By Roshwitha Buduri, Staff Writer
With a week before early action deadlines, Seniors of River Hill High School are finding themselves at one of the heights of applying to colleges. The daunting deadline of November 1st is highlighted by the red reminders on their Common App and other applications, noting the number of days left before their hard work is due.
This moment for Seniors is critical. Early action deadlines provide applicants with a small upper hand in the decision-making process. It also gives them access to scholarships that lessen the large tuition expenses that they’ll have to pay each year for the college they choose. However, early action isn’t available in all colleges. For example, Johns Hopkins University only provides two early decisions and a regular decision. In others such as the University of Pittsburgh, rolling admissions is the main way future undergraduates can apply throughout the year with the hard deadline in the next spring. Howard Community College has a similar type of admission called open access where anyone with a high school diploma can be admitted. Some seniors prioritize early action for more colleges than others.
For senior Ella Wang, she knows that she has a ton of colleges to get through. However, only a few are early action. “I am applying to twenty colleges in total. Seven of them are early action,” Wang says.
Starting in August, Wang has been working on her applications in hopes of getting a head start. She believes that the hardest part about writing her essays was brainstorming and coming up with ideas. Wang says, “I do get help from my parents, they look over my essays. I also have a consultant who helps edit my essays and gives feedback as well.”
At this point in the process, Wang knows what worked best for her. Beginning early in the process allowed her to brainstorm to write for her colleges during the fall. “It helped me organize what I wanted to do for essays and categorize them based on essay buckets so I don’t have to rewrite each prompt and I can reuse them.”
Her struggle was with the SAT. She understands she’s not a very good test taker, so she opted to apply to only test-optional colleges. Her strengths are found in her GPA and extracurriculars.
Wang’s advice for underclassmen is to start early and take advice from others. She notes, “It would be good if you could build your resume throughout high school so that you have a set of ideas that you can write with.”
While many seniors go through the process with bumps, some situations can make a huge dent in the college process. Senior Isabella Carniero, who just moved from New Hampshire, says that her experience of applying to college has been altered.
Due to the nine-hour difference, communicating with teachers is especially hard. “I haven’t reached out to my teachers to write my college recommendations, because my teachers are at other schools—in a different state. I wanted to ask them in person.”
Over the week of PSAT exams, due to the extended break for seniors, Carneiro attempted to visit her old School, but was denied. “I went during the school day to ask them, but the office didn’t let me in so I got their emails.”
She says the hardest part for her was choosing colleges that she wanted to apply to and figuring out her major. Thankfully, her family and friends have been able to help her. “It’s been made a bit easier because my dad helps me, both my brothers already went to college, so they know what’s happening. I also watched as my friends wrote their college essays early so I got to know how that process worked.”
“My biggest worry is not getting everything together before I have to send in my applications, especially getting those teacher recommendations on time and making the decision of what I want to major in as well,” Carneiro states. Her biggest advice for those applying to early decision is starting early and sticking to a schedule. “What worked best for me was planning things out and scheduling times to sit down and do stuff.”
College applications create a stressful time for many seniors on top of their school workload and extracurricular activities. But, seniors should remember that parents, teachers, and friends can all look over drafts and essays, reducing stress. Wang concludes her advice by saying, “It’s not a bad thing to get a lot of feedback from other people.”