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    The College Bound Organizer: The Ultimate Guide to Successful College Applications
    The College Bound Organizer: The Ultimate Guide to Successful College Applications
    The College Bound Organizer: The Ultimate Guide to Successful College Applications
    Ebook224 pages1 hour

    The College Bound Organizer: The Ultimate Guide to Successful College Applications

    By Anna Costaras, Gail Liss and Edward B. Fiske

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    About this ebook

    Your step-by-step comprehensive guide to organize every step of the college application process from college search through college admission.

    College admissions is tougher than ever. With standardized test taking and school visits, the college application essay to write and forms to fill out, there is so much to do. Applying to college is intimidating and overwhelming for both teenagers and parents.

    The challenge is to be well informed, prepared, focused and organized throughout the multi-step college search and admission process. Your solution is The College Bound Organizer, the ultimate guide to help students effectively navigate this very complicated and stressful process.

    The College Bound Organizer helps students:

    Understand what admission officers are looking for in an applicant

    Prevent common mistakes students make on their applications

    Build a personal profile

    Plan an individualized testing schedule

    Research colleges to identify schools that are a good fit

    Develop a balanced list of schools

    Secure letters of recommendation

    Complete and submit applications accurately and on time

    Develop the college application essay

    Apply for financial aid and scholarships

    Ace interviews

    Sort and manage application results

    Make a final decision

    “Planning ahead and ‘getting there first’ can do more than help students get into a good college—it can provide them with life skills, a solid education, and lifelong friends.” —

    Business Insider

    “Using The College Bound Organizer is one way to help you stay focused on what is really important.” —Edward B. Fiske, bestselling author of Fiske Guide to Colleges
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateNov 2, 2017
    ISBN9781633536845
    The College Bound Organizer: The Ultimate Guide to Successful College Applications
    Author

    Anna Costaras

    Anna Costaras holds a BS and MBA from New York University Stern School of Business. A veteran of the college application process, Anna founded a college-bound mentoring program for underserved students from her community to guide students on their way to college.  Anna has been actively involved with an educational enrichment program for children in need of after-school support, as a volunteer and college mentor, and has served on the Board of Directors.

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      Book preview

      The College Bound Organizer - Anna Costaras

      FOREWORD

      There are more than 2,200 four-year colleges in the United States, and trying to figure out which ones are likely to be good matches for you can seem like a daunting task. It’s easy to sympathize with the applicant to Haverford College some years ago, who was particularly stressed out at the end of his on-campus interview. On his way back to the waiting room he had to pass through several doors, but his emotional state was such that he failed to notice where he was and opened one more door—which took him into a closet. He was so embarrassed that he remained in the closet for several minutes before reappearing to face a room full of staring faces.

      It doesn’t have to be that way. As author of the Fiske Guide to Colleges and numerous other books on college admissions, I’ve had the pleasure of working with thousands of college-bound high school students and their parents both in person and through my writing. People are not born brain-wired knowing how to navigate the byzantine admissions process that American colleges and universities have, in their wisdom, imposed on their aspiring students, so a bit of anxiety—or at least mild bewilderment—is probably a sign that you are in touch with reality.

      Not surprisingly, the most common question that I have gotten over the years from students staring at all those options is: Where do I start? The implicit subtext is: How do I begin to make sense of the process? My usual (and admittedly self-serving) suggestion is to thumb through the 300+ narrative descriptions in the Fiske Guide and find one or two schools that seem like a good match. Then look at the schools with which these schools have substantial overlapping applicant pools and maybe look at overlaps of the overlaps. This process should produce a list of 15 or 20 target schools to get you off and running.

      Once you have identified some target schools, the challenge is to figure out how to deal with all the elements that go into the application process: campus visits, test-taking, financial aid forms, letters of reference, and so forth. That, of course, is where The College Bound Organizer comes to your rescue in at least two ways. First, it gives you a one-stop shopping way to keep track of the hundreds of details that go into applying to multiple colleges. No more ruffling through piles of papers to figure out when—or even whether!—you have scheduled an appointment with the admissions folks at Old Siwash. Second, it represents a checklist—with deadlines—that lays out the various steps that you need to be taking. With The College Bound Organizer at your side, you can rest assured that you will not wake up on December 31 and suddenly realize that you forgot to ask your English teacher for a recommendation that is due two days later.

      Applying to college should be a positive experience. Colleges are interesting places, with lots of bright people doing innovative things, and the application process is really the beginning of your college education. It’s the time when you begin to think seriously about your goals and academic interests. The mechanics of the process are important and need to be taken seriously. But it’s also important to keep your mind on the big picture: which colleges are best suited to help you to grow academically, socially, spiritually, and in every other way? Using The College Bound Organizer is one way to help you stay focused on what is really important.

      Edward B. Fiske

      Author of Fiske Guide to Colleges

      INTRODUCTION

      Whether you’re in ninth or tenth grade and just starting to think about your future plans or in your junior or senior year and college bound, we’re here to help you find your way. Applying to college is complicated and can seem like an overwhelming process. Together, we are going to break it down into a series of many small, manageable tasks. With a well-thought-out plan and a good organizing system, you will have all the tools you’ll need to put together an outstanding application and get the best admissions results possible.

      The college application process is daunting for both students and their parents. It’s a maze of deadlines, test prep, testing, college fairs, campus tours, applications, resumes, essays, interviews and financial aid forms. It goes without saying that you will be required to do all this while continuing to stay focused on academics, athletics, extracurricular commitments, jobs, family responsibilities and all the interests, obligations and activities that fill your day. Your life is now filled with college chaos.

      Here’s your challenge: to successfully apply to college. This will require you to define yourself by understanding who you are, identifying your goals, finding schools that fit your profile, staying on task to meet deadlines and correctly submitting all your application components in a well-executed manner. Here’s your solution: The College Bound Organizer. Our method will help keep you focused and on task, allowing you to organize and manage the massive amount of information that you will be responsible for creating, requesting and submitting while meeting all the different due dates for your applications. Our road map will steer you through the stressful college application process and get you to the college that’s the right fit for you. To keep you in touch with what today’s educators are thinking, a select group of admissions professionals were consulted and are quoted throughout the book.

      Going to college is an exciting time in your life. There is much to look forward to: being independent, challenging yourself, acquiring new skills, having new experiences, meeting different people, exploring a variety of interests, making friends, and, of course, learning so many new things. You’ll have a tremendous number of decisions to make, from course selection, to focus of study, to career options to pursue. But first, you have to get there.

      Let’s get started!

      Anna and Gail

      CHAPTER 1

      GETTING STARTED:

      FACT FINDING

      When applying to college you will be required to provide facts about yourself, your family and your high school, repeatedly. You’ll be asked for this information countless times when registering for tests, completing your applications and applying for financial aid and scholarships. Easy access to this information will help you avoid endless aggravation. Having this information organized in one place will also minimize the chance that you’ll make mistakes on your applications.

      Start with the Student’s Personal Information worksheet provided in this chapter. Colleges use social security numbers to identify students. So, if you don’t already have a social security number, apply for one now. Jot down your number on this worksheet and then store your card in a safe place. Set up an email account to use exclusively for your college search and application process and record this on the worksheet as well. Colleges will be communicating with you via email and having a separate account makes it less likely that you’ll miss an important notice in your inbox. The schools you apply to will send you many important announcements to help you complete your applications. Get into the habit of checking your email at least once a day.

      It’s a fine idea to have an email address that’s just for college applications, but if you do, check that email. I see hundreds of high school seniors missing opportunities because they’re not in the regular email habit.

      — JONATHAN BURDICK, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, University of Rochester

      Think about what your email address may or may not say about you.

      —ALISON ALMASIAN, Director of Admissions, St. Lawrence University

      Next, if you have not already done so, sign up for standardized tests by registering with College Board for the SAT and SAT Subject Tests, and with ACT. Note your usernames and passwords for easy reference on the worksheet.

      Most students apply to college by using the Common Application and/or individual school applications. The Common App is a single, uniform application accepted by approximately 700 colleges and universities. The Common App allows

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