As you might imagine, I have been waiting several years to get to the point of applying to college myself and I am feeling very confident so far that I can remain in control of the system, not the other way around. I will be blogging about my own application process as I experience it, hopefully before my blog's guests so that any advice can be of use.
This is the real thing; we rising seniors are just months away from sending out thick envelopes into which snippets of our very souls have been poured. However, as goes my very strict policy whenever I counsel people - no freaking. Period. Even though many consider me to be a college fanatic, I'm seldom "stressed" by college admissions because I understand the process well and think of the process and of myself as an applicant, fairly objectively. I seriously condone "feeling a school" or using the term "whatever" or "whim" in conversation about admissions. Your applications should be deliberate and the schools to which you apply should truly match your expectations and personality. This doesn't mean that reach schools are out of bounds (I love to see them), it just means that you either do an application 100% or you don't do it at all, no matter what the school. Many applicants get lazy and use the excuse that there are no right schools for them or that they are indifferent about where they go. These applicants
have not looked hard enough for the school or schools right for them. If you are experiencing confusion into the late fall, contact a counselor or myself for some direction.
Thinking about the process ahead of time is incredibly important. Even though applications to most schools aren't due until January 1st, this doesn't mean that whatever you are thinking on December 31st should be what determines a large part of your future. I have gotten into the habit of producing a personal list of colleges almost every day, whenever I think about college. This way, I find my mind clear of college clutter, and I'm able to capture that important detail that made me (on that particular day) favor one college over another. After several weeks (or years in my case) of these notes or scraps of paper, you will have better insight into the way you think about the process and about what you really want. For example, I have always liked Bowdoin College in Maine, but it has never been on the forefront of my mind and has never really been my top choice college. However, after going through many notes, I was able to trace my attachment to a variety of different factors that I soon discovered defined much of my impression of that school. Even though it has seldom been my top choice college, I noticed that it has been my number two or three consistently for over two years, thus making it a really important school on my list, since I have unwittingly become rather attached to it.
Here is an example of my college list, which has gone pretty much unchanged over the course of the summer. Especially for those applicants considering Early Decision or Early Action programs, as I am, it is a great idea to write out lists to see where your priorities lie and which schools would be good early application choices for you. It's okay to get strategic here. After you have been indecisive about a number of schools, it's fair to say after a certain point that you would be happy at any of them, and it is okay to apply Early Decision I to a reach school and Early Decision II or Early Action to a somewhat less selective school just in case your reach doesn't work out. Make lists. Make lists. Make lists... And stay posted for college visits I will be doing on day trips from Harvard: Amherst, Boston College, Tufts, Dartmouth, Brown, and Yale will likely be covered in addition to Harvard itself!
