I’m in college now, happily sitting in my dorm room, attending classes, and socializing at the college of my choice. Thinking back on my High School career, there are a few things that I realize now I could have done back then which would have given me a leg up in college.
The first thing that I would have done differently would be to start the whole process earlier. I began seriously looking at colleges when school started my senior year in early August. The early decision and early action deadlines were less than two months away at that time, and I admit that I was really not ready for them. It was not that I was unable to meet the deadlines—about 2 mouths was an adequate amount of time for me to get my recommendations and write my essays—it’s just that I realize now that I didn’t really have a chance to consider all of the colleges that would be interesting for me. I assumed that I wanted a small tech school or a small liberal–arts college, and I began narrowing my choices down from there. But I only considered a few of the absolute top–tier universities, without considering which one was right for my interests. I am interested in creative writing and computer programming, but the colleges that I was looking at didn’t focus necessarily on those two areas. I think that with a few phone calls to a few colleges, and with a little more consideration of what I wanted to study and what schools would best provide that for me, I would have provided myself with a better platter of schools to choose from.
In the application process itself, I was generally satisfied with how things went for me. There are two major things that I would do differently if I had to do it over again. First, I would have schmoozed with my counselor a lot more. When the time came for me to request a guidance counselor recommendation, I realized that I didn’t know my counselor at all. If I could do it again, I would have gone in to speak with her monthly throughout my junior year for random, insignificant things—for example, I would have asked her if she knew where a scholarship was that I already knew how to find. The point would be not to inconvenience her or myself, but to provide me with an opportunity to chat with her. I didn’t really see the point then, but I did as soon as I realized that counselor recommendations are required for some applications. Make friends with your guidance counselor—it pays off big time.
I got wait–listed at a couple of colleges, and, since I received acceptance letters from other colleges at the same time, I really got disinterested in pursuing the other colleges. If I could do that over again, I would have aggressively followed up on the wait–list colleges for sure. I think that I really narrowed my opportunities by letting the wait–listed colleges slide.
Finally, I would have appealed my financial aid letter. It’s not that I think it was exceedingly unfair; it’s just that, as I later learned, colleges hold out a certain amount of financial aid funds from their general consideration pool just in case there are late applicants or something direly effects a student’s financial situation—they still have funds to give that person. However, this doesn’t happen that often, at least not in proportion to the amount of funds they set aside for it. This money usually just sits there, unless someone asks for it. If I appealed my financial aid decision, making proper mention of other scholarships that had been offered to me, I believe that I could have easily gotten more money from my college.
Hopefully you heed my advice well and learn from my errors. Good luck with your application process.
or
