The end of high school is a busy time for students and parents, planning for life after Graduation. Many don’t begin to start this planning process until Senior year, but if your student is on track for college, then the end of junior year is actually the ideal time to start the ball rolling. To help you, here is what we found needed to get done (and when) between the end of Junior year of high school through Senior Year before Graduation.
Buckle up, it will be a fast and tumultuous ride!
Winter of High School Junior Year:
Now’s the time to start thinking about college!
If you’re overwhelmed with where to start, then check out my post How To Start Your College Search.
- Register for, prep and take the SAT and/or ACT college admissions tests. Some high schools will have a day in the Spring where they offer the test in school, but typically you need to make an account online with the College Board, where you will register for/pay for the tests on Saturdays. Expect to register online 1-2 months in advance, and sometimes seats sell out.
- If your resume/extracurriculars/leadership/community service is a bit slim, then find some activities to get involved in now while you still have time/before you need to fill out college applications
- Keep your grades up!
Spring of High School Junior Year
- Make a new, separate email account strictly for college/scholarship correspondences. Trust me, you will be inundated with emails from colleges! Having a separate account assures that any important correspondence will be easier to find. Additionally, whenever you get an email (or regular mail card with a QR code) from any schools you are interested in, it’s important to open the email/scan the QR code to show demonstrated interest to the schools that track that.
- Attend College Fairs at your high school or high schools nearby, talk to admissions to show interest, and get as many fee waivers as possible
- Schedule and attend tours and Open Houses at potential colleges to visit in person (realize that you will need to register in advance online for these, sometimes weeks in advance). Spring Break of junior year is a great time to visit campuses, especially since most high schools have Spring Break at different time than when colleges typically do, so you can see what campus life is like when the college is in session.
- Continue to take SAT, ACT standardized tests and keep up grades and extracurriculars
- Type up a Resume/brag sheet of the activities, awards, honors throughout your high school career. Many schools use Naviance for this.
- Ask for two teacher recommendation letters about a month before the end of your school year (this gives the teachers time over the summer to work on them), and provide them with your resume/brag sheet to help them write the best essay representing you.
- Start looking for/applying for scholarships
Summer Before Senior Year:
- Consider taking the SAT/ACT one more time
- Work on your college essays (personal statement required with Common Core application and possible additional essays depending on the schools)
- Finish touring colleges
- Apply for more scholarships
- Work/do volunteer work
- Finalize your list of schools you will apply to. Be sure to have some safeties, the majority targets, and if you choose, some reaches as well. Be aware that if you’re hoping for merit scholarships, your best chance is from schools that are target/safeties where your stats are higher than their average. FAFSA lets you fill out info for up to 10 schools at a time, so if you want to apply to more than 10, prioritize which 10 you want to do first.
- Make a spreadsheet of schools you will apply to, the dates to apply by, and the fees/fee waiver codes
- Start filling out the Common App in August (it opens August 1st, but sometimes it is slow/glitchy the first week as so many try to access it). Be prepared that it will take hours and that most people don’t do it all at one time, its best to do bits at a time and then go back to it.
- Look for college application fee waivers online
- Many high schools have senior yearbook portraits done towards the end of the summer before senior year, so find out about that. Also mark your calendar if your school requires you to register in advance for parking your car if you’ll be driving to school senior year.
Fall of Senior Year:
- Email teachers who agreed to write recommendation letters, with a polite reminder about the letter
- Fill out the necessary forms with your guidance department giving them permission to send your transcript and recommendation letters, and acknowledging that
- Invite/assign your guidance counselor and teachers writing recommendation letters to your Common App so that they can easily upload what you need from them.
- Be aware of deadlines! And, not just the deadlines to apply to specific colleges, but also know that many high schools require a 30 day turn around period for sending your records to prospective colleges, so have your transcript request forms/Common App filled out/your guidance counselor invited to access your Common App account a month before the application deadline for each college
- October 1 is typically when FAFSA forms open (though some years it is as late as Dec 1). It is strongly recommended doing this with your parent/guardian. You must enter all info fully, accurately and not just guess or estimate!
- Finish your Common App and Essays if you haven’t already. Remember the earlier you apply, the sooner you’ll get responses (plus some schools give more merit to early applicants and some housing lotteries benefit early acceptance students). Many Early Action (EA) schools and Early Decision (ED) have Nov 1 or 15 deadlines, so aim to be done before Halloween.
- Your finalized college applications should have the following:
- Application fee/fee waiver code
- Application form (Common App OR directly apply on a college’s website)
- FAFSA
- Personal statement
- any additional essays
- transcript/recommendation letters (often you won’t see these as your high school sends them on your behalf)
- any additional portfolio materials if required for you major
- additional housing fee deposit if required at that time by any schools
- Pay any high school senior class dues/yearbook pics/graduation cap and gown fees (many schools have all this due at the start of senior year)
- Attend any college info/financial aid info sessions that your high school may offer
- About 2-3 weeks after you have submitted all your application materials, go back into Naviance/Common App account and be sure that none of the colleges you are applying to says they are still waiting for recommendation letters/transcripts. If any do say that, then contact your high school guidance department.
- Keep up your grades…many colleges require your high school to send progress reports/Fall grades even if they have already made you an acceptance offer
- Apply for scholarships
Winter/Spring of Senior Year:
- Apply for any Regular Decision/Rolling Decision colleges
- Finish completing any financial aid forms
- Continue applying for scholarships
- Write Thank You notes to people who gave you recommendation letters
- Review/compare acceptances and financial aid packages since by now you should have heard from the schools that you applied to
- If needed, re-visit in person any schools that you got accepted to but aren’t sure about/are trying to decide between
- Pick a school to commit to from your acceptances! (If you need help deciding, see this post How To Pick a College)
- Send in your deposit as soon as possible once you’ve made a decision (needs to be in by May 1 at the latest). Notify other schools that offered you acceptances/waitlist positions that you are declining their offer so that they may open up spots to students on their waitlists.
- Keep applying for scholarships! Seek out smaller, local ones.
- Plan for prom, graduation (Party), and other senior year social traditions
- Do a graduation photo shoot (either with professional photographer or just family member/friend as the photographer) in your cap and gown. Outdoor pictures in nature on slightly overcast days work great, you can look on pinterest or online for poses and ideas.
- If you choose, make and order graduation announcement cards/party invitations, and send them out at least a month in advance
- One-two months before graduation, verify with your high school that you have all your required courses, community service hours,fees/overdue library fines, etc all taken care of in order to graduate on time