With the 2022-23 school year underway for upperclassmen at Enochs High School, many juniors and seniors are beginning college application processes so that they can try and attend the schools that they have hopes of joining. Many of those students have questions that regard their college application and are wanting answers to said questions. Fortunately for them, Enochs’ College Counselor, Mrs. Waggle has the answers to commonly asked questions that students are wanting regarding their college applications.

One question that is asked a lot is “what should I do to prepare myself?” According to Mrs. Waggle, she says that depends on the college and university that you’re applying to but what you should do is “reach out for help when you’re stuck, look at the college checklist to know exactly what schools are looking for, and go to the workshop for colleges later in October.” She also went on to state that emails are being sent out to parents containing critical information about college applications for those wanting to see what colleges are wanting. 

A question that I have heard from others is, “what should I do to make myself stand out?” When asked this question, Mrs. Waggle responded by saying that CSU’s or California state universities, don’t really look at test scores, just transcripts for high school. She also explained that grades will have a heavier effect on whether or not colleges will accept you because of these schools not paying much attention to scores. Mrs. Waggle also suggested that you take junior college courses as well as fill out PIQ’s or personal insight questions so that schools get to see who you are as a person. Waggle then went on to finish by saying “these courses of action will get these schools to look at you more if you do these things.”

While interviewing Mrs. Waggle, I asked how many colleges people should be applying to. She responded with “eight. Six colleges you know you can get into and two ‘reach schools’ or ‘dream schools’ that you want to go to.” A reach school would be a school like UC San Diego, that has a lower admittance rate.

When finishing up the interview, we just had to ask one more thing for students: What’s the number one tip that you can give for students about college applications? Mrs. Waggle replied with one sentence: “Get an early start and pace yourself.” You shouldn’t wait until the last minute to do things for your college applications, so stay on top of it and stay up to date on things as well.

College applications are an important thing for students here on campus, and thanks to Mrs. Waggle, she gave us answers to students’ questions about their college apps and what they should do for them.