Applying to College
Andriana talks about her experience with college applications!
Andriana talks about her experience with college applications!
Hi everyone!
I am writing this post on Election Day, and it is stressful! So! I will go back to a simpler time: high school (kinda kidding, kinda not). Specifically, I will share my experience with the college application process, since I know that many seniors are going through this right now. Of course, my experience was a little different since I didn’t have to contend with COVID, but hopefully this will still be helpful.
Here are the facts:
- I applied to 11 schools, nine of which were out-of-state.
- I applied to one school early action, and the rest were regular decision.
- Many of the schools I applied to were small liberal arts schools similar to Carleton, although I applied to three larger public universities.
- I was accepted at five schools and waitlisted at six. (I’m not bitter.)
Moving on.
I’ll start with the number of schools that I applied to, because, let’s be real, 11 is way too many. I know that now.
Did I really want to go to all 11 of these schools? No!
Did part of me think that I needed to apply to 11 in case I didn’t get accepted to 10 of them? Yes.
But seriously, if I could tell you one thing I learned after applying to colleges, it’s that applying to 11 schools was not worth the time or the money that went into the applications.
There were at least four or five schools that I applied to that I wasn’t that interested in, and I either wanted to see if I could get in (not a good reason), or else I wanted to give myself a ton of options (a slightly better reason). Here’s the thing. Everyone says that junior year is the hardest year of high school. This is a lie! It is definitely senior year. You have the same workload as junior year, but with the added work of college applications.
Oof.
Essentially, please do not do what I did — create more work for yourself by applying to a bajillion schools that you have little to no interest in. Sit down with your list, include as many schools as you want, and then start playing the elimination game.
Not that interested? Cut.
Only applying because of the brand name? Cut.
The workload of an application exceeds your interest in the school? Cut.
You get the gist.
(Side note: Going back to that last one. Oh my lord, I nearly applied to a school that had eight supplemental essays. Eight! I had even interviewed for this school already. But I took one look at their Common App page, felt a part of me die a little, and deleted it. Highly recommend! No regrets.)
Moving on!
When applying to schools, there are a few choices: early action (EA), early decision (ED), and regular decision (RD). Carleton only offers ED (which, unlike EA, is binding) and RD. I was not prepared to apply ED anywhere, because I could not commit without knowing about financial aid. I also wanted options! So it is best to not apply ED anywhere unless you know you could afford it without any financial aid, and you are absolutely certain that you want to go to this school.
Most of my schools only offered ED and RD, with only two having EA. In October, I decided that I could not have one of the EA applications done in time, so I applied RD instead. Allow yourself to make changes like this! Do not blindly stick to a plan just because. If the process is overwhelming, drop a few schools. Don’t give it a second thought. Seriously.
I still applied to that one school EA, and I was accepted in January. Besides the slightly higher acceptance rate during EA/ED, I would say that this was the biggest advantage of applying early. It was a relief to know that I had been accepted at a school. Regardless of what happened with the rest of the schools in March, I knew I was going to college.
(Side Note Part II: I didn’t mention this earlier, but please please please have a safety school. You might not really want to go there, you might think it’s not necessary, but just do it. You probably won’t need it, but the application process can be really random. Having that back-up option, a school where you’re extremely confident that you will be accepted, will provide a safety net.)
Moving on! (Again!)
March was a stressful month since that was when I would hear from the other schools I had applied to. I had received a surprise second acceptance in February for a special program at one of the schools, so I was waiting to hear from nine more. In the middle of March, it started to look something like this: Accepted. Waitlisted Waitlisted Waitlisted. Accepted Accepted. Waitlisted. Waitlisted. No decision. No decision?!
Let me explain! I had a surprise ending to my application process. It was real fun. So one school that shall remain nameless lost my application. Again, not naming any names, but it was the only brand name school I had indulged myself by applying to. It was my most expensive application, and the one I had spent the most time on. I was peeved.
So what did it look like when this school lost my application? I never got a letter in the mail. I never got a decision on the portal. Decisions came out on a weekend, so I had to wait until Monday to call. When I did, they said my application was listed as withdrawn. I don’t know who withdrew it, but I most certainly did not. They said they would have a decision to me later that day. Two hours later, I got a notification that I had been waitlisted.
So… I don’t know what happened with that last school. It doesn’t really matter. I was annoyed. I got over it. End of story. I still had received five acceptances and six (5.5?) waitlists, so it was time to start making some decisions. Of the five I was accepted to, one did not give me any financial aid, and one had a larger student body than I wanted. That narrowed my list to three. (See, I can do math!)
Of the other six schools, I decided that I was not interested enough in four of them to stay on their waitlists, so I took my name off. I stayed on two waitlists, just for kicks and giggles. For one of these schools, I never got off the waitlist. For the other, they put me on an extended waitlist, which I didn’t even know was a thing, but yay, I guess. I never get off that one either, though. Oh well.
SO!
Αt the end of our story, we have three schools, one 17-year-old girl, and a looming May deadline. SpOokY (I’m still in the Halloween spirit). How did I make my decision? I was lucky enough that I could visit the schools, though this both simplified and complicated things.
When I visited the first school, an in-state option, I quickly realized that I didn’t really want to go there. Cut.
The final two schools were my Minnesota options: Carleton and, I’ll spill the beans, Macalester. The schools had their options for Accepted Students Days on the same dates. I obviously could not stay a week to attend both, because, you know, high school. I decided to go to Carleton’s Accepted Students Day and visit Macalester the day before to go to classes and meet with a student.
Honestly, I hadn’t been as interested in Macalester before, since I didn’t think that I wanted to be in the middle of a city. But visiting made my decision harder. I had been ready to commit to Carleton, but when I visited Macalester, I really loved the school. The campus was beautiful, the people were really nice, and I enjoyed the classes that I attended. (I promise, I’m not trying to make an advertisement for Macalester on the Carleton Admissions Blog, though it is a great school.)
Ultimately, it was a really hard decision. When I visited Carleton, though, I decided that I did want to be farther from the city, really enjoyed Convocation, and loved the atmosphere of the campus, which was enough to push me over the edge. I bought a bunch of Carleton gear from the Bookstore before I left, and committed the next week.
This post has gotten too long, and I’m sure you’re feeling like you’re not reading a blog post but a memoir called Andriana’s College Application Extravaganza or something.
So I’ll wrap it up.
What I’ll leave you with is advice that most of you have probably heard many times–wherever you end up, you’ll be fine. You’ll get a good education. No matter where you go, it will be up to you to make the most of your college experience. Good luck.
-Andriana
Andriana is a sophomore at Carleton, where she plans to major in English and double minor in Creative Writing and Cross-Cultural Studies. Although she will be spending this fall at home in Richmond, VA, Andriana is already excited to return to Carleton and escape the southern heat. When she isn’t busy avoiding Virginia’s never-ending summer, you can find Andriana binge-reading, playing music, or watching a favorite movie or show for the umpteenth time. Meet the other bloggers!