I never even picked my college or filled out an application! This was 1972 and I graduated early from High School as a Junior and was away in Granada, Spain for one year at the Universidad de Granada at age 17. In those days you had to go to the Spain Telephone Company and fill out a form and sit in a booth trying to make a collect phone call back home. So minimal communication back to parents except snail mail letters.
All I remember is my mother told me that she selected Univ of Calif San Diego and I was going there next year. I did not fill out an application, never visited and have no idea how I got accepted. I am assuming that my mother filled out the application and did the whole thing without my involvement. I do remember taking the SAT test at my Mom’s insistence, so I must have taken it Spring Junior Year.
The amazing part was she must have embellished a lot because I started with a full year of University credits for the courses in Granada. That didn’t help because my major was not going to be Spanish Language so I spent 4 years getting my degree.
In comparison, my D and I worked for a whole year preparing lists of colleges, essays, etc. Applied to 7 and visited five in person (including a frozen tundra visit to Bozeman, Montana in February which was very difficult for us from San Diego without proper clothes or knowledge of how to drive in snow/ice). She was rejected from her favorite and had to ‘settle’ for one of the others. It all worked out in the end because she worked hard and transferred to her favorite in 2 years.