My oldest is graduating 2018 and has been working on his essays and narrowing down his college list. He wants to knock out as much as possible in the next month before senior year starts up. I have several questions about the application process.
Should he go ahead and start the applications as they open (some as early as July 1 and August 1) even though he doesn’t have all of the supporting documents ready?
I just downloaded his junior year transcript from Parchment and see that there is a grade missing for a dual credit class he took spring semester (the class is listed but not the grade). I’m not sure how important this detail is? I also don’t know how soon it can be corrected since the school office is closed for the summer.
His counselor won’t be back on contract until the last week of July and will likely be busy with scheduling so I doubt completing his recs or SSR will be an immediate priority.
His teacher recs are not done but he has 2-3 teachers in mind that he is planning to approach when school starts in August. I’m not sure how long they will take since they will be busy getting the school year started. He does have their school emails and has considered emailing them now but some may not even check email in the summer and he also doesn’t want to burden them during their time off. I had suggested he talk to them before school let out, but that didn’t happen 
He also plans to take SAT Subject tests in August, so those scores won’t be in until September. Should he wait and send all scores together in September or would it be weird to apply early and not submit scores until later? We have thought we should go ahead and send his SATs and then Subject tests later (more $ but other than that, that seems wise…especially since most of his colleges don’t require subject tests). He is only taking them to strengthen his profile for scholarships as he thinks he can get an 800 on Math 2 (got 800 on Math portion of SAT and got 100 in his PreAP Pre-Calc class junior year) and possibly do well on Biology.
And finally, he has started his essays but they are not ready to submit.
SO, how does this application process work? Do you submit pieces as they become available or do you create a working document and then submit when it is complete?
Thank you SO much for your help. I thought we were on the ball with the admissions process, having completed our visits and narrowed down his choices…but suddenly I feel like we are behind. And it doesn’t help that my senior has a bit of summer fever and is tired of me talking about college and asking him daily about the essays 