Since my students started school in early August, I have them start the college application immediately. I mainly work with low-income, first generation students who will be first in their families to apply to and attend a university. I assign them a college portfolio which must include 3 different type of college applications- a Cal State, a UC, and a private school. I give them this requirement because many minority students would never consider a private school because they are either unfamiliar with the school or think it would cost too much. I tell them, "You will never win the lottery if you don't play, and you will never know if you can get in if you don't apply." If students receive free/reduced lunch then many will get up to 4 free Cal State application waivers, 4 UC application waivers and 6 private school application waivers, plus SAT fee waivers. Sadly, many minority students are not aware of these opportunities because they attend schools that are overcrowded. Often times the ratio of student to counselor is 1:300 making it very difficult for students to get top quality college advisement.
It is October 10th and most of my students are finishing up their college applications and are on their revision stages of their personal statements. They read lots of sample essays and also meet with me one-on-one to get help on finding the right topic or editing their essay to ensure that they answer the prompt correctly. Their college portfolio is due November 6th. This give me and the high school counselors enough time to catch any errors and give students final feedback on personal statements.
