Getting In and Beyond

I've noticed that this blog might be incredibly unhelpful if you're not an upperclassmen, so I thought I could take the time to give some underclassmen some college-related advice. Obviously, being a freshman and sophomore is stressful enough (trust me, I've been there). But here are some things I recommend you do during these two years as you start to barrel towards your junior year. As a Freshman... 1. Toy around with career interests, and maybe the kind of schools that could fit those tentative plans. I get it. You're fourteen. Senior year is far away. Even my eager self who jumped at a career path in my sophomore year had no idea what she wanted to do when she was a freshman. At the same time, you don't want to be a senior approaching college apps without any clue of what your career interests are. Take the time as a freshman to just lightly consider it. It's probably been itching at the back of your head at some point, right? 2. Meet with your counse...

Hey, congrats on being a senior! Senior year is super exciting yet incredibly nerve-wracking, so hopefully these tips will help you alleviate that stress a little bit as you start your last first couple of weeks of school (if that makes sense). 1. Request transcripts. Your school takes time to process this kind of stuff! As far as I know, it's free to request and send out transcripts, so there's no harm in sending them out. If you decide to not apply to a school that you requested a transcript for, that's fine (though disclaimer: don't get all willy-nilly with that). Make sure you have all your papers in order. My school requires a signed form from a parent or guardian authorizing transcripts to be released, and that takes a lot of time to process, so make sure you actually can request a transcript before it's too late. 2. Turn in rolling admissions apps (if you haven’t done so at this point). Rolling admission applications are by far the most straightforward....

College app season really hits off in the summer (and not in the fall). Put the right foot forward with this suggested list of things to do the summer before your senior year! 1. Make a significant dent into those college app essays. Most colleges release their supplemental prompts and essays during this time. Get on top of those so as to avoid procrastination during the school year! If most of your schools are through the Common Application, then it's probably in your best interest to prioritize that big one over the smaller ones. I'll have some advice about writing your college essays in a later post, so be on a lookout for that! 2. Get a job, internship, and/or some career-related experience. Now that you shouldn't  have to worry about standardized testing (more on that later), you can actually focus on earning money or gaining valuable experience and perspective on what you want to do in the future. For example, I got a job as a cashier at my local grocery st...