College applications are really confusing

Anum Khan, a student at Whitney High School in Cerritos, writes:

In less than two months, I will have applied to all my colleges.

Meaning no more writing essays. No more agonizing over short answers. No more wondering which activity to put and which to leave out. No more analyzing my chances of getting in.

In other words, no more stressing.

From now until the end of December is the high point of senior stress. UC applications are due Nov. 30, and USC's is due Dec. 1 (for scholarship consideration).

After lots of speculation and serious consideration, but mostly because our counselor required us to finalize our colleges two weeks ago, I’ve finally finalized my list, which includes UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, USC, as well as my out-of-state schools (more on that later).

Forms, forms, forms

First, I had to submit all my forms for recommendation letters to my teachers, as well as a secondary school transcript request to my counselor.

Our school also had a workshop on how to get these forms, when to submit them, how to prepare them, etc. We were even given a mock envelope that told us where to write our name and address, the school’s name and address, and most important, where to affix the stamps (because there are just too many seniors who don’t know that stamps go in the upper right-hand corner of anything that has to be mailed).

After staying up until 3 a.m. finishing my activity resume and autobiographical sketch for my counselor and teachers (to help with filling out the letters of recommendation) came the actual application.

The actual application

It seems kind of weird that it’s in the fourth part of my series on applying to college that I’m talking about the actual application.

That’s because the term "college application" ought to be synonymous with confusion. It seemed easy enough when I started on my UC and USC applications. I made an account, and slowly started filling out all the information needed.

I started with the things I couldn’t change (bio data, grades, test scores), then got into the short answers, and finally the essay (which unfortunately hasn’t been finalized yet).

Though looking through a drop-down list to find the classes that I took may seem easy enough, it’s not.

In the USC application, for example, there’s the option for Spanish 2 H and Spanish II H, which seem to be the same class. But this doesn’t even stay consistent, as the level three choices are Spanish III Honors and Spanish III H.

After chatting with some of my friends, we decided to just choose the class that looks the best. Spanish II H and Spanish III Honors it is.

Next came the problem of my classes not all fitting in the space provided. Because journalism and Model United Nations are once a week at our school, we get graded for them, but they don’t take up extra space in our schedule. The USC application, however, only has two spaces for electives (which are filled by ceramics and PE for me).

Side note: if you’re a USC admissions officer, please don’t hate me for bagging on your app. I’m sure the other private school ones are more confusing, but I haven’t started on them yet!

Essays   

Essay writing is what takes the bulk of time in the applications, however. It seems that every day someone is talking about changing their essay topic, adding a new angle to it, or saying how their essay is way too cliché. And there’s always the problem of being tempted to thesaurus every last adjective, or to pad one’s resume a tad too much (going back to your stack of awards you won in elementary school to find the star student award for the third week in March that you won may be a little too much).

But on a serious note, however slowly my application filing is going, I’m happy that it is going.

Slowly, the forms that decide where I will spend the next four years of my life have started coming together. For now, it’s mostly a matter of fine-tuning the essays, double checking grades and activity information, and keeping my fingers crossed.

Until some time in March that is.

Comments

[David Montan]

Nice blog. Education is important and has become even more important in this recession. People need college now more than ever ... not to get a new job but to keep the job they currently have. Competition for the few open jobs that are available is fierce and people that are undereducated are finding it impossible to get a decent job. Go into your local fast food joint and see how many middle aged people are moonlighting to make ends meet.

[Josh Bielin]

Two sites that I use to help reduce the stress and more closely inspect schools I'm applying to:

1) http://www.collegedata.com/ - Roughly predicts chances of admission

2) http://www.mychances.net/ - Roughly predicts chances of admission. Has a hit-or-miss, but free, essay feedback service.

Of course, now I spend too much time on these sites commiserating and too little time actually completing my apps.