I didn’t start filling out my applications out until Thanksgiving. I had to write two essays during my four-day Thanksgiving holiday as well as fill out an application. That pretty much took up all four days of my holiday (after all, college essays take a long time). Then I turned in my first application by December 1 (which was my deadline). I had another application due December 15. So I had to spend the whole weekend before the due date trying to craft another essay and fill out the application. My last due date was January 15. I worked on my last application (which included two essays ) leisurely during the Christmas holiday. I was ready to mail it out early this time, so I mailed it in early January.

Waiting until the school year started made the process more stressful than it had to be. As a result of waiting, I even made a couple of typos in my application (like misspelling my guidance counselor’s e-mail address and giving the wrong fax number to my school), even though I had spend a ton of time proofreading the applications. I probably made typos as a result of writing each of my applications over only a few days’ time–you don’t notice typos you make when what you are writing sounds very familiar to you. (And if you wait, you WILL get stuck doing them right before the deadline–school is too busy.) Thankfully the typos didn’t affect my application–I still got in to all three colleges, but I was practically crying and criticizing myself for being an idiot after I realized I’d made the typos because I had thought that I had just destroyed my chances of getting into college. I also destroyed my Thanksgiving Holiday and a whole weekend by waiting so long.

In summary, I’d suggest you at least work on ALL your essays this summer (get good drafts of essays written). File any rolling admission applications by the beginning of September (and don’t forget to ask your guidance counselor to do his/her parts immediately after you get back to school). If you need any teacher recommendations, ask for all of them this summer or immediately after you get back to school. For schools with deadlines in January or later, you can wait more, but don’t wait as long as I did. If I had been applying to more than three schools, I probably would have had a disaster on my hands as a result of not starting in the summer.

Especially for schools that you’ll need to audition for, you’ll want to get your apps in as early as possible.