Applying to College

• Regular Admissions: This is the most common application process for four-year colleges and universities. You must submit your application by a specific date, typically between November and January. All the applications are reviewed, and acceptance or rejection letters are typically mailed out on the same date. This admission process is non-binding.
• Rolling Admissions: Schools that have rolling admissions allow students to apply at any time during the school’s admission period, which is typically September through July. This process is also non-binding like regular admissions. For this application process, you will want to submit your application as soon as possible, since admission is granted on a first come, first serve basis. Rolling admissions can be a back-up plan if you were not accepted to your first round of applications, since schools will continue to accept your application later in the year. Check with the school you are applying to, since particular programs may have specific deadlines that don’t adhere to the rolling admissions policy of the school.
• Early Admission Options: There are options for you to apply to your choice college earlier than the normal application process. If you have one or two colleges on the top of your list, you should consider early decision or early action admissions. If you are positive about enrolling, early admissions is a good choice for you. Applying through early admissions lets your top school know that they are your first choice, which could increase your chances of acceptance. Schools want to accept students who they know will actually enroll in classes and applying through early admissions is a way to show them you are committed.

Early decision plans are binding.

You must go to your first choice if you are accepted and offered a financial aid package that meets your needs.

If you have applied to any other college, you must withdraw your applications from all other schools once your first-choice college accepts you.

Popular schools with early decision policies include the following (subject to change):

• Brown
• Cornell
• Dartmouth
• Duke
• Northwestern
• University of Pennsylvania
• Colby College

Some schools offer both Early Decision I and Early Decision II deadlines.

Should You Apply Early Decision? Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Have you done a lot of research on your top school?
2. Have you visited and explored its campus?
3. Do you have solid reasons for wanting to attend this school? And have you felt this way for at least several months?

Early action plans offer a little more flexibility in decision making.

These have a similar timetable to early decision plans, but you can apply to more than one college during that time.

If you are accepted by a college during the early action period, you can decline their offer if a better offer from another school comes along.

You can also agree to the offer immediately if you choose or wait until the spring to make your final choice.

Single-choice early action plans work as a hybrid of the early decision and early action plans.

You are limited to applying to one college early and other college applications must be done during the regular admissions window.

This plan is non-binding like early action plans if you are accepted, and no immediate decision is needed. You can wait until spring to decide on offer from your first-choice college.

In many selective schools the EA/ED have smaller pool of applicants which may increase your chances of being accepted. Historically acceptance rates at to school have been significantly higher in the early round than the regular.

ED is binding. Once accepted you won’t be able to explore other options or know whether other schools might make better financial aid offers. 

Early Actions / Early Decision applicants will receive one of the three possible decisions: an offer of admission, deferral to Regular Decision, or denied Admission.
 

The guides found on this page will have answers to most questions on completing your college applications.

The Application Support Calendar located at the top of this page lists the application supports events hosted by LWHS, colleges, and community partners.  

One of the primary services that College Admission Offices provide is to help any student find answers to application questions. They will always be the expert when it comes to completing applications for their school or general application questions for any college application. 

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No. Washington State law prohibits posting a weighted GPA to your high school transcript. Colleges are aware of this and make their own adjustments and recalculations to account for differences in course rigor.

No

Yes, if you're in high school, you are considered a first-year applicant even if you’ve earned college credit through dual enrollment/Running Start. You will be considered a transfer applicant if you’ve enrolled in college coursework after graduating from high school. There are exceptions for students taking classes in the summer immediately after high school, so it is important to check the policies of the school(s) you are applying to. 

LWHS uses a "modified block A/B schedule" with classes meeting every other day except for one day of the week when all classes meet. To make things extra fun, different application portals use the term “block schedule” differently.

Common Application: LWHS does not meet the Common App’s definition of Block Schedule which is defined as “completing one (1) full unit of a course either in the fall semester only or in the spring semester only.”

Coalition Application: LWHS meets Coalition’s definition of a Block Schedule which is defined as “a high school that offers certain classes on different days of the week (for example, some classes meet M/W/F and other classes meet T/TH)

LWHS uses a semester system, with one grade per semester. There are no year-long "final" grades. If you are asked for a year-long final grade, leave the box blank.

A-F.

Some do, some don’t. It’s a good idea to check admission requirements for schools on your list in the spring/summer before or early fall of senior year to see if recommendations will be required so that you can give letter writers ample time to prepare thoughtful letters on your behalf.

If you would like your counselor or teacher to submit a letter of recommendation as part of your application, please follow the below steps and give your recommenders plenty of advance notice:

Counselor Letters: Complete the Letter of Recommendation (LOR) form found on the Counseling forms PAGE.

Teacher letters: Ask your teacher if they will write for you. Provide them with the Teacher LOR form or whatever form/input they prefer to get the letter writing process started.

Invite and assign your recommenders in the Common and Coalition application portals (see below). Your recommenders will receive an email invitation and will then securely upload their recommendations prior to the due date.

Common Application

Before you start adding your recommenders’ information, you must complete the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Release authorization and waive your right to review recommender letters. Under the provisions of FERPA, you are guaranteed the right to access the contents of any evaluation letters you request from a recommender unless you specifically waive that right. Admissions officers value honest and confidential assessments of applicants. If you don't waive your FERPA right, this could indicate to admissions offices that you don't trust your recommender or that the recommendation is not as forthright as it could be.

Policies on submitting extra letters vary from school to school. Letters of recommendation offer admissions committees unique perspectives on who you are as a person and a student that aren’t expressed elsewhere in the application. Consider submitting an extra letter only if allowed and if the writer can offer insight that differs significantly from other areas of your application.

Counselors and teachers submit prior to your deadline, sometimes just days or hours before. Get your application submitted, scores sent (if required) and application fee paid before the deadline. Check-in with counselors and teachers to ensure they have your deadline on their radar.

Absolutely, students can submit applications before counselors or teachers submit their school forms. Before submitting your application, please follow up with your teachers and your counselor to ensure they will be able to complete and submit a recommendation prior to the school's stated application deadline.

No. Some schools will require a counselor to upload or send an official transcript, some will allow students to upload an unofficial copy, and some only want transcripts after you've been admitted and enrolled. Transcript requirements will be spelled out under the admissions requirements tab of a college's website.

Many schools will require a transcript as part of the application process. Submission procedures vary by application portal.

Common Application: If you've invited your counselor to your Common Application in the Common Application portal, no further steps are required to request your official LWHS transcript. Your counselor will automatically upload one for you.

Coalition Application: You must make separate requests for counselor tasks in the Coalition portal so request your transcript if needed in the college-specific portion of the Coalition app. Your counselor will then upload it for you.

For Washington State University, any non-Common/Coalition schools, scholarships and personal purposes: Complete the LWHS online transcript request form.

Schools where you self-report and then send a transcript after you're admitted and decide to enroll: Many public colleges and universities will ask students to self-report courses and grades during the application process such as the University of Washington, UCs or CSUs, with an official transcript required only after you've been admitted and have decided to enroll. LWHS will send a final transcript as part of the end-of-year senior check-out process.

Unofficial transcripts: Follow directions to view your unofficial LWHS transcript in Skyward. Having an unofficial transcript on hand during the application process is highly recommended.

Check document requirements carefully. Some schools ask that you send college transcripts related to dual credit after you’ve been admitted and enrolled, some (such as the University of Michigan, UT Austin, CU Boulder and others) ask that you send college transcripts as part of the application process. 

You must create a UW NetID. After you registered for your UW in the HS course, you should have received an email with your UW student ID number and a PAC (personal access code). These two pieces of information are used to create your UW NetID by following the instructions here:. Note: you will select your identity as a “UW student.” If you do not have your UW student ID or PAC code, call the UW registration department at 206-543-2310. Once you have created your UW NetID, you can sign into your MyUW account to view your unofficial transcript as well as order an official transcript. Tip**Please look at your unofficial transcript prior to ordering an official transcript. If there are any issues such as a grade or course not appearing, you can get the issue resolved first without having to pay for a second transcript later.

Transcripts for LWHS CTE Dual Credit courses are generated during the summer quarter after course completion. At all schools, you will be provided with a Student ID number which is unique to the college awarding the credit. You will need this number to order a transcript.

Order your Bellevue College Transcript.

Order Lake Washington Institute of Technology Transcript.

Order your Shoreline Community College Transcript.

No. Some schools rely on an uploaded transcript, while others like the University of Washington ask students to self-report courses and grades and verify with transcripts after you are admitted and decide to enroll.

Common Application: If a school requires self-reported courses and grades, you should fully account for all courses on your transcript(s), including other secondary schools you have previously attended.

Coalition Application: Self-reported courses and grades are part of the Coalition profile. Fully account for all courses on your transcript(s), including other secondary schools you have previously attended.

UC and Cal State Applications: California public universities are primarily concerned with courses meeting A-G requirements. Fully account for A-G coursework including other secondary schools you have previously attended. You will not report non-academic courses, such as PE, Health, Teachers Assistant, etc. 

Don't forget to record your middle school Math and World Language (and the UC app allows you to assign those to LWHS even if they aren't on your transcript) Non-A-G coursework can be recorded in the Activities and Awards section: “Coursework Other than A-G”

If middle school courses are on your transcript, they should be included in your 9th grade coursework.

The UC and CSU applications allow students to use middle school math and world language courses to meet A-G requirements and have designed their application to allow students to report middle school grades that are not on the high school transcript.

UC Response (Riverside): You would want to enter middle school grades for any Math (Algebra or higher) or Foreign Language courses you took.

Cal State Response (Cal Poly): If students are entering in applicable middle school coursework in Math or Language other than English, they can choose to either report the grades or enter "Pass" for grades.

Most application portals will offer an "Other" grading scale option (as opposed to a straight A-F) which will allow you to manually enter grades, including P, W or Incomplete.

UC Response (Riverside): Please mark it as such on the UC application. You can explain the reasoning for the P/W/I in the “Additional Comments” section.

Cal State Response (Cal Poly): If the student received a "Pass" for a course, they have the opportunity to enter that as their grade.  Students do not need to enter in grades for W or I.  If they received a grade for one semester but not the next, they can select "No Grade" from the drop-down menu.

Since WANIC and LWSD summer school add grades directly to LWSD transcripts, you can include WANIC courses within your LWHS reporting (i.e., you don’t need to add WANIC or LWSD as separate secondary schools).

UC Response (Riverside): You can enter these courses as they appear on the transcript from the schools where you took them.

Cal State Response (Cal Poly): This depends -- if it's an A-G course, you can enter it in the high school coursework section.  If you received college credit, you can enter it in the college coursework section. 

Common App: Since UW in the High School grades are added directly to LWSD transcripts, you can include UW in the High School courses within your LWHS reporting (i.e., you don’t need to add as separate secondary schools)

UC Response (Riverside): If you took courses through UW then you would enter them as college coursework once you get to that point in the UC Application.

Cal State Response (Cal Poly): If you receive a college transcript for these courses, you will enter them in the college coursework section.  You cannot enter them in both the college and high school sections. 

Common App: Please see Entering Coursework in the Common App.

UC Response (Riverside): Running Start courses should also be entered as College Level (CL) coursework. In the College Coursework section, add the name of the school(s) and enter the courses you took there.

Honors courses are calculated differently. In calculating an out-of-state student's GPA, UC will grant honors weight for AP or IB courses only, but not for school-designated honors courses. The weight is given to letter grades of A, B, or C. 

UC Response (Riverside): As of this writing, I do not believe any of the UC schools weigh Honors-level courses in our system. Still, we suggest marking any Honors-level coursework as such.

For many classes, the answer is going to be pretty straightforward.  If a student has questions about a course and how it should be categorized, they can reach out to the admissions office of the campus they are applying to.  There is also a website called UC Doorways A-G course list that is a useful reference:  https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist

UC Response (Irvine): The drop-down menus that have you select subjects and classes should help you identify how to categorize your coursework at LWHS.

There are two additional comments sections in the UC application. They are optional and should only be used if you have vital information that explains something that is not clear about info you have already inputted. The additional comments are not to be used to write essays.

UC Response (Irvine): This is a great opportunity for students to mention factors/issues that may have impacted their academics (considering their additional comments section after the academics) or to provide additional context that may not have already been mentioned in the application.

Cal Poly and the other CSU are test free.  They do not consider AP exam scores in the selection process.  If a student is using the exam score to test out of the minimum language requirement, this would be an exception.  

UC Response (Irvine): Students are allowed to enter all schools attended during high school as part of the educational history. Afterwards students will enter their coursework exactly as it is reported on their original and official transcripts. Students can also enter their international exams like IGCSE, Board X, etc.

Make your best estimate and contact admission offices after submission if something changes.

UC Response (Riverside): Students will report their high school term system (semester grades) and college term system (quarter); this will allow them to enter individual term system grades.

Once you’ve submitted your application to a school, the only way to change or update the application is to contact the school directly. Contact the school and verify how they prefer this update to be made (i.e. an email, update in the applicant portal, etc.). Some typical reasons for updating an application after submission: major errors, new award or distinction, dropped class, and a changed schedule.

Some schools, such as Cal Poly SLO, accept no changes at all, so it's always a good idea to carefully check applications before submitting.

To meet an application deadline, you must submit your application materials by 11:59 pm on the deadline date. The end of the deadline date is usually in our local time zone, not the college’s time zone. We always recommend submitting well before 11:59 pm to avoid last minute issues that might cause you to miss the deadline.

Not always! Colleges may contact you if you have missing items. Check your applicant portal(s) and email often and respond promptly to any requests.

Colleges expect you to complete the schedule submitted as part of your application. Think carefully about changes. If you make a change (with your counselor's permission), please notify admissions offices to update your file.