Quick Guide

1. The first thing to do while starting your college application journey is to reflect back on your time in high school. You could be a current high school student or one who had chosen to take a gap year. But, it always starts here. To achieve that best, I suggest writing out your extracurriculars for the sake of practice. 

2. Another step towards a successful college application is careful selection and planning of institutions that you want to attend. Choosing these institutions requires a lot of care because there are so many factors at play. 

3. An equally important step is to create accounts on websites related to college applications. Those include ones you directly use to apply (like the Common app) and others that you can indirectly(such as Khan Academy - which you can use to prepare for the SAT)

• A Common Application account which you can create at apply.commonapp.org

• A College Board account that is used on registering for the SAT, using BigFuture better, and for CSS profile. You can access that at account.collegeboard.org

• A Khan Academy account. You can create a Khan Academy account at khanacademy.org. It is especially useful if you are planning to take the SAT in the coming months. You can link your College Board account to your Khan Academy account by visiting www.khanacademy.org/digital-sat

4. Most colleges either recommend or require standardized testing. These could be ones like the SAT or ACT which measure aptitude - or ones like TOEFL, Duolingo English Test & IELTS which measure your English proficiency. During your college search step, you should prepare a detailed list of requirements for each college you are going to apply to, and standardized tests are most likely required by at least one of your colleges. Thus, you should plan on whether you should be taking the tests and if yes, when.

Helping Your Counselors Help You

To help your counselors help you, it is advised that you provide them with a Brag Sheet filled out and sent.

Brag sheets are a way for you to help your counselor and teachers write letters of recommendation. These forms give them more insight into who you are outside of school and your interests. Fill out these forms, and share them with your counselor and teachers when you ask them for a letter of recommendation!

You can download and fill out a brag sheet here or download it from the embed below.