How to Apply to College

                No matter how many hours teachers and counselors spend talking to students about the long and tedious college application process by the time senior year comes, those hours seem to have been nothing more then wasted time. Too often students do not take the word of the wise seriously. High school students tend to assume college applications are nothing more then a process of: read questions, answer questions, hit send. By the time senior year roles around reality hits them hard and they all begin to regret all the wasted time spent on finding all the cheats for World of Warcraft and shopping trips to the mall to get the newest pair of True Religions. The process of completing college applications requires more time and effort then most students think.

                The first step is figuring out what colleges are the most appealing. “Which colleges have the best programs for career of choice?” and “Do I want to live near my parents or venture off into the world?” become two popular questions. It is important to not only think about where the best education for future career needs but also what kind of environment would be the most suitable. Though the cost of a college should not be the most important aspect it is sill necessary to look at “the annual tuition for each school, as well as the cost of living of the particular city in which the school is located”. ¹ However if the money for a particular college is available or someone is willing to take out the loans necessary then the more expensive colleges should be considered. A few other elements which should be considered are the college’s academic ranking, the cultural attributions, and the extra-curricular activities offered.

                The second step is retrieving the applications. Currently the most common way of doing so is electronically. This is most likely the easiest step. All that is necessary is that you simply go to the website of the desired college and follow the links to the online application. However there is an even easier way of retrieving applications which allows you to find most application on just one website known as The Common Application. This application is accepted by over 150 colleges and “greatly simplifies the college application process for students by allowing them to use one form to apply to many schools”.² If a student wishes to complete the application process strictly through the mail, the student must request an application via phone call, letter, or email. Once the application is received, the student must fill out the applications as legibly as possible with either blue or black pen or typed. A common application can be completed via mail also. The student will simply photocopy the one application and then proceed to mail it to the desired colleges.

                The next step of the application process may be the biggest shock to underprepared students. This is the part of the application that many students do not expect to be such a big deal. After a student has obtained an application he/she must gather all the information necessary. Some applications require more then others but the most necessities for universities include high school transcripts, standardized testing scores, letters of recommendation, personal essays, and some even require one-on-one interviews. This is a lot of information to collect by a certain deadline, especially the letters of recommendation. Students often ask their teachers for recommendation with only a few days notice. Teachers are busy enough as it is and usually do not have time to fit a letter of recommendation into their schedules. Meeting the deadline for all of these tasks is the most essential part of acing the college application and in most cases, you need to have a completed application file by the deadline, which means that all documents must be turned in by that date”.³ The following step basically falls into the same step as the previous one. This step simply requires the student to answer all of the questions which go along with the application and then sending in the application before the deadline.

                The sixth step is often where the most anxiety occurs. The applications have been completed and all the hard work is out of the way, so why would this be one of the most nerve-wrecking parts? Simple, this is the time when a student finds out whether or not they have been accepted, put on the waiting list, or rejected. Lastly, after weeks or months of waiting to hear back from the colleges and the student finds out what colleges they have been accepted to, the student then has the task of choosing which college they would like to attend the most. That can be another quite difficult step. The student then must let each college know what their decision has been.