying to college. When I began my college application process, my GPA was just shy of a 3.5, and as someone who planned on applying to several elite colleges, I was anticipating a lot of rejection. It felt like the average accepted student at the schools I applied to had at least a 4.0 and a 1560 SAT score (disclaimer: due to Covid, I did not take the SAT). After months of blood, sweat, and tears, I ended up getting into every college I applied to except for my Early Decision school which I was deferred and later rejected from. I found ways to boost my application that I wish had been easier for me to access and so, as someone who has been through that process, here is everything I learned about applying to college last fall.
The Main Essay:
By now you’ve almost certainly heard of the CommonApplication Personal Essay: a 600-word response to a prompt that is sent to every CommonApp school you apply to. The CommonApp essay is more important than you think it is—especially if you have a low GPA. When you’re planning your essay, do not read the prompts beforehand. Come up with a list of things you would want to write about, try writing a paragraph for each one, and then pick your favorite. When you’re done, choose the prompt that best matches your essay. When you’re coming up with ideas, remember that you can get as crazy and creative as you want to. I know people who wrote about their Hydroflask stickers, the letter S, and their least favorite colors. Give yourself as much time as you can to experiment, write, edit, revise, re-write, and finalize your essay. As long as you make it specific to you and your story, go all out and just write.
The Supplemental Essays:
In addition to the main essay, some schools require a shorter and more specific essay. For the “why our school” essay, be as specific as you can be! Name specific clubs, classes, professors, and buildings. Show them that you’ve done research beyond looking at the main points on their website. Similar to the CommonApp essay, get as, if not more, creative with the formatting and topics. Write a poem or a song. Format it like a recipe or a script. Do whatever you need to do to make yourself stand out while staying on topic and organized.
Letters of Recommendation:
The CommonApp requires your school to submit a handful of letters of recommendation: one from your college counselor and one or two from teachers. Meet with your college counselor and teachers at least once to talk about your high school experience and future plans so you can give them something to write about that is (specific to you). In addition to these required letters, some schools will allow you to submit one or two more from people who weren’t involved in your academic experience. This could be from an athletic coach, a voice teacher, a personal college counselor, etc. If you have a contact that happens to be an alumnus from the school you’re applying to, have a conversation with them about their college experience and what you hope to gain from college, and ask them to write you a letter of rec! If you can’t get an alum to write it for you that’s okay—don’t force it! But it’s always good to have some sort of contact from the school!
Resume and Portfolio:
Many (but not all) schools will let you submit a resume and/or an artistic portfolio to your application. If you have the opportunity to submit one or both, do it! Include details about your most meaningful activities and jobs on your resume. As for the portfolio, unless you’re applying to a specific artistic program or conservatory, the portfolio can’t hurt your application—it can only boost it.
Optional Personal Statement:
The part of my application that I believe helped me the most was the optional personal statement. In the writing section of the common application, there should be a section to include “Additional Information.” If you experienced any circumstances that impacted your GPA or your college applications, this is the place to talk about it. You don’t have to trauma-dump or go into too much detail, but if you need a place to explain yourself and a riff in your application, this is the place to do it.
At the end of the day, you have such little control over the decision process and can’t take any rejection that you get personally. All I can say is just click submit—you never know what could happen!