[INTRO]
[00:00:07] BHA: Welcome back to another episode of College Admissions Insider. I'm Becca Haupt Aldredge from Bucknell University.
[00:00:12] BT: I'm Brooke Thames, also from Bucknell.
[00:00:14] BHA: On today's minisode, Brooke and I are going to be diving in on our top recommendations for how to spend your winter break.
[00:00:22] BT: You might be super excited for this break from school but also from your college applications. But there are plenty of little ways that you can keep progress going on the college process. These are likely the final weeks before your application deadlines, so you want to make sure that you're using your time wisely. Becca, I know you talk about this with students all the time. What are some tips?
[00:00:41] BHA: Brooke, that's a great point because while students might want to kick back and relax over the holidays, those procrastinators may need to get to work on finalizing those applications before the deadlines creep up. Hopefully, at this point, you have a system for tracking your deadlines. Whether it's a planner or a spreadsheet, making sure you know that your deadlines are coming is the first step to making sure they don't sneak up on you.
Once you know your deadlines, you can plan accordingly. We hope that you can spend some time over winter break taking a true break. You work so hard in school, and you've been working so hard on these applications. We hope that you can relax, dive into that new book, binge-watch or listen to a TV show or podcast you've been hoping to check out. It is okay to give yourself permission to rest, but keep an eye on those deadlines.
And this might be the only time in your college search process that we advise going on social media, but embrace the scroll. Many of the college and universities that you'll be applying to have a social media presence, whether it's Instagram or TikTok. At Bucknell, we have both, but we also have a student-run account, @iamraybucknell. That gives you an inside look into life as a student. So if you're spending time scrolling on social media, maybe make it productive and spend some time checking out the college or university that you may be attending in the fall.
[00:02:03] BT: I'll add something else to that, Becca. The last thing you probably want to do is be in your inbox, but now might be a good time to catch up on emails that you might not have read yet. Make sure that you're either filtering out schools that you decided you don't want to apply to or checking for lists and reminders of things that you might have forgotten about. You don't want to forget to submit a separate scholarship application, for example, because you missed out on a reminder.
[00:02:26] BHA: Brooke, in between the deadlines and inbox cleanup, another piece that students may need to spend some time on is finishing up their college essay. As one of Bucknell's writers, can you give us some tips to help students get ready to hit the submit button?
[00:02:43] BT: If you haven't finished your essay already, then you know exactly what you need to do. Finish that essay. Once it's done, there are a handful of things you can do to make sure that what you've written is what you want to submit. One thing you can do is pass it by family, friends or even maybe teachers or counselors if they're available. Getting feedback on your essay is really, really important. You might think what you've written sounds a certain way, but it might come off different to someone else.
There are also online tools you can use to maybe even clean up some grammar or change some phrases. Grammarly is great. It's something that I use in my everyday writing. You just plug in what you've written, and it will suggest changes to make your writing smoother and easier to read.
An excellent tip that I've learned along the way is to actually read what you've written out loud and backwards. What I mean by backwards is instead of reading from top to bottom, read from bottom to top. So read your last paragraph, and then read the paragraph before that, and make sure that everything is flowing the way that you want it to flow.
[00:03:40] BHA: Whoa. Listener, I can assure you that as someone who reads applications, we will read your essay forward. But Brooke's pretty good at what she's doing, so I would take her word for it.
[00:03:50] BT: The reason you want to do this is because you've written something in order. You know exactly what has gone before and what will come after. But reading it backwards makes it easier for you to catch mistakes or notice when something isn't quite tracking or making sense. As always, reading things out loud makes it easier for you to hear when things aren't working.
[00:04:14] BHA: Those are super helpful tips, Brooke, and things that I certainly would not have thought of trying. But I'm going to have to try that tip myself.
Maybe for one last piece of advice as you head into your winter break, we hope that you enjoy your time with family and friends. Maybe here we'll speak directly to family or parents who might be listening to this podcast.
This winter break, if it's your student’s senior year, might feel different than the next one. Maybe it'll be longer or shorter next year. Maybe your student will be attending a college right down the road or in a neighboring town, or maybe they'll be traveling home for the holidays. We hope that you find a great balance between working on finishing up those essays, meeting all of those deadlines, but also enjoying time with friends and family.
[00:04:58] BT: Until next time, keep on reaching for your dreams and your dream school
[END]
