Juniors and Seniors alike all have one thing on their mind when going to high school. College. When it’s nearing the end of those last two years of high school, students are trying to prepare and focus on being accepted to a college. Sometimes, due to the stress and frantic search of scholarships, students don’t realize the big mistakes they could be making when trying to apply to a college. To avoid these mistakes and to kill them at the source, the counselors stepped in and help point them out.

1. Missing a deadline. All applications for college should be done by Nov. 1. This is where students don’t realize how much they can be putting at stake.

  “Students may have lost an opportunity for huge scholarships that are offered at the university they applied to. This could be a $40,000 mistake at some universities,” counselor Andrew Franklin said.

2. Another common mistake students make is not reading the requirements that allow you to get into a specific college or university. It is probable that because of admission requirements, some people can’t even attend that school.
3. Not finishing an application even when they thought it was done, will definitely not give that student an acceptance letter. Use an application checklist online to help with this problem.
4. There is a need of an official transcript, but some students forget this detail.

    “You must check with the Student Services department to make sure you have sent an official transcript to the university. Do not expect the counselor to just do this for you” Franklin said.

Students can also send this as well, so do not always rely on the counselor

    Student services need the permission of the student to indeed send an official transcript for them.

5. Do not apply to a college that doesn’t  peak an interest. It is essentially useless and with no good outcome. The need to be at that college will not be great. It is always beneficial to plan dates for college visits.
6. Getting into college also requires to send an official SAT/ ACT score to that college. To do that, a fee, depending on the test must be paid to either the ACT website or the College Board website for them to be sent.
7. Imagine getting a project and having less than two weeks to complete it. It would be awful. So, don’t do the same by giving the counselor less than two weeks to write a letter of recommendation. To give a full and more quality letter, give the counselor more time than that. Please give the counselor a minimum of 2 weeks.
8. Applying to a college that the student has never been to before is not a good thing either. Do not waste time writing that application because you don’t even know what the feel for it is at that college.
9. When a friend, boyfriend or girlfriend decides to go to one college, don’t just go there because they are. Very similar to going to a college that a student hasn’t been before, going to a college just because one person you like is going isn’t the ideal target. Go to a school that you want to go to, not someone else.
10. At the end of senior year, most if not all seniors get this “disease” called Senioritis. This causes them to start to slack off or be in a slump cause they know they are at the ends of high school. Do not do this. Ruining grades and GPA will affect what schools that can be applied to. So, if you are looking for a good college, prevent that nasty senioritis.