By Rebecca Do & Caroline Ngo
College application season, oh the horror! Luckily, as the year wraps up, so do applications (usually). But if you felt a little alone recounting the four years of hard work and dedication you put into every test and extracurricular, don’t worry: you weren’t alone.
Nine seniors shared where they were in the application process, how they felt and tips for the future graduating class.
Leyna Nguyen
I think [the time it takes to write] depends on how many schools you apply to. For the Common Application, the supplementary essays for each college is lengthy and I had to work on it for a pretty long time. I’m done with my University of California [UC] applications and I think I’m mostly done with my Common Application.
Thyan Tran
The time you spend [writing essays] depends on [the number of schools]. But, if you started early at the beginning of the year, it was more lenient since you would pace yourself each day. For me, I procrastinated the last two months so it was a little rigorous during the end where I had to draft my essays and had to come up with ideas. I finished applying to the UCs, but now I’m working on applying to USC as the deadline is January something, so I’m still working on my essay and all the other things.
Aidan Truong
The CSUs that I applied to weren’t very hard [to do] and the only hard part of the UCs. I spent two months-ish. I’d say the hardest part was finding something to write about, but every person is interesting in their own way. So there probably is something to write about yourself. [A tip I have is to] start early. You don’t want to be jammed up against a deadline because I remember seeing a lot of people like that.
Bailey Curtis
I really want to do performing arts so I attended this college audition, about a month ago at Cal State Fullerton with colleges from all over: from New York, and from here as well. We had to sing songs for them and then also do a dance audition. I got a lot of callbacks and it was really fun. For most of the college [applications], you send in self-tapes. So you have to go in, find a blank spot at your house, and go up against a white wall and record yourself performing and singing and doing a monologue. So that took a lot of time because, you know, it takes a lot of takes to do that. But [otherwise], it was super fun.
Joycemary Dang
Honestly, I procrastinated the application process a lot. I started my application process the Monday it was due. But honestly, It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I think [the process] would have been a lot smoother if I started it earlier, though. But I honestly knew what I was going to write about because there’s like a bunch of things in life I’m already passionate about; I already knew I was gonna write about ASB and church and all the involvements I’m in. So it was easy for me to come up with what to write about.
Jason Vo
I think my [application process] was a little less stressful than other people’s because I started the summer, which I think is a good idea for anyone who’s doing college applications next year. I feel like it’s a good time to start thinking about at least thinking about what you want to write your college essays about. I feel like the ones that I started writing in the summer were more eloquent, and I liked them better than the ones that I had to rush and write during the year.
Jacob Lazarte
I started back in the summer, and started my essays early. Of course Cal States took only a week [because it’s only transcripts]. My application process went way easier compared to everyone else. When I went on break, I was doing nothing. Summer is a good time to start. If you submit it early, you feel awesome.
Nicole Robson
I think overall my [application process] was a little less stressful than other people’s because I started the summer, which I think is a good idea for anyone who’s doing college applications next year. I feel like it’s a good time to start thinking about at least thinking about what you want to write your college essays about. I feel like the ones that I started writing in the summer were more eloquent, and I liked them better than the ones that I had to rush and write during the year.
Christian Nunez
I started doing my research around October, but I’m not gonna lie I was a little irresponsible, although I shouldn’t have been. I was chipping away at it just little by little until the last week. Start doing your research as early as possible. The questions for the essays are open immediately. You should start as soon as you can save as much time to revise and ask many people about what they think about it.
