Learn about how to successfully complete your college application!
August 1st, 2020 Writer: Misheal Saah Editor: Trisha Ramanan College
Starting your college applications, especially with limited guidance as an FGLI student, can be both intimidating and difficult. It’s a very demanding process that could end up wearing you out and making you feel hopeless at times due to a lack of available and reliable resources that can help you through this long procedure. Here are a few helpful tips that helped me and many others in completing applications and making the process as easy and manageable as possible.
Start planning out early! The earlier you start completing steps and planning out your path, the easier it’ll be to actually apply when you’re in the middle of the semester and occupied with other things like a job, extracurriculars, and school work. As a rising senior, start looking at colleges you’re interested in attending. A way you could start this process is by listing out colleges in the following groups: safety, target, and reach schools. College applications cost quite a bit of money so narrowing down your list beforehand could help you save money and decrease the amount of essays and documents you’ll be responsible for sending to colleges. In my experience, I applied to a total of five schools. I had less to worry about because I knew that my safety school (UT Austin) would be just as satisfactory as my reach schools, so I eliminated the target schools from my list, cutting the total cost of applications. The rest of my list were four reach schools (MIT, Stanford, Yale, Princeton). Before applying make sure you’re taking cost, distance from home, climate, and opportunities in the area into consideration.
Next, it is important that you look at the programs offered at your list of schools and whether or not they meet your criteria for what you’re looking to major in. Don’t worry, you don’t need to know exactly what you’ll major in, but it’s always a good idea to know what you may be interested in pursuing. Looking at the programs offered is also a great way to arrow down your list of schools.
During the summer, if you haven’t already started, definitely spend some time writing your main college essays. You can find the prompts on the websites for the type of application you’ll be filling out. These essays should reflect you, your upbringing as well as something meaningful that you’ve learned from your experiences and such. Your essays should be unique to you. One way to make them stand out is to “show and not tell”. This helps the admission officers visualize your story and it helps build a connection to the reader. Be honest in your essays. Show your true self, what you value, and the things you deeply care about. Remember that an admission officer's job is to see if you’re a good fit for the college, and if the college will be a good fit for you. Your main goal in this process should be to find a place that you can feel secure, challenged, and motivated to pursue your target.
Many reach schools tend to have supplemental essays. The key to these essays is not repeating what’s already been mentioned in your main essays unless you ABSOLUTELY have to. These will most likely reflect your interests and how you spend your time developing said interests. Although supplements between schools may look different, don’t write a different supplement essay for each school. You can recycle the same ideas that you’ve communicated between each school, and at times you’ll find that you can copy and paste an essay for two or more schools because they reflect essentially the same prompt. Work smart, not hard. Another piece of advice for these supplements is to look up what each college says about themselves, so that if you find something that matches with what you stand for and want to be a part of you can emphasize this in your essays.
For FG/LI students, I recommend the Questbridge Application as a way to apply to colleges, if you qualify for the program. They provide 12 free applications to colleges that are in the program and if you become a Questbridge Finalist you’ll be matched with one college on a full-ride scholarship! For more information on a Questbridge Application, check out their website for more information. Other than Questbridge, you’ll likely be filling out an application through the Common App which allows you to use one application to send to multiple colleges (at a fee)
Complete important forms and documents ASAP! This includes your FAFSA/TAFSA (for undocumented individuals), CSS form, and each respective college’s financial aid form (if they offer one). You’ll need multiple documents to complete the following. Here’s what you’d need to complete a FAFSA form: “To complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®), you will need:
Your Social Security Number Your Alien Registration Number (if you are not a U.S. citizen)
Your federal income tax returns, W-2s, and other records of money earned. (Note: You may be able to transfer your federal tax return information into your FAFSA using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.) Bank statements and records of investments (if applicable) Records of untaxed income (if applicable) An FSA ID to sign electronically. If you are a dependent student, then you will also need most of the above information for your parent(s).”
Scholarships and grants will be your best friend in this process. Thinking about being able to afford post-secondary education can bring stress on you and your family especially being a low-income student. Start finding scholarships and grants now, the sooner the better. Many will require essays so if you can recycle college essays for scholarships it’ll save you a lot of time and effort. Apply to all kinds of scholarships, whether big or small ($500 hundred dollars can go a long way in a semester of college). The best way to organize your scholarships is by creating a spreadsheet organized by deadlines that you can check off as you go. Another place to look for extra money is by asking if your company or your parent’s company offers grants and scholarships for students heading to college! There are many that do, and not enough people who ask, so you’ll likely be able to secure some money to help you pay for college. Below is a link to a Mega List of Scholarships to apply to: https://collegesofdistinction.com/advice/the-mega-list-of-scholarships-you-should-apply-for-class -of-2019-2020/
Best of luck with your college applications and know that no matter where you end up, you’re still fully capable of achieving your goals!