Recapping the College Apps: Part II
I am quite sure that there are 609,000 teenagers who are in a better mood this week. That’s the number of high school seniors who submitted their applications to the California State University system by the November 30 deadline, and if they are like my daughter, Valerie, they are relieved that at least one of their applications is done.
Valerie is especially happy because she submitted her applications to the other schools by the Early Action deadline so she is completely and totally done. We celebrated this achievement with a trip to Nordstrom Rack last weekend.
So besides starting early which I wrote about last week, what did we learn from the college application process?
One thing we learned is that applying to college is a family effort. The amount of work required to apply to the recommended six to 10 schools can be overwhelming. Although I had heard the process was more streamlined now that it is done online, that is really not the case. Each of the private schools required different essays and supplemental applications. Valerie needed support in sorting through the details, and at times, a little prodding from us to keep focused.
There were times it took all three of us, Steve, Valerie and me, to decipher the application requirements from a particular school’s website. And it certainly took Steve’s skills with PhotoShop to put Valerie’s portfolio on a CD that met the school’s criteria for dpi, size, files, etc.
I realize that some of what we encountered is specific to applying as an art major and might not be necessary for students going into engineering or business. But they are still going to need your encouragement when they need some additional information in order to complete the application, and like many teenagers, they are reluctant to pick up the phone and call the admission department for help.
If nothing else, your kid is going to want you close by when it’s time to take out a credit card and pay the $60 application fee per school.
But most importantly, get organized as soon as you can. When you’re applying to several types of schools, such as state schools, UCs, and private schools, keeping track of the various requirements and deadlines is challenging. Valerie made a grid in Excel and it proved to be very helpful because as she began researching the school’s websites, she had a place to record the information Down the left hand side of her grid, she listed the schools she was applying to, and then across the top, a column for application due date, if they required a supplemental app, essay requirements, portfolio requirements, etc. And as she completed each application, it gave her a lot of satisfaction to draw a big, fat line through that school on her chart.
The one column that she didn’t have and that I would recommend adding, is for your major. We had to look at the academic programs offered at each school in order to determine if at a particular school, she should apply as a Graphic Design major, or an Art Major in the Design / Media Arts Department. Perhaps if you’re planning to major in biology, the choice of majors among schools might be more consistent. However, I would certainly recommend researching the websites in advance. It really speeds up the process when you sit down to actually do the application, if you don’t have to stop and go back to the website.
Valerie also made a Pendaflex folder for each school so that she had a place to file any mail she received from a school she was applying to. And once she had paid the application fee and printed out a receipt, it gave her a place to file it. This was a good thing because by the end of the process it was all such a blur that without going back to the file, I had totally forgotten that we had submitted and paid for applications for two schools.
College will start her on the road to independence but her, and probably most high school students, need some help to get started.
