Most high school students go through this experience, and each one will tell you that it was a long and tedious process. The fact is, the whole process starts the moment you set your first step in high school as a freshman and ends around the end of the 2nd semester of your senior year. The paper application part is just a summary of the culmination of things you have accomplished throughout your high school career. This article will solely focus on application when you write your information on paper to send to colleges.
Most colleges are becoming members with The Common Application©, a company that creates a college application that is accepted by all of its members. Some colleges, like Georgetown University, create their own application for prospective students to fill out. Each application is basically the same as it asks for the same information. More information on the Common Application can be found online at www.commonapp.org or other various college affiliated sites.
The first thing to do is to keep a checklist of the things you need for your application form. Items include end of junior year transcript, SAT/ACT scores, AP scores, recommendations, essays, etc. Once you have them all accounted for, then you can start filling out the form. It’s actually pretty straightforward. I will talk about the Common Application form because most colleges use that.
The first part is basically easy information. It asks for demographics of you and your family, which college are you applying early to, which colleges are you going to apply regular, an academic profile, test scores, and a summary of activities that you participate in. Just make sure to know that Early Decision is due earlier than college applications for regular admission. There is a section under “writing” that allows you to even attach a resume if you feel you need more space.
The second part is the writing. This is where you submit two essays: one short and one personal. These are the essays that every college will see. Try to make these essays convey as much as possible in little space without straying from the core of the question. The other essays you will have to write will be the supplementary essays. These essays are created by all the colleges, and a college will only read its essay it told you to write about. This essay should still convey a lot of information, but it should also be geared towards that school. Making a generic statement would not impress the admissions committee that much.
Once you complete all the information and send in all the paperwork necessary to complete your application, the one thing to do is wait. Nothing you do after you submit the applications will change anything. I hope this helped. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or post comments. I will be glad to answer your questions.
