Anna Costaras and Gail Liss are coauthors of The College Bound Organizer, the step-by-step guide to getting into the college of your choice. As cofounders of Bound to Organize LLC, the authors are dedicated to empowering students to successfully navigate the complicated college application process by providing a logical, easy-to-use organization system.
Anna Costaras holds a BS and MBA from New York University Stern School of Business. She is the founder of a college-bound mentoring program for disadvantaged students from her community. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Adventures in Learning, an educational enrichment program for children in need of after-school support.
Gail Liss earned an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business, studied at The London School of Economics, and holds a BA from the University of Rochester. Gail serves on the Advisory Board of Young Women’s Leadership Network, which supports The Young Women’s Leadership Schools and College Bound Initiative.
See The College Bound Organizer in the College Countdown Bookstore.
You’ve been running to the mailbox and checking your email for weeks. Finally, the news has arrived. Your college decision letters are in! Now that decisions have been released, your inbox will soon be full of news and helpful links from the schools you’ve been admitted to. The time has come for you to pick a school.
If you’re considering more than one of your acceptances, there are several things you can do to help narrow down your choices.
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With the pressure of submitting your college applications behind you, it might feel like your job is done; you’ve submitted all your applications and now you’re waiting for a decision from each school. But before you sit back and relax, take an active role in making sure you’ve done all you can to put your application in a slot for success.
We’ve heard too many stories about students who assume that their materials have been received and later find out, after months without a response, that their teachers’ recommendation letters or their standardized test scores never even made it to the admissions office. Don’t let this to happen to you!
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Soon, if not already, many of you will receive admissions decisions, either online or by mail. If you were early to the rolling admissions game and have an acceptance letter in hand, congratulations! You’re going to college! Early decision and early action notification letters will be released shortly as well.
Once your celebrations are over, responses may be required of any of you who’ve received early decision, early action, or rolling admissions outcomes. Depending on the route you took in your applications, your next steps may vary. Here are a few things you may need to do:
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Now that you’re back in school, it’s time to get organized. This is the time to sit down and make yourself a college application to-do list. Think of all the things you need to accomplish, how much time you have, and set priorities. Use a calendar, whether on your phone, computer, or an old style paper agenda, to keep track of all your deadlines. Remember you have your school work and extracurricular commitments to fit into your schedule as well.
At this time you should focus on the following steps of the college application process to organize your calendar:
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It’s essential to acknowledge that simply by being on social media sites, you’re conveying an image of yourself. Is this who you really are? Is this who you want to present to college admissions committees?
According to Kaplan Test Prep’s 2012 College Admissions Officers Survey, 27% of admissions officers Googled an applicant to learn more about them, and 26% visited an applicant’s social networking page (such as Facebook). Of those admissions officers, 35% discovered something about the applicant that negatively impacted their application.
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