Organizing Your College Process

The admissions process is time-consuming and full of details. We recommend a separate folder or binder for the papers you receive in College Guidance class and for any information received from colleges.

All documents relating to college should also be saved to the cloud or backed up in some alternative

manner. If your computer crashes, you will be happy that you have a backup of all of your essays, applications and resumes.

Get a calendar or create an electronic one. You will need to keep track of application deadlines, interviews, financial aid and scholarship deadlines, test dates, etc. Having a specific college calendar will make organizing all of that information much easier.

Make sure to have and keep track of: • Notes on colleges you are considering, including your impressions from the campus visit. • Names of the teachers you have asked to write your recommendations. • Application deadlines. • Financial aid deadlines. • Scholarship deadlines. • A record of all correspondence between you and the colleges in which you have interest. • A record of interview appointments, including the name and contact information of the person who interviewed you. • The username and password for all of your individual online applications. • A record of all requests to have SAT/ACT scores sent to colleges. • Your social security number if you plan to apply for financial aid; if you have not done so already, memorize your social security number. It is NOT recommended that your social security number be written, typed or stored anywhere. • After submitting your application, most colleges will send you log-in information to an account so you are able to check on the status of your application materials. Make sure to keep a record of that information and passwords you may have used.