5 Things I Wish I Knew Before College Applications with College Board
Hey guys, it's Joi here, and today's video is in collaboration with the College Board. Today I'm telling you guys five things I wish I knew before applying to college while in high school. And I'm going to be highlighting some things that I think are important for you to know, whether you're a freshman or a senior in high school, and inform you on the college process. Please make sure you subscribe to my channel and turn on your notification bell, so you know every time I post a new video.
The first thing I wish I knew before applying to a college is that you need to get to know the schools you're thinking about. Take it upon yourself to go to a great resource called a big feature by College Board and search that school in their search engine. After you search, you'll get a ton of different information about the school like demographics, and types of majors offered. Sometimes you find out that a school you thought you loved doesn't have any majors that you're interested in, or it's in a rural area when you thought it was in a city. Those aspects might change your decision to apply to that school or not. It's better to find out early rather than later on. And if you want to take it a step deeper, consider going on an in-person campus tour. If in-person tours aren't feasible for you, do a virtual college tour available on each campus's admissions website.
The second thing that I wish I knew before applying to college is that schools tell you what types of grades and test scores you need to get a scholarship to attend their school. Many times admissions websites will list the type of GPA and test scores you need to be eligible for a quarter, half, and full-tuition scholarships. Make sure you do your research and look at the schools that you have on your college list and take the time to go to each of their websites to see if they tell you what you need. This tactic works better in your favor if you're underclassmen because then you can work up to getting those grades and test scores before you go to take college entrance exams like the SAT.
Speaking of the SAT, that brings me to the third thing that I wish I knew before applying to college. I wish I knew that you should take a practice test before taking your first SAT college entrance exam. Practice tests are important because they help you familiarize yourself with the test and see where you're possibly going to score when you go and take the actual test. I suggest you take it at least twice, but the more practice, the better. It would be best to take advantage of the time you have beforehand to score as high as possible when you take the exam.
The fourth thing I wish I knew before applying to college is that applications open pretty early. If you're thinking about waiting until the Fall of your senior year, realize that sometimes applications are open the summer before your senior year. If you're a junior right now, think about filling out your college applications during the summer because you won't be in school, and you'll have a lot of free time to focus on things like your essay. And that brings me to number five.
I wish I knew that essays are not like your traditional high school essays. It's not a traditional high school essay that is five paragraphs and has to be a certain number of sentences. These are narratives that are trying to tell your story. When you apply to college, you want to list your activities that you've been in on your applications. So your essay is not a time to be listing out things that you've done. You need to use the essay to tell your story because it's the only chance you have to talk directly to those admissions officers. In my essay, I talked about a particular day when I worked with an activism group for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I highlighted all of my interests accumulated into one situation. I did not take the time to list out all the activities I was in because that was already in other parts of my application. Your essay is a chance for you to be creative and tell your story.
Those are the five things I wish I knew before applying to college, and I hope these are useful to you. If you have any questions, leave them down in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll talk to you next time. Bye.
Resources Mentioned:
Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy: https://bit.ly/2P7zyGx
Big Future by College Board: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org
SAT Practice Tests: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard...
