Advice on College Applications from Two College-Bound Seniors

Choose Your Extracurriculars Wisely

Everybody knows that extracurricular activities are an important part of your college application. Admissions officers don’t just look at your GPA or your standardized test scores, they also look at how involved you are in your community. As such, most school counselors will tell you to join clubs and sports, apply for internships or look for other opportunities to hone your skills outside of school. This is great advice; but beyond simply joining these organizations, deciding which to join and how many to join is even more important. 

1. Avoid joining every organization under the sun. Instead, find a few that relate to the career paths that you are interested in, and dedicate your time to leading and bettering them. Colleges look for quality over quantity; they will always accept the kid who is capable of leading one group over the kid who is capable of being a member in ten.

2. Find organizations that are not affiliated with Exeter High School. School-sponsored organizations are great, and joining these groups will enhance your application. However, if you want to set yourself apart from other applicants, look for opportunities completely removed from school. In finding these opportunities, you demonstrate to admissions officers that you are driven and passionate enough about a certain topic to seek out further engagement. Moreover, you show them that you have the ability to be successful in a setting removed from school, also known as “the real world.”

Don’t Get Burnt Out Writing Applications

The college application process is long and time consuming, especially if you are applying to a large number of schools. After a few months, you will be so sick of writing 300 word essays that you might consider impulsively submitting an application without proof reading or even removing a good college from your list just so you don’t have to write more supplemental essays. When you get to this point, stop, and take a break. Do not make these rash decisions due to burnout. Make sure that each application you send in is indicative of your best work and truly encompasses who you are as a person and a learner. In order to prevent burnout and sloppiness, start early, make a reasonable schedule for yourself, and stick to it. Many schools release their essay prompts at the end of the summer, and CommonApp will open around this time as well. Complete as much as you can before the school year starts; because once you’re forced to juggle school, applications, and any other responsibilities you may have, the chances of you slacking off on your applications will significantly increase.

Apply to Colleges You Want to Attend

As obvious as it sounds, it is really important to apply to colleges and schools that you would actually want to go to. When looking for schools to apply to, it is often recommended to apply to schools which your chances of acceptance vary: a couple of “reach” schools, a couple of “match” schools, and a couple of “safety” schools. I applied to two each, for a total of six schools. Once I started to hear back from schools, I learned I did not get into my reach schools and one of my match schools. This was a struggle for me because I realized that a lot of the schools I applied to in the first place, weren’t schools I could actually see myself going to. During the application process, I thought that I would get into my dream schools; and when I was left with my safety schools, it was a bit of a struggle at first.

My advice is to apply to schools that you know you would want to go to. Make sure that—across the board—safety, reach and match schools, are all schools that you would want to go to. It’s easy to apply to schools just to apply, but then you face a decision of whether you even want to go to that school or not. 

Don’t Get Caught Up with What Other People are Doing

It is easy to look at peers and get stressed out about college. Students can get consumed with seeing other students succeed and start committing to colleges before you’ve even heard back. Some people apply early decision or early action; and therefore, your friends and classmates might start to make decisions before you. My advice is to not worry about it. I found myself getting stressed out when I could see people starting to commit to schools that I had not even heard back from yet. 

It’s also easy to look at other people and their applications and compare yourself to them. Seeing what other people wrote for their essays can be distracting or discouraging when thinking about your own. Similarly, thinking about others’ grades and extracurriculars can cause you to stress out when you think about your own. When I applied to college, I found myself thinking about my applications all the time. My advice now: do not think about the applications as much once you’ve submitted them. It is out of your control; so the best thing to do is not worry about applications once they’ve been sent. It’s easy to get caught up in other people’s decisions, but it’s important to just think about yourself and your work.