1 And Done...And The College Application Process, Part 5

Greetings!  Susie Lacy here again.  It's October, 2020!   I hope you are all well.

Update from our household: Our one Daughter has moved in to her Apartment on campus at UCSD and classes have started.  Our other Daughter has finished her first MIDTERMS at JHU-from her bedroom.  All I can say is WOWZA!

Again, the info contained in my posts is just from our experience’s.  I hope it’s helpful to you but PLEASE verify all of the info!  A LOT has changed in just 1 year & I am far from an expert!  Just a Mom who wished I knew more!

FAFSA is open!  https://studentaid.gov/  Even if you feel like your household won’t qualify for any financial aid you still have to complete the FAFSA. The student and a parent BOTH need an account.  It can take a few days for the Federal Govt to verify your social security numbers so I recommend not waiting too long.

You can only add 10 Colleges to your FAFSA list so pick the top 10.  Then as you eliminate schools you can remove them and replace with others.  Make sure you advance down to the bottom to add/save.

Keep tax return info handy as you may need it for Private schools.

For private schools even after submitting to FAFSA they may contact your student asking for additional documentation.  It’s mandatory that you provide them if you want any chance of financial aid.  They want this info submitted through CSS.  You upload pdf's of the requested documents to a secure portal.
This is where you set up the CSS Profile.  https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org 

The clencher-you HAVE To pay FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF PROVIDING THIS INFO.   Drove me crazy!    In our case, each school asked for different things.  But if you can get this set up in advnace if your son/daughter applied to any private schools I HIGHLY recommend doing it.  It took us forever & we felt under the gun.  you've got to set up the account before you can upload the documents the College is requesting.

I had no idea about the Early Action vs Early Decision. 

Early decision plans are BINDING — a student who is accepted as an EARLY DECISION applicant must attend the college. 

Early action plans are nonbinding — students receive an early response to their application but do not have to commit to the college until the normal reply date of May 1 (that is what it was for us-not sure about 2021).  With Regular Decision, you have the option to apply to several schools, review offers of admission and financial aid, and make choice. For Early Decision, IT’S expected that if you are admitted, you will enroll.

By now, for those of you applying to schools that request and/or require letters of recommendations from teachers and others, you should have already spoken to the teachers you are having write you letters, AND sent them official requests for recommendation through the Common App and/or Coalition Application. If you haven’t done this yet, make sure you do it ASAP!  And, if you are applying to any schools via Early Action OR Early Decision, the letters of recommendation need to be in earlier, so make sure you let your counselor and teacher(s) know. They need some time to prepare their letters.

You should also have at least a working list of schools you know you want to apply to (even if you later decide to add or delete some of them)

Finally, you should be working on drafts of your common app/coalition main essays and personal insight questions (for the UCs). Expect several drafts of your essays before they are perfect!

Also, begin drafting a list of your extracurriculars (a very important piece of both the Common App/Coalition and UC apps, or go to your Common App schools and look at the short answer/essay questions that each school will be asking you to answer before submitting your applications.

Websites :

    CSU application. Opened already.  Go to
    https://www2.calstate.edu/apply to begin application. This application is for all California State schools, i.e., San Diego State, Cal Poly, Long Beach State, Sacramento State, Sonoma State, etc..

Every CSU takes the same application so you will only be filling out the application one time. The only part of the application which you will be changing will be the major for each CSU you apply to. You will need a copy of your high school transcript to fill it out.  You will NOT NEED ANY ESSAYS, EXTRACURRICULARS OR LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION FOR THIS APPLICATION.

CHECK THEIR DEADLINE DATE

UC application. Create your account and begin filling out application at https://apply.universityofcalifornia.edu/my-application/login.
This application is for the nine UC campuses.

This is a more comprehensive application. You will need a copy of your transcript to self-report your grades beginning with Grade 9. You will also be required to list extracurriculars and answer four(4) personal insight questions, with a maximum word count of 350 words each.

YOU WILL NOT NEED TO SUBMIT LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION WITH YOUR APPLICATION. However, be advised that some UC campuses may ask you to submit letters of recommendation as they review your application. You will get separate notice of this, but if it happens, it will not be until late December or January.

CHECK THE DEADLINES!

WEBSITES:

    Common application. For Private Schools and some out-of-state State schools. Create your account and begin application
    .   and/or set up your account at the Coalition application at     www.coalitionforcollegeaccess.org

When we did it most colleges that accept the Coalition app are also continuing to use the Common Application or their own institutional application. There are currently 17 colleges that are using the Coalition application exclusively- such as UTAustin, University of Washington, Virginia Tech… My suggestion is that you first set up your Common Application account, add the colleges on your list, and if there are any that you cannot find on the Common App, go to the specific college and see what application they take. They may not take either the Common App or the Coalition and have their own application they prefer you use.

A good resource to look at when you look these schools is www.niche.com. You can get to each school’s own website through niche and you can also get a lot of other information from niche , as it is very user friendly.

If your Son/Daughter is considering out of state colleges check for arrangements with other states for reduced Tuition.  https://www.wiche.edu/tuition-savings/wue/

Until next time!  

Susie Lacy
Broker/Owner
Realty World Lacy & Spadoni Inc
(916) 837-0703
Lic # 01057370 Since 1989