College Advising: Organize Your Applications, Now!

            With the Common Application (CA)  now open (as of August 1st,) it’s time to start saving time! If you follow a few simple directions, you’ll make your application process go a lot faster and the writing go a lot easier. We, at Perfect Fit, have many time saving tips for you that we don’t mind sharing.  Do what we do, and feel the power of being in control of your applications!

·      Make Your College List: No matter how many colleges you have on your list, organize them by a few of the stats.  What is percentage of students accepted? The GPA and SAT averages also have some bearing on your chances for acceptance.  Your essay, recommendations, and leadership are extremely important, but hard to quantify, so put your list in order of difficulty by using the numbers.

·      Manage Your Essays: Before you start writing, use your list to organize all the essays you’ll need. By using the CA website, copy and paste the new application topics. You’ll need to write about one of these. Next, copy and past the supplemental application essays from the CA site for each school on your list. When you have all your required writing organized, read through the whole list and note any overlaps. Often schools will ask the same questions. How nice to be able to reuse one well-written essay for two schools! Not only is it smart to do this, but it will save you hours of time.

·      Read Winning Essays: Visit your bookstore or library for books on writing the application essay. Even though the topics have changed this year, noting the tone, vocabulary, and energy of successful essays will help you get a solid start on your own writing.

·      See Experts: Take advantage of all the experts with college advice available to you. Show up to counselor meetings at your school. Visit the college reps who will be coming to your school this fall, and call all a professional, as needed. There is a lot of good advice and even hands-on help to keep you organized and on task for a successful and even enjoyable application season!

·      Seek out Scholarships and Win Money: There are lots of ways to earn merit scholarships. Check Fastweb.com and other scholarship websites. As you are making your essay-writing list, note any overlaps with scholarship essay topics. There are also plenty of scholarships that require no essays. Read a few scholarships a day and apply to scholarships that are a good fit for you!

       So much of the work of applying to college can be streamlined.  The skills you use in managing this process are the same ones that will help you be a successful college student; so go for it now and have a great year and a great college experience.

-- All the best from www. PerfectFitCollege.Net