Thanks for clarifying this. The lower case abreviation for Spanish as span didn’t register for me.
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Agreed. OP is a junior, right? It’s early.
At our HS, they do a two-day college app boot camp right at the end of junior year, where kids who attend get a chance to work on their essays. D23 wrote what we thought was a powerful and well-written essay – and then she scrapped the whole thing in the fall and started over with an entirely different essay that she thought represented her much better (and we loved that one even more). S26 was toying around with a number of sort of half-baked ideas around the time of his college app boot camp. He settled on one that was good in theory but kind of tricky in execution. He ended up with a very rough sketch of it by the end of boot camp, and it wasn’t until fall of senior year that it really fell into place. It ended up being really good and clever and representative of who he is, but it took time to get there.
So, no, I’m not concerned that OP hasn’t settled on an essay topic. I am a little more concerned about the brand-name-or-bust attitude toward college admissions, and the assumption that only a super-selective school can get them where they want to go in life.
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OP, just so you’re aware, most colleges limit the number of rec letters you can submit. You’ll need one from your counselor and one or two from teachers. You might be able to submit another one in an optional “extra materials” category. You are very unlikely to be able to submit 5, so you should choose one of the officers from the non-profit (whoever knows you best) and have that letter on file in case you can include it. Taken together, your letters are supposed to give different insights into you and your record, so two employees of the same non-profit are not likely to be different enough from each other, anyway.
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by the time I graduate I’ll have taken 6 spanish’s
My guidance counselor said I could submit 5, but sorry I didn’t know that
thank you!
My school rarely sends any kids to top schools, except for a few kids that got into ND. its just that there weren’t a ton of opportunities for activities where I live. With that and my familial responsibilities, I would have done more if I was able. That isn’t an excuse that I think will carry me through applications, but do you think it will matter to AO’s?
i’m sorry.
I don’t want to only apply to certain types of schools (like only small schools or only urban schools) because I don’t really care very much about those factors. I don’t care about sports or Greek life. Really the two main things for me are academics and if the location gives me access to internships and shadowing.
Family responsibilities are an activity and you should include them as one (or more, as appropriate) of your ten activities with relevant descriptions, hours per week, and weeks per year. This is in addition to completing the check boxes for any applicable family duties in the Responsibilities and Circumstances section, which comes right after the Activities section in the common app.
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Okay thank you
There might be a few schools where you can, but not many. More to the point, the two letters from the organization where you volunteer are likely to be redundant. You want each letter to serve a distinct purpose (you don’t want to waste an admission officer’s time), so pick the person who knows you best and ask that person to write the letter.
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Thanks for sharing. I think your school sending few kids to top schools is not a major issue, but it does put more pressure on you needing to stand out beyond grades and tests. Happy to help you brainstorm activities if you message me directly.
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