The College Application (Veteran Voices)
The College Application (Veteran Voices)
Transcript
I think the single most important thing that, in my opinion, that veterans should know about the college application process is rework, revise, revisit, polish everything constantly. It's like-- oh, we hated this-- but it's like drill, I guess, in the Marine Corps. You don't know how to do it the first time and you do it a million times. And before you know it, you're all clicking in step.
I wrote the first essay, and it was terrible. I submitted paperwork that was wrong to the first university. And before I know it, I was filling out like two applications a day to places. And as far as like starting the admissions process, I had three essays going that I was trying to answer different admissions processes for. And it was just, it was one of those things I didn't know what I was doing at first. And then through just constant work and I treated it like a job in itself.
I wanted to go to school instead of getting a job directly after the Marine Corps, and I treated it as such, as applying for a job, in a lot of waste. So I started just constantly working and revising. And if something didn't work, I went back to the drawing board and I reworked it.
So when tackling the application process, I definitely used my resources when it came to the college website. A lot of people call and ask questions. And you know, that's great, too. That's also an option. But you'd be surprised what you'll find when you scroll through the pages of-- there's like an application page on the college website, and it has everything, step by step.
So I'm very worksheet oriented. So I made a spreadsheet of all the colleges that I wanted to apply and what their requirements were. First of all, because I needed to compare. And also, because if they all needed three letters of recommendation and only one school needed a fourth, then that was something that I needed to know. Also, I didn't want to write a statement of purpose for every school. So I wrote one and kind of altered it and changed it, tailored it to the specific school. And it just helped me keep track of different deadlines and different requirements, whether it would be the deadline to request a waiver for the fee, or whatever the case may be, the worksheet really allowed me to stay organized.
Then I had to write. And I did not know this before pursuing a higher education, that writing by yourself is probably the hardest thing you'll ever do. So I kind of worked backwards with the deadlines and gave myself ample amount of time to be able to write and rewrite and have others read, and so I could rewrite after they read it. And so that was helpful, as well.
And then also just to stay on top of it and to be proactive and to stay organized. But I definitely say, find those people that are on your team and that are going to be able to help you with the application process. Because you're going to need them to write the recommendations letters and you're going to need to give them time to write them. So you want to make sure that you're on top of that.
But I feel like as soon as you start identifying schools, start adding them to this worksheet. And then you can always delete them or whatever. But that really, really helped me.
College application process can be a difficult process, because each school has their own unique requirements that they expect of you to complete before the application is completed. So I think some of the most helpful things for me was to collect all the documents that are needed, your transcripts from all the schools you went to, high school diploma, things of that nature. So I collected multiple, just in case they got lost in the mail. Or I knew I was going to apply to multiple schools, so I collected a bunch of them. Because it's just this kind of a long process to get all this stuff.
So I collected a bunch of them. And then I also-- I reached out to some of the student veterans that were at the college that I wanted to go to. And most colleges have like a student veteran organization, that easily find it on a website or social media. So I reached out to some of them to make sure that-- I asked how it went for them, see what they included in the application. And then I think more times than not, if you reach out to a fellow vet, they're willing to help.
So then they just helped me fine tune my application essay. And then they let me know if there's any documents that were out of the ordinary, besides the ordinary application, that I needed. And so I really leaned on them to help me. And also, just calling the school's admissions office is also very helpful. Because obviously, they're there, that's what they get paid to do. And they're helpful whenever you need to call them.
So one of the things I wish I would have known when applying to college was exactly when my SAT expired. So some schools actually have a very different standard, seven, five, I think there may maybe even some four years. And I was lucky because I ended up taking-- or 6 years, I think, may have been the other standard. But any case, I had taken my SAT within-- all the universities I applied, to my SAT was actually good. But I freaked out because I heard someone say, you know, your SAT is no good, and didn't do any of my research. And so I end up applying for an SAT test. And literally, like, 80 bucks or something. But I ended up wasting 80 bucks because my SAT was actually good. And I got a higher score on my high school SAT. So that's just a small thing that I wish I knew.
Also, I guess more substantial, is the Common Application is pretty-- I mean, that's the whole point of it, it's consistent throughout a lot of the universities you apply to. So I guess it was a stressful thing for me to realize, shoot, I'm applying to six colleges, that's six different applications. Is this even going to worth this? You know, you're just kind of filled with doubt if you're just starting this process. But knowing that a lot of universities use the Common App actually helped alleviate a lot of stress, because it's like, OK, cool, for the most part, I only have to do one essay with maybe tweaks here and there-- or actually, one application with tweaks here and there. But that was something that kind of helped alleviate stress and it was something I wish I knew beforehand.
I wrote the first essay, and it was terrible. I submitted paperwork that was wrong to the first university. And before I know it, I was filling out like two applications a day to places. And as far as like starting the admissions process, I had three essays going that I was trying to answer different admissions processes for. And it was just, it was one of those things I didn't know what I was doing at first. And then through just constant work and I treated it like a job in itself.
I wanted to go to school instead of getting a job directly after the Marine Corps, and I treated it as such, as applying for a job, in a lot of waste. So I started just constantly working and revising. And if something didn't work, I went back to the drawing board and I reworked it.
So when tackling the application process, I definitely used my resources when it came to the college website. A lot of people call and ask questions. And you know, that's great, too. That's also an option. But you'd be surprised what you'll find when you scroll through the pages of-- there's like an application page on the college website, and it has everything, step by step.
So I'm very worksheet oriented. So I made a spreadsheet of all the colleges that I wanted to apply and what their requirements were. First of all, because I needed to compare. And also, because if they all needed three letters of recommendation and only one school needed a fourth, then that was something that I needed to know. Also, I didn't want to write a statement of purpose for every school. So I wrote one and kind of altered it and changed it, tailored it to the specific school. And it just helped me keep track of different deadlines and different requirements, whether it would be the deadline to request a waiver for the fee, or whatever the case may be, the worksheet really allowed me to stay organized.
Then I had to write. And I did not know this before pursuing a higher education, that writing by yourself is probably the hardest thing you'll ever do. So I kind of worked backwards with the deadlines and gave myself ample amount of time to be able to write and rewrite and have others read, and so I could rewrite after they read it. And so that was helpful, as well.
And then also just to stay on top of it and to be proactive and to stay organized. But I definitely say, find those people that are on your team and that are going to be able to help you with the application process. Because you're going to need them to write the recommendations letters and you're going to need to give them time to write them. So you want to make sure that you're on top of that.
But I feel like as soon as you start identifying schools, start adding them to this worksheet. And then you can always delete them or whatever. But that really, really helped me.
College application process can be a difficult process, because each school has their own unique requirements that they expect of you to complete before the application is completed. So I think some of the most helpful things for me was to collect all the documents that are needed, your transcripts from all the schools you went to, high school diploma, things of that nature. So I collected multiple, just in case they got lost in the mail. Or I knew I was going to apply to multiple schools, so I collected a bunch of them. Because it's just this kind of a long process to get all this stuff.
So I collected a bunch of them. And then I also-- I reached out to some of the student veterans that were at the college that I wanted to go to. And most colleges have like a student veteran organization, that easily find it on a website or social media. So I reached out to some of them to make sure that-- I asked how it went for them, see what they included in the application. And then I think more times than not, if you reach out to a fellow vet, they're willing to help.
So then they just helped me fine tune my application essay. And then they let me know if there's any documents that were out of the ordinary, besides the ordinary application, that I needed. And so I really leaned on them to help me. And also, just calling the school's admissions office is also very helpful. Because obviously, they're there, that's what they get paid to do. And they're helpful whenever you need to call them.
So one of the things I wish I would have known when applying to college was exactly when my SAT expired. So some schools actually have a very different standard, seven, five, I think there may maybe even some four years. And I was lucky because I ended up taking-- or 6 years, I think, may have been the other standard. But any case, I had taken my SAT within-- all the universities I applied, to my SAT was actually good. But I freaked out because I heard someone say, you know, your SAT is no good, and didn't do any of my research. And so I end up applying for an SAT test. And literally, like, 80 bucks or something. But I ended up wasting 80 bucks because my SAT was actually good. And I got a higher score on my high school SAT. So that's just a small thing that I wish I knew.
Also, I guess more substantial, is the Common Application is pretty-- I mean, that's the whole point of it, it's consistent throughout a lot of the universities you apply to. So I guess it was a stressful thing for me to realize, shoot, I'm applying to six colleges, that's six different applications. Is this even going to worth this? You know, you're just kind of filled with doubt if you're just starting this process. But knowing that a lot of universities use the Common App actually helped alleviate a lot of stress, because it's like, OK, cool, for the most part, I only have to do one essay with maybe tweaks here and there-- or actually, one application with tweaks here and there. But that was something that kind of helped alleviate stress and it was something I wish I knew beforehand.