The school year’s barely started, but for many Findlay High School seniors, it is already time to start applying to colleges if they hope to get scholarships. While Community Foundation information and scholarships will not be out for a few more months, to get a headstart on applications to colleges and financial aid, some students may want to apply early.

A prime example of this is The Ohio State University, which only offers their merit scholarships, as well as honors programs, to early applicant students. The Early Action application for OSU was released in early August and closes on November 1.

“Applying early guarantees a decision date and you also are considered before people who don’t apply early for scholarships,” senior Nicole Susko, who is applying to OSU, MSU, and University of Chicago, said.

Students also favor applying early because it gets the application process over with, alleviating a large amount of stress many students feel during this time of year with college applications.

“It makes it easier to plan since there’s a set date [for decision], and also I’ll have my applications out of the way,” Susko commented.
Some colleges require students to attend their school if they are accepted during the Early Action time period, including many Ivy League schools such as Yale or Duke.

“I’m planning on early applying to all [of] the colleges I can that don’t have early commitment,” senior Lucas Schroeder said. “This is because a lot of scholarships need early admission and many colleges need early application for my engineering major.”

The only downside of early application is the potential of being deferred to the batch of regular applicants. Being deferred does not mean no acceptance, and it actually can give someone a better chance at getting in since the Regular Decision pool of applicants usually contains applications that are not as strong as those in the Early Action pool.

Something new to all students this school year, FHS has welcomed a brand new counselor who has the responsibility of helping students navigate not only CCP classes, but also college and college applications. Mr. Johnston’s official title is “College & Career Counselor” and can be contacted at [email protected].

Mr. Johnston’s job can make it infinitely easier for seniors attempting to navigate retrieving transcript information, brag sheets, and college applications at any point this school year.