Applying to College

For many students, applying to college is much more than filling out an application and submitting it. There are many steps and lots of preparation needed in order to meet deadlines, fulfill all of the application materials, and be a successful candidate for admission.

While I recommend students and their families understand the college admissions process early (freshman year preferably), if you’ve read any of my Preparing for College articles, you know I’m a firm believer in not jumping in too deep too early. However, understanding what is coming next will be incredibly helpful to your student once it’s time to apply. In other words, your student won’t need to take too much action early on in high school, but they’ll thank themselves for preparing the blueprint early on.

This blueprint will support your student’s plan to know when apply to colleges and how to start the admissions process. It will also help you to understand the various types of admissions deadlines (surprise, surprise - every school is different!) and when your child will need to have their applications ready for each college on their list.

Once your student gets to this point in the process, it will seem as if the application part itself happened so quickly - very much a “hurry up and wait” situation. When can they expect decisions? What should they do while they wait?

Explore the articles on the left for more on applying to college.