College Application Tips (1)
- Dan Viragh
- Aug 27, 2019
- 2 min read
The school year is starting and that means that if you are in Grade 12, you have probably already passed your SAT, and are busy choosing which colleges and universities you will apply to in the next few months. Here are a few tips that will make applying to university easier.
(1) Rank your preferences based on school location, tuition, programs you are interested in, and prestige, as well as your own grades. You might want to check out the following site, which lets you compare college tuition across the US:
(2) Create accounts on Common App and Coalition App. If you are applying to Canadian universities, create an account on OUAC (if you will apply to universities in Ontario, like U of T, Western, Queen’s); also create an account at those universities, which you would like to apply to, like UBC, and McGill.
The websites are:
(3) Make a list of programs and deadlines you will apply to.
Finally, start working on your essays. In my opinion, there are a things you should remember about what you write:
(4) You should write something that makes your application unique. Tell us details! If you are from a particular city, country, or local context, tell us how the place looked and smelled, and tell us what you have to contribute to this new university you are applying to. Don’t just write “I am from Japan” or “I am from Minnesota,” or “I grew up in a small town”. Tell us: “I lived in the Japanese town of Hakodate, in the Westernized part of the city called Motomachi, with my three grandparents and two cousins, Noriko and Satsuki. On a clear day, you could see for many kilometers, from the top of Mount Hakodate, which dominates the skyline.”
(5) Be honest. At the end of the day, I think the universities are looking for someone honest, who is interested in the subject that they chose, and who would like to work hard at being the best that they can be. Don’t fill your essay with superfluous words that sound like they were picked randomly from the dictionary. Try to write in your own voice and in a style that is clear, warm and authentic to you.
(6) Write grammatically, without spelling and other mistakes.
Several websites publish successful college application essays from the past. Be sure to read these, but also work on developing a piece of writing, which is authentic to you:
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