It’s Back to School. For seniors, the senior fall hustle is about to start. College applications, classes, tests, sports, activities, maybe another crack at the SAT, to name just a few. So what can you do right now to make these next few months as stress-free as possible? Follow my Back to School checklist for seniors, and you’ll be breathing a little easier this fall.
1. Start on Applications NOW
Sign up for a Common App account today and get started! The sooner you start the more time you’ll have to create the best possible application and the less stressful the entire experience will be. It’s as simple as that.
If you like to get the easy stuff out of the way first, just start filling in the simple sections first, like Profile and Family in the Common App. Education should be fairly straightforward for you too.
You can also start on your essays now. Starting early gives you’ll have plenty of time for revisions, reviews by others, and rewriting. Remember, the key to making things less stressful is to do a little bit each day. If you start today and work on it each day, even for only 15 minutes, you’ll be done with your applications before you know it.
2. Ask for Help NOW
When I say Ask for Help, this could be knowing that your calculus class is going to be really difficult so asking your parents if you could get a tutor. But I also want you to ask for the things you need like teacher recommendations and time with your guidance counselor now.
The worst thing you could do is wait until your applications are almost due to make sure you have your teacher recommendations or transcripts ready to go out. And you don’t want to wait until you get that D on a test to ask for help. Get used to asking for help early and often, especially when it comes to school. Not only will this make Senior Fall less stressful, it will serve well you in college and for the rest of your life.
3. Focus on What Really Matters
You love the cello and have put together an after school music camp for a middle school near you, but you feel like you must also participate in French Club, Art Club, JV volleyball, etc., etc. and volunteer at a soup kitchen once a week, do a river cleanup this October, etc., etc. I’m overwhelmed just thinking about it!
Here’s the real truth ― those things you don’t really care about but feel like you have to do because “they look good on an application.” They don’t. It’ll be very obvious you’re just doing them because you’re “supposed to.” Instead, focus on what you really love to do. What makes you excited and lights you up? What can you not stop talking to everyone about and read articles on in your free time? What are you doing to impact the world around you? That’s what colleges care about, and you will be so much happier and less stressed if you focus on those things and do them incredibly well.
Follow this Back to School checklist for Senior Fall, and you’ll be sitting pretty come December. If you want to make filling out your application even easier, sign up for my newsletter, and I’ll send you my Ultimate Guide to the Common App totally FREE!
Jessica Yeager is a graduate of Harvard and MIT with over ten years of tutoring experience. As a senior in high school, she gained acceptance to Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford, Cornell, and Columbia. She’s now helping students get into their dream schools, like Harvard and Carnegie Mellon, at Impress the Ivies. To learn more about Jessica & get her best FREE Ultimate Guide to the Common App, head over to Impress the Ivies.