by Caleb Rogart
Within the next few weeks, seniors will have received most if not all of their college application decisions. That in itself is the end of the road that juniors and underclassmen will soon have to begin their journey on themselves. The question is, how does the application process work? At the start, there seems to be an endless amount of questions with unknown answers. With that being said, it is important to remember that this past year, an estimated 20 million students applied to a wide selection of universities. Those 20 million students were able to work through the daunting application process and come out on the other side unscathed, and anyone going through this coming year’s application process is sure to be able to do the same.
Assuming that a student wants to go to college, the first question to address is which ones should they apply to? This is obviously quite an important step, as whatever school a student chooses will be their home for the next four years of their lives. However, with the appropriate research and planning, students are bound to find colleges that are right for them - after all, there are countless options. To decide which colleges are right for a student, there are many different factors in play, some of which include:
What school has a good program for their prospective major?
What kind of climate do they want at their school?
Do they want to live in a large city or small town?
What colleges can a student afford?
At what college does a student believe that they will enjoy themselves?
Moving on to the application process itself, Point Loma
students will most likely be focused on two different forms: the University of California (UC) application and the Common Application. While there are other applications, they are similar to the two previously mentioned. While the UC and Common Application have their differences (for example, the UC application has four short essays. and the Common App has one long essay) the vast majority of the application rarely changes year to year, meaning that students can prepare their applications as early as they would like.
Whether it be deciding on a possible college list, touring college campuses, writing up activities that a student has done throughout their high school career (it is required on all applications), or even looking at essay prompts from the 2022 application, it is highly recommended that students prepare in advance for the college application process. The earlier a student starts, the less stressed they will be, and the more they will be able to enjoy their time throughout their final year of high school.