Top TIps for US college applications
Dear aspiring junior and sophomore (and overenthusiastic freshman), here is a compilation of some advice I could have used (or should have listened to) during my college admissions process.
1. Start early. Procrastinators will have a hard time. There is no such thing as too early. Use the summer – you don’t know the pleasure to walk in the first day of your senior year with a personal statement (neither do I, but I bet it feels good).
2. Know where you’re applying to. It doesn’t have to be a definite list, but have at least six schools to which you are definitely applying at the start of your senior year, and work on their applications. If you decide to add more schools later, that’s fine, at least you will not do extra work if you start with a big list and decide to trim schools on whose application you have already started working. Also, don’t go overboard with schools – the more schools on your list, the less time you have to dedicate per school.
3. Easy with the extracurriculars. It’s much better to have one activity in which you are genuinely engaged, rather than five activities in which you participate just to “put them on your CV.” I cannot stress this enough. Chose a few activities which really spark an interest in you, and focus on them throughout high school, achieving some leadership roles within the activity or club, rather than being a marginal member of a variety of clubs and activities. It’s much better to be in an activity throughout the four years of high school rather than doing new things every year. Admissions folk can tell if you are doing something just to say you were doing it. Wanting to put something on your applications is a motivator, but you cannot allow for it to be the only one.
4. Start early with SAT prep. Everyone benefits from SAT prep. Although the ETS (the company that administers the test) claims you cannot prepare or study for the test, you can, and you will. Be sure to check out a Princeton Review cracking book from the library and dedicate at least two months of study. Sure enough, you’ll be on the right track.
5. Be yourself, with a twist. Even though the “Just be yourself” advice goes for things from dating to college applications, the best is to practice a bit of selection. What I mean is not choosing to say what the admissions folk would like to hear (and they have heard it, you can be sure of that), but choosing to display your strengths and downplay your weaknesses as much as possible. Since everyone does this (some more consciously than others), another good tactic could be sincere, heart touching honesty (and there is such a thing as being too honest, like describing your suicide attempt, so be careful with that too).
6. Discuss ideas before writing. Talk to someone, like a teacher, parent or friend before dedicating hours of your time crafting an immortal piece of prose. I kept all of my ideas to myself before I wrote them down in an essay, which led me to writing three personal statements in order to get it right with the third one. Believe me, it’s rarely as brilliant as it sounds in your mind.
7. Plan to finish each essay/application a week in advance of the deadline. Just trust me on this one.
I’ll stop here, even though there are dozens of other tips that will make your college application experience more bearable. I wish you lots of luck, and remember: taking this advice from me and applying it is much better than waiting for experience to teach you, for it often does the hard way.
1. Start early. Procrastinators will have a hard time. There is no such thing as too early. Use the summer – you don’t know the pleasure to walk in the first day of your senior year with a personal statement (neither do I, but I bet it feels good).
2. Know where you’re applying to. It doesn’t have to be a definite list, but have at least six schools to which you are definitely applying at the start of your senior year, and work on their applications. If you decide to add more schools later, that’s fine, at least you will not do extra work if you start with a big list and decide to trim schools on whose application you have already started working. Also, don’t go overboard with schools – the more schools on your list, the less time you have to dedicate per school.
3. Easy with the extracurriculars. It’s much better to have one activity in which you are genuinely engaged, rather than five activities in which you participate just to “put them on your CV.” I cannot stress this enough. Chose a few activities which really spark an interest in you, and focus on them throughout high school, achieving some leadership roles within the activity or club, rather than being a marginal member of a variety of clubs and activities. It’s much better to be in an activity throughout the four years of high school rather than doing new things every year. Admissions folk can tell if you are doing something just to say you were doing it. Wanting to put something on your applications is a motivator, but you cannot allow for it to be the only one.
4. Start early with SAT prep. Everyone benefits from SAT prep. Although the ETS (the company that administers the test) claims you cannot prepare or study for the test, you can, and you will. Be sure to check out a Princeton Review cracking book from the library and dedicate at least two months of study. Sure enough, you’ll be on the right track.
5. Be yourself, with a twist. Even though the “Just be yourself” advice goes for things from dating to college applications, the best is to practice a bit of selection. What I mean is not choosing to say what the admissions folk would like to hear (and they have heard it, you can be sure of that), but choosing to display your strengths and downplay your weaknesses as much as possible. Since everyone does this (some more consciously than others), another good tactic could be sincere, heart touching honesty (and there is such a thing as being too honest, like describing your suicide attempt, so be careful with that too).
6. Discuss ideas before writing. Talk to someone, like a teacher, parent or friend before dedicating hours of your time crafting an immortal piece of prose. I kept all of my ideas to myself before I wrote them down in an essay, which led me to writing three personal statements in order to get it right with the third one. Believe me, it’s rarely as brilliant as it sounds in your mind.
7. Plan to finish each essay/application a week in advance of the deadline. Just trust me on this one.
I’ll stop here, even though there are dozens of other tips that will make your college application experience more bearable. I wish you lots of luck, and remember: taking this advice from me and applying it is much better than waiting for experience to teach you, for it often does the hard way.
Most sincerely,
Ljupcho Naumov
Ljupcho Naumov