Author: Jessica Daniels

I know it seems like plenty of time — Admissions decisions will be released by all your schools in March, and you’ll need to make your enrollment decision by April 20 for Fletcher, and around that time for your other schools. Five weeks (more or less) to think it all through — easy peasy, right? Well… It should be very straightforward: gather all your data, plan a visit or more, make a decision. Done! Enjoy your summer! But year after year, we hear from folks who find themselves scrambling on April 19, still collecting information, feeling extremely stressed, and unable to make the final decision on a school or program. So, friends, let my Admissions pals guide you to avoid that fate. First, Liz has a suggestion for an info-gathering opportunity.

As I mentioned last Monday, the theme (in my mind, at least) of the posts for these two weeks is Prep for App/Prep for April. That is, you can probably put together a perfectly fine application with little advance thought, but the admissions process will go so much more smoothly for you if you first take some foundational steps. Similarly, you can go from January to March without giving any thought to which graduate school you’d most like to attend if admitted, but the process of making your decision by the April 20 enrollment deadline will be so much more productive and less stressful if you have done your research first.

Today we’ll wrap up the suggestions offered by the Admissions team in answer to my question,“What do you wish everyone would do to prepare to apply to Fletcher?” Lucas and Marquita, who spend the most time taking questions by phone from applicants and admitted students, both encourage you to do your research.

Today we’ll kick off the tips for how to prepare for your application. In past summers, we’ve focused on the nuts and bolts of the application itself, but this time I hope we’ll be helping you with the build-up to applying more generally. Let’s just jump into it, and I think it will become clear. My question to my Admissions pals was simply, “What do you wish everyone would do to prepare to apply to Fletcher?” The responses follow, starting with Laurie’s foundational advice.

Though the Admissions staff has little to add to your exercise routine, we do know our way around the admissions process. I’ve consulted my Admissions pals and asked them to share their suggestions for two phases of the application cycle — the current moment (pre-application) and that point, many months in the future, when you learn you have been admitted to Fletcher.

Why did I create this particular structure for their suggestions?