College Admissions: Hi, How Are You?

College admission results have been rolling into our senior’s emails recently, and as a social butterfly of our community, I decided to take the risk of writing an article about this topic.

First of all, how are applications sent to universities? How is it done? According to Ms. Brown, one of our counselors in charge of senior applications, students are in charge of writing their own essays (including personal statements if required) and filling in applications (including test scores and extracurricular activities), before counselors gather recommendation letters from teachers and send them off. Counselors are also in charge of informing parents about the college application process and which stage of the process their child is at. The method of sending these applications to universities varies depending on where the student is applying. The most common method is to use a program called “Common App”, by which applications and transcripts will be sent digitally. This method currently only works for universities in the U.S. However, applications are sent digitally to most countries except South Korea. To apply for Korean universities, applicants will need to be print out their application documents and mail them, which is rather strange for a tech-advanced country.

Some universities allow early decision and early actions, where students are able to apply earlier than students applying with regular decisions. When a student applies to a university as their ED (early decision) and is accepted by the university, the student must attend the university, unless the university decides to not enroll the student for a specific reason. Normally, students apply to universities early to show their passion and convey the message that the respective university is their dream school. Students will apply to universities early with their “predicted” IB scores and other college preparatory test scores such as SAT, ACT, and TOEFL. A student can apply early as their ED or EA (Early Action) schools. ED is different from EA as once you get accepted to your ED school, you may not defer the acceptance and must have to attend the school.

However, the process of applying to Korean universities is different. The process is differentiated depending on whether you are a Korean or not. Then, Koreans (those with a Korean passport) are separated into two different “groups”: the 12-year outs and the 3-year outs. Students with the privilege of 12-year out may apply to six different universities starting from March, and may also apply to six more after IB final exam. Unlike applying to the U.S., Koreans with the 12-year out privilege can only apply to 12 schools in total while the students with 3-year out privilege can only apply to 6 schools in total.

Many Hong Kong universities offer students a conditional offer where students will be officially accepted only if their IB results meet the conditions. These conditions vary depending on the major. For example, the conditional offer can be a 36 total of IB score, either 7 points for Math HL or Economics HL.

Admission deadlines vary by countries and universities, with several deadlines in early winter and some even as late as during the summer vacation after graduation. Here is the list of different deadlines for various countries.

• Hong Kong – Late November to early January

• United States – Early decision and actions November, regular decisions around February to March

• United Kingdom – Can be as early as September to as late as middle January

• South Korea – As early as March to as late as June

• China – October to November

• Australia – Late May to June

I interviewed several seniors about their feelings and thoughts on their college admission results and the process. I also asked them for some inspirational quotes for juniors, sophomores and even freshmen.

Eagle C. applied to a university in Switzerland and was accepted a few weeks after his interview session. He was stressed out during the waiting phase as he was worried about not being able to get into a university and had lost motivation to do any schoolwork after submitting applications. Just like many seniors I interviewed, Eagle C. generally felt more stressed out and worried while waiting for his results. He recommends students to prepare for applications early so that they don’t miss deadlines or receive a huge amount of stress due to procrastination.

Michelle Z. got deferred by a university in the U.S. Unlike being rejected, early decision schools may choose to defer their students and reconsider enrolling them with regular decision students. She says, “Being deferred by a single university doesn’t mean that you don’t have the ability to get into any other universities. Be patient as the university might decide to enroll you later on”.

Carrie L., one of the first seniors to not be “homeless” stated that when she got her acceptance email, she was really excited as she got into one of her dream schools. Agreeing to Eagle C.’s comment, she stated “I was really stressed out during the process of filling out my college applications, and so, I strongly recommend the juniors to start preparing beforehand so they do not procrastinate” and how “finding yourself” is the key to writing a good college essay and a good personal statement. She also commented on how applying to universities at “your own standards and abilities” is important, but she encourages applying to “reach” universities that may not accept you so that no regrets will be made in the future. College application is a whole new “learning” process that students will all face. It allows students to “find” who they really are and tells them about their abilities as a student.

Moving on to the emotional consequences, senior Beatrice M. responded, “As a fine arts student, I got stress mainly from trying to balance school work and organizing my portfolio and college essays. Especially, as this process determines whether you will be enrolled into your dream school or not, I was extremely pressured throughout the entire process.” She kept on having stray thoughts, doubted herself, and questioned her abilities. Beatrice M. would feel better after winning a battle between her emotions and herself (by crying), and said that “[Crying] is not a bad thing at all! It actually helped me have a clear mind afterwards and allowed me to set my priorities and get my work done.”

I wish seniors and juniors who have not applied yet or will apply soon good luck and hope that this article answers your questions on the application process.