<h1>1 tip: craft your perfect list: make sure you LOVE every school on that list, from reaches to safeties.</h1>
<h1>2: start early. Fill out your apps over summer, work on your essays, turn them all in by November.</h1>
<h1>3: pick your favorite school and do Early Decision/Action there.</h1>
<p>GET SATS OVER WITH BY JUNIOR YEAR!!!!!</p>
<p>I wasted October and November studying for the SAT and SAT IIs instead of spending valuable time writing essays.</p>
<p>Thus, I am online at 4 am of Dec. 31, finishing up my supplements.</p>
<p>Start early.</p>
<p>Start taking your SATs in the beginning of your junior year and take them every other month...</p>
<p>do extensive research about schools starting now. you'll feel much more confident come the time you actually apply if you've looked into all your options and can assure yourself you don't need to apply to random schools last minute. </p>
<p>don't limit yourself, but don't be afraid to identify a criterion to rule out a lot of schools. personally, i wanted warm weather. this eliminated a ton of schools and made the process much less overwhelming. </p>
<p>definitely get your standardized tests out of the way as soon as possible. and definitely take both the SAT and ACT. </p>
<p>also, look into SAT subject tests NOW. i know several people who realized at the beginning of senior year that they wanted to apply to schools that required subject tests. it adds a lot of stress and it limits your options because it's been longer since you've taken relevant courses.</p>
<p>find schools with early action/rolling and if you can afford it, i'd even suggest early decision. my top choice admitted me/gave me a scholarship by late november and it feels SO nice to not be worrying anymore.</p>
<p>Don't procrastinate like me.... AHHHHAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH</p>
<p>I'd suggest finish all you SAT stuff junior year. I was glad I got my best score junior year. Senior year is too stressful to be worrying about studying for other tests. </p>
<p>Start essays early. Write them, let them sit, then go back a little later and edit. Essays are so important. I'm crammimg right now to get all of mine done.</p>
<p>ALWAYS have someone read over your essay before you send it. Even if they are just looking for grammer mistakes. Sometimes you work on an essay so much that it makes sense to you, but by the time you're finished, you don't see the mistakes.</p>
<p>This may be different from other people, but I feel like I started the search too early. I started visiting schools in Feb of my junior year. What I thought I wanted then is completely different from what I want now. My list is almost all different. Just be open-minded and realistic about you choices. Money is a big problem for me. If it is for you, sit down and talk to your parents and see where you stand.</p>
<p>Be open-minded and don' always go for the school for their name. There are so many great schools that people don't consider.</p>
<p>Enjoy senior year, it goes by fast!</p>
<p>One thing that I've heard more than a few seniors/college kids complain about: before you submit or even start your application, make sure you know what you're putting on there. Make an extensive list of all your clubs/leadership positions/awards so that afterward, you won't be groaning about forgetting to put down you're an INTEL winner or something.</p>
<p>And something I learned: don't worry, things can change. I spent more time worrying about which major to put down (I was between 2) than I did actually filling out the application. For a rolling admission school, that's BAD. (Granted, I still got it in early August -- start early!!) You can always change a major later, or update your SAT scores once they're in if you test late.</p>
<p>Start early, and whatever you do, DON'T MAKE YOUR TOP CHOICE YOUR FIRST APPLICATION!!! I made this mistake, and wow do I regret it. My first application was such a mess in comparison to the perfectly crafted one I am sending out to schools now. Complete as many EA/rolling apps as you can-- besides the fact that you'll be getting them out of the way, it will give you necessary experience with the process and will make the rest of your applications so much easier. Plus, I was so pleased with the supplemental essay I wrote in November that I ended up using it as my Common App essay-- this was very useful in the long run.</p>
<p>Make a schedule for yourself, as well as a chart of deadlines and such for all of your applications.... and actually stick to it.</p>
<p>PRINT OUT PAPER COPIES BEFORE YOU HIT "SUBMIT" - it makes it so much easier to spot stupid errors in your essays, activities list, etc.</p>
<p>Don't <em>not</em> apply somewhere because you're just plain sick of writing essays. Think about how you'll feel in a few months when acceptances are rolling out-- you'll be kicking yourself for not giving yourself more options, out of sheer lazyness.</p>
<p>If you've read through a few of these posts, you'll notice a theme: the most obvious but arguably most important tip is, "Don't procrastinate!!!"</p>
<p>Yep, early does a lot for you, in particular gets you ahead of the pack relative to requests to teachers an GC's - who are often over worked, see article on cc.</p>
<p>yeah -- if possible, ask your teachers to write recommendations BEFORE going on summer break. </p>
<p>I think it is very much appreciated, even if they are not going to write the rec until this year.</p>
<p>Of course, that assumes you are asking teachers you have already had rather than senior year teachers...</p>
<p>but especially if you are applying early, ask EARLY</p>
<p>and its nice if you get an envelope or something to put all the forms in, and write the name of the school on the corner of each envelope (since not all addresses have all the college names) as well as on top of each form. Putting the due date on either the form or the envelope is also nice.</p>
<p>This may seem like a silly piece of advice, but getting those forms ready takes serious time, so I would suggest:</p>
<p>a. printing out 1 form from the common app, and then filling in/signing everything, and making photo copies. Some of the info should automatically print out, but even just the signature takes time.</p>
<p>b. make labels on your computer if possible. I didn't do this, but I had a friend who did, and I think it's really smart. You can make some for your teachers as return address labels, and then make a sheet with some for each college - you don't even have to type the whole address, you can just copy and paste from the college info section of the common app website...it will save you serious hand cramps.</p>
<p>Also, for SSRs and teacher rec forms, better to give too many than too few. So if you're on the fence about a school, give them the form. You can tell them they don't have to send it later, but its better to do that than add many additional ones at the last minute.</p>
<p>Also, start this now</p>
<p>Keep a little notebook by your bed, and every day before you fall asleep, or before you get out of bed, whatever floats your boat, anyway, write a topic sentence/thesis statement for a college essay in there every day. Just to practice and get ideas.</p>
<p>No matter how late in the game you're submitting an essay, never ever hit "submit" right after finishing the last sentence. Instead, sleep on it and look at it in the morning. You'll notice all these things that you were too tired to see the night before.</p>
<p>START ON YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT NOW!
Be proactive about your future >_></p>
<p>Make sure you figure out exactly everything you need to do and all the documentation you need well in advance of the deadlines. </p>
<p>Don't wait until the last minute. </p>
<p>Do as many activities that you care about as you can.</p>
<p>Junior Year:
In general, get to know your college counselor and visit as many colleges as you can.
March- Take the SATs
April- Take the ACTs
May- Take the SATs again, regardless of the original score. Ask teachers for recommendations now so they have the entire summer to write it.
June- Take the SAT IIs. They are not always required, but they are always better to have if you do well
July- Start the CommonApp. It isn't difficult to fill out the basic information. Start your personal statement</p>
<p>Senior Year-
September- meet with teachers to finalize your personal statement. Finalize your list with a good balance of safeties, matches, and reaches. Make sure your foundations are places you will be happy, not just places you can get into. Take ACTs again, if necessary
October- finish all Rolling and EA/ED applications. It's better to get applications in early than right before the deadline. Take the SATs again if necessary
November- Relax, start working on RD application.
December- Hear from colleges; if necessary finish RD application
January- After apps are in, buy small gifts and thankyou letters for teachers who recs and college counselors</p>
<p>Make sure you're participating in extracurricular activities that you LIKE and are active in; don't engage yourself in councils and clubs just to look good on a resume, because it doesn't. Care--but do not obsess--about grades. Begin your app. preparation early, as everyone already said, because senior year will be super-busy and hectic.</p>
<p>I definately have more than just one piece of advice for this process.</p>
<p>1.) Study for and take the SAT early. I put it off until May and then I was scrambling to study for 3 AP tests and the SAT. </p>
<p>2.) If your school doesn't offer many AP's (like mine), think about studying for a few on your own. Start studying a few months before and don't do what I did which was study for all of them a month before the test.</p>
<p>3.) Begin the common app in July or August and get it done, particularly the essay. Once you get the common app essay out of the way it will make your life so much easier. </p>
<p>4.) Do your supplements. I found that the best way to get them done was do them one at a time and as soon as you finish editing and revising, just submit it. Mentally, it was satisfying to me to methodically go through each school and submit everything before moving on to another. I don't like to have three essays going at the same time.</p>
<p>5.) Apply to EA schools. DO IT.</p>
<p>Don't do stuff that you don't want to do. Relax--it doesn't have to be a game.</p>
<p>My advice is: Delete your account on this website and finish your applications. After you're done, you can come back on here and troll your heart out. It's really fun.</p>