Welcome to Student Agencies Tutoring (S.A.T.)! The management team at S.A.T. has created this blog to share with you helpful advice that we have acquired from our own recent college application experiences. You can’t find this information anywhere else, and what you’re about to read changed the game for their college applications and led to a successful college process!
Get your college essays done over the summer. Especially for the schools you are applying to Early Decision and Early Action, you should aim to have your essays done before your senior year starts. This is crucial so that during your senior fall, you have the time to focus on securing the grades that will complete your college application package. You also don’t have to worry about the stress and frenzy that comes with squeezing college essays in the week before they’re due. While all your friends are drafting up sloppy last-minute essays, you can sit back, relax, and rest assured knowing you put in the time and effort needed for an excellent essay, months ago.
Put in the extra time to get to know your teachers. Ask them to meet before or after class, or even to meet for lunch or a cup of coffee, if it is appropriate. Your teachers are there to help you, and more often than not, they are waiting for you to build the bridge and make that personal connection. Getting to know them outside of class will not only make their class more enjoyable, but building a good relationship with your teachers will make them more enthusiastic about going the extra mile to see you learn. Not only will student-teacher relationships help you in the classroom, but spending that extra time with your teachers each week will help them understand you on a deeper level so that when it comes to ask for a teacher recommendation for your college application, they can write one that will truly set you apart.
Talk to any current college students you can at the colleges on your application list. What the college tour guides will tell you are often manufactured responses by the university, but what real, current students will tell you is often much more realistic. See if there are any graduated students from your high-school who are enrolled in the schools you are looking at, reach out to them, and ask to meet for a cup of coffee if possible, or to just set up a phone call. Current college students will be more than happy to have a quick conversation with students from their high school about their experiences at the college. If you don’t know anyone at a college you’re interested in, try seeing if your friends do, or if you are on a tour, introduce yourself to students who look like they have a free moment. Ask these college students what they like about the school, what they dislike, what they’d want to change, what they wish they knew about the school before applying. Having this insight will be instrumental in deciding which schools to apply to and which to attend.
We are confident that taking these steps will deeply enhance the quality of your college application, and ease the stress of the process overall. If you have any other pieces of advice you’d like to add, write it below in the comments section! And as always, for many more nuggets of key information, tips and tricks, personal experience and advice, S.A.T.’s tutors are here for you.
