20 Random Application Questions, See How Many YOU Know To Help Me Out

Applying to College
1

<p>(These don’t really follow any order in terms of where they are found in the application.)</p>

<li>If you don’t have a sibling in college, do you still write your siblings names in that section but without anything in the colleges attended blank?</li>
<li>When it says CHECK ALL THAT APPLY for ethnicity/race, if you are mixed but part white (example, my mom’s white and my dad is mexican), does it matter if I check both? Can I just check Mexican-American or do I HAVE to check Caucasian also?</li>
<li>Should you bother attaching an extra sheet for your activities or does that look desperate?</li>
<li>Say you hold an office in a minor school club that only meets once or twice a month, but you were elected to this office. Does it look bad to report that, because you don’t devote much time to it, or should you go ahead and report it because it shows that your peers have elected you to leadership?</li>
<li>If you only did a certain club for one year but devoted a substantial amount of time to it, should you report that or does it look strange that you only participated for one year?</li>
<li>If you have done extensive community service work that varies in its form and purpose, how should you explain it? You can’t use up all of the essays for that. Could you put all of it in the Additional Information section?</li>
<li>When the app asks if you have taken any courses for college credit, should you list your AP classes? Some people say yes, because if you score high on the tests most colleges will give you credit, but some people say no because it’s not technically a college course.</li>
<li>If you are planning on applying to 7-8 colleges, does your teacher need to alter your recs to fit each college’s SPECIFIC question? Or will the colleges understand that the teacher is just writing a general letter about you? (Note: Not planning on using the Common app.)</li>
<li>Should you staple your applications at all? The Stanford app is VERY specific about not wanting any staples at all, is it better to be safe and just not staple anything?</li>
<li>If you do attach an extra activities sheet, do you go ahead and write your most important activities in the box provided and attach the sheet anyway? Or do you just say SEE ATTACHED?</li>
<li>Do you need to have your AP scores sent officially to a college, or can you self-report them?</li>
<li>On the section where it asks you to report which AP/IB tests you plan to take in the spring of your senior year, and you list them but then for whichever reason end up NOT taking some of them, would a college look down upon that? I know that by that point you will be admitted so it doesn’t matter, but as of right now I’m planning on taking 6 IB tests and 4 AP tests and that may change between now and April.</li>
<li>On apps where it asks you for your Favorite book or movie, should you be completely honest and report that you love Mary-Kate & Ashley movies (hypothetical example) or will that be looked down upon? </li>
<li>When should you send in the Pre-Information form? I know it says as soon as you think you will apply, but what if you change your mind after you send it in with the check? When is a good time to have your solid list by?</li>
<li>Is hand-writing part of an application tacky? If you do hand-write it, is there a specific ink or color of ink that you should use (obviously blue or black, but does it matter?)</li>
<li>How accurate do you need to be on the hours/week and weeks/year part of your EC list? What if you spend 1 hour a week on an activity for the majority of the year but there are a few weeks where you spend 10+? How is that reported?</li>
<li>If your grades/class rank go up after you have mailed in your app, should you have a new transcript sent?</li>
<li>Does the envelope matter for teacher recs, transcript, or pre-information form? </li>
<li>If your counselor doesn’t know you well and you have made efforts to get to know her but she’s just too overworked and busy, how will that reflect in your counselor rec? Are the counselor recs heavily weighted?</li>
<li>Should you pay for a service to track your app if you decide to mail it in? Or will the school’s online service or something let you know if a part is missing?</li>
</ol>

<p>Alright, I know those were a lot of questions but any advice would help! Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>I’m only going to answer a few:
5. I would report it if either of two conditions apply: (1) you are attaching an extra sheet or (2) you have room on the form to include it even after you have include all activities in which you participated more consistently
7. Do not include AP classes. They want to know if you took classes at a college. AP classes will already show up on your transcript.
9. I wouldn’t worry about stapling. Stanford’s just weird (no folding papers, no stapling). I violated the Stanford rules at other colleges, and it didn’t seem to affect me, so as long as you don’t staple the Stanford app stuff you should be fine.
10. You can probably just say see attached if you are sending both by mail. If you are submitting the app online and then sending an extra sheet by mail, fill out the EC boxes on the app.
11. You should self-report them. Colleges don’t expect you to spend the obscene amount of money it costs to send an AP score report (especially multiple score reports). You only need to report official scores to the college at which you matriculate.
12. Since it asks what you are planning to take, it’s not a big deal if you change your mind later.
13. I would advise you put down something slightly more serious (but still something you like). Probably the best thing is if the book/movie you put down helps reinforce the rest of your app. For instance, I expressed an interest in international relations throughout my apps, and then put down Hotel Rwanda as my favorite movie. I really did enjoy it, so it wasn’t a lie (since I don’t have a single favorite movie) but it probably is good that it tied in with the rest of what I wrote.
14. Send in the pre-information form as soon as you are certain that you want to apply.
16. Try to include the average number of hours/week for the weeks in which you participated in the activity. Obviously, 100% accuracy is probably impossible for many activities.
17. This information should be included on the mid-year report.
19. Try to supply your counselor with as much information as possible to help him/her write you a strong rec. Make an appointment to meet with the counselor for an hour or so to discuss what you would like included and come prepared with a brag sheet/resume.
20. No, it would be a waste of money. Schools will let you know when your application is complete or if they need more information.</p>

3

<p>for the handwriting one. I read somewhere in one of the many college books that it is best to hand write it. This somewhat reminds adcoms that they are talking about a real person. They also said that blue is best due to contrast. Too bad I already started most of my apps with black.</p>

4

<p>Sorry, I disagree with the answer previously given for #20. Colleges will let you know if they are missing the official transcript, test scores, recommendations, etc. But these aren’t things you send in yourself, so you couldn’t pay to track them in any event. I am doubtful that colleges would let you know if they haven’t received your basic application, unless you are a highly recruited athlete who had agreed to come or something like that. How would they even know of your final decision to apply? Even if colleges have test scores or the like, students change their minds where to apply up to the last minute, they get admitted ED or EA elsewhere, they decide to take a gap year, etc. </p>

<p>I thought it worth our peace of mind to Fed Ex my kids’ applications. If you do choose to do this, be sure to check the application instructions. For one college, we found there was a different address for applications sent this way versus those sent by regular mail.</p>

<p>Be sure to make a copy of what you send. If something does go astray, you can submit a duplicate. This happened to us with one college that claimed it hadn’t received my daughter’s application. I could prove they had by the Fed Ex tracking. But it would have been unfortunate if my daughter had had to recreate the application from scratch. If we hadn’t sent it by Fed Ex, I think they would have just told us that she missed the application deadline and was out of luck.</p>

<p>A few other answers (my opinion of course) – my advice on the others is to use your own discretion and try to relax!</p>

<ol>
<li><p>If they ask for your siblings you list them. If they only ask specifically for siblings in college, you don’t.</p></li>
<li><p>You can always leave race blank if you want! In your hypothetical, if I wanted to answer the question, I would check both white and Mexican-American, because I think of the latter as those who have Mexican ancestry but live in this country, not those who are a mix. But I think this is more a self-identification question, rather than something where there is only one “right” way to do it. If you consider yourself Mexican-American and not Causasian, there would be nothing wrong IMHO with just checking the former.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Generally, I think you should list things if they add to your application. If your application begins to look too cluttered for your strengths to really come through, I would consider paring it down. The ECs that show passion, leadership, or accomplishment should be there; listing every tiny little club you tried out is not going to sway adcomms. Even if you were elected to a position, if a club didn’t do much or your office didn’t entail much actual work I don’t see what it adds. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>You give the teachers the recommendation forms. How they choose to fill them out is really up to them!</p></li>
<li><p>No, handwriting isn’t tacky. I imagine that most fill out paper applications this way. I wouldn’t do the essays in handwriting unless the application says this is OK and your handwriting is nice.</p></li>
</ol>

5

<ol>
<li><p>They ask for sibling in college for comprable information on you. For instance, if you have a sister Wellesley at and brother at Harvard, in adddition to parents being Stanford alum, that say quite a bit about your family in relation to you.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are mixed, you check both. Like, if I am Black and Colombian then I’m checking two boxes, but don’t go overboard with it, like I know I’m 1/8 French and also part British through slavery…</p></li>
<li><p>If have a well put together resume, then by all means, attach it, that can say a lot about a 17/18 year-old, but if you’r just tacking on a list that will look tedious, then I’d say no.</p></li>
<li><p>Really that’s up to you. If that’s what you’ve got to fill the slots in an application, than that’s what you’ve got. But you should really think over the (I believe) seven slots for ECs you have. An make sure most of them show some sort of dedication.</p></li>
</ol>

6

<p>I don’t think British is an ethnicity but anyway, you would check both. Mexico is in America is it not? So wouldn’t Mexican-American be superfluous therefore warranting a check in Caucasian. I’m pretty sure there aren’t any disads/benefits in checking or not checking.</p>

7

<p>nixxi: although it is true that mexico is in america, american != caucasian. the OP would probably check both “hispanic” and “caucasian” for race. checking one or the other wouldn’t be accurate</p>