By Queen Ogunshakin, Year 2
1. It is the most stressful year of your life, especially if you don’t plan ahead.
I suggest starting during your junior year. Figure out what you want to do, research colleges and scholarships, and talk to your counselor about post-graduation gap year opportunities as well. Start writing your essays and have teachers give feedback. Also, ask the seniors for advice!! We can give you our first-hand experience. Talk to us, we don’t bite lol.
2. You still receive the same amount of work that you received years before.
You would think as a senior you would have less work and half days, but it is nothing like that. You still have to attend class, write essays, and complete class work. From November to February, you will be applying to college and it may become very chaotic. Learn how to manage your time by creating a schedule for yourself and prioritizing different tasks that you need to complete. It will be very helpful in the long run.
3.You do not have to attend college right after high school.
You can always take a gap-year. A gap year is a period of time, typically a year when a student takes a break between secondary school and higher education. There are several opportunities that are available if you decide to take a gap year. You can attend trade schools, vocational schools, and other employment programs. College is not for everyone, it is okay to look at other opportunities outside of college.
4. Applying to colleges is not as easy as you might think.
Essays, financial aid, and scholarships. Keep track of all of the volunteer experiences, activities, internships, and any other extracurricular activities that you have been involved in. Make sure to also include the number of weeks and hours that you participated. This will come in handy when you apply for college and for scholarships that require you to list all of your activities. Write them down on a piece of paper, type it in a google doc or a google sheet, just put it in a place where it’s easy to find.
5. The FAFSA is very time consuming and is very difficult to complete.
The most important part of completing the FAFSA is to have your parents’ tax forms on-sight! Once you have those, it’s pretty smooth sailing from then on.
6. The CSS is worse.
The College Scholarship Service Profile (CSS), is another financial aid application that is way more intimidating. I didn’t even know what the CSS was until it appeared as one of the requirements for some of the colleges that I was applying to. Please research which colleges require the CSS Profile because it will prevent In my opinion, the FAFSA is less complicated and at least it’s free. The CSS application itself is $9, but for each college that you add it’s $16. However, you can receive a fee waiver. (You should talk to your counselor to receive more information about fee waivers!)
7. Take your time with your applications.
Make sure you fill out your applications thoroughly and have someone else review them so that there are no complications!!! Take your time when completing applications just to ensure that you don’t misspell a word, or type in a wrong number. You do not want the college application process to take longer than it should because you rushed to complete the applications.
8. Just because you receive acceptances, doesn’t mean that you can start slacking in your school work.
Some colleges will revoke your acceptance if your grades start to slip. When I received my first acceptance letter, I was very relieved. All of my hard work from these 12 years of school paid off. I developed this very relaxed and lazy mentality because I thought my job here was done. Although I started slacking, I still maintained a 4.0 gpa and ended out my semester strong. I also had to realize that slacking right now is not going to do me any justice when I get in college.
9. College is expensive!
Apply for as many scholarships as you can. It’s okay to apply for scholarships that are $500 – $2,500 because they add up. You can also attend a college in another country where it is cheaper. College costs less in Canada and it’s free or nearly free in Spain and many other European countries. However, before doing that make sure you do research on the country.
Bard Daily 