Happy Sunday Beautiful Early Bird Seniors,

I might not be as active on here with my posts as I once was, but when I'm not busy moderating, I take time to read your posts and see all the amazing support and advice we continue to share around here on a2c. Lately, it's been exciting seeing so many in our little (OK real big) admissions family completing your early apps and getting them submitted! Congrats, and good luck to you all. 💙 🍀

For those of you still in the weeds 😳,  I want to remind you to take time this week to just breathe. 

Here are a few more reminders for finalizing your early apps:

• This is the part you can control. Show them the best you on your very best day.
• DO NOT wait until the very last minute or even hour. Something will go wrong. Your electricity will go out. You'll come down with the flu. The Internet will go out. The zombie apocalypse will arrive. Your credit card won’t work. The website will crash. Your pet will have a crisis. Try to give yourself at least a couple of days, but at the very least give yourself eight hours of cushion time.
• The deadline for Common App Applications is at 11:59 PM your time zone on the date of the deadline. Please, though, submit at least two days early. SEE NOTE ABOVE!!!
• Get up from your computer and walk around every hour or so. Go outside. Let your brain reset occasionally.
• Read your essays OUT LOUD — to someone else if possible. And then have them read it back to you. You will notice missing words and funny verb tenses. Listen and feel for bumps. That’s where you need to edit. Make sure it sounds like you. Couple of hints:
  • Read your essay to your phone recorder and then listen back for the bumps.
  • Print up the preview copies and read them to look for bumps and typos.
  • Read your sentences backward -- the last sentence to the first sentence. It will help you read the words on the paper and not what you think it says.
  • Don't be a Thesaurus Rex 🦖. If it sounds like you've swallowed a thesaurus, go back and use words you know and understand. It's really disconcerting as a reader to feel that bump with a word that just isn't right. Use words you know -- and understand.
  • Here’s a link to some more of my editing hints. 
• Be sure to preview your essays after loading them into the app and see that the spacing is the way you want it. Common App will automatically bold your essays and add an extra paragraph space between paragraphs. You can easily unbold and remove the spaces. 
• Be sure to review your Activities Section and make sure you are using the character count to your advantage. I have some posts you can find in my profile about writing your activities.
• Stop and breathe. You might start feeling overwhelmed; just take 5 minutes and close your eyes, and take deep belly breaths. You will be amazed at how much better you feel.
• After submitting, look through and make sure all the parts went through. Especially check to make sure that your supplements were submitted. You often need to go back and send them after paying and sending the common app. Some colleges have you submit twice. Be sure to check!
• For many colleges, it’s okay for your supplementary materials like LORs, transcripts, and test scores – not your supplemental essays –  to arrive after the app. Check the colleges’ websites to determine their deadlines. For nearly all colleges, you do not need to wait for them to be in before you hit submit.

What’s Next? 

• Open all the emails the colleges send you after applying. 
• Create your portals and log in regularly to make sure your application isn’t missing anything. 
• Update your college counseling offices about where you’ve applied in whatever method your college needs – Naviance, SchoolLinks, Maia, Scoir, or by email or form. 
• Be sure you are keeping track of deadlines for scholarships and honors colleges too, if you are applying for those. 
• If you haven’t sent your ACT or SAT scores yet to schools that require official scores (and not self-reported on the common app), DO THAT TODAY.
• If you’re applying for financial aid, fill out the CSS profile if you have any schools on your list that require it – many private schools do. Last year, that was often the best way to figure out financial aid since the FAFSA was so delayed. This year, FAFSA is supposed to open by December 1. Every college has different deadlines for CSS profile (often dependent on when you apply) and FAFSA - be sure you and your parents are keeping up with that. You can add columns to your app spreadsheet if that would be helpful. 
• If you haven’t filled out the SRAR for colleges that require it, DO THAT TODAY or if you’ve already filled it out for one of your colleges, make sure you link it for any others who need it. 
  • List of colleges requiring SRAR
  • Link to make an account
• Recognize that this learning process is what college admissions is really all about. Reflect on how much you are learning about yourself right now as you are going through this. No matter where you go to college, you will be more in tune with who you are for having gone through this journey of self-exploration. Be proud of it.

SUPER IMPORTANT: Once you’ve let those beautiful baby bird early apps go from your nest, let them fly. Be sure to check up on your portals in the next few days and see what you need to finish, but beyond that, move on to your other apps. Take another deep breath and go for a nice long walk.

Ok! That's a long enough procrastination break -- now giddy up; get back to work! 👏👏👏

You got this!

XOXO AdmissionsMom