Are your seniors working on college applications, but not actually submitting them until after the school year starts? My twins won’t find out what classes they’re in for another three weeks. All of the applications we’ve looked at want them to list what classes they will be taking for both semesters of their senior year.
Also, are your kids sending recommendation requests to teachers and counselors now, or waiting until school starts? I’m wondering if it would upset the teachers and counselor to receive them now, during their last couple of weeks of summer.
D18 asked the teachers that she wants to write recommendation letters before the end of last school year to give them a heads up and find out what their preferences were. Her counselor instructed her to work on a resume, which she hasn’t completed yet (it will be done before the start of the school year).
My recommendation would be to have your twins reach out to their teaches if they haven’t done so already, ask if they are willing to write the recommendation letters, and how much lead time they need. I think a teacher would be more upset with last-minute requests than they would for a student asking for a recommendation in the summer (easily two months ahead of most Early Acceptance deadlines).
Having been through the process, my 2 cents:
I started on the Common App over the summer, but did not submit them until closer to the due date. At few schools is there any advantage to applying early other than the breath of relief for getting it off my plate. So any last minute changes to courses, additional awards, updated test scores, etc. can be updated.
I’m personally of the opinion that requests for recs should be handled in person. So if they were not asked for at the end of junior year (which is water under the bridge now), I would wait until school starts (but very soon after school starts). The student should also provide an info/brag sheet to the teacher which the teacher may want to discuss with the student in more depth (examples can be found online, if the school does not have a template).
It’s not a matter of them being upset. It’s more that they are on vacation, and unless the school/district/union requires otherwise, they may not check their work email.