Preparing For The Future By Understanding The College Application Process

Three+high+school+students+are+indoors+in+their+classroom.+They+are+studying+for+an+upcoming+exam.+They+are+using+a+textbook+to+study.

Getty Images

Three high school students are indoors in their classroom. They are studying for an upcoming exam. They are using a textbook to study.

Barbara Nava, Staff Writer

It could be hard to get involved for college because of all the required steps and because some families don’t really know much about the process of getting into college. Getting into college involves taking many steps starting with the college application process, completing the FASFA, writing college essays, asking for recommendation letters, finding out college tuition cost and finding scholarships to pay for college.

Many students, like myself , try to get a scholarship for college because it is  the most beneficial deal for a college student. That is one of the reasons why a lot of seniors are very stressed about college: they want to make sure that their grades and exams are above average in order to get an opportunity of getting a scholarship. Many start to make appointments with their counselor to go into depth about college because too many students freak out about how many steps there is to get into a good college. A lot of them worry about what college is the best, how many years they want to attend college, what career is more beneficial, which college cost less than others, and it eventually gets overwhelming for many seniors. Consequently, it isn’t uncommon for some to give up on the college process.

When students don’t know what they want to study yet, many teachers recommend to go to a decent community college like Morton College and then eventually transfer to a school that would focus only on their degree. One of the most important documents to have is your “Academic Credit History” this document has all of the students grades from 9th- 12th grade and it helps the student view their GPA to see what colleges would be willing to accept their GPA score. Students would have to make a FSA ID in order to complete your FASFA application. FASFA is an easy website to use and is very beneficial to college students because it makes it easier for them to understand what step to take next to be successful in the college process. Morton West high school does a good job in encouraging students to go to college, they provide students with FASFA workshops, counselors come in classrooms to walk students through college websites like “Naviance” and they encourage students to make appointments with their counselor. They also make it beneficial for parents that speak Spanish and the provide bilingual workshops. High schools like Morton West  motivate their students by the way the teachers and counselors are willing to deliver their help.