Advice for seniors

Seniors: Eat Pie and Finish your Applications!

Seniors, our advice this week is to eat some pie… and continue to finish up your applications. While this is a time for relaxing with family and friends, if you're still not done, carry on.

For help with the new Common Application, download our free guide to The Application Form here.

And if you're still writing and wordsmithing, here are some past blog posts on the subject of essays for advice and inspiration in the aftermath of your Thanksgiving repast and all that pie:

Advice for Students on the New Common App Essays Prompts

The "Why us?" Essay

More Advice for Writing the "Why Us?" Essay

A Memorable Essay? Might Be Family Breakfasts, Piano Lessons, or Raising Pigs...

Writing the Essay: Pushing the Right Brick for Diagon Alley

Seniors: A memorable essay? Might be family breakfasts, piano lessons, or raising pigs...

A couple of years ago, the New York Times published an article claiming students were cultivating summer experiences such as expensive internships or exotic travel experiences "with the goal of creating a standout personal statement." Quick, buy a ticket to Shanghai! NOT! Some form of this urban myth wanders through the hallways of high schools across the country during essay writing season.

This "strategy" couldn't be more wrong-headed. Or, as a former admission officer on Robin Mamlet's staff at Stanford put it -- more colorfully --in an email to us, "YUCK.  That should be YUCK in all caps, bold, italics, the works. With many, many exclamation marks."

Seniors: Treat the Application as Your First College Assignment

Seniors, this week we want to reiterate (SAT word!) something that we hope you will take to heart.

Take the college application itself seriously! Filling out the Common Application correctly or submitting a recommendation letter on time tells an admission officer a lot about you as a candidate. As well, the essay is your unique opportunity in the application to tell the college in your own words who you are -- think of it as standing in front of the admission committee and telling them who you are and what you want.

Treat the application as your first college assignment. It should represent your very best work. Give it plenty of time and your keenest attention. Do not underestimate what you are telling a college at every point in the process. They are paying attention.

Sheila Roberts, Bob Jones High School

In 1979, when Sheila Roberts and her family moved to Decatur, Alabama, she looked across the Tennessee River to the town of Madison and it was just cotton fields. She was a stay-at-home mother, raising two children. No longer. Today, Madison is a diverse and thriving community -- one of the fastest growing cities in the Southeast -- drawing families from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, the U.S. Army Post Redstone Arsenal and the University of Alabama at Huntsville. And Roberts counsels their students as the College and Career Advisor at Madison's Bob Jones High School.

Named for former Congressman Robert E. Jones, Jr., who represented the area from 1947 until 1977, Bob Jones is a public high school serving approximately 2,100 students. Roberts joined the staff in 2003, building the counseling program from scratch -- growing it from one file cabinet in a small study room in the Media Center to twelve file cabinets in what is now the College/Career Center. She says she is constantly struck by the benevolence, diversity and growth of the community. Bob Jones opened in 1974, moved to a larger facility in 1996, and -- underestimating the growth in the area -- had to relocate the 9th grade class a few years later until a second high school was opened last year.

Seniors: Does the early bird always catch the worm?

There can be a lot of pressure to apply early at this time of year -- from peers, parents and media. Students start thinking that they must apply NOW under an early action or early decision plan.  Before you succumb to that pressure, spend some time understanding how decision plans really work, what the numbers in the headlines actually mean, and whether it's a good idea for you personally. Check out the Decision Plan Chapter Excerpt on the Book page here on the website to understand how your grades and scores could figure into a decision to apply early and benefit from the input on decision plans from the deans at Johns Hopkins, Drake University, and Northern Illinois University, as well as others.

Seniors: Have you requested your Letters of Recommendation?

Most private colleges -- and more and more public universities -- require letters of recommendation from one or two classroom teachers of academic subjects and the high school guidance or college counselor. Make the job easier for the teachers and counselor who will write your recommendations by providing them with a list of the colleges to which you are applying, deadlines for the recommendations and any required forms. In order to get the best result, it may also be helpful to provide the teachers who are writing your recommendations with an updated list of activities and any honors you have received, as well as a note telling them why you have chosen them to write for you.

If you have not requested these letters of recommendation, do so immediately by speaking in person with your teachers and counselor.  And don’t forget to check the policies and guidelines for recommendations of both your high school and the colleges to which you're applying to be sure all requirements are being met.

And don't forget to say thank you!

Seniors: Get your Applications!

We're back! With our weekly reminders for seniors. Each week, we'll be providing information, checklist items and advice on applying to college -- testing, essays, deadlines, college visits, letters of recommendation and more.

First up? Seniors, get your applications.

Visit the websites of every college to which you will apply and find out what application form they support -- the college's own unique form, the Common Application, Universal College Application, or some other electronic application provider.

Download or obtain any university's unique forms (public universities often have their own forms) and if you are applying to schools that use the Common Application or another electronic provider, go ahead and register and create an account.

No need to complete the applications at this point. Just familiarize yourself with the forms and requirements, including deadlines and any supplemental material that you may need to submit. This way you will understand what is ahead of you and can begin to pull together the information required, as well as start budgeting your time accordingly.

The Balancing Act of Senior Year: A Checklist For Keeping on Track

John Carpenter is the author of  Going Geek: What Every Smart Kid (and Every Smart Parent) Should Know About College Admissions and a monthly guest blogger for us here at College Admission. Today, John looks at the balancing, juggling, ring of fire, joyous act that is senior year. Read on to learn how students can enjoy the beginning of senior year and, with a checklist in hand, seize the day.

 

Classes are going full steam ahead, you’re getting used to your new schedule, you’re discovering ideas and people you hadn’t noticed before--yep, you’re a senior.  You’re in your last year of high school.  Very cool.

 

Returning next week: Our Weekly Advice for Seniors... and Juniors, too!

Look for the return next week of our most popular feature on the blog -- our weekly advice for juniors and seniors. Each week, there will again be two posts --one for seniors, one for juniors with timely tips on what students should be doing now in the college application process, all year long. See you soon!

Daniel Gin, Niles West High School

Dan Gin had been a generalist high school counselor for four years when he boarded the Illinois Association for College Admission Counseling (IACAC) Bus O' Fun Tour. Road tripping for a week through ten college campuses in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, Gin realized he had found his calling. "I could be the one who helps students find the right college," he said. And for the past eight years, Gin has, as the College and Career Counselor at Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois.

Set in a suburb eight miles north of Chicago, Niles West is a culturally diverse public high school serving more than 2,600 students. Among those students, there are 96 different spoken languages, with the most common being Urdu, Spanish and Assyrian. Thirty per cent of the students are English language learners. Another 30% are on free and reduced lunch. And since Skokie is in the first ring of suburbs on the borders of Chicago, one in four students are transfers. So as the only college counselor on staff -- though he's assisted by 11 generalist counselors -- Gin faces some special challenges.

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