The Secrets to a Smooth Application & Essay Process

It’s late May — while students are wrapping up testing, facing finals, or dreaming of the summer sun, the first college applications of the season will be submitted in just 10 weeks. This doesn’t mean it’s time to panic, but it does mean that a successful college essay & application process begins now.

Read on for our best advice for rising seniors to shape a smooth, low-stress, and successful college application process –

1. The process begins when school winds down.

The first mistake or better said, missed opportunity, for many students and families is thinking that college applications are a senior year or Fall responsibility. The strongest applications, and the high school seniors who have the most stress-free experiences at school and at home all have one thing in common: they start the application process early, and take advantage of the summer months. Without the academic demands of the school year and its routine, students have more capacity to do the big thinking that writing a personal statement essay requires, they have the bandwidth to chip away at application pieces, and the chance to release the tension and anxiety of what lies ahead by facing the process head on. Every rising senior will surely have other commitments, travel and fun built into the summer, so taking an honest look at the weeks of summer to plan out what you will accomplish when is extremely helpful.

2. Get started, even if your college list is not quite complete.

There are pieces of the application process that are dependent upon the specific colleges you are applying to, and there are pieces that will be universal to most or all colleges. It’s a great approach to begin with the personal statement essay, the activities list, and understanding what will be required on the Common App, UC application, or other individual college applications to plan the scope of your work. Even if you haven’t locked in 100% of the colleges you will apply to, there is no reason to wait on crafting the pieces that will be central to your applications across many colleges.

3. Know your deadlines.

This is huge: organize all of your deadlines, requirements, and application pieces in one place. Keep a timeline of when you will submit each application, what essays you will write (write the optional essays, almost always!), and what other components will need to be sent off to have a complete application. It is important to know that you are best served by submitting applications as soon as you are able to submit your strongest work to colleges that review applications on a rolling basis. This will include both “rolling admission” colleges, as well as those that will not notify you earlier, but will review your application when it is received. Colleges like UT Austin and U of Wisconsin Madison will review those applications as they receive them, and they are inundated with out of state applications. Submitting your application in August can be an important advantage in your admissions process.

4. Begin with the end in mind.

Beyond the deadlines you need to meet, when do you want to be done with application work? That’s right, you are in control! At TBU, we encourage all students to complete their first applications before returning to school for senior year, and to complete 100% of their application work by Thanksgiving. We have a firm deadline of closing out application work by December 15th every year for all of our students. The reason for this? Your life is much bigger than your application process! There is nothing worse than having deadlines looming over family holiday gatherings and winter break. Students do their best work when they start early, leave a manageable amount of tasks to complete once the school year starts, and complete all of their essay writing and preparation before receiving early decision news in December. In addition, we want you to have the ability to step away from this process, give your all to your senior academics (those grades matter in admissions, by the way!) and live your life with your friends and family, enjoying your time in senior year.

5. Talk honestly about student and parent roles & what will set you up for success.

If you haven’t yet, May is the time to have a conversation about what roles parents will and will not play in the essay and application process. Meeting deadlines and agreeing on the content of essays are two of the places that rising seniors and their parents often encounter the most conflict and tension. For many families, it works best to let parents be parents, and identify another trusted adult or professional to support students with essay development and review, or planning their application timeline. Admissions officers are adept at reading through when parents’ voices or editing have been heavy handed in the application process, so be very mindful of ensuring that every piece of the application reads clearly as a student’s own work and voice.

TBU Essay & Application specialists are experts at supporting students to craft their most compelling, authentic work, taking the pressure off of parents playing this role. If you’d like to explore working with a TBU Essay & Application specialist, now is the time. Get in touch here and we will look forward to connecting with you.

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