If you are applying to college and you want to know all the steps you need to take to totally crush your college applications, in this blog, I’m going to jump into what you should be doing during the fall semester, how you should be calendaring things out, how much time you should allot for all of your essays, and all that kind of good stuff.
I would say over half of my students are at least applying to top 10 colleges, and I get lots of students that are hyper competitive trying to do their best and stand out. So I will say there’s a caveat here, that all of my advice is with the idea that you’re trying to make your applications the best they can be. If you’re applying to schools with 89% admit rates like Arizona State University, you might not need to be as on top of all of your essays as I suggest in this video. So, you can take that with a grain of salt. But in general, these are the steps that I recommend students map out and figure out when they’re on this journey during the fall.
Ask for Letters of Recommendation
The first thing that I’m going to say just because we’re already mid-September right now: make sure by the first week of school, if possible, you ask two teachers plus your counselor for letters of recommendation. We have a whole video on letters of recommendation. Most of the time, when you’re applying to college, at least some of the schools you’re going to be applying to will require or recommend letters of recommendation. So, I recommend that you get that taken care of as soon as school starts so that you get your requests out there. Oftentimes, schools will have a whole process for this. They’ll make you fill out an information form, etc. If you haven’t done that yet, get on that right away.
Make a College List With Deadlines
The second tip is to make a college list with deadlines. So we have something for you, which is our college spreadsheet template. You can download this for free at supertutortv.com/free. In the video, you can see that at the top of the template, I have application priorities. This is just where I really want to go to college, and it is just tracking stuff for me. So, I can track all of these dates and then mark off when an application is sent.
You can see here that I have the names of the schools, and I have far reach, reach, and fit. And you can customize this to your list. I also have a data section, but this is from 2020. You can go ahead and look up all of this data so that you have it, but you don’t absolutely need all of this data. Obviously, it’s more important that you’re tracking whether you have sent your application and when things are due. You can put total tuition and fees and total cost of attendance with aid estimated. So you can do a cost calculator at each of these schools with your parents or however you want to do it. Oftentimes with my students, moms and dads will actually fill out this part for them if they’re being supportive and they want to help out just to get all that data in here.
If you care about rankings, you can put that in there. Does it have Coalition? Does it have Common App? Sometimes my students like to track this because Common App has a limit of 20 applications, and some of my students want to apply to 25 schools. And so they’re looking for a couple to throw into the Coalition App.
When does the application open? And then if you have early action deadlines, single choice early action, etc., you can fill in other important dates. The other thing that I put in here is an essay Google Doc link. We’re going to talk about making a Google Doc for all of your essay prompts in a little bit. But if you track all this information, it’s going to give you one organized place where all your college stuff is.
The other thing that you need to do is, once you kind of have all of this in, you need to start adding these dates to your calendar. If you’re going to apply to Stanford, single-choice early action, you’ll want to add the November 1st deadline on the calendar. And then we’re going to work back from that to make sure that you have everything done on time. So start adding all these dates to the calendar. If you have other important dates, like an art supplement that’s due or a date by which you need to submit your SAT score, you can put that kind of stuff in here. And again, all of that also needs to go on your calendar. Applying early decision, if you have the ability to do so, can be a really great way to increase your chances of admission to really competitive universities. I’m not going to get really deep into it, but if you need clarification on any of those terms, make sure you figure that out. And make sure you have your plan together in terms of where you’re going to apply early action, regular decision, early decision, etc. That’s kind of a big one, so I recommend that you try to get this together by the first two weeks of September.
Make a Document With Written Prompts for Each College
Number three: once you have your list all ready and together, I want you to make a Google document for each college with all of the essay prompts, short answer questions, and anything you have to type into the application. I’ll have one for Stanford, one document for USC, etc. I do this for every college. You want to make sure that you’re getting that information, ideally, either from the Common App itself or from the official website. Be careful if you’re working through the Common App. I sometimes have students who will pull things from the Common App and they’ll miss a section because there might be a short answer question section or an additional information box or something else that they’re missing. Make sure you have everything there. Make sure you also know your word limits or your character limits. It’s really important as you write that you have those in mind because they come into play a lot. A lot of times you do not have as much space as you wish to write everything you want to write, and then it becomes a challenge of writing 300 words and then finding a way to make those 200 words. But make those Google documents, and then you can start to churn through those essays.
Write Your Essays
Step four is to write your essays. How much time do you need for your essays? My recommendation is probably about three hours to write a first draft of the Common App. And I would say a one- to two-hour budget for any other essays that are anywhere from about 200 words to 500 words, depending on how quickly it comes to you. For rewrites, you also want to book time. Almost all of my students are doing at least three drafts of every essay, meaning they have a first draft, a second draft, and then they polish. With the Common app, sometimes it’s up to five or six. First draft, throw that out almost completely because it was really crappy and I was just unearthing all my memories. Outline and second draft, and that’s the real first draft. Then we have a real second draft. Then we’re going to weave in another story, a third draft, and finally we get to a polish. It’s much more time-consuming sometimes for that Common Application essay, so make sure you put multiple drafts in your calendar. I recommend putting in at least four calendar time slots to work on your Common App and at least three calendar time slots for every other essay. Again, I recommend at least one to two hours for that first draft of a 250- to 500-word essay. And then subsequently, you want 30 minutes to an hour for each revision. So start to map it out and figure out all the essays you have to write, and start to stick all of that time in your calendar. Calendar it out, guys, and make sure you reserve that time so you have the time to write.
The biggest mistake that I find students make when it comes to writing their essays is that they don’t write; they worry. They spend too much time worrying, thinking they need a brainstorm. I have so many kids that come to me and ask me to help them brainstorm. You have to be the one to brainstorm, but I can help you look through your brainstorming. I can help you look through your drafts and make decisions. You have to do the unearthing. It’s your brain; it’s your mind. You have to dig everything up and do the work. So if you’re not sure about something, just start writing and see where it goes. Then step back to look at what you’ve written and block off the time. There’s also no rule that says you have to do the Common app first and the supplement second. You can do it in either order, especially if you’re feeling writer’s block or stuck, and sometimes the supplements are easier to write first. But above all, write, write, write, and don’t be afraid. And then also don’t be afraid to write long and cut down. Oftentimes the best essays were 20 to 50% longer than the actual essay is supposed to be. That’s totally fine; it’s totally normal.
Get Feedback and Edit Your Essays
Step five is to get feedback and edit. You’re going to be editing your essays, but you need to find someone to read your essays. I realize that not everybody can afford a private essay coach, and that’s fine. We do have them if you’re looking for one, and I am one, but libraries often have open tutoring or open college essay workshops. It could be your aunt, your uncle, your cousin, your mom, your dad, your older sister, or any family members of some sort. It could be your English teacher or someone else you know. Worst-case scenario, Grammarly Pro should at least be reading your essays, but ideally another human being. And that human being doesn’t have to be a genius.
Why do you need someone to read your essays? Sometimes students write in ways that are confusing. Sometimes people won’t even know what you’re talking about. Anybody can catch those kinds of issues even if they’re not a professional writer. And you’re going to get feedback so that you realize that maybe you were being confusing or unclear. It’s really important that other eyes read your essay in some way—ideally a human being, not just ChatGPT or Grammarly Pro. If you feel like the people in your life do not have grammar experience, then Grammarly Pro plus them is probably a good move. As you edit your essays, remember to take a critical eye, and it is normal to reduce the size of your essay by at least 20%. I would say all the best essays are always getting cut down because we naturally write in a pithier way than necessary. So plan to overwrite and cut down; that’s usually the way to write the best essays.
Make a List of All Your Activities
Number six, I want you to make a list of activities in Google Docs and paste them into the Common App later. So when it comes to your activities, it’s really important that you write them in a Google Doc or a word processor that is not the Common App. I’ve heard horror stories of people typing into that straight, so don’t do that. You want to try to get those together too, and again, something to add to your calendar. Find the days when you have time to do it. It probably will take you at least two hours to do all this, maybe four, depending on how many activities you have and how complicated it is, and to boil them down into something shorter. If you run out of space, you always have the additional information section where you can bleed into and add additional details if you need it. Position leadership description is 50 characters, organization names are 100 characters, and you get 150 characters for your activity description. So use it wisely and be consistent.
Print Out Your Essays to Proofread
Number seven is to print it out and proofread it. Before you click go and pay the money and do all that, make sure you proofread your application. I suggest printing it out physically and then going through with a marker. Ideally, you read it and somebody else reads it.
Complete Financial Aid Documentation
And finally, eight is financial aid documentation. Worry about getting all of this other stuff done first. The financial aid documentation is not due by November 1st, like all of the early application deadlines are. It’s due a little bit later, and you can note what those deadlines are for each college, but usually you have a little bit more time. So get the applications in first, or at least the first round of applications. A lot of applications are going to be due early January, but again, I recommend focusing on the application first and the financial documents second. You can also sometimes get your parents to help with those financial documents because they have to fill out all their tax information. Anyway, a lot of times, that’s not the students unless you’re a non-traditional student.
I hope you guys enjoyed this blog, and I hope it gave you a little bit of inspiration for getting on your calendar right now and writing down deadlines and writing down goals. Good luck with this process!
