College application season often creates feelings of anxiety, worry and stress for high school seniors. As a recent high school graduate, I vividly remember all the worries and concerns I had during this stressful time. If you’re currently a high school senior looking for tips on maximizing your college application experience, here are five things that you can do. These are all tips that I wish I knew about when I was applying to schools and will make your application process a lot smoother.
- Do your research and visit as many schools in person as possible.
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With hundreds of thousands of universities that you could potentially apply to, it’s important to narrow your focus. Do you like small liberal arts colleges? Do you like larger universities? It is critical that you figure out what characteristics you want in a school and then narrow down your list based on these factors. If you’re having trouble finding out information beyond the college website try looking up discussion pages or forums on the college. Often, current students or students applying to the college will have genuine answers and helpful insights that will help you narrow down your search. However, while these forums and pages can be extremely helpful, the best way to really get a feel for any university is to visit it in person. While this may be difficult to do especially if you are planning on applying to colleges across the country, visiting a college in person really allows you to picture yourself at the college. Scrolling through Google Images only shows you so much, and sometimes you just have to come on campus and meet the people there to really understand what the next four years there could look like.
- Stay organized with deadlines and plan early
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Another important thing to remember is to try your best to start early. While applying to colleges is super stressful and no one wants to deal with it for longer than necessary, your future self will thank you for starting early. This doesn’t have to mean finishing your essays the summer before senior year. Take small steps and set attainable goals for yourself throughout the process to keep you on track. Since this process can be pretty overwhelming, it will be helpful to start small (by doing some light research and planning your list) ahead of time, instead of just pushing everything to the last minute and getting burnt out. Applying to colleges sometimes might feel like running a marathon, and endurance is key in the process.
- GPA and SAT isn’t everything
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While it is important to do your very best in your AP classes and SAT or ACT, know that it isn’t the end of the world if you don’t get the score you want. The college admissions process is holistic, and a lot of other factors like your essays and extracurriculars are also key during the review process. Colleges know that you are so much more than a test score or GPA and they want to get to know your experiences, interests and personal stories.
- Don’t follow the crowd
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While it may be tempting at times to apply to all the colleges that your friend is applying to, this may not be beneficial for you in the long run. Everyone has different college preferences and it’s important to customize your list to your personal needs. While it may seem like a dream to go to university with your high school best friend, the college of your dreams may not be the college of your best friend’s dreams. Instead of sacrificing your needs for one another, try to be more open-minded about picking a college that you truly love that you can see yourself attending. College is a time to grow and meet new people. If you’re scared of being alone on your first few days on campus, I can guarantee you that every other new freshman is in the same boat and you’ll make friends very quickly.
- Ask for help
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Lastly, always ask for help if you need it. College applications are so incredibly stressful and it’s important to take advantage of all the resources available to maximize your experience. Every single high school senior had to go through this process, so reach out to your upperclassmen friends for some tips and tricks. Also, high school counselors are an excellent resource that often aren’t used enough. Your counselor wants to help you as much as possible and get you in the college of your dreams, so take advantage of them and ask as many questions as you have.
I hope these tips are useful to you and can help you during your college recruiting process. As a final note, always know that you are good enough and college acceptances do not define your future success or intelligence. Try your best and dream big but don’t forget to do a mental health check once in a while. With that, good luck!