MADELEINE'S COMMON APP MATERIALS AND NEXT STEPS

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I have now framed the major pieces of your Common App so that you are not starting from a blank screen. You have strong material, but the goal is to make sure everything works together strategically and that the strongest parts of your record are easy for an admissions reader to see.

Right now, our immediate priority is Auburn.

I want you to go ahead and take care of the pieces of your Auburn application that have to come from outside of the Common App.

1. REQUEST YOUR ACT SCORE TO BE SENT TO AUBURN

Please log into your ACT account and request that your official ACT score be sent directly to Auburn University.

Do this as soon as possible so that Auburn has time to receive and process it.

Once you have submitted the request, let me know.

2. REQUEST YOUR OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT TO BE SENT TO AUBURN

Please also request that your official high school transcript be sent to Auburn.

Follow the process your school uses for transcript requests. This may be through your counselor, registrar, school platform, or another transcript service.

Again, I want you to do this ASAP.

Once the transcript has been requested, let me know that as well.

These are important because we do not want to complete your Auburn application and then have your file sitting incomplete while Auburn waits on outside materials.

I have framed your Common App materials so that we can begin moving through your applications efficiently.

You will see materials for:

COMMON APP ACTIVITIES

I have strategically organized your activities to show the strongest parts of your record first.

For you, that means highlighting:

• Your state championship pole vault accomplishments
• Your long term Student Government leadership
• Your medical experience
• Your cheer leadership
• Your art and entrepreneurship
• Your additional leadership and community involvement

The goal is not simply to list everything you have done.

The goal is to help a college understand what has mattered most, where you have invested your time, and what makes your high school experience distinctive.

COMMON APP HONORS

Your honors section should immediately establish the level at which you have achieved.

Your state championships are significant state level accomplishments and should remain highly visible.

Your academic recognition, art awards, and other distinctions then help show the range of your accomplishments.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

We are also using the Additional Information section strategically.

This gives us room to include important context and accomplishments that cannot fit naturally into the limited Common App activity and honors spaces.

We are not using this section just because it exists.

Everything we include should help an admissions reader understand something about your record that would otherwise be missing.

ESSAY AND SHORT ANSWER INCUBATOR

You also have your Essay and Short Answer Incubator.

Your assignment is to choose one Common App essay direction and answer all of the questions associated with that option.

Then complete all of the questions for your short answer.

Do not try to write the final essay yet.

I want your natural answers first.

Give me details, stories, memories, thoughts, and examples. Do not worry about sounding polished.

Your voice is what matters most at this stage.

If you have not already done so, begin thinking about who you want to ask for your college recommendations.

You should choose teachers who know you well enough to speak about more than your grade.

Think about teachers who can describe your:

• Work ethic
• Curiosity
• Character
• Persistence
• Leadership
• Classroom contribution
• Growth
• Ability to work with others

Use the A2 Achieve Recommendation Request Guide when you are ready to make those requests.

Ask early, be respectful, and give your recommenders plenty of time.

Your immediate assignment is:

1. Request your official ACT score to be sent to Auburn.
2. Request your official transcript to be sent to Auburn.
3. Continue completing your Common App using the materials I have framed for you.
4. Complete your Essay and Short Answer Incubator.
5. Begin requesting your recommendation letters if you have not already done so.
6. Let me know as soon as your ACT and transcript requests for Auburn are complete.

For the moment, Auburn is our priority.

Once we have Auburn moving forward and your ACT score and transcript are on the way, we will shift our attention to the remaining colleges on your list.

The good news is that much of the work we are doing now will carry forward.

Your Common App profile, activities, honors, resume, essay development, and recommendation materials will become the foundation we use for the rest of your applications.

We will still review each college individually because different schools may have:

• Supplemental essays
• Honors applications
• Scholarship applications
• Additional resume opportunities
• Different testing requirements
• Different supporting material requirements

We will handle those one school at a time.

For now, I do not want you trying to tackle every college at once.

Get Auburn's ACT score and transcript moving first. Then we will keep building from there.

You have already done the hard part by building an incredibly strong high school record. Now our job is to present it clearly, strategically, and completely.

Your Gap Assessment is where I take an objective look at where you are right now compared with where you are trying to go. I have identified what is already strong in your profile, what we may not be using effectively enough, what information we are still missing, and what could create risk as you move into college applications, scholarships, honors programs, and athletic recruiting.

This is not a list of things that are wrong with your application. In your case, many of the biggest opportunities are actually strategy issues rather than missing accomplishments. Read this document first because it explains what I believe matters most right now and gives us a roadmap for what we should address first, what comes next, and what can wait.

Your College and Career Alignment Assessment looks beyond simply asking what you want to major in. I looked at your academics, interests, personality, work experience, leadership, athletics, creativity, and the kind of life you say you want in the future. The goal is to determine which academic paths and career directions genuinely fit you rather than choosing a major simply because it sounds connected to medicine.

Pay particular attention to the discussion of biology, medicine, dermatology, art, and interior design. You do not have to abandon one part of yourself in order to pursue another. This document is meant to help you explore how those interests may fit together and what you still need to learn before making long term decisions.

This document begins building your actual college search around you rather than around rankings or school names. We are looking at academic fit, pre health opportunities, campus culture, location, scholarship potential, honors opportunities, and college athletics. Because pole vault is absolutely part of your college strategy, we are also looking at schools where your athletic ability may give you an additional opportunity.

Your original college list is a starting point, not a final answer. Some schools may remain because they are excellent fits. Others may move down the list, and we may add schools you had never considered. I especially want you to keep an open mind as we identify colleges where strong academics and a realistic opportunity to compete in pole vault overlap.

Your Risk Assessment looks at each college you originally identified and evaluates how much uncertainty exists in your admission position. Remember that a higher risk category does not mean you should not apply. It simply means that we need to understand how selective a school is for someone with your particular academic profile and how much control we have over the remaining pieces of the application.

Use this document when we begin making decisions about where to apply and how much time to spend on each application. We want a college list that includes exciting reaches but also strong options where you would genuinely be happy to attend. We will continue updating these assessments if your ACT improves, your athletic results change, or we learn something important through coach conversations.

Your calendar includes two kinds of deadlines. Official deadlines are the actual dates published by colleges, scholarship programs, honors programs, testing agencies, or athletic organizations. A2 Achieve deadlines are the dates I want you finished. Those are the dates I want you treating as your real deadlines.

The goal is to keep you ahead of the application cycle instead of reacting to it. You have college applications, scholarships, honors opportunities, financial aid, ACT testing, and athletic recruiting happening at the same time. Use this calendar regularly and expect it to change as colleges publish updated information and as your recruiting conversations develop.

Your social media strategy is not about turning you into an influencer. It is about making sure that when a college coach, scholarship committee, admissions representative, reporter, or other person looks you up, they immediately see the same interesting student we see on paper. You already have great material to work with, including pole vault, medicine, leadership, art, school life, cheer, and the normal fun parts of being a high school senior.

Use the content ideas and sample schedule as inspiration rather than an assignment that has to be followed perfectly. The biggest goal is to document your real life consistently and make your athletic accomplishments easy to find. During track season, every meaningful new pole vault result should become part of both your social media strategy and your direct communication with college coaches.

Your Working Resume is your master file. It is intentionally much longer and more detailed than any resume you would ever send to a college. Do not send this document to anyone. Its purpose is to preserve everything we might eventually use in college applications, scholarship applications, athletic recruiting, interviews, recommendations, and future resumes.

You will notice questions and areas marked for additional information. Add details whenever you have them, especially numbers, dates, responsibilities, awards, athletic results, and examples of impact. If you do not know something, leave it alone for now. We will use this master document later to build much shorter versions for specific purposes.

This is one of the most important working documents on your site because your answers will help me turn a strong profile into a much more detailed application. I already know the major pieces of your story, so these questions are designed to uncover the specifics we still need, particularly around pole vault, leadership, your medical work, art, college preferences, recommendations, and the stories behind your accomplishments.

Please answer directly underneath each question in the shared document. Do not worry about grammar, spelling, complete sentences, or making anything sound impressive. I would much rather have a messy, honest answer with useful details than a polished answer that does not tell me very much. If you truly do not know an answer, just say that.

The Essay Incubator is not asking you to write your Common App essay yet. It is designed to help us find the story that eventually deserves to become your essay. Some of your most obvious accomplishments, especially your state championships, will already appear elsewhere in your application, so I want to look underneath those accomplishments and figure out what experiences reveal something more personal about you.

Answer whichever questions trigger memories or make you want to keep talking. You do not have to answer every question equally, and there is no right essay topic yet. We are looking for specific moments, tiny details, honest reactions, contradictions, and stories that sound like you. Once I can see where the strongest material is, we will build the essay framework together.