College Admissions Counseling Blog

Yes, seniors, it is already time to think about starting your college application for next year. I know you are still enjoying your summer vacation but the more you can get accomplished on your application, the better your senior year will go. And trust me on this, you will have many better things to do your senior year than work on your college application.

So what can you do to get your application going? If the colleges in which you are interested accept the commonapp, go to their website, register and start to fill out the general information portion of the form. Although most colleges don't have their supplemental applications available, most will have them available in the next few weeks. Moreover, many colleges don't change their supplemental applications much from year to year and by looking at last year's supplement, you can get a feel for what information they will want this year. If you can get most of your essays accomplished before school starts in the fall, you will be well ahead of the pack. If the college doesn't use the commonapp, go to the college's web site and see when they are posting this year's application. Most will tell you when it is available. Again, you can often look at last year's application to see what information will be required and what type of essay questions you might have to answer.

Now is the time to think about who you are going to ask to write your recommendations and what information would be helpful for them to have in writing your recommendation. Does your school offer interviews? If so, you should take advantage of this opportunity to better communicate to the college why they are a great match for you and to find out more information about the personalty of the college that you might be able to use on the essays. Interview times at many schools fill up completely, so now is the time to be arranging an interview.

If you have completed your SAT or ACT and have scores that you are comfortable with, good for you. If not you still have time to do some more studying before retaking the exams this fall.

I hope you are all having a great time this summer doing what you want to do. But spending a little time this summer working on all aspects of your search for the right college will make life much more enjoyable next year. Then you can sit back and wait..... until admissions come out.