Applying to college can be a daunting and arduous process. I still recall rushing to the post office and frantically stuffing the applications I’d just finished into envelopes minutes before the midnight deadline. Here to give you the information you need and allay your fears is a primer on what to expect on the path to college enrollment.
Senior year choices
The first step is selecting your senior year schedule: do you want to take Advanced Placement (AP) classes, and if so, how many? AP classes are non-required advanced courses that can earn you college credits, prepare you for the level of competency that will soon be required of you and favorably impress the colleges to which you choose to apply. It is particularly worth considering AP classes if you hope to attend an elite institution. You should take only classes you are passionate about and in which you expect to perform reasonably well, however; try not to bite off more than you can chew.
“Students sometimes overextend themselves,” advises Sonoma Valley High School counselor Tina Moi, who tells seniors to remember that “a higher grade in an Honors class looks better than a bad grade in an AP class.” Since colleges will want to know that you are well-rounded, other opportunities for involvement to consider are extra-curricular activities like sports, clubs, community service and professional internships.
The unavoidable SATs
The next step on your college journey is enrolling for the SATs. “Students should sign up as early as possible, preferably take it once in the spring of their junior year and once in the fall of their senior year as they tend to test higher the second time, and be done with the tests by December so they can submit their scores to colleges,” said Moi.
If you feel a pressing need to improve your performance, you can find many tutoring and prep classes available online designed specifically to help you raise your SAT scores. The 2007 SAT dates are Oct. 6, Nov. 3 and Dec. 1. Be sure to register at least a month beforehand. There are also SAT subject tests that many schools require to gauge your knowledge of English, math, science and/or history.
The ACT, or American College Testing, is another national assessment test you might take, depending on whether the school you are interested in demands it. An excellent Web site for parents and students seeking to learn more about these tests and what colleges are looking for is www.collegeboard.com, while another for those curious about the Cal State Colleges is www.csumentor.edu.
Next on your college itinerary is the question of financial aid. Innumerable scholarships, financial aid grants and packages are out there, awaiting your discovery. There are scholarships based on academic performance and other achievements or financial need available from many community, business, religious or national foundation organizations such as the Rotary Club, Boy & Girl Scouts, the PTA and chambers of commerce, as well as private corporations (Coca-Cola, for example), trade associations, PSAT and National Merit Scholarships. You can talk to coaches, teachers of art, band, shop or whatever department in which you excel, go to the library for directories of professional loans and scholarships, ask the schools to which you’re applying for information and check online at various scholarship search engines such as SRN Express, a free Web version of the Scholarship Resource Network database. You should definitely consult with your academic counselors, who specialize in tapping these very resources. There is a financial aid night for seniors on January 23, 2008, and multiple scholarship information nights throughout the year.
The home stretch
The final step on your exodus to college is the crucial one of determining which college to go to, then applying to it, and finally being accepted. For this article, we interviewed two recent Sonoma Valley High School graduates about this demanding process. Breanna Lee is heading off to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. for her freshman year. She applied to 17 colleges and suggests you only apply to half that number but still no less than five so that your options are open. Write essays that can be used for several applications, she recommends, so you can save yourself a lot of unnecessary work.
In filling these out, as well as several scholarship applications, Lee said she learned an important life lesson: “paperwork is very boring but very necessary.” The most essential piece of advice she has for seniors is to “Be sure of what you want in a school, and make sure it’s what you want rather than what your parents or academic advisors want.”
Robin Chadwin, who after junior year at UC-
Davis received early acceptance into their School of Veterinary Medicine, stresses the importance of starting your applications early, by November at the latest, so that you can take your time completing them. She warns against choosing a school based on prestige; instead, she suggests taking time to consider what the school has to interest you. She believes visiting the school and talking to its students is necessary to really get the “feel” of the campus, something you can’t find in pamphlets. The deadlines for applications vary from school to school, so make sure to have all the dates on your calendar and to give yourself ample time to finish them at a reasonable pace. Once you’ve sent them off, feel free to relax; your part in the college application process is finally over. Keep up your grades because a precipitous dip can turn off colleges, but for the most part, kick back and enjoy your last semester in high school: you’ve earned it!
College Night for seniors is October 15. Community College Night is February 7, 2008.
