You have filled the forms, written the essays, shared the grades and test scores, proofread and double-checked everything and you’ve hit the submit button. Congratulations, you’ve completed the bulk of the hard work. Now that your applications are done and dusted, what next?

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Your Application Package

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While you take a breather and focus on other things, the admissions offices on the other hand are probably at their busiest trying to do justice to all the applications they have received. This year in particular the top colleges have received a much higher number of applications and in order to do justice to all of them and give each application a fair and thorough review, some of the colleges are even postponing the announcements of decisions. This is a great testimony to the fact that colleges leave no stone unturned and treat each application with the time and attention it deserves.

 

There are a few key steps that your application typically goes through before ending up in either the accept pile or the reject pile or sometimes in the TBD pile viz. needs additional information, deferred to next round etc.

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1. Triaging – Your application is routed to the team that is most knowledgeable and best suited to process it. This typically means someone who knows the geography you are from and the system that your high school follows

2. Multiple levels of evaluation – Typically at least a couple of admissions officers will read your entire application before a call is made on whether to progress it to the next round

3. There will be a committee or panel which looks at all shortlisted applications and the final decisions are made keeping in mind the overall requirements across the different departments and trying to strike the balance across the incoming student mix

4. The last step is of course the communication of the decisions, along with details of the program and any aid package etc.

 

While this is the general process followed in most colleges, the actual scoring algorithms used, the rounds of reviews, the composition of the panel etc. could all differ. Additionally, the variety of the application pool vs. the requirements of the college and how they stack up against each other could vary considerably. All of this makes the process both exciting as well as unpredictable.

 

 

What can you do, while you wait?

 

Once you hit the submit button, not a whole lot can be done about your application itself, but you can use this quiet phase to play catch-up on a lot of other, related things.

 

• First and foremost is to prioritize your senior year, which you still have to finish. With the applications related distractions out of the way, it is time to focus and make sure that you finish your high school strongly.

• Keep monitoring the mails and the university portals in case colleges reach out requesting any additional information or need any clarification regarding your application. The happy news with the magic words “Congratulations! You have been admitted to ....” could be waiting in your inbox as well 😊

• While it is not a good idea to bombard or hound the admissions office, do share any significant change to your status that may have occurred after you submitted your application

• Be on the lookout for opportunities to strengthen the interest quotient e.g., attend any events in your dream college/s, and try and schedule an interview if possible. Anything that strengthens your application even in a small way is a good idea

• Prepare and work on the upcoming AP exams that you’ve signed up for. There are tangible benefits to writing the AP exams aligned with your college and major after your senior year. To know more, read the article on AP Exams

• Plan your finances. Understand the different options that are available. If the scholarship application deadlines are different and you have not yet completed that, now is the time to focus and make sure you submit all the forms and proofs.

 

The applications are done, but your high school is not yet finished, the admissions decisions are yet to arrive, and you need to use this time to prepare yourself for college. Stay the course for a few more months and then you can well and truly be all set for college.

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College & Me is a series of articles featuring useful information about College Admissions for undergraduate and graduate degree programs in US colleges.

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