1 and Done...and the College Application Process, Part 2

Greetings fellow Quarantiner's. Today is April 7, 2020.  I hope you and your family and friends are safe. 

It has been a while since my last post.  It's a crazy time for us all.  With our kids' school's closed for "traditional" learning everyone is feeling a certain way about it. 

For the Senior's - they have worked so very hard for a long time.  They're missing out on all of the fun things that Senior Year had in store for them.  
But that's behind us.  Let's hope that there will still be some graduation activites once the quarantine is lifted.  With that being said- maybe use the time to help get focused on next year......In our household, my girls are studying for their AP Tests and looking at their top choice schools.  Trying to decide "virtually" where they think would be their best fit.  It's unbelievable and very frightening (to me, as their Mom).  They are handling it much better than I am!  I think we'd all feel much more comfortable laying our eyes on these campus's in person but that's simpy not possible.

For those of you who's kids are Junior's (or younger) I have some advice that I wish I knew.  I thought their JUNIOR year was the toughest.......NOPE.....When their Senior year starts they will be VERY BUSY with not only their classes but LIFE and sports -  if they play!  I couldn't believe how hard Senior year stacked up to be (their choice).  They felt that they wanted to continue with a heavy workload to show the colleges they were serious.  One note, if your school allows less than a full schedule and you are wanting to keep your GPA as high as possible taking one less class can help achieve that.  Less classes in total gives a slight bump to the GPA (please don't take my word for it, look in to this and confirm).

Now that SAT and ACT testing have been removed for the UC's admission criteria -  look at the other college's websites that are on their radar and see what their criteria is.  It's entirely possiible the time that would have been spent studying for these tests can be put to use in other ways.   

If they do away with these tests how can our kids stand out???  My suggestion:  START LOGGING all of your various activies that you've done since FRESHMAN Year.  What they are, what category in terms of athletic, club, music lessons, dance, academic (national or not). How many hours were spent per week, per month??  Did you receive district awards?   Any sports or academic awards??  Were you Captain of the Volleyball Team?  Anything and everything that you did in HS!  Jot it all down now because when you are up against the college application clock it's easy to forget and it's all a part of the application.  I had NO idea how indepth it was!  When you are in school during the app deadline time you are swamped with normal classwork and studying for tests for that class!  Who has time or the memory for it all???  But your acceptance can depend on it.  It Definitely helps.

If you are interested in a particular field-look at volunteering over the summer within that field.  Even given our current COVID-19 predicament see if there's a way to help online, or dropping off curbside to assist. I have always thought "you work so hard, let summer be your down time to hang out and relax."  Now that the testing is eliminated from the app's it's another way to stand out.  Several of the kids we know, either from our friend/collegue circle or the girls circle, who were interested in getting in to their top college choices- nearly all were volunteering in the field of their major.

Hope to catch up soon and that this was helpful to you!  Again, this is only my personal experience and diffrerent for everyone.  I am not an expert, by any means.  Just a Mom who was shocked at what I did NOT know.

Please feel free to pass it on.  

Stay safe.

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