We are in class 12 of our high school miniseries and
up until now I've covered everything you guys need to do class wise from class
9, 10, 11. Now this particular article is for students that
are just entering Class 12, so you have your entire class 12 in ahead of you
and what exactly should you be doing from your college apps perspective to make
sure that you have a strong profile that stands out.Now I've gone through
hundreds of profiles and being graduated from an Ivy League myself. I have a
pretty good idea of what top colleges in the US look for especially for
international students’ news flash.
When we
should apply?
This is the year that you're actually going to be
applying to colleges in the US. You do not need to have your class 12 final exam
marks in order to apply to US colleges. The whole process takes about 1 year
and you typically apply when you're starting class 12 by the time you finished
applying you still are in class 12 and your final exam marks only go to the
colleges much later on. So Class 12 can be hectic in so many ways.
You have your board exams coming up basically your
final exams that you're trying to perfect you're going to be filling out
college applications and if you've been following this particular series by
this time you would have finished writing all of your standardized tests so
either the SAT or act plus the tol exam plus all of your AP exams so most of
the testing is out of the way other than the high school test that you have to
give so that is going to be your number one priority just because you are
stressed out and have a lot of responsibility with college apps.
Make Sure
your School Grades
You need to make sure that your school grades don't
fall behind coming to the college list now in class 11 you did a lot of
research in figuring out what are the best colleges for your priorities the
major that you want to study so this is the time to finalize your college list
the summer before you enter Class 12 is when you should have a 10 to 20 College
list ready these are the colleges I'm applying to that's it the sorting and you
know going through what you need to do is all over you need to have your final
list ready don't expand and prolong this later towards the end of the year
because it can be very last minute and get very confusing so basically if
you're just entering Class 12 before August even before July is when you should
have your college list ready and the reason you're doing this before August is
because August is when college applications open all of them.
Other
Formalities
All of the colleges in the US for the fall intake open
in August for the next year so you're applying one year ahead now when the
colleges open you'll be applying through common app where you can apply up to
20 colleges in one website one portal and this is when you start filling out
the information start Gathering all your school documents. Maybe start reaching
out to your teachers for letters of recommendation other school reports and
work on all of your essays, personal essay, supplemental essays, short
questions listing down your extracurricular activities all of this stuff takes
time and not to forget when you are applying to maybe 10 or 20 different
colleges imagine if each college has one supplemental essay.
College
Deadline
So it's a lot of work and it takes time most of the
colleges have a deadline of December or January so you just have a few months
to complete this entire process now. I've explained the detailed process of
what you exactly need to do from like a college timeline perspective when
you're applying to colleges in a separate article so you guys can read that if
you want a more detailed explanation.
One Chance
Only
Now the entire college application process can be very
overwhelming and it's important to note that you only have one chance to do
this so it's very scary but you cannot mess up now this is where I'd like to
introduce you guys to the road to success mentorship which was first launched
last year and in this mentorship. It was an aggressive one month mentorship
where five students were selected and we work together on the common
application all of the essays resume activities how you should present your
activities making sure that all of the doubts and everything were answered and
giving like some amount of like guidance towards this entire process plus with
a lot of resources like free templates gets access to even a free ivy league
101 course.
IV League
101
Now on the other hand if you are interested in like a
self-paced course the IV League 101 might be a good fit for you as well the
links to both of these the road to success mentorship as well as the Ivy League
101 course is going to be. Remember that the road to success mentorship is an
application-based mentorship so you do have to apply it only happens once a
year and this is the right time to apply if you are seriously considering some
amount of help and need some guidance for your college applications so let's
talk about activities now if you've been following this miniseries that we've
been doing you have some really strong activities on your profile already with
that the goal is to just continue those make a strong resume and that is what
you apply the number one suggestion is do not start anything new if you already
have credible activities that you've been doing throughout your high school the
reason is you're trying to focus on your exams filling out all of your college
applications writing so many essays.
You do not need added responsibilities of activities
hanging over your head on the other hand if you're someone who feels like your
profile isn't strong enough you didn't start early enough you know to start
building your profile in general then it may be time to maybe explore some more
activities just remember activities will never overpower academics so I've seen
a lot of students make this mistake where they go for like these after school
activities and compromise their grades that should not happen your academics is
number one priorities lastly you do have to focus on your board exams remember
that your goal is to perform well in the final exams because by the time your
results come out the university that you've gotten accepted into will ask for
the final transcript.
Prediction
Score
Now I've seen many cases where students OV exaggerate
their predicted scores let's say your predicted score documents stated that you
would get 90% and you ended up getting 60, 70% or even failing in a subject
that University can resend their offer or they decide to wait list you so make
sure you're very truthful and ethical about your predicted mark sheet and you
focus equally well on your board exams just because the US college application
process complete and finishes before you write your board exams shouldn't be an
excuse for you not to perform well and the next thing I do want to like address
is once you've actually gotten into your University the summer between you
finishing board exams to you actually going to college is like a summer where
you just enjoy like a lot of students stress that should I be doing something
taking courses no just have a good time spend time with your family for most
International students. You're going to be leaving them in a different country
and coming all the way to the US and just take some time to unwind.
