i am in 10th grade and i am looking to get a head start on college application processes

The best thing you could do is focus on your course and extracurriculars. Though, you may also want to plan ahead, such as over the summer you may want to do at least: a job, an internship/career shadowing, academic programs, enroll in a college course (if you can), research programs, etc. etc. There’s many possibilities for over summer preparation! You’ll want to do this for summer 2021 and summer 2022 to prepare for the admissions cycle in your senior year.

Furthermore, you’ll want to focus on your fundamental education (algebra, reading comprehension, writing formally, etc.) where you’ll be tested on this for the SAT/ACT. If you work steadily through it all, then you’ll develop the critical thinking skills to crush the admissions exams. You can definitely do this, but don’t fall into a trap of procrastinating and rushing your studies; doing this will largely decrease your retention of what you hope to have learnt.

When it comes to ESSAYS, the universal objective is to “Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.” This is actually prompt 5 of this year’s cycle, but it’s the most fundamental out of them ALL. Essentially, you do want to reflect on a unique time where you were able to show GROWTH + PERSONAL IDENTITY. But for now, if I were in your position, I’d practice creatively writing in first person, and then writing about yourself. This will be the skill asset you need to even begin a personal essay. Simply create your own prompts—what did I do new this week?—and write about it. It may seem silly but it’ll be worth it!!

Colleges. Here you’ll want to focus on school’s that fit your personal interest. Furthermore, you can look at their programs, their available degrees, their student body, their perks and offers, etc. And almost always in the end, cost will be probably the most crucial factor!! You may not think so now, but trust me, if you can cut out on the expenses of everything, so as to avoid any loans, then you should take it!

Hope this all helps!!

I would not worry about your essay now maybe think of a few ideas but for now just focus on your schoolwork and join clubs/sports so you have things for your resume and to write your essay on.

a lot of these answers are for people who want to get into very competitive colleges. before doing anything like applying for internships or aiming for a 32+ or 1500+, find out what you are interested in and what you want to get out of college. If you want to study something specialized and specific like stage design or wildlife biology and don't want a master's degree, schools like Yale and Stanford might not be a good fit for you. Make a college list early. do NOT apply to expensive summer programs and instead, pursue your interests in your own community. Join or start clubs you are interested in. Keep your grades up. You'll be fine :)

So aplication essays change year to year but what you should do is get your extracurriculars into a spot you want them to be. You also could explore the commonapp and fill out the basic information. You also could explore what schools interest you and try to get a list of about 30 schools to research further to get it down to 15ish by the time you apply.

Hope this helps!