I'm from California so I'll just be giving a quick how to on UC's, and private schools!
(I wish I could do CSU's but I really have no insight into that! The best I can do is link you to the website~)
San Francisco (graduate school)
A link to the application is right here (opens in october, closes late november)
You need 2 essays. 1000 words between the two of them, I recommend writing one longer and one shorter!
No recommendations required
SAT Subject Tests are not required, but may help!
All grades, test scores, GPAs, etc, are self reported at the time of application. If accepted you will turn in formal copies.
If you qualify for a waiver, it will be automatically applied for up to FOUR campuses at the end.
Most private schools will be using the CommonApp.
Each schools has different requirements and essays, but this app complies all your information into one, easy to access database.
You'll first put choose your colleges, and put in your primary information.
Then follow the series of steps shown on the lefthand sidebar. (I'm not going into too much detail since it tends to be very intuitive)
The difficult part for some is RECOMMENDERS, to whom you must send an email from the APP. Remember to do so AFTER asking said recommender.
Most schools require TWO recs. If you have TWO teachers submit recs to the commonapp, you will be able to use them for all of your selected schools.
You must also indicate who your counselor (or something like that) is on the application, I forget where but it was a tricky spot..
Follow through to completion, and for payment you can either request a waiver or pay it.
California State Universities
I'm sorry I don't know much about these!
This is the website you should use however!
I hope that gave you a nice little overview of the application process~ Even though I suck and skipped a lot.
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