It’s that time of the year when seniors are working hard on college apps, getting their grades up, and prepping for the SATs. So essentially, the first semester of senior year involves lots of intense college work. However, some students carelessly wait until the last minute to get everything done, only to realize that they don’t have all of the materials needed for their applications. To avoid this last minute hassle, here are a few tips to get started on the college process before the deadline:
1) Take advantage of Honors and AP classes: The more you challenge yourself in school, the more impressed colleges will be. Colleges like to see a curriculum that involves challenging yourself, so whatever challenging classes are offered at your school, go for it! This makes you more desirable to competitive colleges.
2) Start preparing early for the SAT: Take the SAT sometime in the beginning or middle of your junior year so you won’t be left working on it at the end of the year or even at the beginning of senior year when you’ve got college apps to work on. Additionally, try taking a SAT subject test or two to give admission officers a little something extra to look at when they’re reviewing your application.
3) Get started on your essays: Brainstorm ideas for your college essays, and keep revising them to make sure your final essay will be a home run for the admission officers reading it.
4) Look into schools you may be interested in and make a list: At the beginning of your senior year, there will be college visits going on at school that offer a wide variety of majors. Sign up for these visits to determine what you are interested in studying in college and preferably, where you would like to go. In addition, start drafting a list of schools which includes your reach schools, backups and target schools to get an idea of where you want to go.
The college process is not an easy one, but if you stay organized and have a plan, then you’ll see that applying to college was not as hard as you thought it would be.