The Nov 1st college application deadline passed a month ago, and seniors are about to start getting some decisions back from colleges. After months of tireless work on Common App and supplemental essays (as well as many visits to Lisa’s office), they are now free to reflect on their experiences and share some advice with future applicants.
To begin, Dan Rosu offered his advice in the form of interpretive dance.
Hannah Song recommends, “Go to Lisa, pray, and practice your coping mechanisms… it’s really an emotional battle.”
Rohail Aamar and Luke Fahnestock had similar advice: “Start early and don’t procrastinate.”
Deven Galvez thinks the key is starting your personal statement early.
“I think what helped me a lot was just getting my personal statement done in the summer so I could focus a lot more time on the supplementals,” Galvez said.
Cora Lewis-Patterson encourages a more thoughtful approach to college applications, “Make sure you’re doing research into what kind of place you want to go to; don’t just apply to Ivies.”
For guaranteed admission, Ben Newman had excellent advice, “Do what those girls at UCLA did, just pay money, donate a building or something.”
David Black suggests a unique approach: “Don’t apply to any safeties, just apply to one college. Put all your eggs in one basket, that way you can relax early.”
Yusef Aboukhatwa says to save energy where you can, “My advice is to recycle essays, and only try on the colleges you care about.”
My personal advice is to do a summer program at the school of your choice and then get admitted early so you don’t have to do any applications at all.
Take some of this advice with a grain of salt, but the main takeaways are this: start early, talk to Lisa when you can, and make sure you pick the college that’s right for you, even if it’s not an Ivy. And most importantly, do what you can to preserve your sanity in a time of great chaos and unknown.