WELCOME BACK, AFTON!

---

1. We're going to apply to Bama, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State ASAP. 
2. We'll apply to Auburn next...strategically. 

We’re going to work this week (and next, if you need the extra time) to complete your Alabama institutional application (because it’s free) and the Common App (minus the essays and short answers) for Ole Miss and Mississippi State. 

Bama, Ole Miss, and MSU are all rolling admissions applications. They also carry significantly less admissions risk than Auburn for you, so if you’re okay with applying to these schools now, I think you should. 

How this works

I need two things from you immediately. I need you to: 

1. Log on to Alabama’s website and create an account for admissions. Then email me or text me your username and password. 
2. Log on to the Common App website and create an account. Then email or text me your username and password. 

I will preload everything for you (minus your essays).  Then we will meet to go over it and hit submit. I will text you some dates/times this week to meet. 

***This is just for Bama, Ole Miss, and MSU.***

Auburn carries some risk for you. I lean heavily into caution when I write my risk assessments for students. Your official A2 Achieve risk assessment (see below) wants you to wait until Early Action (EA) 2 to apply to Auburn. EA-2 carries an October 15 deadline. 

However, I personally think with your Auburn connections and the application that we are going to create for you, you ***should*** be okay applying during EA-1, which carries a September 15 deadline. 

I need you to read all the information contained in this site on Auburn and tell me which direction you’d like to take: either EA-1 or EA-2. 

 You will be writing the optional essays for Auburn. Sorry, buddy. But I will make it super easy for you, so much so that you won’t even feel like you’re writing an essay. 

I really want you to take the ACT again. This can be the difference in $1,000’s in scholarship and merit awards for you. 

I’d like to finalize your Bama, Ole Miss, and MSU apps this week. My availability to meet is really tight, though. I can do Thursday evening, September 3, if that works for you? If not, I’m out of town over Labor Day weekend, and we can try for Wednesday or Thursday of the following week. We can also meet via FaceTime over Labor Day weekend, because I will have my computer with me on our trip (I’m always working!) and can walk you through it remotely. Remember, I’ll have all your stuff already plugged in for you (minus the essays), as long as you create those log-ins for me ASAP.

Over Labor Day weekend, I’d like for you to read over the Auburn material I’m giving you and make your decision on EA-1 or EA-2. Once you let me know that, I’ll create a schedule for you that drives your Auburn application. 

Your A2 Achieve Gap Analysis is your strategic starting point. It looks at where you stand right now academically, what is already working in your favor, what may create admissions or scholarship risk, and what can still be strengthened before applications are submitted. For you, that means looking closely at your GPA, ACT, course rigor, work experience, leadership, service, Auburn First history, activities, and application story so we can focus our time on the things that can actually change your outcome rather than worrying about things that cannot.

Your College & Career Alignment Assessment looks beyond simply getting you into college and asks a bigger question: what kind of education and career actually fit you? This document connects your interest in mechanics, equipment, the outdoors, business ownership, finance, land, and practical problem-solving with potential majors and career paths such as agribusiness, operations, equipment management, construction or service businesses, forestry-related industries, entrepreneurship, and finance. Use it as a working guide, not a final career decision, as we continue narrowing what you want to study, what kind of work environment fits you best, and which colleges can give you the strongest path toward the life and career you are trying to build.

Your Auburn Risk Assessment takes a detailed look at your current admissions position at your first-choice school. Because Auburn is a reach for you right now, this document is intentionally candid about the areas that create risk, especially GPA, ACT, and the fact that Auburn First did not result in automatic admission—while also showing why Auburn is still a realistic school for you to pursue. Use this assessment to understand what Auburn is likely to see in your application, what makes you more competitive than your numbers alone suggest, and why our strategy centers on improving your ACT, earning strong senior grades, and building an application around your work ethic, mechanical ability, responsibility, and real-world experience.

Your Application Schedule is the working roadmap we will use to keep every application, test date, scholarship opportunity, essay, and internal A2 Achieve deadline organized. It lays out when we will complete Alabama, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Auburn, along with ACT testing, Common App development, scholarship applications, and follow-up tasks. Pay attention to the difference between the schools’ official deadlines and the earlier deadlines I have set for you, we are deliberately working ahead so that we have time to correct problems, strengthen Auburn, and avoid last-minute submissions.

I use Google Docs as our shared working space because it gives us one place where we can both see the same information, make updates, answer questions, and keep everything organized without emailing different versions back and forth. I will use these documents to build application content, leave questions for you, make revisions, and track information we still need. You do not need to worry about formatting or making your answers sound polished. If I ask you a question in a shared document, answer it the same way you would answer me if we were sitting across the table talking. Short answers, fragments, and imperfect grammar are completely fine. I would much rather have your real answer than something that sounds formal or “college ready.”

These documents are working files, which means they will change. Some sections may be rough, incomplete, or marked for verification while I am building your applications. That is normal. Your job is mainly to review, answer questions when I leave them for you, and tell me if something does not sound like you or is not accurate. My job is to turn the information into finished application language.

The Common App Honors & Activities document is the working draft of how I plan to present your accomplishments, jobs, service, leadership, sports, technical experience, and honors inside the Common App. I have already made strategic decisions about what should appear first, what deserves the most emphasis, and how each activity should be described within Common App’s very limited space. For you, that means your employment and mechanical work are intentionally placed high because they tell colleges much more about you than simply listing clubs.

I do not need you to rewrite this document. I mainly need you to review it carefully. Make sure the facts are right, the employers and organizations are named correctly, the years are accurate, and nothing says you did something you did not do. If I have marked something as needing hours, dates, or verification, give me that information. Most importantly, if you read a description and think, “That does not sound like me,” tell me. I will handle the final wording.

Your essay strategy is built around one goal: by the time an admissions officer finishes reading your application, I want them to feel like they actually know you. Your activities already show that you work, fix things, serve your community, fish competitively, and take challenging classes. Your main essay should not simply repeat that list. Instead, we are going to use a specific story to show how you think, how you respond when something goes wrong, what you value, and what kind of person you are when no one is grading you.

Right now, the strongest direction is the story of the flooded/sunken mud-boat motor. The essay is not really about a boat motor. The motor gives us a way to show your instinct to figure out why something does not work before accepting that it cannot be fixed. That connects naturally to your mechanical ability, persistence, willingness to learn from people who know more than you, and your “knowledge over age” mindset without turning the essay into a resume or a generic story about “never giving up.”

The three incubators serve completely different purposes, so I do not want you answering them as though you are writing three essays. In every incubator, your job is simply to give me raw material. Answer naturally. Tell stories. Give me details. If something is funny, embarrassing, frustrating, or specific, include it. Do not spend time fixing grammar or trying to sound impressive. I will take your answers and decide what belongs in the final application.

The Common App Essay Incubator is about you as a person. This is where I want stories, details, reactions, mistakes, thoughts, and the little things that reveal how your brain works. The boat-motor questions are designed to help me find the scene, the conflict, the turning point, and the larger meaning. This one will eventually become your main personal essay.

The Short Answer 1 Incubator is completely different. Its purpose is to determine whether colleges need any genuine context about challenges or circumstances that affected your academic record or responsibilities. I am not looking for an adversity story, and we may decide not to use this section at all. Answer those questions factually so I can determine whether admissions officers actually need that information. If nothing extraordinary happened, that is perfectly fine.

The Short Answer 2 Incubator is about additional qualifications and the scale of your experience. This is where I need the details that will not fit into a 150-character Activities description: exact work hours, technical responsibilities, IICRC certifications, equipment you can repair, customer responsibilities, sales experience, diesel or lubricant work, and other hands-on skills. This section is not about hardship and it is not another personal essay. It is where we make sure colleges understand just how much real-world experience you have accumulated by the time you graduate.

The easiest way to remember the difference is: the Common App essay shows me who you are; Short Answer 1 explains important context only if we actually need it; Short Answer 2 gives colleges important facts and qualifications that do not fit anywhere else.

The Bama Application Information document is your working guide for completing the University of Alabama’s institutional application, especially the Awards & Experiences section. I have already framed how I recommend you answer each section based on your coursework, leadership, service, activities, employment, technical experience, and honors. Your job is to review the information carefully, confirm that everything is accurate, and fill in any missing details I have flagged, especially dates, hours, award years, and exact job information. Do not rewrite the responses or try to make them sound more polished. Once you verify the facts, I will make the final edits so the information is ready to copy directly into your Bama application.

I'm still finalizing your Working Resume and your targeted Auburn resume. 

We'll start working on Honors Colleges and scholarship portals. Don't sleep on Honors Colleges either. In the right school (such as Agriculture), you have no idea yet what you're capable of...But I do! I already see it. And by the end of this process, you will too!