Alumni offer college application advice

It is that time of year again: college application season. As seniors and teachers alike stress over essays and recommendation letters, recent CVHS graduates reflect on their experiences with college applications. 

Raymond Chin, Elliot Wallis, Ember Ireland, Amber Borjigin and Jesse Wu all graduated as part of the class of 2023, and now offer words of advice for those applying to college this fall.

“Make [your application essays] your top priority,” said Chin, an electrical engineering major at San Jose State University. He encouraged students to start early and continually work on their essays at least once every few days: “read over it, keep on adding to it, changing it up, ask a lot of people about your stuff. I did not ask a lot of people about my essay and I think that’s where I felt short.”

“Consult other people—teachers, friends, family—as you polish up your writing,” agreed Wu, currently an international politics student at UC San Diego. “These admissions officers that are looking through your essays are just normal people. So if you have other normal people review your essays they’ll give you similar views.”

An excellent resource for CVHS students is the College and Career Center: “They give you a lot of deeper insight into what you don’t think about when you’re writing your essay,” explained Chin.

Multiple graduates also advised against procrastinating on essay writing. Admittedly, it can be challenging to balance college applications with other responsibilities like extracurriculars, work, and school. 

“Time management is always kind of a painful thing to do, but having a schedule helps you manage stuff better,” advised Wallis, a mechanical engineering student. “If you try to pile a bunch of things without organization it’s probably not going to work out well.”

He emphasized following through with plans after making them.

Wallis was slightly different from many students in that he applied early action (EA) to his current school, Santa Clara University. He believed this gave him a higher chance of getting in. It also allowed him to receive his acceptance email in December.

For students who are unsure of where to apply, Wu recommends researching which schools have good programs for your intended major, as well as their academic and social environments. Ireland, a UCLA public affairs major, also recalled researching whether colleges were urban, rural, or suburban, and how welcoming they were to queer and trans people.

The process of deciding where to apply and writing applications is often stressful and frustrating for seniors.

“When I was stressed, sometimes I would just cry,” admitted Borjigin, now studying computer engineering at UC Santa Cruz. “Keeping your emotions bottled up isn’t good, and sometimes all you need is to clear the tears away and your head will clear up after.”

“Prioritize your mental and physical health over school,” added Ireland. Due to health issues, they were in and out of school at the beginning of their senior year. “If you don’t, you won’t do well on your college apps or tests. You have to put yourself first. A lot of schools understand that.”

Overall, the alumni urge current seniors to live in the moment and not place their entire self-worth into the college application process. 

“Enjoy time with your friends in high school!” Borjigin urged. “It’s more likely than not that you’ll be separated physically from your friends, so make sure you have tons of fun together this year.”

Additionally, school rankings and dream schools are not as important as they are sometimes made out to be.

“Whatever college you get into, you’ll get a fairly good education anyway,” said Wallis. “It doesn’t matter if you got a degree from Harvard or some random community college; you still have that degree and that’s all that really matters in the future.”

“Even if you don’t get to your dream school, that’s fine. Just work hard, don’t kill yourself, do your thing,” reflected Chin. “I like it here at San Jose. I found that I can make a home wherever I go, not just my dream location.”