<p>Wow! I'll be preparing and submitting my college apps THIS YEAR. I thought high school was dragging so much that this would never come, but it's this year (albeit this fall, but still). I'm excited and terrified at the same time. I really love the list of colleges I would like to apply to. I just hope my testing this spring goes well so I can actually get into my first choice school (fingers crossed!), along with some safeties/matches that might offer good aid. Anyone else here (class of 2015, primarily) having the same thoughts? Chime in at will.</p>
<p>Ever since the new year, my mom’s been terrifying me with “Ohmigosh you’re going off to college next year!!!” But yeah, the whole process of college apps just seems so daunting. I’m not going to apply to 30 schools or anything, but still, I have to really develop my essays until I sound intelligent but still “me,” and that freaks me out. Also, if I was to apply now, I’d have basically no honors or awards outside of school, so I’m basically relying on 2nd semester junior year to win a bunch of stuff. I basically know where I want to apply, but most of them are reach schools (if I don’t get into one of them, I’ll go to a UC). I’m excited for and dreading college decisions at the same time b/c there’s almost no way I’m getting into my top choice…</p>
<p>I just finished applying to all of my colleges last week! (Sorry, class of 2014, hope im not intruding). Thinking about all this in junior year made me really scared, but once you actually get to it and start filling out the Common app and everything, it gets fun, at least for me it did 
Guys, just started getting on your college essays as soon as summer hits, or even before. I bet you already know that haha. So many of my friends decided to work on their essays until the last HOUR before the deadline closed and it was a mess.</p>
<p>Kitten23, that’s really awesome that you love your list of schools. There’s nothing worse than wasting your time paying for applications and painstakingly writing essays for schools you don’t even want to attend.</p>
<p>Good luck guys! and don’t rule out possibilities yet, still got 2nd semester and another summer!</p>
<p>@chihalim, The fun parts for me were the short answers. I liked Stanford and Princeton’s.</p>
<p>No, you’ll also be applying next year. Just trust me.</p>
<p>You don’t have to do your essays super early–but make absolutely sure you submit a good two or three days before the deadline. Common App crashed on October 15th, November 1st, and January 1st. Around each major deadline, things got bad–information disappeared, sections were not marked as completed, etc. I avoided it all and slept through the biggest crash because I submitted the apps with a January 1st deadline on December 28th.</p>
<p>On a similar note, ask teachers for recs early. One of my teachers had serious problems uploading his letter to common app, as did my counselor–it was not pretty. But this all occurred in September/October, so there wasn’t a rush to get stuff in.</p>
<p>“Don’t wait until the last minute” is what every current senior would tell you, I suppose.</p>
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<p>Nah, it totally depends on the person. I’m used to not finishing before the deadline and not getting stressed out. Some people are Type A and want to get everything done a month in advance. Whatever works for you. Also, every time the Common App crashed, the deadline got extended. That’s at least 24 hours more time to work on the essays, and sometimes even up to a week. Don’t worry about LORs not being on time. YOUR part of the app is due by the deadline; the rest can trickle in later.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, if you can handle working last-minute and if that’s what you’re used to then by all means do that. I just know that most of my friends were panicking and causing themselves a lot of stress.</p>
<p>That said, common app will probably be better next year. Hopefully they’ll have learned from their experiences this year.</p>
<p>I can’t ( or rather, don’t want to) do everything last minute. Heck, I have had all the supplement essays for one of the colleges on my list since the fall of my junior year. I get bored and I write. </p>
<p>-Oh, and students outside of the class of 2015 are welcome to reply as well (no chihalim, you are not intruding- actually comments from people who have already done this might be helpful). Sorry if I made it sound like you weren’t welcome.</p>
<p>I really can’t stress enough that you should start earlier rather than later. I’m a chronic procrastinator and it had never hurt me before, but it did this time. I put off writing my essays as long as I could and ended up needing to rush through them at the end and I sincerely believe that’s the single most important reason that I didn’t into the college I wanted to. Don’t start yet, but as soon as summer starts you should be trying to write essays.</p>
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<p>Alas, this is the truth.</p>
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<p>Can confirm, still writing endless scholarship essays.</p>
<p>@repede-Yes, I probably will submit some college apps next year (along with numerous scholarship apps) for colleges that don’t offer an EA program.</p>