2. Organize your research
There are about 4,000 colleges in the U.S. alone, and you probably won’t be visiting all of them. A silver lining of Covid has been that colleges have significantly improved their online informational offerings. This has helped them overcome some accessibility issues while helping prospective applicants gain knowledge of campuses they can’t visit. Whether researching in person or virtually, it is important to get organized, take good notes and pay close attention. No two schools are alike, and you will need to know the differences, even if it is just a nuance. Taking good notes will also make college-specific essays easier to write and decisions easier to make.
3. Don’t clutter your college list
Avoid application burn-out by carefully building a thoughtful college list. Your choices should fit your needs academically, financially, and socially. Think of it like a Venn diagram, and the place where the three circles overlap is your sweet spot. This will be unique to you, so learn to filter out the noise that might pressure you to apply to the wrong places. Take off any school that you aren’t truly excited about. The challenge is to maintain the balance of your list by limiting colleges that are “moon shots,” including a few likely admits, but having the vast majority land somewhere in the middle. Be realistic about which is which. Applying to too many schools will lead to application fatigue resulting in poorer quality essays. Create a reasonable and realistic list, believe in it and stick to it.