Whens the best time to start your applications? I’m thinking of starting them after my next batch of visits in late July.
That sounds like a great idea, since everything will be fresh in your mind and you can use excitement over the trip to help motivate you.
The applications technically open up on August 1 but you can/should start thinking about your common app essays now. For EA, you want to finish everything by Mid October so you have time to send in all your transcripts, SAT score reports etc.
For RD, I suggest you finish by the beginning of December
- Because to avoid the holiday season
- So that even if you get deferred/rejected in the early round, your mental state won’t affect the quality of your applications as you have already finished them.