ANATOMY OF A COLLEGE APPLICATION

Since different schools have different requirements, there's no one-size-fits-all solution for college applications. As we’ve stressed throughout this magazine: the best thing you can do is find out what your school is looking for and when it’s due!

Still, here is a general outline of some of the things you’ll probably need to keep track of.

o The application itself Hopefully this goes without saying, but if you want to attend a particular school, you’re going to need an application to that school. Whether you get it through the Common App, or through the school’s website, or through some other permitted channel, the application is the fundamental building block that everything else is built off. If you don’t submit an application, everything else is meaningless.

While the application can take different forms, it will certainly require basic personal information such as your name, email address, citizenship information and phone number, as well as academic info about your high school, entrance exam scores, extracurricular activities, and honors. You’ll probably also need to provide an essay, and/or other writing samples. o Entrance exam scores Many schools will require your SAT and/ or ACT scores to be officially submitted. That means they come straight from the College Board (which provides the SAT) or the ACT. When you register to take these standardized tests, you may be able to select colleges to receive the scores, otherwise you can do it after your scores come back and you see how you did.

If you qualify for college credits based on advanced placement courses that you’ve taken, colleges will need to see those results as well.

o High school transcript Your official transcript is a document provided by your high school that lists each of the classes you’ve taken and the grades you received in them. Talk to your guidance counselor about your transcripts so they know where you’re applying and what dates they need the information by.

Colleges want to know that you kept up your studies even after you were accepted, so your guidance counselor can also help you submit your grades for the remainder of your high school education. As a note of caution, colleges can change their mind about accepting you if your academic performance takes a complete 180 due to a full-blown case of Senioritis. It’s rare, but it does happen. o Counselor recommendation Aside from the hard numbers of your academic performance, your counselor can also provide colleges with context for your performance. This means telling them how the rest of the student body performed, and what kind of role you had within the student body. Were you making the best of your circumstances? Did you overcome certain hurdles? Context is often critical to the admissions process and the way a college assesses applicants.

o Teacher recommendation A great teacher recommendation can do wonders to help you stick out from the crowd. The teacher (or teachers) you seek out should be the ones who recognized your best qualities in the classroom and helped you reach your full potential. What course they taught is less important than what they know about you and your ability to succeed.

These are the basic components that make up most college applications, but again, the only way to know exactly what your colleges are going to require is by checking their individual application processes! CB