<p>I am a junior in college and I just would like to know how early can you apply?</p>
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<li>summer?</li>
<li>as aoon as I become a senior (first day of school)?</li>
</ul>
<p>You need to go to the websites of the school’s you’re interested and see what kind of materials are required for application. Some may require materials that aren’t ready on the first day of school. You’ll definitely need teacher recommendations and a guidance counselor recommendation, so you won’t be able to finish applying over the summer unless you get those before school ends this year (keep in mind you may want to wait until you’re a senior, in case you want a senior year teacher to recommend you). You will also need financial documents (assuming you’re applying for financial aid) that can take a while to gather. </p>
<p>If you’re applying online through the common app, you can check their website to see when they’re taking applications for your year.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that unless you are applying early decision or your chosen school has rolling admission, turning in your application several months early won’t get you a response any faster. You’ll still have to wait until they mail out the decisions following the official deadline. It’s good to not wait until the absolute last day, in case there are problems or lost papers or something, but turning in an app in July won’t have any noticeable repercussions in most cases.</p>
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<p>I’m guessing you meant to say you were a junior in high school.</p>
<p>You need to check the colleges. Some applications for rolling admission schools become available in the summer before your senior year. Most others will be available by the time your senior year begins…some earlier than that.</p>
<p>Yeah, it depends on the school. Most public colleges do not require recommendations from teachers or counselors. As Thumper said some of those applications are available during the summer between junior and senior high school years, many others by the beginning of fall term.</p>
<p>For private schools that require recommendations, you’ll probably want to time that a little later – like mid-way during fall of your senior term. My son, though, when he applied in his senior year, made sure to get his requests for recommendation letters into his teachers at the beginning of the term.</p>
<p>You may wish to start working on your essays and personal statement as well as a resume to let your folks writing letters of recommendation know more about you. You can start all of these now and amend them over the summer. </p>
<p>You may wish to start reviewing some of the books that talk about different college app essays to figure out what you’d like to say and how you’d like to present it.</p>
<p>You can also start thinking of which instructors know you best a
nd start approaching them about whether they are willing to write your letters of recommendation (most schools only want two). S found it helpful to have the physics teacher whom he had for both junior & senior year AP physics write one of his letters (he was applying for engineering). Not sure who wrote his other letter.</p>
<p>Depends on where you are applying - I work at a public university and we are already admitting students for Fall 2012. We do not require essays/recommendations.</p>
<p>The common application comes out Aug. 1 for next year. If I remember, the site was shut down for some days before this. Go to commonapp.org to find out what schools are members and look at this year’s to see what to expect. Many schools will have a supplement also.</p>
<p>One thing we learned: a teacher can attach their letter of rec directly to it if you wish it to go to all schools applied to. Our school is not very automated and the GC didn’t know this. The teacher told us and did it herself. One less thing to worry about.</p>
<p>You can work on your essays anytime. UW applications are available Sept 1st each year- this means you can’t send in the electronic form before then. Of course other forms- transcript/teacher recommendations et al are likely to be submitted later by your HS. Basically this means you can look at a schools’ prior year’s application form now, work on essays and other materials over summer vacation (with the assumption they won’t vary much from year to year) and be ready to submit them when allowed- usually the fall of senior year. You need to check with each school you are interested in- find out if they use the common app or have their own, plus the date apps are accepted. </p>
<p>Of course, there will be the students like my son who figure the time and date due- plus the time zone for the school- and push the send button with minutes to spare.</p>
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<p>Yes, if lialee really does apply nice and early, he/she will save his/hear parents a while lot of stress! ;-)</p>
<p>@college_query what school??</p>
<p>… thanks everyone</p>