When Should You Start Preparing for College Applications?

With the college application process, there is so much to consider: essays, school visits, letters of recommendation, and more. To avoid falling behind, it’s essential to get organized and have a plan. Where should you start? When should you start? We’re here to help!

Keep in mind that the following recommendations are just that—recommendations. Each student’s situation is different, and students who begin this work later than recommended can absolutely still catch up with dedicated effort.

When should I start researching colleges?

In 10th grade, you should start browsing and getting a sense of what’s out there. Think about the things that feel important to you. Do you have an idea of what you’d like to study? Would you prefer a huge university or a close-knit liberal arts college? Do you want to be in the heart of a city or on a grassy campus? It’s okay if you don’t have answers to these questions yet. But you should be looking around and familiarizing yourself with your options.

Corsava is an excellent free resource that can help you identify, through strategic questioning, the college features that matter most to you.

Early in 11th grade, you should start putting together a preliminary college list of the schools that most interested you in your research. Write it down! It’s good to have something concrete, even though it will almost certainly change over time.

Other useful, free resources that might aid you in this process:

• CollegeXpress is great for finding new colleges you might be interested in. You can search schools by location, keywords, interests, and ranking. Use the ‘List’ feature to help you find colleges that fit what you’re looking for, especially ones you may not have been considering before. You can also find further detail about colleges on your radar, such as enrollment and admissions data, cost, financial aid, and more. 

• Get the insider scoop on colleges at Unigo and Niche, where you’ll find reviews of various schools, written by students who went there.

When should I plan college visits?

Early in 11th grade, once you have your preliminary list of schools settled, you should begin planning visits. Try to schedule visits over holidays and breaks throughout 11th grade. College visits can give you a better sense of campus culture and surroundings, aspects that you may not know much about from your data-driven research. For these reasons, it’s best to get your college visits started sooner rather than later, to make sure you have all the information and there will be no unpleasant surprises later on! If you’re unable to arrange college visits in 11th grade, the summer before 12th grade can also be a good time, especially in August when some colleges are in session. 

Remember: virtual tours are always an option. With the pandemic, many schools have begun offering more virtual tours and information sessions. When in-person visits are not possible, try to connect with your schools online. Some schools make a note of whether or not an applicant has visited or attempted to visit, as a way of gauging interest. The more you can communicate to a college that you’re serious about potentially going there, the better!

In addition to in-person and official virtual tours, YouVisit and CampusReel provide excellent campus tour videos. These can be great for taking a peek at schools you’re interested in but not ready to visit. 

I’m an athlete hoping to get recruited. When should I reach out to college coaches? 

Coaches want to fill out their teams as far in advance as possible, so getting in touch as early as 10th grade is the prudent move. However, this may not be possible for all students. Your recruiting timeline will depend on a few different factors. Click here to learn more!

When should I begin test prep for the ACT or SAT? Which test dates should I choose?

Every student is unique, which is why we work with our students to develop customized plans that best fit their individual needs.

However, it can be helpful to provide some general timelines, so we’ve provided an ideal testing timeline for three different categories of students. Click to find out what category you fit into and when it makes the most sense to start the ACT/SAT testing process.

When should I ask for letters of recommendation? 

Start thinking about this early in 11th grade. Do you have any teachers from 10th grade you’d like to ask? If so, be sure to maintain your relationship with that teacher throughout 11th grade. 

If you don’t have a teacher in mind after 10th grade, that’s fine: 11th grade teachers write most recommendations. Just focus on going above and beyond in your classes and actively try to connect with your 11th grade teachers. Ask for a recommendation in the last month or two of 11th grade.

Students tend to gravitate toward teachers whose classes they’ve gotten strong grades in, rather than teachers they have a strong relationship with. Letters of recommendation from teachers who don’t know much about you beyond grades tend to be generic and dull. To avoid this, ask yourself which teachers can best speak to your personality, work ethic, and character. This may mean asking for a recommendation from the teacher of a subject you’ve struggled with, as they can attest to your hard work!

When should I start working on the personal statement?

The most important aspect of preparing college applications is writing the personal statement, an open-ended 650-word essay that is part of the Common App and required by most U.S. colleges. The personal statement is a student’s primary opportunity to show colleges their personality, to share their passions and interests, to relay seminal life developments, and to demonstrate their writing ability. 

You should start thinking about this during the summer before 12th grade. What experiences have shaped you? What people? What challenges have you faced? How have you changed? What’s important to you? What excites you?

The Common App prompts can be found here. Don’t worry too much about the specific guiding questions, though. You can choose to answer one of the specific guiding questions, or you have the option to write an essay on any topic of your choice.

Ideally, you’d have this personal statement drafted by the start of senior year, so you have time to have others read your essay and give you notes for revision. Getting this mostly out of the way by the start of senior year will also allow you to focus on other aspects of your application that need your attention, like supplemental essays and the activities and honors sections.

Now you know when to start. But if you’re still lost on how to start, we can help, from the early brainstorming stages all the way through to the polished finished product. 

When should I start working on the supplemental essays?

In addition to the Personal Statement, many colleges require applicants to submit supplemental essays. These supplemental essays ask students to respond to a wide variety of topics: their most meaningful activity, their interest in a particular college or major, an important community they belong to, etc. Essays range in length from just a few sentences to 650 words.

You should start working on these the summer before 12th grade. Some colleges change their supplemental prompts from year to year, so make sure the prompts you find are the most updated ones. Most new prompts are released by August 1st, and you’ll want to start soon after that date, in the interest of getting as much done as possible before the school year starts. 

Learn more about how we can help with your supplemental essays here!

When should I fill out the activities and honors sections of the Common App?

Late summer before 12th grade. Even if you’re not yet sure what activities you’ll be doing in 12th grade, you can at least start filling out the information for 9th, 10th, and 11th at that time. Then, just fill in any missing information for 12th grade before you apply! 

Under no circumstances should you wing it with this section and fill it out casually as you submit your applications. You should be strategic in choosing what activities to include, describing your role, and calculating your time commitment for each activity. 

When should I have my college list finalized?

Aim to have a solid college list early in 12th grade. This is important, as you’ll need to know where you’re applying far enough in advance to send all materials (test scores, letters of recommendation, etc) and write the required supplemental essays. Of course, if you end up cutting or adding schools later down the line as you do further research, that’s okay.

Need help?

The college admissions process is complex and there’s no one right way to do things. But starting sooner rather than later never hurts. 

We’re here to help with any and all aspects of your college applications. At Premier College Prep, nothing is one-size-fits-all. We offer a variety of essay coaching and admissions consulting packages that students can customize to suit their needs. Click here to learn more!