How to Finish Your College Application Strong

For many students, the lead up to college application season is a time of anticipation, with a decent dose of trepidation. This is it! Three years of effort, leadership, activities, service clubs, mission trips, internships, job shadowing, all leading up to condensing everything into an electronic college application. With those early milestones, each student’s morale gets boosted in different ways: submitting an application to the coveted state school; a first acceptance from the rolling admission school; or maybe an Early Decision application submission to the “dream school”, which the student promises to love unconditionally as long as it loves the student back.

Yet as the pressures of the senior year mount, inevitably the student grows weary of the tedious demands of the application process. That‘s when reality hits. The student is exhausted already and doesn’t know how to sustain momentum with the applications. It’s tempting for the student to start thinking “maybe I will be happy with that first acceptance” or to begin fantasizing about how they are going to be one of the very few to earn a spot at Unbelievably-difficult-to-get-into University without even needing to complete those other applications.

Stop. Right. There. This is where we, as parents, school counselors, or independent counselors, need to jump in to ensure the student doesn’t give up on the process. And the best way to avoid the application strike – or even the threat of work stoppage – is by making a plan at the outset. It’s critical that the student buys into the plan and naturally - not all will. But most will recognize the necessity.

How do you jumpstart a tired student? As an independent college consultant, the process I’ve had the most success with is breaking everything down into smaller, more manageable tasks. And the key is to put the plan in writing, preferably on a wall calendar that the student sees when they enter their bedroom. The task outline is really quite simple. Remember, everything starts with an application. One mini-goal should be to complete the body of the application. The questions on that part of the application don’t veer much: name, address, parents’ information, major options, activities, etc. Just getting that part done gives most students a great sense of accomplishment and a boost of energy. Most applications – not including the essays – take less than 60 minutes to complete. Even the busiest teen can fit that into their schedule.

The next phase of work is to attack the essays, one by one. The “trick” here is that there are frequently overlapping topics from one college to the next, which helps cut down on the student’s workload. Answering the “What is your favorite extracurricular activity?”, and “Why do you want to study the major you’ve indicated?” questions can just be tweaked to make them relevant for any number of different colleges. And for the essays with different prompts, brainstorming is the key first step before your student starts writing. Another suggestion: never spend more than 45 minutes on the first draft of an essay. Often the hardest part is putting fingers to keyboard and that block precludes the procrastinator from even starting the essay. But that first draft doesn’t have to have a “hook” or a clever ending. It just needs bones. The second draft can address those parts.

The last and best advice I can give is to give your student some structure and some space. Constant reminders of what has to be done create stress. Your student knows what needs to be done now, and they will have no one to rely on next year but themselves. It’s ok to remind them that this is a marathon, not a sprint. With everything they’ve done the last three years, chugging along until the last application is submitted will be worth it in the end when your student sees they have choices...something they wanted when all of this started.

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Carol Doherty is the founder of Doherty Educational Consultants, based in Marietta, GA. Completing her sixth year as a consultant, she provides students educational consulting both locally and around the US. Carol is Professional Member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association and a member of Southern Association for College Admission Counseling (SACAC). She stresses the importance of making the experience manageable while keeping a keen eye on the family budget as she guides students through the process. Learn more about Carol and her team at Doherty Educational Consultants at www.dohertyedu.com.