Complete guide to US College Application

Pre- College Application

1.                 You will hear a lot of trash about college application. Be very prudent to consume college application advice. 

2.                 You can never make up your academic credentials and standardized test score. So, keep a good track of your academics. In the meantime, make sure that you are preparing well for standardized tests as well. Standardized tests are as important as or even more important than GPA.

3.                 In terms of Extra Curricular, it's a good idea to find a few that you're really interested in and strive to be more involved in them. That's far better than joining or signing up for a ton of activities and not having achieved anything that special in any of them.

4.                 Take risks and get out of your comfort zone. That's what high school is for. Do activities you would enjoy. Meet people and make connections. Take classes you never imagined doing well in or have any interest in.

5.                 Get in touch with seniors who have successfully gone through college application process. Visit USEF and college application groups and sites regularly, and network with fellow aspirants.

6.                  Read and write extensively. Definitely still do the basics, maintain good grades, standardized test scores, ECs, etc.

7.                 When you don't feel like working on an assignment or something, go on your dream college's site and remind yourself why you're working so hard.

SAT and Personal Essay:

8.                 Memorizing a lot of SAT words does not necessarily improve Critical Reading Score. CR needs a lot of extensive reading and a lot of practice. Ignore ubiquitous Barron's book, it does not comply with real SAT questions. Rather use official blue college board SAT preparation book for practice sets. 

9.                  Using fancy SAT words does not make a good personal Essay. Personal Essay is about content.

10.             You may write about your life, your aspirations or anything, but show your passion, maturity and potential through Essay.

11.              Take the SAT the first chance you can so you have time to retake it if you needed to.

College Application

12.             Apply early. When you do so, you will still have time to improve on your application later for Regular Decision. Most importantly you will have learn a lot about college application by then.

13.             Apply as many colleges as possible.

14.             Apply to some safety colleges, no matter your excellent grades, SAT score or ECAs. You can never tell what US colleges are looking in their prospective students.

15.             Everybody is applying does not mean you should not apply.

16.             Do not judge a college by its acceptances rate or by its ranking. College ranking is not English Premier League.

17.             Writing emails unnecessary to an extent of aggravating the counselor does not necessarily improve your chance of acceptance. Only write emails to your benefit.

18.               Supplements are not Social Studies question and answers! Do not write only to fill the spaces. Put your thought into these. These may not be as important as personal essay, but could sometimes be a deciding factor between a waitlist and an acceptance. 

19.              Do not be compromise with your application. Give whole lot of time to complete your application. Do everything thing that can strengthen your application. Send them arts, sports or music supplements if they accept any.

20.             You might be rejected by need based schools  with a 2250 SAT/ 800 + 770 SAT IIs/ 4.0 GPA. Yes, money matters. Apply to need-blind schools but only a couple, as these are crazy reaches and then to true safeties.

21.             Stay on top of the due dates.

22.             Be realistic. But have a courage to apply to some reach colleges as well.

23.              Don't pin all your hopes on one or a few schools, especially if they are very selective. It's not fun being rejected from a school you've daydreamed about all of college application.

24.              Location and college environment should be a big consideration when creating a college list. After all, how well you do in college is hugely dependent on the environment around you. People need to put less of an emphasis on prestige/ranking and look more into how well they fit in to certain colleges.

25.             However, still go for your dreams. Make sure they are your dreams, not that of your parents, peers, or anyone else.

26.              Don’t rule out a college just because it seems like you wouldn't get in.

Post- College Application

27.             If things go well, make sure you choose a college where you believe you can thrive.

28.             Rejections does not mean you did not deserve the college on your merits. There are several other factors that come into play as far as our admission decision is concerned.

29.              Take a gap year or second gap year, if you think you deserve better college, better aid or both. However, do not come to the states or start your college in Nepal with a mentality to transfer after a year or two; transferring is ridiculously hard if you need as good a financial aid as freshman student. Believe me, transferring is ridiculously hard.

When in the USA

30.             Network with right people. Because social science claims that you are an average of five people you most interact with, be prudent to methodically place yourself in the company of the most mature, benevolent, and competent people you can identify.

31.             Involve in activities that interest you.  Make best use of the available resources and opportunities which may interest you.

32.              Do not get saturated with your accomplishments, but strive for more. Life is a long run.

33.             Invest in yourself. Increase your personal value. Where you are today is the result of your investment in last five years or so, where you will be in five years is the result of your investment now.

34.              Please invest back to Nepal both economically and intellectually. You all can be next Mahabir Puns, Anil Keshari Shahs, Upendra Mahatos or Jiba Lamichhanes.

35.             On a spiritual note, think beyond yourself. When you give to others, things will eventually come back to you, because world is run by this crazy thing called “Karma”. As they say it, life is a reciprocation: what you give is what you get.

36.             Travel a lot.

If in Nepal

37.             Do not undermine yourself for the rejections you  may have received. Thousands of students apply but only thirty to forty students go to top notch colleges with an excellent aid every year. It has always been the same case, and the competition has become ever so fierce with commercialization of education in last few years. 

Remember, it’s not how far you fall, it’s how high you bounce. Look at some people who've accomplished a lot and see where they started. Hari Bansha Acharya passed SLC the third time, Binod Chaudhary failed an entrance for Chartered Accountant, JK Rowling was a single mother living off a welfare when she began writing Harry Porter, Winston Churchill was so slow a learner that teachers used to write to his mother to drop him off the school, Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because the editor thought Walt lacked creativity and good imagination, and the list can only go farther. Life is a long run, bounce back!

  

A Season of Flights

With the class of 2018 set to fly to the USA, here are my preliminary suggestions, thoughts and contemplation on college application and college experience in the USA. My thoughts are garnered from nine month of experience in a medium sized public university in the southern state of Louisiana.

1) Network with right people

The biggest perk of attending college is connections with people with similar interests. It is said that we are an average of five people we most interact with. Therefore, be prudent to "methodically place yourself in the company of the most mature, benevolent, and competent people you can identify". When you do so ,you may be seated next to future governor of the state, roomed with future Nobel laureate, share the workspace with future General Secretariat of UN or turn out to be one of those person yourself.

           

2) Do not get complacent.

Let nobody tell you that quality of college, student body and faculty does not matter. It matters big time. However, what is more important than a college placement is your take away from your college experience in next four years. There are students who have done miserable in their college life, and there are students who have dropped out of the college even after making to good colleges. The college placement does not matter if you cannot make most out of it. College placement is just a start of your life, not an end of it.  

On a same token, you will be surprised by the wide range of opportunities and resources available in the campus. Make best use of the available resources and opportunities which may interest you.

3) Invest

A) In yourself. Money is secondary at this point of time.
This is where, I think, many people miss the trick. Do not be misled in the direction of earning extravagant money at this time. If you invest your time in the right things, you will make a hundredfold of the money and/or  fame in a long run than that you are tempted to earn now.

B) Back to Nepal 
You all are privileged in one way or another to make to this point. By a virtue of birth or by sheer hard work, you are able to get best education and come to the USA for further studies. During your travel to the USA, many of you may have your transit in Doha, Abu Dhabi or Kuala Lumpur. You will realize that very few of you make it to the next flight to the USA, while vast majority of the passengers will have to toil hard in those countries. Please, put your life and privileges into perspective, and invest back to Nepal either economically or intellectually. For instance, it only takes an hour of work in the USA to make a child literate in Nepal. The average cost to make a child literate in Nepal is  Rs. 847*, which is approximately an hour of minimum wage in the USA.

 South Korea after 1950, India during the 1960s, and other the then developing countries like Israel, Taiwan, Singapore and Philippines, among others had made a significant improvement in their economy and policy on the leverage of western educated leaders and scholars. With around 9,000** Nepalese students in the USA alone, Nepal can be another country in the list,and you all can be next Mahabir Pun, Anil Keshari Shah, Upendra Mahato or Jiba Lamichhane. 

4) Understand your personal calling and follow your passion
I would like to borrow Oprah Winfrey’s words from Harvard commencement speech of 2013. She says, “The key to life is to develop an internal moral emotional GPS that can tell you which way to go…The challenge of life is to build a resume that does not tell you a story about what you want to be, but why you want to be.” Be reflective, bold and courageous to follow your passion; do not be misguided by a dogma of being others.  

5) Comfort is not happiness

You may be ecstatic going through successful college and visa application process. You will be more so for first few months of your college life in the USA. Excellent system, diverse group of people, curriculum, location and language will overwhelm you for sure. However, these moments are not  perpetual. There will be times when you will miss your family, friends and country. Do not be mistaken that comforts will buy you happiness ,but be prepared for random emotional swings, nostalgic moments and an eternal search of happiness.

6) If things did not go well, do not despair.

Most of other students may be disappointed with their college decisions. Thousands of students apply ,but around thirty students go to top notch colleges with an excellent aid every year. It has always been the same case, and the competition has become ever so fierce with commercialization of education in last few years. Therefore, do not undermine yourself for the rejections you may have received. Cliché as it may sound: they rejected your application, not you as a person. It is a sad reality that some applicants get the benefit of doubt, while others do not. Bad luck is nothing you can do anything about.

Remember, it’s not how far you fall, it’s how high you bounce. Look at some people who have accomplished a lot and see where they started. Hari Bansha Acharya passed SLC the third time, Binod Chaudhary failed an entrance for Chartered Accountancy, JK Rowling was a single mother living off a welfare when she began writing Harry Porter, Winston Churchill was so slow a learner that teachers used to write to his mother to drop him off the school, Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because the editor thought Walt lacked creativity and good imagination, and the list can only go farther. Life is a long run, bounce back!

This article was later edited and published in The Kathmandu Post on December 1, 2014.