First Year Focus

Apply Yourself Part 2

Well, I promised there would be a continuation of the "Apply Yourself" series, so here goes.

After the essay, everything else on a college application is pretty straightforward. Name, birthdate, Social Security number -- if you need help with those, college is probably not for you anyway. But there are certain parts of an application, aside from the essay, that can either make you or break you. Here are some tips for handling those tricky items.

First: Make sure you have a relative who donates large amounts of money on a regular basis to the school of your choice. Your mother's-cousin's-husband's-third-cousin-twice-removed might have had an illegitimate affair with Washington Duke's sister? There ya go -- you are officially somewhat related to the Duke family, and thereby their fortune. Be sure to mention this on the application... if you're interested in Duke.

Second: The obvious. Spell things right. Write neatly if you don't type (it's a highly overrated way to fill out an application, unless you have hideous handwriting.) Don't use a red pen. Fill out everything that applies to you, and look carefully... they may ask you to write your name in the right margin of page five, but you'll never know unless you scour the app.

Third: Since most colleges are (technically) academic institutions, while you still have a chance, get to work on those grades. Studying, while overrated and boring, can really help. Doing your work to begin with is also a good thing. But if you're somewhat interested in higher education, you probably already know that.

Fourth: SATs. While most scores on the SAT can't really be increased that much, you might as well try. Take it multiple times, starting early, like sophomore year. Try the PSAT too (although I've found that in some cases, it's actually harder than the SAT.) And a course like the Princeton Review or Kaplan isn't all that bad of an idea, if you think you'll benefit. The main thing is not to worry too much about the SAT. Colleges are interested in your motivation and your capabilities, not how many random thesaurus words you know or how well you can use the Pythagorean theorem to narrow down your choices on a multiple choice exam.

Fifth: Hopefully you aren't so immersed in school that you're ignoring all the other wonderful stuff out there, like sports, clubs, or jobs. Whether it be your local soccer team, the Spanish club, or that pizza-delivery job at the local Domino's, if you like it, just do it. But don't join so many clubs that you don't have time to do your work (or take time for yourself -- I just experienced that last week!) If it's too late for you to augment your app with new things, take what you've done and dress it up a little. Don't lie -- that would be stupid. Instead, mention everything you've done, no matter how piddly the activity or how much you despised it. Your college of choice might just see something on your application and be impressed because it's different from anything else they've seen.

Sixth: Chill. You're just presenting the admissions committee with an opportunity to have you at their school. There are no firing-squads or Spanish Inquisition-type torture devices involved. And if you don't get into your dream school, it's not the end of the world. You'll end up where youre supposed to be.

Seventh: Be sure you pick the right schools. If you feel that a place is perfect for you, then it's likely that they'll feel the same way about you.

Next we'll talk about interviews, precollege experiences on campus, and visiting a school... for now, I'm talking about homework.