A college essay is often described as the most important part of completing a student’s college application, but just as a window is a part of a house, ignoring the foundation to just focus on an essay is a big mistake. In this blog, we’ll teach you the most important steps to writing the best college application, including letters of recommendation, standardized test scores, a resume, and much more.
Start With the Resume
In our blog about writing a good college essay, we discussed the importance of not relaying or repeating everything on a student’s high school resume. In order to write an essay that does not repeat achievements and accolades like grades, scores, or extracurriculars, and instead write one that puts character at the center, the resume should be written first. This makes sure students know that they have taken all their required standardized exams and gotten a good score and GPA as well. Students can add extracurriculars such as volunteering or sports and even certain interests that colleges may be looking out for. Make sure that the resume is a factual representation of the students’ high school life and that it is neat and easy to read.
Spend Time Crafting the Perfect Essays
The college essay, personal statement, or any other written piece that the student wants to send to the college is obviously the main part of the application so students should take their time and make sure that they honestly explain their character to their dream college. The resume should take care of the quantitative achievements, but more importantly, the essay should explain how the students qualitative achievements define their character even better. Make sure to remember that students do not have to send in the same essay for every college they apply to, so if you need to write multiple essays, then go for it. Watch this video for top five worst college essay topics according to Nick The Tutor.
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Recommendation Letters are Important Too
Some students leave their recommendation letters to the very last minute and end up submitting rushed letters written by their parents or neighbors. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this, but spending the extra time to ask important people within the school, such as principals or advisors, for well-written, official recommendation letters shows colleges which students went the extra step. Students should be striving to get two to three quality, official recommendation letters.
Program Majors & College List
Once all the work is done with the essay, resume, letters of recommendation, and standardized tests are complete, the real work of applying to different colleges can begin. Students should apply to programs that match their ambitions and interests and pick majors that they would want to spend the next four years learning. Students can then make a list of at least 10 colleges that they would really like to attend and focus on making the application as specific as possible. This important step helps students increase their chances of getting accepted into their dream colleges.
Early Decision or Regular Decision?
Recently, colleges have been straying away from early decision, probably as a response to the pandemic, but that gives students the advantage of having more time to work on their college application. With that being said, if students believe they have the credentials to get into a specific college, then they should go for it to get ahead of the thousands of applicants on decision day. The bottom line is students should work on their applications well in advance of whichever deadline they choose. The last thing students should do is wait until the last minute and hastily complete their applications, ruining their chances of gaining acceptances. For more on the Early Decision deadline, read our post, Is Early Decision Right For You?
Conclusion
A good college application is one that is complete, thorough, and honest. Anything more than that is a huge bonus and credit to the students that work really hard. Sometimes that is exactly what is needed to get into competitive and ivy league colleges. If a student would like to complete his or her best college application, then he or she must put in the necessary work. Write the resume first, and then write multiple drafts of essays until they’ve written one that achieves its purposes of describing the character of the applicant and not regurgitating the resume. Those two are the most important, but if a student submits quality letters of recommendation and good standardized test scores, then that gets them to nearly a perfect college application.