Remember: You should be talking with your parents throughout this entire process! You should also be actively researching various college options on an ongoing basis. This calendar is designed to give you general direction regarding what happens, and when.
Early Fall (September-October)
- Narrow your list of colleges to the final ones to which you plan to apply. Meet with your school counselor and/or a college advisor as much as necessary.
- Make a file for each college application (or buy an accordion file for all of them).
- Meet with college representatives at your high school to ask questions and collect materials. Present yourself well by learning basic information before talking to college representatives.
- Send applications to any state universities you are considering that operate on a rolling admission basis. Be sure to make copies of everything you send.
- Register for SAT I, ACT, and/or SAT II: Subject Tests. Sign up to take the specific tests required or recommended by each of your college choices.
- Register with the College Board Profile (financial aid) if required by the colleges to which you plan to apply.
- Choose teachers who know you well to write recommendations. Ask them early to write on your behalf and give them required forms as well as an envelope in a packet so that all recommendations can be processed and mailed at the same time.
- If you plan to apply under an Early Decision or Early Action plans, fill in your name and other information on the institution's Secondary School Report form and submit it to your school counselor no later than mid-October.
- If possible, use Fall Break to make college trips. Make appointments well in advance.
Late Fall (November-December)
- Meet deadlines for an Early Decision or Early Action application, if applicable to you.
- Request that the College Board or ACT officially notify each college to which you apply of SAT I, SAT II: Subject Test, or ACT scores.
- Meet with your school counselor and/or college advisor again to confirm that your final college list is balanced and fills your requirements.
- Carefully fill out applications. Admission officers find handwritten or typewritten applications equally acceptable if handwriting is clear, but essays should be completed using a word-processing program unless the application specifically indicates otherwise.
- Do your best on semester examinations. First semester grades are mailed to colleges to which you have applied.
- Send all applications with early January deadlines BEFORE the holiday break! Do not wait until the last minute and expect your counselor to write recommendations and complete Secondary School Reports.
Winter/Early Spring (January-April)
- Inform your school counselor if a college notifies you of a request for additional material. Most often, all materials have been sent and there has been a delay in the mail, but your school counselor can call to make sure everything is complete. Because colleges are often swamped with mail, a form believed missing may be there but not yet be opened, filed, or logged on a computer.
- Fill out and submit the CSS Profile, FAFSA, or other needed financial aid forms as soon as possible after January 1. These forms require data from your and your parents' federal tax returns for the calendar year prior to your year of graduation.
- Complete all scholarship applications for which you are eligible. Your school counselor or college advisor will have a list of scholarships and the criteria for eligibility, and you can also use online scholarship searches.
- By April 15, you should have heard from all colleges to which you applied. Use the following two weeks to make a final decision. Notify, in writing, all colleges that admitted you whether you will enroll.
- If you decide not to attend a college that accepts you, promptly notify the college so that it can offer admission to another candidate.
- If possible, attend Open Houses for all schools to which you've been accepted. This will allow you to meet other accepted freshman and help clarify your decision about which college to attend.
- Notify a college immediately if you wish to remain on its wait list. Make sure that your counselor knows of and has a chance to talk with you about your wait-list status. Protect yourself by enrolling somewhere else if you decide to stay on a wait list.
Late Spring (May)
- A non-refundable enrollment deposit is due at the college of your choice on or before May 1. If you miss the deadline, an offer of admission may be withdrawn. Do not "double deposit" (commit to enroll at two institutions); this unethical practice damages your reputation and may result in your being denied admission at both institutions.
- If a wait-list school that you want to attend accepts you, send it a deposit and withdraw immediately from the school where you first deposited.
- Tell your school counselor in writing where you decide to go to college so that a copy of your final transcript can be sent. Complete your school's forms listing all scholarship awards you've been offered and which ones you've accepted.
- Register for the Orientation Program at the college you'll be attending in the fall.
Rejoice! You made it!
