The entire college admissions process is daunting – to say the least.
What if, instead of getting overwhelmed and anxious, there was a better way?
Good news! There
is a better way!
Here are four steps you can take to ease the stresses of the college admissions process, making your experience much simpler and much more efficient.
1. Time Management
Recognizing that time is a valuable commodity will get you much closer to achieving your goals. This realization will help you understand that you need to map out your time in better, more efficient ways.
Create timelines you can easily follow and utilize them to manage your tasks, deciding how to prioritize them.
This brings us to our next step, prioritizing.
2. Prioritize
Create task lists for college and scholarship applications. Prioritize the most important, based on deadlines.
Decide what needs to be done now, in the near future and what can be saved until a later date. This will ensure your timeline is as accurate as possible, which is what the ultimate goal is in terms of organization.
3. Take Advice
College students are a great resource! They recently went through the same process and will likely be able to give valuable insight on the process, how they achieved goals and what they would do differently, given the opportunity.
Your teachers and guidance counselors know what they’re doing – it is their
job, after all. You’d be wise to listen to their advice and, yes, take it from time to time. They have valuable information to offer, so listen up!
Utilize these connections as much as possible to learn from others.
4. Ask for Feedback
Allow others to review your plans and college admissions documents. Peers, teachers, parents and other important people in your life are valuable resources to review your applications, essays, timelines and lists to gain perspective on how you’re doing and what you can improve upon.
Remember, not all criticism is bad. Gaining insight into what can be done better is constructive to your process and will likely help you in gaining that scholarship or acceptance letter. A second, third and fourth set of eyes on that essay never hurts!
