This blog post is part of a series that will help you as you apply to colleges. Today, I’m sharing some things you should finish before senior year to stay on track as you narrow down your school list and prepare to apply to colleges.
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This blog post is part of a series that will help you as you apply to colleges. Today, I’m sharing a list of some of the things you should do during the fall of junior year to be ready to submit applications to colleges.
Are you late to the party and want to know what’s going on? Start here.
This post is relevant to you if it is the summer before your junior year or if you are currently in your junior year of high school. Follow along, add some details to your calendar and we’ll make sure something like this ~doesn’t~ happen:
This blog post is part of a series that will help you as you apply to colleges. Today, I’ll share my own personal experiences with choosing a major and what I wish I knew when I made my decision. This post is for you if you’re feeling stuck deciding if you should play it safe and choose a major with guaranteed job security or choose a major that you’re passionate about.
Are you late to the party and want to know what’s going on? Start here.
It’s totally fine if you’re on the fence or undecided about a major—applying undecided is a legitimate option. This doesn’t hurt your chances of getting in, and a large percentage of students attend college this way each year.
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This blog post is part of a series that will help you as you apply to colleges. Today, we’ll talk about things you, as a junior, might find helpful before you start applying to schools and some helpful things to keep in mind throughout the school year.
Are you late to the party and want to know what’s going on? Start here.
This post is relevant to you if you are a rising junior or currently in your junior year of high school. Or, if you’re a rising senior and are getting up to speed with the college process.
With so many moving parts in the college admissions process, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything you need to do as you start applying to college. It’s likely that at some point, you’ll stress about deadlines and feel overwhelmed.
Check this out: Tricks to help manage stress and stay positive
I mean, don’t get me wrong. In terms of dealing with stress, you’ll learn things about yourself that you never knew during the college application process. This is supposed to happen, so don’t worry *too* much.
But try to think of applying to colleges like preparing for a marathon. Marathoners build endurance and participate in a ton of short races before marathons. They don’t just show up to the Boston Marathon start line the third Monday in April and expect to be able to run 26.2 miles without training for months beforehand.
Breaking down the admissions process into easy to manage chunks (working towards a marathon) will keep you focused and organized and help prevent you from getting emotionally drained.
I’ll give you some pointers on what should be accomplished from the time you begin your junior year in high school to the time you submit your last application as a senior.
In the next series of posts, you’ll figure out how to work through the marathon that is applying to colleges. You’ll learn how to compile a list of colleges that you’ll thrive at, when you should ask teachers for letters of recommendations and more.
This is an eight-part series, and I plan to publish new posts on Fridays. I’ll update the links here as they go live. Sign up to get notified when I publish the next post in this series.
Even though I have no part in reading applications or making decisions about the future of students accepted to UMass Lowell, I write a lot of the content that goes out to UML hopefuls.
A few weeks ago, I looked over the accepted/denied/waitlisted emails, and I had *feelings*.
Checking over those decision emails for grammar mistakes pretty much destroyed me. I got in my head about how important these decisions are and how someone (an actual human with actual human feelings and hopes and dreams) will read their decision email and feel things.
And then I kind of spiraled and forgot how to spell and use words that were more than a single syllable. I can’t help but wonder if my co-workers felt this weird blend of overwhelm and empathy with prospective students the first time they went through this side of the college acceptance process.
The Point.
The college admissions process is stressful for everyone involved. You’re not alone in whatever heavy stuff you’re working through. You may feel like you are, but if you take a minute to look around you, on YouTube or Twitter, you’ll find that there are a lot of other people going through the same thing. I promise, you’re not alone, and you’re awesome for working through this.
Where ever you are today and no matter how many college decision letters you’ve read, you deserve happiness. You are more than the decision that a university makes about you.Click To TweetIt’s easy to get stressed out about college decisions and caught up in what’s going to happen next year. So, take a minute to breathe and acknowledge your stress. It’s normal to feel stressed about this. And then let it go.
It’s finally spring.
Go outside and enjoy it. It was 54 degrees in Lowell on the first day of spring. Take a walk. Hang out with your friends. Do the things that you love just for the fun of it. It’s your last year of high school, and your biggest goal now should be to enjoy every minute of it.
