<p>Im a junior right now. when should I start working on apps (i.e. essay and stuff)?</p>
<p>Is there anything that you wish you knew when you were applying to college?</p>
<p>I would start working on it this upcoming.
This most stressful part I thought was essay writing. I wish I had finished them in the summer so I didn’t have to worry about them during the school year, when I had other homework to think about.
Hope this helped:)</p>
<p>Have a sit down with your parents on what they envision is a financially viable circumstance for you (without taking tens of thousands in loans). From this jumping off point, start accumulating a list of target schools based on what will be important to you.</p>
<p>size of college
strength of academic depts
region of country
sports, social scene, culture
urban? suburban? rural?
diversity
etc.</p>
<p>Here’s what I’ve been advising my friends who have children who are current juniors (I have one too) …</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Starting thinking about what you “want” in a college. As T26E4 said - size, geographic location, big city vs small town. When you start thinking about your academic interests be flexible. My older son’s “preferred” major is not offered at many schools, but he realized there was a workable alternative (a BS plus a minor) and he looked for schools that could offer that combination. Also - what are you interested in? DS#1 wants a school with a strong marching band program. DS#2 could care less about football, but wants a golf team that he has a shot of making.</p></li>
<li><p>Start putting together a resume of activities and awards. At this point, make it comprehensive - going back to Middle School if it’s relevant - listing everything you can possibly think of. My son found it easier to do this by taking one year at a time (8th grade, 9th grade, 10th grade, etc). Later, he used this to create a 1 page resume that only hit the highlights and categorized things (school history, activities, honors/awards, work experience, etc).</p></li>
<li><p>If you have some idea of what colleges you’re interested in - take a look at their applications for this year to get an idea of what you will need. Do you need letter’s of recommendation? Do you need SAT II tests? And most importantly - take a look at the essay topics. They might change a little from year to year, but probably not much. My son created a Word document that had all the essay/short answer topics from each of his schools. He was then able to see similarities between questions/topics and that helped him decide what to write his essays on. He has 3 basic essays that he has just “tweaked” depending on the specific question - or length limitations.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Good luck!</p>