Getting Kids Started on the College Application Process

Posted by: Diane Brady on August 24, 2009

David L. Marcus just wrote a book that I quite enjoyed. It’s called Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids find the Right Colleges - and Find Themselves (Penguin Press). I asked him to write a few guest blogs on the subject of helping kids through the application process. Here’s his first entry. Feel free to weigh in with questions.

End-of-Summer Salvation for High School Seniors

PRO-

If you’ve watched friends agonizing during the college application process with a son or daughter, you probably know the dreaded 15-letter word I’m writing.

CRAS-

Think of those last-minute essays!

TINATION…

I spent the past three years researching a book on kids applying to college. I watched so many pulling unnecessary all-nighters - and making mistakes - in order to tap the “submit” button on time.

So, here’s a suggestion for anyone who has a high school senior in the house. Encourage that potential procrastinator to set aside a few hours during the waning days of vacation. In that time, he or she can polish off the three tasks, including most of the drudge work that goes into applying.

What drudge work? Two things come to mind. Late summer is a good time to fill out the Common Application, as well as the names-and-facts sections that some admissions offices require. It’s also a good time to register for the SAT, ACT, or other standardized tests.

Now these next sentences are for the applicant: Get that boring stuff out of the way by Labor Day and you’ll already be far ahead of most twelfth graders I know.

The third and final task is less drudgery and more daunting. Late August and early September is the time to start roughing out essays. Read the prompts on the Common App and look up the information about any essays that your school requires. You can often count on a “Why do you want to go to Tufts?” kind of essay. But some schools, like the University of Chicago, like curve balls, and ask you to compare the campus to a painting or some such thing.

Start brainstorming. Take a pad and paper, or a keyboard, and jot down a bunch of ideas. If you are asked to write about a particular campus, don’t worry if you haven’t visited. You can find out the basics and more online. Anyway, the essay is really an excuse to tease them with information about what makes YOU special, and to show why you’d add something to the mix of students.

Other essays allow you to talk about a book you read, a trip you took, a service project you undertook, a person who influenced your life, and so on. Again, start by brainstorming. You don’t need to write the essay before the first day of school, but you should make notes about a couple of favorite topics, and a plan of attack.

As you rough out the essay, remember that blurry-eyed admissions gatekeepers like clear, concise writing. They do not like bragging, exaggeration or pity-me essays. They’re often overloaded with first-person accounts of heroics on the playing field, and they grow tired of sports-as-a-metaphor-for-life essays. Humor is fine, but not if it’s humor that impugns an ethnic group, or tries to hard, or underscores the writer’s immaturity.

Now, flash forward to mid-September. You’re meeting with your guidance counselor, who asks what you’ve done to get started. You don’t hesitate to respond.

“My Common Apps paperwork is ready. I signed up for the ACT. I’ve started my essays…”

And this: “I did it all before the end of summer, then took time to go to the beach.”

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