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5 steps to get accepted

Want to attend college but afraid you’ll need an advanced degree just to get through the application? Relax. The good news is, the Internet has made applying to college easier than ever before.

And the bad news? There really is no bad news. Just some tips for streamlining the process and ensuring your success as you embark on your higher-education journey.

What’s important is that you stay confident and don’t get intimidated by the daunting prospect of dotting every “i” on every college application you send out, said Jack Joyce, director of training and information services for The College Board, a nonprofit association dedicated to helping students find college success.

“Reflecting on my own experience as someone who went into the Navy out of high school and didn’t start college until I was out of the military, I can easily identify with the insecurity,” Joyce said. “The reality is that once someone has made the right points of contact, the education system has so many resources and support systems in place that will lead someone through the process.”

Once you muster the guts to apply, follow these steps to help ensure you get accepted:

1. Find a school

The first step is deciding where you want to go.

“The problem that a lot of students used to have ... (was) simply identifying colleges to which they were interested in applying,” Joyce said.

But nowadays, prospective students can use a growing number of college-search tools on the Web to narrow the field of schools and to comparison shop among institutions based on size, course offerings, application requirements and tuition costs.

The College Board, The Princeton Review and Peterson’s are just a few well-known organizations with free college search engines online.

“The ability to access information and tools online just in the last couple of years has ... improved dramatically,” Joyce said. Today’s students “can identify opportunities that they probably wouldn’t have known were out there.”

One caveat: Make sure you are accessing an educational Web site that is valid and up-to-date.

“Education information on the Web is not always guaranteed,” Joyce said.

2. Evaluate military-friendliness

It’s a good idea to consider whether your chosen school is military-friendly.

Choosing a school with a track record of working well with service members and veterans can ease your journey toward a degree.

Kathleen Connolly, education services officer at the Stone Education Center at Fort Lewis, Wash., encourages students to consider a school from the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges Consortium, a group of more than 1,800 colleges and universities dedicated to helping service members and their families get college degrees.

Also, look for any special programs or perks a school might offer to those with a military background.

For example, San Francisco State established a Veterans Support Team in August 2006 made up of representatives from campus departments to ensure veterans find easy answers as they switch to academic life.

The university is also part of the California Veterans Education Opportunities Partnership, an initiative by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger aimed at making California’s higher education system more accessible to military personnel leaving the service.

Benefits include priority registration and resident tuition for qualified veterans and active-duty personnel throughout the 23-campus California State University system and community college districts.

Finding similar incentives is as simple as looking on a school’s Web site or calling its admissions office.

3. Look at requirements

After you’ve narrowed your choices, identify the admission requirements before you apply.

Most schools, at minimum, look at your high school grade-point average and your SAT or ACT scores when considering students for admission.

Not all prospective students are eligible for admission to four-year institutions, said Jo Volkert, associate vice president of enrollment management at San Francisco State.

“But we can tell them what they need to take at a community college so they will know what they have to take before they apply,” Volkert said.

4. Gather application materials

In addition to the application itself, some colleges and universities also require prospective students to submit letters of recommendation and essays.

Transcripts also are required.

Each military service has a free transcript system for recording service members’ military education and experience.

The American Council on Education evaluates this education and experience for the award of equivalent college credits that are recognized by more than 2,300 colleges and universities.

5. Turn it in — on time

The Internet has made the actual process of applying to college a breeze, and most applications are now done online, said Ernie Scosseria, coordinator of applicant relations at San Francisco State.

“For our campus, there is very little paperwork that the student has to deal with,” Scosseria said. “Even our transcripts are electronic.”

Applying online also makes it less likely that you’ll delay acceptance by leaving portions of the application blank.

“You can’t leave applications blank. It won’t let you finish without completing it,” Volkert said. “It really does help guide the student.”

The Internet also has led to a rise in the use of so-called “common applications” among colleges and universities.

Common applications are used by some state university systems such as the California State University system, in which 23 schools use one application.

The Common Application Association offers an admission application that students can submit to any of nearly 300 members.

And the Army’s GoArmyEd online portal automates many of the paper-based processes historically conducted with Army education counselors. It even boasts a common application accepted by all the schools in the GoArmyEd system.

For all the streamlining of the college application process, experts agree there’s one pitfall prospective students tend to stumble into — deadlines.

“Do not miss the application deadline,” Scosseria said. “So many students call us and say, ‘When is your deadline?’ And many of them wait until that deadline.”

The first step

Try these online resources to rev up your search for a school and get the application process off the ground.

American Council on Education Military Programs

The College Board

The Princeton Review

Peterson’s

The Common Application

Military transcripts

Information about military transcripts can be found at:

Army/American Council on Education Registry Transcript System

Sailor/Marine/ACE Registry Transcript system

Community College of the Air Force

U.S. Coast Guard Institute

Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges

GoArmyEd