Over the last eight months or so, I have been through the entire college application process, from retaking the SAT to applying to colleges, scholarships, financial aid, housing, and, of course, committing. 

Re-doing the SAT required a bit of studying. I did the SAT in April of my Junior Year, and my score was pretty good. However, my score was considered below average for my target school, Northeastern University. So, I decided to retake the SAT 6 months later in October, and my goal was to improve my English score as my Math score was nearly perfect. When I received my score back, I found my English improved by around 90 points, which made me slightly above average for my college’s applicants.

Then began the actual application process, which was quite simple, although tedious, thanks to Common App. Filling out the applications took little time; however, writing a college application essay proved to require a lot of time, revision, and effort over the course of many weeks. Thankfully, we had time devoted in our AP English course to writing a college essay and having it peer-reviewed and reviewed by the teacher. This process (alongside suggestions from my cousins who were better at writing essays than me) helped me to craft a strong essay about who I was and something that I thought would reflect positively on my character. After the essay’s final draft had been completed, a lot of my Early Action applications could be submitted. 

So then I applied, and now it had become a waiting game. I submitted an early decision application to Northeastern at the end of October, and in the meantime, the only thing I could do from then to the admissions announcement was complete my FAFSA and Student Aid forms. It was quite tedious and boring, but there wasn’t much else to do in this stage of the process, so it logically made sense to apply for aid. 

Then in mid-December, my decision came in for Northeastern…I got accepted! This meant a big part of my college journey had now been completed, and I was quite grateful, relieved, and amazed that I was able to get an admissions offer. I quickly committed minutes after finding out the news, and it felt a bit surreal knowing I would be attending a school that I wasn’t even sure I could go to.

I had also applied to some other schools and was planning on applying to more in case I didn’t make it to Northeastern, however, those work-in-progress applications got scrapped the moment I got into my dream school. Despite this, I was still curious to see if I would get admitted into the other schools I applied to, and I would later find out that I got accepted into four out of the six schools I applied to (not counting Northeastern), which was quite encouraging to learn about.

Although I got accepted, I still needed to sort out my financial aid situation, which was unknown at this time. This was because of an incorrect filing of a tax form that I needed to submit, and it was difficult to figure out specifically what the issue I needed to solve on my end was. Eventually, after months of back-and-forth phone calls with the NEU financial aid staff, I finally received an offer. According to their estimates, I would receive 40 thousand dollars worth of grant-based aid per year (which would not need to be paid back) due to my academic performance and my general financial situation. This was quite liberating to find out since this had been a point of tension for my college journey for months now due to the uncertainty of whether or not college would be affordable.

By contrast, applying to housing was quite easy. I just had to fill out a form stating my dorm preferences for the type of roommate I wanted. I was originally planning on finding a roommate, but it became difficult since I was placed in Honors housing (which you are forced to be in if you are a part of the college’s Honors program), and finding people like me who were also in Honors housing was a challenge. I eventually decided not to choose a roommate and have them sort me with someone random instead, due to that just being the easier option. Thankfully, since they should have the same preferences as I do, I hope that whoever I am paired up with will be someone similar enough to me.

The final part of the college process for me was scholarships, and I applied to at least over a dozen of them, and I know many other people like me who did the same thing. The scholarship process, surprisingly enough, was quite easy. The hardest part was actually finding ones that applied to my situation and were attainable for me. Thanks to certain websites that allowed you to search for scholarships that fit you as a person, I was able to find tons of scholarships that pertained to me. Plus, using the school counseling’s local scholarship list, it was easy to find local grants that I could apply to. After a while, I did get burnt out from applying to so many scholarships since they generally tend to be quite tedious and usually consist of asking the same information or requiring the same essay prompts. However, I am at a place now where I can say that I am proud of all the hard work I put into the scholarship process, and it always pays off to see if you have been selected to win a certain scholarship, so overall I think it was worth it.

Now, at this time, there is little for me to do. The only things that pertain to me at this point are applying to any last-minute scholarships before school ends, and transferring college credits (such as ECE courses or AP classes) to NEU so I can make my freshman year schedule.

Overall, the college process has had lots of different aspects, and I am grateful that, thanks to my hard work and dedication, I can go far in my college career. There have definitely been down points in the process, such as the stress of the financial aid issue. However, it’s been nice to slowly resolve each of them over time, and I am proud that I have been able to accomplish so much through this process so far. I hope from here, it’s smooth sailing in my college and professional career going forward!