Top Ten Most Important Things to Know About Applying to College

Top Ten Tips for Navigating the College Application Process

#10 Talk to Each Other

• Students, parents, counselors, relatives, friends, anyone who will listen
• Talk about expectations- the student’s and everyone else’
• Talk about realistic goals
• Talk about how communication will occur during the process
• Beware of the Helicopter Parent/Millennial trap. This is your application process
and as wonderful as we have told you you are, have reasonable safety schools

#9 Narrow Down Your Options

• When buying a car or a house, people don’t have 20 choices
• This is your college education, foundation forever, and a treasure that can’t be repossessed, stolen, burned down or lost
• Think about what kind of college or university is right for you
• Program, majors (people getting all the way through UO before they
realized no engineering program)
• Location: city, suburb, and rural, small town
• Type: Private ($, prestige, church affiliated)
Public (can mean larger, less expensive)
Four-year vs. two-year
In-state vs. out-of-state
Rigor of academic programs
• College applications average between $35-$50, this can add up
• I wouldn’t suggest applying to more than 5 or 6
• Use the Internet to do this, read the brochures taking over your room.
Live on CollegeBoard.com (see demo)

#8 Become an Expert on the Application Process

• It may sound silly, but actually read the application and viewbook (beware of every race, frolicking in the grass, despite
it being a Minnesota school)
• Make a calendar with critical deadlines, especially scholarship ones
• What is required? (Again, become an expert per each school):
• App, perhaps Part 1, Part 2
• On-line vs. paper, doesn’t matter, just don’t do both, trust the process
• Transcripts; required curriculum, common to have to send 7th
• Required GPA, trend
• SAT scores, sometimes SATII (Achievements)
• Essay
• Recommendations
• Interview
• Special admission requirements (ARCH/ART)

#8 Become an Expert on the Application Process cont.

• Know how to alert them to special circumstances such as a learning disability or extenuating circumstances
affecting record

#7 Understand How You Are Applying

• Early Decision (accept admission, withdraw others, binding)
• Early Action (binding, but not until regular decision time)
• Early Notification (they tell you, but not binding)
• Regular Admission (notify all at once)
• Rolling Admission (as you apply, students are notified)
• Open Admission (like Lane)

#6 Add Color to the Black & White Photograph

• Depending on how hard it is to get in, do everything possible to
distinguish your app from the next
• At USC and Whittier, we dealt with all top of the class, top athletes,
the best the school’s had to offer
• Round out your experiences, with depth and breath of activities and leadership roles
• Essays, letters of recommendations and interviews can do this for you
• Essays should reflect what is important to you, cover up name, would
others recognize that you wrote it. No Europe essays or “I want to be a Duck so bad”
• Recommendations: Choose wisely, give plenty of time and say “thank you”
• Interviews: if granted prepare with questions for them and things you
want them to remember. Bring up special circumstances
• Bond with your admission counselor
• Be kind when calling to check on progress, you will be remembered!

#5 You are not Critical Reading 520, SATV580, SATM420, You are You

• Schools use SAT because you do, standard of quality, litmus test
• Know what the average SAT is, be realistic about where you fit in
• Prepare for the test, read the free booklet, sign up for the e-mail questions
• Spending money on Kaplan is fine, discipline is why it works
• Road map example (drive to St. Louis vs. here is a map)
• Don’t hit your head against the wall just to barely hold your head above water

#4 Financing - Not just about Financial Aid

• Realize that parents may share personal info, prepare for that
• Financing is for everyone, how to pay for college, whether you have the resources or not
• Understand the FAFSA process, deadlines
• Research all scholarships

#4 Financing - Not just about Financial Aid cont.

• Never give someone money for a scholarship search
• Grants, loans (mostly loans), workstudy make up Financial Aid
• Let each school know special or changing circumstances
• Try not to choose because of financing, but be reasonable about what your family can afford
• Ask questions, like doing taxes, no one is an expert, go to the Financial Aid night at your school, even if you do
not think you’ll qualify.

#3 Visit, Visit, Visit

• Did I mention visit?
• If you can go, go (even to the UO and LCC)
• Open Houses
• Visits by reps to your high school
• Do you fit in?
• Residence Halls
• Read the paper, look at fliers, go to where students really hang out
• What is the town like?
• Talk to the prepared student representative, go deeper
• Record impressions, save them for decision time
• If you can’t go, have a cybervisit
• Talk to people on the phone
• Don’t choose from the brochure, it’s too important

#2 Explore New Options Like Dual Enrollment

• No longer like it was in our days, FR to SR all at one school
• OSU/LBCC, UO/Lane, PSU/PCC, OSU/Lane
• Dance between institutions, students at both
• Allows for financial aid at both
• Advising at both schools
• Best of both worlds (small classes at LCC vs. special majors/big school UO)
• One diploma in the end

#1 Talk to Each Other

• For schools with admission processes, May 1 is national candidates response
deadline
• Consider everything: parents, counselors, friends, (try not to follow boyfriends.
or girlfriends)
• Listen to opinions; find a quiet space to decide
• It all comes down to identifying your passions. What do you enjoy more than
anything else? What activities, subjects, do you do where you lose track
of time? What you do when you should be studying?

#1 Talk to Each Other cont.

I don’t mean partying or hanging with friends. Things that catch your eyes on TV.
• Be realistic about how college will move you toward pursing your passion
every day.
• In the end, you need to know there is not just one college, which hung secretly
in code over your bassinet. Do your homework, talk to each other and then go for it,
knowing that you did your best in preparing for your future.

Prepared by Helen Barker Garrett, Director of Enrollment Services/Registrar, Lane Community College, Eugene, Oregon, (541) 463-5686, garretth@lanecc.edu Updated 10/7/07