Regular Decision Deadlines: What you need to know.By Erica Kok
News Editor January 6, 2015 Before you take out that hot cocoa and cozy up under a warm blanket in front of your favorite Christmas movie, you still have one more challenge that needs to be accomplished.
Regular Decision deadlines for college are just around the corner, and your last chances of getting into the schools that you want are getting smaller and smaller as each day spent procrastinating goes by. As you stare at the monitor in front of you, looking blankly at the essay prompts given, you might think about how you’ve been living your life wrong all these years. A background story so central to my identity? “Does the time when I started that food fight in the cafeteria count?” You laugh nervously. Recount an incident when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn? “THIS.” You type, banging your head onto the table. You start losing hope as you read through each question, and that is exactly why I am writing this article today. College application season can get about as stressful without any guidance. So, before you start pulling your hair out, here are a few tips that I hope will help you through this stressful time. 1. Finalize the list of Colleges/ Universities that you will be applying to. *Even though you might think that applying to 30 schools will increase your chances of getting into at least one of them, you couldn’t be more mistaken. Most schools have their own school-specific writing supplements and requirements. Remember that it’s so much better to submit a few, good quality applications than a ton of poor-quality ones. 2. Make an organized list of requirements and deadlines for each school, so that you can easily keep track of everything that you’ve already submitted and everything that you still have to. 3. Complete the application for each school. *A lot of schools in the country are using the CommonApp, which lets you apply to multiple schools without having to fill out a dozen of applications over and over. Simply go to commonapp.org, fill out the application once, then select the colleges/universities that you would like your application to be sent to. *If you’re having trouble filling out the essay portions, you could get some ideas by googling other people’s essays about personal experiences. If you still don’t have any striking personal experiences to share, then you could also write about a personal experience that your best friend, perhaps, went through, and how you felt about it as you saw the world through another person’s eyes. *Use specific details that you remember, and take into account even the tiniest things. Just remember to be as honest as possible, because it’s easy to detect made-up stories from real ones. When all else fails, just tell the school how you haven’t really had any experience that struck you, and how you hope to experience one in their school. 4. Once your applications are ready, submit at least a day before the deadline! Don’t wait until 30 minutes before submission time, just in case there might be unforeseen problems with submission. 5. After submitting, check for other requirements such as teacher recommendation letters and official high school transcripts that also have to be sent to the schools. *Give your teachers at least 2 weeks before the deadline to finish your recommendation letters. You don’t want them rushing and not being able to write a strong recommendation for you. *For transcripts, just go to the back of the Guidance Office. There will be an office at the far end of the hallway with papers for you to check off wherever you need your transcripts to be sent. Transcripts sent to in-state schools are free of charge, but bring $1 for each out-of-state school you wish to apply to. Keep in mind that even though the office mails your transcripts as soon as possible, you should still give them at least a week’s allowance for unprecedented events. 6. Once you’re through with all these requirements, it’s time to start looking around for scholarships. Apply to as many as you can, because even the smallest amount of money could be a big help in paying for your education. 7. Finally, you can now breathe, relax and enjoy the holidays as you wait for those acceptance letters to come rolling in! |
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