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visit my website www.robynrittersimon.com

Monday, September 27, 2010

Day 163: The College Application

My niece, Olivia, came over tonight for us to edit her college application essay. Whew! Happy I'm not in college anymore or applying to school! It's exhausting compiling all your accomplishments and attempting to present them in a clever way so your essay will stand out among thousands of essays college admissions counselors review. Such competition!

But this is the time of year where thousands of senior high school students are busy putting their applications together. It's either a very exciting time for the student or a very anxiety ridden time causing a lot of stress in a family. Students are nervously narrowing down their college wish list, fine tuning their essay, taking a few extra rigorous courses to bump up their GPA, all in an effort to strengthen their chances of being admitted.

You have to have a game plan and a solid strategy to play this game. Yes a strategy for applying to college. And even with the best of everything - application, essay, GPA, SAT score, there is no guarantee that your student will be accepted to their dream university. Such is life.

When Brandon applied to college we were able to narrow the choices down to where he could play baseball and receive a scholarship. This helped with the process. However, being a collegiate athlete is no easy task once the kids get to the school and start playing sports at the college level. It's an entirely different game at that level.

Well my darling niece Olivia has a stellar application based on her years of community service. She has given her time and energy to so many worthy causes over the years. She is a trained teen counselor at Teen Line, a peer-to-peer crisis call in center for teens to call and talk about their problems. She is a counselor and mentor with Camp Harmony, a camp for underprivileged children. She has worked with Best Buddies, an organization focused on intellectually challenged children. The list goes on and on so do the hours she gave of herself above and beyond her academics.

Surely one or more of the University's she is applying to will see her gift for giving and that will be her winning entrance ticket! Good luck to all the College bound Seniors!