College selection & submission

Often times students want to apply to a hundred universities. This is very costly and time-consuming. While it does feel good to get those acceptance letters, if money and time are an issue, then consider this plan to move forward.

College and campus visiting is very important. You will get a feel for where you will be spending a lot of time over the next few years. It will also get you hyped about attending. It is an exciting thing to do.

Each application will ask you what you want to study, as a major and a backup major.

Don’t let that intimidate you.

You do not have to submit immediately, and you can create one master profile and have each of them submitted to your universities of choice.

You can also custom tailor each one for each school. Please pay attention to the deadlines.

Remember that tip on tracking everything? That applies here as well.

Each university might ask you to create a personal user ID and password.

It is important that you track that along with their unique deadlines. Tracking is key to staying organized (and sane).

Again, I can't stay this enough. Pay attention to each application as they might have different deadlines.

It is important to keep track of all your dates and fees so that you won’t be surprised later.

Below are some examples of schools that look similar or different in their dates and costs. It can get confusing.

Texas Tech University has the same application date and cost as the University of Texas at Austin, but look at SMU. It's important to know the difference and track that.

Don’t rely on your memory. Rely on what you write down.