Tuesday, January 22, 2019

College Applications

While I haven’t written much on scholarship {which I am passionate about!} I have written on college visits! See here and here.  This past winter, I was thinking about the college applications process.  

With our first child, he finished up his visits in the fall and was able to make a decision rather quickly. Or maybe I would say, timely. Applications had been started in August and we were just waiting for the school to supply necessary documents.  

The second child’s college search too much longer, mainly due to his sport season and vastly different situation. He didn’t start applying until November.  

His process was also different in that some schools will offer “rolling decisions”. You apply, the college reviews the application, and then you get a decision. It generally doesn’t take too long. {Unless they claim they didn’t receive your official transcript. In that case the school calls and lets the school know that indeed it was sent and then the college locates it!}

Another type of decision involves a deadline. The school has deadlines for you to apply. They consider all that applicants that have applied for that deadline and then have a certain date they will let you know their decision.  I will confess this was one item I should had more clarity on during one of our visits!  

How does this relate to scholarships? Get ready….here is your tip!

Often on scholarships (which generally start in November and go into full gear in the spring) they will ask you which colleges you have applied to.  Imagine yourself in November applying for a scholarship and being asked where you plan on attending.  No answer. So my suggestion is to start applying sooner than later. In our experience, and I realize this isn’t alwaystrue, we have not have to pay an application fee.  Generally it can be waved with a college visit, code, etc.  Granted there areschools where you will have to pay the fee. BUT, if you can apply without the fee, it can be a good idea to plan ahead for those scholarship applications. 

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