The Foreign Service Journal, December 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2018 95 Francesca Huemer Kelly, the spouse of a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, has worked as a freelance writer and an editor, and is currently coaching high school students on their college application essays. She is a co-founder of Tales from a Small Planet and a former FSJ AFSA News editor. T his fall marks the 12th sea- son I’ve been working with high school seniors on their college applications, and many of them are in a state of hyper-stress right now. Why? Because, despite being urged to start early, they waited too long to research col- leges and write essays. Before you can apply to colleges, you need to knowwhich colleges to apply to— and why. But the demands of school gen- erally mean that most students let college research go until the summer before senior year. In the interest of stress management, that’s too late. So, juniors: Don’t worry. You’re going EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT 10th grade, whenmost of the college admission pressure is still low. If you haven’t already, you need to hold a very important conversation with your parents, who presumably will be paying for all or most of your college expenditures, including tuition, hous- ing, meals and travel expenses. Ask them straight out: howmuch can they afford to pay? Is there a college savings account or a 529 account in your name? What, if anything, will be your contribution? Are you expected to take out college loans? Are you expected to attend an in-state school (or a private institution that gives you enough aid to cost nomore than a public one)? For High School Juniors (and Sophomores) to circumvent that stress cycle by using this winter break to your advantage. You can research universities in just 30 to 60 minutes a day over the course of one week. By the end of winter break, you’ll have a realistic list of colleges you’dmost like to attend, accompanied by notes about each one, including application deadlines and required essays. This means that you can thenmove forward with planning possible visits to those colleges. It means you will know if you need to schedule more SATs, ACTs or SAT Subject tests. It means you’ll know what college application essays you’ll need to write over the summer. And by the time senior year starts, you’ll be ready to submit your applications—way ahead of everyone else, to your great relief. If you don’t believe that getting started early makes a huge dif- ference, just ask a current senior! Youmay even want to start this research process as a high school sophomore, while bearing inmind that your interests and passions may change over the course of the next year or two. But it can’t hurt to start putting together a rudimentary list during Getting into college is a complicated and daunting process. Here is a plan for circumventing the stress. BY FRANCESCA KE L LY Research Your Colleges Over Winter Break— and Get a Head Start on the College Admissions Process ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/ELENABS