Keeping Your Cool When Applying to College

Hi. My name is Sascha Bos and I am a senior at Wilson High School,
where I have spent the past four years of my life. This fall I will be attending
college in an as-of-yet-unknown location. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the
company of my family and the familiarity of Long Beach before I go on my next
great adventure. When I'm not at school or studying, I like to read, cook, listen to
music, do yoga, jump on my trampoline, write, and watch movies. I'm also a huge Hello, Kitty fan, so that's why I named the blog Hello, Sascha. I would love to hear back from other Patch readers on this or my future posts--Sascha.

Can I let you in on a secret? Applying to college is no big deal. Or at least
it doesn't have to be. As university admission becomes more and more
competitive, students and their parents are starting to worry about their (or their
child's) chances of getting into a "good school" from the time they reach
kindergarten.

Don't freak out! These colleges feed on your fear! If you're well-informed,
there is no reason to be afraid of applying to college. The application itself
consists of a questionnaire regarding grades, test scores, awards, and
extracurricular activities - extremely easy to fill out, especially if you have to write
a mandatory senior resume (all Wilson students do), in which case you can
basically copy and paste.

The really frightening part is the essay portion. Most colleges will require
at least two personal essays. The prompts are all different versions of the same
questions about your background and the experiences that made you who you
are today. Such open-ended topics can be very intimidating, especially to
students (i.e. me) who think that their entire future is riding on their ability to write
a compelling essay.

This is when keeping your cool becomes important. Say to yourself, "I am
a great student and an awesome person. Any college would be lucky to have
me. I may not be able to write the perfect essay, but I will try my best." Bonus
points if you write your own mantra.

You'll have a few months after applications come out in the fall to work on
your essays (UC applications were due November 30th this year, and private
college's are usually due sometime in January). I was able to use the same two
for all the schools I applied to. Don't make more work for yourself than you need
to.

The UC application is really easy to fill out: just the actual application plus
two essays. If you're looking at private schools, chances are you will be dealing
with the Common Application. The "common" part means that you fill out one
questionnaire, write one essay, and submit two teacher recommendations for as
many schools as you apply to. If this sounds too good to be true, it's because it
is. Most schools have a supplement to the application with their own short-
answer and essay questions, making the need for a "common" application
somewhat questionable.

In any case, the college application process should not take too long.
Send yours in early, and celebrate afterwards. The main thing to remember is to
keep calm. There are so many great schools that would love to have a student
like [your name here]!