As I am coming to the end of my high school chapter, I wanted to reflect on five things I wish I knew before applying to college.
1. Freshman year matters!
My junior and senior year were miserable because I had to compensate for the time I spent caring more about my social life than my grades during my freshman year. Although at the time, freshman year may feel like a joke, it affects your cumulative GPA and can seriously hurt you if you don't do well.
2. Don’t put off taking your SAT and ACT tests.
I wish that I took my SAT and ACT tests my junior year. If you are smart, then you’ll take your SAT / ACT towards the last half of your junior year. This way, if you do not like your scores, then you will be able to retake it again before the end of junior year, and during the first months of fall during
3. Do not procrastinate on your applications!
I worked really hard on each application -- the problem was that I was so scared to submit them, because once you submit it -- you can’t change a thing! Once again, if I was smart and did them early, then I wouldn’t have run into the problems I did. Only one application was submitted before the deadline (and it was only done early because I mixed up the deadlines). Every other application I sent was sent between 11:55 p.m. and 11:58 p.m. for the midnight deadline.
4. Do not let senioritis get the best of you.
Colleges take senior grades seriously. Even after you get in, your
5. Everything will be OK.
I spent every night from August to late March having breakdowns worrying about every little detail surrounding the application process. So much of my time was spent being unhappy and stressed about the things I could not change. Everything works out the way it should be.
