Application Advice from Current Students

"College applications can be stressful! I am the oldest in my family, so I was the first of my siblings to go to college, and much of the process was unknown to me. I think the biggest thing I wish I had known before submitting my application was that it really was all going to be okay - the things that you have been doing throughout your whole life have shaped you to be the person you are now, and your only job at the time of your application is to show OU who that person is. As long as you have all of the pieces of your application submitted, your person and life speak volumes!"

"Back when I was filling out my OU application, one thing I was not aware of was the deadlines. Application deadlines for OU are February 1, but to be considered for scholarships, an application is required by December 15. I was not aware of this until late November, and I ended up scrambling for essays and recommendation letters. Also, there is now an Early Action Admission Deadline of November 1, which gives you priority access to things like financial aid and housing. The OU application opened August 1, so start as soon as possible!"

"The number one thing I wish I knew before I submitted my application to OU was how OU does holistic admissions. In high school, I had a determined work ethic and maintained good grades, but I wasn’t usually the strongest standardized test taker. Along with this, I was involved in numerous extracurriculars that kept me uber busy year-round. Unfortunately, when the season of college applications came around, I was extremely stressed and felt like I hadn’t done enough. I compared myself to my peers who had perfect GPAs and were involved in the student body government or similar selective leadership organizations or peers that got incredibly high ACT scores after taking it only once. I put a lot of time and work into my application, but I would’ve been much more optimistic about the application process and more creative with my personal essay and supplemental essay responses had I known that, aside from academic rigor, community involvement was the next biggest element of the application review."

"When I submitted my application to OU, I didn’t have a first-choice school. I was still in the middle of searching for a place that I could really see myself in. I remember feeling so uncertain, even as I proofread my essay and double-checked my information. Looking back, I wish I had known about all of the reasons OU is so special before I hit submit on my application. Since high school, I knew that I wanted to study abroad during college. Had I known that OU’s Education Abroad offers incredible programs all over the world for the cost of OU tuition and fees, it would have been a major factor in drawing me to OU sooner. Had I known that the letters program gives students the opportunity to focus their studies on a combination of philosophy, literature, history, and language, I would have found my perfect academic fit a lot earlier. After choosing OU, I thought that I was just incredibly lucky to end up at a school that catered so well to my interests. I’m pretty thankful that I made the right decision, especially because some of the things that I’m the most grateful for at OU I wasn’t aware of when I applied."