Walking out the door this past weekend, I was struck by the cool breeze that greeted me. It is hard to believe how quickly September has flown by and that fall is in the air. With October upon us tomorrow I thought it would be helpful to send along a few reminders for high school seniors regarding their college admissions process. It is easy for students to get caught up filling out the applications themselves and sometimes forget about the other pieces needed to complete their applications.
Here you go!
1. Put in your transcript request early. Make sure you know your school's policy for requesting transcripts to be sent to the colleges. Sometimes, it can take a while for transcripts to be processed and sent. In fact, many high schools want transcript requests done a month in advance. This means that If you are applying to colleges with early deadlines, such as November, you want to make sure those requests are placed in the next week to allow your transcript plenty of time to be delivered. If you don't know the transcript request policy for your school, check in with your high school counselor.
2. Check in on your letters of recommendation. I typically encourage the students that I work with to talk to their teachers who they want to have write the letter of recommendation during the spring of their junior year. While some teachers work on these letters over the summer, some wait until they are back to school. I suggest that you check in with your teachers to see how your letters are coming, whether or not they need additional information from you, and to and make sure they are aware of how to submit the letters and what your deadlines are when you need the letters.
3 Create a list of all of your deadlines. Deadlines can sneak up on you quickly during your senior year. Make sure you take the time to put all of these dates and deadlines for interviews, applications, college visits, college fairs, and other meetings in your calendar and make sure to stick to them (setting a reminder always helps!).
4. Update your activities and resume. Many of your college applications (and college interviewers) will ask about your involvement in activities and what you did over the summer. Double check to make sure that you have all of your most up to date activities, honors, and positions on your resume or activities list.
5. Get ready for your last round of standardized tests or send your scores if done with test taking. If you are retaking the SAT, ACT or Subject tests this fall make sure that you are registered in advance and putting in some time preparing. Practice tests are a great way to familiarize yourself with the tests! All done with standardized tests? Remember, you need to send the official scores through College Board or ACT to your colleges. Again, make sure you are allowing enough time for them to be sent and received.
6. Schedule interviews. September, October and November are heavy recruitment months for college admissions officers and many will be traveling to your community. If you are planning to interview while these admissions officers are in your neck of the woods you should contact them early as their schedules fill up quickly.
7. Connect with your colleges. As I said above, the fall is a busy time for college admissions officers. Not only are they conducting interviews across the country but they may be visiting your high school or attending a college fair in the area. This is a great opportunity to connect with the college, learn more about them, and ask any additional questions you might have for them before you send off your application.
Happy Fall!
Here you go!
1. Put in your transcript request early. Make sure you know your school's policy for requesting transcripts to be sent to the colleges. Sometimes, it can take a while for transcripts to be processed and sent. In fact, many high schools want transcript requests done a month in advance. This means that If you are applying to colleges with early deadlines, such as November, you want to make sure those requests are placed in the next week to allow your transcript plenty of time to be delivered. If you don't know the transcript request policy for your school, check in with your high school counselor.
2. Check in on your letters of recommendation. I typically encourage the students that I work with to talk to their teachers who they want to have write the letter of recommendation during the spring of their junior year. While some teachers work on these letters over the summer, some wait until they are back to school. I suggest that you check in with your teachers to see how your letters are coming, whether or not they need additional information from you, and to and make sure they are aware of how to submit the letters and what your deadlines are when you need the letters.
3 Create a list of all of your deadlines. Deadlines can sneak up on you quickly during your senior year. Make sure you take the time to put all of these dates and deadlines for interviews, applications, college visits, college fairs, and other meetings in your calendar and make sure to stick to them (setting a reminder always helps!).
4. Update your activities and resume. Many of your college applications (and college interviewers) will ask about your involvement in activities and what you did over the summer. Double check to make sure that you have all of your most up to date activities, honors, and positions on your resume or activities list.
5. Get ready for your last round of standardized tests or send your scores if done with test taking. If you are retaking the SAT, ACT or Subject tests this fall make sure that you are registered in advance and putting in some time preparing. Practice tests are a great way to familiarize yourself with the tests! All done with standardized tests? Remember, you need to send the official scores through College Board or ACT to your colleges. Again, make sure you are allowing enough time for them to be sent and received.
6. Schedule interviews. September, October and November are heavy recruitment months for college admissions officers and many will be traveling to your community. If you are planning to interview while these admissions officers are in your neck of the woods you should contact them early as their schedules fill up quickly.
7. Connect with your colleges. As I said above, the fall is a busy time for college admissions officers. Not only are they conducting interviews across the country but they may be visiting your high school or attending a college fair in the area. This is a great opportunity to connect with the college, learn more about them, and ask any additional questions you might have for them before you send off your application.
Happy Fall!
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