May 1st is typically “decision day” for high school Seniors, which means that your Junior is officially stepping up to the plate with six months to early application deadlines. Six months sounds like a long time, but the checklist of To Do’s before hitting submit is daunting, and the kids who leave it all until the Fall can easily find themselves overwhelmed. If that sends your heart rate soaring let me set your mind at ease – it is all doable in a tight window, but SO much less stressful if you can coax (beg, bribe!) your rising senior to make the most of the next few months.
Here’s a suggested timeline of some of the things your child can do to get a jump on their admissions process – and make their Fall a lot more breathable.
MAY:
- Create a Common Application profile
- Request Letters of Recommendation from their counselor and teachers. For tips to help your child with that process, you can read This Article
JUNE:
-
- Draft their Common App activities list (watch for next month’s blog on this!)
- Brainstorm & select their Personal Essay topic
- Finalize their college list and application plan for each (EA, ED, RD)
JULY:
-
- Complete a solid draft of their Personal Essay (if they can lock this in before the Common Application opens on August 1st, they are in amazing shape!)
AUGUST:
-
- The Common App opens August 1st (colleges often change their supplemental questions each year, so looking into supplemental essays before August might be wasted energy).
- Complete and polish their Activities List section.
- Add their schools and create a roadmap for supplemental essays for early application schools.
- Invite their recommendation writers (done in the Common App. Critical! Be sure they waive their FERPA right to view the letters, Colleges and teachers both value knowing the letters can be candid and truthful)
- Polish a final draft of the Personal Statement. Note to parents, however tempting it is to DO this polishing, please know that admissions readers deeply understand the difference between a 17 and 47 year old voice. You may do more harm than good. Check for errors and suggest places to ‘level up,’ but avoid redrafting.
SEPTEMBER:
- Send gracious emails to their recommendation writers reminding them of the deadlines.
- Begin Supplemental essays for any Early Decision or Early Action schools.
- Request their Transcript – work with the school counselor.
- Build a plan for where they will submit SAT or ACT scores (each school gives you an option separately within the Common App. For advice on that decision making, read the second half of This Article).
- Check every school for interview requirements or opportunities.
- Understand each school’s unique requirements and deadlines clearly – some programs require portfolios while others mandate recommendations from certain subject matter teachers. Don’t count on your counselors or your students alone, a second set of eyes can save a lot of heartbreak.
OCTOBER:
- Be sure that their Letters of Recommendation are input.
- Check that transcripts and any test submissions by school are loaded.
- Upload the Personal Essay – be sure to preview all essays in the Common App as the formatting can make them wonky.
- Upload supplemental essays (and preview!
- Proofread all submission materials. Be absolutely certain that if you mention a school by name, it’s for the right school.
Tip! Submit well before the deadline just in case you discover you’ve missed an important detail. For November 1st applications, I suggest ‘pretending’ that October 15th is the deadline. Not only will you be able to rest easy knowing you’re not scrambling, you’ll avoid glitches with the software that can sometimes happen as thousands of students upload on the last day.
NOVEMBER TIPS:
-
- Give your child a breather if they’ve submitted a mountain of application work on November 1st. They’re exhausted, emotionally spent, might be behind on school work, and probably haven’t had real fun in ages.
- But . . . they can’t rest for so long that they’re burning the midnight oil on December 31st either. Have a talk with them and agree on a ‘breathing period’. Ex: No college work or talk for 7 days. Then, they get back on the horse.
- Set the goal that all application work for regular deadline schools will be complete and loaded into the portal BEFORE early decisions are released. Why? If they wait to hear back from an ED school, and the decision doesn’t go their way, writing essays about how amazing they are when their confidence is shot doesn’t set them up for success.
And let me leave you with what I hope is some peace of mind . . . it’s ok if your student wants nothing to do with the college process until summer is over (that would make them just like most kiddos). Yes, their Fall will be a little busier, and you might find their stress level a little higher — but with your guidance, patience and love, it will all get done.
I hope this has been helpful! If your child’s counselor suggests a slightly different schedule – at least you have this high level view of the tasks your child needs to complete.
If you received this article from a friend and would like to Book a free consult with me, I’d be happy to answer any questions on the college going process.
