Surviving College Applications

After a long day of school, volunteering, practice, rehearsal, meetings, and homework, you finally sit down to do college applications. Your eyes start to droop and all you want to do is put head to pillow, but you’re not even close. You thumb through the glossy pages of college brochures and see pictures of happy, smiling students listening to lectures, reading in libraries, lounging in grassy lawns framed by trees in bloom and majestic colonial-style buildings… maybe one day, you’ll get to be one of them. But not until you finish the essays, send the transcripts, pay the fees, get the recommendations. Not any time soon.

Frustrated, you bury your face in your hands. My life is over.

Welcome to college application season. Right now, your head is filled with questions: Which school is right for me? Will they like me? What should I do? What should I say? So many questions, so few answers, nothing makes sense. If this seems all too familiar, don’t worry, we’ve all been there. Even those happy, smiling people.

But how do you survive one of the most confusing and stressful points in your life? How do you get through what seems like the ultimate deciding factor for the rest of your future?

First off, relax. Realize that, even though things seem bleak and you can’t see even a flicker at the end of the tunnel, your life is actually not over. You’ll be okay.

But what if I don’t have the perfect grades or scores/I’m not the valedictorian/I’m not a musical prodigy/I’m not a national champion of every sport?
Good news, you don’t have to be superhuman. True, college applicants are generally academically strong, talented, and accomplished, but admissions committees are looking for more than a good-on-paper applicant. They’re looking for real human beings, dynamic students who will contribute to the university community. (Carolina is no exception.)

Great, that sounds easy but how do I show this?
Chances are that you’ve done pretty well throughout high school, you’re involved, you’re a generally good human being. Excellent. Just keep it up in your senior year: take challenging classes as long as they’re bearable (another words, don’t slack off but don’t kill yourself either) and participate in extracurricular activities without spreading yourself too thin. Sometimes it’s better to be really involved in a few clubs instead of joining every single one. It’s all about moderation and time management.

What else can I do? I really, really want to look good for colleges.
Show off your personality through your essays. Despite the rumors and myths, admissions counselors still read them because it’s how they get to know you past what official stamped documents record. Take the opportunity to tell them about your passions, interests, quirks, ideas, flaws, whatever. You don’t have to write anything Pulitzer or Nobel-worthy to get into college. You just have to show them who you really are. Write what YOU have to say, not what you think they want to hear.

The great thing is that a lot of universities are flexible about essays. Many colleges have required or optional personal statements (read: a wonderful opportunity to say whatever you want), so take advantage of it. Some schools will even let you “reuse” essays that you’ve written before, so if you really liked a topic and wrote well on it, you often can submit it to win over another school and save yourself some time.

But there are so many colleges to choose from! There will never be enough time to finish all of these applications. Are you applying to places you’ll really consider attending if you get in, with at least one safety? Don’t apply to every university if you don’t even want to be there one day. Ask yourself what you really want and why you like each college (but keep an open mind, sometimes a school that doesn’t necessarily have everything you want could end up being your best option). Don’t limit yourself to just one but having too many options and applying “for fun” make life a lot harder. Plus you can save yourself a ton of application fees.

Are you sure this works?
It worked for me. I wanted a real college town that’s not too far from big cities (Chapel Hill, by definition). I wanted a mid-sized coed school, not too big but not too small (UNC, with 16,000 undergraduates, was perfect). I wanted sound academics and good professors, plus opportunities outside the classroom (again, Carolina was all of the above).

In high school, I took AP and Honors classes when possible and made good grades, but I didn’t have perfect test scores. I was involved, but I didn’t join every club. I wasn’t captain of every sport and I can’t even read music. But I put my best effort in every application and wrote good essays (I really loved my personal statement, a letter to my future roommate warning her about my quirks but assuring her that I was still a lovable human being)… and now I’m at my dream school and couldn’t be happier.

Hope this helps but let me know if I can help you out any further. Best wishes with the applications!