Stage One of the Application Process
or
"Brave New Web"

A Parent's Perspective
by Dr. Susan Thurman, Mom
NSHSS Staff

very Tuesday, my 17-year-old daughter and I try to make time to watch The Gilmore Girls together.  One recent episode hit home.  The TV Guide description read, “Rory receives her Harvard application in the mail and freaks out.”  That pretty much sums up the college application process for a lot of students, whether applying to Harvard or Hometown U.   We wanted to share our recent experience with this often intimidating process, and would love to hear from members about their own experiences.

The college application process today conjures up a brave new world for me.  When I applied for college in a galaxy far away, there was no Internet, no “common app,” and the term “safety school” meant a place you were sent for traffic violations—not a backup school for college admission.

Fast forward to the 21^st century. Competition for college admission is fierce.  My daughter Eryn began thinking about where to attend college as a junior when she was bombarded with recruitment mailings.  Unlike Rory Gilmore, she didn’t have her heart set on Harvard, or any other school for that matter. So, she went to the Web, and filled out a profile to match her interests and requirements with a college.  Oberlin (in Ohio) came first, followed by several pricey private schools in the northeast.  She spent a lot of time on the Internet researching various college web sites.  Since we live in Atlanta, and Eryn is an only child, I suggested some schools a little closer to home.  At that point she fell in love with a college in Oregon.  After a lot of research, she decided that her ideal college would have small, gender-segregated classes with coed dorms.  I don’t think she’ll ever find that one. Initially, she was dead set against applying to our state university because she wanted a smaller liberal arts school with less emphasis on Greek life and sports.  However, the day before the deadline to apply for early admission to The University of Georgia, she asked me to help her apply online.

She had already gotten her school counselor to send her transcripts and recommendations, so she had to fill out the application, write the essay, and get her SAT and AP scores sent to UGA that night.  I was amazed at the ease of filling out a common application on the Internet.  I helped her with details about parent educational background and with cutting her essay down to the 500 word minimum.  Thank goodness for the word count option on the computer.  Then she went to www.collegeboard.com and had her scores rushed to UGA.  She got everything in just under the wire, and waited to hear.  She had heard a lot of stories about excellent students who were denied admission to UGA and was not at all confident about being accepted for early action.  Acceptance letters were being mailed Dec. 15, and the student’s status would be available online on that date.  Rather than wait for the letter, she went online to check her status.  The first thing she saw was a warning asking if she was accessing the Internet in a public place because she might receive bad news.  That was intimidating to say the least.  But she plunged ahead, and fortunately, had a congratulatory message on being accepted. 

So she can relax a little now and concentrate on finishing her senior year with a bit less stress. The early action decision is not binding, and she is still waiting to hear from the three private colleges she has applied to, but at least we know she has a place reserved in Athens. 

Maybe she can relax a little, but for me – it’s time to tackle the FAFSA.

A Student's Perspective
by Eryn Stokesbury, NSHSS Member
Chamblee Charter High School, Atlanta, Class of 2003

K, I am a total procrastinator. For anyone, the college application process is daunting. For procrastinators like me, the college application process seems overwhelming. Even as juniors, we are receiving glossy propaganda from colleges on a daily basis.  But it isn’t necessary to decide where to go to college before your senior year even starts because thanks to the Internet and the common application, applying to college isn’t as time-consuming as it could be.  We procrastinators can rest a little easier.

When I first began looking at potential colleges, I started on the Web at www.princetonreview.com. Princeton Review has top twenty lists of colleges in every category, from the best schools for Birkenstock wearing vegetarians, to the worst schools with dorms like dungeons.  The website also offers a “Counselor-O-Matic” that asks questions and then spits out a list of schools best suited to your answers.  Using these two methods, I compiled a list of about thirty schools I was just dying to go to—all small liberal arts schools and of course all over $30,000 a year in tuition and fees.  It seemed impossible to pick a college even with the descriptions and information provided, but I couldn’t go fly from my Southern town to visit one college in the north, let alone thirty.  By the summer before my senior year I still had no idea how to whittle them down to under ten colleges.

 I began to think, “Well fine, I will just apply to thirty schools—what’s the big deal?” Application fees and essay questions put a stop to that.  Even though most schools accept the common application, many ask for one or more supplemental essays.  No way was I going to write thirty essays and ask my poor teachers to write that many recommendations when I could only end up at one school.

I had to sit down and seriously think about what was most important to me in a college.  I decided the town I was going to live in for four years and the classroom structure were the two most important factors shaping my college choice.  Establishing the factors really helped. Basing my decision on this, I was able to narrow my top schools to four college in or near busy and fun cities, and I decided to pick schools that all had different approaches to the learning process. I applied to one huge school in a terrific college town with a lot of majors and big classes, one without grades, one with grades but students were not allowed to ever know them, and one where all the students were female and all the exams take-home.  Once I discovered what was really important to me in a school, I was able feel strongly about the specific colleges where I wanted to spend my time and money and concentrate my efforts.

Even though I have now narrowed my decision to four schools, my college application process is not over. I still have significant financial decisions to make and must weigh the costs and benefits of each school.  I now feel that a huge stress had been lifted off my shoulders because I have already been accepted to my state university in Georgia.  I will at least be guaranteed a living space and education somewhere next year.  

So now all I can do is wait to see if I’m accepted to my other three schools, which are far away and expensive.  I will make my crucial life-changing decision then.    

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