Between the varying deadlines, transcripts, letters of recommendation and random documents, every one different for every school, it's a wonder anyone applies to more than two colleges. Taming the paperwork is a critical factor in surviving college application season, and it's easy to do. You can use lined paper and scrawl down dates and requirements, but the easiest method is with an Excel spreadsheet. That way, college information can be added in any order, and sorted according to your family's needs.
Have your child open a new Excel document and, going down the left hand side, label each row as follows:
- College name
- Application deadline
- Application/Common App
- Exams
- Essay
- Letters of recommendation
- Second semester transcript
- Final transcript
- And supplementary materials.
Fill in the columns with each college's name and the appropriate information, including whether the school requires its own application (A) or the
Common App (CA), which teachers he is asking for recommendations, and X's for each required document. Hit save!
Now, your child can see at a glance what information will be needed, when and by whom. He can sort the document alphabetically by college name, or chronologically by deadline date, or gather everything that requires the Common Application at the top. And as he finishes each task, he can replace those X's with asterisks, exclamation marks or the word "done."
