Planning Ahead: What I Would Do Differently If I Were Applying to College Again

The last bit of awaited college decision letters are finally out and obviously there are some disappointed people out there, me included. I was waitlisted by my dream school and at the same time was bombarded with approximately fourteen rejections, five of them in the same day. Looking back, I've made a list of things I wish I'd done differently in the college application process that would have benefited me and I'll be making sure I do these things when I begin applying to grad school.

1. Make a solid list of your top choices.
I made the mistake of applying Early Decision to a school that was not my top choice because of pressure from my parents, and when I had the chance to apply to my actual top choice school, chose Regular Decision over Early Decision second round. While your parents may be a factor in the process, you know yourself better than anyone else and you would know what's best for your future happiness. Take your time to do research and pick out schools that actually interest you and fit your vision of the future. If you are choosing to apply to a school, and a supplement asks why you want to attend and you have no idea what to write, reevaluate whether you really want to go to that school. If you don't, then save yourself the time and work on other applications.

2. Apply to multiple schools that are realistic/at your level: not too high.
I applied to an excessive amount of reach schools (aka schools that are probably not within my reach) where I fall below their standard. I'm not saying don't apply for any reach schools, but make sure you're applying to more than just one school where you fit their standard. I only applied to one school where I fit the standard and that ended up being the school I'm committing to.

3. Apply to back-ups that you'd be happy with going to. 
I made the mistake of applying to back-ups that I knew I would get accepted into, but had no intention of attending. The whole point of a back-up is to have a plan to fallback on and still be happy and stable. Had I not got into any of my other schools, I would not have been happy with my back-ups.

4. Start early. 
Some of my applications, I had started a week before the due date which resulted in easily-avoidable stress which could've hindered me from putting out my best quality work in my essays. Try to start as early as possible to help alleviate stress and allow you time to change your ideas if you want.

5. Be yourself in your essays. 
Don't try to change your personality to fit your perception of a student they want. It's hard to fake your personality, but it's also not the best thing morally.

6. Know what's required in your application for each school.
I would suggest making a spreadsheet with your list of schools in the rows and columns of different requirements: supplemental essays, recommendation letters, SAT subject test scores, interview, etc. then mark which schools require what so that you're not missing anything when you apply.

7. Be aware of deadlines.
Don't ruin your chances of admission by something as small as the time your application was submitted. Try to have everything done as early as possible to prevent any mishaps from happening when you submit.

8. Don't be afraid to ask for help. 
I was always afraid to ask my counselors and friends for help because I was worried I was going to be a bother to them and waste their time. Counselors are there to help you, it's their job. And your friends should understand how important this is to your life and if they really cared, they'd help you. If anything, they should feel flattered that you trust them which something so important.

9. Understand that college is only a fraction of your entire life & your decisions don't define you. 
While I did just spend approximately 200 words giving my advice on small changes to further yourself when applying to college, realize that your decisions are not what defines you for the rest of your life. I, myself, felt inadequate compared to others after all my friends got into my dream schools and I was rejected by them all, however don't let that invalidate you. Remember, there are some bad people out there that get into amazing schools, but some good people just get bad luck and it didn't work out. You have your own strengths that they're missing out on, it's their loss. What I'm taking out of these rejections is that I want to work harder to prove myself now, not for them but for myself. There's chances to redeem yourself in life, this isn't a deciding factor on your success. Yes, it's disappointing in the moment, I feel for ya, but I swear it gets better. There's opportunities to transfer, or if you're like me and planning on attending grad school, work hard as an undergrad to make it impossible for them to turn you away. If your results match up with your life plan, then congrats! But, if your like me and have to run with a back-up, then there are plenty of chances to ensure that you end up with the life you wanted. Just work hard and be positive about achieving it.

Wow that was long for a first blog post. But yes, I'm committing the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in their Business program and hopefully a minor in Psychology. Not my top choice school at all. My school is known for sending the most kids to UIUC every year since basically everyone gets in and I was afraid I wasn't going to stand out. But now that I'm committing, I've come to terms with it and understand that UIUC has a pretty decent business program with 95% of their graduates getting a job offer for when they graduate. Pretty decent fallback if I say so myself. There's plenty of chances for me to earn my way to either one of the coasts (I dream of living in New York or Cali), and as long as I pick myself up and keep my head up, I can work for it.