For the rising junior or senior, the college admissions process is the next step in life, and it is a very important process that can, if done correctly, help you get into a great variety of colleges. However, the college admissions process is very long and arduous, requiring many hours of essays, resumé building, and applications that ask anything from what grades you make in school to who your favorite TV character is. But, by planning ahead, the college process can be made a lot easier and less painful. This is an article about what you’re doing in the college admissions process and not how to pick a college.
The first and most important asset is time, with the guidance counselors a close second. My one tip above all is that you should try to complete as much as possible over the summer between junior and senior year, so you don’t have tons of college admissions problems to go along with the mountain of school work for senior year, as it is not as easy as everyone makes it out to be.
The next important thing about the college admissions process is writing a resume. That way when you have to write down all of your activities from four years in high school, you can just glance at the resumé without really thinking. One of the best things to do when starting to build the resumé is talking to the senior and junior guidance counselors, who will get you started on constructing the best resumé possible. Furthermore, and most importantly, they will give you a mock resumé, outlining how the best resumés look. As an outgoing senior who already went through the process of writing the resumé, my main suggestions would be trying to remember the most important details, activities where you participated as a leader. Then, I would look at service opportunities and awards that you have received while at Jesuit. Finally, after completing the resumé, make sure to check with your guidance counselors, so they can look over your resumé to make sure it’s excellent. If you are completing this over the summer, then shooting them an email pleasantly asking if they could review your resume is good too. Also, remember that while following this outline makes a neat and exceptional resume, you most likely will not be turning in this document to colleges, but actually copying the information over to the college’s application page, so making this outline perfect is not necessary, however it’s there to help get ideas in order.
After completing the resumé and probably knowing where you are applying to college, every student needs to find out how many recommendations they need. Some schools also need or suggest certain subject recommendations such as engineering majors needing a letter of recommendation from a math or a science teacher. Getting teacher recommendations is a process just like the rest of the college applications, making sure to get this done as soon as possible is imperative. Some teachers will write letters of recommendation quickly while others could take a lot longer. Therefore, thinking about which teachers to ask and emailing them over the summer is important. Usually getting “recs” from junior teachers are the best, but there are definitely exceptions to the rule. Getting to teachers early helps give them time to write and think about what to write, and the more time you are away from big deadlines, the less amount of rec letters teachers are forced to write.
The next item on the agenda is filling out all the information on the Common App or any other application-based service where you may be applying. While this may seem like an easy task, these applications can have a ton of information that needs to be registered, and while it is daunting, it does not require much brainpower, so doing these apps in front of the television or just when you have any free time is acceptable and makes the process easier. However, make sure to meticulously check through your application after you have entered the information, in order to be absolutely positive you didn’t write something wrong. Having another set of eyes check these apps over again such as a parent is always a good idea.
The final task to do in the college admissions process is filling out essays, and while this seems like an important thing to do, the essays can only be accessed after creating accounts for the Common App or other applications, so while you could complete it before filling out the information, it is unlikely. Another good tip is that while you are filling out and creating all of these accounts in order to apply, write down all of the passwords and usernames you use so you don’t mix them up and have to constantly hit the reset password button. I know I have had to do that many times in the past. Even though these essays may come last in the application, it is important to complete these essays as quickly as possible and have them checked by a guidance counselor, because you don’t want to be caught behind and have to play catch up for these schools, especially in the hardest months of senior year.
I thought November was the hardest month because of due dates for college applications were between November 1st and November 30th. When writing these essays, it is very hard to write them all in the span of one day; often essays required a week or so to come up with a good idea. Also, when you write these essays, making them cheesy or talking about how your last mission trip changed your life can dissuade colleges from your application. On the same note, these essays don’t have to be about your most inner personal thoughts either. Some essays can be as simple as getting your driver’s license or in my case, a family game night six years ago. I’m sure everyone is getting annoyed by my repetitiveness but make sure to see the guidance counselors if you have any questions or if you want them to review your application!
As a last note, everyone at Jesuit is here to help you complete this process and make it as painless as possible, so asking for help from others such as English teachers for essays or others for help is not only suggested but encouraged! Good luck!
