The College Application Season Survival Guide
It’s September in your Senior year, and there are approximately one million tasks to complete this semester as you apply to college or university. This post will serve as your guide to navigate this semester (and hopefully help relieve some stress!).
A few quick reminders before we jump into the details:
It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. There is a lot to think about, but that doesn’t mean you’re behind. There are often so many deadlines due at once, multiple definitions to keep track of (e.g., early decision vs. early action), and a range of tasks to complete for every application (even if you are using Common App). Feeling anxious or overwhelmed by it all is normal. Know that you’re not alone in those feelings and rely on trusted loved ones or professionals for support.
Stay organized. One way to combat the stress of this season is to find a system to organize all your information and deadlines. We created a College Application Planner to help you out, but you can use any method that works. The Planner helps you…
Put all your deadlines in a calendar.
Count your essays (supplementals, etc.).
Update your resume (It’ll help you when it’s time to upload or create it).
Create your Common App account and connect it to your school’s portal of choice, if applicable (e.g., SCOIR, Xello).
Identify which universities require recommendation letters (e.g., teacher, counselor, other).
Identify which universities require external transcript reporting via the STARS or the SPARK.
Identify financial aid deadlines.
Protect your time. The semester can easily get consumed by all your responsibilities, but I really encourage you to identify one thing you need to protect: practicing for a sport, playing an instrument, a job, or a weekly ritual of taking Friday night to Saturday morning completely off. Ensuring you have dedicated rest is necessary for the human body, and this season is no different.
The Application Season, Month-by-Month
This is what we recommend you accomplish each month to stay on track during application season. These are just suggestions, and every student is different, so feel free to use this as a starting point and adapt from there! This list touches on financial aid and self-reporting your transcripts (i.e., STARS or SPARK forms). If it’s confusing, we explain it in depth right below the timeline (we understand… there’s a lot to know!)
August
Finalize your college list. Your list doesn’t need to be perfect, but it should be a reflection of places you might be interested in attending. If you have time, continue to visit colleges/universities, introduce yourself to your college rep (or continue building rapport), and solidify the list of universities you’ll apply to.
Check all deadlines for every school. There are often application deadlines, financial aid deadlines, and materials deadlines for every university. The aid and materials deadlines are easier to miss, so make sure you have them captured somewhere.
While on each school’s aid page, note which forms they request for financial aid. Though FAFSA is universal, the CSS Profile is not. Double-check the forms required.
Request teacher and counselor recommendation letters. If you haven’t already, request recommendation letters that you need for your applications. If this is optional, I recommend submitting a letter. Have a conversation in person and follow up with a formal request as established through your school. Your school counseling office will likely have a process for submitting recommendation letters. Additionally, you will want to waive your right to see the letter, meaning you will not be able to see the letter that’s uploaded. You will be able to see when they have completed the process. Also, writing a handwritten thank-you note goes a long way in showing your appreciation.
Write your essay. If you haven’t started writing your essay, start drafting now. The Common App essay prompts are available ahead of time. Choose one where you can demonstrate growth, learning, or a new perspective.
Note: If you still need a test score for your applications, sign up for both the September and October ACT or SAT.
September
Edit your main essay. Deadlines are approaching, and it is important to have others review your essay. It is the one part of the application process that can demonstrate who you are as a person, not just what you’ve accomplished (your resume and course load take care of that). The essay is where you share your story, and your writing of it is incredibly important (not a parent, not AI, not a friend… you).
Start working on your supplemental essays. Many state universities in Florida and private universities require additional essays, often 250 words. Start drafting these as they aren’t short answer questions meant to be dismissed, but should be written with the same intentionality you are giving to your main essay.
Take the ACT or SAT. If you still need a test score for your applications, study and take a test this month. It’s not too late! If you’ve already tested and are looking for a higher score, intentional practice and improvement are within reach.
Review your checklist. Have your teacher recommendations come in? Or do you need to follow up with some teachers? What essays do you need to be working on in October? Is there a deadline that’s a greater priority? And… am I protecting my time? These questions are just a few examples of how you should check in with yourself in September. It’s already a little crazy, and October is about to be even busier.
October
Keep working on those essays. Some of your early action deadlines are this month, and others will come in November. Make sure you feel good about your main essay, have someone check it, and finish those supplementals.
Take the ACT or SAT. For early applications in November, this month’s score will likely be included in your submissions.
Complete the FAFSA. If the FAFSA opens on time, it will open by October 1. The last cycle opened a week earlier than expected, so keep an eye on it and complete it together as a family. If you don’t finish it now, no worries. It is open for a while. However, filling it out earlier rather than later can help universities disburse institutional aid sooner.
Fill out the Common App. There are many steps to the Common App, so completing it will help reduce stress as you apply to each individual college. (No, you don’t just click “apply” once. There’s one main application, but there are differences for every university that need to be checked.)
Submit your applications for October 15th and November 1. I know this seems wild. It’s only October! But the November 1st deadline can easily sneak up on you, so let’s try to submit a day or two early, at least. As you fill out the application, have a trusted advisor or school counselor review it. There are slight nuances to every application, and someone else reviewing it can help you ensure you don’t make any small mistakes.
Check your materials deadlines. See if there are separate materials deadlines for all of your university applications (hint: there normally are!). This deadline possibly includes submitting test scores (ACT/SAT), submitting the SPARK or STARS, or teacher/counselor recommendations. Know what the materials deadlines include for each university. If you need to submit your SPARK or STARS this month, make sure you ask an advisor to review it–there are many nuances to these forms.
Note: The SPARK and STARS are two separate forms for your self-reported academic record. Which one is required depends on the university you’re applying to. See below for further details.
November
Submit the rest of your Early Decision or Early Action applications. If you are applying Early Decision or Early Action, this month is likely filled with deadlines. Many are on November 1 (so hopefully this task was completed in October), and the rest tend to fall on November 15 or December 1. Use this month to finish up all your applications!
Complete the CSS Profile if any of your schools require it. This step can be done earlier in October, but if you were focused on early deadlines, finish strong and then complete the profile.
Finish any supplementals for your regular decision deadlines. If you can submit these now, great! If you aren’t ready, this can be completed next month.
December & January
Submit your final applications. There are a handful of regular decision deadlines during this month. If you didn’t finish during November, finish strong now!
Submit any remaining materials. Double-check your materials deadlines and ensure you have updated everything appropriately.
Take a deep breath… You did it! You applied, and you should be proud of the marathon you just ran.
Spring Semester
These tasks are on the horizon, but you don’t have to worry about them now.
Submit scholarship applications. There are scholarships offered outside of universities that often have deadlines during the Spring. Check out your local Rotary Club, scholarships based on your field, or scholarships based on your family history.
Florida families: Complete the FFAA for Bright Futures. This is a separate application from the FAFSA that lives on a separate site and is real scholarship money you can access if you qualify.
Make your choice! At some point in this semester, you will decide where to go. May 1 is National Decision Day, the typical deadline for making your final college decision, but don’t worry about this until the spring semester.
A Deeper Dive Into Key Parts of Your Application
Now that we’ve reviewed what is expected each month, here are some details on key aspects of the application, as well as a deeper explanation regarding financial aid and self-reporting your transcript. This section will hopefully clarify any confusion you encountered as you were walking through the timeline.
There’s more than one essay
Most students finish their Common App essay and think they’re done, but many universities, especially in Florida, have supplemental essays (250 words). These should be treated as mini essays and crafted as such with a clear beginning, a specific answer to the question, and a conclusion.
Our Recommendation: Use the College Application Planner to figure out all of your deadlines and to map out which universities have supplementals. The Planner will help you keep track of how many you have and your progress in completing them!
Financial aid forms for Florida families: the FFAA is not the FAFSA
The FAFSA is a federal form. It determines federal aid and some institutional aid and opens on October 1. The FFAA is the Florida Financial Aid Application. It is a separate form submitted to the Office of Student Financial Assistance at floridastudentfinancialaidsg.org. You will submit this during your senior year to apply for state aid. The final deadline is August 31 after you graduate.
Private and specific out-of-state schools: the CSS Profile
If your list has private universities or selected schools outside of Florida, you may need to also fill out the CSS Profile for financial aid. The CSS Profile is College Board’s financial aid application used to award institutional money (not federal aid). The deadline is earlier than the FAFSA, and each school has a different deadline, so be sure to check that specifically. This form will also ask for more than the FAFSA, so fill this out with a parent. Additionally, it costs money to complete. It is $25 for the first school and $16 for each additional school. However, it is free for domestic students applying for an undergraduate degree whose family’s adjusted gross income is under $100,000. It is also free for anyone who qualifies for an SAT fee waiver or a ward of the state under 24 years old. The waiver applies automatically.
The SPARK and STARS
There are a handful of schools, including the major state universities in Florida, that do not want your counselor to send a transcript with your application. They want you to type your entire high school record into their system yourself–every course you have taken in grades 9-12, with the grade you earned in each one.
The systems have different names depending on the school:
UF, FSU, and USF & select out-of-state universities use STARS – the Self-reported Transcript and Academic Record System.
UCF uses its own platform, SPARK.
You may also see this called the SSAR (Self-Reported Student Academic Record), which is the older name for the same concept.
Three things about this to remember:
Your application is not reviewed until it is completely done. FSU states plainly that an application will not be reviewed until the fee, STARS, and self-reported test scores have all arrived. USF says an application is incomplete until STARS and test scores are received. Your file can remain stagnant in a processing queue if it doesn’t contain every required piece of information.
It has its own deadline, usually about a week after the application deadline. Check the exact date on each school's admissions page–it varies, and it moves.
Enter your grades exactly as they appear on your transcript. Do not weigh them. Do not convert them to another scale. Do not round or average anything. The universities recalculate GPA themselves using their own formula, and a student who "helpfully" reports weighted grades has misreported their record. Pull up your actual transcript and copy from it, line by line. It is tedious, and it takes a couple of hours, but there is no shortcut.
Self-reporting does not replace your official transcript. If you are admitted and enroll, you will still send an official transcript after graduation, and it is checked against what you reported. Accuracy is not optional.
Our Recommendation: Complete these forms the same week you submit, not the week they are due. You don’t want to do all the hard work of preparing your application and forget to complete the final step. Do it as soon as you can after submitting!
The Stacking Problem
After reviewing the season, you might notice a deadline stacking problem. Everything seems to land on the same dates! All of your early action dates seem to cluster on October 15, November 1, or November 15… and then your materials are due one week later! It can quickly become a logistical nightmare to keep all the due dates in order. That’s why we outline steps starting in September (or even before then), because the middle of October into November can get really overwhelming. Start now, start steady, and make a plan you feel good about.
How to Avoid Burnout
Avoiding burnout is easier said than done, but it’s something I genuinely care about addressing. The application season is long, and you are completing all these tasks on top of maintaining your performance in school and having fun during your Senior year. It's a lot! Here are some quick tips to survive this season without burning out:
Prioritize something completely unrelated to application season. Make sure you find time for friends, a sport, a job, or anything important to you, and consistently keep it in your rhythms this semester. It can be helpful to add it to your calendar and block out the time.
Work in short, regular blocks rather than “marathons.” This one is hard for me, but it’s a good recommendation for this season. I often cram right before a deadline, but that leaves me stressed and anxious as the deadline approaches. Instead, we recommend working on smaller chunks of tasks at a time until the whole thing is finished.
Write the draft, let it be bad, and then come back to it later. Many of us have not had to write this many essays in a short span of time. It can feel like the first thing you write needs to be what you submit. In reality, the first step is to get the ideas out of your head and onto the page, even if it isn’t written well. Someone can support you once the words are on the page, but they can’t do much if you haven’t written a word. I know it can be scary to write and for it to not align with what’s in your head, but that’s the first step to becoming a better writer and composing a great essay.
Talk to someone. Talk to your friends about the process. Talk to your counselor, teachers, parents, and us about each step. Most of the weight of this season can come from feeling like there is too much to do, too little time, and no one who understands, but we’ve done this for the past 10 years. We understand, and we’re here for you.
After all this, where do you start?
If your list is final and your essays are counted/organized, you already have the hard part done. Now you can focus on writing this September.
If you have not counted your essays yet, do that this week. It is the single most useful hour you will spend this season. Getting organized will save you hours.
And if you would like help sorting out what is realistic in the time you have – whether that is a test score, a timeline, or just a second opinion on your list – we are happy to talk. Our initial consultations are free and designed to provide you with free recommendations and clear next steps, regardless of whether you work with us.
Download this guide: The Senior Year Checklist: All in One Place
