July 2021

CAG
A Comprehensive Guide to
College Admissions
By Adi
I

Disclaimer

Everything in this document was written and compiled solely by me, a high school
graduate from India. This is everything I learnt through my college applications
journey and advice I got from my friends and seniors that I found helpful. I've only
talked about what I know because I do not want to spread false information. I've
said this multiple times in the doc but please remember that I am by all means not an
expert and you should always do your own research and refer other sources as well.

(Make sure you're referring the actual college website when looking for something
(or other trusted sources), they are the best sources of information!!! and if you're
unsure of something, email the admissions office!)

I do not work as a college consultant or in the admissions office and I do not know
what goes on behind the scenes, I am merely an incoming college freshman from
across the Atlantic who wants to share her experience with college admissions and
hopefully help some of y'all with your admissions journey.

DISCLAIMER
II

Table of Contents

Welcome 1
About Me 1
About the doc 2
Who can read it 2
When to read it 2
Perks 3
Glossary 3
Resources 4
The College Application Process 4
Holistic Admissions 5
How to Apply 5
Types of Admissions 6
What colleges look for in applicants 7
Senior Year Application Timeline/Checklist 7
Your College List 10
Factors to consider when choosing colleges 11
Ways to go about making your college list 11
The Common Application 13
The Big Four 14
Test Scores 15
SAT/ACT 15
Test-optional and test-blind 16
SAT vs ACT 16
SAT Subject Tests 17
English Proficiency Tests 17
Grades 18
AP Exams 20
Extracurriculars 21
Common App Activities List 23
Awards and Honors 23
Essays 24
Importance of Essays 25
The Common App Essay 25
Getting Started with Your Essay 25
Writing/Editing the Essay 27
Supplemental Essays 29
Copy-paste Essays 30
The Why Major Essay 31
The Why College Essay 32

TABLE OF CONTENTS
III
Letters of Recommendation 33
My school doesn’t have a counselor, what do I do? 34
How to choose which teachers to get letters from 35
FERPA 35
Interviews 36
Importance of Interviews 37
Questions asked in Interviews 37
Financial Aid & Scholarships 38
Net Price Calculators 39
Scholarships 40
External Scholarships 40
Negotiating and Appealing Aid Packages 41
My Application 41
Final Words 42

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
HELLO!!

College. The first four years as an adult, the ones we look forward to the most especially
after the nightmare rollercoaster that was high school. But like in all realms of life, in
between us and our dreams stands the mountain known as college admissions. Staring at
your blank document “brainstorming” ideas for essays, sleepless nights during application
season, submitting your application seconds before the deadline, reading those same
boring history passages on the SAT, making the most out of Google desperately searching
for extracurriculars, and senioritis hitting you real hard as application deadlines come
around. I would say that’s a realistic image of how high school’s gonna be if you want to
study at a college in the US.

Bit of a dramatic intro there but basically college applications is a WHIRLWIND and I’m
here, as a successful graduate of the college application process, to share my experiences
with you and help you navigate college admissions with a little more ease and make it less
daunting. .

In this doc, I’ll cover everything you will need to know to have a (hopefully) successful
and less stressful application process from finding extracurriculars to what to include in
essays to prepping for standardized tests and more! This guide is made for everyone who
wants to apply to study in the United States whether you live in the US or not and also
includes a college application timeline.

I would really appreciate if y’all could fill out this survey, it doesn’t ask for any personal
information or anything, I’m just a stats whore and I want to see what your thoughts are
on this doc (and yea, it would be pretty cool to see how many people read this).

About Me
P.S If you would like to see any of my
My name is Adi, I’m from India and I’m an incoming application material I submitted
freshman (currently on a gap year so class of 2026 (scroll to the bottom of the guide to
find my college list, test scores and
wooohoooo) at NYU studying Mathematics and grades) like my activities list, common
Computer Science. I applied to college as an international app essay, supplemental essays, or
student and I’m also a recruited athlete on NYU's anything else, feel free to reach out to
me and I’d be happy to share them
women's tennis team (this didn’t play any role in with you (I’m not going to share them
admissions though because my recruitment process was here because they’re incredibly
super weird and also NYU doesn’t give a hoot about personal to me and I don’t want them
floating on the internet).
athletics rip).

WELCOME
2
I knew almost nothing about college applications when I started (I know everyone says
this but I legit didn’t know anything. I lowkey thought for a good few months that if
you’re an athlete you don’t have to apply through the common app and whatnot so if you
feel like a complete noob when it comes to college, just know that you’re not alone and
there are so many people just like you and many more to help you through it) but I had a
lot of amazing friends that helped me through it and I’m here to do the same for you!

If you have any questions or would like me to review any material (or if you want a friend
or someone to talk to :)) ), don’t hesitate to DM me on Discord (or just join this server)!

About the doc

I don’t know about you but I personally am not a fan of like super long articles or guide
things that are like hundreds of pages. Gurl I already procrastinate a lot, don’t give me
more of a reason to. I’m going to assume (for my sake so I don’t have to type as much)
that y’all are the same too and I’m going to TRY to keep this as short as I can while still
addressing all the important parts of the college admissions process. That being said,
there’s still a lot about college apps (apps = college applications and not the ones on your
phone or laptop) I wasn’t able to talk about but this covers the core of the college
applications process.

I’ve also tried to make it as conversational and not boring as I could (if you’re wondering
how this punctuation and “good grammar” of mine is conversational, that’s just how I
text/type (yes I know, mega boomer here bare with me)). There’s so much I wasn’t able
to talk about because I didn’t want to make this excruciatingly long and boring (also it
takes so goddamn long to do this you have no idea, took me a whole two months to
finish it) but I’ve talked about all the important stuff.

Who can read it?

Everything in this doc is applicable to both domestic and international students and I
have marked the parts that apply specifically to internationals. To the internationals: read
the parts that aren’t marked for you as well, they are applicable to you too. The parts
marked specifically for you is additional information that’s only applicable to
internationals.

When should I read it?

There is no specific order to read the doc. You can read it all at once, or you can go in the
order and read a few sections at a time or you can skip to the sections you want help in
and read those. All the sections are independent of each other and you won’t be missing

WELCOME
3
out on information about one topic if you don’t read another. That being said, I do
recommend that you read the whole thing because it’ll give you a much better
understanding of the admissions process.

There is no specific time to read the doc either. The college application process spans a
few years and you can always come back and refer to whichever section is the most
relevant to you at that point of time.

Perks
In addition to getting a first-hand look at my pathetic writing skills and reading pages and
pages of me talking (which I love to do), some cool things about this doc are:
A resources masterdoc I made that consists of a bunch of resources that are super
helpful for the admissions process and you can find the link in the section below this.
You get to hear all about a senior's experience with applications without having to
DM or ask them a thousand questions (you're welcome :D)
A college application timeline/checklist for your senior year, created by yours truly :)
If you’re anything like me when I first started out with applications, you’re going to
want to know the “how I got in”s of everyone you know so I’ve included my
application in this doc, let’s see if you can find it…….. (I’m kidding, it’s at the end of the
doc)
All my international homies: I gotchu.
I’ve also included my experience with each component of the applications process so
you can- I don’t actually know why, I just thought it would be cool :P
And lastly, you get to be besties with me mwah

Glossary
This is just a short list of the terms/abbreviations I use in this doc.
1. College/University/School: They all mean the same thing- the 4 years of university
after high school.
2. Apps/Applications/Admissions: All different ways of referring to college applications.
3. AOs: Admissions officers, the people that read the application you submit to colleges
4. ECs: Extracurricular activities that you participate in outside of school or school-
related study.
5. LoRs/rec letters: Short forms used to refer to letters of recommendation, letters your
high school teachers write and send to colleges.
6. Test scores: Refers to scores on the standardized tests that are the SAT and ACT.

WELCOME
4
Resources
Here is a master doc of some amazing resources that I compiled to help you with the
college admissions process. They’re all FREE so you don’t have to pay a cent. I didn’t use
all of them but I trust all the resources listed (if that means anything), so you can too.

Note that I did not create any of these resources, I’m just compiling it so it’s easy for you
to find and use.

Huge shoutout to everyone that created these resources, it takes an immense amount of
time and effort to make them (I should know) and we thank you for being our saviors as
we apply to college.

Again, you find the master doc here.

The College Applications Process

Okay Im’ma be real, college applications are extremely daunting and tiring and infuriating
BUT in a weird way, it’s pretty fun and exciting. You learn a lot about yourself while
applying and there’s a sense of pride you feel when you finish writing an essay or submit
an application.

It’s also insanely long. The main chunk of apps is like 5-8 months depending on how
much of an overachiever you are but the whole process is actually like 2 years if you
think about it. Make sure you space out everything though because otherwise you’re
going to burn out.

There are four main parts of your application (what I like to call the Big Four): grades, test
scores, extracurriculars, essays. A general hierarchy of these in terms of importance and
value they add to your application would be - grades > letters of recommendation >
essays > extracurriculars > test scores. They are all still vital parts of your application but
certain strong parts of your application (like extracurriculars, LoRs, or essays) can
compensate for other weaker parts of your application (like test scores and grades).

In addition, you also have letters of recommendation, awards/honors, interviews, and

financial aid. And I’ll talk about all of these in detail throughout this doc. Remember that
every part of your application is valued and is an important part of your application and
makes your application whole.
THE COLLEGE APPLICATIONS PROCESS
5
Holistic Admissions
Something I think a lot of us seem to forget is that most colleges in the US practice
holistic admissions. What that means is that the focus is not solely on your grades and
test scores but on who you are as a person. Colleges want to get to know you as a
person and how you would fit into their admitted class and in order to do so, they look at
what you do in your free time, what your interests and passions are, how your
experiences have shaped you, what you’ve accomplished with the tools you had, what
your dreams and aspirations are, and how you blend into different communities- all
things that are depicted in your extracurriculars and essays.

You’ll hear the phrase “college admissions is a crapshoot” quite often and it is true, more
so this year because most colleges are test-optional.

Holistic admissions makes admissions very unpredictable and random which is both a
good and bad thing. You can never predict who will get into which college, there is
absolutely no way to know (unless the school doesn’t do holistic admissions). This gives
everyone an equal shot at getting in, regardless of how many A’s they got in school and
what they scored on the SATs.

There are people who had a 1600 on the SAT and 4.0 GPA but didn’t have great essays
and were rejected from a lot of good colleges and then there are others whose test
scores and grades weren’t very good but they had good essays and got into some
amazing colleges (this is true, I’m not making it up). This just goes to show how colleges
value essays more than test scores.

How to Apply
There are two main application platforms through which you can apply to most colleges:
the Common Application and the Coalition Application, out of which the Common App is
more popular.

Most schools use either the Common or Coalition Application but there are some that
use both. There are also some colleges like MIT, the UCs, UIUC (and some others) that
don’t use either and have their own portals. There are also some schools like UT Austin
that have their own application portal but also accept the Common or Coalition App.

Other than the number of colleges they have (the Common App has 5 times the number
of colleges the Coalition App has), the main difference between the Common and

THE COLLEGE APPLICATIONS PROCESS

6
Coalition applications is that the Common App only lets you apply to a maximum of 20
colleges while the Coalition app doesn’t have a limit. The Common App is also preferred
by students because it’s easier to use and maneuver but apart from that, they are both
the same.

Colleges that use both the Common and Coalition applications don’t prefer one over the
other and it doesn’t matter which one you choose to use, they won’t care.

Types of Admissions
There are 5 different types of admissions that differ from each other only by the
application and decision deadlines and the number of colleges you can apply to in each
type. The application and process is the same for all of them though.

Early Action (EA): Applications are in early November and decisions are released in
mid-end December/early-mid January. It’s a great opportunity to get some of your
decisions out of the way (and one I highly recommend!!!!) and give yourself a better
shot at getting in because you’re a part of a smaller applicant pool. It’s not binding
(you do not have to enroll at a school if you get in EA) and you can apply EA to as
many schools as you like.

Early Decision (ED): Application deadlines are usually November 1 or the first week
of November and decisions are released mid-December. It is binding (you HAVE to
enroll if you get in; you can get out of enrolling under certain circumstances like not
being able to afford it, etc.) and you can’t apply ED to more than one school. You can
apply EA to other schools even if you apply ED, you just can’t ED to multiple
schools. Another thing I highly recommend you do if you know which school you
would 1000% go to if you got in because the chances of you getting in are higher if
you ED!!

Restrictive Early Action (REA): Similar to ED in terms of application deadlines,

decision release dates, and being binding. The only difference between REA and ED
is that if you apply REA to a school, you CANNOT apply EA to any other schools but
with ED, you can apply EA to other schools if you want to. You can only apply REA
to one school. Very risky in my opinion and you should only do it if you know you
have a really good shot at getting in because if not, you’re going to be losing out on a
lot of other EA opportunities.

Regular Decision (RD): Application deadlines are in January-February and decisions

are released in late March-April. The most common admission type and the one that

THE COLLEGE APPLICATIONS PROCESS

7
receives the most applications. You should apply RD to schools unless you’ve gotten
into a college ED or REA in which case you’re not allowed to apply RD or you’re
going to be enrolling at one of your EA schools.

Rolling Admissions: This is when colleges don't have a specific date for when they
release decisions but they give you your decision 3-6 weeks after you apply. Unlike
with the other admission types where sending your application before the deadline
makes no difference to your decision date, your decision date in rolling admissions
depends on when you submit your application.

What Colleges Look For In Applicants

Ultimately, colleges want actual people that are passionate about what they do and will
make an impact both in the college community and the world. They want to get to know
you and who you are as a person and are not only interested in how you look on paper,
hence the emphasis on extracurriculars, essays, letters of recommendation, and
interviews.

Here are some detailed articles on how Harvard and MIT select which students to admit
and what they look for in applicants.

Senior Year Checklist

There are plenty of application checklists and timelines on the internet (you can find them
in my resources doc too) but here's one I made. I divided the year into seasons instead of
months so it's less pressurizing and overwhelming. Remember that you can do everything
whenever and however you want, this is just what I'd recommend so you get everything
done by the time you apply but you're also not overwhelmed.

The EA/ED checklists only apply to those who are applying early (or to colleges that have
deadlines in November like the UCs or UT Austin), everyone else can ignore them.

Don't worry if you go a little off-track on any of these, it's totally okay. Just make sure you
get everything done in time for submissions.

SENIOR YEAR CHECKLIST

8

Summer before senior year

(May to July)

CONGRATS ON MAKING IT THROUGH

JUNIOR YEAR!!! Take a few weeks off and
catch up on your sleep
Take the SAT/ACT
Start building your college list and finalize your
core colleges
Try to get an internship or do some research or
start working on a passion project/other
projects
Talk to college students, attend college AMAs
and webinars, and read up on the college
admissions process so you really understand
the process
Start brainstorming essay ideas for your
Common App essay
Sit down with your family and talk about the
financials
First half of the Fall semester
(August to September)

Everything in the summer list can be done

during these two months as well
Fill out the Common/Coalition Application
Start writing your Common App essay drafts
and choose the topic you want your essay to
be about
Start finalizing your college list, especially your
EA/ED schools
Take your final attempt at the SAT/ACT
Second half of the Fall semester Start asking teachers for LoRs
(October to November)

Add your colleges to the Common App and

start filling out the questions for the EA/ED
schools (everything except the essays)
Write out your activities list and the
descriptions for each activity
Finish writing and editing your Common App
Essay
Write the supplemental essays for your EA/ED
schools
Make sure you have your LoRs for your EA/ED
schools
Submit your EA/ED (or UC) applications
Submit your FAFSA/CSS to your EA/ED
schools

SENIOR YEAR CHECKLIST

9
Winter
(December)

Wait for your EA/ED decisions. If you got in,

congrats! If not, that's okay, you can now start
grinding your RD apps :)
Finalize your RD college list
Add your RD colleges to your Common App
Fill out the questions for the RD schools and
start writing your supplemental essays
Make sure you have your LoRs for your RD
schools
Fill out any individual college applications if
First half of the Spring semester you're applying to colleges that don't accept
the Common/Coalition Applications (like MIT or
(January to February) UIUC)

Submit your RD applications

Submit the FAFSA/CSS to your RD schools
Make sure all your colleges received
everything they needed or your application to
be complete
Congrats!!! You made it through the application
season, now all you gotta do is wait for
decisions and focus on your schoolwork (and
try not to fail :P) Second half of the Spring semester
(March to May)

Time to open those decision letters. Congrats

on getting into the schools you got into and if
you got rejected, I'm sorry :( You'll end up at
the best place for you so just hang in there!
Talk to your family and enroll at the college you
want to go to!
Keep grinding in school and keep your grades
up. You still need to graduate (: Also take the
Summer after senior year AP exams and get that credit
(June to August)

Congrats on graduating high school!! You

made it through a rough 4 years and I'm proud
of you and you should be too <3
Get excited, you're going to college!! I know
that no matter which college you go to, you're
going to do great because you are all amazing
people :D
Enjoy this summer, have some fun and get
ready for an exciting 4 years!

SENIOR YEAR CHECKLIST

10

Your College List

There are way too many good colleges in the US and condensing your college list to just a
few can be an overwhelming and lengthy process. There are many ways to go about
making your college list and different strategies work for everyone so you do you.
I’ll lay out a few of them for you but
I’ll let you decide how you want to go
about it. Internationals
If you’re an international student, admissions are a
Before I do though, I want to talk lot more unpredictable and it’s harder to get into
about the number of colleges to apply colleges so you’re going to have to apply to 18-25
to. For students in the US, I would say colleges. I do know people who have applied to more
and less than that though.
anywhere between 7 and 15 is a good
number, although I know some people If you’re also applying to countries other than the US,
who’ve applied to 5 colleges and you want the total number of colleges you’re
others who applied to 19. applying to to not cross 30 (35 at the max). Applying
to more than that will just result in an extremely
stressful application season and burnout. 30 is
The most important thing about your
already a large number and you will need to plan and
college list is that every college on time everything well so you can submit your best
your list should be colleges you like application to all the colleges you apply to.
and would happily go to if accepted.
There’s no point in applying to schools
if you know you’re not going to go/want to go there.

It also costs a good bit to apply to colleges so make the most of your money and apply to
schools you genuinely like and would like to go to. You also want to make sure you apply
to colleges that offer your major.

A good way to figure this out is by exploring the college website, looking at the Common
Data Set (CDS) of that college (you can just search “cds of x college” and you’ll find it),
taking a virtual/in-person campus tour, looking at rankings, how affordable the school is,
and talking to students who study at the college about their experience there.

CollegeBoard's College Search is a fantastic resource to find colleges that are similar to
the colleges you're considering and what you're looking for in a college so definitely make
the most out of it. It's also great for narrowing down your college list once you have your
factors of consideration (see below).

YOUR COLLEGE LIST

11
Factors to consider when choosing colleges
Everyone has different things they look for in a college but a few general factors to keep
an eye out for would be:
If the college has the major/program you want to study in college
The academic quality of the program
The location of the college in terms of the opportunities that would be available to
you during college and after you graduate
How much financial assistance the college offers its students and whether that works
for you
Diversity of the student body and the gender/ethnic ratios
Safety of the college and the area surrounding it

Other factors that you can consider depending on what matters to you and what you
want:
The location of the college in terms of the weather there and whether it’s in a big city,
small city, suburb, or rural area
The size of the college in terms of the student body
The distance from home/family
Flexibility in changing your program of study and taking double majors and minors
Research opportunities as an undergraduate
Study abroad/study away opportunities
Athletics
Frat life
Religious affiliations
How much of a party school it is
Literally anything else you want
None of these are listed in any kind of order and you’re free to choose your colleges
however you want and take whatever factors you want into consideration.

I also want to say that for most people, their main factor when making their college list is
the amount of financial aid they would get from a college and while this is definitely
something you should consider, don't let the fact that a school doesn't give great aid keep
you from applying to it, especially if you really like the school. You don't lose anything in
applying and who knows, you might just get in and get the aid you need.

Ways to go about making your college list

Once you’ve listed the things you want to consider when making your college list, it’s all
about finding colleges that tick those boxes and you can do this however you want too,
it’s really all up to you but I’ll give you some common examples of how people go about
making their college list.

YOUR COLLEGE LIST

12
One of the most common ways of deciding your college list is by dividing it into 3
categories: safeties, targets, and reaches and your college list is composed of an
equal number of each.
Reaches - schools you don’t think you have a very good chance of getting into
but would love to attend. These schools generally have low acceptance rates and
are known for being very selective in admissions.
Targets - schools you think you have a good chance of getting into based on the
average grades of the current students in that school.
Safeties - schools you know you have a very good chance of getting into and are
backups in case you don’t get into any of your targets and reaches. (If you’re in
the US, these would generally be in-state schools).

A lot of people like to do this because it allows them to apply to a wider range of
schools and also almost guarantee a spot at a college. I’m personally not a big fan of
this but I’m an advocate of having back up plans/options in case things don’t go
according to plan, like what happened in 2020.

Another thing a lot of people like to do is shotgun and apply to all the highly ranked
colleges like the ivies and T20/T30s. While this works for some people, it’s incredibly
risky and baseless, moreso this year because applications are going to be extremely
unpredictable and crazy.

Some people only apply to schools that are in the state they live/have family in. This
is a good option because a lot of states have a wide range of colleges in terms of
their ranking and level and most in-state schools have higher acceptance rates.

Some don’t consider the type of schools they apply to, only whether or not they like
the school. And others only apply to those that are affordable to them.

Then there’s the people who know exactly what they want to do and are on top of
things (unlike me) and actually make a list of things they want from their college
experience and they look for colleges that have everything they want.

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to go about making your college list and while
there is no right or wrong way, you want to make sure you’re applying to schools you
genuinely like and want to apply to, and that you have a backup option/plan, whatever
that may be, in case things don’t work out the way you want it to.

YOUR COLLEGE LIST

13

The Common Application

Since the Common App (app short for application) is more popular and since I applied
through the Common App, I’ll walk you through the various parts of the application and
how to go about filling it. It’s pretty scary at first because it has a bunch of questions and
sections but the more you use it, the less scary it is.

The first thing to know is that the Common App resets every August so if you start
filling it out before that, it’s not going to make a difference and all your answers will
be removed when it gets reset.

The Common App is not something that can be filled out in a few hours or in one
sitting because it takes time to fill out your activities list and write your common app
essay. But there are a bunch of other sections like ‘profile’, ‘family’, ‘education’,
‘testing’, and ‘courses and grades’ where you fill out your personal information like
where you fill out your things like where you were studied, your citizenship, basic
information about your parents, the courses you took in high school, where you go to
school, the standardized tests you took (if you took them), and your high school
grades in all the courses you took. This is not something that needs to be done the
day the Common App is open for your application cycle but I recommend you finish it
by the end of August so it’s out of your way and you can focus on the rest of your
application.

Make sure to check if the information you’re inputting into your application is correct
and maybe even have your parents next to you when you’re filling it so everything’s
accurate. Also be sure to have your transcripts next to you when you’re filling out
your grades so that you don’t input the wrong grades. Always crosscheck everything
you put in your application to make sure it’s correct. The last thing you want to do is
give colleges the wrong information.

You can fill out the application in as many parts as you want and you can always
come back to it whenever you want and make changes or edits. You can’t make any
edits to your application once you submit it to a college, but if you make any changes
to your application after submitting it to a particular college, the edits will be seen in
your application when you submit it to the rest of your colleges.

THE COMMON APPLICATION

14
In addition to the general common app questions, each college has their own set of
questions they ask, plus the supplemental essay questions, if any. These are
subjective to each college and you have to answer the questions for each college
individually- another thing I recommend you get out of your way as soon as you can.

You only have to fill out the main Common Application once and that gets sent to all
the schools you apply to as you submit your application to them. If you want to
submit different common app essays to different colleges, you’re free to do so and
you can edit your essay anytime you like.

And that’s the gist of using the Common App. The Coalition App is very similar to the
Common App so everything I said above applies for the Coalition App as well.

The Big Four

There’s so much to talk about when it comes to college applications and I could literally
go on about all of these for hours but no one wants to read that, I know I wouldn’t, so I’m
going to try to keep this as brief as I can while still giving you all the information you’d
need. This is already quite long and inevitably, there’s a lot of things I don’t address here
but this is the integral stuff.

The "big four" is not a term used by people, it's just a super cheesy term I came up with
for the 4 core, and I would say most influential, parts of your application- standardized
test scores, grades, extracurriculars, and essays.

If you have any questions related to any of these or even if they’re not related, please
reach out to me, I’d be happy to answer them. And if you would like a guide for a specific
part of applications, do let me know, I’d love to make them for you :))

Anyway, let's get into it.

THE BIG FOUR

15

Standardized Test Scores

The words SAT and college admissions are like bread and butter…. Or so we think. There
is a huge emphasis on test scores when it comes to admissions and that’s because it’s the
only way colleges can “impartially” compare the academic abilities of students from all
over the country and world.

That said, they are only one of many parts of your application and are not the be all end
all of things, especially in a test-optional year when you don’t have to take a standardized
test at all.

SAT/ACT
There are two standardized tests available for students across the globe to take - the SAT
and the ACT. I won’t go into much detail about them here (let me know if you want
another “guide” for that).

Up until the 2020-2021 application cycle, standardized tests were required for almost all
colleges and recommended for the rest. That meant that in order to apply to college, you
had to have submitted an SAT or ACT score. But due to Covid, all colleges have gone
test-optional and some are even test-blind, and I'll talk more about that in a bit.

Something people don’t realize is that after a certain threshold, what you score on the
SAT or ACT makes no difference to your application. What might this threshold be?
Generally, it’s around the 50-75th percentile of scores for that college (you can look up
the score percentiles of a school to get this number). Once you cross the threshold score
for a college, how much higher above it you are makes no difference to your application
unless the difference between your score and the threshold score is 80-100 points if it’s
the SAT or 4-6 points if it’s the ACT.

Either way, retaking a test because you want to be 50 points (on the SAT) or 4 points (on
the ACT) instead of 20 and 2 is not worth it because it adds no value to your application.
For example, for highly selective universities, the threshold score would be around a
1520 on the SAT and a 33 on the ACT so if you score a 1530 on the SAT or a 34 on the
ACT, you do not need to retake it to get a 1550 or a 36.

STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES

16
You can if you want to but it’s not required or necessary, especially during a test-optional
application cycle, when standardized test scores are losing importance.

Please keep in mind though that this does not hold true for everyone, there are always
exceptions but this is just the general rule of thumb.

Test-optional and Test-blind

Due to the Covid pandemic, a lot of students weren’t able to take the SAT and ACT so
what colleges decided to do is remove them as requirements when applying. There are
two main ways in which they did this: they either went test-optional or test-blind.

Test-optional: Colleges made the submissions of SAT and ACT scores optional and
removed it as a requirement. Students could submit their scores if they had them and if
they wanted to but they would still be able to apply if they didn’t submit any scores. You
won’t be penalized if you don’t submit your test scores and there is no such thing as “if
you don’t submit a test score, you won’t get accepted” or “ you’ll only get accepted if you
submit a test score”. Applications are still reviewed holistically and test scores are not the
only thing considered.

There is not enough data to show a correlation between the submission of test scores to
test-optional colleges and the chances of getting admitted but there are definitely tons of
students that have gotten into some really good colleges without submitting an SAT or
ACT score. Consequently, many students who did submit their scores have been rejected
from a lot of colleges.

Test-blind: Colleges decided to remove the submission of SAT and ACT scores
completely and they do not accept or consider any scores that were submitted when
they review applications. Thus, your SAT or ACT score has absolutely no bearing in
admissions.

This proves as a disadvantage to those who had great scores and as an advantage to
those who didn’t. It also increases the focus on other parts of your application like your
grades, extracurriculars, letters of recommendation, and essays and makes admissions
even more of a crapshoot.

SAT vs ACT
Most students are confounded as to which test to take and to that I say, take a practice
test of both the SAT and the ACT and see which one you were more comfortable on and
you found easier. Don’t worry too much about the score (although if one is significantly

STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES

17
lower than the other, I’d definitely go with the higher one), you can always improve your
score but if you’re not comfortable with how the test and questions are structured, it’s
going to be a lot harder to get your goal score.

Both the tests are pretty similar in duration and content but the format and difficulty of
the questions vary. Contrary to public opinion, colleges do not prefer one over the other
and accept both the SAT or ACT so don’t be afraid to take a test because you think
colleges will value it less compared to the other.

SAT Subject Tests

In addition to the SAT, the College Board also used to conduct SAT Subject tests for a lot
of core subjects like Math, Physics, History, etc. And I say “used to” because they
discontinued it with effect from January 2021. For internationals, the last administration
of the SAT Subject Tests was June 2021 and you can’t take them after that.

English Proficiency Tests (Only For Internationals)

English proficiency tests, as the name suggests, are tests that test your aptitude and
competence at understanding, comprehending, and conversing in the english language.
The most common tests are the TOEFL and the IELTS but some colleges allow others like
Duolingo as well, you should check the college’s website to see which ones they accept.

Colleges require internationals to submit an english proficiency test score but there are
many ways to get it waived. There are a select few that don’t give you a waiver but at
most, you can get it waived if you’ve studied all four years of high school in english. Some
waive it if you’ve got a 700+ on the EBRW section of the SAT or a 33+ on the Reading
and Writing sections of the ACT as well, make sure to check the college’s website to see
how you can get the requirement waived!

For those who want to take it regardless or don’t meet the waiver requirements, there’s a
cutoff that each school has that you have to meet to satisfy the requirement. In the case
of english proficiency tests, higher scores don’t help you at all, all you have to do is meet
the score the college has as their requirement and you’re good. Retaking it after you
meet the score is just a waste of time and won’t help you at all. Once again, check the
college’s website for their requirements.

It's also not required to have taken an English proficiency test to get a US visa (some
countries like Canada require it but the US doesn't) so if you meet the college's waiver
requirements, you're all set.

STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES

18
My Experience
I only took the SAT and didn’t take the ACT, SAT subject tests or english proficiency tests in high
school. I took the SAT twice though, the first time in December of my junior year and the second in
September of my senior year.

The SAT was such a pain to study for, especially because my parents are like most Indian parents (I
hate stereotypes but I can’t help it) and think everything is about getting a 100 in tests, in this case it
was a 1600. My dad told me to study for 7 hours a day for about 3 months, no cap, and he even made
me write out a timesheet where I tracked how long I studied and what I studied (I still have it
somewhere). Now of course your girl’s not spending 630 hours studying for the SAT. I barely did like
an hour a day and I didn’t even do that everyday but in my timesheet, I extended the 10 minutes of
study I did that day and made it like 3 hours.

They also had a bunch of conditions on when I could take the SAT and whatnot but I’m not going to
go into that haha.

Okay but the first time I took the SAT, I actually studied for like 3 months and then the second time, I
didn’t open one book. I did like 2 practice tests the week before and went to the test centre because
I couldn’t have cared less. I was too worried about recruitment and essays and everything else to be
bothered about the SAT and I had come to terms with my 1480 so I didn’t really care what I scored.
And it’s so funny that my second SAT score was almost the same as my first one but I got an 800 in
math so that was something I guess (this is not me being cocky, I just don’t think an SAT score says
anything about a person’s intellect so I don’t give any regard to it), although my mom thought
otherwise but there’s no pleasing my parents.

Grades

All colleges require you to submit your high school grades (it’s a real pain in the neck, I
know). By you, I mean your school counselor because they’re the ones that submit your
transcripts to colleges although some colleges require you to self-report your grades.

Grades I would say are an important part of your application, especially this year since
there’s no other way to measure your academic ability and they need to do that because
they need to know if you’ll be able to keep up with the rigor of their courses because
well, they don’t want a bunch of kids failing in college, now do they?

GRADES
19
Generally, a 3.7/4.0 is a good GPA to maintain but for the highly selective schools a 3.9-
4.0 is the average. Again, this is very fluid depending on where you’re applying to and it’s
not a one size fits all situation at all. There are enough people that get into highly
selective schools with lower GPAs and enough that get rejected with stellar GPAs, I
should know.

For the highly selective schools, it is not required for you to have all As, it’s totally okay to
have a couple of Bs in there but it’s better to not have them bringing down your GPA. For
other schools, a C here or there is fine too but try not to have too many Bs and Cs and
stay away from Ds, they’re Dangerous (see what I did there?).

Colleges want to see your grades

from all your high school years i.e. Internationals
grades 9-12 so the grind starts
If you are an international but go to a school that follows
early. Why do they do that?
the American curriculum and calculates GPA and grades
Because they want to see if you’re the same way schools in the US do, you can consider
a good student in general and if you yourself an American for the purpose of grades and follow
can keep those grades up for a few what I’ve said above.
years and it’s not just a one-time
Most schools outside the US don’t calculate GPA and if
wonder for college apps. It’s okay if
that’s the case with your school, you don’t have to worry
you don’t have great grades in about that. I personally think it’s a waste of time to convert
grade 9 and/or 10 though, what’s your grades to the American system if your school doesn’t
important is that you keep follow the American curriculum. Just try to stay in the top
improving them. Courses in high 10-15% of your class and you should be fine. If you’re in a
school that follows the Indian curriculum, I’d say it’s good
school generally get harder as you
to have an overall >=90% in 10th grade board exam,
get closer to graduation and you especially for highly selective colleges. You don’t have to
want your grades to have an have a 98% to have a shot at the highly selective schools
upward trajectory (or stay constant but you’d need a 90. Similar to the standardized tests, your
if you’re in the 3.7-4.0 range) rather percentage doesn’t make a difference after a certain
amount. For example, there’s no difference between a 96%
than downward because colleges
and a 98% or a 92% and a 95% for that matter.
need to know that you’re good at
handling increasing academic rigor.

It’s also important to take hard courses in high school. Like I said earlier, colleges want to
see that you can handle academic rigor and taking the hardest courses your school offers
is the best way to do that- that can either be APs, IBs, honors, or whatever else your
school offers.

GRADES
20
If your school doesn’t have different difficulty levels for courses, that’s totally fine, don’t
worry about it, just try to do your best in the courses you’re taking. There’s no point in
taking a bunch of easier classes just to get a higher GPA, it’s not going to help you with
admissions or in college.

AP Exams
If you’re taking AP courses and not taking the exams the first three years of high school,
what are you doing? I’m pretty sure that’s not even an option because for most schools
that’s the only way you get credit
and “pass” that grade but even if
it’s not, why would you not take Internationals
it? If not for anything else, do it A common question I have seen is “should I take AP exams as an
for the flex haha, unless your international?” And to that, my answer would be you don’t have
score is a 3 or less (whoops). to. If your school doesn’t offer AP courses, you don’t have to
take the AP exams and they don’t affect your application all that
much. You can always take them if you want to though but it’s
Senior year is a whole ‘nother definitely not a must-have. I didn’t take the AP exams and
story though. If you’re neither did any of my friends.
committing to a school that
doesn’t take AP credit i.e. let you If you want to take the AP exams and you’re self-studying for
them, the best time to take them is your junior year of high
skip some introductory college
school (or 11th grade) just because that’s when you cover most
classes if you get a 5 (or 4 for of the curriculum in school and so you don’t have to do a lot of
some colleges) on the AP version extra studying but you can take them earlier as well. You can
of it, taking the APs your senior also take them your senior year (12th grade) to get some of that
year is an absolute waste of time credit if the college you’re going to offers AP credit. You can
also get AP credit if you take the AP exams your junior year or
and in my opinion, you shouldn’t
before, it’s the course that gets you the credit and not when you
take them unless you’re into self- take them.
torture. Plus it’s a waste of
money.

If the college you’re going to offers AP credit, taking the exam is a really good option
because you get to save time and money in college and who doesn’t want to save money
in college? It’s already really expensive. But then again, it's sometimes better to take
those intro classes in college because it makes it easier to settle into the college pace and
it's a good refresher of the content but it's really up to you and what you want to do.

GRADES
21

My Experience
I studied in a Catholic school (not that that’s relevant) in the ICSE/ISC curriculum. You might not
know what that is if you’re not in India but it’s okay, it doesn’t matter. I had always been a pretty
good student but my school experience didn’t really exist from 7th grade because I was barely in
school. The only time I attended school was for my exams and most of my attendance is from the 3
months of exams our school made us take every year haha.

Grades wise, I’d say my grades were pretty good? I mean I never really cared about getting 95%+,
okay no that’s a fat lie. I was such a grade simp in school you have no idea. I knew I wasn’t going to
get insanely good grades because one, I self-studied my way through high school and I only spent
the few weeks before my finals studying plus, I’m not that smart to get like a 97/100 haha.

But yeah, I didn’t have insanely good grades but they weren’t too bad, they didn’t give me bragging
rights haha but that’s not something I cared about to begin with.

I highkey regret not taking the AP exams though. Not because they would have helped me with
admissions but because I could have got credit for the intro courses in college and I could take more
electives but it's okay because I can take them this year since I'm on a gap year

Extracurriculars

Extracurriculars (or ECs for short) are the activities you do outside of your school-
required study. These can be sports, clubs, competitions, volunteer work, internships,
research, jobs, and anything else you do in your free time that makes an impact in society
(watching loads of Netflix does not count even though you’re helping society by keeping
actors and directors employed :P).

Why are they important? Extracurriculars show colleges what your interests and passions
are- what activities are you willing to dedicate time to outside of your school life, what
cause do you believe in and are willing to fight for, what do you enjoy doing in your free
time, what fields are you genuinely interested in and are willing to spend a lot of time in?
AOs answer all these questions by looking at your activities list on the Common App (or
Coalition) and it gives them an inside look into your life and hence, helps them get to
know you better.

EXTRACURRICULARS
22
These days, however, you find a lot of people doing certain ECs because they’re
“supposed to attract the AOs attention” or “give them a boost in applications” but there is
no such thing in admissions. Yes, going about ECs this way has helped people get into
some great colleges but it’s a very small percentage and in my opinion, it’s not worth
making your high school experience more miserable than it already is.

Different things work for different people and no one, including the AOs knows what
they are so you’re much better off being your own self and doing the things you enjoy
doing. This way, you’re showing the AOs a true version of yourself and giving yourself the
best chance at getting accepted into their college and you’re also enjoying high school, so
win-win :)) Additionally, when you do things you enjoy, you spend more time on the
activity and most of the time that leads to creating a larger impact because you’re
passionate about what you’re doing and AOs like to see that passion and commitment.

I’m a big advocate of doing things just because you’re interested in it and letting that
interest build into an EC instead of letting the thought that an activity would look good
on an application define what interests you and hence, how you spend your time.

For extracurriculars, the impact you create is always more valuable than the activity itself
or the number of activities you have. Yes, the Common App allows you to send in 10
extracurricular activities but it’s totally okay if you can’t fill all 10. Having 4 activities
where you were able to create a large impact is always better than 20 activities where
the impact was small.

When it comes to ECs, the amount of time you spend on them plays a huge role too
because they show dedication, persistence, and commitment. The more time you spend
on an EC, the more points you score from your activities. Now this doesn’t mean that all
your activities need to be over six months long (or even a year), AOs know that’s
unreasonable but it’s good to have a few that last for more than 6 months and maybe
even a few years.

This only works if you enjoy your activities and want to spend more time on them.
There’s no point in spending tons of time on an activity if you hate doing it and are
always miserable so if you spend 6 months in an activity but you absolutely hated it and
so you didn’t actually do much, it doesn’t help you at all, you’re better off just not doing it
and using that time to do something you genuinely like.

Don’t do things solely for admissions or so it looks good on your

resume, do it because you enjoy them and are interested in it

EXTRACURRICULARS
23
Common App Activities List
Most students use the Common App but this applies to those who use the Coalition App
as well.

The Common App lets you input a maximum of 10 activities into your activities list so you
have to be careful how you order your activities. You want to have the activities that
mean the most to you and you think say a lot about who you are at the top and then as
you move down, you input the activities that don’t mean as much to you and didn’t spend
a lot of time on.

If you have less than 10 activities, that’s totally fine, you don’t have to fill all of them but
make sure you order them well. If you have more than 10 activities though, pick the 10
that mean the most to you and have created the largest impact and again, use the above
method to order them.

The Common App also gives you 150 characters to describe your extracurricular. These
20 words are important because it’s where you get to tell the AOs what you did in that
activity so be sure to word it well and make every character count. Also reduce the
number of conjunctions (especially subordinating conjunctions because they take up a lot
of unnecessary characters) and use punctuation instead.

You’ll also have the additional info section to talk more about your extracurriculars but
you don’t want it to be too long so use this section to describe the activities that mean
the most to you. You don’t have to use the additional info section but it does help to do
so. A lot of colleges also ask you to write a supplemental essay on one of your activities
so that’s a great way to show them how much your activities meant to you and what you
accomplished.

Awards & Honors

There’s also an Awards and Honors section on the Common App where you can tell AOs
about any awards you’ve received be it in school, at a competition, in a sport, or anything
else. You can mention up to 10 awards or honors but it’s totally fine if you don’t fill them
all out.

Again, don’t participate in competitions or activities just to get a certificate or medal or

trophy or whatever else. Do it because you like it and the award is just an additional
bonus, you’re going to do a lot better at that activity that way and you’re also going to
grow more as a person.

EXTRACURRICULARS
24
Like with your activities, you want to mention the awards that are of greatest importance
to you at the top and work your way down to the not-so-important ones.

My Experience
Ahhh ECs, where do we start. Almost all of my activities were in my 11th and 12th grades because I
didn’t know jack shiz about admissions before that and I was also too focused on tennis to have time
for anything else (I barely had time to breathe). It made for two hectic years of high school but it was
a lot of fun and it also strengthened my theme of “athlete who didn’t know anything other than her
sport and school till she was forced to take a break from tennis in late 10th grade and began
exploring various realms of the academic world and discovered a lot of interests”, something I also
wrote about in my essays.

I didn’t know anything about extracurriculars and what they were when I started so I just looked at
things I was interested in and tried to see how I could make that an activity- whether that was
through a project, volunteering, or something else. My lack of information about admissions when I
was in 11th is concerning but I think it made my application more authentic (not recommending you go
into apps knowing absolutely nothing though).

Essays

Essays are by far the most important part of your application. They are the only thing that
make admissions holistic, and this year especially, with colleges going test-optional, the
emphasis on essays is a lot more.

They key to writing the best essay is to be yourself and give the AOs a glimpse into your
life and your personality. They want to get to know you so show them who you are.
Don't portray a person you think they want to see, that never works because there is no
template for which person gets into with university.

At the same time, don't spend too much time on your essays and forget about the rest of
your application, they're all still essential parts of your application.

Please please remember that essays are not a one-size-fits-all. Don't think that if you
write something similar to what other people who got into great schools wrote, you're
gonna get in. It doesn't work like that. Everyone is different and different things work for
different people.

ESSAYS
25
Importance of Essays
I don’t know about y’all but when I first heard we had to write essays in our application,
my first thought was “what? why?” and I’m sure there are quite a few of y’all wondering
the same thing. If not, guess I’m the weird duck.

The whole point of holistic admissions (yes we’re back to holistic admissions) is to get to
know who the applicants are as people and how they would fit into the college’s class
and whether or not they would flourish there. Essays are how colleges figure that out.
Your essays are an inside look into who you are as a person and should embody
everything you do and believe in. Now, I’ll admit, this isn’t the most authentic way to go
about things but I guess it’s better than just going off of test scores, I dunno but it is what
it is.

Essays trump all the other parts of your application and play a huge role in your decision
so you want to make sure you’re being your most authentic self in those essays and
portraying yourself well. Think of the AOs as your best friend and the essays everything
your friend would know about you if you’ve been friends for a few years. That’s actually
a bit of a stretch but basically, after reading your essays, the AOs should feel like they
know you like your friends would.

Tl;dr: Essays make or break your application (for the most part).

The Common App Essay

The Common App Essay (or Coalition if you’re using the Coalition Application), also
known as the Personal Statement, is a 650-word essay (550 if you use the Coalition app)
about you.

It should basically depict the core bits of what makes you you. It’s the first essay the AOs
read and is weighted the heaviest because there is no specific prompt you have to follow
and you can write about whatever you want so you really want to make sure you’re
making a good impression with this essay.

Getting Started with Your Essay

So your essay timeline depends on whether or not you're going to EA/ED (something I
strongly recommend you do but it's totally okay if you don't too, I didn't :grin:).

If you EA/ED, you want your essay to be done by early October so you can work on your
supplemental essays and submit your applications in November, if you're only RDing, you

ESSAYS
26
have till mid/end November to "finish" your essay so you have a good 1-1.5 half months
for supplementals (which you're going to need because you're going to have a lot of
supplementals; I'm also taking into account that you all are going to be applying to a lot
of colleges because you're internationals). And I say "finish" because you're never really
done with your essay, it's more of like you give up and are like whatever and submit it
and there's nothing wrong with that, it's what a lot of us do.

The first thing about the common app essay is to not worry about the prompt and this is
something I struggled with too. It really does not matter what prompt you choose, in fact,
there is a "write whatever you want" prompt as well so you can literally talk about
anything you want. The prompts are just some ideas to get you started on your essay
writing but don't let this restrict you in terms of what you write.

Second, I'd say you have till mid-September to really finalize your essay topic and content
and after that, you can work on crafting your essay the way you want to, bettering the
sentence construction and grammar, and all that good stuff. If you're not EA/EDing, you
have a month or two more, till mid-November, to figure out what you want to write
about.

Third, essay ideas. Thinking of essay ideas and things to write is honestly really hard and
takes so much time. The worst thing about it is that you feel so useless because most of
the time you're staring out the window or frustratedly banging your head at the wall
(more realistically, on your table) because you have no idea what to write and that's
completely normal so don't worry if you're spending a lot of your day doing absolutely
nothing because your brain just doesn't work.

It's so hard to stay motivated through this but one thing that really helped me was taking
long walks or having long staring-out-the-window (or at the sky) sessions and just letting
your mind think of whatever it thinks of. It might be the most obscure things but that's
okay, after a while, you might come up with some cool ideas (or not cool ones but at least
you're brainstorming). It seems really counter-productive but it does help.

I always recommend jotting down any and all ideas that come to mind. It takes months to
get a "perfect" essay and it's never going to come in the first draft. A lot of people think
that when you say essay writing, you’re writing pages and pages of content but that’s not
true. A lot of it is just brainstorming and thinking about the essay so if you're spending 5
hours just thinking about what to write and end up with 3 ideas that don't sound very
good, don't sweat it! That's completely fine and is in fact, good and productive work
although it doesn't feel like it. I had many such ideas and if you read my initial essay
drafts, you'll see that I had some pretty bad ideas (those are actually the ones I thought
were good, I had so many more pathetic ones).

ESSAYS
27
Don't feign any ideas because you don't think they'd be good, you never know if
an essay is going to be good or not till you actually write it.

I also recommend writing out outlines and a rough draft/flow for each idea you have and
seeing if you think it would make a good essay. It's also a good way to compare essays
and see which one YOU like best. Even if you have an essay that you think is really good,
still continue to rack your brain and come up with more essay ideas, you never know, you
might just find something you like more than what you already have! Don't spend too
much time on it though, you don't want to be working on essays 24/7, it’s extremely
unproductive and unnecessarily draining. Quality over quantity am I right?

Remember that essay writing is not an extremely glamorous and perfect process and no
one, I repeat no one, gets the essay they end up submitting on their first draft. It takes a
lot of brainstorming and a lot of thought and editing to get a good essay.

Another thing I want to say is if you’re like me and you don’t like talking about yourself,
writing your common app essay can be a real pain but I think it really helps a lot to take
that leap and dive into your soul because not only are you able to write a better, truer
essay, but you’re also going to learn a lot about yourself.

Also, don’t forget that in the end, you are the one that decides which essay you want to
submit, people can review it and give you suggestions and some will even criticize you (a
big screw you to those people) but ultimately, it's you who needs to be happy and
content with what you submit. If you're unhappy with what you're submitting, don't
submit it! You don't have to because some random person (it might even be me) said it's a
good essay. It's your essay, not theirs and you do not need to listen to them.

Writing and Editing Your Essay

Once you’ve figured out what you want your essay to be about and you’ve got the main
content, it’s time to get to work on editing that essay and making it the best essay you’ve
ever written.

One very important thing to keep in mind when writing and editing your essay is to make
sure you’re being and conveying your true self in the essay. Talk about your experiences,
add in a lot of details, make the reader feel like they’re in your shoes, avoid talking about
unnecessary things and please please for the love of god, stay away from stats. The last
thing AOs want to see in an essay is stats. And don’t write about writing your essay
either.

ESSAYS
28
Give the readers an inside look into your personality, your life, make them feel like
they’re really getting to know you while reading their essay. Everyone keeps saying
"show, don’t tell" and I'm like but that makes no sense?? And that's why I hate the phrase
and never use it. Instead, here's what I'll say: don't make your essay a commentary, but
instead narrate it. Imagine your essay as a movie or one of those can’t-put-down-once-
you-start-reading books, what makes them so gripping? They make you feel like you’re
the character, you really feel like you’re going through the things the characters are and
you really get to know who the characters are. Your essay has the same objective: make
the reader feel what you felt in that moment. And how do you do that? You put yourself
back in that position and write down everything about that moment or experience.

Now there is such a thing as too much detail and you don’t want to get lost in the details
that you stray from the essay itself but you can worry about that when you're editing the
essay. Don't worry about word count when you're writing essay drafts, that's something
you can do once you've finished writing the content Yes, I know, this is all confusing and
doesn’t make a lot of sense right now but I promise it will when you’re writing your essay
(I hope it does at least).

Time for some editing.

There’s a lot that goes into editing an essay- improving grammar, sentence construction,
using better vocabulary, figuring out which details add value to the essay and which
don’t, and a lot more.

A few things to keep in mind as you edit your essay:

Diction: Yes, it’s good to use more precise and dare I say “fancier” words but don’t go
overboard and make your essay sound like a thesaurus. The AOs don’t really care
how broad your vocab is, they’re more interested in hearing your story and getting to
know you, and sometimes long and thesaurus-y words can get in the way of that. It’s
good to use “longer” words because they’re generally more precise and are better at
conveying meaning but beware of doing it too often making your essay sound like a
page in the dictionary, that’s not fun to read, is it?

Essay reviews: Most people like to get an outside opinion on their essay and ask their
friends, seniors, teachers, advisors, or counselors to review their essay but this is
totally up to you. Asking people to review your essays isn’t mandatory or required
but I would recommend it because it always helps to get a reader’s thoughts on your
written work but there are a lot of people who have done just fine not sending their
essay to anyone except the colleges they applied to.

ESSAYS
29
One thing to remember about essay reviews is that everyone will have comments and
suggestions and edits and criticism but you DO NOT have to apply any or all of their
suggestions. They’re just suggestions so hear them out and see if they make sense in
your essay and if your essay would benefit from them. Again, it’s your essay so you
decide what you write, not anyone else.

Also be careful about who you send your essays to. Only send them to your close friends
or your seniors who’ve already gone through admissions because otherwise you risk your
essay getting plagiarized and colleges are heavily against plagiarism.

Most suggestions will be very objective and some might be slightly harsh but remember
that the person doesn’t intend to be harsh but wants to help you. Some people can also
be very rude in their suggestions and might just trash-talk your essays and they can
honestly gtfo because no one wants negativity. Don’t take their comments to heart but
think about what they said and see if some of what they said makes sense. Remember,
mental health >>> anything else.

Be careful not to stray away from yourself and who you are as you edit the essay.
Remember to be your authentic self in the essay and really tell your story <3

Supplemental Essays
In addition to the common app essay, a lot of colleges require you to write additional or
supplemental essays. These can vary in number and can be anywhere between 50 and
700 words depending on the school. Some schools like Stanford and Yale have you write
8 total essays of lengths 50 and 250 words and others like Duke and Rice have 2 essays
of 200 words each. Then there are schools like USC and Columbia that ask you a bunch
of non-essay type questions like your favorite movies, songs, books, etc. in addition to 3
200/250 word essays or Baylor and UChicago that have one 650 word essay or ASU
with no supplemental essays at all.

As you can see, the number and type of essays you’ll be writing differ quite a bit from
school to school so the number of essays you write depends on which schools you apply
to and the number. Unlike in the common app essay, you can’t write about anything you
want in the supplemental essays, they have specific prompts that you have to stick to.

ESSAYS
30
Some general tips for supplemental essays:
The total number of essays you write can be overwhelming especially if you’re
applying to a lot of colleges and they can go up to 60 essays but this number can be
brought down drastically using copy-paste essays. Be sure to change/include details
about the college you’re applying to when you copy and paste an essay you used for
another college, don’t talk about one university in the second university’s essays.

Since the essays have defined prompts, it takes a lot less time to write the essays
because you already know what you’re writing about. You’d still need at least a
month or two to get through all the essays to ensure you’re not writing 5 essays on
the day of submission (it’s totally fine if this happens, I did it for a few colleges). Make
sure to space out your submissions well so you’re not submitting too many
applications on the same day.

Do not and I repeat, do not talk about your extracurriculars unless the prompt asks
you to. You can make your essay about an extracurricular but don’t just randomly
throw it into an essay without any context. And stay far far away from stats. The last
thing colleges want to see in your essay is that you got a 750 on the SAT Math.

Try to stay close to the word limit (~10-30 words less than the limit), especially on
the shorter essays (<300 words) because you really need every word you have. On
the longer essays, you have a larger padding because you have enough word space to
talk about everything you want.

Lastly, remember to be your truest and most authentic self in your essays. That’s the
only way AOs really get to know who you are giving you the best chance of getting
in, and well it leads to better essays and a less stressful application process.

Copy-paste essays
Colleges like to keep their prompts different and unique but there are a few common
ones seen across a number of colleges (these essays are called copy-paste essays
because the general theme and outline of the essays are the same for all colleges) like the
‘why college’, ‘why major’, and ‘how will you contribute to the community’ essays. Out of
these, the ‘why college’ essay is the most common while the ‘how will you contribute to
our college’ essay is not seen much.

The ‘why major’ essay is the easiest to copy-paste because your major remains the same
at all colleges (unless you select different majors at certain colleges making the essay
slightly less copy-pasteable but it’s still a very copy-pasteable essay).

ESSAYS
31
It also helps to read essays of people who are already in college because it helps you get
a sense of how you should go about your essay from a general sense. Be careful about
reading too many because you become vulnerable to falling into the trap of trying to
make your essay similar to what someone else wrote and that’s not something you want
when writing your essay because you’re always going to be comparing your essay to
other successful essays and seeing if it’s good enough.

The “Why College” Essay

All supplemental essays are important but the ‘why college’ essay is the most important
and most widely used because it shows the AOs how much you know about the college
itself and whether or not you’re genuinely interested in going there or just applied
because your parents told you to or because their program is ranked well, which let’s
face it, is pretty accurate.

It also shows colleges the amount of time you spent learning about them and their
program and that you really know why you like the college and why you’d want to go
there. For this essay, researching colleges is essential. Don’t tell AOs things that can be
found in a simple google search like rank, location, size, or the fact that the college offers
your major. Talk about things that are not easily found and something that you really had
to dig around to find. If you do talk about things like location and size, talk about why
they appeal to you, don’t just mention them.

Some ways to research colleges are by taking virtual or in-person campus tours,
attending college webinars, looking at the student culture and community, and the
course catalog and professors in the department you’re applying to.

Okay if I’m being honest, I literally did not make a college list, I just shotgunned (where
you apply to all the top schools and pray to god you get into one of them) to every
college that had a good math program and didn’t really think about why I wanted to
apply there or even if I wanted to and I honestly regret doing that. Because of this, I had
to do a lot of research on the colleges for my why college essay the few days before the
deadline and I was skimming through as many of the hundreds of pages their website
had. I read student blogs, watched a bunch of youtube videos, read up on all the clubs
and organizations the school had, the opportunities they offered, if any program they
offered stood out to me more than the rest and if there was anything I thought I would
be the perfect fit for.

ESSAYS
32
And this is what AOs expect you to do when you’re writing your why college essay so
make sure you actually do the research and not just google the name of the college or
look it up on USNews and talk about its ranking or basic things like that that everyone
would know about. Go through the college website thoroughly and try to learn as much
as you can about the college and how you think you’d fit into it and how it’d be a good fit
for you.

A word of caution for the ‘why college’ essay if you copy-paste, make sure you’re
changing the content of the essay and making it about the college you’re applying for.
You don’t want to send a why college essay to ‘x’ school but talk about ‘y’ school in your
essay, that’s just mortifying (and a waste of time) so be very careful to actually talk about
the correct university in the essay. This doesn’t mean just changing the name of the
university in your essay, you also have to change the content and make it specific to the
college, don’t talk about the same things for all universities, they’ll easily know you didn’t
put in any effort into learning about the school and that you’re not really interested in
going there which is a massive red flag.

The “Why Major” Essay

The why major essay, another common copy-paste essay, is where you talk about why
you want to study your intended major and what you want to do with that degree. It
doesn’t have to have a clearcut path, most of us don’t know what exactly we want to do
in life and that’s totally fine, it should have a general idea of the kind of things you want
to do in life and how that degree and major will help you achieve that.

You should also talk about why you’re interested in that subject and preferably how that
interest came about/what sparked it. It’s also good to talk about how you’ve pursued
that interest in high school, both in and out of the classroom.

The why major is a lot easier to copy-paste because it’s specific to you and your major
and not about the college so there’s no content that you have to change when sending it
to different universities.

ESSAYS
33

My Experience
Essays, good ol’ essays. Honestly speaking, I think I’m a pretty decent writer when it comes to
objective writing and writing essays about basically everything except myself but I HATE talking
about myself in conversations so you can imagine what essay writing was like for me. I’m also very
self-depreciating and don’t do well with compliments so it was really hard for me to write about
something personal and not make it sound like a sob story.

Also, there was a lot of self-reflection I had to do to really figure out what I wanted to talk about in
my common app essay. Not gonna lie, there were quite a few late-night cry sesh’s which I think were
worth it because I feel like my essay turned out pretty decent. I mean obviously it could have been
better but it wasn’t bad either.

I had a lot of essay drafts and my initial ones were utter crap and were concrete examples of the
essays that tell and don’t show. I also changed topics a bunch of times.

For my supplementals, jeez I wrote all of them (around 20 individual essays, 48 or something in total)
in like a month. I was churning out 2-3 essays a day and I wrote so many the day of my submission
date (I submitted most of my applications a few days before the deadline) which is something I
wouldn’t recommend because it completely botched my sleep and eating schedule which has only
worsened since then. I also feel like I used the copy-paste essay a little too much but I literally would
have died if I hadn’t and I mean I made it out so guess I didn’t do too bad haha.

Letters of Recommendation

Most colleges require you to submit letters of recommendation from your high school
teachers and counselor. These letters are written by your teachers and submitted to
colleges through whichever application portal you’re using. They have to be submitted by
your teachers and you play no part in the submission of the letters (some teachers will
just ask you to write the LoR and then send it to them so they can sign on it).

The standard number of recommendation letters is two high school teacher

recommendations and one from your high school counselor. You can also submit
additional recommendation letters from advisors/coaches/teachers/family/peers if you
want to.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION
34
The counselor recommendation is generally filled out by your high school academic
counselor or advisor who helps you figure out your courses and four years of high school
and help you prepare for college. Counselors normally do not teach a class/subject and
are just there to help you figure everything out so you’re ready for college.

Some schools only require 1 teacher rec letter but most require 2; some require you to
have one letter from a science teacher and another from a humanities/social science
teacher; and some don’t require LoRs from teachers but all schools require a rec letter
from your counselor.

One of the biggest “mistakes” I made was not asking teachers for rec letters early
enough. Most of us tend to underestimate how busy and not-so-tech-savvy teachers are
and a lot of times, teachers take longer than they’re supposed to, to submit the
recommendation letter. It’s always better to ask teachers for rec letters early rather than
later because you don’t want to be submitting your letters a week or two after the
deadline. You also don’t want them rushing through it and ending up with a not-so-good
LoR.

I recommend asking teachers for LoRs in July/August so you give them a good few
months to write and submit it. Additionally, some schools have a long and tedious
process for requesting rec letters. You can ask multiple teachers for recommendation
letters and then add the ones you want to the colleges you want to submit their letter to.
The recommendation letters go out individually to each college when you apply so you
can send letters from two teachers to half of your colleges and then letters from a
different set of teachers to the rest.

Your school doesn’t have a counselor

If your school doesn’t have a counselor, that’s totally fine, you’re not screwed, don’t
worry. A lot of schools (especially outside the US) don’t have counselors. You don’t need
an actual academic counselor to do the recommendation, your principal or headmaster
can do it too.

If your principal can’t/doesn’t want to either, you can just ask any other teacher of yours
to do it. Make sure your counselor and teacher recommendations aren’t from the same
teachers though. They all have to be different.

You can literally ask any teacher in your school to do the counselor rec, it really doesn’t
matter so don’t panic, you’re going to be just fine :))

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION
35
How to choose which teachers to ask for LoRs
Colleges require your LoRs to be from high school teachers but the grade and class they
teach doesn’t matter (unless the university has a specific requirement). It’s recommended
to choose teachers from your junior and senior years because they’ll remember you more
but you can ask whoever you want to write a rec letter for you.

Make sure to choose teachers who know you best and you have a good relationship
with. LoRs are how colleges gauge how you’ll interact with your classmates and
professors in college so you want your recommendation letters to be the best they can.

For the counselor recommendation, there’s no “choosing” per se, you just have to put
down your school counselor (if your school doesn’t have one, your school principal can
do it or you can ask another teacher to). Additionally, it’s your counselor that submits
your high school transcripts which is why all schools require counselor recommendations.

FERPA
The letters of recommendation you submit to colleges are confidential and cannot be
reviewed by you but FERPA lets you review these letters after you enroll at a particular
college. If you waive your right, you won’t be able to view the rec letters in college and
it’s recommended to do so because it reassures colleges that the letters submitted are
candid and truthful. You can go to the Common App’s FERPA FAQ page for more info.

My Experience
I had good relationships with all my teachers but I had a rough time with the rec letters because I
hadn’t met any of my teachers in person for a good six months and it’s a lot harder to get things done
when you’re not there in person, and my teachers kept forgetting to write my letters and put it off till
the last minute. I actually ended up submitting my rec letters only in January because one of my
teachers took so long to write it and she wouldn’t reply to my messages.

It also took me a while to figure out how the LoRs work on Common App and how my school does
things. I felt really bad about having to message my teachers every few weeks and reminding them
to upload my letters, especially in December when I was messaging them every second day but you
gotta do what you gotta do.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION
36
Interviews

College alumni interviews are optional interviews offered by most colleges with college
alumni. Normally they’re held in person at a coffee shop or someplace similar but in the
2020-21 cycle, they were all online due to Covid.

The general flow of the interview is you first introduce yourselves and then the
interviewer asks you a few questions about yourself and then you go into talking more
about why you want to go to that college, what your interests are, what you do in your
free time, etc. and at the end, you can ask them some of your questions.

Most interviewers are pretty nice so you don’t have to be scared, although it’s
completely normal to be nervous. The interview can last anywhere between 20 minutes
to 2 hours and although longer interviews tend to be better, we don’t really know if it
says anything about the quality of the interview.

Remember, they are there to get to know who you are and see if you would be a good fit
for the university so make sure to tell them all about yourself and not about your
neighbors or friends. Although it’s okay to talk about things other than yourself for a little
bit, don’t do it too much.

Okay so one thing I did not know is that Internationals

you have to apply for an interview and the
Interviews are pretty rare for internationals
college doesn’t decide who gets to
and if you get the chance, you should 1000%
interview, which is how I thought it would do the interview. It’s just great exposure and if
be. Lookout for these opportunities and if colleges give you the opportunity, you should
the college requires you to apply for an take it.
interview, make sure to do it, and if they
give you a choice to take it, take it. It’s Now unless you live in the US or go there in
January-March, your interviewer is going to be
always better to do the interviews, they
online on Zoom or Google Meet or a similar
only help you, unless you say some real
platform. Everything about the interviewer
wack or nasty shiz. They’re also good will be the same as an in-person interview
preparation for job interviews and help you except that it’ll be online.
put yourself out there when making friends
and connections.

Something that most people don’t know about interviews is that the interviewer doesn’t
read your application or know anything about you except some basic personal info so
everything they know about you is what you tell them.

INTERVIEWS
37
Importance of Interviews
Interviews are optional but it’s always good to do them because the percentage of
students that get in is higher for those that did the interviews than those who didn’t. This
doesn’t mean that everyone who does the interview or those who have good interviews
get in, it’s still extremely random but there does seem to be a correlation between the
two.

Think of it this way, when you apply, the only information the college has about you is
what you submit in your application and it’s kinda hard to really tell if a person is genuine
through their writing so they like to hold interviews to put a face to the applicant and see
if you are the same person you portrayed in your application.

Put yourself in their shoes, would you trust yourself just by reading your application or
would you like to meet this person and see what they’re like? AOs are far too busy
reading our applications and deciding who to accept to do this so they let college alumni
do it in their place instead.

Questions asked in interviews

There are different types of interviewers: some that have a set list if questions they want
to ask you and they don’t like to sway from those, some who have a few questions in
mind but let the conversation decide what the questions will be, and some that just let
you talk and then ask questions based on what you say.

Although most questions are specific to you and your answers, some common questions
asked in interviews are:
Tell me a bit about yourself
Why do you want to study at ‘x’ college
What are your interests?
What do you want to do after college/what are your aspirations and goals?
What do you value the most/what do you enjoy doing the most?

Out of these, the “tell me a bit about yourself” is bound to be asked and is the hardest
question to answer in my opinion. It’s very open-ended so it’s up to you to tell the
interviewer everything you want them to know.

When answering these questions, be as genuine and honest as you can. I wouldn’t
recommend going into the interview without any prep because it can be pretty nerve-
wracking and you don’t want to look startled, so write down the core points of your

INTERVIEWS
38
answers to these questions so you have a basic idea of what to say and try to do some
practice interviews with a family member or a friend, just to get used to the setting so
that when you go for the interview, you’re prepared and you know what to expect more-
or-less.

The more interviews you do, the more confident you get and the better your interviews
will be, so don’t worry if your first couple of interviews aren’t that great, you’ll get better
as you go on.

My Experience
I only had one alumni interview and it was for Stanford. I didn’t realize that you had to apply for
interviews and that might have impacted my decisions but yeah my Stanford interview was pretty
nice. I kinda forgot to tell him I was a tennis player, like a serious one and he probably just thought I
was fooling around on the court but oh well, I wouldn’t have gotten into Stanny (Stanford) anyway.

Financial Aid & Scholarships

College in the US is insanely expensive and thankfully, they understand that not
everyone has $200,000 lying around and offer what is called financial aid to help
students pay for college.

There are two main types of aid offered by colleges: need-based aid and non-need-based
or merit-based aid.
Need-based aid is calculated solely based on you and your family’s ability to pay for
college.
Non-need/merit-based aid on the other hand is given to students based on their
academic or extracurricular achievements. You do not have to apply separately for
merit aid but for most colleges you still have to fill out the FAFSA/CSS (see below) to
be considered. Check the college website to make sure though

(There’s also federal student aid (only for US citizens and residents) but I don’t know a lot
about it so here’s a few links that might help you financialaidtoolkit.ed.gov,
studentaid.gov)

FINANCIAL AID & SCHOLARSHIPS

39
All US citizens and residents qualify for all types of financial aid offered by colleges, all
you have to do is fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and/or the
CollegeBoard’s CSS Profile (College Scholarship Service Profile), depending on the
college (check their website to find out what they accept).

Colleges use these forms to calculate your

demonstrated financial need (i.e. based on Internationals
your family’s income, would you need aid to Getting aid as an international is quite uncommon
pay for college? And how much?; this because most of the college’s money goes to
amount is not exactly an accurate American citizens. There is a chance that you’ll get
estimation of how much money you actually the aid you need, even if it is a full ride but it’s not
common at all.
need though), and accordingly, the amount
of aid they think you should get and the There are some schools that outright don’t give any
amount they give you. kind of aid to internationals and you have to pay
the full amount but there are a lot of schools that
Demonstrating financial need doesn’t give pretty good aid but here’s the catch, most of
them practice need-aware admissions which
necessarily mean you’ll get as much money
means that they consider your financial need
as you need though. A lot of colleges just when deciding if they should accept you. Most of
can’t afford to meet everyone’s aid the time, if you need a lot of aid, the college won’t
requirements so quite often, you’re going to accept you unless they really want you because
end up getting less aid than you need and they would much rather give the money to a
citizen (it sucks I know).
hence, having to take out private student
loans (which can be killing) to pay your There are 5 colleges that practice need-blind
college tuition. admissions though and they do not look at your
financial need when making a decision on who to
Don’t get me wrong, there is a good chance accept. These are: Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Yale,
and Amherst.
that a college will meet your financial need
but there is also a chance that they won’t. Here is a good resource that lists the amount of aid
There is also a chance that you won’t get each college gives to internationals.
any financial assistance. The amount of aid
you receive can be anywhere between $0 to
$70,000 depending on a lot of factors but mainly your financial need. Here is a list of
colleges that meet complete financial aid and here is another list of colleges that offer
the most financial aid.

Net Price Calculators

Now the amount of aid you get from colleges differs based on how much the college
thinks you deserve and how much money they can give you so how do you figure out
how much aid you’ll get from a college? NET PRICE CALCULATORS.

FINANCIAL AID & SCHOLARSHIPS

40
I cannot stress the importance of net-price calculators, they are literal lifesavers that
everyone should take advantage of. Almost every college has a net price calculator (npc)
on their website and most of them are pretty accurate estimations of how much aid
you’ll get from the college. They are also really easy to find, all you have to do is search
up “xyz college net price calculator” (make sure you’re using the one on the college
website!!!).

Scholarships
After reading all this stuff about how you might not be able to pay for college without
going into massive debt, you’re probably wondering how students pay for college:
SCHOLARSHIPS.

As a student, a good chunk of your financial assistance will come from scholarships
offered by the college (if you’re an international, most of your aid comes from
scholarships). A lot of schools have scholarships that you have to apply for (contrary to
popular opinion, you are not automatically considered for most scholarships when you
submit your application, that’s non-need-based aid), so browse through the college
website (just search up “xyz college scholarships”) and see if there are any scholarships
you are eligible for and how you can apply and make sure to apply before the deadline!!!!

Most people don’t know these scholarships exist so there’s a good chance you get some
nice $$ from them. You will feel really lazy after submitting all your college applications
and won’t want to apply for these but trust me, your future self will thank you for not
putting it off.

External Scholarships
In addition to scholarships offered by
universities, there are a lot of scholarships
Internationals
offered by external companies and organizations. External scholarships are very few in
Most of them are for smaller amounts number so there’s a lot of competition for
them but they’re worth a shot especially if
($500-$5000) but there are a ton of them and if
you really need the money. Some
you apply for enough, you might be able to get resources to find scholarships specifically
some good money. Oftentimes, the college for international (the databases listed
website will have resources for outside above are good resources too) are
scholarships but here are a few good scholarship topuniversities.com , edupass.org ,
buddy4study.com,
databases: fastweb.com, collegescholarships.org,
internationalstudent.com
and bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-
search

FINANCIAL AID & SCHOLARSHIPS

41
Negotiating and Appealing Aid Packages
This whole section is for after you get your decisions but one great way to squeeze some
more money from colleges is to negotiate your aid package by comparing it to that of a
similar tiered college. For example, college A gives you X amount and college B gives you
Y amount (Y>X) and both these colleges are similarly ranked, you can tell college A that
college B gave you $Y and you really want to go to college A but B’s aid is better so they
give you some more money and X becomes more than Y. You can now go to college B
and tell them that A gave you more money but you want to go to B so they in turn, give
you more aid. You won’t get a huge amount out of this but you can definitely get a few
thousand dollars more. You can only do it once with each college though, they’re not
fools.

If the amount of aid you receive from a college isn’t even enough for you and you need
more money, you can also appeal your aid package. A lot of the time, they’ll give you
some more money and sometimes they’ll even give you enough to cover the difference in
the original aid and what you need. Check the college’s policy on appealing aid though
(only do this after you get your decisions, it’s not worth worrying about before that).

My Experience
Okay I gotta come clean here, I didn’t apply for aid (BUT I know quite a bit about the process
because a lot of my friends went through it) because my parents didn’t let me and I regret it so
much. My parents are very very secretive about money and income and things like that and
they didn’t tell me anything about the financials except that they’d find a way to pay for it and
they get very angry when I ask about their income and things like that so I didn’t but I’m really
regretting it now. The struggle is real y’all so don’t make the same mistake I made

My Application

HERE is my college application that I submitted to colleges- test scores, grades, ECs,
college list, and decisions (everything except essays and essay drafts, reach out to me if
you want those). You’ll see that I didn’t have the most glamorous or extraordinary
application but I guess I did something right to get into the schools that I did (I genuinely
don’t know what it was that they saw in me) and hopefully that gives some of y'all some
confidence and hope.

MY APPLICATION
42

YOU DID IT!!

That’s all I got for y’all, congrats on making it to the end of this 40 page doc!! THANK
YOU SO MUCH for reading through it, I really really appreciate it (even if you skipped a
few sections and just scrolled through to the bottom haha). I hope you enjoyed it and
found it helpful, and I hope I answered some of your questions regarding the college
applications process.

GOOD LUCK WITH COLLEGE APPS!! I’m rooting for you all and I hope you end up at
the best place for you, wherever that may be!! <3333

Please remember that this is just my advice and things I learned from my experience with
admissions and some things my friends and seniors told me that helped me when I
applied. You do not have to follow anything I said here and you’re free to go about
applications however you want to.

If you have any thoughts on the guide or any questions regarding college admissions or
just want someone to talk to, don’t hesitate to reach out on Discord! I would love to hear
from you all.

I hope you guys have a wonderful day, night, week, month, and year!! Take care and have
fun, mwah <33

Adi

FINAL WORDS