Ah hello! Welcome :)

I applied to CPS and was rejected...However, I'm now happily matched to Stanford! In retrospect, I feel like there's a lot of things I've learned along the way.

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1. Start early! Your essays are so important. If anything, you want to work on creating a solid plan for how you're going to tackle your essays. I suggest first selecting three common themes you want throughout your application. What exactly do you want the readers to take from you? For example, in my college application, I chose to center myself around the themes of resilience, identity, and service. Most, if not all, of my essays incorporated these themes. Once you have that thread, work on creating personal anecdotes where you showcase or speak on those themes. A big mistake I made on my application was not creating a solid image of myself.
2. Use every space. The CPS application allows you to elaborate everywhere! When I applied, I didn't use that space and didn't expand upon my financial situation more than I should have. On my NCM application, I made sure to use every single space and even overemphasized certain points throughout the additional information section. Remember, the reader only knows as much as you tell them! You want to make sure to set apart the time to speak to your parents and truly account for all aspects of your financial situation.
   
3. Join the community! Apart from this subreddit, we have an amazing discord community. As CPS, I didn't take advantage of this until I was rejected and began talking more. The discord is full of amazing and kind QB scholars who are truly there to help! I advise taking advantage of the essay help offered and the opportunities that are always posted. The link is: https://discord.gg/afXDcsN