<p>For Fall, 2006, when can students expect to find them online?</p>
<p>Univ of Michigan should be out in early August.</p>
<p>We (at UVA) "go live" in mid August, but post the essay questions on our website by the end of June. I hope the students get the subtle message there. If they want to get started in the summer, they should work on the essays.</p>
<p>Elon has already sent out their paper application, and the on-line version will be available June 1. I thought that was insane.</p>
<p>thanks for the reminder about working ahead on essays....</p>
<p>The next 6-7 months are going to fly by.....</p>
<p>About the essays. I talked to a parent who said her child was advised by an English teacher to not write the essays until the fall so as to not waste time writing essays for schools that the student would not apply to. Won't that be too late?</p>
<p>are there colleges who take applications before fall? ( besides rolling)</p>
<p>The common application is pretty much the same year-to-year. The essay choices should remain exactly the same. Anyway, they're very generic. And one of them is "topic of your choice."</p>
<p>where can see the common applications?thanks!</p>
<p>Emeraldkity4, a number of colleges take applications as early as August, which is when a number HS start classes. An early application can be a great thing to do at a school that has rolling admissions, like a state U. There's no better morale boost than to have an acceptance under one's belt, IMHO, before tackling the "tough" ones.</p>
<p>Regarding applications, if you/your kid expressed interest in a school by visiting, sitting in on a recruiting session at HS, contacting for information etc., and gave the college your contact info, you can expect to start seeing applications in the mail as early as July, if our past experience holds. </p>
<p>I suspect the timing of the form availability is driven mostly by response factors: colleges know (probably through consultants) that sending materials out too early negatively affects responses. Same with too late.</p>
<p>None of this stuff is random, but the timing will vary for each college, due to factors of response, staff availability (you can bet that when stuff goes out, the phones begin to ring. If staff is on vacation, not good!).</p>
<p>MrsP,</p>
<p>At many top HS, classtime is put into essay prep, workshops are held, and student self help groups form. And teachers are available for help. All this argues for putting off serious essay writing until school begins. At many schools, that's August, BTW.</p>
<p>for happyjane -- all you have to do is a quick google search:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.commonapp.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.commonapp.org/</a></p>
<p>The timing of the release for us is due to how long it takes to get things back from the printer (for the paper app) and get all the edits to the online app/databases done.</p>
<p>I usually aim to be testing the online app system in late July/early August so that we can go live on Aug. 15th. Sometimes, we make that target date, sometimes, we're a few days late.</p>
<p>Some schools probably keep their apps the same from year to year, which might not affect when they can go live.</p>
<p>my D has received some applications in the mail already, at least 4, but can't remember which schools</p>
<p>freakin us out cause now it isn't just conjecture, its real...</p>
<p>On the topic of when to write essays, I'm going to remember the old days: A few months ago, I was with a group of college friends and we were discussing our college applications. At least two of them wrote no first draft of their essay -- they sat down to fill out the application, got to the essays and just started filling in the space in the form. These were Ivy applications, by the way.</p>
<p>How times have changed. I wonder if any kids still do it that way?</p>
<p>I'm going to suggest that my daughter think about her essays this summer, and start drafting them. I am not, however, planning on sending her to the college essay writing boot camp that the Wall Street Journal wrote about last summer. </p>
<p>I know that Northwestern has already announced its essay topics for next year's applicants.</p>
<p>The essays should come from the heart, not sound like someone else wrote them. I'm not sure it's even a good idea to write them in English class.</p>
<p>Essay should be a part of the strategy and therefore I would advice on on doing most preliminary work during the summer. Senior year is tough with EC commitments, AP classes etc. Essays are very important component for many schools which allows to show student's best/deeper qualities beyond numbers. Common application is about the same year after year and students can save themselves lots of anxiety if they do prep work early on.
Besides some colleges like Knox have priority application/deadline Nov 1/ where they not only give you answer in 2 weeks but waive you appl fee.
Having acceptance early is just about best thing to have during your senior year.</p>
<p>ek:</p>
<p>Wake Forest has an ED program by appling in the summer, and decision in ~6 weeks.</p>