How to Organize Those College Applications

College Applications Wearing You Down?  

Make it Easier to Track

 

Now that you have time left - - here's how to organize those applications.  

If you are a high school junior or senior – or have one living in your home, you've probably spent large amounts of time working on college applications. It is definitely a “labor” of love because many high schoolers apply to seven or more colleges these days. College counselors have been haranguing your juniors all last year to get those applications in as soon as possible. The mantra is that the earlier it is submitted, the better chance for acceptance. The process can be overwhelming, since each application has lots of moving parts. Most applications must be accompanied by a transcript, a writing sample, standardized test scores, and possibly a resume and a recommendation (or 2 or 3!). And that does not include the special applications for art school, theatre majors, or sports teams, which are all even more complicated. Oh, and don’t forget proof of vaccination, which some schools now require.

Tracking College and Scholarship Applications, and of course FAFSA
Hopefully you are also applying for scholarships and other types of financial aid. This usually requires completion of the FAFSA , which involves the parents’ tax return information, and a separate application for each scholarship. How do you track all of these applications, first to make sure you have actually finished the application, and then so that you can compare offers and scholarship opportunities? How do you compare the opportunities? It’s so easy to apply to multiple universities today, with the” Common App” and other state versions of a common, online application process. Is it good to apply to 15 colleges?

Here’s what we did, with our (between us) 6 college-bound kids:

1. Pick your “reach” schools, your “confident” schools, and your “safe” schools. Your “reach” schools don’t have to include Harvard and Yale – it may be the top public university in your state. Your “confident” schools are the ones you are pretty sure will accept you, and the “safe” schools – well, that’s self-explanatory. But don’t limit your “safe” schools to the junior college in your neighborhood. One of our kids ended up switching to her safe school, three weeks before school started, after the scholarship at her 1st choice didn’t work out.
2. Decide how much time and money you want to spend on this process. Applying for college is costly – both with the application fee and your time. If you apply somewhere only because your friends did, even though you really don’t want to go there, you are spending your resources unnecessarily.
3. Make a chart of applications and deadlines. It can be as simple as a handwritten chart or an Excel spreadsheet , whatever makes sense to you. List all of the schools you have applied to, and then check off when the entire application is complete. Add another column for the total cost, including any scholarships earned or received. We added distance from home, national rankings, and size of the school. You can include anything else that’s important to you (like whether you prefer to cheer for frogs or cowboys, and whether they have a greek system to pledge).

Then you’re done! Haha, just kidding. But once you are organized, you can know when you are finished with all of your work in applying. Now all that’s left is just to relax and enjoy your senior year!

As JellyGeneration says...

You CAN Have Success in the Middle of it ALL