For a lot of high school seniors, it’s currently Waiting Season. All of my senior coaching clients have heard back from some of the schools they’ve applied to, but not all of them. So no final decisions are made yet. What can seniors do while they wait to get responses to all their applications and make plans for the fall?
Update your resume. I know it sounds weird to update your resume right now. Nothing’s changed yet, right? But there are some things you know will change soon, and you can go ahead and make your resume reflect that. In your Education section, change all the “2016-present” to “2016-2020.” That will feel good. Condense and remove items to get the resume to about half its present length. This makes room for you to add college-related items in the fall. If it would be fun for you, add all the colleges that are still possibilities into your resume, and then take them out as you narrow down your list. (Obviously, don’t do that if it would create anxiety and not be fun.)
Prepare to find a roommate. While a few colleges have gone back to assigning roommates, most will still let you request your own. The late spring and summer will be flooded with social media groups for finding roommates at your college. You can’t start that yet if you don’t know where you’ll be, but you can start thinking about the search.
Most people begin with thinking about what kind of roommate they want and need. It’s about who will be a good fit for you. That’s fine, but I’d recommend starting the other way around: what qualities do you have that someone else will be looking for? If someone were to describe their ideal roommate, what would it say to make you think “I’m that person!” Self-knowledge is the best knowledge, and understanding what makes you good to live with will go a long way to helping you find a good fit. Once you’ve given yourself some time to do that, then go on to the next step of thinking about what traits in a roommate would be perfect for you, okay for you, and intolerable for you. There are some things where you’ll really want someone like you. For example, if you’re an early riser, then being paired with a night-owl could be disastrous. But demanding that your roommate have the same music tastes as you, or the same major, or the same socio-economic background, or religion, may be going too far. You’re going to college to get exposure to a broader world and learn things beyond what you experienced in high school, so don’t limit yourself.
Work toward independence. By the time you leave for college, you need to be able to answer “yes” to all these questions. If you’re going to college next fall but living at home, you still need to be able to answer “yes.” If your answer to any of these is “no,” then you’ve identified something to work on while you wait.
Do you know how to do all of your own laundry?
Do you have a bank account? Do you have access to online banking services? Do you know how to pay bills and make deposits?
Do you have an up-to-date driver license, passport, and/or other official identification?
If you have health insurance, do you have an up-to-date health insurance card? The first thing they ask when you show up to a doctor’s office is for id and an insurance card.
If you don’t have health insurance, have you researched what health services are available through the school? Do you know how to gain access to those services?
Can you reliably get yourself up in the morning with an alarm clock?
Can you make a meal that doesn’t require a microwave?
Are you aware of the warning signs of mental illness, and do you know where on campus you can go for help?
Do you know where to go on campus to report any kind of assault?
The waiting can be very frustrating, especially if it requires a lot from you: campus visits, extra tasks to qualify for scholarships, extra paperwork to clear up financial aid confusion, making waitlist strategies, or something along those lines. Even if you’re not doing any of that, the suspense can still be overwhelming. You’ll almost surely be done by May 1st; the end is near. But remember that there are things you can be doing to now to make the transition a little easier.
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