<p>There is no reason to not get it started now. The preliminary app is online, you just can’t fill it out officially. The hardest part is the essay questions which are already listed.</p>
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<p>I would agree with that. But if a rising senior is really spending the summer doing nothing but sleeping in, watching TV and Facebook, then I would worry more about how that student is going to answer when a college application (or interviewer) asks: How did you spend the summer before senior year?</p>
<p>Where I am coming from is that last summer my rising senior spent seven weeks away from home related entirely to her extracurricular activities. She had no time to think about school, college, or applications. She got home exhausted, a week or so before school reopened for the fall. She spent that time doing the summer reading for her fall classes, but not thinking about college apps.</p>
<p>If your kids have the time and willingness to start working on college apps, all power to them. I was just trying to respond to OP who said:</p>
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<p>To which I say, yes, they will get done. Kids who are taking all those APs and doing those multiple ECs will find a way to get it done.</p>
<p>There’s always Christmas vacation.</p>
<p>Lots of senior are busy in the fall. And it IS very stressful! But the OP has an extra issue with the Saturday test date conflicts. That’s a tough one. </p>
<p>In our case son’s schedule didn’t allow for marching band (it’s a formal class). That turned out to be a blessing schedule-wise since he did many other music EC.</p>
<p>We went through this last fall and it was complicated by her summer job at an out of state sleepaway camp (which forced her to miss marching band camp). As soon as she came home, she had her AP summer HW to do and varsity sport practice. She wanted to make the danceline in the band and tried to learn the dance. To make matters worse, she got really sick (in bed for about 3 days) and also wanted to practice so she could pass her road test. I was intent on getting the college apps done early.</p>
<p>It was a good lesson and forced her to prioritize. AP HW got done before school started (barely). Then the varsity sport practice had to be fit in. We put the road test off until the sport was done. I looked at the weekend schedule for the fall and found the holes where she would do the college apps. We were able to chunk that down too. </p>
<p>The result? All league in her sport, road test passed and college apps in by the middle of October. She didn’t make the dance line (so she did color guard instead), but she just couldn’t do everything. And she is beyond excited about the college she is going to at the end of August.</p>
<p>I hope she learned something about prioritizing tasks and time-management during this process. Yes, she got stressed out thinking about all she had to get done, but I would remember her to take one thing at a time and focus on the task at hand so she could cross off her list. I hope she retains all of this as my days of having influence are coming to an end very quickly.</p>
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We need to be all done before Christmas Vacation. D must apply EA to her schools because that’s required for their merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Our small private hs takes the college deadline (say Dec 1), and makes THEIR deadline (for receiving all student’s forms, requests, paperwork, etc (except online apps)one month in advance.</p>
<p>Our goal is to have all our stuff completed, with appropriate pieces in to Guidance before Halloween.</p>
<p>^We went through the exact same situation last Fall. My son was a section leader in Marching Band and was taking 5 AP classes. It was stressful and I was also a project manager and support system for the APP process. Pick your graphic organizer of choice and start listing deadlines and requirements of your chosen app schools. My s did EA and had his apps in by October. He heard back from his #1 choice by Nov. 5th and the weight was lifted!!! </p>
<p>My s loved band for all 4 years despite all of those hot summer band camps and early morning practices. Remember that being in band for 4 years is a great EC…colleges love marching band kids because they know what a committment it is!! Your Halloween goal is a very good one. Tell your child that she will thank you for pushing and encouraging when they are all done. You’ll make it…we all did!!</p>
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<p>I would venture a guess that the vast majority of the thousands of colleges in the US accept students based on tests scores and GPA and not based on interviews. Plus, if a student has a precious week or two of down time between jobs, camps and early practices for their EC, would an interviewer really penalize her for that?</p>
<p>^^^Yes, both my kids chose state u’s. The apps. were online and very straightforward.
No interview type questions. Neither of mine ever did anything impressive during the summer. They worked a a local grocery store and had fun when not working.</p>
<p>S2 was a h.s. football player with all that entails on his plate, plus the gro. store job.
He did his state u. apps on line in Sept/early Oct. He had his admit letters before Christmas and we finally visited/toured after the holidays.</p>
<p>Something else that can be completed this summer if they don’t have one is to write up a resume. You can have one that is just a list, but then expand one in another file and give descriptions of activities, resonsibilities and accomplishments for activites. One file (probably the expanded one) should also include dates and time spent with each activity.</p>
<p>You will not believe how many times kids are asked for the same information. Especially if they are applying for scholarships as well. Having everything in one place where they can access it is great. The resume with explanations can also be used for application essays when they need to say something about an activity or volunteer experience.</p>
<p>^^This was an AP English Project last year and has been of great assistance on having dates right at hand. You also realize how much your kids do when it goes down on paper.</p>
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<p>True. And an even greater majority of students have not started working on apps in the summer. My point is that if the student has just a precious week or two of down time during the summer then that student would do well to relax and not feel compelled to work on college apps. Once again, great if kid wants to do it, but not if he/she thinks it is too early.</p>
<p>As for OP, based on prior posts her kid seems to be aiming very high.</p>
<p>BTW, jobs look great on these apps.</p>
<p>If you have a band director who is prohibiting kids from taking SATs in October because of competition schedules, I’d go straight to the principal or the school board. Priorities, people! Any coach or director who would not excuse kids in order to take the SAT should be fired. Any organization that would schedule a competition the morning of SATs needs to buy themselves a calendar and realize that they’re dealing with high school students. I’ve seen football games moved so that kids could take SAT’s. At our hs, the music department is very aware of SAT schedules, etc, and schedules themselves around it because they know there are a lot of smart kids in band and they want them to succeed.</p>
<p>Any band director who forbids a kid to miss a practice or competition because of SAT’s needs to have their head screwed back on straight by their Principal.</p>
<p>My daughter was happy to get some of the application work out of the way during the summer. When my rising junior son starts the application process, it will probably be some time within 24 hours of the applcation deadline.</p>
<p>Lafalum #33, I agree with you.</p>
<p>Also agree w/laf. Ds1’s coach tried to pull that, and the parents/kids told him where he could get off.</p>
<p>Our local public school has the band director from {fill it in}. When my daugther was a freshman, she was home sick from school vomiting and missed a concert. That AH made her write a 1000-word essay. If we hadn’t known DD was transfering schools, I would have made a big deal out of it, but it wasn’t worth it. He gives the kids zeroes if they miss parades or other things in the summer. Kids have missed state athletic meets. He is totally out of control. I, too, agree with Lafalum, but it is hard to do much when the band director plays golf with the principal.</p>
<p>“Any band director who forbids a kid to miss a practice or competition because of SAT’s needs to have their head screwed back on straight by their Principal.”</p>
<p>It happens every year. What I find interesting is that Band Directors would not be in these positions if the NATIONAL & STATE band programs would get a calendar. It’s all about the all mighty dollar. There are major qualifying competitions, one on the national level and one on the state level on SAT testing dates in October and November. Nice.</p>
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<p>One of our band director’s selling points for his program is that the top scholastic kids in the school often come from the band program. He doesn’t schedule anything on the October test date and asks that the students do as much of the SAT testing on that date if possible. </p>
<p>But then most college bound kids around here try to get most of the testing done in the March/May/June testing in junior year. That gives enough time to take the SAT twice, the ACT once and at least a couple of SAT subject tests. The testing in the fall is left for that one SAT subject test you might need. </p>
<p>Face it, the fall is busy enough with ECs, hard classes, and college apps.</p>
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agreed … but this raises issues for those with heavy spring time ECs … on both ends of the year the HS coaches/leaders should be supportive of students efforts to get into college.</p>