As the fall semester approaches and I prepare to begin my fourth and final year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I’ve found myself reflecting on the very beginning of my college journey. It was the summer in between junior and senior years of high school, and I was the first of my siblings to go to college, so this whole process was very foreign to me and my family.

While the college application process is surprisingly easy, it can be very daunting and nerve-wracking to somebody who has never gone through it. Lucky for me, some of my closest friends were more knowledgeable than me and helped to guide me through the process. But to people who may not have someone close to them to guide them through, I’d like to take up the role of the “knowledgeable friend” and give you some tips.

1. Research

While I would encourage everyone reading this to strongly consider the University of Illinois, it is important to research multiple options to find the place where you fit best. Depending on the university, there will usually be a fee for applying, so you will want to make sure you have a set list of schools to apply to. Those fees rack up fast, so make sure you have good reason and genuine interest in every institution on that list. A common way to build this list is to divide schools into three groups: safety, target, and reach. A safety is a school you would expect to get into because your grades, test scores, and extracurriculars are well above the requirements for the given school. Target schools are when you are either at or slightly under/above the requirements. Finally, a reach school is a university or college that you may be fairly under the requirements for, but still want to attempt to get admitted to. It is a good idea to include all three types of schools in your college application process. Throwing in a couple reaches can never hurt, because there are “reach” applications that are accepted at every school, every year!

There will be a link attached at the bottom of this post that will show you U. of I. requirements and recommendations for admittance!

2. The Common App

If you are reading this, you have probably heard of the Common App. It’s a college admissions application that lets you apply to over 1,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. It is worth noting that you do not have to use the Common App, but I would highly recommend it because it is widely accepted and makes the application process much more efficient. The University of Illinois is included on this application. The application is split into six sections, with the first three being profile, family and education. These sections are pretty self-explanatory, these are parts where you put down personal information about yourself, your family, and where your high school classes and grades are recorded.

The next three sections are: testing, activities, and writing. These require a bit more effort and creativity. In my opinion, the activities and writing section are going to be where you want to focus the most of your time. Activities is where you put anything extracurricular you have done, it can be in-school clubs, out-of-school clubs, or anything in between. The real goal of this section is to showcase the kind of person you are. What do you care about? How do you spend your free time? There is a lot you can show admissions officers by what you have done and how you describe it. You don’t want to simply list what the activity was; make sure you put some creativity in your answers to showcase your passion for whatever subject you are discussing.

      2 (b). Common App Essay

To emphasize how important this section of the application is, I decided to dedicate a full section to explain the writing portion of the Common App. You will be given the option to choose between seven essay prompts. Read them all over carefully and choose the one you can relate to most. After choosing your prompt, make sure you re-read it and keep it in mind throughout the rest of your writing. One of the most common mistakes in the essay portion is losing sight of the original question. This chosen question will become the heart of your personal statement. The essay is only required to be 250-650 words, but don’t be fooled by the word count. This statement should and will likely take a long time to complete. After all, it is one of the few ways you are going to be able to give a glimpse of your personality to the admissions team. They will examine this essay very closely, so it would be in your best interest to do the same.

Write, proofread, write more, make edits, delete things, add things–the editing process should take much longer than the writing of the first draft. Once you have a draft you like, share it with others. It may be a little uncomfortable showing such a personal writing to a lot of people, but getting another set of eyes on your work can do wonders. From personal experience, I know it can be easy to be blind to your own personal writing biases and the quirks that come with it. Parents, friends, and school counselors want you to succeed, and they will be able to give you some advice and insight on what you need to clean up before submitting the statement.

3. Supplemental Essays

After finishing up your personal statement, that application is almost finished! All that’s left to do is the supplemental essays, which is basically just short answer questions (though they will take quite a bit of thought and effort). At the University of Illinois, your supplemental writing prompts will depend on whether you’re applying with a major in mind or applying undeclared. The principles of the personal statement still apply here. While each prompt only needs to be approximately 150 words, these words need to be carefully chosen and well thought out. Take your time here and follow the same formula you used while crafting your personal statement. Above all for these writings: be honest, be honest, be honest. Admissions offices see tens of thousands of applications every year, so they know all the cliches, and they absolutely can tell if you’re just saying something for the sake of saying it. The biggest piece of advice I can give you here is to have faith in yourself and your own experience. Stay true to yourself and you’ll do great!

4. Financial Aid

As we all know, college is an investment. Lucky for us, there are plenty of opportunities for financial aid and scholarships out there. The first thing you’re going to want to do is fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The process is simple and basically consists of personal demographic sections and parts for your parents/guardians to fill out. Make sure you complete this application by the priority deadline, because the sooner you submit the application, the more aid you are eligible to receive. After completing the FAFSA you can apply to multiple local, state, and national scholarships. While many of these scholarships are very competitive, don’t let that discourage you. There is no harm in making an application as a large pool of them are free to apply and hearing back from just one could alleviate a lot of financial burden on you and your family. In the case you don’t receive any scholarships or grants, don’t lose hope. There are many scholarships that you become eligible for once you become an enrolled college student, for instance, the College of ACES offers more than 600 scholarships and $3.8 million in aid yearly!

It seems like it was yesterday when I was applying to college without a clue of where to begin. If nothing else, I hope reading this gave you some kind of guidance on where you can get started. Simply having a blueprint of what needs to be done, even if college is a couple years away, will be extremely helpful in the long run. I wish you all the best and truly hope you end up at a place where you can live up to the fullest of your potential (come to Illinois!).

Good luck :)

https://www.admissions.illinois.edu/apply/freshman/requirements