College application process can be confusing

BY Spencer Massicot

The college application process can be an extremely confusing and nerve-racking time for the students involved. A lot of us have never been told exactly how everything works.

After some research, I have found some information about the admissions process that I never knew before and I think it could be beneficial to students currently in this situation or those who will be in the future.

For financial aid, students should have filed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and marked which colleges they want its information to be sent to. FAFSA is how you get grants, loans and other financial assistance from the government. It is important that you fill it out and fill it out again every year you are in school to get aid for the next year.

About two weeks after you submit your FAFSA, you can sign into your account and view your Student Aid Report (SAR) to view a report of your potential financial aid.

When you get accepted to a college that you sent your FAFSA information to, you can sign in to view your official financial aid from that specific college. From there, you may need to work out more student loans and scholarships, but each college will give you a different aid amount.

Students have to be careful when getting loans because interest rates are steadily increasing, as well as the tuition for each school. Overall, students are paying increasing amounts of college fees.

When taking out loans, students should feel confident in their future ability to pay them back and should not take out loans if there is another way to pay for college. If it’s possible for you to get a job while in college rather than taking out a loan, you will benefit by avoiding future debt and by acquiring work experience.

After you submit your college application, you should receive an email from the college with directions for creating a portal. The portal is your personal account for that specific college. Typically, you have to create one for every college that you apply to.  Make sure to write all of the passwords and usernames down because you will need them to log into your account every time you want to check your admission decision or financial aid information.

You should check your portals fairly often because if there are any problems with your application, or the college needs more information, they will usually notify you through the portal. On Google or a given college’s website, you can find a timeline for when you should be receiving your admissions decision from each college. When it is around that time, you should check your portal more frequently to check your application status.

For the most part, you will be notified through the portal a few days before you actually receive an email from the college. If you are waiting for a college to notify you in an email, it is possible that you have already been notified in the portal.

Once you get into a particular college, you can see the financial aid package that you received and you can make your final decision about what college you want to attend. You may want to consider forgoing extensive student loans and go to the college that offers the best financial aid package, even if it’s not your dream school.

Unless you applied to a school for early decision, or they have a specific date, you will need to commit to attending a college by May 1.

Once you get in, you can’t slack on your grades because for a lot of schools, especially the University of California schools, a failing grade in your senior year may cause your admission to be rescinded.

From there, the college that you choose to go to will contact you with information regarding choosing your class schedule, room and board and any other details that need to be taken care of. If you take any AP exams, you will be notified of your scores in early July and you can submit those to your college to gain any potential college credit.

Over the summer, you can usually get to know your future roommates online and iron out any other details with your class schedule or finances that you need to.

Good luck with the admissions process. Make sure you take care of everything you need to so that you can finally achieve the college experience you have probably been waiting a long time for.