The College Process: Inside & Out

Now that it's mid-summer, I think it's finally time to write and expose the thoughts behind a majority of high school students who have gone through the college process. Prepare yourselves for a long post. I am making this mostly for my sister, who will endure this process in the next couple years.

Let me start off by saying the college process absolutely sucks. If someone tells you they would do it again for fun, they're lying. Sorry in advance for how bitter this may be. 

As a high school graduate, I can now say that most students are completely blind-sided when it comes to college applications and picking the school of your dreams. Here's the basic run down for those of you who don't know (step by step but in a realistic form): 

Junior/Summer/Early Senior Year: Make a list of your top colleges through a rough and LONG process of comparing & contrasting to narrow your choices from about 5,000 to 5-10 (or more, like me with about 20 due to my indecisiveness). 

^^^ while spending the time to compare and contrast all 5,000 colleges, don't forget to do your homework. Teachers don't care if you are going to college. You're expected to find time between your 7 hours of school, 3 hours of AP English homework, 1 hour of math homework, 2 hours of science/history homework, and oh, don't forget to get in your physical activity for Michelle Obama. 

All while getting 8 hours of sleep for your growing teen body, of course. 

Sign-up/take standardized tests like the SAT & ACT. You really can't study for them because you either know the material or you don't. So if you weren't taught trigonometry properly, well, that really sucks. And you get nervous when taking timed tests? College Board doesn't care. Don't even get me started on the College Board - "you owe us $50 for the SAT, and then $15 for each college you want your score sent to. Oh, you applied to 20 colleges? Have fun paying for that." 

To any students who have yet to take these tests - DO YOUR BEST. I'm not kidding. I took both tests TWICE and many colleges only care about the number of the score you get when deciding on your application. Who cares if you got a 4.0 all throughout high school? Northeastern won't accept you based on that (I learned the hard way). Don’t blow these tests off. Get enough sleep, even if I do sound like a mom. 

October: Begin the Common Application which will take you a decade and a half to complete. 

Bug your 2 favorite teachers for letters of recommendation (because they're not busy enough, right?)

Find out which colleges have "extras" necessary - 5 paged essays, supplements, portfolios, it's quite fun. 

November: Most early applications are due Nov. 1, so if this is you, you better have your stuff together. 

You should probably know what schools you're applying to by now.

Hope you didn't miss any opportunities for interviews, those are pretty influential. Take it from me - I missed the deadline for an interview with Wake Forest, and didn't even apply because I knew I wouldn't stand a chance without it. 

Send in your early applications and breathe - for a moment. 

December (aka Christmas Break): Cram time for most students…hopefully if you followed the steps above, you won’t be stuck in this boat. 

Write those essays. Beef yourself up. Don’t slack on anything, brag about yourself. 

*Note: in the college application process, your job is to stand out - in your school, your state, your country, and even your world. There are thousands, I mean thousands of students with the same criteria as you. Same grades, same test scores, everything. So what makes you stand out? My 11th grade English teacher was the most helpful in this part - for example, on my Common App. essay, the topic I chose was to explain my transition from childhood to adulthood. I, to stand out, took a different approach to this essay than most students who chose this. I wrote about how I, as a 17 year old, had no transition to adulthood…I was (and am) still a baby! What have I experienced? I’ve been in a public school system my entire life - when did I become an adult? To me, transitioning into adulthood is a series of events. Getting a driver’s license, getting a job, going off to college: they all symbolize responsibility that adults have. 

Sorry for that ***

January 1st-15th: Most college applications are due. 

You press submit on the Common App. 

Your guidance counselor sends your updated grade reports. 

You send in that final essay. 

And now, you wait. 

February-March: I recommend you use this time to socialize and come out of the cave you may have been living in for the first semester. 

Your applications are sent. You forgot something? Sorry sista, can’t change it now. Hope and pray every night. 

March-April: if you don’t already have anxiety problems, prepare yourself. The anxiety you will experience during this month is excruciating. I honestly wish I was lying, but at least I can say that it will be over soon. 

Most college decisions come out between mid-March and early April. 

Your friends will start receiving them. The kid that worked so hard to get into an Ivy League will make it. You’ll hear back from a few schools and it will feel so unreal that you may be attending that college in a few months. For me, I heard back from the colleges I least wanted - San Francisco, Vermont, etc. Safety schools. 

The 2 weeks I waited for my decisions from American University and Boston University seemed like years. I know people say this all the time, but I literally thought they would never come. 

I religiously checked my mail. I updated my email every 3 seconds. If my phone rang, I didn’t even check who was calling. Unfortunately, college decisions come in a range of ways, so you never know how you’ll get your decision. 

Finally, my email from BU came. Surprisingly, I made it! I was offered a program through BU that would take me to London my freshmen year, with a small group of people. I was ecstatic. 

Until my American package came. The one I wanted the most. Well, actually, I found out a few days before the package…when you’re that desperate, you find ANY way you can to find out ASAP (so my friend and I hacked into a few things…woops, no regrets). 

*Another note: if a college is sending you a decision through a package, you can tell whether it’s a yes or a no based on the size and presence of the package. If it’s huge and screams “YAY”, congrats. If it’s a small envelope, have your parents open it first. 

I screamed when I found out about American. My hard work over the past 4 years had FINALLY paid off. My interviews, my resumes, my volunteer work…it all led to this moment. I cried for days. All of my friends knew how badly I wanted this. For my career as a lawyer, it was (and still is) the absolute perfect school. 

So I bathed in this excitement over my options (which, to me, was really just AU) for weeks. But then reality set in…

May 1st: the deadline for most colleges to get a reply back from you. 

Gee, they don’t give you much time, huh? 

Here’s where I become the bearer of awful news, and I am very sorry. The weeks leading up to your final decision are not fun for most. Discussing your future and finances with your parents is dreadful. I cried myself to sleep for nights on end, as I knew deep down American was way out of our budget. 

And this is disgusting. It is DISGUSTING that we, as students, work our butts off to get into a good college. No one ever mentions the money aspect. “Shoot for Harvard!” Yeah well, Harvard is 60,000 dollars a year. Who can pay that? If I were to go to American, I would be 200,000 dollars in debt (or more) when I was done with 4 years. I could buy myself a house with that money. Unless you get a really good scholarship, and I mean like FULL scholarship (which, news to me, are EXTREMELY rare), you cannot attend the place of your dreams if you are an average kiddo. 

And this broke me. I was furious that I couldn’t go to my dream place because of money. Why is this fair? I worked so hard. My options were limited. I was basically stuck with UVM, which is about 15 minutes from my house, but only because I received in-state tuition. 

YES - there are a few things I could have done to maybe up my chances of getting scholarships. No one ever told me that you had to apply for them. I thought having good grades was enough of an application. Apparently not.

*The most important note: APPLY for every scholarship you can. It has a 3 paged essay? Set aside a night to write it. Scholarship applications are long and can take forever, but I promise you it’s worth it. Skipping a night of your social life will be worth it when you are accepted to a fantastic school that is actually affordable because you took the time to sit down and focus on that application. 

Another note here - a lot of scholarships are ONLY towards certain people. For example, I didn’t qualify for a lot of them due to GPA minimum/maximums, family profiles, or interests. So don’t be surprised when you realize that half the scholarships you see, you can’t even apply to. 

Hopefully, that is the end of my bitterness. Once you choose your home for the next year (at least), you will feel so relieved. Go party. Live your summer up. Enjoy graduation. No matter what - remember that you are going to college and furthering your education, and that’s more than a lot of people in this world can say they are doing. 

Quick story: how did I end up at High Point University? 

Well, in the midst of sobbing to my family, friends, and teachers, HPU was brought up. After a couple minutes of Google and a few statistics, I thought, why not? North Carolina is nice. And at the time, UVM was my only option. And to me, staying in the 802 was a giant no. So, I applied to High Point in April (which is highly unusual and I do not recommend doing that), got a call a few days later, and I was accepted with a pretty awesome scholarship. Why did they want me? As my mom always says, maybe it’s meant to be. I drove to NC with my dad a couple weeks later to check out the campus, and I fell in love. When people say HPU is a disneyland for adults, they are not kidding you. 5 pools, luxurious buildings, sunshine, and 2 starbucks on campus?! Why would Lyndsey not fall in love? Not to mention year-round temperatures that I can actually do, and a really cool program that I could shine in. 

So, I’m off to North Carolina in t-minus 3 weeks. Adios, VT! I’ll be back :) 

That's all I have for now...

Lyndsey