<p>When did YOU start working on your app?? what schools did you get into?</p>
<p>I know for the CommonApp you can't really start before july 1st anyway, right?</p>
<p>also, who should you ask to proofread your essays? how much time should you give them to edit them?</p>
<p>Completing the college applications really shouldn’t take that much time at all. Filling out your address and personal information, educational data, family information, and listing academic honors, extracurricular activities, and work experience should take at most an hour. It also doesn’t take much time to ask teachers for recommendation letters. The bulk of your time should be spent on the personal essay and the short-answer essay. Really, when you think about it, those are the only things that take a lot of time to do.</p>
<p>After you’ve written a draft of your personal essay, you should ask a close friend whom you know well and who you think would give good feedback to proofread your essay. You should just ask him/her to take a few minutes, read the essay, and ask whether the essay conveys part of who you are.</p>
<p>Mid August prior to start of senior year. Better to request recommendations before teachers are getting burdened with a bunch of requests. Most popular writers will get many requests. Good luck guys.</p>
<p>I was accepted ED to Oberlin and started working on my application in mid-July. Even though I only had one app, I was really glad I started over the summer - my senior year schedule was packed so once the school year started I didn’t need anything else on my to-do list. I had friends who were trying to finish 15 applications on top of a full courseload and it was NOT fun to watch.</p>
<p>As dchow08 said, the forms aren’t much work, especially if you’ve kept good records of your ECs and awards. But you should definitely write your essays over the summer, so you can really give them your full attention. Then once you get back to school, ask one or two people to proofread them for you: an English teacher you know, your GC, or your academic advisor if you have one. It’s also good to ask your parents and a friend or two.</p>
<p>And whatever you do, don’t be one of those kids who are writing their essays over Christmas break and submitting their applications at 11:59 PM on the night of the deadline.</p>
<p>Yes. You should also ask your guidance counselor or career center counselor about any organizations that can help students with college applications over the summer for free. Here in Seattle there’s something called the NELA Center for Student Success, which is a great resource. It has a summer program where you can work with someone on your applications over the summer. Looking back now, I really wish that I had done that over the summer. As quaere said, it really is not fun to stress over applications when you have a lot of stuff to worry about during senior year. </p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that colleges also make you fill out financial aid forms, which were a nightmare for me, because my family’s situation was really complicated, and my parent didn’t speak English well and didn’t really know much at all about their own assets. For example, my mom doesn’t have a clue how much she has for retirement, and it was a disaster for me. If there is anyone who can help you with those, that would be great too.</p>