It’s late November, meaning regular decision college admissions deadlines are right around the corner! Those dates fall in the first few weeks of January for most American colleges and universities.
If you’ve already submitted an Early Decision I or Early Action application, congratulations—and I’ve got good news for you! You’ve basically already done much of the big-picture thinking and written most of the text that will also go into your regular decision applications. You’ve probably drafted a Common App personal statement and activities lists that make you feel confident about how you’re presenting yourself to potential schools!
If that sounds like you, all YOU need to do for your regular decision applications is to write the supplemental essays required by your various regular decision schools. (That’s not to say you should put those off ‘til the last minute: those additional essays can still take a significant amount of time to write! Nonetheless, you’re allowed to give yourself a pat on the back before putting your nose to the grindstone again.) You might also consider reading back through your Common Application and making a few edits, now that a bit of time has passed since you first drafted it.
If you have not yet hit submit on any applications, that’s ok too: you’ve still got time to do so. Not a massive amount of time, mind you. But enough time to complete everything—in a way that passionately conveys who you are, what you care about, and what you have to offer a prospective school, too. And today’s post is your personal guide to HOW you’re going to do that. What follows is a full list of the guidance my blog has provided about applying to selective schools. Since I’m always adding new resources dedicated to helping you with your applications, my list of helpful articles keeps expanding.
So, here’s the NEW updated list to help you, wherever you are in your essay writing and application process!
Article Contents
1. Common App Basics
If you are running behind and haven’t yet poked around the Common Application, here’s what you need to read ASAP in order to understand the different sections and get a birds-eye sense of the task before you: my thorough review of the Common App. (If you’re REALLY in a hurry, here’s the quicker guide to the Common App!)
Also, the Common App changes each year. So for those of you who already have a vague idea as to what the Common App is—maybe from an older sibling or friend who applied last year—but want to make sure you’re aware of the most recent version, check out my post outlining this year’s changes to the Common App.
2. Write an Excellent Personal Statement
This is the BIGGEST piece of your application: a 650-word essay in which you most fully express who you are, what you believe in, and connect the dots of the rest of your college application. It’s no small feat, but here’s what I recommend:
First, take a gander at this year’s Common App essay prompts.
Next, read a popular post I wrote about how to come up with your Common App essay topic. In short: you can write about almost anything and it will fit into one of the prompts. So pick a subject that will show YOU off best, not a subject that most perfectly aligns with a prompt.
If you’d like a super-deluxe version of the above post, with lots of concrete topic ideas to help inspire you, check out my Ace the Personal Statement Guide for just $9.
Then, BEFORE you open up a new document, discover what I mean when I tell you that “you need an Organizing Principle.” Your essay needs to sync up the disparate pieces of your application and your resume and tell the colleges you’re applying to who you REALLY are. It’s a big lift…
…BUT I can help you through it. Check out the exercises I’ve laid out in this piece about how to find your Organizing Principle—it will help you articulate the coherent vision of yourself that makes for a killer Common App essay.
If you find yourself hitting Common App essay writer’s block, let me help you bust right through it. THEN, return to the previous step and determine your organizing principle!
3. Draft a Great Common App Activities List
After your main essay, your Activities List is the second-most important part of your application. It should give your admissions readers major insight into who you are and what you’ll add to their campus. And yet, I see way too many students waste the opportunities presented by this section (at least before I take my expert editor’s eye to things, that is)! It’s crucial that you organize and present every item on your list in a way that optimizes your 10 activities maximum. My article on the subject tells you how to write the Activities List that will grab that admissions reader’s attention.
4. Write Supplemental Essays (and Possibly the COVID Essay)
Once you finish the main Common App sections, you may still have more writing to do, depending on which schools you’re applying to. If they so choose, each college can require supplemental (or “additional”) essays for THEIR particular application. These extra essays can take substantially longer than completing the basic Common App, so definitely give yourself ample time before the due date to start them! That said, the most common supplemental essay universities ask for is some version of “Why us?” or “Why do you want to attend our college?” Here’s my one-stop method for framing and writing the “why this college?” essay—it works wonders for my clients, and it will for you, too!
Also, the “Additional Information” section of the Common App now gives you the option to discuss any significant impact the COVID-19 pandemic (and/or natural disasters) may have had upon your life and schooling. Here are my thoughts on whether—and how—you should answer it, now that a few years have passed since the onset of the pandemic.
5. Avoid these Top Application Mistakes
Before turning in your app, it’s worth taking a quick skim of this list of the 10 worst ways to market yourself to colleges. Yes, despite how nuts some of these “strategies” are, I regret to report (from experience) that ALL of them are things that I’ve seen high schoolers try (again, before I intervened in their favor!). Let’s make sure you’re not getting in your own way of success.
6. Put the Finishing Touches on Your Application
If you’ve made it through this post step by step, you’ll soon be equipped to send in your college applications with confidence. But sometimes it can still be mentally/emotionally hard to click “Submit”! How can you be sure that you’ve done absolutely everything you can to make sure that your dream school sees you in your best light? Here’s my final checklist of how to review your application before you send in that fabulous app!
****
Even with all of these written resources, you might still find yourself wanting more info, or a tailored-to-you strategy for your college applications from someone with 13+ years of experience. That’s where I come in!
And if you know of anyone who’ll benefit from this information, please pass this post on to them. It’s a stressful time of year for everyone navigating the college process, and a little expert guidance can really help take the edge off. I’m wishing you luck as we enter the home stretch for these early application deadlines.
