10 Things We Learned About College Admissions This Summer

This summer, college admissions became very real in our house.

After months of talking about college visits, applications and essays, we finally started actually doing all of it. And while I spend a lot of time researching college admissions for The College Corner, there’s nothing quite like going through the process with your own child.

We learned a lot this summer — some things we expected and quite a few we didn’t.

Here are 10 things we know now that we definitely didn’t know in June.

1. Being a good writer doesn’t make writing a college essay easy.

This may have been our biggest surprise. You can be a strong student and a great writer and still struggle with your college essay.

Writing an analytical paper for English class is completely different from writing 650 words about yourself. A college essay has to tell a story, reveal something about who you are and, most importantly, actually sound like you. That’s a very different kind of writing.

2. Finding the essay topic can be harder than writing the essay.

We spent a LOT of time brainstorming before the writing really began.

And we learned that the best college essay topic doesn’t necessarily come from your biggest accomplishment, award or activity. Sometimes it’s hiding in the little things — a family tradition, a habit, something you always say, a childhood memory or a story that seems completely ordinary until you start talking about it.

Our advice? Before opening a blank Google Doc, spend some time figuring out what makes your kid your kid.

3. 250 words for a supplemental essay can be harder than 650 words for the main essay.

Who knew fewer words could take MORE time?

With a short supplemental, there’s almost no room to waste. You need to answer the question, be specific, show personality and somehow fit it all into 150, 200 or 250 words.

Writing it is one challenge. Cutting it down is another.

4. Sometimes the best thing you can do for an essay is stop working on it.

There were definitely moments this summer when we stared at the same sentence for so long that none of the words sounded right anymore.

That’s usually the sign to close the computer.

Walk away. Sleep on it. Go do something completely unrelated. It’s amazing how often the sentence you couldn’t fix at 10 p.m. suddenly seems obvious the next morning.

5. The “Why Us?” essay requires WAY more research than we expected.

It sounds like a simple question: Why do you want to attend our college?

It isn’t.

A good answer requires going well beyond rankings, location and “I loved the campus.” We found ourselves digging into majors, individual courses, professors, clubs, institutes, student organizations and opportunities we never would have discovered from a quick visit to the admissions website.

Which brings us to #6…

6. You can’t force a good essay because you blocked off two hours to work on it.

Wouldn’t that be convenient?

You can absolutely schedule time to work on applications. But creativity doesn’t always cooperate with the family calendar.

Some days, two hours produces three sentences. Another day, an idea pops into your head in the car and suddenly the whole essay starts coming together.

We learned to leave more time than we thought we needed — and not expect every writing session to produce a finished product.

7. The best college research happens after you leave the admissions homepage.

The admissions website is a great place to start. It shouldn't always be where you stop.

Read the student newspaper. Look through the course catalog. Explore department websites. Check out clubs and organizations. Read about professors and research. Look at what students are actually doing on campus.

That’s where we started finding the little details that helped us understand what makes one school different from another — and whether it might actually be a good fit.

8. Organization may be the most underrated part of the whole process.

There are a LOT of moving pieces.

Deadlines. Supplements. Recommendation letters. Testing. School-specific requirements. Application portals. Financial aid. Interviews. Counselor deadlines. And the list goes on.

You don't need an elaborate system, but you definitely need a system.

Keeping everything in one place made the process feel much more manageable — and helped us see what needed attention next.

9. “We have plenty of time” has an expiration date.

In June, fall application deadlines sounded very far away.

Then somehow it was July.

Then August.

And suddenly we were talking about deadlines in weeks instead of months.

Starting early doesn't necessarily mean you'll finish early. It gives you room to rethink an essay, do more research, change something that isn't working and, occasionally, take a day off from all things college.

10. There is such a thing as TOO MUCH college talk.

This one might be the most important thing we learned.

When you have a senior, it’s very easy for every car ride, dinner and casual conversation to turn into:

Did you finish that supplemental?
Did you email your counselor?
Did you look at that program?
When are you working on your essay?

At some point, everyone needs a break.

They're applying to college, but they're also still high school seniors. There are friends, sports, school, family dinners and a whole final year of high school happening at the same time.

And sometimes the best thing a parent can do is not ask about the college essay today.

We’re still working on that one. 😂