October Tasks Before the Early Deadlines

Dear Families,

Thank you! Last week I had the pleasure of speaking in front of over 500 families at Mountain View Los Altos High School. It was a wonderful step out of my daily routine. (You’ll find me most days seated behind a computer in my home office.) This experience of connecting with many people at once, to deliver a message and share useful information, en masse but in person, is one of the thrills of being human. It allows me to tap the pulse of my purpose. If you were there, thanks for coming. If you weren’t there and wish I could speak at your high school, parent group or parent-teacher-student organization, please reach out to me. I’d love the opportunity!

We are entering the tunnel of the early admission deadlines. Here are my notes and tools:

October Task list: What To Complete Before Early Deadlines

• Send Your Exam Scores Don't wait until the last minute to send your exam scores. Before you order them, check each of your colleges to make sure that you understand whether you are required to send the best score or ALL of your scores. If you are required to send all scores, then do. If your scores are ready, then send them out now.  ACT and College Board get overwhelmed with requests starting in late October and every year I hear about scores that were lost or did not arrive on time. Send your scores to one UC only.
• Transcripts Order them now. Make sure that you know how your transcripts and letters of recommendation will be sent to out-of-state, state universities and schools that are not on the Common App (i.e. the Coalition). You will not send a transcript to the UCs until the end of the school year.
• Check On Letters of Recommendation  If your teachers have not uploaded their letters by Oct. 15th, please gently remind them of your pending deadline.
• Interview Sign up for and schedule any interviews that are required or recommended by your schools. Remember to Google your interviewer and to send immediately a follow up thank you email. Likely you will be scored on whether or not you've done these two things.
• Thank Everyone I remember every thank you and every gift that a student ever gave me while I was a professor. I remember not because I love gifts, but because I appreciated the act of gratitude.  Don't underestimate the power of gratitude. A lot of work goes into the application process, so thank everyone at high school for their efforts. Thank the college representatives that you meet. Thank your teachers for their letters of recommendation. A small gift to all high school teachers and administrators will be cherished.
• Continue with College Representative Visits  You should be getting announcements about signing up to meet with college representatives in  your Naviance account or by way of an email from the counseling office. Don’t miss out on opportunities to meet these representatives. They are likely reading your application.
• Apply to CSUs  As of October 1st, you can apply to the CSU's on their application here. The deadline for applying is November 30th. Don't wait. There are no essays for this application.
• Fill out a FAFSA  If you are hoping to garner merit aid, fill out a FAFSA. DO NOT apply for NEED BASED AID unless you are sure that you qualify.
• Once you apply  Once you’ve sent your application, drop a short, casual note to the admissions officer to say that you have submitted your application. Show some excitement. SUPER IMPORTANT: One week after you’ve submitted, contact the admissions office by phone and ask them the following question: Is my application complete? If it isn’t, they’ll let you know what is missing.

My Nudges

Early, Regular, Not sure… If you haven’t yet decided whether you are applying early, then here are my tips.

1. Early Decision. Don’t commit if you can’t. If you don’t know, you don’t know. That’s perfectly fine and you should not feel pressured to apply early decision. Remember: Early Decision is also a financial commitment. If you are admitted, the college expects you to pay tuition the coming year.  
2. Early Action. It can’t hurt and it might help, especially if you hope to gather merit aid. Don’t rush your application. Always apply when your essays are done and after someone has read over your writing for errors or typos.
3. Regular Decision. If you expect your grades to go up in the fall or if you think that your exam scores are going to be better after your exams in November or December, then seriously consider the option of applying regular decision.

Stay on top of your email. Be sure to check your email on a daily basis. For the moment, you are likely receiving important emails from the counseling office at your high school. Soon you will begin to receive emails from the colleges to which you have applied. This will continue through May 1st, then you will be asked to make a decision and choose one of the colleges that have admitted you. If anything is missing from your application (a letter of recommendation or a test score), the college will contact you by email. A college might also request further information from you. Failure to respond to these emails can put your admission at risk.

Before you let others read your essays. You’ve put in a lot of work on your essays and you feel really good about them. So when you request others to read your essays and provide feedback, first get clear in your mind about what kind of feedback you would like to receive. People are coming from their own experiences and backgrounds which can lead to the too many cooks in the kitchen scenario. So before you let your readers loose on your essay, tell them what feedback would be useful and what you want to hear about. This way you avoid getting responses that might not be helpful to you. Examples:
--I am really happy with my essay. Can you tell me if my final message is clear?
--I would like to know how you respond to my essay?
--I need someone to simply read over my essay and see if it could be better.
You will have your own ideas about what kind of feedback you need. Communicate this to your reader for the best possible outcomes of the exchange.

Stress Less. This is a stressful time on many levels. How much of this stress comes from you putting pressure on yourself? How can you stop pressuring yourself? When I catch myself ramping up my own stress, I imagine that I have a dial in front of me and I turn down the volume on the stress. Try taking a 10 minute break just to break. Step outside and feel the sunshine on your face, watch a bird or listen to the wind. Put in your earbuds and play your favorite song. Take a quick walk around the neighborhood. Sit and breathe in and out for a count of 4 each inhale and exhale.