The Infamous Red Folder and Advice on College Preparations

Every senior at Stoughton High School has to complete a red folder. This folder is crucial to every senior looking to get in to college. It contains self-survey questions that ask things like, “How would you describe yourself?” or “How would your friends describe you?” These questions do not seem very difficult to answer, but when you are trying to impress colleges, you start to scrutinize everything you write to make sure you are making yourself sound perfect to the colleges you are applying to. Every little thing about college work is somehow stressful, no matter what the work is. Even this blog about college work is a struggle to complete. You want to make yourself sound good, but not too good or else colleges won’t believe the attributes you give yourself. You are trying to sell your pitch to the colleges you want to go to so don’t sell yourself short on your accomplishments and attributes. The best thing to do is to just tell the truth about how you really feel about yourself, which sounds cliché but it’s true. Also inside the red folder is a paper that you must fill out to provide information on colleges that you are interested in and that you plan on touring. Narrowing down colleges is actually pretty simple with tools such as College Board and guidance counselors helping you out along the way. College tours are a more convenient and easy way to narrow down colleges even more. When you arrive at a college it is usually already one of your top choices. College visits are far more efficient because seeing the campus, the buildings, the dorms, the students and the teachers make it easier to decide if you want to attend that college or university. You want to go to a college that makes you feel as though you are at home. Talking from personal experience, I recently visited two colleges that were essentially the same on paper. However, one school made me feel right at home and the other one left me feeling as though there was something missing. The reason you want a college that makes you feel at home is so that way you feel very comfortable going there. You also want to see what is outside of the campus. If there isn’t anything to do outside the campus, it may not be a good fit if you want to travel outside of the campus. Every college has its problems so the best thing to do is to pick the one that you feel most comfortable staying at for the next 4 years of your life.