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Articles / Applying to College / Can I do anything over Christmas break to help my college process?

Can I do anything over Christmas break to help my college process?

Sally Rubenstone
Written by Sally Rubenstone | Feb. 11, 2002

Question: Can I do anything over Christmas break to help my college process?

A lot of seniors will be preparing their college applications over Christmas break. A number of colleges and universities have an application deadline of January 1. So, for those seniors who have not already begun to prepare their applications, Christmas break will be a time of work.


For seniors whose applications are not due until mid-January, February, and March, Christmas break is an excellent time to take a look at application essays. takes discipline to sit down, plan, and compose an essay while on break from high school, especially during the holidays. It can make a big difference, though, in the quality of your essay.

If you are a senior and the colleges to which you are applying have rolling admissions, that is, no hard application deadline, you may want to schedule a last-minute SAT for January. If you do that, you can use Christmas break to review SAT strategies and--above all--study vocabulary. Don't forget The Princeton Review book,

Written by

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.

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