The College Application Timeline

Nowadays there are many moving pieces to the college application process. Students can easily drop the ball if they do not know what to do and when. Every college and university has its own specific application requirements and each high school manages the application process differently.
At one college, you may have three essays to write, only send your highest test scores, submit two letters of recommendation, and have an application deadline of October 15. At another school, you may have one additional essay along with submitting all of your test scores, one letter of recommendation, and an application deadline of December 1, if you want to be considered for scholarships. Some colleges want you to send your scores officially from your testing account while others want you to self-report the scores on the application. Certain colleges will allow you to upload a resume, but most only want to list ten activities directly on your application.
Some schools only want students to submit the FAFSA while others require students to submit both the FAFSA and CSS Profile for financial aid. In terms of scholarships, you will see scholarship deadlines in September while others will be in March. Some scholarships will require one essay and two letters of recommendation from teachers while others may require multiple essays and a letter from a teacher and another from an extracurricular activity.
As you can see, this process can easily become complicated. It is important to understand each piece of the process and make sure you develop a way to stay organized and on top of each of the application requirements.
Some of the important pieces you need to be aware of include…
  • How are high school transcripts and letters recommendation sent to colleges and when
  • When to start researching and applying to scholarships
  • How to report your official test scores to colleges
  • When to write the college application essays
  • When to interview with colleges
  • How many essays will I write per college
  • When to request letters of recommendation
  • When to finalize the college list and why it is so important to finalize it early
  • How and when to network with colleges to enhance your application
  • When is the last ACT or SAT to take prior to applying to colleges
  • When to apply for financial aid
  • When to expect application decisions to roll in
  • Important dates to remember along the way
In order to understand the timeline and all of the components of the application process, I have created an online course that takes you to step by step through each important piece of the US college application process.
Course: The College Application Timeline (worth $29, sale $19)
In this pre-recorded video course, we walk through the application process step by step and you will discover…
  • The key components of college applications
  • The pieces of the process that you should be most focused on
  • A month by month to-do list in order to stay on top of every aspect of the process
  • Important takeaways to help manage your process
This video is roughly 50-minutes long and you can stop and come back to it anytime. You will receive handouts that include a step by step timeline as well as a recommended application and scholarship spreadsheet template in order to help you stay organized and remember all of the pieces.
To sign up for the course, please go here.
Location: United States

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