Guide to College Admissions

This will be a slightly different page than the others on my archive, it's an extremely comprehensive guide to undergraduate college admissions that I hope will break down the process that was never properly explained to me.

(Side note: MIT is really strange (big surprise!) so I'll mention their admission process exceptions throughout the guide)


Let's start with the basics, in America: 

1. Most people get a high-school diploma or equivalent.
• Some people choose not to go to college and instead vocational school (less common nowadays, think a mechanic or whatever, much cheaper).
2. After high-school, many people go to a community college or state university or private university to get a two year (Associate's) or four year (Bachelor's) degree. This is called undergraduate school.
3. After, one could either get a Master's degree or go straight into a graduate school (i.e. medical school, law school, veterinary school, etc.); this usually takes over four years.
4. After going to graduate school some people do one or more post-docs. It's basically extra experience in the research field to try to get a higher position in academia. 

Please note that at any point in the above process one may exit academia and go into the work force, or balance both.

There are four main types of admissions for undergraduate:

• Regular Admission: this is the standard admission protocol for most universities. Basically you submit most of your paperwork, transcripts, etc. (see senior section of calendar below for details) by January-February and receive your reply around March-April.
• The reply can either be an acceptance, a rejection, or a wait-list (wait list is basically they see who declines their offer of admission and if enough people do, you get bumped onto the accepted list and can accept their offer of admission)
• Early Action: this is like regular admission except the deadline is much sooner, usually November-December; this is nice because one usually is given the reply sooner around January -February.
• The reply can either be an acceptance, a rejection, or they defer you (this means they put you in the regular admission applicant pool)
• Restricted Early Action: Like early action but you can only apply to that one private university early. Harvard does this and some other schools. If you apply early to any other private American university other than that one, the college can legally retract your application (rejected). You can apply to other schools early if those schools are public universities or not in the US. Your decision to apply restricted early action does not affect or restrict any regular admission applications. I personally applied early to Harvard (private, Restricted EA) and GeorgiaTech (public, EA) (both great schools!).
• The reply can either be an acceptance, a rejection, or they defer you (this means they put you in the regular admission applicant pool)
• Early Decision: exactly like early action except if you get accepted you must attend that university. Technically you can fight it but...I wouldn't test the waters.Your decision to apply early decision does not affect or restrict any regular admission applications.
• The reply can either be an acceptance, a rejection, or they defer you (this means they put you in the regular admission applicant pool)

Note: Rolling Admissions means that instead of waiting for the deadline to start reviewing applications, the committee reads them as people submit applications. So if you submit yours before the deadline, it will be read as soon as possible. Some schools do not have strict deadlines, they conduct rolling admissions for a "season" for the next fall semester incoming students, and during other periods of the year for the spring or summer semesters.

Note2: Most of the undergraduate admission process can be done via CommonApp (even for some international schools). It is a very easy way to apply to college. One simply has their account linked with their counselor (who will upload the student's transcript and mid-year report on the counselor's account not through the student's) and recommenders (who will upload their evaluation of the student on the recommender's account not through the student's). You must connect through the site with your counselor and recommenders for them to upload the documents. That way upload it once and done for all schools being applied to through the CommonApp, although the admission reply is done completely through each school's individual system NOT on the CommonApp. Other schools may use their own websites like MIT or UF does, those are similar systems that also must be linked with the people helping you.

Recommended High-school Calendar:
Freshman or younger: Have fun and learn.

• Do not stress! 
• Just try to do your best in school.
• Make friends.
• Join clubs or volunteer groups.
• Take higher level classes in subjects you enjoy.
• Try to ace most of your classes.

Sophomores: Have fun, SATs and stuff, learn new things, etc.

• See and follow above^ freshman guidelines.
• Invest in a good review book for the SAT/ACT.
• Think about your future path and what you would like to take.
• Talk to your parents about whether or not you can afford attending a private/out-of-state university. 
• Near April of your sophomore year I recommend taking both the SAT and ACT without studying a lot. 
• Learn about SAT II exams and which universities require them.
• Take harder classes next year!

Juniors: oh boy. oh boy oh boy oh boy.

• Work very hard this year for good grades people, as hard as you can. 
• Depending on which test (SAT or ACT) you took and did better on, study what you want to work on and take that one again (my math score needed some work, I studied by taking only math sections of practice books and re-took the ACT to raise my math score). 
• Start looking at colleges:
• Make a plan of which colleges you want to apply to.
• Visit some of them if you can!
• Think about your major (what you want to specifically study in college), I personally started my list by looking at the top ten schools for my major.
• Ask NOW for recommendation letters from teachers or employers, most will be too busy or lazy to do it later senior year.

Senior Year: after January-ish its all over and you can nap all you want, just stick it through!

• Already the summer before you should start the application process by writing/brain-storming essays and compiling the list of schools you will apply to.
• Ask NOW NOW NOW ASAP for recommendation letters from teachers or employers, the CommonApp and most other platforms have the recommender upload their letter so make sure to add them to your account it'll send the link. Even if you volunteer have the person in charge write something nice with your hour-input.
• Request high-school transcripts for admission applications. Later in the year around December request mid-year reports (universities require this!).
• Complete the FAFSA for federal loans/aid ASAP!
• Send ACT/SAT/AP scores/IB scores/SAT II/whatever scores to the college you want to apply to. Most schools require ACT or SAT scores, although some engineering schools also require SAT II courses (MIT, Johns Hopkins, etc.).
• Start looking at financial aid options: Bright-futures in Florida, scholarships in specific universities might require certain essays attached to your application, etc.
• Many private universities require the IDOC, a college-board run website that you upload tax forms or whatever so college can see how much need you should get. Lying is illegal so upload the truth!
• Some colleges require a secondary application for certain programs, or to add some oomf to your application:
• Music: either original compositions or videos of you playing/singing.
• Art: pictures or videos of original art (I did this! uploaded 10 paintings/sketches and a time-lapse of me painting).
• Research: upload a paper w/ or w/o a recommendation, I did this as well.
• English: personal essays or original stories.
• Others...

Help with Essays: "be yourself" and some real/practical advice
My best, actually useful advice for essays is to put all the prompts in a GoogleDocs (so it autosaves and you never loose it), and start to brainstorm/write the essays ASAP. Just sit down and write it, force yourself if you have to. But here's some good news:

• Most essays are very similar, if you have it all in one Doc it's easier to cut and paste.
• Most prompts are not boring, they are meant to excite you into writing so try your hardest.
• Legitimately write what you want to say: what they probably would want to know about you, avoiding what you wouldn't want them to know (i.e. "I'm creative and always thinking about new research ideas," not: "I have slight insomnia that keeps me up late into the wee-hours and my sleep-deprived brain thinks of ridiculous science fair ideas" ...although MIT might actually like that lol).
• It's not a resume list, try to talk about actual experiences instead of just stating work/volunteer/whatever that's on your resume.
• If the prompt is a vague "why do you want to go to this specific college" google the college and the programs that interest you, talk about those and how they relate to what you enjoy/your passions/your career goal.
• Brownie points if you mention a specific lab or professor or club or whatever.
• Don't stress, it's not the biggest deal.
• My short but sweet example that I wrote for Georgia Tech: Tech’s motto is Progress and Service. We find that students who ultimately have a broad impact first had a significant one at home. What is your role in your immediate or extended family? And how have you seen evidence of your impact on them? (150 words max)

When I created my “Health & Diabetes Awareness Ambassador Program,” I was thinking of my family. Presenting in front of kids, teaching them what it means to be healthy, form good habits, be diabetic and how to prevent it, I’m thinking about my grandparents. My diabetic relatives know I’m researching/developing everything I can to increase their quality of life. But my role is not just as a researcher, but also a mentor. 

My brother follows in my footsteps, learns from my mistakes just as I do. November my brother will present his cardiovascular research to the U.S. president because I coach, support, review (his grammar haha) and help my brother whenever I can. I see the impact of my actions in my brother’s, relative’s smiling faces, and even at school when people comment on the blog (mayasarchives.blogspot.com). Overall, I instinctively do my part to help inspire others.

Interviews: I find that most colleges do not do an interview, although some (MIT) require it and Ive-Leagues most often do conduct interviews. Maya's advice: dress sharp (nice button down, slacks, I don't recommend a tie or dress but if your mother forces you oh well), bring your resume, if you make things bring a small sample, smile and look them in the eye, remember that it'll all be over soon.

Best advice: INTERVIEWS ARE A TWO-WAY STREET! This is your prime opportunity to meet an alum or representative and ask the real questions about campus life/programs/whatever. They might be judging you, but you are also judging them as one facet of this school. Be less nervous knowing they are too.

The purpose of the interview is to make sure the other person isn't crazy; the only way an interview will affect your admissions is if you decide not to apply/retract your application because of the experience or they decide you will blow up/fail miserably/make drugs at this school. (Side note: if your interviewer is rude or in a very bad mood from the start, contact the school and let them known politely what happened, better safe then sorry; one of my interviewers never showed up or replied to my emails so I had to redo that one and was later accepted, no worries).

Some Myths about the College Admissions Experience I am Disproving/How to avoid them:

• "I didn't get accepted because my SAT score wasn't high enough"
• Yeah, if it's an Ive-League and you are not anywhere close to the 90th percentile of scores (30+ on ACT and equivalent), sure. But if your GPA was higher than a 3.5 and your scores were pretty good, a school didn't accept you because they had other kids who they wanted more for a host of reasons, some even had much lower scores than you! Like come on, the #1 in the world yo-yo champion? Who wouldn't accept him even if he got a 27 on the ACT! That kinda thing.
• Avoid by: Not getting your hopes up, only apply to schools you truly would consider attending.
• "Everything happens for a good reason"
• This is true in the sense that where-ever you end up in the future will be fantastic, even if it isn't college. 
• This is not true when it comes to US college admissions. College Admissions are so random I don't even know where to begin. I know multiple people who didn't into University of Florida or Boston University but are now at Ive Leagues! Likewise, I know people who applied to multiple schools and only got accepted into their most selective choice. Like ????? So random...
• Apply to as many schools as you can (Just don't go over 12 that's too much).
• "I got deferred that's basically getting denied"
• No it isn't, just wait a few months and see.
• "Ive Leagues are super hard to get in, everyone is a genius"
• No, most of the people there just know how to study or are generally smart or are relatively accomplished for their age or have connections. Some of them probably shouldn't be there, and a good percentage will transfer or drop out. 
• Apply to a "reach-school," see what happens.
• "My interview went so well I'm getting in/My interview went so bad omg they'll never accept me"
• Unless you said something REALLY bad like you make drugs or are a psychopath, interviews really aren't that big of a deal. They don't mean much long term, just help students get a feel for what they are going into, and it shows the interviewers whether you really are what you put on paper. 
• Literally, just forget about it. If it was really awkward (which btw awkward pauses and stuff is normal), repress it forever.
• "It's not worth it to pay a lot for college"
• Really? Because the average is that you'll make over a million more dollars in your life with a college diploma compared to just a highschool diploma. Especially in today's day and age. If you're low income you can get major financial aid and scholarships, if you're middle class please watch some Khan Academy videos on how to pay for college. College is one of the best financial investments you can make, it's an investment in yourself. If you aren't going to work hard don't bother, but if you can stay motivated it's so worth it (and you'll have the time of your life).

If you have any more suggestions please comment. Let's keep this place free of rants, I think I've covered that enough. If you want me to add to the guide/have a question please comment.