I am a senior that has just finished the college application cycle. I’m writing this to give some advice to anyone who may be entering the college process soon.This is just some highlights of the fall of my senior year.
I was originally planning to apply to roughly 25 schools (I don't know the exact number, I just wrote essays).
I created five different college application accounts (including Common App, UC App, Apply Texas, etc.) in 5 minutes the moment the websites opened.
First semester was basically a living hell.
Stayed up until 11:30 PM in the first week of school doing schoolwork.
I had 5 choices for Rec letters and narrowed down to the 2 I needed one week before my first apps were due. And then one of them was late.
I had a few EA schools, but nowhere ED.
My college counselor rejected six drafts of my Common App essays written for two different prompts, but said the one I wrote a 2 AM after writing 5 other essays was the best thing I'd written so far.
My grades were all B's at one point during the semester (I was taking an all-AP courseload, but I got a mix of B's and A's at the end of the semester).
I only turned in applications for 5 schools (out of the 16 I turned in) before the day of the deadline.
Stayed up for 39 hours (Dec. 11 4:30 AM- Dec. 12 7:30 PM) and suffered auditory hallucinations before finally passing out and missing a college deadline.
Paid roughly $1400 in applications fees, and countless more for sending scores.
Was accepted to a reach EA school, but was deferred (and later waitlisted) at a match EA school.
After getting accepted, I didn't touch the 9 other applications because I wanted to enjoy my winter break.
Was later rejected from almost half of my RD schools (most likely due to first semester grades). I will not reveal any of the schools or where I am going for privacy concerns.
I do have some advice for anyone going into the college application process.
Yes. First semester senior year is as bad as people say. And then a little bit more. First semester was at least 5 times harder than the entirety of my Junior Year combined.
Try not to apply to more than 12 schools. From this, form tiers of reaches (pipe dream or two is fine), solid matches, and nice safeties.
For the love of God, start AND FINISH your essays in the summer. If you have a rigorous courseload planned for the fall, it’s better to get roughly 20% of your essays done in the summer.
If you are struggling with school, ask for help, or drop the class. It’s for the better, trust me.
Find out who will write your rec letters preferably by the end of your junior year.
Double check academic/testing requirements now/over the summer so you aren’t caught by any surprises when fall rolls around.
Make sure finances are solid, because it’s a shame money still gets in the way of higher education, but it’s there.
Also remember that you don’t “deserve” to go to ANY school in the world. Higher education is a gift, and the fact that you have access to it is already good enough. You won’t get rejected because your ACT score was a 34 instead of a 35, and unless one thing is OVERWHELMINGLY good or bad, it’s a combination of things that makes you rise to the top of the pack or thrown into the reject pile. And above all else: everything works out in the end. A rejection won’t end your life, and an acceptance from a safety school isn’t a sign for good things to come. Stay humble, stay hopeful.This process isn’t the end of your life; it’s only the beginning.
I have to echo some of these sentiments. I applied to around 8 colleges.
In all honesty, if you need merit or financial aid to attend any college, run the early calculations. Do not pay to apply to a school you cannot afford.
I don’t regret applying to any schools, but the difference in need-based aid was astounding. Keep that in mind when applying to schools, especially those that give merit aid. Do not expect more aid after the large merit packages.
I will reject the above post by saying that first semester is not that hard. It depends on the person and the classes.
For college applications, get your letters of recommendation done early, as stated above.
As stated above, do not plan to apply to more than 10 colleges. Get the ones you want most (3-5) done early. Do the common app first, so that you can get your information to many schools.
Before doing the common app, look over the questions. Paste your responses from word or google docs. This allows you to fill out many applications that all want activities or club participation with a short paragraph by just Copy paste.
Spend time on your essays. I guess my essays were okay, I spent at least 3-4 hours on my U of M essay. I think on my common app specific I maybe spent an hour drafting and 30 minutes editing. I think the message and character of person are more important to convey than the actual grammar.
Also be ready to be rejected from at least one safety school. It is a very strange occurrence.
You are a brave and wonderful soul. Bless you for your honesty. I hope every teen reads this, it should be pinned. My D will agree that senior year has been much tougher than junior year. She applied to 12 colleges, and I think that was two too many. I don’t think any student can be adequately enthusiastic about that many colleges. Apps are a ton of work. Good luck to you.
Excellent post. Thanks for your honesty and for taking the time to share this. You are obviously a thoughtful person and a dedicated student. Wishing you all the best, wherever you end up going next year.
Great post and thank you for sharing your personal experience. I’m sure your advises are going to help many of us starting to plan for college applications.
@AverageJoe22 , if a student expresses interest and has very high stats for a safety college, I don’t think anyone has to assume a rejection will happen. My D expressed interest by meeting with reps and visiting her two safety colleges. Her stats were really high, above 90th percentile, for both. On scattergrams she saw kids with higher stats who were rejected. Who knows why. It could be lack of interest, poor teacher recs, or a poor essay. I don’t think anyone has to assume though.
Thanks for all the positive feedback guys! I wrote this because I think it’s important to address the current culture surrounding college admissions, and smash that romantic image students have about this being a guaranteed breeze (I know I had this vision before I started). I’m not representative of the whole student population of the US, especially because I have very little raw intelligence of my own (I have to work hard to get A’s. not even joking) and everyone handles stress differently.
Just to provide a counter - I applied to 15 schools (all but 2 were on the common app) and I really enjoyed the experience. First semester was not hell for me - I had my main CA essay written over the summer, and I e-mailed my 2 teacher recommenders then as well (before following up in person during the school year). The supplements are so repetitive that I only had to write maybe 10 short essays and readjust them for different schools. I wrote all my supplements exclusively over winter break (2 weeks leading up to Jan. 1st). I got all my apps in and felt secure that I would have options (glorious options!) to choose from in April. I enjoyed the influx of lots of decision letters (honestly opening decisions is fun, even the waitlists and rejections). I’m glad I applied to a lot of schools despite typical CC wisdom not to.
@Anonymoose3 Well, to each their own. My school and area is very affluent, around 99% of graduates go to a 4-year college. I was ranked below the top 30% with a >3.7 UW GPA. There’s ENORMOUS pressure from all sides (except the teachers, weirdly) to do well and go to a good college. I suppose every individual HS environment shapes its students and as a result, people do get stressed out more here.
And also, I’m still glad I have choices I heard you got into some excellent schools though, congratulations!
@Anonymoose3 I don’t think you ‘countered’ what the OP was suggesting (maybe 15 vs. 12?). Sounded like you did what the OP was suggesting others do in the future.
@2muchquan - OP applied to 16 schools, had a bad experience, counsels others not to apply to a lot of schools. I applied to 15 (pretty much the same as 16…) had a good experience, and would say others shouldn’t be wary about doing the same.
My kid applied to more than both of you! I will not say how many. Only 2 were safeties because the state flagship was EA accepted. If K had been limited to 12 or 15, most of the ones that K was accepted at, including the high reach that K plans to attend, K would never have applied to! One was further than we wanted and did not have K’s exact major, one had more of a party atmosphere than K wanted (although we both loved it when we visited, was not what we thought), the one K is planning to attend is also further than we wanted. K would have ended up with maybe 3 acceptances, including K’s second choice, which I had hated the idea of until we visited the summer before (when we both also loved it). Bottom line, especially if you are in that “reach” no guarantee category, you have no idea what will happen and you have to apply alot. K only did in state EA.
Here is what I am planning to do differently with K2, who is not as reachy of a student (GPA is about .1 lower) but still your typical excellent student. Before we visit, make sure the school makes sense financially. Most OOS do not for us.
Make sure K is prepared for fall classes so Semester 1 is K's best so K can send first semester grades.
Make sure K applies EA to anyplace that makes sense academically and financially
Make sure K picks an ED school!!!!!!!!!!! It is the same decision in November as it is in May, the only difference is in November you make the decision.
If ED1 does not work, will consider ED2.
Apply to a bunch of schools RD if ED1 does not work. Especially if rejected ED1 or EA rather than deferred. Christmas may not be fun this year.
@Anonymoose3, take it from me, opening the rejections and wait lists are only fun if you are already in at someplace you would be happy attending. Otherwise it is a form of chinese water torture and I watched my kid suffer through it and it was not pleasant. It worked out in the end but it is the reason I want K2 in ED and this over with by December.
@Anonymoose3 I’m not saying everyone shouldn’t do what I did. I’m trying to give advice. Like all advice, no one has to take it if they don’t want to. Not to mention, the “12” I set isn’t a hard and fast number, seeing that sometimes people are willing to put in the extra work, and sometimes their efforts are rewarded. As I stated before, I’m not a representative of the entire HS population of America. The main takeaway from this is basically “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” Some people can handle applying to 25 colleges. Others can may be handle 8. Whatever they choose, they should know their own limits.
This isn’t something to debate. Just because you had an easier time applying to 15 colleges than I did with 16 doesn’t make you a better person, but it doesn’t make my points invalid. As I stated before, like all advice, people can take this if they want to. Whether or not they choose to follow it, the only person that should care is them, because it doesn’t affect me, and it doesn’t affect you.
I think OP is far more a typical student than anonymoose is, and I hope that other typical students heed your advice, OP. And FWIW, my kid KNEW she had to do her essays over the summer, knew about the college admissions rat race, knew that taking four APs senior year would be tough, and knew most of the common sense stuff that we read about all the time on CC. But just because she knew it doesn’t mean she was sensible about it. She spent MONTHS, or so it seemed, writing and rewriting her essay, and spent the entire Xmas break finishing apps that she swore would be finished by Thanksgiving. I suspect that OPs experience is more typical too, and I hope all the kids thinking they will “just” submit 20 apps read this first.
I really don’t get the 15-20 apps thing. There must be at least 4 or 5 schools on a 15-20 app list that a kid wouldn’t even want to attend, even if they were accepted. Kids applying to that many are generally the “all 8 ivy” types and generally (excluding the very very top students like @Anonymoose3 ) those kids get shut out of ivies.
Finalize the list and Do your essays in the summer!
My son took a slightly different approach than the OP, but I agree with her suggestions . My son only applied to 5 schools as he limited his search to instate schools due to scholarship opportunities . He applied EA to all 5 schools including the Honors Colleges at 2 of the 5 . He did not apply ED to any schools , as he could not commit to a school without weighing FA options. Only 2 of his 5 schools were CA schools, so he was responsible for writing approximately 20 essays for all of his applications. Unlike @Anonymoose3 the essays he wrote were not similar enough to tweek for several universities. My son was writing essays for Honors and additional scholarships until Jan. He had all of his acceptances by Christmas, with the exception of Honors which he received by Dec. He was able to attend additional scholarship weekends and accepted students weekends by the beginning of March , and was not pressed to make a
decision or squeeze in last minute visits in April. I see what quite a few of his peers are going through right now and he is very grateful that he’s not having to rush an important decision .
I hope every teen reads this, it should be pinned. My D will agree that senior year has been much tougher than junior year. She applied to 12 colleges, and I think that was two too many. I don’t think any student can be adequately enthusiastic about that many colleges. Apps are a ton of work. Good luck to you.
I heard you got into some excellent schools though, congratulations!