Hi Seniors! There are quite a few things you should be doing now to make sure you’re ready to submit those apps come November. Here are a few key things you be sure to get done this month!
Order your transcripts
Go see your guidance counselor, they will have a form for ordering your transcripts to be sent to all your colleges. Follow the instructions to a tee, and do it right away! Many high schools will have you pay for this. It’s usually around $3-5 per transcript.
Check your transcript
It’s important that you see your transcript with your own eyes so you can ensure it doesn’t have any errors or omissions. In my experience, 1-2 out of 10 transcripts have errors, so always double check! Your counselor is too busy to check this for you and realistically, you’re the only person who can spot flaws, so do this now because if you find a mistake it can take a few weeks for your school to fix it.
Finish those essays!
Hopefully, you’ve hammered out most of your college essays by now, but if you haven’t, now is the time to get em’ done! Make sure to re-use essays where you can, and to have a parent or trusted adult edit them before you submit.
Finish up ED/EA apps
If you’re applying Early Decision or Early Application, you should be finishing up the essays for those apps and filling out the applications themselves. Read and re-read them before you submit and then have someone you trust proof-read, just for good measure. 🙂
Begin filling out your Common App
Once you’ve submitted your early apps, start filling out your Common App. Then have your trusted person of choice proofread your entire Common App. That step is key because they are awesome at remembering little details you may forget since you are juggling so many balls.
Try to make all of your usernames and passwords the same–it really helps. Keep these on a list. You will work, save and log out many times, so remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint.
Onward, team!
2 Responses
I just found your site & was reading earlier posts from August. There seems to be conflicting advice as to attaching a resume in the ‘Additional Info’ section. On Aug. 1 you said: “This section is NOT for: you to repeat yourself by saying what the main essay or the Activities page already said, or to add extra words to your main essay, OR TO PUT YOUR RESUME, or (God, forbid) for your parents to write something (AWFUL idea.) Keep to the point, stay in the parameters of the application, do your own work, remember to stay within the 650 word limit and use this space if there is something else that you need to say.
Then, on Aug. 3 you said: “You can also upload a response here if you have a special situation that you need to share with the colleges. If you would like to upload both your resume and a special explanation, then attach one to the other in one Word doc and upload that.
Are students better off attaching a resume in this section or not? Thanks for your help/clarification.
Thank you for noticing this ambiguity. The second answer is referring to a school specific writing supplement page. Now resumes are only to be uploaded on a school writing supplement page that specifically allows them, not in the special circumstances section of the general common app.