Applying to college: the inside story

Anum Khan, a senior at Whitney High School in Cerritos, writes the first in an occasional series about the college application process:

I was as confused as you might be. At Whitney, a college preparatory school, it isn’t a question of whether a person’s going to college, but rather, where.

Only problem is, how do they get there? So I’ve decided to chronicle my process of applying, and maybe make the way clearer for students, who, like me, aren’t exactly sure how to begin, or what to do.

Essay writing

If you’ve been a high school student for more than a day, you’ll know that applying to colleges means writing essays. And from what I’ve heard from past students, lots of them.

That’s why I decided to take a weeklong college writing workshop (for $150) that our school offers, and that I attended last week. While it’s probably not as intense as some of the college consultation coaches that people dish out thousands of dollars for, I thought it would at least give me a starting point.

I started writing my two UC essays, which the teacher critiqued for revision, and though I’ve written four drafts, it’s not done. For the first prompt (“describe the world you come from”), I’m writing about my religion (Islam), and how that’s affected my life. For the second prompt (on a general talent or quality you possess), I’m writing about writing (yes, you read that correctly).

And while I’ve developed and refined my essays, there’s always the possibility that they might not be unique, or as good as you need it to be to get into the college you want.

Consider this: I heard of one person who applied to Princeton with the prompt “what is the most inspirational thing you’ve written?” So he spaced out two pages, and at the bottom wrote “this is.” (And he was accepted).

Though I don’t know if this is true or not, there always seems to be a need to step outside of the box with these essays. An essay with every fifth word thesaurused, and every emotion exaggerated, screams exactly what it is, however: fake.

I think quite a few people, myself included, might be uncertain about their topic or topics, but at some point, you just have to write about whatever comes naturally to you, I’ve decided. It’s like following the old saying “write what you know.”

Our school also makes us have college binders to organize all our college paperwork: letters of recommendation forms, transcripts, scholarship applications, college guidebooks, SAT scores, grant information, college deadlines, essay drafts, checklists for each college, etc. (I could go on for another half a page.) If you don’t have a binder for all this information, I’d definitely recommend it. And while my binder is far from being done, it has begun to take shape. Which shows me how close applying to college is for me, and all the other seniors (scary, isn’t it?).

Choosing colleges

At the writing workshop, we also talked one-on-one with college counselors to discuss our plans, as well as our likelihood of getting into the schools we want to go to (which basically means how close my numbers are to the college’s).

And because I don’t think it’s fair to write a blog about college and not include the schools I’m applying to, I’m going to divulge all that info, but it will have to wait for the next post, which will be dedicated to two acronyms we love considerably less than we’re familiar with: GPAs and SATs.