<p>I'm currently a freshman in high school but I'm graduating a year early. Could anyone give me some tips on when to start thinking about applications, essay, scholarships, FASFA, other types of financial aid, ACT and SAT, and making an official list as to what colleges I'm applying to? Anything related to that will be fine. If you can, please include ED and EA.</p>
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<p>The most qualified and useful person is your school guid counselor.</p>
<p>I go to a huge pubic school and they’re really busy right now with the seniors, but I’ll make sure to talk to them when it’s a less busy time of year. Not to mention my guidance counselor isn’t a very good counselor… so I was hoping for some input from here?</p>
<p>Freshman year + most of sophomore year. Get great grades, get great grades, get great grades! Take the PSAT soph year once you get your scores back try taking act/sat for the first time in may. Summer junior year start thinking about what colleges you might like start making a list-far and wide to any and all schools you might be interested in based on that first act/sat- take hard classes junior year and get great grades take PSAT in October, do well. Start applying to outside scholarships if you want. Take the act/sat again in the late spring. Start talking numbers with parents, visiting schools, whittling down the list. Senior year:final sat/act needs to be taken(or if eailier score was good enough no need). Establish final list of schools and start applications early-essays recommendations ect-. Look for local scholarships. Apply… Get accepted to your dream school, go.
I probably missed something but that is a good progression</p>
<p>Totally missed the graduating early part. Just take out the part about freshman year. You are really a sophomore then-sort of-.</p>
<p>You should probably be aware of how the college application process works starting freshman year. But there’s no reason to use a considerable amount of time doing research and such until (at the earliest) late sophomore year. (just my opinion)</p>
<p>Two years before you graduate (equivalent of your junior year), do the following:
- Get a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges and figure out some colleges you might be interested in.
- Discuss finances with your parents and run the net price calculator at the colleges you are interested in. Don’t apply where your family definitely can’t afford it.
- Visit colleges you are interested in. You can start summer before that year if you want. Weave visits in with any family trips you are already taking. Visiting is good if possible, you will knock some right off your list that you thought looked good on paper.
- Don’t just focus on reach colleges (low acceptance rates, requires high stats). It is harder to find match & safety colleges you really would want to attend, so spend a lot of time on those.
- Figure out what tests you want to take (SAT or ACT) and whether any of your colleges require SAT subject tests. I suggest taking the SAT or ACT right after Christmas (first offered date). You have a semester of jr. year classes under your belt, but you have time for a retake if you don’t like your score. But my suggestion is study BEFORE the first time you take it, maybe you can skip the second one. If you need a retake, do that on one of the spring dates.
- If you need SAT subject tests, take those at one of the spring SAT dates. Not all tests are given on all dates (but of the ones offered, you can take up to 3 at one sitting). If you need to, you can retake one or two in the fall and still be done testing for ED/EA dates.
- Register early for your tests, the testing centers fill up. You don’t want to have to drive 2 hours to take the test to a center far away.
- Once you have your scores in the spring, then you can work on finalizing your college list.<br>
- I am not sure what you can or should do about the PSAT, since you intend to graduate early. At least take it your sophomore year (2nd year of high school) to get practice for the SAT. Ask your guidance counselor about this. If you truly have junior standing when you take it, maybe you would be considered for NMSC scholarships.</p>
<p>Your last year of high school:
- The Common App comes out in August. You can start then working on filling out the basic information and work on your essays. Find an adult who can help review your essays and provide feedback (could be a parent, English teacher, other relative).
- Work on a list of scholarships to apply for over the summer before senior year. BUT, keep your focus mostly on local scholarships and merit scholarships offered by the colleges where you are applying. You can spend a lot of time on other scholarships and come up empty, so be selective about how much time and effort you put into it. Keep track of the due dates for the scholarships you are applying for.
- Request teacher recommendations in the fall. Your guidance counselor can tell you how they want to handle those. If you can, get one from an humanities-type teacher and one from a science/math teacher. They just do one letter each, and then it can go to all your colleges. Ask early (Sept 30 at the latest), and tell them when your first application is due.
- The colleges release their supplements gradually through the fall. You can see the links on the common app. Start working on the supplements.
- Review the financial aid requirements on each school’s website. We made a spreadsheet of all the dates and forms because it was so complicated. Your parents will need to help with these. The CSS Profile (at schools that need it) might be due as early as November if you have a EA or ED school. The FAFSA is not available until January 1, and can be done at that time. You might have to provide updated info to the school when your parents file their taxes, but have them get the FAFSA done with estimates and turn it in shortly after 1/1 for the best shot at aid.
- Applications are due starting as early as October for some rolling admissions schools, and some due dates run as late as February or even March. Lots of them are right around 1/1 - 1/15, though. So start early and get ahead if you can. If you apply to rolling admission schools, apply early. You are more likely to get in early in the pool.
- You will hear back from schools on varying dates. But unless you apply ED, you have until May 1 to answer any of them.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for all of the input! I definitely have to check about the PSAT… honestly, this is all a HUGE help! By the way, thanks for the tip about spending more time on finding colleges that aren’t reach schools. By any chance do any of you know what to do about FASFA if your parents have stocks? They don’t get those reports (or whatever they’re called, I’m not completely sure) until around March.</p>