Senior Year of High School Fall Checklist TKG

Senior Year of High School Fall Checklist The trees are yellow. Leaves are falling. Temperatures are dropping. Winter is coming…  Okay, okay, depending on where you live, none of this may be trueâ€"â€"and even if this is supposed to be true, it might not actually be (shout out to the hottest October 1st on record in NYC!). Our general point remains, however: it’s October, ED/EA deadlines are approaching rapidly, and even the once-far off regular decision January deadlines which seem like they’ll never come are coming up, too.  The time for expanding your extracurriculars or starting to study for standardized tests is over, but there is still a lot to do. And it might feel pretty daunting. To help you prepare for this intense time, during which maybe it feels like your main responsibility suddenly isn’t “being a high school student” anymore but “applying to college,” we’ve created this standard Senior Fall Checklist.  Create a realistic school listThe underlined word is imperative here. You need a list of 8- 10 schools that includes safeties, targets, and reaches. You also should be excited about all of those schools. Ask yourself: if I only got into one of these schools, would I want to go there? If the answer is no, don’t just give up on your list because you’ve had it for months now. Do the research and hone the list. By hone, we also mean edit. You can’t apply to 25 schools, so if you’re super excited about 25 places, that will mean letting go of some of those places.  Apply Early Decision or Early Action in November if that makes sense given your situation.Write your supplements… for every school on the listPro tip: create a master document that helps you keep track of what supplements you’ve done for what schools and what essays you still have to write.  Fill out every section of the Common AppThis is straightforward but necessary. There are financial, logistical, and identity questions on there.  Write and edit (and edit and edit) your Common App essayThe personal sta tement is your chance, in 250â€"650 words, to tell colleges a story about yourself. If you haven’t started (please start), check out our blogs about how to write the essay and how to meticulously edit.  Fill out the “additional information” section of the Common App, if necessaryThe additional information section is a handy section of the Common App that allows you to explain anything about your application that you haven’t been able to before or that doesn’t fit in somewhere else. Every school using the Common App will see this, so it’s not a supplement. Maybe you have grades or absences to explain, or you had a really hard year sophomore year because there was family stuff going on. Use up to 650 words here to talk about that. Remember, you don’t need to talk about anything you don’t want to. Use the section if you think it will be helpful to you.Send your SAT/ACT scores 3+ weeks before deadlines  This is self-explanatory and crucial. Your application isn’t consi dered complete without your scores (unless, of course, a school is test-optional). So check the deadlines, then send your scores by signing into College Board, navigating to “Send Scores,” and adding your score report recipients (the colleges you’re applying to) online.  If you’re nervous about this, set a reminder to make sure they’ve been sent in and received.Follow up with your recommendersThis part is ultimately a little bit out of your hands, but you need to reach out to your teachers who agreed to write recommendations for you and ensure they’ve sent in those letters. Be polite, of course, but also insistent. This is a great opportunity to practice advocating for yourself.  That’s it. It’s a lot, but as long as you work through the checklist bit by bit, you can get it done.  If you’re still overwhelmed by the number of things you have to do before January 1, reach out to our group here. We specialize in helping students prioritize so they can get everything i n on time with as low stress as possible.