You do not need to take my advice and please do what you think is right for you.
Just as a context, I finished my bachelor degree 20+ ago. I didn’t study in the US. Much later (about 7 years ago) I took a sabbatical from my work, went to London, UK, and got my master’s degree. You didn’t say this specifically, but I am guessing you are mainly aiming to get into a university / college in the US (I’m just saying that I have no idea how universities work in the US). As with many other professionals, I have been managing multiple deadlines for different projects and recurring tasks.
If I were to manage college application as a personal project, I would not use the Zetelkasten method and Org-roam. The reason is simple:
- You are not used to using the tool for this purpose as you say, and you don’t want to spend much time honing the tool
- Zetelkasten method is not originally designed for task management or project management
- Org-roam has been used for task / personal project management, but this would require tuning your workflow (which takes time) – I have written about this from my observation
Instead, I would use a combination of a spreadsheet (e.g. Excel), folder structure, and some note-taking app (any app would do e.g. Org with Emacs, MS Word, Evernote, Notion, etc.). As you say you want to share the document, I would lean toward using an app within the same suite as the spreadsheet app: MS Word for MS Excel, Google Docs for Google Sheets, etc., but it’s really up to you.
I will show an example:
Spreadsheet would provide an overview of each application open & end dates, status, and high-level information that I would like to have at a quick glance. This would make it easy to see different dates for different applications and my status for each. I could also add calculation of fees and other living costs in different sheets if necessary (I think you will want to have some calculation of costs for different universities in different countries).
Folder structure would let me store detail information, research outcome, and notes in an organized way for easy retrieval. This would help me delve into the detail when necessary…
For detail notes, Org with Emacs would be a good app to use. I don’t think it matters much whether I go with a single Org file or a separate Org file for each collage, because the folder structure would help me organize the information. MS Word / Google Docs would be a good choice if you do not have strong desire to use libre software tools
Again, just my view. No need to follow this. Wish you the best of luck; your future is bright 