Make sure your email address won’t make your grandmother blush. This bit of common sense came directly from University of California and Cal State admissions officers at Culver City High Schools 17th Annual College Fair. Face it folks, readytopartaaaay@gmail; schlsuxs@hotmail, and ihatemath@yahoo make a bad first impression. Be professional and thorough, take your time with the applications, work diligently on your personal statement, but DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE to file. The deadline for both the UCs and Cal States is November 30th, get them done before Thanksgiving and enjoy a second slice of pumpkin pie. Procrastinators run the risk of the servers being overwhelmed! Remember to disable the pop-up blocker when you are filling out the application, or you’ll miss essential segments.
The brilliant Thelma Valverde dug deep into her college counseling budget and rented lights allowing the college fair held at CCHS this past September 10 to spill outdoors into the cool evening air. The lawn between the halls and the Tech Center held rows of tables with representatives from an excellent variety of post-high school options. The UCs and Cal States joined forces with military options, community colleges, art colleges, and a dazzling array of public and private colleges. The options ranged from Stanford University (CA) to Whitman College (WA), from to Arizona State to U. of Colorado, from Rice U. (TX) to Vanderbilt (TN), from Carleton (MN) to Chicago University (IL), from Harvard (MA) to Juniata (PA), not to mention U. of Tampa (FL) and University of Hawaii, Manoa (HI). There was even the Franklin University, Switzerland for the internationally minded.
Big public universities, small private liberal arts colleges, religiously affiliated colleges, health-care focused institutions, and arts colleges offered a great menu to choose from. There are over 4,000 two and four year institutions to choose from in the United States alone. The right college for you is out there, no go find it!
Don’t know where to start? For Culver High School students, check out the College and Career Counseling Center above the library. For everyone, check out sites like www.BigFuture.CollegeBoard.org and www.CaliforniaColleges.edu
Still confused? Talk to the college and guidance counselors. They’ll be happy to help. And if, after all that help, you want more help, get smart…
Jamie Wallace
Get Smart for College
Independent Educational Consultant
www.GetSmartforCollege.com
Jamie is a UCLA trained educational consultant.
[email protected]
Such good advice about the last-minute problems! Ever since my daughter applied to the UCs (four years ago), we hear of the UC servers crashing on that final weekend, and panicked seniors trying to get through to submit their apps. Last year, I think, they extended the application deadline one day – but don’t bet on it! Submit before Thanksgiving – you’ll be so glad you did!!