What comes to mind when the word strategy is brought up? War? The stock market? Maybe even, Bloons Tower Defense? While those examples may require strategy, they pale in comparison to the strategy required to fill out college applications.
The amount of thought seniors have put into college applications has increased in recent years, and some aspects of the process have changed in order to fit the new stress put on the applications. These new changes, or trends as some may call them, reflect how the application process has changed.
The trends, or more dramatically put, strategies, observed in the applications of this year’s senior class have been interesting to say the very least.
The first trend which comes to mind was brought to light by Mrs. Schultz, Sandburg’s College and Career Guidance counselor, when she stated, “Some students are using their personal statement written in English class as their personal statement on common apps more and more, which is nice to see.”
Schultz, who then went on to give insight on the uncertainty of using SAT scores, or test scores in general, on applications, remarked, “Another question I’ve gotten often this year is whether or not students should submit their test scores. In some cases, it may help the student, while in other cases it may actually hurt them; It’s like a hot button topic you can say.” Another intriguing trend Mrs. Schultz mentioned was students in younger grades, typically juniors, also researching schools to take that load off their senior year and get more comfortable with their list of colleges.
While also bringing up the role SchoolLinks plays, Mrs. Schultz, “They’ve been using SchoolLinks to do a lot of that research, which will hopefully help them be more confident when it comes to applying for senior year.”
Mrs. Schultz also spoke about the rising trend of students opting for trade schools instead of typical 4 year institutions. Mrs. Schultz did warn that since almost all apprenticeship program applications are different, there isn’t a central application platform like CommonApps so paying attention to deadlines is crucial. Though, the concept is interesting to see as most of the time, trade schools are left entirely out of the equation when it comes to application season.
In addition to the aforementioned trends, some students have also reported some of their own strategies when it came to their applications. Senior Adam Ibrahim stated that, “I plan on having safety, target, and reach schools to diversify my options.”
The idea of safety, target, and reach schools is by no means a new one, but it is an important one; which for the unacquainted, a safety school is a school that’s easy to get into, target schools are akin to a 50:50 shot, and reach schools are more like 80:20 shot. Having those three tiers of schools helps not only narrow a broad list of schools, but also ensure that people have a school to go to next fall. However, this strategy is to showcase some of the thought processes observed in hopes to aid in other application journeys.
In addition to the trends Mrs. Schultz shared, she also gave out a few tips for college applications. A really good tip Mrs. Schultz gave was, “if you’re applying to a competitive school, make smaller deadlines leading up to the actual deadline where you get parts of the application done.”
For example, one could set a deadline for when they want their essay in by, then their questions, then finally a deadline to finalize the entire process.
She also gave out a good pointer for people who are struggling to even find schools when she said, “You have to consider multiple things. First and foremost is the programs the school offers and make sure they offer the program you’re looking for. You need to know if you like a big campus or small campus, do you like a big city or like a college town? That sort of thing. You should also make sure that it fits in with your financial needs; seeing as colleges are quite expensive. Another thing to consider is the student population size, and whether you like a bigger student body or a smaller one.”
Schultz also presented how simple it is to get started stating simply, “ If you have multiple schools you plan on applying to, make a Common app and keep rolling through the questions until you can’t anymore.”
Lastly, she gave her best tip yet when she said, “Another thing is, if you get stuck, come see me at the College and Career Center where I can help you.”
Now, while college applications might have seemed like quite the undertaking, they shouldn’t seem as scary by this point; so, the only feasible thing to do at this point is submit applications, sit back, and watch the acceptance letters roll in.
