My College Process Experience

As my college process is slowly coming to an end, I have gotten some requests about me sharing my college process experience. The past few years have been an emotional roller coaster ride for me. I unofficially began my college process my sophomore year of high school when I met with an outside college counselor. This is quite early, I am not going to lie. However, since my twin sister and I are the eldest in our family, my parents wanted to get a head start and begin the process since it was new for all four of us. I only met with my college counselor three times a year to begin writing personal essays, talk about colleges I wanted to see/ apply to, and analyze my grades and standardized test scores in order to see where I potentially qualified.

One thing I wish my school and their college counselors told me and my classmates is that good grades are crucial your freshman and sophomore years as well as your junior and senior year because they determine your whole high school career in regards to what classes (honors and advanced placements) you are allowed to take.

Sophomore, junior, and the beginning of my senior year were full of standardized test prep and taking the tests. I spent every single hour that I had free either doing homework or test prep. My Saturday morning's consisted of taking the SAT, ACT, and subject tests. By the October 2016 I was sick of it and emotionally exhausted.

Junior year once a school cycle, I took a college counseling class which was an introduction to what would happen in the upcoming year, and what exactly the whole college process was. Towards the end of my junior year, I was assigned my school counselor, and we met to discuss what schools I was interested in applying to, and what she thought would be the best fit for me. By this time, I had a general idea of where I wanted to apply, and I was excited to start applying to schools.

During the summer, I gradually began writing and revising (many times) my Common Application essay and other college supplements. I highly recommend starting these as early as possible if you know where you want to apply because it saves you a lot of time when you go back to school.  I also did three on-campus interviews even though only one of my schools I applied to required it . I highly recommend doing this as well because it is an easy way to show demonstrated interest for the school, and the college representatives get to meet and talk to you in person. They also get to learn more about you than what is written in one college essay.

The beginning of my senior year I was finalizing my college supplements, and filling out all of my personal information for each school on the Common App. I only applied to 5 schools which is not a lot in comparison to other girls who apply to 8-12 schools. So far everything has gone well for me, and I am glad to see that my hard work has truly paid off.  One thing that I have taken away from this experience is that everything happens for a reason. If you get differed or rejected from a school, it is not meant to be. Although it may be devastating that you don't get into your dream school at the time, it's ok because God has a different plan for you.

xoxo,