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When you’re organized during the college search, you can tackle the process with ease. There’s no worrying about losing important documents or meeting deadlines. If you need help getting organized, check out these tips!

Start a new email account

When you create your new email, consider a combination of your first and last name, so it will be easily recognized by admissions officers. You can use this new email address for all college-related things. If you have a high school email address, take into account that it may be deactivated after graduation. Setting up a new email address will allow you to keep important information. This is especially significant if you need to reference something later or if you decide to take a gap year. 

Create folders within your email

Email folders are a game changer. We recommend making email folders organized by school, ACT, SAT, FAFSA, and so on. You can even create rules that automatically sort your email when they are from a specific person. This will help you out when you are searching for something specific. 

Use Google Drive

If you do not currently use Google Drive, consider uploading your essays and resume! You may even want to create documents for each college complete with your student portal link, school code, admissions officer contact, notes, and more. The Common App has an integration that allows you to upload to your application directly from Google Drive. Google Drive can even be accessed while offline and on your mobile device.

Write about it

Campus visits can be a vital part of the college search process. In order to keep that memory of your campus visit fresh, write about it as soon as the visit is over. What was your favorite part? What are you most concerned about? If you had to choose to attend that institution at that exact moment, how would that choice feel? Who did you meet? Upload this to that specific school document so you can look back on it and reflect.

Create a physical storage location

It’s probably not too often that you get snail mail, but it will happen during the college search. Some documents you may need for the college search may be physical papers. It’s helpful to create a home for these things (besides the kitchen table). Consider putting together folders for all the different categories: school, tests, FAFSA, and colleges you’re interested in attending. 

We hope these tips inspire you to stay organized during the college search and alleviate any stress you may feel about the process. If you’re wondering how many schools you should apply to, learn more here