Senior Year

Your goal for the beginning of your senior year is to fine-tune your college list, removing schools that, after further study, do not match your criteria, while adding new schools. There is no magical "right" number of schools to apply to; however, it is important to apply to at least one or two schools to which we are certain that you will gain admission. We would prefer that you apply to about six schools; however, some students have applied to as many as 15 schools.

Aim high! Don't be afraid you will be denied by one or more colleges. One school of thought is that if you're accepted everywhere, you haven't aimed high enough! Although we can usually predict the likelihood of gaining admission to most colleges, it is impossible to make these predictions for the most selective colleges in the nation. These schools have an abundance of qualified applicants. As a result, their admissions committees are often looking for qualities other than the purely academic, such as excellence in the arts, leadership potential, or athletics.

The Visit

Like everything else, you cannot assume you understand how a visit to one college works because you have visited another college. If there is only one message that we communicate on this website, it is that every college's admissions process is unique. Expectations, selectivity, deadlines, and financial aid requirements all differ from one college to the next. Even how a school conducts a visit will vary from college to college.

The Initial Contact

Often the information you receive from a college will include details about a campus visit. Many schools have specific times set aside for tours and/or for information sessions. The larger the school, the more impersonal the process. However, even some large schools will also provide you the opportunity to talk to teachers and/or administrators in the major in which you are interested. Don't hesitate to request anything. At smaller schools you may receive a personal tour. In addition, many schools will require or encourage an interview. This is important to know before you visit the campus so that you can call to set up an appointment for an interview. An alternate way of obtaining information about college visits is through the college's website. During your visit, request an interview with a specific coach or teacher in your field of interest. That person may turn out to be your advocate with the admissions committee.

Make sure a college knows you are interested. Visit, write follow-up thank you notes, contact local alumni, and talk with the visiting college representative. Some colleges actually keep track of the number of contacts you make.

The Tour

Make good use of the tour. The tour provides a great opportunity to ask questions of an undergraduate student who is currently attending the college. Look at the list of possible questions that we have given you in class. Listen to the responses to other students' questions as well. You should enter the tour with a few specific questions to ask. These questions should focus on those things that are important to you (weekend social life, food, the quality of dorm life, the relationship between students and teachers, co-op programs, etc.). Keep good notes that reflect your impressions of each school.

Local Visits

Representatives from many colleges visit campus throughout the year, usually in the fall. Attending these meetings is an excellent way for juniors and seniors to familiarize themselves with specific colleges and their application process. In order to attend these meetings, most of which occur in our office, a student must obtain a pass from one of the counselors or from Ms. Blow and give it to the classroom teacher prior to the meeting. An updated list of visiting colleges—as well as colleges holding gatherings around the city—may be obtained from the college counseling calendar.

The Application

Deadlines

Pay very close attention to deadlines. Unfortunately, every college has its own unique set of deadlines. These range from very rigid early deadlines for some of the most selective colleges to no deadlines for colleges that have an open admission policy. Some colleges have several deadlines, depending on whether you apply early decision, early action, or regular admission.

Types Of Admission

Early Decision

If you are certain that you want to attend a specific college, that college may allow you to apply early decision. Deadlines for early-decision candidates are usually in either November or December. If you are accepted under this plan, you are committed to that college, so you must be careful when applying early decision. Some colleges have early and late early-decision deadlines.

Early Action

Some colleges use a non-binding early-action plan. Using this plan, the college will tell you that you are accepted early in the year; however, you are not required to make a commitment until May.

Rolling Admission

Many colleges will inform you of whether you are accepted or rejected within weeks of receiving your application; this is why it is so advantageous to apply early. It's always reassuring to have an acceptance in your pocket while you are waiting for an acceptance from another college that may not respond until March or April. Schools that use rolling admission will not require you to respond until the common reply deadline.

Some schools - especially state universities - with rolling admission may run out of spaces or housing options earlier than you expect, so do not delay just because there isn't a specific deadline. In addition, some colleges may be harder to get into in January than in September.

Regular Admission

Except through early decision and early action, the more selective colleges will not inform you of your acceptance until late March or April.

Applications

Some applications are very easy to fill out while others, requiring multiple essays, will take hours to complete. Give yourself plenty of time to fill these out. We would like all applications turned in by the end of Thanksgiving vacation, although many are not due until January or February. These must be turned in to the 700 counselor reference forms to complete, and so you must give us plenty of time to complete your counselor recommendation. At Episcopal, we send out the complete application, transcript, and recommendations in one packet.

A few colleges use a two-part application, requiring you to send in the first part earlier than the second. Some schools will not even send you the second part until they have received the first part from you. Just think that there are as many different procedures as there are colleges, and you will be safe!

Test Scores

Episcopal does not send your test scores to any college; each student is responsible for sending his or her own scores.

Common Application

Many colleges accept the Common Application. This same application can be used for scores of colleges. After submitting this application, some colleges will then send you some additional essays to write. You can find the Common Application at www.commonapp.org/.

Filling Out The Application Form

It is best to photocopy your application form and use the copy as a first draft so you can submit a 'clean' application. Most colleges now have an application online. You can download these and fill them out, or some sites will allow you to fill them out online to be printed. If you submit your application online, you must fill out a form in the College Counseling Office and let your counselor know immediately.

Recommendations

Many colleges require recommendations. Most often a college will request a recommendation from any teacher; however, others will specify an English and/or math teacher. Some colleges will allow you to send recommendations from other people who know you well (minister, coach, boy scout leader, etc.).

Essays

Essays are required by both the smaller and the most selective colleges. During your junior year you were required to start an essay in your college counseling class. This essay may still be relevant; however, it is possible that the writing topic required by your college will not coincide with the essay topics on the Common Application. Make sure you save whatever essays you write because essays required by other colleges may be similar.

Make sure you write a first draft of your essay. Give it to your college advisor and to an English teacher to proofread before it is sent.

The college essay enables the admissions office to evaluate a student's thinking and writing skills as well as to learn more about a student as a person. The essay can reveal a great deal about an applicant's values, attitudes, imagination, and creativity. The following advice was given in a pamphlet prepared by the admissions office at Randolph-Macon College concerning the writing of the college essay:

Do:
  • Do think small and write about something that you know about.
  • Do reveal yourself in your writing.
  • Do show rather than tell. By giving examples and illustrating your topic, you help bring it to life.
  • Do write in your own voice or style.
Don't:
  • Don't write about what you think others will want to read.
  • Don't exaggerate or write to impress.
  • Don't use a flowery, inflated, or pretentious style.
  • Don't neglect the technical part of your essay (grammar, spelling, sentence structure).
  • Don't ramble. Say what you have to say and conclude.
Activities Lists

Most colleges will require that you list activities that you have been involved in both here at school and in the community. You should build this list over a period of time. Believe it or not, many students forget some of their most important activities when, pressured by time, they fill out their applications at the last minute.

For many schools, such as Florida State University, it is much more effective to send a separate resume than try to fill in the forms provided.

That Special Talent

Colleges certainly like well-rounded students; however, often what they are looking for even more is the student who has a special talent or displays excellence in one area or another. In other words, the student who has volunteered 1,000 hours for a local agency, the all-state trumpet player, or the junior editor for a local newspaper has a significant advantage over the student who has done a little bit of everything.

It is important to make sure the college to which you apply is aware of your special talent. Write about it in your essay, submit local newspaper articles that focus on it, or have adult advisors write about it in their recommendations. Although we know each of you very well, don't assume that we will remember everything that you have accomplished.

The Decision

After everything is submitted, the only thing left to do is wait! It is a good idea to apply to at least one school that has rolling admission so that you hear from one school earlier in the year. Many very selective schools will not let you know whether you have been admitted until late March or early April.

How does a college make its decision? The criteria used will vary from college to college. Most college handbooks will list the relative importance each college places on such factors as SAT scores, grades, recommendations, etc. The best things for you to do is build as strong a set of credentials as you can over four years and then to make sure that the college knows just how good you are.

Most very selective colleges have many more qualified applicants than they can accept. A rejection may not mean that the college feels that you cannot do the work. These very selective colleges may be looking for a specific trait or quality. Few students get into a very selective college on grades and SAT scores alone.

Some students are placed on a waiting list that basically means that the college wants you but does not have the room. After they get responses from accepted students, most schools accept a few students from the waiting list.

How Do You Decide?

If you have been fortunate to be accepted by more than one college, you then have to make the decision! Create a list of all of the pros and cons of attending each school. This may help to eliminate some. Most colleges have visitation days. Take advantage of these; however, do not be limited by these dates alone. Don't hesitate to visit at other times. In addition, if the college allows you to stay overnight, do so. Sometimes the college that looks good during the day grows warts at night.

Colleges will usually inform you of your financial aid award between April 1 and May 1. This may be a key factor in your decision-making. You will need to reply to your first choice college by May 1. Make sure you inform all other colleges to which you have applied about your decision to go elsewhere. Remember that you are well prepared for all of the colleges to which you have been accepted. Look for the college that has the right "feel"; however, also challenge yourself. U.S. News & World Report allows you to compare your college choices at this site: www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/coworks.htm.

Financing College

Like everything relating to the college admissions process, there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to financing a college education. Just as important, what is good advice today may not apply tomorrow. The situation can change each year.

Different advice applies to different people. As an example, parents who will qualify for need-based aid and those who will not probably should approach the whole process very differently. If you are not sure if you will qualify, look at the College Board web site. The site includes an excellent program that will allow you to calculate how much a typical college, using the FAFSA form, will determine how much your parents can contribute to your college education (estimated family contribution). An EFC calculator will is available on the FAFSA website.

If you will not qualify for need-based aid, perhaps the best thing to do is to have your parents talk to an accountant to determine how you can best save for a college education. Remember that the cost of an education is increasing much more quickly than the cost of living. However, do not give up on receiving some financial aid. Merit scholarships are becoming more and more commonplace for students who are meritorious, either in the classroom, on stage, on the athletic field, or through community service.

If you do qualify for need-based financial aid, you must plan ahead. As an example, when a college is determining how much you and your family can contribute for a year of college education, a much higher percentage of your assets is included than your parents' assets. In other words, if you qualify for need-based aid, it is best to have the college money in your parents' accounts at the time of college entry.

In conclusion, approach the financing of education energetically. Although there are scholarships available in the community, the best sources of both merit and need-based aid is the college to which you are applying. The largest source of financial aid (grants and loans) is the federal government; however, most of this money is obtained through the college to which you have applied. Using all available federal and nonfederal aid, the federal aid administrator at your chosen college will put together a financial aid package that comes as close as possible to meeting your demonstrated need. The financial aid office wants to make college affordable for you, so make sure you use the office as a resource.

A great source to find out information about financing a college education is www.finaid.com

Some sites to find information about merit scholarships: