A talk about College Apps

As an international student applying to 3 continents- College Apps start taking up a lot of time. Personally, my top choice is studying medicine in the UK I have always seen this in my future but as I started applying I began to see how difficult it really is. Everything started with writing the personal statement which seemed so daunting. How can I make myself sound like I am ready to save lives and that my work experience was more than following around nurses from the breakroom to the reception area? Then came the UKCAT, o my god, the UKCAT. I totally fucked up on that one. For some reason, I didn't put much attention to it and did not study that much (I literally spect exactly one week preparing when I could've spent the whole summer). And well the results speak for themselves. I got an average score, a very average score. Anyway, I applied by October 15 and now I just wait, once again a very stressful aspect of the process.
Then I moved on to the US. The most annoying part about the US apps is that there is so much writing and it never stops. First comes the general info, then the CommonApp essay, than the supplemental essays and then all the financial forms. They take up so much of my time that I don't even have a moment to think about which schools I definitely would want to go to and the majors I would like to pursue. And this is because the US has never been my first choice, as an international student I can't really study medicine there and I have never even been to the US so I don't know if I would like it that much. Anyway, I still thought giving up a chance to even try to apply to an Ivy would be silly, so now I am going through this horrible process again, expect its worst this time due to all the writing that all has to be extremely unique and creative.

I am also planning to apply to Czech Republic and Sweden so we'll see what that will be like :)

Anyway, I guess I'll stop whining now and will just give you some tips:

• Prioritize your applications

If you are anything like me and have a lot of applications to fill out. Prioritize them. Think to yourself which universities do you want to go to the most and put the most amount of work into these applications.

• Watch out for deadlines

I know that probably everyone has already told you this, but just pay attention to this one. Mark the dates on your calendar and set dates for yourself (before the deadline) when you would like to have your apps done.

• Take the standardized (entrance) tests seriously

Don't make the same mistake that I did. For some schools, these exams are more important than your grades. Think about it, instead of spending a long time figuring out your school system, comparing your grades and make a conclusion from that, they can just use one test and see how you did compared to others. So focus on them, invest some time into this part of the process. Also, if you are taking the SAT really look into the requirements for your university. For example, do you need the essay or subject tests? Personally the first time I took the SAT I did the essay without any reason and ended up doing very poorly on it- it was a waste of money. Also, for some reason, I did not do enough research and I didn't know that you have to take subject tests for most Ivy's. 

Hope this helps in some way or another and if you are in the applications process yourself, best of luck to you!