This is the first podcast in a series focusing on college admissions advice/experiences.

New to the college admissions process? Hear from four Woodside seniors about their experiences with applying for college in the fall.

0:00 – Introduction, how/when we started preparing for the college admissions process

2:30 – Brainstorming, essay writing process/timeline

6:56 – What UCs look for in essays versus Common App colleges

7:53 – How to make the best use of limited characters in the activities and honors sections

9:47 – Researching colleges

12:00 – How we compiled our college list (safety, match, reach)

17:14 – Miscellaneous advice (procrastination, setting up interviews, finalizing college list)

19:20 – Applying early, merit deadlines

22:33 – FAFSA, CSS

Note: PIQ stands for Personal Insight Question, an essay question required for the UC application. Applicants reply to 4 of 8 PIQ prompts.

Music credit:

Laundry by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060 

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 

Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/laundry-tokyo-music-walker 

Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/Z2Gf-hiYO-Q